gougetheeyes

Only got a couple little guys since this thread started. Tackle my right thigh or save up for my move...? I CAN DO BOTH, RIGHT?!
I'll add this little moon mamma I picked up from Antonio Roque at Black Label in Frederick, MD. Really liked that shop and had a great experience with Antonio.. can't wait to go back when I'm visiting my folks who live about 15 minutes away. Also, not only do I love Antonio's tattoos, his paintings are so CLEAN. Lots of nice work hanging up there..

has this been posted before?

tatt bros for life!

arters gonna art

[MENTION=50637]mark bee This is how legs should look

I thought I'd post a pic of the knees (both done by Franz Stefanik at The Okey Doke in Toronto.) The demon is still finishing up its heal, so its not a perfect pic.

Only got a couple little guys since this thread started. Tackle my right thigh or save up for my move...? I CAN DO BOTH, RIGHT?!
I'll add this little moon mamma I picked up from Antonio Roque at Black Label in Frederick, MD. Really liked that shop and had a great experience with Antonio.. can't wait to go back when I'm visiting my folks who live about 15 minutes away. Also, not only do I love Antonio's tattoos, his paintings are so CLEAN. Lots of nice work hanging up there..

Only got a couple little guys since this thread started. Tackle my right thigh or save up for my move...? I CAN DO BOTH, RIGHT?!
I'll add this little moon mamma I picked up from Antonio Roque at Black Label in Frederick, MD. Really liked that shop and had a great experience with Antonio.. can't wait to go back when I'm visiting my folks who live about 15 minutes away. Also, not only do I love Antonio's tattoos, his paintings are so CLEAN. Lots of nice work hanging up there..

Only got a couple little guys since this thread started. Tackle my right thigh or save up for my move...? I CAN DO BOTH, RIGHT?!
I'll add this little moon mamma I picked up from Antonio Roque at Black Label in Frederick, MD. Really liked that shop and had a great experience with Antonio.. can't wait to go back when I'm visiting my folks who live about 15 minutes away. Also, not only do I love Antonio's tattoos, his paintings are so CLEAN. Lots of nice work hanging up there..

Only got a couple little guys since this thread started. Tackle my right thigh or save up for my move...? I CAN DO BOTH, RIGHT?!
I'll add this little moon mamma I picked up from Antonio Roque at Black Label in Frederick, MD. Really liked that shop and had a great experience with Antonio.. can't wait to go back when I'm visiting my folks who live about 15 minutes away. Also, not only do I love Antonio's tattoos, his paintings are so CLEAN. Lots of nice work hanging up there..

@pidjones i'm not sure how well being DEMANDING in the tattoo shop will go over. Actually I do know, it won't get a very positive response. Being caught up in your own tattoo-euphoria and not checking the stencil thoroughly enough, well, you get to shoulder that responsibility. My unsolicited advice is to relax and discuss it in a calm and reasonable manner and you will be more likely to find a solution with the tattooer. There is no such thing as a perfect tattoo, it is very common that we get fixated on the new tattoo and can see every imperfection. However we're hoping your tattooer can make things right for you. What is the tattoo that you are referring to?
I've only had a sketch emailed to me once in the last 12 years. It hit my inbox 2 days beforehand. It looked great and got the just of what bud was going to tattoo, but it was just that. A sketch. And the end-product goes way beyond what the sketch could convey. Most tattooers I know don't sketch it up until the night before (keep the drawing fresh on the mind) and only make the stencil when you show up and are ready to rock n roll.
I've got some cranes on my arm. The crane had 2 legs on the sketch. 2 legs on the stencil. But only 1 leg at the end of the line session. I freaked a bit. My tattooer just said relax, the missing leg is just behind some clouds. Things fit flow and look a different way when they finally go in the skin. And I love this tattoo even more for that mild imperfection.
/offtopic...back to text tattoos.
Here's some more unsolicited advice for everyone. A picture is worth a thousand words. But if you really need words to get your meaning across...keep it simple and choose your words wisely. You can say A LOT with only a few words...and it will reduce the probability of a spelling or grammatical error ;)
- - - Updated - - -
edit/ for spelling and grammar haha

Just came back to this thread so many nice legs. think we should have all have a update soon

Can't wait for the next meetup..

Blaming @Graeme for this one since he posted his hairy man legs on instagram. I'm sure those famous legs Stuart at Spider Murphy's has filled up has given everyone the itch to do the same.. Or seeing Henning's work on those meaty thighs of @ironchef if you're going the Japanese route. But I'll tell ya, I'm real happy with how my short little legs are coming together and thought I'd get the ball rolling by saying fuck it and posting my hairy dude legs. Kinda weird, I know. Maybe I'll get weirded out and edit out the photo... Maybe (definitely) @MrsGougeTheEyes will yell at me and roll her eyes forever.
But fuck it, here's a shot of the front of mine. In the kitchen. Visible tattoos by Andy Perez (@Perez), Todd Noble, Oliver Peck, Nash Hogan, Jake Fraser, Scott Sylvia (@ I forget your LST name brother), Bailey Robinson, Sophie C'est LaVie.. There are some on the back and some on the sides that are tough to see but this will suffice for now.
@slayer9019 I know you're squidding it up slowly but surely and @else I just went back and read your intro thread. Totally totally awesome, especially with how everything's gone. (It's here for anyone who wants to take a gander.. http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/initiation/3283-changing-way-i-see-myself.html)
Now let's see those legs!! (So I don't feel so weird..)

Looks good. Totally thought you meant you were going to get webs done on the sides of your head.

My Kings Ave NYC experience was similar to @suburbanxcore and @CultExciter . A few artists were accommodating walk-ins between appointments. The 21 year old girls getting wrist initials and rib feathers had the pleasure of seeing me get my ass tattooed.

Not a street shop, per say, but last weekend I was in Kings Avenue getting tattooed, and Zac Scheinbaum was cranking out walk in after walk in while I was there. It was nice to see someone that you'd think of as kinda having a style and typically be booked in advance just doing names and script and Stars of David and treating it just as importantly as the bigger/custom one he was doing when I left.

I can only speak for myself,but I like a street shop that also does custom work,and is filled with good flash.I'be been getting tattooed for 24yrs.and back then you just walked into a shop and got tattooed that day.I think 90% of the tattoos I have were done on a walk-in basis.I did just check out a shop in the city that had no flash on the wall,and the artists portfolios were on an iPad.It just didn't feel right to me.It was almost to futuristic looking inside.But I also like the mostly custom shops they have in the city like Kings Ave, Invisible,& NY Adorned,where they have their elaborate drawings hanging up at their station.I personally don't like to wait months to get an appointment with an artist,but I know for bigger pieces,and backpieces it's inevitable.I think since your working in a blue collar city,that your shop will be fine.I'm from Trenton,and the shops in the city do mostly walk-in traffic,and are doing fine.I like the fact that you can still walk-in to a shop and get a good tattoo that day.Tattooers like Mike P. Who did my koi,and has been tattooing since 1976 on a walk-in basis are the dying breed,but he's still going strong,and has a website now..
Designs by Michael Angelo - Home

Great thread, Carolyn. Here's my perspective as a non-tattooer:
I used to live behind a street shop that's been around for a long time. I believe it opened in the early 80s, and it probably hasn't changed a lot since then. They don't take appointments at all, and it still runs by the old system where you come in, take a number, and you wait until you get called: you don't get to pick your artist, you get whoever is available next. They will kick you out for using your phone in the shop. The walls are totally covered in flash. There's some really cool stuff there. You can see Jack Rudy flash in the racks through the window, there's great Zulueta stuff on the walls, they have rad old Chris Garver flash, they have Greg Irons flash that the guy who owns the shop bought off Irons in person on the Queen Mary. They also have a load of Cherry Creek pinned up on the walls. Anyway, I became somewhat friendly with the tattooers there and I'd chat with them when I passed by while walking my dog, and what I'm going to say partly comes from conversations with them, partly from my own observations.
One of the tattooers said to me at one point that in the four or five years he'd worked at that shop he'd only had one day that he didn't do a tattoo. The tattooers there have also lamented how business used to be a lot better before a million shops opened up. Once when I was there looking through the flash, one of the tattooers said that nobody who gets tattooed there--and their clientele is very much the "lower-income working class people" mentioned above--looks through the flash and wants things from it, they want stuff they've printed off the internet or have on their phones.
I was getting tattooed a couple of weeks ago at another well-established shop, this one was one of the first custom shops in the city, and a woman came in wanting to get the bird silhouettes. They didn't have anybody available to do the tattoo at that moment, but they happily booked an appointment at a later date with her. The guy who runs this shop used to work at the shop mentioned above and even though he's well-booked out and does a lot of large custom work, he still has that real street shop demeanor and will do pretty much anything the client wants. He's not limiting himself to "his style".
I've seen tattooers at a lot of fancy shops, including ones I've seen mentioned on here as having a particular style (this is what happens when you think that instagram is real life, kids) doing whatever walks through the door. I've seen shops really pushing to be more open to walk-ins, not only because it brings in money, but also because it makes tattooers more well-rounded and just better tattooers. Though, thinking about it, the walk-ins the more high end shops are getting, at least from what I've seen, are more of the script on the ribs type of tattoos.
I guess when it comes down to it, there's a class issue at play here. From my observations, most shops still get walk-ins, but the people going to the fancier shops are better dressed.

Looks good. Totally thought you meant you were going to get webs done on the sides of your head.

I'm still relatively new at getting tattooed, but I've visited most of the shops in my area and this is what I've noticed. People walk in and all they want to do is ask an artist if they can tattoo XXX custom piece and ask how much it will cost. They never bother to look at the artwork on the wall or even pick up a portfolio.
The guy I've been getting tattooed by runs a street stop. He paints his own sheets and has them hanging wall to wall in his shop. He says that at his shop, about 50% of his clients want custom pieces and 50% of his clients will take something off the flash wall. At the other shops, it's probably more like 75% custom/25% flash. One shop that I visited had hardly any flash and the guy told me he does all custom work. He handed me a bunch of loose outlines to look at. It's like their customers have one design in mind and don't care about anything else.
I was checking out flash at a place that does mostly traditional pieces, and a guy came in and rushed right past the flash and portfolios and asked the artist behind the desk if he could do a skin rip, bio mech, circuit board of a guitar amp and then asked how much it would cost. The artist told him it was too much for a single tattoo, so he rushed out to find a shop that would do it.

I like this thought process Ms. Carolyn. It's something that actually affects me. I live in Virginia. For those of you less informed, it is does not qualify as the most "progressive" state in the Union. The tattoo shop I work at is in Salem, Virginia, which is the sister city to Roanoke, Virginia. I would describe this town as behind the times. I can count on two fingers the tattoo shops in the area that look like "tattoo shops." You know, flash wall to wall and on the ceiling too. I'm lucky to be in one of them. It's the type of shop I want to work at. But, like I mentioned, the area is a little behind the times and alot of clients are very enticed by the "studio" "custom-only" "leather couch and plasma TV" look. So, those shops are a little busier in the area, even though, they are still doing the money maker tattoos. In a lot of places, Virginia is not the only place, flash is being replaced by glowing smart phones and Google/Pinterest images. That's the new flash at these types of shops. My coworkers and I have joked that those shops should just mount iPads to the wall.
But here is the exciting part. Clients who are discovering our shop, where the other three guys have been tattooing a combined 55 years, they walk in and say "Wow! This looks like a tattoo shop. This is so cool."
I think, at it's root, tattoo shops that look like tattoo shops, will always be the common denominator. You can up the fixtures and the fanciness, but having those archetypical designs on the wall that speak to the human psyche, and the folders of black and white tribal, lettering, and even Tattoo Brand/Cherry Creek stuff will provide the best jumping off point for clients.
Even Ed Hardy went back to having a "street shop" look after having Realistic. So all the shops who think they are breaking ground with a white-glove stark environment really are not. It comes and goes, as they say.

This topic came up in the shop the other day, I'd like to get some perspectives from tattooed folks who live in other areas of the country and the world.
It was Friday, I had just gotten to work and it was just me, Carlos, and Sean that day. Our 14th anniversary party was the following day and the shop had just painted 10 sheets of over 120 original designs for people to come in and pick from at the party. Between expressing our excitement about getting to tattoo fun designs all the next day, and mentioning how glad we were that it was so busy this January after a slow December, we got to wondering! How does a shop full of flash affect the flow of business?
FTW is located at the very tip of North Oakland, just a couple of blocks south of the Berkeley border on Telegraph Avenue, which runs all the way down to Downtown Oakland. We are just across the bay from San Francisco, and in Alameda County alone there are over 200 shops. 200 tattoo shops! Is it a coincidence that the 3 busiest shops in Oakland, one of which is ours, is a street shop with flash, paintings, and classic tattoo iconography covering every inch of space?
The bay area is undeniably changing. If you are looking for a place to live in the bay area, asking rent changes on a monthly basis and it's definitely not going down. With the sudden and dramatic influx of money to the area, it seems as though tattoo shops are gentrifying as well, becoming more like salons and art galleries, and less like street shops. With that being said, there is still a very large population of lower-income working class people who I would easily say are still the majority of folks here. Anyone who has worked in a street shop is familiar with what the "money makers" are as far as designs go. Usually, you will make a lot more money in a day if you tattoo several smaller designs over the course of the day versus the regular hourly for one or two longer pieces. Largely speaking, unless you are a known name in tattooing and booked steady, walk-ins pay your bills.
So as tattooers do, we catch up with our friends in other shops from time to time, often inquiring about work and whatnot and it seems like most people are working by appointment these days.
This was our theory:
Are gallery shops losing walk-ins on account of image? Do the blue collar people of Oakland go into a tattoo gallery and feel intimidated by fine art on the walls and think that nobody working there wants to do their tribal armband or kids' names for them? Are street shops more relate-able and comfortable for people who aren't necessarily looking to get a sleeve done?
I'm not saying that either way is right or wrong or even that my thoughts on this dynamic is totally correct. A lot of business comes from the internet for most tattooers here and now more than ever is it easier to be tattooing the subject matter and style that you're interested in doing, for that I am very grateful.
Is this something that you have experienced or noticed? Looking forward to hearing other perspectives.

I thought it was Poe.
It looks a lot like him to me.