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Got an email back from Scott Sylvia today about the RVA convention. Stoked!

Just got this croakin' hypercolour lizard yesterday: by Teddy Kardos IG: teddytattoos Teddy is doing a guest spot at Shades of Grey in Edmonton, AB. He works in Newcombes Ink in Halifax, NS under King Len Langille. He is also the lucky(?) bastard that wears the infamous full torso reaper made by OllieXXX. We had a great time doing this technicolour bearded drago! Stay tuned for next week...I have a 9am hallowe'en appointment to get a pretty epic neck/collarbone piece hehe (!!!). Saw the sketch this morning and WOW I am pumped. Very exciting month tattoo-wise for me.

I adopted the most utterly adorable leopard gecko last night. I've been wanting a snake again for some time, so I think this will be a good transition. It's previous owner was a piece of shit who neglected the poor thing. One of its eyeballs was dried out like a raisin, it's missing a bunch of toenails from joint suffocation, and its tank was filthy with shit, dead crickets, and dead maggots. Gonna pick up some crickets today, I have no idea when was the last time it ate. Kinda stressing on the possibility of it getting sick from its previous conditions, and hoping more toes don't fall off (there's still shed skin stuck on em). But I'm in love with it and can't wait til it's all settled in. LOOK HOW CUTE!!!!!!

I'm jealous of all of you who are going. Take lots of pictures please.

TODAY!!

Finally I've got another tattoo coming up. Booked in yesterday with Aaron Coleman at Immaculate Tattoo. Looking to get a panther on my calf when I head down to AZ for my cousin's wedding in December. Can't wait!

My 21st wedding anniversary this weekend (yeah I know I was married aged 20 :) ) , so off to London for some drinking and eating .

Yes let's have fun and talk politics,wheeeee!

To quote @hogg, "You make smart decisions."

Pumped! My wife has an appt with Mr. Stewart Robson of Frith St. today at opening, so I'll be hanging around there if anyone wants to come say hello. Me: Long hair/Acid King T-shirt.

As I'm shit at taking photos I'll post up some proper pics in the appropriate thread closer to completion . For now here's a taster taken from Ian's IG after the first session , mines the dragon head on chest dated 7th Sept . Instagram

This post needs photos! I love, love, love Ian's work.

Hey apprentice tattoo artist from Alb. NM. I have been watching the interviews for a while now. Awesome stuff great way to learn about individual artists as well as the history of tattooing. Love what the web site is doing. Very positive and informational site for the tattooing community! I didn't know you could register with the site until my teacher told me that you could. He was pleasantly surprised to find out that I already knew about the site and had been watching the tattoo artist interviews for a while now! Keep up the awesomeness LST!

Sucks. The double-standard of training/employing people to kill (or to support those who do), but rule-and-regulating how they can decorate their bodies, is part of the American schizophrenia. Glad my service (USArmy, Infantry) was Vietnam-era.

They do this every few years. Army, police depts., etc.. This will change once we need more recruits again.

TODAY!!

I love this tattoo, and it is one of the first large Japanese tattoos I was ever exposed to, and I would like to know who did it! The woman is Shoko Tendo, a woman who wrote a memoir about being a yakuza boss's daughter. I have not read her book (I was searching for more info about the tattoo when I found her name and stuff), where perhaps she reveals this information, and I have only done a very cursory search and comparison of signatures to tattoo artists I already know. So with that all said: does anyone have any info? Drop some knowledge on me!

dooo iitttt! yay LST! and convention! <a little excited, maybe>

I downloaded it to take a look at it and then deleted it because I don't see it being at all useful. I don't see it having any advantage over something like Yelp, which is pretty shit for finding out about tattoo shops anyway because it seems like everybody who writes shop reviews on there is a moron, but at least I can use it to find something to eat when I'm travelling. I'll continue using LST as my tattoo guide.

I'm so excited for everyone going to the convention this weekend. Take lots of pics! Balls to the employment news @real meta . @beez /waves hand: "you are perfectly healthy. You will not get sick."" On a side note. I emailed Adam Guy Hays about starting a back piece. Even though he's on vacation in Japan (getting tattooed by Horiyoshi 3, the dirty bugger), he has taken the time to message back :). He seems down, and apparently might even be doing guest spots in the pacific northwest next year, which would be rad to cut down on the traveling I would need to do. My wife also got an appointment with Whitney Fromm for some sunflowers and almond blossoms on her shoulder (in June 2014). This will be the misses' first/most detailed/involved tattoo. She has just a few simple, small pieces. She was rather amused at how excited for her I was.

Thanks guys. The best part is I can keep getting more work done by him. More good stuff to come without waiting years.

Fuck everything. An O'Donnell tiger and an O'Donnell snake together? @Roca53 might not win this contest, but he wins life.

This journey is finally complete...just a little bloody. By Chris O'Donnell

I suppose big is relative to the size of the person getting tattooed too so 14 cm will be huge on a small person and small on a huge person. or whatever lol . I don't like filler I like space or if the skin is covered its part of the art . Filler is such a shit word for a lot of effort and hard work by an artist. Id hate to ask an artist who's work I respect for "Filler"

I've been turning the latest Jesu offering. This is the reason it's my favorite music group that has started in the last 10 years.

seriously post some pictures here and on instagram. need to live life vicariously through you lucky west coasters this weekend.

That's funny. My dad was an infantryman in the second cavalry in Vietnam, too.

My father was in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade '69-'70 in Xuan Loc.

Welcome. A panther head is always A Good Thing.

" hey kid ! sign on the dotted line & we will let you go die for your country,but you can't have any tattoos while doing it". :rolleyes:

When I began getting inked, I had only two weeks before separated from the US Army (honorable discharge) after five years service in the Infantry. My last duty station had been Coleman Barracks, just outside of Mannheim, West Germany. It sucked, and the (albeit, shortened) tour ate it. So, "how do you react to stares, JB?" Nowadays, just fine; 37 years ago? Like you wouldn't believe. I'd give people "hard eyes" and a "get super-aggressive real fast" attitude. Back then, ink had a secondary (primary?) role of non-verbally "giving someone the bird". For some reason, that was important to me. Thankfully, times have changed; people, too; and so have I. Since coming back to the US, summer of 2004, I've had nothing but pleasant, polite interest from people in my tattoos, if they respond to them at all. Maybe it's that the tattoos, themselves, have always been classic, traditional American designs -- with the exception of a few places, all my work is "sewn-together" flash, designs from sheets on the wall. Nothing anybody gets angry about. I especially like the stares -- and the conversations that follow -- from age-appropriate women of a certain type.

We raised almost $3600 for people affected by HIV/AIDS. My time wasn't stellar, but I ran the 5k on two hours sleep and nursing a chest cold, so I'll accept my 29mins gracefully. There were a few LST folks who contributed- I hope my thank you email made it to you... if not, thank you SO much for helping the team and I- and more importantly people who really need the services your donations help provide.

@ironchef you are rocking my world. thank you! i'm gonna grab a copy of this book.

You know, the first time I go to a new artist, I get a piece that's smaller than my hand. Why? Photos don't tell the whole story, and while they may have fabulous reputations and their tattoos look amazing in photos, it may not be something I want taking up so much room I don't have more room later. I think the world of the young man who does most of my tattooing now, and the first tattoo he did for me was a classic rose tattoo in pink. Since then, he's done some big, detailed pieces on me, but I really like having a relationship where we can talk openly and there's a degree of trust. I still plan on work with other artists, but I wouldn't go huge with someone I didn't have a good relationship with.

She doesn't have too many pics, but there are pics of her with Horiyoshi 3, Ed Hardy and a handful of back shots which are AMAZING. The level of detail and the colors of her tattoos are just fantastic! Found some pics of the book (love the Internet!):

C'mon @SStu...I know you're digging on that gold bikini.... ;) hehe cackle!

Welcome dude! Off to a good start!

Duh, the water pushed the lines out and made them shakey. Science.

I'm in, that way I can have two different squidpants to wear.

These are my buddies...I think they are gonna be around for a while.

Here is my bleeding moon. I posted this a long time ago. Matt Brotka in Richmond, Virginia, but that fine gentleman is now at Left Hand Black in sunny San Diego.

Hey all, I just joined and started flicking about thoroughly enjoying this thread only to come across this guy here! I live in melbourne and the guy with the chad koeplinger in Rough Operators post is my good friend who I was drinking a beer with only hours ago. This piece looks amazing now that its fully coloured and complete, I'll see if I can find a photo somewhere! Small world, great thread! Here's a sizzler from El Bara, from Madrid.

When you get to the point where you don't rely on other people for your self esteem, it's a very liberating feeling. It took me more years than I'd care to admit.

I don't think this thread could teach someone to tattoo, but if someone came in an requested to get tattooed by a rotary I would be besides myself that they thought they had a say in the matter. Why can't tattoo machines, be magical devices conjured up in secret lairs with parts unknown to modern man. I have been tattooed by a rotary machine and i guess at times it was less painful than a coil, but not rainbows and unicorns better, and after two hours it sucked just as bad. Tattoos hurt

Admins, could we add a button that will automatically post that OV Dan Higgs video talking about how tattoos go together for whenever there's a thread like this?

It all depends on how specific a piece you want to end up with. If you're letting the artist have free reign and you're both familiar with the image(s) you want done, then no reference materials would be needed. If you like a specific style of Oni or dragon or samurai or you want a specific pose or other prerequisite that you want incorporated then you should bring that. Otherwise you can browse his porfolio and indicate which pieces really hit home with you so that he understands how to proceed with a drawing.

this was the first thing that came to mind:

Great traditional tattoo and immediately i think - Valerie Vargas .She can bust out some of the best even on the tricky spots ,so many great ones from this lass it's hard to choose what pics to post .

Eagles rock ! Heres another tuff chest piece this time from everyones favourite Bryan Burk .