writerAZ

I don't claim to know him Richard and @Jennifer Stell well, but I first met Richard in 1991 at Scorpion Studios in Houston. Our paths crossed again in 2010 when he tattooed me at the SFO Convention. Ask anyone in the industry or who has ever been tattooed by him: Richard is a badass with a sharp wit, endless jokes, and a wry smile that'll win you over ever time. And it doesn't hurt that his art is legendary; he has truly developed a style all his own.
As many of you know have no doubt heard by now, Richard Stell suffered a heart attack a few days ago. He now needs open heart surgery, which is not a cheap procedure. If you're able to help out, even a little, I'm sure he'd appreciate it. To do so, you can PayPal [email protected].
Thanks in advance.

I've taken on an apprentice. I'm 12 years in and do not feel like I could've or should've taught anybody before this. First, a little shop background I work in an small isolated area that is expensive and inconvenient. You can't drive in or out and while we have some of the modern conveniences, like costco, we do not have a lot of things, like art supply stores or fast food restaurants. I bought the shop almost two years ago from the original owner, who moved back south. I did not ever expect to take on an apprentice. I also did not think I'd work alone for a year and half straight. I thought I'd make the shop the best I can and some one would slip right in to that glass slipper and it'd be sweet. Well, nobody did. A few artists expressed interest, but costs, inconvenience and ever gloomy weather killed the deal every time. Sometimes the tattooer would be pumped, but their significant other couldn't hang with living a borderline "village" lifestyle. So I worked alone for a while. I wanted the best for the shop, so I didn't turn down anything and worked myself silly. I got a sweet eye twitch out of that that has finally went away unless I'm really tired.
So after talking to enough artists about why they couldn't make the move, I started to realize that I may have to grow my own. I took on one of our shop's regulars as counter help. How do you get to work at a tattoo shop? I wasn't looking to hire a friend as I've seen that go bad, so I hired someone that I had built a professional relationship with already, because they were always at the shop getting tattooed. Once I saw that he was doing a good job and began to notice that his other plans (school, etc) starting to fall to shit, I realized that I may be able cultivate a mutually beneficial apprenticeship. It wasn't that I didn't want to mop, or I wanted my ego stroked or I wanted to try and get an extra $15,000. We talked a lot about his future and future plans before we entered in to this and if fulfilled, he will contribute back into the shop for several years as his obligation for having a place to learn and a person to learn from. It was understood that he would not be tattooing for quite a while, it would be the slow road and that he's going to have to learn a lot of things that are other people don't, like needles, mixing pigment, painting flash, taking apart machines, making footswitches and all the other stuff folks with real deal apprenticeships learn. I'm trying to give him a combination of the apprenticeship I had and the apprenticeship I wanted.
So far, I'm pretty proud of the little fucker. He filled a sketchbook of traditional designs cover to cover ( most tattooers I know haven't done that), put a machine together, rewired a footswitch, made needles and we've done an oversized split sheet on coquille. He studies a lot. He looks at good stuff. And while we have a pretty good generational gap, I'd like to think we've become friends. Being busy, isolated and working by myself made me feel like I was a little stagnant. He's into it and younger, so he looks at both my influences and shows me the stuff he's into. So it's not out of the question for him to introduce stuff to me, even at this point. When you have to teach, it makes you step back and present things to somebody else. That step can often make you put thought towards something that had previously become automatic. So, in that respect, I get charged up on shit again. That's the new blood factor.
Overall, I hired a regular who was already familiar. Not a friend who will break my heart if things didn't work out right away. And I do feel as though there is a need for entry level tattooing at the shop here. That can free me up a little to do the best I can on the bigger projects for now. There is another factor that I don't know if it has been addressed directly (richard's quotes were closest) but yeah, it takes time and a lot of effort to teach somebody right. I'm invested in this shit now. I have a one year old baby and a wife, and I'm sneaking out in the middle of the night to teach him how to make liners at 3am on a friday night. Why would I ever do that for a stranger? I don't know if I could even hang in the same room with the person,let alone have to teach them all these pain in the ass aspects about tattooing in the middle of the night. Also, If I still tattooed down south, I would never take on an apprentice. There was just never a need.
ps- I also asked the people who taught me if it was ok for me to teach someone. They looked at me like they had nothing to do with the decision and granted me permission, but the fact it, if those important people to me said no, I wouldn't have an apprenntice right now

I'll stroke your ego sweet pea.
Great Post Dave!
Love,
The Pumped Tattooer that couldn't convince....

I've talked about this some before...
A few years ago I found out that I have a neurodegenerative disease that will eventually land me in a wheelchair. I really don't know how fast or slow it will go. There's not any treatment for it, nothing to do for it but treat symptoms and wait for the inevitable.
I got super depressed about it for a long time. I absolutely HATED my legs. Despised them for having this disease, for failing me, for "dooming" me to be disabled someday.
Sometime last summer I started to have persistent dreams that I was getting my legs tattooed. I ignored them as well as I could for awhile, and then started putting some serious thought into going for it. I started looking around the interwebs to see what was out there...
And then I came here :)
Since I started getting my legs tattooed my feelings about them have changed completely. I don't hate them at all anymore. In fact, I might even love them!!! I definitely love the tattoos, and to a great degree all those positive feelings have bled over onto the legs themselves.
And... I'm finding that my perspective about the disease as a whole is beginning to shift some too...
I'm coming around to the idea that I need to view it less as a curse, not "being doomed", and more of just "a change"...
I'm definitely not all the way there yet, but it's something that never would have been possible in the state of mind I was in when I hated my legs guts for having this thing in the first place.
- - - Updated - - -
And I have to add...
I want to thank all y'all here at LST for being here, for giving such great input and advice, for showing off such great work all the time!!
God forbid, what if I'd gotten crappy leg tattoos?!?!
I doubt it would have had the same positive impact that it's had...

TEDDYBOY GREG ALL AMERICAN TED LIVING THE TRUEST ROCKING LIFESTYLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Horiyasu

These roses are unusual (from http://web.stagram.com/p/436134954046273325_6075972):

And then this image has interesting roses. They have the little jelly candies in the middle and are also flat and opened on the outside with the middles still unopened. I think that is kind of interesting. I wish I knew what to call the jelly candies. (From .@mykechambers | #tattoo #tattoos | Webstagram - the best Instagram viewer)

I decided it's nothing but animals for me. My back piece has three. The rest of me will fit 8-10 more.

I decided it's nothing but animals for me. My back piece has three. The rest of me will fit 8-10 more.

My artist finished the eyes of my dragon last. He said once the eyes where done the dragon is alive and to continue tattooing it would cause the dragon pain.

I refuse to believe that this is a real person.

Yet another reason I'm glad to not have a Facebook account.

Thats how im gonna roll here in a bit... just drop them fuckers and hop on.

Ha. The drawers. Just drop 'em, hop on the table, and you're good to go.

Mine has a lot of outline work and I can't believe he got all of it on me in 3hrs and 40 mins.
It was rough to get through, but there was no way I was gonna puss out on it.
It's all done now, touchups and all (reminds me, I need to get a good , healed pic of my back, without florescent lights glaring off of Vaseline)
I'm so happy to have it and that I get to keep it till I'm worm dirt. I never thought I couldn't finish it, but I'm glad I never have to put myself through that again. I'm a bit obsessive about getting large multi-session tattoos finished in the order I started them.

Ha. The drawers. Just drop 'em, hop on the table, and you're good to go.

Ha. The drawers. Just drop 'em, hop on the table, and you're good to go.

Ha. The drawers. Just drop 'em, hop on the table, and you're good to go.

I can think of maybe 2-3 artists I'd trust with a portrait. Even ones from otherwise good artists that I've seen.. eh.. not so good as I'd have hoped to see.
Rob

Tony Nilsson at Blue Arms Tattoo in Oslo, Norway is doing incredible girl heads in my opinion. I just recently started paying attention to his work and it is very solid. I would definitely love to get a tattoo from this guy.

Thanks man. I am glad I have it even though I never see it.

!!! That Matt Ariola dragon-sword-flames backpiece is one of my favourite that I have seen. Hope to get tattooed by that fellow in my future. Well done!

Hogg is right. Five hours back there is no joke. I know that I have posted my back on here before, but I don't remember if I posted progress photos. Here is a link to my Flickr page. I took a photo after each session. The entire tattoo took about 22 to 25 hours. The first session was an hour and a half, and the second was about the same. That means that I put in over twenty hours the last three. It was rough, but now it is done so fuck it.
Flickr: averytvz's Photostream

After 14 sessions spanning 15 months, I'm thrilled to say that my back piece--courtesy of Jay Cavna--is finished. It's a rooster/boar/snake battle royale with peonies. We just wrapped it up a few hours ago. I couldn't be happier with it and am blown away by Jay's skill and commitment to his work.
Here's the pic.

I think if someone is going to view visible tattoos in anegative way, the back of the neck will not be any different than anywhere else visible.

I wasn't just called a tattoo snob per se, but a coworker took umbrage when I implored him to not add a suit and floppy tie to the very cool buffalo head he recently had done on his shoulder. He disagreed that doing so would A) completely sap the power of the image and/or B) come off as clever for cleverness' sake.
I told him, "It's your dermis." I was trying to give us both a conversational out, but that escalated things and he responded sarcastically with: "I'm glad you're okay with me getting the tattoos I want."
Ha! Oh, well. I'll keep my mouth shut next time.