David Flores

It's equivalent to 1/250th of a body suit.

Think about all of the people walking around with anchor tattoos, that aren't sailors, hell I have plenty of nautical tattoos and I don't even own a boat. I have a skull with wings, but far from a Hell's Angel or even a biker for that matter. Of all the girls I know the one who drinks and parties the most has "Straightedge" tattooed from shoulder to shoulder. Now something like that I would reconsider, but all the implied symbolism is kind of silly. I mean think about the tramp stamp, popular for awhile, then women shyed away because didn't want to be labeled as tramps, but the tattoo really had nothing to do with the level of promiscuity someone exhibits, nor does said promiscuity necessarily make you a tramp.

The OP's only real problem is listening to ever dumb thing people say and not spending 5 mins to troubleshoot his problem or lack their of.

Cool well gotta go, time to make the donuts. Amazing I managed to repaint a bunch of trim in my house and be on the forum all morning, pretty proud of myself.

I am going to ask the bossman today. Coincidentally two guys at the shop were part of the shop I talked about for a minute, and I know they always talk about Pho places when they worked on that side of town, maybe it's the same place.

60th and Sandy I don't usually go back the Rhinelander at like 47thish when I get out that way. I don't know of any asian tattoo shops, at least none of significance, there was a dude tattooing out of shop on Sandy named Mod from Thailand doing solid stuff, but he has since moved back to Thailand and that shop he was working at was mostly white dudes, it was an experiment to create what the owner called the Tattoo Death Star, he wanted someone for every style and to have the best tattooers in town, and for a minute it was probably the second best shop in Portland next to Atlas, but now it doesn't even come up in conversation as everyone has left and moved on to their own shops. - - - Updated - - - @Graeme we redrew a bunch of that Greg Irons flash and put it up in the shop, stuff is so cool and people actually sometimes get it. His use of negative space is mind blowing to me still.

Welcome Paul, met you once at your shop last year, I was getting tattooed by Stuart. It's really cool that you are on here.

It's weird in Portland, because neighborhoods dictate where you see good tattoos. I lived on the west side for awhile and most of the tattoos I would see over there would be crap from hack shops, cause there is only a couple good shops west of downtown, Bunch of lettering and shitty middle school art class drawing tattoos mostly. If someone has a good tattoo they stick out on that side of town. Now I live in North Portland and it's amazing how much better the tattoos people get are. Even a person with mostly shitty tattoos will have one or two really good tattoos. Atlas is the closest shop to me and there are couple other good shops close to them and that is pretty much what people up here are walking around wearing is their tattoos, especially service industry folks, . You walk a mile or so east and you go to Alberta and you will find gutter punks with super realistic color bomb tattoos, because they hang on that street so they get tattooed at the shop there, which really leans towards the no outline realistic stuff. You go to Hawthorne and there is a tattoo school and some shitty shop that basically hires people right out of the tattoo school, so when Hawthorne was the cool place to live people walked around with shitty tattoos because you could literally go into the school and pay $20 to have a student tattoo/fuck your skin up. If they went down the street to what they perceived as real shop they didn't get much better tattoos. Smart people would travel a little bit out of the neighborhood to the good shops in Southeast like Historic, Scapegoat, and Oddball, but again it does seem like to some degree where you live and your willingness to do research really does dictate what kind of tattoo and quality of tattoo you get in Portland. BTW Tazmanain Devils are kind of making a comeback, I see them being big in 2013

Not as irrelevant as the comment you responded to. I don't know why it irks me so much, but just feels like you have to wade through a lot of stupidity lately just to have a useful conversation with productive members to the board. I know there are measures being put in place, but maybe i am just in a bad mood.

Mary Jane Haake is an amazing and beautiful lady that has been tattooing in Portland for 31 years, she apprenticed under Bert Grimm. Her work now mostly consists of reconstructive work on burn victims, breast cancer patients, wounded soldiers, which I personally think is a really cool thing to do. She kind of holds things together in Portland is the best way I can put it. She works as kind of a liaison to the health department , keeping us up to date on any new laws or restrictions. It seems like whenever you have an issue you can always call Mary Jane, and she is willing to listen and help. She throws a birthday party every year, with food, live bands, and such and I have been lucky enough to be able to tag alone with boss man a few times. It's always a great time and usually end up meeting some pretty legendary people in the tattoo world there. Here is a video of her talking about her career, Bert Grimm and tattooing penis and butt crack among other things. She is also the only person I know that uses a coil machine to tattoo to do cosmetic tattooing.

You mean the friendship hands? Honestly I don't think meanings of tattoos are really that important unless you that is something that you are into. Meaning I don't think you have to worry about someone diving to deep into your imagery on a traditional tattoo or challenging it's application to your life. On the other hand I can see how it's fun to dig into the history and see how stuff originated.

I couldn't stop laughing when I read this. It's funny how a term sticks. To answer your question in the best way I know how, I would say it's the equivalent of full sleeves, but below the waist. I never really paid attention to the official definition, but that is how I understand it.

When you are with someone you have to accept them in all their greatness and their flaws. Similar to what @HaydenRose said, I think we are really quick to voice our opinions about what are significant others are doing, and sometimes you have to just politely but firmly let them know that some things aren't up for discussion and they remember that you were a package deal and realize how insignificant the whole thing is the scheme of things and life goes on.

Each state has different laws regarding tattooing, but no state I am aware has a law regarding this issue. Sterilization can be taught in an afternoon, it takes a lot longer to learn how to tattoo, most people probably learned how to scrub tubs and run an autoclave before they ever picked up a machine. It seems so second nature, that I am not saying it wouldn't happen, but there would probably be a few more red flags that jumped out at you concerning the professionalism of a shop that re used equipment. Even if you are out of supplies, there are always other tattooers in shop to borrow from, or even using a disposable single use plastic tube would be an option, or you run the autoclave and make your client wait. I can understand how people are weird about stuff and always try to make them feel at ease, but if you knew how seriously ever shop I have been in takes it, both for your safety and the tattooers and their families safety, you mind would be at ease.

I am all about Avalon Tattoo, although from what I am reading I don't think whatever shop you chose you could end up with a bad tattoo.

I hate to bust balls, but I don't think people are going to answer your question, it kind of blurs the line of talking about technical stuff. It may seem like no big deal, but if some person who is tattooing out of their kitchen reads this forum, I would rather them have to figure it out for themselves than give them the answer to stuff like that. I am not discrediting your question, but just this forum isn't the place for it and it sounds like you know enough other tattooers to find out the answer anyway.

I just got back from Chicago like two days ago, and I really wanted to get tattooed by Erik Gillespie, but didn't have time for any tattoo stuff, all family stuff this time. Feel free to stop by Acme anytime.

I agree with everyone's suggestions from Portland. I really like all those shops and have got tatttooed in most of them, but a couple shops I think people sleep on are Imperial Tattoo, Todd J does some clean traditional and I have seen Josiah Laughlin turn out some pretty killer Japanese pieces. Blacklist Tattoo, Eli and Tim do great stuff and Tron is working there from NYC now also Sean Lanusse at Infinity Tattoo

I was so excited apparently that I went out and got tattooed by the second tattooer on the list of contributors yesterday, Adam Craven. It was a coincidence, however seeing the exhibit made me more aware of his work, instead of just the guy who works with Mav, who does nice tattoos.

It's not really important because all the could have would have stuff doesn't matter at this point and its not my place to second guess someone else's work. First keep in mind you are always going to be the most critical of your tattoo, you are probably going to always see elements of the old tattoo no matter how well it's covered. I guess the only thing i can say is tattooing over scar tissues becomes easier, the longer you wait, I think it might have been a little too soon to go over this area, again just a theory. Again it could heal fine and no big deal, but if it doesn't I wouldn't go back in and have people keep blasting over it, I would wait awhile (1 year+) till the area is free of trauma and completely settled and see if that black needs to be reworked. But again someone evaluating this in person is going to be able to give the best advice.

First thing, I would wait a couple of weeks for it to heal. Regardless of what you do after that, you basically can't do anything till the tattoo is fully healed. Also it will give a chance for the tattoo to set into the skin and then you can better see what you are dealing with. I am going to be honest, it's hard to give advice about tattoos online, because a picture is not the same as putting your eye on things. I have my theories, but really this should be addressed by the tattooer who did this tattoo, or if you don't trust that person, a trusted tattooer in your area if the tattoo doesn't look better healed.

"Actually, despite my opinion that tattoos are not business wear, I am considering displaying my tattoos even at work. My tattoos demonstrate that I can set an outlandish, difficult goal, use my diverse resources to drive it to completion, and get an excellent result. That’s what counts in my project oriented, goal based profession. My tattoos demonstrate that I know how to make shit happen." No it just means you have enough money to fly to Japan and get tattooed every year. Not to mention he has been working on this goal for 12 years, I would hardly call making shit happen.

If you are willing to fly to Midway through Southwest Chicago is much more reasonable. I don't think you should have any issue booking time with Nick Colella unless he has some travel obligations he doesn't book out very far and the rest of the guys at that shop put on a good tattoo as well. Craig puts on a really nice tattoo, If you get down here before end of February, make sure you get a tattoo from Jesse Bob at historic, he is moving back to Texas and his stuff is super cool. If you want to get booked in with Freddy I suggest you start hitting him up now, he can get pretty booked up. If you are looking for shops to go to once you are down here, feel free to hit me up, i know all the spots.

Exactly, I think most of the time, people are just insecure and don't trust their judgement or they are trying to act cool, or they are looking for a deal. I just can't imagine going into a shop and essentially being like "well I don't know if you are good enough to tattoo me." before they have even looked at a portfolio and expect not to get a dirty look, but seems to be how some people approach it. I wouldn't even really say it angers me, but it just sets off a red flag that this person is probably going to be a pain in the ass and is probably just wasting my time and the rest of the interaction is me convincing them not to get tattooed or to go to a shop that is more willing to work with these types of clients.

What country do you live in?