UglyButProud

Snake sleeve in progress by Yoni Zilber @ NY Adorned

Got this panther from Steve Byrne when he was guesting at invictus in Oslo.
 

I don't think I've posted this here--Todd Noble made this lady in a rose a couple months ago.  I really enjoyed getting this tattoo; he has a good bedside manner and just seems like an all-around good human.  I can't get an un-distorted photo of this but you get the idea.

Received my first tattoo "Saint Christopher" on this day 13 years ago from the one-and-only Steve Batt (Edmonton, AB).
"Look kid, I'm not going to draw the Last Supper. You want a tattoo today or not?"

I can still smell the speedstick scent he used to apply the stencil.
And in an ironic twist of fate, with the fresh tattoo of the patron saint of travel on a swollen arm, we got in a car accident 5 minutes after leaving the shop.
The tattoo is as rich, bright and colourful as it was the day it was made. In fact it keeps looking better each year as it ages.
Dropped in this afternoon to see Sensei Steve and thanked him for 13 years of capital "Q" quality tattoos he has made for me.
cheers everyone !

Got one from Adam Hathorn (aka Honkey Kong) yesterday at Guru Tattoo in San Diego. First time getting tattooed in my hometown, Adam made it a really memorable session. The dude is full of stories and a super interesting guy, I'd recommend anybody in So Cal to go check him out if they get the chance

Well, today was the day!
What a long, but great day! It began a little before 11:00am. I was the first one in Triple Crown Tattoo with Scott Ellis (most of the day, there were 10-15 people there, and at one point six artists were tattooing simultaneously). He had been working on a few designs based on the sleeve length I wanted. Over the week between today and our consultation, I had decided to ask him to put the dragon's head somewhere on my arm instead of with the head in the more traditional chest area. I was a little worried to be asking for this, as Scott has a relatively new sleeve with the head in the center, and the last thing I wanted was for him to think I was trying to copy his own tattoo. Luckily, when I got there, he informed me that the last several dragons he had done had the head on the chest, and he was dying to do something new. Perfect! His sketches had just what I wanted. It was a really good sign.
However, getting it right took some time. Using thin paint brushes, he created the design over four separate layers. The dragon's head had to be moved several times, and the unique swirl of the dragon we decided on what difficult to get right without looking like the head was plopped onto the center of the body... but Scott is a perfectionist, and after a lot of erasing and revising, and then relining, and revising, etc... we were finally done with a design ready to be inked at 2:40. With only a few short breaks, it took a lot longer than I expected. But the result is something that works specifically with my body as opposed to just slapping a template onto my arm. I love it.
Here is a quick snap of Scott somewhere between layer 2 and 3 of sketching on me:

I haven't had a tattoo in nearly 20 years, so I had no idea what to expect from the pain, especially over so many areas. Tattooing in the ditch was no treat, but not as bad as I had come to expect from reading. The outside of the elbow lived up to expectations. But the worst was around my collarbone, where any wincing or tightening of my face would risk pulling the skin under his needle. And there was one spot on my chest where I could clearly feel the vibration on my pec, but the pain was in my neck. I could have sworn at the time he was tattooing my upper-middle neck.
Long story short (yeah, right), we finished up the linework a little after 5:00pm. I am absolutely thrilled with the result... and was getting tons of compliments on it by the many artists and clients in the shop throughout the day. Here is a front shot:

It is a little difficult to see from this angle and with only linework, but the dragon's body actually goes out the back of the head and swirls up and around the shoulders through the clouds and comes out belly showing under his head before turning again towards the end of the sleeve. It makes a little more sense visually if you can see the back. I also have the dragon clutching a pearl with his talons on the back on the sleeve and will actually be filling the pearl with a significant flower logo in the next session.
Overall, a fantastic day. I couldn't be happier that Scott got all the elements I wanted into the design, was able to keep it very traditional, but also with a great deal of uniqueness built just for me. If any readers are in Austin, Triple Crown Tattoo on Chicon Street (right around the corner from Franklin's BBQ!) is a must-visit.

got this sacred heart from joe nickley almost 2 weeks ago

and this from chris kline at the scranton convention this past weekend

andddd yesterday i made an appointment with bert krak for next month while he's at old soul!

When I was feeling extra surly (read: often) and people would comment about how I'd "obviously been in prison with all those tatts" I would tell them
"Yep, beat a guy nearly to death for touching my "tatts" and making asinine judgmental comments"

This!
I've also had more than a handful of weirdos say "I'll pray for you" or something similar. This always makes me glad I have several devil tattoos and the wanting for several more.

Jon Larson - April https://www.instagram.com/larsontattoos111/?hl=en
Joe Chatt - May https://www.instagram.com/ihaveadeathwish/?hl=en
El Monga Sasturain - July https://www.instagram.com/elmongasasturain/?hl=en
Vinny Stevenson - July https://www.instagram.com/vinny_stevenson/?hl=en
El Rotor - July https://www.instagram.com/elrotortattoos/
El Dimoni - July https://www.instagram.com/dimonibcn/
SUPER STOKED to be in Spain this summer....

@Lance I'll elaborate on the story a bit, it was a fun trip after all.
I show up at the shop around 12. Like I said, I came expecting the worst, but I wanted to exceed the expectation and knock this thing out in one day. Johan shows me the drawing, and in my head all I can hear is Gob from Arrested Development, "I've made a huge mistake." So much hair and little lines, fuck me. So we spend the next 45 minutes or so with general setup and talking about placement as I reconsider my goals for the day after seeing all those lines.
All laid out, I assume the position. He starts low at the hip and works the way up in sections. The hip bone made my body vibrate, and the nerves radiated at certain times where I swear he put a line down my shaft, or up higher it felt like he ran over my nipple. Nothing worse than expected though. Nothing that made me break out in an instant cold sweat like when my lower back got hit. Just general "this sucks." so I was able to make it. @hogg recommended a focused breathing technique, and pretend to blow out candles from far away, well I blew out the equivalent of a forest fire over the course of the day. My lips were chapped and my throat was dry.
Anyhow, after almost 4 hours of lines, I was again reassessing goals for the day. This was about the point when I was feeling the worst. I was almost ready to call it a day, but I was actually looking forward to pretending to be tough in front of @ironchef, so I pushed on.
Johan and I had to be realistic about what was left, and what we thought we could finish that day. We opted for coloring the low hanging fruit; the horns, the belly, and the fire. Especially because we couldn't settle on body/hair colors.
So after the first strip of fire, Johan can tell I'm close to the end and I might not make it. He offers some vasocaine spray. At first I'm a little reluctant, but after some time to consider it, I take him up on the offer. He assures me that for most people, it takes away ~50% of the pain. Well goddamn if it didn't work for me. At this point, ironchef shows up, and who knows what he thought of meeting me as I'm able to hold a conversation getting my ribs worked on. A second wind combined with relief from the spray, I felt really good at this point.
We all talked and had a good time while Johan wrapped things up, and ironchef and I took obligatory nude pics together. I was out of the shop around 8 and on my way home for a shower and very restless sleep.

Pushed as long as I could with Johan Svahn to get this far. Will finish on Johan's return to the States. Had a great time at the Kings Ave in Manhattan, very cool shop. It was great to see @ironchef and his incredible tattoos in person. I know you guys want to see more, slightly blurry, ass.

Forgot to post pics. We nearly finished this up a couple weeks ago. One more short session next month to darken and tighten things up. Here's some terrible quality photos I got the next day:

And just yesterday I got a closeup of the horse head, which gives you an idea of how much the blue is really starting to pop now that it's almost fully done healing. I need to get better quality photos of the whole thing.

from Chad Koeplinger @ Tattoo Paradise in Wheaton, MD

I've been lazy as all hell and haven't posted any new bangers in a while.......

Right BUTT cheek - Alex Boyko - December

MOM Cover up on the wrist AND LEMMY tribute- Jon Larson - January

©Ankle - Jon Larson - February

Wrist banger - Jon Larson - March

Left SWELLbow - Chad Koeplinger - March

I've been lazy as all hell and haven't posted any new bangers in a while.......

Right BUTT cheek - Alex Boyko - December

MOM Cover up on the wrist AND LEMMY tribute- Jon Larson - January

©Ankle - Jon Larson - February

Wrist banger - Jon Larson - March

Left SWELLbow - Chad Koeplinger - March

I'll be in France (Paris/Normandy/Nancy) for 10 days and then in Spain (Barcelona) for 9 days. I already have 5 tattoo appointments booked in BCN....The plane ride home is gonna suuuuuccckkk........... :)
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I'll be in France (Paris/Normandy/Nancy) for 10 days and then in Spain (Barcelona) for 9 days. I already have 5 tattoo appointments booked in BCN....The plane ride home is gonna suuuuuccckkk........... :)

Just got this reimagining of a Rock of Ages by Aaron Hodges at Spider Murphy's. Stolen from his instagram:

Many people have seen this all ready I guess. By Jondix, 11 days ago. Had such a great time. Stayed at the shop past midnight, talking and eating after the session.
Everybody should get something from him. Super good heart, attitude and knowledge of tattooing and art.
Wrathful offering of the five senses by Jonas Nyberg from last year.

Just got this by Marie Sena.Electric Eye Tattoo.

Knee zapper from Chad Koeplinger the other day in Denver

I also got tattooed by Chad on Friday 3/18 at Name Brand. I had met him a few times before and sitting with him for a couples hours shooting the shit was fun. He did lament a bunch about settling down. He had a lot of "I'm really burned out travelling" vibes going on in what he was saying. He said he missed having a house to come home to and thought that maybe his time had passed to open up his own shop now that he'll be almost 40 (practically a kid..ha!). We had a long conversation about pizza and he said he would love to open a pizza place....no frills, just "a great slice shop" as he put it. good times, and i wish him the best....
- - - Updated - - -
I also got tattooed by Chad on Friday 3/18 at Name Brand. I had met him a few times before and sitting with him for a couples hours shooting the shit was fun. He did lament a bunch about settling down. He had a lot of "I'm really burned out travelling" vibes going on in what he was saying. He said he missed having a house to come home to and thought that maybe his time had passed to open up his own shop now that he'll be almost 40 (practically a kid..ha!). We had a long conversation about pizza and he said he would love to open a pizza place....no frills, just "a great slice shop" as he put it. good times, and i wish him the best....

I've been lazy as all hell and haven't posted any new bangers in a while.......

Right BUTT cheek - Alex Boyko - December

MOM Cover up on the wrist AND LEMMY tribute- Jon Larson - January

©Ankle - Jon Larson - February

Wrist banger - Jon Larson - March

Left SWELLbow - Chad Koeplinger - March

I've been lazy as all hell and haven't posted any new bangers in a while.......

Right BUTT cheek - Alex Boyko - December

MOM Cover up on the wrist AND LEMMY tribute- Jon Larson - January

©Ankle - Jon Larson - February

Wrist banger - Jon Larson - March

Left SWELLbow - Chad Koeplinger - March