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Just got an opening with @Scott Sylvia next Friday. Pretty stoked on the appointment. My stomach is gonna be pissed though. Also have my Fredy Corbin appointment on the 19th of February. There are gonna be some awesome pictures to follow.

my simple advice is to keep getting tattooed...it will fill up in time... :)

Just keep getting rad tattoos. Eventually, you will get to a point where you won't care about the fairly minor specifics of that part of your arm. Don't worry, let it happen, if you have a cool little piece you want to get and it feels right to stick it in there...then do it!

I know none of you have seen progress pictures of my back with Kore Flatmo...but I may post some in May. Just booked in for two straight days of pain again. At that point, we will be roughly thirty hours in and I am going to ask him if he minds if I post progress pictures. Doing full back and ass as well as full left leg. Get fucking jealous!! :)

The Tom Of Finland stuff is pretty funny, but I'm gonna bring this thread back to pinup tattoos with my Iowa farmgirl pinup from Chip Douglass.

Looks like something worth ignoring completely

@ironchef that is one hell of a tattoo, truly mindbowing I cant wait to see it finished - - - Updated - - - Valerie just finished my back, just short of a year, maybe 40 hours, its been a ride and I've loved every minute, well apart from the love handles, that sucked :D

It's a snake and tiger kinda time! 3rd session in, steaming through it! By Stewart Robson

working on more flash....

After 1st session with Horitomo. Back was much easier than I thought/ heard, of course we haven't hit the problem areas yet...

Valium is great. ;)

I had a talk at the shop today and we decided on doing the Kitsune (top right) :-)

You speak a million languages, it's easy to confuse you for a Norwegian.

What, all us banhammer dudes look the same to you? ;) Pretty sure you meant that for @Iwar.

Haven't posted pics in a little while, here is my progress so far. One or two more sessions to go for shading and it'll be finished!

Final session on my back with Rubendall today. It's bittersweet. So happy to have this portion of my back finished but will miss the fun times with Rubendall. Great gentleman, incredible artist and shrewd businessman. The complete ball of wax and then some. I still have some appointments booked and I'm thinking about starting something new with him. Henning will top things off end of this year when he'll be visiting and doing his usual guest spot at Kings Ave! Enjoy the pics! Eyes, spine, and the orb/pearl Filled in some more flame work as well Rubendall said when after the orb/pearl is full healed, it'll lighten up to a bit of an iridescent affect. Full moon close-up :o

@bugxjuice Howdy, right back atcha. I was tattoed by Chris 8 or so years ago. I am terrible with time lines but it was a very sweet experience and it was where I met Mike Lucena who tattooed me last year. He was apprenticing with Chris. - - - Updated - - - God, that just took me a minute to figure out the photo upload feature on here! - - - Updated - - - Mike Lucena's fancy workings Thanks for all the encouragement. It's a bit intimidating to share. Hope you all enjoy a peek in to my mind/heart at the hands of some very talented artists. Enjoy. - - - Updated - - - @hogg Thanks! and BAY AREA! When is it gonna rain?! - - - Updated - - - hey there @Iwar I was in Oslo a few years back, it was lovely. I posted a few pictures below. I actually dont have many pictures of my tattoos. My co-worker took the one of my arms today at work. And the moth, I took off of Mike's Instagram. I hope they are ok! And thank you for the kind welcome.

Mike Wilson:

I had a Rock Of Ages done on my calf last week by Stewart Robson, which I'm so in love with. And I've also managed to book an appointment with Paul Dobleman whilst he's guesting at Frith Street in March, decided to go for a peacock and crescent moon. February is going to drag by!

Finishing up some a piece with Theo Mindell at Spider Murphy's tomorrow...I'll post up in the lowdown later. Just laid my money on the barrel-head at Tattoo City for an all-day El Monga bonanza when he comes to guest in Feb/March. We're going to finish out my shin/lower leg, but haven't finalized the design yet. Can't wait!

Fuck yeah it is!!

Dude, I totally meant @Iwar, luckily the ban hammer isn't too swift on misidentification, cause I'd be long gone.

Guess who's opening a tattoo shop: Bieber

I have not played that actually. I know it is very very good. I just don't have the time to dedicate to playing that and Fallout at the same tiome. When I am done with Fallout, I may purchase Skyrim though. :)

So it seems like the general concensus i to just pack as many tattoos in as I can, leavina a little negative space around each one?

Age of Empires will always be one of my favorite older computer games from my childhood. I cant tell you the countless hours i've spent playing it. Have you tried The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim?

I found a few tattoos, including a chest piece, by Chris "Pee Wee" Levi from an issue of International Tattoo from 1998.

@CABS I wish I lived closer to Oakland. I really want my son and wife's names tattooed on me by Freddy.

Recently started playing Fallout 3 thanks to the recommendation of some of the fine folks from here. Only have about 15 hours into the game but I really enjoy it so far. Very much worth the $15 I payed for it on sale on the XBox online games service. Also, got back intio Age of Empires 2 on PC. Anyone play that at all? I am a huge RTS geek....

Those Chris Conn tattoos are insanely beautiful. They're aging so beautifully and still look so perfect. It's crazy. My tattoos are all black and grey too. Last time I got tattooed by Freddy he told me he was jealous of me for having the foresight to get nothing but black and grey when I started getting tattooed years ago, and that if he could do it all again that way he would.

Some progress on my frontpiece with my boss, Josh Cruse. Did about three hours of color in the snake all around my chest and belly. I have another sitting in two weeks, but I'll probably hold off on posting anything until we get it all done... after it's healed and settled, we'll touch up anything that needs it and add some pattern work in that minty green stripe on the snake.

past 24 hours

I saw these donkeys on the way home from work the other day,seems like kind of crappy dry place to have to live IMO,not sure how well they are fed & watered,so we bought some fresh carrots,cabbage,& apples and brought that and some water down this morning and fed them the treats,as soon as we pulled over on the other side of the street they started walking over to us,so it appears we are not the only ones who do this ! LOL very cute & very friendly.I will keep carrots with me from now on and do this again for sure. . . . . . . . this is my favorite pic

Part One is finished people... Copperhead Editions | FST: On the Shoulders of Giants – pt 1 DVD USA folks will need to wait a little for the NTSC version, sorry. Although it will be available to watch online from 17th Feb. Parts Two, Three & Four well.. don't hold your breath... They'll come eventually - remember, I'm a one man band. Thanks for the interest so far.

The infoamouse Spider Web Elbow...Getting Pretty Tired of Folks who know little to nothing about Tattoos jumping in (during a general convo) and saying it means "you did time" or its a "jail house tat" BS! If the History books of tattooing are correct (Pretty sure they are!) with they're dates Bob Shaw was sleeved by Bert Grimm at 16 and both of his elbows are Spider webs. Did Bob Shaw do time at 15 come out go to Bert and say hey man just got out the pen so i need to get some spider webs tattooed on my elbows? I doubt it! I mean even when you google Spider Web Elbow everything states Aryan Brotherhood, Jail, BS, BS, BS. Sure maybe in Jail thats what it means. But here in the real world its just cool filler and I'm willing to bet when Bert Put them on Bob and whoever else. Dude was probably thinking just that "Hmm Spider webs now thats a cool idea for filler...I don't know if this was touched upon earlier in this thread but Said (During general convo) took place recently and it kind of sent me over the edge.

Random idea; Any LST'ers that always wanted to visit Vienna in Austria? maybe to get something from https://www.facebook.com/viennaelectrictattoo?fref=ts or just to check the city out? hit me up and ill let you crash on my couch/bed thingie for a few days. I know from experience with @Johannes that meeting LST'ers is the best thing ever so yeah. Come party!

bryan burk dark horse, los angeles

Since we are posting Hardy backs, this one is from the panther tattoo thread:

here's stuff I did over the past week, the one flash sheet is all nkc stencil copies.

Recent conversation. Me - hi there, what can we do for you? Customer - look at this shit tattoo *shows some wobbly writing on her wrist obviously scratched on* isn't it rubbish? Look how crap it is. Me - we'll, it's pretty bad, yeah. Customer - that was done by **** at ****'s tattoos. It's rubbish, I hate it. Me - ok. Well, I can promise you we're a bit better than that, at least. Customer - so how much would it cost to get just a little name on my other wrist? Me - if it's just small it'd probably be our minimum charge, which is £25. Customer - £25? Fuck off. **** at ****'s tattoos (same place she'd just been complaining about) will do it for a fiver. I'll go there. Me - ..... You get the tattoo you deserve.

I think I have a great traditional back piece idea! Now I just need to make 2015 come faster.... But at least having a more concrete design idea to dream about makes it feel more real.

Mike Rubendall. First appointment isn't until February 2015.

Mike Roper. The grey ghost of tattooing. He's in my top 5.

to clarify, i don't think the non-tattooers understood. the girl wants a half sleeve based on the solar system (whatever that means) finished in about a month. she also lives several hours outside of berlin, meaning she will need to make one 5 hour trip just to talk about it and try to work out a plan. people with this sort of vague idea usually do not understand what sort of commitment getting a big tattoo is. i am interested in making nice tattoos for money, not making money making crap tattoos. and i do tattoo for free, but only on friends. and yes, dan. that one on the guestbook is pretty good, but i don't read german. i also fully disagree that if someone wants a tattoo that automatically means i have to reply to them.

@fourtotheflush while it would be nice if you got a response I realize that tattooers or any business has a preferred method of communication whether it be email, phone, etc. Facebook would probably not be the best as it is usually just a advertisement to the shop. @briankelly agreed that is a weird way to try and get an appointment but some people just don't know how it works. @Dan S I've noticed in my business (I deal with client relationship stuff as well) that everyone has a preferred method and there is no rhyme or reason to which is the "best". Some tattooers (a good portion) accept email only, even to the point if you show up to the shop they hand you a business card with an email address (hell I could SEE the tattooer and they said...email). Some others never respond to email and you have to call the shop directly to get a response. Then the last method which I have also have experienced is you must walk to the shop and talk in person otherwise you will just slip through the cracks. Even though I deal with new clients myself, even if they call me or talk face-to-face I always say email me otherwise they will never be in my queue. That's simply how I keep track. @fourtotheflush, even though all people reaching out are potential clients doesn't mean that anybody in the client facing position has to respond to every inquiry. Basically I agree and disagree.

just be respectful. yes tips and cupcakes are awfully nice, but thats not what gets me to work on time everyday. just be nice. leave your tuff guy attitude at the door. dont try to impress us, just be nice. if you know some jokes, please share. if some crazy shit happened to you earlier in the week, tell us the story. if you are coming to us because you saw how awesome we did of a job on your friends japanese sleeve, dont be surprised when we are bummed that you want us to do your celtic armband. haha come in clean and with a good attitude. thats all i can ask for. anything extra is frosting on the cake

All of the above! ALso: The healthier you are the more prepared your body is for what's about to happen to it. Try not to come in hungover, get a decent nights sleep, eat a good breakfast, and lunch, essentially come in on a full stomach, by hydrated, and be relaxed as much as you can. I've been told that exfoliating the are you are going to get tattooed for about a week before hand helps greatly with the healing but that's more of a suggestion. Try to keep an open mind. Tattooers are professionals(for the most part, but not always so do your homework!). We have a wealth of knowledge we can bring to bare at any time for you, so take advantage of that. You will get a great tattoo. A tattooer who cares won;t talk you out of your idea, but might help you do it in a way that transcends your personal whims and trends, and will age gracefully, and compliment you as a person. Though it may be somewhat different than what you initially had in your head. Try to be a little malleable, and trust your tattooer. Try not to be some emotionally attached to every single detail. Remember: you aren't thinking like a tattooer. You think like a person who likes certain images and is used to seeing things on t-shirts, computer screens, and prints. Sometimes things don;t work in skin and we try like hell to make things work the best for you. Try to remember that as much as tattooing has become a main stream product for most clients, it's still a hand made craft to us. If you are expecting hospital levels of sterility, Professional attitudes and expert technique then see us, not just treat us, but SEE us as professional craftsmen/women. Most of us have your best interest at heart because we can and do see the big picture. We are looking at your tattoo in our heads 10 years into the future. At least. We just want to do a nice tattoo for you. So when a tattooer explains why an idea is too complicated at a certain size, or why there is too much clutter, or that outlining it pink may not be the best idea, pay heed to that. You are hearing the educated opinion of a craftsman. If you want a tattoo, don;t let your significant other try to do all the talking. Be plain, and straightforward with the things you want out of your tattoo. The less we have to guess, the fast we can get on the same wave length and make you happy. If you are on vacation and you plan on things like tanning, going to the beach, strenuous activities, swimming, hot tubs, etc. Plan to get your tattoo at the ass end of your vacation so there is less interference with healing(and we can't tattoo sun burned skin so take care of it!), but try to get to the shop at the beginning of your vacation to set the appointment up, or if possible call ahead. Many shops can accommodate walk in's at most times, but since you have a limited time, try your hardest to think ahead. Rush jobs at the last second may not be ideal especially if you want something more involved than a single sitting, quick tattoo. Avoid food that makes you fart before the tattoo. No one wants be sniffing your pooh ghosts while they work. Hope some of this helps.

I'm not a tattooer, but I have been tattooed quite a bit. Things that I always make sure I do...Sit still as possible, go to the bathroom before the tattoo, don't chew gum (I am addicted to gum, and pop it fairly constantly), have fresh breath, don't text or check your phone (until a break), tell the artist up front how much I can spend (and actually bring that amount), tip your artist. I've brought an ipod multiple times, but I have never used it, playing with that would go along with not playing with your phone. I have brought a gift from time to time to an artist that was doing multiple sessions on me, if we talked about it (like a book, magazine, dvd, whatever), but this isn't something I have done most of the time. I'm sure there is more that tattooers want or would want, but this is what I do.