RoryQ

IMO it's nice to have and appreciate different styles as it is in other arts.it's part of being open minded and not having limits and boundries

just cram 'em all in there. i don't get it when people plan their whole bodies out or want all this "balance". do they plan on posing around naked all the time for us to scrutinize? most of the time people only see our arms anyway.

I personally like to see a lot of variety. It's kind of like reading a book. Different chapters of a persons life.

I'm with Shawn. I didn't initially set out to have "a suit." If I had, I would've approached things much differently. I have no regrets about my tattoos (but I do have a coverup!), and I love what Dan Higgs said in an old video that Shawn posted. It was something to the effect of, "Don't worry about whether or not something will go with what you already have--just put it there and it automatically goes together. You got Hot Stuff next to Jesus next to a clown."
Take a look through my gallery and you'll see that I look like a yakuza from behind and a typical confused American from the front. :)

I don't know how it would look stuck in the middle of a Japanese sleeve that was meant to be traditional Japanese. I think it looks pretty awesome next to traditional stuff. In my opinion done right, the way Thomas Hooper and a few others do it, I think it has the same power as well done traditional so they compliment each other very well. On a very basic level a lot of those stippled pieces follow the traditional formula; a third black, a third color, a third skin when you substitute the color with the lighter end of the gradient so it's not really surprising they work well together.
I'm with hogg, that Higgs quote is the first thing that popped into my head when I read the original post, that video was the most inspirational thing I've seen for a while.

i posted a thomas hooper picture at the top of this page, that is pretty small and doesn't do the piece justice. there were a bunch of nice, big close up's of that tattoo added to his website today. it's super sick and worth checking out, his whole website is extremely informative, with an abundance of material that is tattoo and not tattoo related. this picture was just posted there too. fuuuck...
Hoopers Electric – Meditations in Atrament

I was at the Scottish Tattoo Convention the weekend before last, and took the opportunity to have a chat with the people there from King Carlos Tattoo in Sweden.
Calle in King Carlos is pretty well-known for his Japanese style stuff in Europe and he does a lot of large-scale stuff. I have been e-mailing back and forth a little bit about booking in to begin a backpiece, but nothing finalised yet.
I think his stuff is really refined and he seems to have that knack for making the backgrounds of japanese style tattoos look like they're flowing and curling like real water or smoke.
.:: King Carlos Tattoo ::.

I was at the Scottish Tattoo Convention the weekend before last, and took the opportunity to have a chat with the people there from King Carlos Tattoo in Sweden.
Calle in King Carlos is pretty well-known for his Japanese style stuff in Europe and he does a lot of large-scale stuff. I have been e-mailing back and forth a little bit about booking in to begin a backpiece, but nothing finalised yet.
I think his stuff is really refined and he seems to have that knack for making the backgrounds of japanese style tattoos look like they're flowing and curling like real water or smoke.
.:: King Carlos Tattoo ::.

I was at the Scottish Tattoo Convention the weekend before last, and took the opportunity to have a chat with the people there from King Carlos Tattoo in Sweden.
Calle in King Carlos is pretty well-known for his Japanese style stuff in Europe and he does a lot of large-scale stuff. I have been e-mailing back and forth a little bit about booking in to begin a backpiece, but nothing finalised yet.
I think his stuff is really refined and he seems to have that knack for making the backgrounds of japanese style tattoos look like they're flowing and curling like real water or smoke.
.:: King Carlos Tattoo ::.

I was at the Scottish Tattoo Convention the weekend before last, and took the opportunity to have a chat with the people there from King Carlos Tattoo in Sweden.
Calle in King Carlos is pretty well-known for his Japanese style stuff in Europe and he does a lot of large-scale stuff. I have been e-mailing back and forth a little bit about booking in to begin a backpiece, but nothing finalised yet.
I think his stuff is really refined and he seems to have that knack for making the backgrounds of japanese style tattoos look like they're flowing and curling like real water or smoke.
.:: King Carlos Tattoo ::.

I met George Campise, when he was at Everlasting, on a trip to San Fran. He was unbelievably nice. He invited me to sit with him while he tattooed and just talked to me about all aspects of the business and about himself. I was really influenced by his attitude and the way I was treated. He didn't know me at all, yet he treated me with an unbelievable amount of respect and courtesy. On the same trip, I got tattooed at Blackheart and it was an awesome experience and it left my wife with a great impression of the place. Scott really went out of his way to give us suggestions of what to do in the area. He even stopped tattooing his customer to call his father to ask some questions about Santa Cruz. I met Daniel Albrigo when he was working at Invisible in NYC and he was totally cool to me as well. He knew I wasn't there to get tattooed that day but it didn't matter. We talked about tattooing, our collections, and what not. I've always had really good experiences with Olde City in Philly and Jinx Proof in DC.
I figure if these shops and tattooers can treat me with courtesy and respect, I can do the same to others.

That Bert Grimm 'Duel in the sun' backpiece from earlier is very cool - love the double eagles and 'rising sun' motif.
I like the Valerie Vargas back piece attached a lot. I think she could do an amazing take on the 'rock of ages'....?
Another piece that has always stood out to me is this back piece by Shige (also attached). In his book it mentions that it is a tribute to the vanishing tradition of falconry in Japan. There's something very 'airy' about it.

This isn't just a problem that tattoo shop owners experience- any small to medium business trying to grow can find itself facing the same problem. A guy I know opened a small industrial type gym (aimed at old-school training methods, straightforward working out with barbells, dumbells etc) in a location in Dublin two years ago with about 1000 square feet of space. Four months later two guys opened up literally five minutes walk from him with a bigger facility offering exactly the same sort of service.
I think if you provide the better service the market will reward you.

Sorry for the heavy posting in this thread lately. I'll give it a rest after this.
Finally finished. Only had an iPhone as a camera, so excuse the mediocre quality.

(for some reason I'm unable to upload pictures to my gallery at the moment...)

That Bert Grimm 'Duel in the sun' backpiece from earlier is very cool - love the double eagles and 'rising sun' motif.
I like the Valerie Vargas back piece attached a lot. I think she could do an amazing take on the 'rock of ages'....?
Another piece that has always stood out to me is this back piece by Shige (also attached). In his book it mentions that it is a tribute to the vanishing tradition of falconry in Japan. There's something very 'airy' about it.