justcallmematt

So when are you gonna come visit us in the frozen north? We can talk about Agent Coopers favorite pie.

LST rocks, anyone who knows good work will stare at you when your on the beach and you can just nod. Its kinda like how all bikers have a slight head nod when they pass another or any country guy in a truck throws 2 fingers while keeping his hand on the wheel on a country road. My advice is go give a nice tip thank him kindly and drive straight home and show us pictures so we can like your shit and tell you how badass your new tattoo is.

So when are you gonna come visit us in the frozen north? We can talk about Agent Coopers favorite pie.

24lbs of turquoise beads and 7 smallpox blankets, should be enough. I mean hell its what we paid for Manhattan.
;)

And another thing, Sully, this is such a bullshit statement:
"Sue does not keep a Facebook or EVER advertise her work online and keeps her success and work popularized only by word of mouth and not internet hype in the TRUE FASHION of REAL tattooing."
I would love to play up the "I don't participate in the internet" crap because WE ALL HATE IT TOO, but dude, doing hipster tattoos in Brooklyn you don't need to advertise on the net. Brooklyn/New York is it's own thing and really with the amount of people tattooing there, you'd expect the place to be dog eat dog, but it's not. TONS of people getting tattooed. Try doing that shit in middle of nowhere or some suburban town with five other shop. The language of the world nowadays, unfortunately is the internet. I hate it, but that's what people speak. In this economy, it makes sense to speak French in France.

I made posts on the facebook page because there were at least 5 of MY designs in there. None of the stuff I posted or really anything anyone else posted was actually "Shit talk". It was people just finding out about it, and being upset. I posted something about this on another forum, so instead of retyping it all, I'm going to go ahead and copy and paste it.
"In a case such as this where the person can't even make a simple clean design she is clearly tracing shit off the net and trying to make her name on it. The owl of mine that she used isn't flash. It was a tattoo that I did on one of this forum's members as a matter of fact. The other stuff of mine that was used was from one painting that I made for another tattooer that while in flash form, was a one shot painting. No prints. So she traced it and added it to her sheets. These are all in a book that she was selling in Philly. Making her name off designs that obviously aren't hers.
Tattooing DOES have a history of reinterpretation and appropriation, but there are lines. When I design flash for sale I don't care who tattoos it as long as it was bought from me and you aren't telling anyone that you drew it up. When it hangs in your shop or sits in your flash racks or book, my name is still on it. No problems at all. Go for it.
When you use it instead of drawing something because you're lazy and then tell someone it's yours that's bullshit. Also, when people are tracing tattoos right off the net and passing them off to the unaware masses as their "clever" designs it's bullshit.
And I completely understand, once you put it out there, it's liable to get lifted, but does that mean that opinions on such behavior can't be voiced and standards shouldn't be set against such behavior?
Absolutely not. People need to say shit to suckers. Tattooers seem to forget that yeah there.s a big tradition of lifting designs and whatnot, but there's also a tradition of protecting what's yours. Either by booby trapping it, making sure your name is ALWAYS attached to it, or by keeping it off radar. In this economy I'd love to be the off the radar guy. Just can't make it work, and if I'm spending the amount of time drawing, researching, reading, collection references, and building a stylistic vocabulary that is at least a little my own, then yes, I should be protective of it.
There's also the thing where tracing, and repainting flash by long gone, or otherwise retired old timers is different than repainting and then SELLING under your own name a bunch of shit being done by today's current people.
Shit's gonna happen, people are lazy, everyone LOVES to say there's nothing new under the sun, but it doesn't make it right or true. Chick is a thief. Ain't nothing on those sheets hers and a huge amount is from current people tattoos. Not even flash. She was at our booth in Philly this weekend. She didn't even buy my set after selling her book with my shit in it."
So to the person who was saying these things were never meant to be made public, and they were for personal use and to show clients, or to show clients, why even do that? Why trace my shit to show HER clients? So the people who don;t know ay better will see those designs as hers. That's not cool. Her illness aside, it's still a crummy thing to do to a lot of people.
I take issue with how You've come in here using "our favorite medium to talk shit" and try to talk to us like we're 12 year olds. Sorry she's in a bad way with cancer, but my sister is fucked to the nines with cancer but I still think she's the shittiest person I know. If this was truly about the merits of the sketchbook, then just stick to that. Don;t bring up things that don;t matter to the argument to just try to drum up some sort of viewpoint on her like she can't be called out on this shit.
I was AT Philly. She was in my booth. Talked to me. Still sold sheets with her name on in and mine, and other tattooers designs on them. None of those pages said anything like "designs by Wells, re-imagining by Jeiven." Which is kind of the thing you do when selling some shit that isn't yours. I didn't even know about this shit until a few days ago or I would have said something. And when get to Brooklyn next week I AM going to talk to her. Like an adult. So save the "you guys are all shit talkers" crap. Some of us are pissed.
Look. I'm no tattoo genius. I'm just a dude making tattoos and trying to make clients happy like everyone else, but I work my ass off to do so. My library is huge and very little of that is tattoo books. I spend hours upon hours drawing and re drawing. Again, I'm nothing special, but why can't she do that if her stuff is supposed to be so personal? Go to museums and collect old books. Not facebook tracings. The sketchbook you said was so AMAZING is 98 percent CURRENT tattooers drawings. Not old Jerry flash.

Oh yeah, I met Erik Estrada while wearing my CHiPs t-shirt, that I got from my cop friends as a gag gift for christmas.

Hope you don't mind, but I fixed your post.

Ugghh.....Okay, I want to first apologize to the rest of the forum, I just started posting yesterday but I feel VERY strongly about this subject.
I'm a 2nd generation tattooer, my mother has been tattooing for 33 yrs, and learned how to make "machines" from Paul Rogers, I'm sure that name means nothing to you, but it should.
My father has been tattooing since '75, his first shop job was with Bob Shaw and Col. Todd, once again names I'm sure mean nothing to you, but should.
My step-father has been tattooing for 23 yrs, and he guests once a year at Inksmith and Rogers, once again a name that I'm sure means nothing to you, but really really should.
I myself have only been tattooing for 10 yrs, I was a little late getting to it, and realistically still just a journeyman.
My family has been tattooing for a combined 104 yrs.
So yes they are called machines, coolness has nothing to do with it. It's about respect, respect for the craft that has fed my family for decades, respect for those that have come before, respect for those that have paid their dues and dedicated their entire being to Tattooing.
When new tattooers who know jack shit about jack shit have over inflated egos and meet any criticism with comments about "haters", they pretty much shit on everything that my family has worked for.
So in summation go fuck yourself. You're not welcome in my world.

Oh yeah, I met Erik Estrada while wearing my CHiPs t-shirt, that I got from my cop friends as a gag gift for christmas.

Those praying hands all looked like dog shit

This was done by a guy up here in Ak that has the same attitude as the jgoss guy that got banned yesterday.

This was done by a guy up here in Ak that has the same attitude as the jgoss guy that got banned yesterday.

Oh yeah, I met Erik Estrada while wearing my CHiPs t-shirt, that I got from my cop friends as a gag gift for christmas.

HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, I met Erik Estrada while wearing my CHiPs t-shirt, that I got from my cop friends as a gag gift for christmas.

Oh yeah, I met Erik Estrada while wearing my CHiPs t-shirt, that I got from my cop friends as a gag gift for christmas.

Oh yeah, I met Erik Estrada while wearing my CHiPs t-shirt, that I got from my cop friends as a gag gift for christmas.

Ugghh.....Okay, I want to first apologize to the rest of the forum, I just started posting yesterday but I feel VERY strongly about this subject.
I'm a 2nd generation tattooer, my mother has been tattooing for 33 yrs, and learned how to make "machines" from Paul Rogers, I'm sure that name means nothing to you, but it should.
My father has been tattooing since '75, his first shop job was with Bob Shaw and Col. Todd, once again names I'm sure mean nothing to you, but should.
My step-father has been tattooing for 23 yrs, and he guests once a year at Inksmith and Rogers, once again a name that I'm sure means nothing to you, but really really should.
I myself have only been tattooing for 10 yrs, I was a little late getting to it, and realistically still just a journeyman.
My family has been tattooing for a combined 104 yrs.
So yes they are called machines, coolness has nothing to do with it. It's about respect, respect for the craft that has fed my family for decades, respect for those that have come before, respect for those that have paid their dues and dedicated their entire being to Tattooing.
When new tattooers who know jack shit about jack shit have over inflated egos and meet any criticism with comments about "haters", they pretty much shit on everything that my family has worked for.
So in summation go fuck yourself. You're not welcome in my world.

A little whisky or two help's me through things like that.....im sure you did really well deb and this time next year when your really famous your be doing interviews like its a walk in the park......;)

Well I'm pretty excited and nervous about a who knows when it will be published - interview for TAM.
I was really flattered that Dawn Coooke asked to interview me for the magazine and surprised that Crash supported it.
If you know me, you probably have realized that I' m not too big on self promotion----- but after my initial reaction of surprise---- I thought, why not go with it!
In preparation, Dawn supplied me with some questions, but prepare as I tried I was not at all at ease come interview time. The interview took place during the State of Grace Show in SF this past October. I don't know what I expected , but I found my self a little at a loss for words ( which rarely occurs) and struggling with not bumbling like an idiot , in front of a sound man and a camera man and Dawn's at ease interview manner.
Dawn was great though and after what seemed like an eternity, but in actuality was an hour and 1/2 -,2hours--- we finished up with the story of my 30+ year tattoo life.
Now, if I can not sabotage myself, I just have to supply Crash w a video of me doing a tattoo & then off to print sometime in the near future.
So, I'm pretty excited and I'll keep you all posted - when it comes out.
Deb

This was done by a guy up here in Ak that has the same attitude as the jgoss guy that got banned yesterday.

One of us should go win the 2nd season of inkmaster and then use the money to fund a second season of Tattoo Age.

Mom did the kanji for Mom on my sternum when I was 17.

Now there's a sentence you don't hear uttered very often.