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If you could only be tattooed by one tattoo artist for the rest of your life... who would it be? Explanation is required. Shop talk, personal conversations and general work done plays a huge role in every experience and hopefully we will get some good stories out of this. (I haven't posted on here in a while, so I hope this didn't get brought up somewhere else.) It was a hard choice, but I know that if I could be tattooed by anyone else for the rest of my life... It would be Freddy. 1. I'm lazy and its a 1 mile walk to Temple 2. He is hilarious 3. I could hear him talk about India all day. 4. Jason, Derrick and Heath are awesome to talk to as well. 5. The shop is beautiful. 6. Every time I go in, I just want to get a million jesus tattoos. Your turn.

I'm gonna add, I'm so glad I don't have to pick just one.

Andrew Loomis books: Save Loomis! Various old drawing books: Drawing Books - Open books for Creative Minds!

Well I started my back last week. Marie Sena, now at Lifetime Tattoo in Denver, is doing it. She recently worked at Stay Gold Tattoo in Albuquerque, and was in town for the Duke City Tattoo Fiesta, so we did my first session at Stay Gold. 2.5 hours, and we were able to do the bulk of the lines - only a few details left to outline for the most part. Pain-wise, it wasn't as bad as I expected, I guess I prepared myself for the absolute worst. The area over the kidneys was pretty rough, but she said I took it like a champ, so I guess I handled it okay. It hasn't been very sore or bothersome, pretty itchy though - currently wishing I wasn't single, but I'm lucky that I have friends willing to help me lotion up those hard to reach spots. Super psyched to start such a big project, can't wait to work on it again!

Yikes! Just booked an appointment with Mario Desa at Great Lakes! This is turning into such a great summer.

I was riding the bus to work this morning and even though the bus was full and people were standing, there was one empty seat...the one right next to me. I believe it was @CultExciter who once said on here that the purpose of visible tattoos was to attract mates and deter foes, so I'm halfway there.

made this one the other night.

Easy choice for me, Regino Gonzales. Just about all my tattoos are from him, and I plan on going to him until he retires or I run out of space, whichever comes first. His style is a 100% match for what I like, and he seriously puts down a killer tattoo whether its a more simple traditional tattoo (like my gypsy lady) or a huge super-fancy tattoo like my entire leg dragon/Raijin tattoo he is still working on. I've seen a ton of his work from just being in the shop, plus my friends get work by him, and I can say he nails every style amazingly. Another big contributing factor is Invisible NYC. I cannot say I've been in a better shop. Even from day one everyone was super cool. Every time I go there it feels more like visiting a friends house than going to get tattooed. I will say that a very close second would be Stewart Robson, for very much the same reasons, he is just too far away.

Big scheme of things bud, it's not a huge deal. You've got many years and options ahead of you, so just take a deep breath and try not to sweat it too much. Glass half full is that it's easily covered by clothing until you fix it if that's what you want and you presumably have a ton of other space on your body to cover with really killer tattoos. Start diving into the art and culture and you'll be so into what you are getting next that you'll most likely forget what was bothering you in the first place.

I'm subscribed to it, but it just bums me out more than anything. Not to sound holier-than-thou or like I'm some sort of authority on tattooing, but it further reinforces the sentiment that most people don't know anything about tattoos. Some good stuff definitely does pop up from time to time, though. I've actually posted a couple of my tattoos on there.

Figure & Gesture Drawing Practice ToolFigure & Gesture Drawing Drawspace.com - Lessons great resources!

@CultExciter thanks heaps!! I know of a great supply store. Death to Michael's, haha You asked for constructive crits, I have a couple of tips/questions. When you compose your sheets, do you have line drawings that you trace onto the painting page or do you draw them right on? The snake looks pretty good, actually. The only thing I'd suggest is keeping a bit more negative space within, so those lovely rich colors can really pop out. Panthers.. oh panthers, how I love you. Such a beautifully simplistic and yet difficult design. One of the things I'm noticing in those panthers are the shoulders. One shoulder is right out there on the inside arm, and the outer shoulder is hardly visible. The most important thing to take into consideration when drawing panthers is the surrounding space created by the shapes of the animal. I think that the tails on the panthers and snake could create more interesting negative spaces if you played around with them a bit more. Consider how the eye moves through your design. Where is the focal point? What part of the image is my eye drawn to first? Where do my eyes end up when I've finished looking at it? Are there any unnecessary details present in the design that prevent my eyes from moving through the image smoothly? Tracing old designs, line for line, is super educational as an exercise. Always give credit to the original artist if you do an exact reproduction, of course, but it really has helped me learn a lot about composition and the impacting nature of traditional tattoos. It's apparent that you have a keen eye for design, and I think that if you work out some of those kinks, your work will really shine. Cheers!

When you go back in, thank him for that. I've heard that it's not good to tattoo them because you wanna be able to see if the mole changes color. However, that didn't stop a certain someone from blasting right over a raised mole on my arm. It stung like you would not believe and I bled like a stuck pig (stuck Hogg?). I have moles all over my back that didn't get tattooed over. Luckily, my backpiece is a snake with a million dots, so it worked out well.

A couple of paintings from this week, constructive criticism highly appreciated!!

Oh shit, now that's a tough question. I think I can only speak for artists that have already tattooed me, as personality is a huge factor when getting tattooed. I think I'd go with Sonju from Tattoo 13. I like that guy's brain. His ideas about inspiration, creativity, the birth of images, and laws of tattoo aesthetic are ON POINT. He's also an odd bird who don't give no fucks about no stupid social stature of any kind. Good dude to hang out with, very funny, and we share birthdays. Go team Sancho :)

Awesome question...my first thought was to pick one of the big names, like Shige, or Filip Leu...But I think I would genuinely have to go with the artist who I have the most work from, the person who taught me more about tattooing than anyone else I have ever met - Mark Armstrong, Sacred Art, Manchester. I have full sleeves and full chest done by him, and we just started a full Japanese backpiece (neck to knees). He is not a big internet name, but I couldn't give a monkeys, I count him as a great friend and a great artist, he knows a lot about the history of tattooing too. He used to work at Herbert Hoffmans, he apprenticed Tomas Tomas and Matt Black as well! I also worked for him for a couple of years. I have been to other artists, for smaller tattoos, but I always seem to come back to Mark for the really big stuff!

So here is a sketch of the parrot and anchor and I'm going to get this Saturday. The only change I'm possibly having the artist do is to change the head of the parrot from a macaw to a sun conure. I'm not sure how this will work out, so I'm open to keeping it as a macaw but with sun conure colors (I own a sun conure and he is the inspiration behind this tattoo). So while I would like it to represent my pet as best as possible, my priority is having a solid design. I do have one question about placement. The new tattoo is 30% larger than the one in my avatar. The artist thinks it would would look good on my opposite shoulder blade, but I'm worried it would look a little out of balance. Another option would be to place the new tattoo between my shoulder blades and then get another on my right shoulder that is roughly the same size as my original tattoo. And yet another option would be to scale down the tattoo so it's roughly the size of the original. My only hesitation is that I will lose detail. Thoughts on both placement and design? Thanks

Ok, I'll join in with the turn this thread has taken. I just got a chance To do this yesterday with my Kevin Riley liner. I'll post a pinup girl in the near future too.

Going to do everything I can to avoid laser...but I hear ya...how I got screwed...i'm feeling worse and worse about this shit everyday.

Pick one of these clubs and I'm there. Best strip clubs in New York City

Get tattooed by Lucas Ford and welcome to LST.

I can't sing her praises enough, and I am so, so, soooooooo stoked on this piece, so here is my finished leg by Stephanie Tamez. Such an awesome person, and I'm gonna miss spending so much time at Saved! Except for a couple details, everything here is healed. Definitely one of my favorite tattoos.

Just got me an appointment with Chad Koeplinger when he guests at Great Lakes this August. I'm fully and completely stoked for the tattoo.

Got this Grimm tiger yesterday from Fergus Simms. Here is a pic of the three thigh tattoos I have off him so far taken after the appointment. Safe to say I am very happy with all of it.

Look at this blackness! It was a bloody mess. Kongo Yasha is really going to pop once this background is done.

So the shop got this gem sent to our facebook yesterday...

Unstoppable!

I dream about being tattooed by Shige, Horitomo, any of the Horitoshi family, Wendy Pham and a whole slew of other artists. But I am very happy with the tattoo artist who started me on my journey, Henning Jorgensen. He's introduced me to a world of great artists who are as genuine and humble as he is. He's given me beautiful artwork that I'll treasure for a lifetime and just an awesome guy to chat with about life in general. Henning loves tattooing and that's something that I admire about him, his passion for his work. Mike Rubendall is the same way, hence why he and Henning are such good friends. Same minds gravitate to one another. I'm lucky to have work from both and will continue that trend.

gotta go with dan santoro. i've pretty much only gotten tattooed by him in the last year, and don't plan on deviating from that anytime soon. besides the other dudes at smith st, if i had to choose someone else, it would either be steve byrne or stevie edge. dudes' tattoos always blow me away.

Glad I found this thread! Hoping to visit Seattle in a few weeks, and hope to go get tattooed with my best friend who lives there. We both wanted tattoos for years, but put it off. Now that I pulled the trigger and got one, he wants one too. Thought it would be a nice bonding experience. Thanks!

My coworker's roommate got his first tattoo (as a walk in) from Matt Bivetto last night. It is the wolf with the native american headdress posted on Matt's instagram Photo by mattbivetto • Instagram

@Pleadco Fun! I was in Portland for just a couple days a month or so ago. I got tattooed at Atlas and liked it quite a lot there. Really hope I get to see more of Oregon one day!

Very cool @Pleadco! I always think it's cool when people from here run into each other, or when I see instagram and I recognize the tattoos from people I talk to quite frequently on here.

I would go with Rich Cahill... Instagram He's got a private studio in a small quaint town. I always have good conversations with him. He's a versatile tattooer...He can do nice b&g work,traditional,Japanese,& realistic work. I like the fact that he's got a lot of time under his belt,and he's a pretty humble dude.

I saw that on instagram, sooooo good

You need to come out to the LST NYC get together this weekend and show this tattoo off. The colors and the design are SUPERB!

This is INCREDIBLE!

HA! But how do you rewrap your entire back, short of becoming a plastic-wrap mummy?

That's why you gotta rewrap!

Here is another picture of the same tattoo I posted in this month contest -thread. Tebori by Horimasa Tosui done in his private studio in Amsterdam last week at wednesday. The pictures are from yesterday.

Your first tattoo should be a portrait of Action Bronson. If you end up not liking, just cover it--with a Ghostface tattoo. :D Welcome to LST.

Do you take ritalin? I know two brothers with ADD who didn't start taking ritalin until they were adults. They swear by it--helps them calm their minds, get organized, etc. Of course...back in the day they shared it with me. Had the opposite effect haha. Those days are over. Good times.

Got this yesterday at FTW's Owen Jensen flash BBQ party. By Jason Phillips. Got a sweet painting of the design too!

by Fergus Simms @ No Regrets, Melbourne. 2 days old It's fresh, so the colors aren't really coming out yet, but there's some nice red and green in there!

That's on you! Ooooo! I think she was mentioned, but no pics yet. I'm seeing her the end of June and couldn't be more excited!

I agree with @Badtaste ... I would much rather tattoo some of these hipster tattoos than silhouetted birds, infinity symbols and lots of other Pinterest specials :) dinosaurs on unicycles, owls, and animals dressed as people? Yes please ^_^ while they may be trendy, they're still infinitely better than rib paragraphs and tribal armbands :)

Hipsters pay my rent haha. Over the last couple of years I guess I've unintentionally started to specialise in animal tattoos. A lot of which have clothes, monocles etc.. Gotta give people what they want :) I just count myself lucky I'm not doing infinity symbols and stuff turning into birds all day.

I vaguely remember a nightmare after getting my first tattoo 22years ago. It involved me cutting my arm off because I thought it would look cool/tough and all my mates was doing it. Obviously ended up regretting this decision when I realised how it hindered me in life, woke up to see my tattooed arm still there with relief.

Love this piece by Aaron Coleman.

i was in his hong kong shop in '91 and that was qiute an experience. between the what looked to be young gang kids in the waiting room playing some kind of card game to the flash that covered the shop. i had been in quite a few tattoo shops by then and had tattoos, but seeing that kind of street shop in hong kong was something i won't forget. my hats off to the old man. RIP.