slayer9019

I'm currently in Phuket, Thailand and am looking for a reputable shop/artist. Anyone have any suggestions? 

Hey guys, Im heading over for a kinda long-ish trip in Tel Aviv, Israel. Anyone know a good shop to stop in?

@slayer9019 Can I see a picture of it your piece with the white designs over the black?!?! And how do I find a an artist that can do this correctly? Is it a certain kind of ink or technique?

I'll have to remember when I'm not at work. Honestly I think any good artists will be able to do it.I personally like it just as accents.

I will say my desire for larger tattoos is waning as of recently...but I am in love with getting 1 shots now! Literally sitting at a client now determining if I could sneak off early and get something by Perfetto.

EDIT: Damn he is closed today...tomorrow though!

I am biased as I go to Invisible NYC for pretty much all my tattoos (Regino), but I've been tattooed at and would recommend Saved Tattoo and NY Adorned as well. You really can't go wrong with any of those shops! There are also a ton of other fantastic shops in NYC and NJ.

I have white designs that were put into my colored tattoos. A year or so later, no signs of going away.

i think we need some photo updates.

Yes I understand this post is years old.

I have to admit, I too started to think maybe I am going to fast. I got my first tattoo last year and it seems like all I do now is think about my next one. Since my first I have gotten 7 tattoos from 4 different artists.

I also have 2 tattoos coming up in October, one of which is the start of a half-sleeve.

Personally, I may be doing too much too soon. But since I waited until I was 31 to get my first tattoo, I don't think it's too crazy. Had I started getting tattoos when I wanted them at 17 or 18, I would probably be filled with a lot of garbage and spending tons of money on Laser removal.

Glad I waiting to get filled up. I am wayyy more educated on good artists as oppose to letting a "friend in his kitchen" do it. The support of the people on LST have pointed me to so many GREAT paths. When people respond to the PMs, I look at it as "Hey I got your back". So grateful to everyone for that.

The only thing I lack is the knowledge of Japanese style and what goes together and what doesn't If anyone knows of a book that can break it down to me, give me a shout.

Man you quoted one of my first posts here! (Just to follow up, I took the advice of everyone here and got tattooed a ton!)

Welcome to LST

@slayer9019 How was Deathfest? Highlights?

One word, insanity.

4 days of non-stop amazing metal blasting your face.

Partying until 4am-or-whateverthefuck

Awesome crowd (actually somehow I hung out with almost exclusively Canadians)

Taake KILLED IT!

So much sunburnt

So much hangover

So much awesome.

I'll be back again next year.

Everyone brought their A-game, and killed it. Really solid!

I still consider this to be the best metal song ever.

Laziness is dictating I will post up some instagram shots. Maybe I'll get a full "squid pic" later.

Hanya - Stewart Robson

Dragon/Raijin - Regino Gonzales

Dante's Inferno - Paul ??

Devil - Matt Van Cura

I got a dagger through a skull and a snake because, really unless I added a panther how much better can that get?

Just got back from the insanity at Maryland Deathfest...will repeat every year!

I am not here to sway you either way but I thought I'd drop in here to throw some of my ideas into the ring. I will as always echo a lot of what others have said. Make sure you are getting them removed because you don't like them. If you are a good person and stick to your guns on your beliefs, there isn't many that will stop you. I will also mention (as others did) that there are quite a few professionals on the forum that ponder similar questions all the time. My motto is simple when it comes to tattoos in a professional setting. If you are concerned, keep em above the cuff and below the collar. I can't think of many professions where full coverage wrist-to-collar is not required or at least very much normal. Still haven't met a doctor who greeted me in a tank top and short shorts (yet). If you want to read further into others opinions and life experiences head over to a thread I started a bit ago (http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/1244-tattoos-workplace.html), I'm sure your ideas will either be solidified or resolved. We also have an entire sub-section on this forum dedicated to coverups and laser (Tattoo Removal or Coverup | General Tattoo Forum | Last Sparrow Tattoo).

Personally as a "tattooed professional", I am going the opposite route. I am booked out getting more and more tattoos.

Conversations about the design went on through 4/29 when I said: "I'm ready when you are." Then I hear nothing more. No "Come in and schedule it". No "I'll look for an opening in my book." NOTHING

Friday 9 May I stop by and he does the trace saying: "Give me a couple of days and we'll schedule something. I AM PUMPED TO DO THIS." No request for a deposit, no mention of putting it on a calendar. I say nothing about how much time this is taking. I am being patient, so far. After all, he said to give him a couple more days. Then I hear nothing for yet another week. If I had contacted him how many of you would have been on the "quit bugging him" bandwagon, eh? Be honest. He seemed to need time and I gave it to him.

His FB comment on May 13 at Noon: "I have openings this week and weekend if anyone would like tattooed. Call or email..." Okay, this is my BIG CHANCE!!!

My comment on FB on May 13 at 12:30 PM, half an hour latter his post: "I'm ready when you are. Email incoming."

My Email on May 13 at 1PM: "I work Saturday from 10 AM to 3 PM. Anytime Thursday or Friday morning, afternoon or evening or Saturday anytime after work is fine by me." No response for two more days.

My FB comment on May 15: "Josh, did you get my email. Check your Spam filter, I'm ready when you are."

His email on May 15: "Thanks for the heads-up on the Spam. How about Saturday May 17 at 6 PM?" Me: "Fine."

His email on Friday May 16: "Double booked... etc..."

Now wouldn't you be a bit frustrated at this point? And JimStanley, as to "holding a 20 year old to adult standards" what is the current cutoff for babying Millennials??? He is old enough to father a child, he damn well better be acting like an adult. And as far as your religion comments: KMA:cool:

Now that that is out of my system, he emailed me this morning: "Would you be free Wednesday at all? I'm off on Thursday but could come in for you if Wednesday doesn't work."

I thought long and hard about it and decided that maybe, just maybe, since it is Sunday and all, I can give him another shot at it.

My email back to him within an hour: "I am available Wednesday morning, afternoon, or evening. Let me know what time to be there. I'm stoked. Giddy Up!"

Aannd, I haven't heard a peep out of him all afternoon.

We'll see...

You've gotten a lot of input from people here and I think it comes down to a personal decision none of us can make for you. Removing myself from this particular situation (again I like to stay biased on one-person situations), I would say you have two courses of action:

1) You really, really want to get tattooed by a particular guy. You head down to the shop in person, schedule a date, cross your fingers.

2) You find out your styles don't mesh. You go back on the hunt for another artist that you want to try and establish a relationship with.

When it comes down to it at the end of the day it is your money, time, body, etc. I think any further relief will not come from strangers on a forum but from your own personal actions. At LST we love to give guidance, but remember you will not always like the response.

I will also offer some unsolicited advice and avoid "tattling" on someone. The world in which professionals live is a very small one in any industry. You do not want to be labeled as the difficult guy to work with. Complainers (even if valid), never get painted in a positive light, ever. Realistically even if this guy is out to screw you over, I highly doubt a phone call to his boss will change anything. Business owners are there everyday and know the people who work for them. If he really is that bad at holding onto clients, he won't last very long. If you don't want to do business with them I suggest you just stop contacting them, count your blessings that you didn't get involved with a guy you don't like and move on. From experience I can tell you I ate a hefty deposit on a guy I didn't mesh with at all. I chalked it up to a learning experience, and I only ever mentioned it to another tattooer because they asked. From what I heard, he wasn't allowed back at the shop and the shop gave me a free hour to make up for it, against my will (wasn't their fault).

I don't know what yelp is so...

I don't think of it as tattling, we're not in junior high school. We're adults, one seeking a service and another proving a service.

Look, tattooing is a business populated by artists, as is music. I was a professional musician for a decade and made a pretty good living at it. Now if I were hanging out on a street corner busking, I could play what I wanted, when I wanted and show up or not. But when I chose to make it a profession, I was expected to show up on time, clean and sober, ready to play whatever I was told to, when I was told to. It is called being a responsible adult.

Artists who get paid on an hourly basis have chosen to become workers and are expected to keep schedules and meet commitments, like any other working adult. Part of a tattoo artist's service is to assess the scope of the project, and let the customer know when it can be done and how long it may take.

I repeat - it is not the responsibility of the customer to repeatedly contact the tattooist and ask how it is coming along. If any contractor says he will get back to me in a few days and a week passes and I don't hear from him, he has failed and has lost a customer. This reflects poorly on his company and word gets around.

I really would like to hear from the shop owners - the guys tasked with keeping the rent paid and the lights on. If you have a young promising artist who has problems meeting deadlines, setting goals and staying on top of the work, do you appreciate hearing about it? Is the artist going to be "in trouble" or is it taken as constructive criticism where the incident can be used as a learning opportunity.

Or do you put up with this sort of thing? I've been getting tattooed for 20 years and this is a first for me.

My $0.02 as a business owner myself (in an unrelated professional field) I can say that I have miss-judged my workload, other clients (who already paid me) have canceled/screwed up my schedule, my dog gets sick, my car gets a flat, or whatever. Remember these are people too. I also don't hand hold any of my clients (some of which are very large companies or acronym government organizations. Sometimes it comes down to bad luck or simply miscommunication, or more often lack of communication. One thing I've found with business owner to business owner interactions is we all realize the other 20 hours a day, we have our other lives to live. That being said during work time nothing ever, ever runs 100% flawless.

A good point was brought up if you dropped a deposit. While I never say it, a customer that didn't plop down some cash already is still a potential. Do you know how often clients engage with the 101 questions, then just drop off the face of the earth? Way more than I would like. A lot of those times I am left with a bunch of work I did with nothing to show for it. This is disappointing and also costs me money. While I was dicking around with Mr. 101 questions I could have been doing paid work for someone I know has the cash to back up the questions, and most of those times I am wondering why the hell did they just drop off the face of the earth. Did I insult them, did I miss a meeting?

As mentioned by @BrianH I have also passively avoided clients I know are just dead ends or difficult to work with. I have a "client" that has so far asked 1000 questions, a million "ideas", etc but has yet to execute one. I no longer pick up the phone when he calls, ignore his voicemails and barely read his emails. He has wasted way too much of my time to bother responding. Even if he was to go ahead with paid work, I know his method of operation and it would be a time suck. Why do x10 the work for the same pay I get from clients that are no nonsense types who have reasonable expectations.

This all being said, I don't know the whole story so I am simply putting down some of my own thought processes. So until I get the story from the shop/artists side, I am making no judgement calls.

I can tell you I've been accidentally double-booked, dates forgotten, etc, in the past. I also generally always get tattooed after hours, some tattooers just like that for whatever reason. I actually like it because the shop is different after hours.

I got a ton of stares from someone who knows me from my other life (work). Eventually I address the stares with a jokingly "listen mister my eyes are up here". I made the opening for him to finally open the floodgates of questions/opinions/whatever. It is funny to hear what people think sometimes. Apparently until I showed my tattoos "I thought you were an über conservative, military type person, but apparently I need to reconsider that". I died laughing, and literally almost fell out of my chair laughing. Apparently in "work mode" I really come across as a strict Christian type with super right leanings that goes to sleep at 9pm. Far from the truth. The more you know...

I almost want to start a "who have you seen/upcoming concerts/shows" thread.

I've always liked Lord Belial, not so much a fan of Grand Belial's Key however.

I've never heard of Grand Belial's Key.

Gunna lay these on you guys. Solid solid stuff. As you can tell I am a huge melodic black metal fan.