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Hi there, my name is Dave Sobel and I'm a tattooer. I've been tattooing since 1990, Starting in Los Angeles, and now in Maryland for the last 21yrs. I'm really crappy at talking about myself. I love the fact that this forum has rules aimed at protecting and respecting this thing that I love and have devoted the last 23yrs of my life to.

Outer thigh finished. A bit bloody.

I have an appointment with Marius Meyer January 31st. We are going to finish all the backround on my back piece, and some lines on the dragon.

@RoryQ Thank you! All credit to Tim Pausinger. And Yes, I am going to do my whole front. I've got another artist at The Pearl who is doing a large piece on my stomach. I'm looking forward to it, and terrified all at the same time. It is going to be a black and gray tattoo taken from a New Deal era relief on the Dept of Health in (I think,) Duluth. Unfortunately, I've moved in next to a donut shop and the image is going to look a little stretched. :(

I've got my next appointment on my back project set for Jan 1st. Helluva way to start 2014, if I do say so myself.

I think superstition is relevant only when you believe or partly believe. It's intellectually interesting to me to read about (for example) Asian superstition or religion in tattooing terms, but it doesn't worry my reptile brain or cause unease to me... Because I simply don't believe, on any level. I'm not even really too worried about Christian iconography... Devils even! Maybe reflective of the very a la carte Catholicism of my upbringing. What worries me would be jinxing myself in the sense of tattooing something that signals hubris, complacency etc. 'Counting my eggs before they hatch' and so on. To give an example, a lot of Martial artists / soldiers / cops seem to get warrior-themed tattoos or macho tattoos. My mentality is that I try to avoid something like that because on some level I think it almost dares the universe to come along and give you a crushing injury of some sort that puts paid to all that. The closest I have to a macho tattoo is my shin dagger, probably.

I want to wear those to my office next Halloween, then take them off at lunch and see if anyone notices.

The only reason I would buy a PS4 at this point is for the new games coming out in the next year. Right now I am squeezing in every last bit of Skyrim-romping I can before we cave and buy the PS4 in a few months (once it's available again, it's been a nightmare trying to hunt one down around this time of year). @Diehardonvhs I really want to play Papers, Please. I've only heard good things.

got commissioned for this pair. loads of fun

Chad Koeplinger made this on my upper arm when he visited Oslo in October. Hard to get a good picture because the tattoo wraps around my arm, but you get the idea :)

Hey Folks, We all obviously have our personal reasons for getting tattoos. I thought it would be fun and interesting to hear thoughts and experiences regarding getting or not getting a tattoo because of some superstitions, personal beliefs, cultural customs or taboos. Apologies for my very long-winded dialogue below. My own perspective is a bit of a double-edged sword. I’m American born Chinese, raised in the Lower East Side/Chinatown of NYC. My parents and grandparents are/were Buddhists. My maternal grandmother (Grams), who had a major role in my early upbringing, was a devout practicing Buddhist. I’ve never been religious but was always respectful of the customs and beliefs. It was Grams who naturally started me on the path of some of these beliefs and informed me of some of the more peculiar superstitions that ended up influencing my tattoo choices later on in life. As most of us know in Asian cultures, tattoos are still a taboo subject and subculture. However I’ve never been one to go with the grain so much but I ended up getting my first tattoo in my early 30’s. My first tattoo was a koi with water and cherries, done in a Japanese motif. I’ve always loved goldfish and koi as a kid and I remembered begging my grandmother to get them for me. Grams would flat out refuse. You see, while goldfish and koi are considered good luck, if they die, the Chinese believed your luck dies with it. Being very conscious of that, I figured a tattoo is permanent and the koi would “live” forever. It just so happened that when I got this first tattoo, it was at the end of the same year Grams had passed away. Part of it was in honor and remembrance of her. My next tattoo was of a dragon, my Chinese zodiac sign. I received a stern lecture from my mom on this. Even though she accepted this path I was on with getting tattooed, she had indicated it was bad luck to get my own zodiac figure tattooed on myself. It would be in conflict with one’s self. Too late I explained to her and we’d just have to see what the eventual outcome with be in my destiny, hahaha. Now when I had decided to get my back tattooed, a lot of odd things popped up that I had to consider. First, the literal connotations of getting my back inked, the Chinese would say you are getting stabbed in the back, bad karma. Of course didn’t take too much stock in that and plowed forward. Next, while I am in complete awe of most back pieces and overall tattoos for that matter, I had made a decision not to get any religious or associated figures tattooed on me. No Kannon, Buddha, demons, Monkey King, etc. You get the idea. It is considered bad luck and disrespectful to get a deity tattoo, let alone on your back where you would be “resting on them”. It broke my heart as I adore the powerful and serene image of Kannon riding a dragon and although life is short and one should always try to get what they want, I just couldn’t see myself breaking away from this belief. To the point I was scared I would “anger the gods” and have bad luck for the rest of my days. Hence you’ll notice in my gallery, my tattoos comprise of creatures and florals and will continue with this theme until I’m “done.” One thing that’s never been spoken of in a negative light is that it is okay to get a mantra or chant or just Buddhist scripture tattooed on yourself. These would act like talismans or amulets to ward off evil or bad luck. I’ve recently been researching Sanskrit and Bonji characters that I will eventually incorporate into my collection.

Fallout 3 is one my favorite games ever. I think it was my #1 favorite until Skyrim came out. If you're into RPG's it's a must-have, and if you're not, it's still probably a must-have. I've always been a PC gamer, but I'm tempted by the PS4. I've always been jealous of Sony's exclusives. Might cave and get one next year when they have some solid games out... played about 30 mins of Last of Us at a friend's house and wanted to get it real bad.

Again, not a tattoo but a suit design including rosary beads. Slightly off topic but one of the most amazingly detailed designs I have come across. By Frankie B Yoshiaki

@Brock Varty I'm going to second what @CultExciter says about Fallout 3. It's an incredible game. I don't have the Game of the Year edition, just the regular one without the expansions and there's more than enough depth in the game by itself that it's worth playing through a few times because the vastness of the world and things to explore seems almost limitless. Skyrim is about the same, but with swords and magic.

I'm about 16 hours into Fallout 3 (for the third time). Man, this game is fun. It's the first RPG (albeit action) I've ever really gotten into. I'm gonna play Skyrim next. My mentor bought a PS4, and he is kinda "meh" about it. I think his kids are into it more than him.

I was massively unimpressed with everything the new generation of consoles has to offer so I built a very nice gaming PC instead....couldn't be happier! Been playing Metro - last light, which is excellent, and Assassins creed 4, which has its faults, apart from sailing the high seas with shanties, which is ace. Also playing through Papers, Please, and Spelunky, both of which are fantastic. I picked up the Witcher 2 as well on the steam sale - not got around to playing it yet, cant wait though!

cant be coincidence that this video wont even play!!! - - - Updated - - - very interesting thread! I love reading about superstitions with regard to tattoos as well as the traditions. I also love tattoo symbology. it was for this reason I went for 7 butterflies first, stars with my kids initials and changed my idea of getting a masked owl to instead wanting an eared owl- preferably the European eagle owl. I love reading into different cultures and discovering powers behind animals or symbols or flowers etc. no doubt I will continue downthis path with all future tattoos!

Update: I still look like Burt Reynolds with a better mustache.

Came across this by Bunshin Horitoshi

Saw Black Sabbath play their only London show last night with Uncle Acid as the opening act , all the old favourites came out (with the exception of Bill of course ) and for me the highlights were the rendition of " Black Sabbath " and Iommi in fine form . Getting home after the show was suitably metal as London was engulfed in the worst fog I've ever seen which caused our river ferry to crash forcing us to disembark the vessel and subsequently miss the last train - proper Doom ha ha .

Who: Shawn O'Connor shawnocconor.ca What: bad assfrog (Sailor Jerry flash!) Where: Ink Machine, Edmonton, AB Canada When: at a touchup appointment...station was already setup, however i wasn't in the mood for a minor neck touchup. Why? because it's a god damn sailor jerry battletoad! we were shooting the shit and i was flipping through a jerry flash book. i was like yeah buddy that's a sweet frog! shawn is like yeah buddy i've never done a frog before! we looked at each other and than said let's go buddy! add some pink in the belly! done on whim! took like 15 minutes lol RIBBIT :cool: this retarded little frog tattoo captures everything i love about the tattoo experience. the best. - - - Updated - - - also got this cool headless owl from Jon Gray (from Hamilton, ONT...guest spot at Lucky Strike in Edmonton, AB). It was from Jon's own painted flash. 2hrs. Ollie walked by and turned up the volts on the machine and Jon was flying. it was funny. good time and good tattooer! <nuff side ass, en joy>

A little Christmas metal..

Popped into The Pearl this morning to catch a session with Tim Pausinger before he left for the Xmas holidays. He basically finished my chest piece. In January we'll link the shoulders and arms to it. He is also going to do some spider webbing between the tattoo and the bottom of my pecs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A picture taken after last sitting, by Matt Shamah

Saw this on FB today.. Kick ass piece and awesome to see it getting recognition!!

I took this photo and a bunch of others at the New Jersey State Fair in Cherry Hill. It was August 12th, 1990. It was a blast meeting Jack Dracula. He had such a crazy mystique about him. There were all kinds of crazy stories about him and I was afraid to meet him but he was a fun guy to hang around with for an afternoon. He rode back into town with us and told us old corny jokes. RIP Jack Dracula and Sonny Tufts.

My artist finished the eyes of my dragon last. He said once the eyes where done the dragon is alive and to continue tattooing it would cause the dragon pain.

@beez I've noticed that with most tattoo artists working in the Japanese motif, when tattooing animals and creatures, most won't highlight or fill in the eyes until the piece is nearly completely. We've heard the old saying that, "the eyes are the windows to the soul" and the Chinese take this literally. They believe when you "dot" the eyes or fill in the eyes, the creature should be complete and would come to life as it were. If it wasn't complete and "brought to life" it would bring bad lucky and imbalanced as you've indicated. If you ever been in a Chinese community and witnessed the Lion dances during the Chinese New Year or other special occasions, the event is started by the "dotting of the eyes" of the Lion with incense, thereby waking up the Lion to start the dance that wards off evil.

Please leave.

You should PM me your Gamertag.

I think when I finally upgrade from my current gen xbox and high end laptop, i will go the "build your own gaming pc" route. There is just so much customization and such a cost/performance/use ratio that you cant get with consoles. I am actually really excited to build a pc. I should think about the fact that my laptop has the power to run any game at 60fps so maybe I should just use my laptop.

Nice video I came across. A young Horioshi iii at around 4 mins 50 in.

Probably a half dozen times in the past year I've mentioned tattoo conventions to people, and they've responded with "So are the tattoos free?" I was baffled the first time someone asked me that, but it kept happening. I don't know.

I picked up a PS4 a few weeks ago and I am loving it. I'm currently working on ACIV, Ghosts, Battlefield 4, and FIFA '14. I suck at FIFA. I suck more at Battlefield 4. I suck a little less at CoD: Ghosts. I suck least at ACIV. All in all, the system is a bigger improvement than I thought it would be. Graphics are sharper and the new controllers fit my hands better. I understand that it will take a little while for the system to really shine. Overall, I like it better than the PS3. One slight drawback is that the new controllers are energy pigs and run down far too quickly. They have a gimicky headlight on them that I am pretty sure is death to battery life.

Look forward to those pics @ironchef. I'll be in the chair in around 12 hours time, adding colour to my thigh piece. Then back to saving up my pennies again.

Question for everyone: I've seen a design similar to the hand holding the club from Higgs' flash, except it was a hand holding a flower. Is that also Higgs flash, or was it someone's flip on the club design? EDIT: Nevermind, answered my own question. Turns out I had a picture on my phone of a Higgs flash sheet with that very design on it. I'm thinking about having Mario Desa put it on me at the Philly convention in a couple months.

Horiyoshi iii's son has a badass ghost backpiece

http://youtu.be/3FBDYctTcqU Watch the last five minutes of the Tim Hendricks video. Well, watch the whole thing, but pay attention to the last five minutes especially.

That is disgusting and makes me sick to my stomach. I'm not sure who is stupider, you or your friend.

This is my "Ghost of Oiwa" tattoo done by Chad Koeplinger: It is based on this Kunisada woodcut: & http://woodblockprint.com.au/images/s3654.JPG?471 You need to check out Hide Ichibay´s work! I think he makes the absolute coolest ghosts. Do you agree, @Iwar?

Really excited to say I just booked in for the full "turtle shell" back piece with Aaron Bell. Getting a western traditional lion. Starting around a year from now!

Oh shit!

Actually, I also just booked with Ron Henry Wells for February at the Philly convention. He's going to be filling in the gap between my Grez and Scott Sylvia pieces. I can't wait.

I will also say that one of the things that really floors me about his tattoos, especially when you see them in person, is how well they sit on the body. His tattoos look like they belong there, and have always been there, if that makes any sense.

Had heaps of fun with latest effort, definitely was not easy to do

I was walking through our (new) neighborhood and saw a tattoo shop that was closed for the day. Went home to google it and found out that their work is... interesting? Lacys Tattoo - Tattoos

Scored this off Instagram .

Got this from Kyle Crowell at Torch Tattoo in Anaheim back in August.

i think one of the main things that adds to the mystique of higgs is that he doesn't tattoo any more. not because he can't but because he chooses not to. he worked with some really talented folks and for most of us that do this, it's something that we'd probably find hard to give up if we had the same opportunities. also, it wasn't until after i started tattooing that i really even knew that he tattooed. i always knew him to be the singer in lungfish, it was only through diligent efforts that i was even able to obtain the lungfish albums back then and that was from working in a record store. back before the intervebs, if you didn't have an excellent book store or some type of real active art scene, you didn't get to find out about much that went on in the world. so i dig getting to hear stories about and from people who were there and got to work with him and it's obvious he had an impact on them. plus, in reality he is an important component in tattooing history due to those interactions. so rock on!

The one I really hate is tats