Kev

Finished this on New Years Day - start as I mean to go on for 2013!

There cooler bars/venues on the Eastside- don't waste your time with 6th Eastside Bar Crawl - Photos - The Austin Chronicle
Be sure and pick up an Austin Chronicle when you get to town- it'll help with the navigation.

I have been doing this thing lately where I have been doing paintings for friends' kids for their first birthdays. It's fun because it gives me motivation to actually finish paintings because lord knows I love to start them and then give up on them once I realise that I have no idea at all what I'm doing, and I just like spending my free time painting. Anyway, here's a bad photo of a cat portrait I just finished, of our friends' cat Dali:

My first real commision I finished last night....went a bit crazy with the Paynes Grey!

little painting i did a few weeks ago. my friend Jimmy wanted this tattooed as part of his weekly support of my apprenticeship, but opted out of the flames.

I have a Woolrich Woolen Mills one that is heavier more like a lumberjack look and blanket thickness perfect for walking the dog in the snow and shit . Were I in the U.S I would be all over the OG throwbacks by Greenspans/Pendleton collab reproductions of 50's , 60's and 80's styles and colours -
http://www.greenspans.com/shop/pendelton/throwback.html?page=shop.browse&category_id=28

So we have tattooers who have brought so much knowledge and insight and richness to this board talking about how they don't post much anymore because there isn't much here to interest them, and then here we get reddit's leftovers because alt models, mediocre tattoos, and BOOBS. Well done.

You can walk mostly where you need. 6th street and the warehouse district isn't more than a couple of blocks from either other. You can take a taxi but we have pedi cabs around downtown. I would only use a taxi if you want to go to the east side. It will be in the 90s maybe even 100 but May. Bring plenty of shirts and most clubs don't have a dress code unless you dress like a gangbanger or wear sandals/flip flops. Rock of ages is about 5 to 7 mins away. You can take a bus from downtown to them. Possibly take an one half to a full hour to go though the stops. If you want to go up to north Austin, rent a car. We have zip car and cars2go. Little smart cars that have there own parking at certain places. Barton Springs is good to go to. It is about 68 degrees year round and really chill and walking distance to a couple of restaurants. Some girls will be topless and if you have a dog you can take it to the dog area for it to run around in the walk or take it to lady bird lake.
If you have anymore questions just holla. Also @fallingapartart lives in austin
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Have you been to Austin?

I'm planning a trip to Austin, Texas in early May and I'm looking for suggestions on things to do, see, eat, and where to stay.
***I already have an appointment at Rock of Ages w/ Steve Byrne so I don't need tattoo suggestions :)

But animals LOVE having lotion rubbed on them. Soft, non irritated and freshly exfoliated/non ashy lab mice are often happier than the ones in the wild.
T

Thanks for bringing this up @Shannon Shirley while we've never met, people who I think are awesome tell me that you're awesome. Everyone here should pay attention to what this guy says.
I still check the forums every day but I told myself I'd try to only get involved if I could be constructive in some way (even being a dick in a particular way can have a positive outcome).
Lately there hasn't been much 'new' information or discussion where I felt my opinion would make any difference. Often someone else gets to the point before I do. I don't want every post I make to be a verbose "Me too."
On the other hand... The more help or insight we give, the more help or insight we're asked for.
Everyone likes to say they "Did their research" for their tattoo but that often just means looking at pictures in a Google search or checking Instagram. But what about the kind of research where you follow an idea that someone mentioned and find out for yourself? Learning and discovery is fun. Information discovered is more cherished and valuable than information that's spoon fed.
Everyone wants a book or website recommendation where the mysteries of life and everything will be explained, with pictures.
Explorers will eventually tire of conversing with tourists and consumers but they may feel nourished conversing with other explorers. (I use these terms with their proper, non-insulting intention) If more people try to be explorers (intelectual, spiritual or physical) this site, and the world will be a better place.
I've said it before but I don't come here to help with tattoo questions. We have a phone at Frith Street Tattoo. Helpful people are paid to answer it and answer questions. Most tattoo shops work with a similar system. You can get a helpful answer pretty quickly that way.
Even if you're in another country. International calls are not very expensive compared to the price of a tattoo.
I come here because I realised that it was a place where professional opinion meant something. I only started typing when I knew that nobody better qualified had answered. The turning point for me was Bryan Burk's post about Japanese tattoo politics. Finally we had first-hand, sensible and interesting information or opinion from a reliable source instead of conjecture or wiki-regurgitation. I knew then that I'd beter keep my mouth (or keyboard) shut unless I was sure I could contribute something worthwhile.
I'm aware this approach doesn't make for a lively forum but it was great to see it in action earlier this year when Bart Bingham put a halt to some whining about tattooers drawing directly on the skin with a simple, direct and thoughtful post.
Sorry for the lack of links to threads and @ mentions. LST seems to be loading extremely slowly so I couldn't check where stuff was.
Other that the fact that one of my favourite tattooers started this site, I still like it that real-world experience holds water over post-count here at LST. I also like it that the mods (well, the one's I've met) are heavily covered with genuinely great tattoos. That really makes a difference.

I think we can be blasé and attribute the reasons to whatever but that's just speculation , what we do have is feedback from the artists that remain and should entertain the possibility that each of us is slipping and take it upon ourselves to do something about that .
Remember the words of my man Jimi Hendrix " Knowledge speaks but wisdom listens "
or that other hippie Arthur Schopenhauer " Treat a work of art like a prince : let it speak to you first "

Can someone help me design my sleeve? But seriously, I only allow my self time to skim the topics in the new post section. If nothing grabs my eye I move on to illegal downloads and Mighty Boosh clips on youtube. Unfortunately most of what I found interesting were the posts by other tattooers, people who I know and or respect. Im really not interested inwhat people are planning on getting tattooed unless its from me. I do like seeing photos so the panthers, snakes and Rock of Ages type posts usually get a look. I will continue to stop by and check things out and hopefully chime in when appropriate. Till then....

BHR snakes:

Got some more work done on the squid-pant.

(Jacked the image from Regino's Instagram. It is a pain in the ass to try and take this picture yourself)

Here is the finished dragon by Kore Flatmo. We did five hours yesterday. Long day but worth it. We started the project in October and its awesome to finally see the finished product. Back in two months to start the tiger.




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Here is the finished dragon by Kore Flatmo. We did five hours yesterday. Long day but worth it. We started the project in October and its awesome to finally see the finished product. Back in two months to start the tiger.

Picture from Kore Flatmo's Facebook of our progress this week! Such an amazing experience, I'd recommend PluraBella to anyone and everyone here!
Here's one I took to show how it matches up with my Kurt Wiscombe piece. I'm so pumped!

Mike Malone flash tattooed by Matty D'Arienzo at Great Western Tattoo Club.

Got this guy from Fergus Simms while he was at ThirdEye Tattoo in Melbourne, Australia for a few days. My sister has 'forever young' in script on her foot so I thought it would be cool to surprise her by getting sort've matching!

I can also post this, just saw that Knibbe Pallius @ Never Die Tattoo in Gothenburg had posted it on instagram when it was done like 2-3 months ago. Shame we'll have to redo the lines, they aren't black due to bad healing. Back of the knee = pain.

Got this one from Simon Erl the other day and I am really happy with it. He didn't draw it as I had envisioned but made it much better. If you are in Stockholm make sure to swing by Swahili Bobs, he'll be there for another month or so.

Got this from Jason Mcafee at Temple Tattoo in Oakland, CA.
Super stoked on it. Real cool dude too. Temple is my home base.

Last session. We're all done. Mike Wilson @ ink smith and Rogers

Jonas Nyberg (or Uggli as some know him by) is doing a guestspot at Blue Arms, and I filled a cancellation he had yesterday. My first tattoo this year.

Got back on Saturday from my last session on my back from Kore Flatmo. Glad to have this done! The back is no joke... Had an awesome time there as usual and will be back for some cover up work after summer.