gougetheeyes

Pigs might fly!

I got a souvenir while my son spent his Christmas gift certificate.

Rose banger courtesy of Franz Stefanik of The Okey Doke in Toronto

Those LINES!

In tonight's episode of Shitty Reality Check: You got face tats, you might get strong reactions!

In tonight's episode of Shitty Reality Check: You got face tats, you might get strong reactions!

Yeah just saw this -- fucking terrifying -- for you and the customers both!

Gotta say, when dars and stots are done right it makes a world of difference! Be it from empty space or a portion of your arm you got fucked up by someone who, at least at the time, didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.. or had never even seen stars and dots filler..
So @Perez helped me out by doing some little filler yesterday and trying to get the half of my arm that was starred and dotted and looked like shit back on track. Here are two really terrible photos but I am so pumped that my arm basically looks the way I always thought it should! Can't believe I waited this long to get this done..

Thanks buddy!!

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..

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..)

Can't make this shit up. Two recent conversations from the bar.
Number One!
Me: What're you up to tonight?
Girl: Well I supposed to get tattooed but my tattoo artists rejected me!
Me: What?! What happened?
Girl: (Pulls out a piece of paper with a crazy long math/physics equation and begins to unfold to show me.) Well, I was supposed to get this on my finger, but--
Me: (Bursts out laughing) Yeah, that ain't going on your finger...
Girl: He laughed at me, too!
Me: Yeah. Sorry to laugh, it's just so long you won't be able to get it that small and still see what it is. What about on your arm, or wrapping around your wrist?
Girl: Yeah, that's what he suggested, too. Especially because it's my only tattoo or whatever. But I'm a programmer and I want to look at it while I'm working at the keyboard. He also suggested that I shouldn't get it in white.
Me: White.. ink?
Girl: Yeah. Because it's for me. And I don't want anyone else to just be able to see it like that.
Me: Sounds like maybe you should think about it some more..
After that initial talk we had a pretty cool conversation about the equation and the dual reality somethingorother it pertains to. She was a super smart person in that realm for sure. I left her with the suggestion of getting a cat in a box as a much cooler design (part of this theory about a cat being in a box with the lid closed and there being two realities..) but she was pretty set on the equation.
Number Two!
The set up here.. it was late, this chick was at the bar for a while so obviously a little drunk.
Girl: Hey, you get your tattoos here?
Me: Yeah, mostly, at this point kind of all over.
Girl: Where should I go?
Me: Hard to go wrong in this neighborhood, Three kings, Eight of Swords, Adorned, Saved...
Girl: Are they open?
Me: When...?
Girl: Now.
Me: It's almost two in the morning -- no shops are open right now.
Girl: Really? None??
Me: You could go into the city and check out West 4th St. but I really encourage you to not do that.
Girl: So.. there are no tattoo shops open in Brooklyn right now is what you're telling me.
Me: That's what I'm telling you.
Girl: (Takes her drinks that I made her and begins to walk away.) Fuck this borough.
And I thought that would be the end of it! She came back and wanted to talk some more.
Girl: So, it says XXSHOPXX is right off of XXSTREETXX -- is that close by?
Me: It's not far but I'm telling you it's not open. Why don't you just wait?
Girl: YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. My friend over there is only in town tonight and we won't be in the same city again for like maybe a couple years.
Me: Well that might work better, you can both get great tattoos in your respective cities and they'll probably be way better than trying to get it in at like 2 AM. You could get something awesome!
Girl: Nope, you don't get what I'm saying.
Me: (Past the point of patience and I can't walk away because I'm making them another round of drinks.) It sounds like you probably shouldn't get tattooed. It sounds like a bad idea is what I think you're saying.
Girl: Well aren't they all?
Me: I'm sorry..?
Girl: All of this (pointing to my arms) -- you can't tell me any of this is actually a good idea.
Me: Did you really just say that?
Girl: Well, I mean, come on.. when you're 90. They're going to look like shit.
Me: No, they're going to look awesome and I'm going to be an awesome 90 yr old with tattoos that I didn't get at fucking two in the morning. This is going to be your last round, I'll have the server bring your check over and you can still make it over to West 4th, the cab ride shouldn't be much more than $20!
Girl: Whatever.
Me: Have a good night! Good luck!
Hope I'm not sounding like too much of an asshole.. My bar persona is always ten thousand times nicer than my real life demeanor but this second girl really pushed it. I'll put up with a lot of idiots and I know how to handle plenty of bullshit but when you outright insult me in my own bar..? You're done. I hope she went and got tattooed.. everyone gets the tattoo they deserve!

Oh yeah, just toss a Hoyer tattoo in there, no big deal.
[MENTION=2772]deadmeadow88[/MENTION], high-five for going big!

True statements, especially this one. Like dudes who get chest to chest like they're gonna fight, talking about how they're gonna fuck each other up. But if they were actually hard, they'da just laid the other guy out.
If you're tough, there's no need to talk about how tough you are.

You will look no more "ridiculous" with tattoos than anyone else! Get tattooed, get what you want, fuck the world. I don't tattoo so I can't answer your questions about working with skin and placement but I can't imagine it's that much of an obstacle.
@Shawn Porter posted a video a while back on his OV blog, an awesome awesome Dave Lum video, where his shop helper -- a woman -- was talking about how she hated her legs and her butt. How she was self conscious and never thought she'd get tattooed there, but once she did get some coverage on those areas, she loved them. Maybe the only big folks you're seeing with a significant amount of work have some not-so-great tattoos.. or maybe you're just freaking out cause you've only got one so far. But if you've got the itch, you've gotta scratch it, and everyone else can go to hell. Truly.
Apologies if this was too strongly worded.. I had the night off, some beers were consumed. The only people I don't like with a lot of tattoos are dickheads regardless of their tattoos.

Funny, I thought I'd have a different response to this but when I thought about it, my answer is, "I don't." Could be because I'm getting older, or because I no longer have to ride the train to work, or a hundred other things, but when I thought about this and read the responses, I realized that tattoos are a much smaller part of my outward life than they were previously. Which doesn't mean I don't spend way too much time looking/reading/giggling/whatever, just means that I don't use them to identify myself as much anymore. I'm much less a "tattooed person" as I am a person that has tattoos. It's not a "lifestyle," it never was. I will say though, when spring/summer hits and the shorts come out, I definitely notice some looks, and I realize some are involuntary. But at this point, I've pretty much stopped caring.
I don't know if this makes sense, I just got off work and there have been many shots tonight.

Traditional and Japanese are hands down my favorite styles of tattooing. A really interesting thing is happening in the development of traditional tattoos right now, where artists are keeping in tradition with the technique and tools of prior generations but really branching out in subject matter, concept, and style. For instance, look at the work of James McKenna, Aidan Monahan, or Slawomir Nietschke. All of whom keep with the bold line, heavy black, saturated color, negative space ratios, and dynamic designs, while exploring very interesting and wacky themes. Or even the less weird but still very advanced and finessed work of artists like Herb Aeurbach, Paul Dobleman, or Gordon Combs. It's a super cool and exciting thing to be happening within a particular school of thought and is what makes the style most interesting to me.
It seems to me that the general populace prefers realism or new school tattoos, or even the more painterly stuff. If that's your preference, I don't really care, but I do attribute it largely to ignorance and a magpie effect.

I don't think traditional tattoos necessarily inspire a 'fuck yeah, that's awesome' reaction in most people straight off the bat. A segment immediately - absolutely - and maybe more since they really came to fore as a genre in the past few years, but I think it's fair to say that most people (and a lot of collectors) are more readily able to recognise good tattooing when it comes in the form of accomplished japanese style, black and grey etc.
It probably took me at least five years of collecting and looking at tattoos a lot before I started to "get" traditional (maybe I was a slow learner). Even then, it was even longer before I understood what was going on with some of the more folksy approaches to it.
To me the thing about traditional tattoos is that although you could say that there is a flash lexicon there ready to use, the devil is in the subtle details. A Bert Krak crawling panther will be a very different beast, excuse the pun, to an Uncle Allen take on the same starting point. I love that aspect of it. Looking at stuff from particular artists and seeing where they've gone with it. You get the really whimsical and fun, like Jesse Gordon Jnr, you get the real traditionalists, like Tommy T. here in Dublin and people who are doing a really distinct personal folk style like Mario Desa (or at least, that's what I see there, apologies if I'm wrong :P ).

Why American Traditional tattoos are so liked here and mostly everywhere.
I had a long conversation with my tattoo artist while I was getting some work done. He is a collector himself and we talked about different artist that we both would like to collect from.
Than we started talking about the different styles and preferences...
Holly crap I had no clue a traditional tattoo was so complicated in sense of boldness, expression, and technic.
There is allot more to it than I thought. While still not my style I have learned to appreciate them even more.

I've been experimenting with making hot sauce. Here's the first batch....

hoping for a bumper crop of habanero's this summer in my garden so I can produce enough to give to friends!
@CultExciter @gougetheeyes @polliwog this stuff is a sizzling alternative to drinking :)

..so how DO YOU really feel about them?

Can't make this shit up. Two recent conversations from the bar.
Number One!
Me: What're you up to tonight?
Girl: Well I supposed to get tattooed but my tattoo artists rejected me!
Me: What?! What happened?
Girl: (Pulls out a piece of paper with a crazy long math/physics equation and begins to unfold to show me.) Well, I was supposed to get this on my finger, but--
Me: (Bursts out laughing) Yeah, that ain't going on your finger...
Girl: He laughed at me, too!
Me: Yeah. Sorry to laugh, it's just so long you won't be able to get it that small and still see what it is. What about on your arm, or wrapping around your wrist?
Girl: Yeah, that's what he suggested, too. Especially because it's my only tattoo or whatever. But I'm a programmer and I want to look at it while I'm working at the keyboard. He also suggested that I shouldn't get it in white.
Me: White.. ink?
Girl: Yeah. Because it's for me. And I don't want anyone else to just be able to see it like that.
Me: Sounds like maybe you should think about it some more..
After that initial talk we had a pretty cool conversation about the equation and the dual reality somethingorother it pertains to. She was a super smart person in that realm for sure. I left her with the suggestion of getting a cat in a box as a much cooler design (part of this theory about a cat being in a box with the lid closed and there being two realities..) but she was pretty set on the equation.
Number Two!
The set up here.. it was late, this chick was at the bar for a while so obviously a little drunk.
Girl: Hey, you get your tattoos here?
Me: Yeah, mostly, at this point kind of all over.
Girl: Where should I go?
Me: Hard to go wrong in this neighborhood, Three kings, Eight of Swords, Adorned, Saved...
Girl: Are they open?
Me: When...?
Girl: Now.
Me: It's almost two in the morning -- no shops are open right now.
Girl: Really? None??
Me: You could go into the city and check out West 4th St. but I really encourage you to not do that.
Girl: So.. there are no tattoo shops open in Brooklyn right now is what you're telling me.
Me: That's what I'm telling you.
Girl: (Takes her drinks that I made her and begins to walk away.) Fuck this borough.
And I thought that would be the end of it! She came back and wanted to talk some more.
Girl: So, it says XXSHOPXX is right off of XXSTREETXX -- is that close by?
Me: It's not far but I'm telling you it's not open. Why don't you just wait?
Girl: YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. My friend over there is only in town tonight and we won't be in the same city again for like maybe a couple years.
Me: Well that might work better, you can both get great tattoos in your respective cities and they'll probably be way better than trying to get it in at like 2 AM. You could get something awesome!
Girl: Nope, you don't get what I'm saying.
Me: (Past the point of patience and I can't walk away because I'm making them another round of drinks.) It sounds like you probably shouldn't get tattooed. It sounds like a bad idea is what I think you're saying.
Girl: Well aren't they all?
Me: I'm sorry..?
Girl: All of this (pointing to my arms) -- you can't tell me any of this is actually a good idea.
Me: Did you really just say that?
Girl: Well, I mean, come on.. when you're 90. They're going to look like shit.
Me: No, they're going to look awesome and I'm going to be an awesome 90 yr old with tattoos that I didn't get at fucking two in the morning. This is going to be your last round, I'll have the server bring your check over and you can still make it over to West 4th, the cab ride shouldn't be much more than $20!
Girl: Whatever.
Me: Have a good night! Good luck!
Hope I'm not sounding like too much of an asshole.. My bar persona is always ten thousand times nicer than my real life demeanor but this second girl really pushed it. I'll put up with a lot of idiots and I know how to handle plenty of bullshit but when you outright insult me in my own bar..? You're done. I hope she went and got tattooed.. everyone gets the tattoo they deserve!

LL Cool J duh.

Moops?

Man, I forgot about this thread! I was just talking to someone last night about how I need to take some time to read some fiction. Been OD'ing on some native non-fiction over the last six months:
Like a Hurricane
The Journey of Crazyhorse
Russ Means' autobiography Where White Men Fear to Tread
and Vine DeLoria's Custer Died for Your Sins
All really great and all just gave me momentum putting together the Warriors Fund show.. But now, I need a fiction break. Or at least a Bukowski break..

Because he's clear and easy to understand?

Of interest, worth a 20 minute watch. Good morning LST!!

http://noisey.vice.com/under-the-influence/under-the-influence-new-york-hardcore?utm_source=noiseyfbus