gougetheeyes

I don't get it. I love tattooing on every level. Despite the changes in the business over the last few years, I still love it. I love getting tattooed even though I hate how much it hurts. I love putting a tattoo on someone. I love the bonds I have made from tattooing AND BEING TATTOOED. I'm not suggesting that everyone should have tattoos on their hands and neck like I do, but if you tattoo, I would think you might want to have some awesome work. My tattoos are constantly visible and I am proud of them and proud that I am lucky enough to be a tattooer. As to what others have said, I have learned tons from getting work done by great tattooers. I would not be the tattooer I am without having information passed to me by other artists. You can only learn so much by sitting in the same chair day in and day out. Also, I am never more inspired than when I visit another shop and get tattooed. It gives me an energy that is amazing. I often want to get right back into the shop and draw and tattoo better. Anyway, I love tattooing and can't imagine not getting tattooed while being in this business. It has never made sense to me but I guess to each his own but I wouldn't get tattooed by someone who doesn't have tattoos. Just my thoughts on the matter.

I can replicate this, the morning after, by ordering a takeaway phal curry from my local Indian restaurant.

caffeine is your friend.

Totally different imo. But, if given the choice,and all else being equal- I would be more comfortable having elective surgery performed by a surgeon who had also chosen to have elective surgery than one who would not.
" It's just a tattoo, I don't think there's too much to empathize" --- That's definitely not how I feel as a tattooer and I really hope the people i choose to get tattooed by feel the way I do---not the way you do.

I've had an absolute rash of people lately who want nothing more than to narrate themselves with seemingly useless phrases and quotes. No flow, lousy font type and placed in awkward areas. We have one fake rapture and now the whole damn tattoo world needs to come in and get a bible verse (or 12) just in case the next one isn't a fire drill. I feel better now, thanks.

Stitch626, how lucky for you to not be in a relationship with a fickle, small minded little man anymore.
Sounds like he just released you from what could've been a long and lengthy suppression of your true self, I'm willing to bet he was vacillating and thoughtless in other areas as well.
Maybe you should send him a thank you card every year on the anniversary of your independence?

Just saw this by Simon Erl:

I chuckled.

Dude, cmon those stars represent my cousin's girlfriend's struggle with strength. And also honor.

There is so much to chew on. Where to start. I guess, time does distort perspectives in alot of cases. I used to think my pop's was heavily tattooed. I know my mom was when she was alive. She even had a monarch on her hand. Then, years later I started hanging with my pop's as an adult, and I remember, being shocked, when seeing his tattoos, that he really wasnt as blasted as I had remembered as a kid. I mean he was heavily tattooed. But by this time, I had full sleeves. It was odd to wrap my head around, the distortion of my childhood perspective. When I started getting tattooed, you were either an adventurous collector which consisted of the norm, you were a stripper, in a band, a convict, or a tattooer. The adventurous collector, didnt reveal their tattoos unless they had crossed the line and jumped head long into the freak catergory. I dont mean freak in a bad way at all. It was just how society treated them. They were people who went way out of the standard of the norm. Past the military regulation. Past the caution of their tattooers advice. Past what their family thought of them. They jumped out there, when no one else was out there...just to do it. The price they paid was being treated poorly by their peers, their families, by society in general. Not all of course. Some, and I still think this is a variable, had mental illness. Attention seekers, one shot ponies trying to make a name for themselves, being a freak. The magazines pushed this into the limelight. I saw quite a few people dive into the trend because after a couple shots of themselves in the magazines, it seemed they became addicted to the exposure. Every magazine for a stretch, you can see them having more tattoos in a short amount of time. I won't name the obvious. All you have to do, is look back in the archive of the rags. I thought I was heavily tattooed with my half sleeves and chest panel in the early nineties. I was to my biker boyfriend. Then I met a young woman in Sacramento that blew my mind. She was younger than me and had her entire body tattooed. I loved it. I had known Elizabeth Weinzirl, and a couple other heavily tattooed women. But not any around my age. I had been the freak amongst my peers, until I met this other young lady. It was inspiring to me. She was beautiful. My point being. It wasnt so common to be obviousily tattooed. The norms hid their bodysuits under their fancy suits and white ties. The little old swinger lady carefully dressed herself while in public as to not stir a commotion of interest in her until she wanted to reveal her secret. The rest of us, didnt care what anyone thought and we werent trying to be apart of a clan. Then, the mtv generation hit. Every dumb fuck from every part of the planet wanted to purchase the look of a rockstar. Neck sleeves, hand tattoos and socks. Let me tell ya, you get those boys naked and it was a huge turn off. They had run the course backward. It was a turn off to me, because of the time I came from. I was brought in through a different door, so to speak. So, in the beginning of my career, there was no, tattooers being tattooed vs. norms being tattooed. We were all in the same boat living on different islands. As society became more seasoned to the art of tattooing. I noticed high end restaurants in SF and NYC hiring tattooed beauties as servers. It had become schick. And it certainly was. Main stream had caught on, with how beautiful tattooed people can be. The only shortcircuit feeling I get from people now, is those that get tattooed to be apart of the scene. Example. Look at when the suicide girls started. It was hot!. All those lovely punkrock grrrls I had never seen naked, were displaying themselves for the world to see. Difference from then til' now. Those first bunch of grrrls were the real deal. Most all the ones that came afterward, got tattooed to be like them, or they simply got tattooed to be a suicide girl. I hope you can see the comparison Im trying to make here. Its like watching the eighties style cloths come back into fashion and the youngsters are wearing all the crap the cool people didnt wear back then. They are caught in a trend. I definitely have been caught in a few myself. Guess thats how we learn. What you see now on tv, is because its a trend. Its acceptable, so the networks seem to be marketing towards those that they think would be interested. They too, and Im thankful for this, have missed the mark. As some of you may be experiencing. Its past tense now. So, once they see that with their ratings, they will move on to something else that strikes our fancy. Im too old and fat now adays to be sold to the public. Especially on tv. The tv shows came after my prime. We didnt have internet, websites, even some of my close tattooer pals in the industry, didnt know what I could do. They didnt seem to care who was doing what unless they were in a magazine to confirm their talents. And if a bunch didnt know you, then who were you but someone slinging ink to get by. I guess another way to explore this, is if I had a kid, he/she would be in their mid twenties now. Possibly heavily tattooed or not, having been raised in a tattoo household. Being a different generation. Even my kids, if I had had them, would not know how it used to be, accept from the stories I would have told them as to how it used to be when I was a kid. Sounds like repeated history. :) Is there a moral? If you love tattoos, then wear them. Just make sure you are doing it, because you love them and not because everyone else does too. Respectfully, Mikki
ps. Sorry Deb to rant on your topic. :)=

Carlos Truan, he does some of my fav daggers

Just saw this dagger tattoo over/around an old tattoo in the LST tattoo gallery that Jade1955 put up by Emiliano Liberatori-Frith Street Tattoo.

I got my hands and neck done only a year into tattooing (1998), admittedly before I should have. I had sleeves, but no torso work yet. Anyway...my hastiness was due to wanting to look like a TATTOOER. ONLY tattooers had hand and neck tattoos and often 9 times out of 10 a person with sleeves was a tattooer. You ALWAYS knew a tattooer when you saw a heavily tattooed person. (I used to always get asked "Where do you tattoo?" now it's "Are you in a band?")
Of course, these days, a lot of hipsters and rocker types wear the look. It's been diluted, and in my opinion, destroyed. It's the reason being a tattooer is cliche, like a girl with weird hair being a hairstylist. (No offense to hairstylists).
I hate being associated with these douchebags because of my hand and neck tattoos, and even I roll my eyes at these jokers. And as much as we'd like to think so, these tattoos are no longer "job killers". Wether it's Hot Topic or Target, or even Nordstrom or Marc Jacobs i see employees with sleeves and neck tattoos. I even had a TSA screener at O'hare Airport that had a giant script tattoo on his neck.
Times have changed, and i know it's just the way it goes...but i can't help but feel we (tattooers) lost something special.

Loch, I like it. My entire body has already kind of turned into The Great Hodgepodge, and though I'm working on only getting large-scale stuff (weirdly hard to make the commitment lately) I've really enjoyed getting the smaller one-off tattoos from folks who have been traveling in the area (or near enough to make the trip) or doing the occasional pop-in for something little. Pretty satisfying and fun!
Care to share the design idea?

No idea, just keep waking up with new ones.

Hahaha zing you ignorant motherfucker!

Ron Henry Wells (The Hyena in here)! The man has been tattooing for like 4 years, which boggles my mind. Great shit allready. I have only exhanced few emails with him, but apparently he is also a gentleman and a schollar. My hats off to him. I will put here few of his things that I like, hope you dont mind Ron.
The Laughing Hyena

The morning after can be awkward sometimes..

Almost my whole life I have always ran with people years older than me so I think I forgot and often times still forget they are older than me, set in their professions, and lots of other variables that I forgot/forget when starting to get visible tattoos. Not gonna psychoanalyze it and I don't regret it one bit, however, do know even living in SF/Bay Area it has limited me in certain cases here and working elsewhere. I do know I've had to and continue to have to prove myself to many people in my profession not familiar with my work due to being "heavily" tattooed. I wear suits to my contracts to compensate for the tattoos though I do have an obsession with suits and think i partially developed it due to the visible tattoos and my work. Bottomline, I totally get the argument and support the argument to get a fair amount of other spots done first.
I had to goto other tattooers early on as Scott and some others would not tattoo my hands, fingers, and/or neck until more recently like the last two years or something.
My first finger/thumb tattoo was done by I can't remember who around nine years ago.
My first hand tattoo which is a small one in between my thumb and pointer finger was done by Tim Lehi around nine years ago at Tattoo City and had a mutual friend of ours take me in-between some of Tim's other appointments. Tim didn't seem too phased by the fact I didn't have my arms fully covered.
For my other hand tattoo I went to Zach Johnson when he was at Picture Machine in SF which was a spur of the moment thing. I swung by the shop to hangout with some of the guys there before dinner and one thing led to another and blammo, hand tattoo covering the whole top and missed my dinner reservations.
My fingers were also done at Picture Machine except I believe by Iggy and I was pretty well covered on my arms and about half my front done by this time.
I went to Nick Rodin when he first moved up here to do my neck tattoos as Scott Sylvia refused to do my hands and neck for many many years though I had almost both arms sleeved and my front pretty well covered in tattoos. I totally respect Scott for his reasons and acted like a kid hiding something from their parents, haha. I remember my heart beating pretty damn fast hoping he didn't ask what I was in getting tattooed that day. For those who don't know they both work at Blackheart so I just acted like I was there getting a regular old tattoo from Nick. I remember when Scott walked over mid tattoo, looked at what was going down, shook his head and gave one of those chuckles/laughs he does. I am very satisfied with the tattoos Nick did and Scott even came over and gave Nick some visual help on the front of the neck tattoo as Nick asked for his advice.
Scott has since given in and tattooed my upper knuckles and sides of my fingers.
As mentioned above, I don't regret them though know it has limited me and will continue to limit me and/or put obstacles in my way. Yes, Scott and some of the other older friends were right and can say, "I/we told you so".

I would love to get my hands and neck tattooed. Here's why I'm waiting/saving them for last:
1.) I've got an entire back, stomach and right leg that are bare.
2.) I'm not in an industry where I can get away with it. (Maybe in ten years if I'm some kind of superstar..)
3.) I truly feel that those spots should be earned, especially if you're not a tattooer.
3a.) Nothing lamer than some dude who only has hand and neck tattoos.. especially when they're tiny.
4.) I have two little tattoos on the inside of my fingers -- they were excruciating. I plan on being extra choosy about who tattoos my hands. And neck.
5.) I live in NY. Tattoos very accepted here but it also means I have to see everyone's half-assed hipster hand tattoos.. which really forces you think about em.
6.) How do you have the balls to walk into a shop with only a few tattoos and ask to get your hands tattooed? I'd be bashful even to ask my tattooer friends right now..

I would love to get my hands and neck tattooed. Here's why I'm waiting/saving them for last:
1.) I've got an entire back, stomach and right leg that are bare.
2.) I'm not in an industry where I can get away with it. (Maybe in ten years if I'm some kind of superstar..)
3.) I truly feel that those spots should be earned, especially if you're not a tattooer.
3a.) Nothing lamer than some dude who only has hand and neck tattoos.. especially when they're tiny.
4.) I have two little tattoos on the inside of my fingers -- they were excruciating. I plan on being extra choosy about who tattoos my hands. And neck.
5.) I live in NY. Tattoos very accepted here but it also means I have to see everyone's half-assed hipster hand tattoos.. which really forces you think about em.
6.) How do you have the balls to walk into a shop with only a few tattoos and ask to get your hands tattooed? I'd be bashful even to ask my tattooer friends right now..

I wish more shops would consider about tattooing hands and necks, than just giving it out, but it's personal preference on the shop owner's and artist. I am tired of seeing people who don't even have sleeves get the side of the neck or hands done before even getting their legs done. I saw this kid at the mall who had a small tattoo on the side of his face of a cross, and he didn't have any other tattoos. Another example, I saw a kid who had all of his hands and neck done, but no sleeves, it just looked stupid.
On personal taste, I think having the side of you're neck looks good if it isn't too huge, and the top of you're hands if you already have sleeves/legs and you're torso/chest/stomach already done. I am still debating if I would get my hands done, the side of the neck unless I was really sure on what I'm doing in the future.

There was a time that I could be pretty sure - that at any given time , I was the only tattooist on a plane flight or at a baseball game or at parent- teacher school open house.
That if I met another tattooist at such an event it would be like meeting a former schoolmate while vacationing in a foreign land. What are the odds of that?
I remember a time that I could tell , just by looking , that someone did what I did and we shared a common bond and if you spotted one another at an amusement park or a mall- you knew one or the other of you had travelled out of your own territory.
There was a time when introduced into the life of a child that they would remember you, for the rest of their lives as the tattooed man or lady.
There was a time that when responding that I was a tattooer, when asked what I did for a living - was met with the same awe, disbelief or astonishment as if I had answered that I was an alligator wrestler, an astronaut or in the French Foreign Legion.
That was a great time!