MGblues

"If you can draw and you can paint, you can tattoo" Louie says.... What a load of shit from that fuck-bags mouth! I can draw, and I have painted (the interior walls of my house that is), but you sure as Hell wouldn't want me tattooing any shit on you.

I can remember when S&R was the evil empire of tattooing... Get a starter kit and start scratching away.

My first one was done on my 19th birthday, February 13th, 1985. Because my Dad has a tattoo, I always wanted one and knew I'd get one as soon I got legal age to do it. Since I grew up in bum-fucked western North Carolina there was only one shop within a 100 mile radius then. It was named "J.B. Davis Tattoo & Tavern". The tattoo shop was in the back of a biker bar in Waynesville N.C. I was way more scared of going in the biker bar as a skinny, long haired punk kid than I was of getting the tattoo, but I went through with it. Wasn't as bad as I though it'd be, so I kept getting more as the years went by. Now I've turned 46, my arms are covered to the wrist, and I'm fixing to start a backpiece. I never had it covered up, cause I love it to this day, but I did have it touched up in 2010. It's the spiderweb with the creepy skull/spiderlegs thingy. P.S. I was able to keep it hidden from my Mom for 2 weeks... She saw it and slapped the shit out of it!

I remember seeing that design as a very small child, maybe 1969 or 1970 when I was about 3 or 4 years old. My great grandmother had this huge wind-up clock on her wall with a glass front that had the ROA hand painted on it. The cross had an unpainted circle left out of the center so that when the pendulum swung back and forth you could see it move side to side. That clock both fascinated and scared the shit out of me, but I couldn't stop staring at. It was scary, dramatic, sad, and powerful, and I've never, ever forgotten it. I stumbled onto the Bert Grimm version of it a while back and it was like "There it is, this is what I want as my back piece". It's like karma just worked. Everything is clicking. The money to do it, the artist wants to do it, the time for it, and the girlfriend is on-board to help with the aftercare. I plan starting that back piece next month, and I'm so stoked!

@embers Holy Dogshit! That's a fuckin' tiger!!!

^^^ That made me laugh out loud!

I couldn't have been more than 3 when I noticed my Dad had the old school skull with the snake crawling through the the eye socket tattooed on his bicep. I didn't understand how it got there or why it was permanent, but I damned sure knew I wanted one. I was hooked on anything to do with tattoos from then on, always have been, always will be. I found the Sailor Jerry flash version of that skull and snake last year and got it big as Hell on my calf. I can't wait to show him the next time I see him.

After 52 years on the planet with no tattoos what so ever, my girlfriend decided out of the blue this past Saturday that for St Patrick's day she'd get a shamrock and 3 ladybugs, on her butt. She actually went through with it and sat like a trooper. There won't be any pictures of hers, but since she did it I got this little guy as a memento of one of the most awesome days I've ever spent with her.

@Petri Aspvik, no way would I ever sport the SS runes, but that painting isn't that much different the tattoo I got in 1995. Mid nineties biker flash. (no, I'm not a biker nor have I ever been. I just thought it was badass as Hell).

Make me very irritated for you. I've never been denied a hotel room for tattoos, but have been sat in the back corner of an almost empty restaurant (Macaroni Grill) knowing full well why they did it. Sucks in this day and age, but it still happens.

I didn't see it as a negative thing. There were some harsh comments for sure (me included, I apologize), but some good came from it also. As a group of dedicated fans, clients, collectors of good work, and the artists who pour their hearts into giving us the art we want to wear till we're worm food, LST to me represents a tiny portion of an already small sub-culture. One that respects the history, tradition, and ethics of the artform we love. Someone who was doing something wrong got called out for it on a public platform, and as a result hopefully learned a harsh lesson in the error of their ways. If no one had spoke out it would just been one more occurrence of a lack of ethics and originality being allowed to further dilute the little pool we swim in. Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now.

I live in the Middle of Nowheresville, Tennessee, U.S.A...It's like being in no man's land. There's at least 10 tattoo shops in a 25 mile radius. These shops FB every fucking tattoo they do, have awesome websites, commercials on every radio station...yada, yada, yada. Most of the shit you could get in these shops looks like it was done in some dudes kitchen in trade for a 12 pack of PBR. (No offense to PBR) I guess I know now why the tattoo shop I've been going to for the past 2 years almost never posts on FB and doesn't have a website, but they still manage to have a bigger and more loyal clientele than any of the others. Maybe reputation and word of mouth do still count for something even in the internet age.

I honestly wish no ill will to Sue, the ERT shop or anyone who works there, but really, how in the Hell could they not know what what she was up to and either not let her put it on their FB page, or deleted that shit before it possibly ruined their shop reputation and started an shitstorm on the internet.

Sucks, looks like East River Tattoo deleted their Facebook page.... :( Hopefully that shop got deleted too.

I think the next challenge should be when Oliver Peck tells the contestants to "Build a tattoo machine out of hair dryer parts. You will have one hour to complete this challenge, and it must have three speeds".

As a client it's one thing for me to go get a tattoo from a Sailor Jerry flash re-draw because the design has some significance to me, knowing full well that the design I picked is iconic and unoriginal. I got mine because my Dad got the same frigging image in 1953. She's scratching this shit on people who are probably 1st timers and don't know any better and think they're getting this cool piece of original art. From the looks of her work I think the reason she only uses all black and only black is because her Ebay starter tattoo kit didn't come with a shader and color ink. Flipping someone Else's designs 180 with a Xerox copier and tracing doesn't constitute originality in my book. I guess they didn't teach ethics as part of Tattoo 101 at the tattoo school she went to. I can foresee broken hands in her future.

Every time I see it I think the same thing...Fucking GLORIOUS!

I'm lucky, I guess. My Girl who I've been with for the last 9 years is a total pinky who just happens to think heavily tattooed men look sexy. My arms are covered in skulls, smoke, spiderwebs, demons, a reaper, dice and cards, razor, dragons, and a couple of cats (and the number 13). I never gave much thought as to how other people would think of me due to the imagery, I just got what I wanted, but the way I look has allowed me (and her by proxy) to live a very shit-free life.

Nice. That waistband will probably suck balls tomorrow.

I finished getting all of my old tattoos I got in the 80's fixed up last year. It sucked. I can't imagine doing that every year.

Congrats!!!!!!

I have quite a few tattoos based off of things I have drawn, but none of them are tattooed exactly the way I drew it. When I'm sure I want one of my own ideas tattooed on me I take in the best drawing I can do, and ask first "will this work on my body where I want it"? If the answer is "Yes", then I just ask for it to be re-drawn so it will fit and be "tattooey". This has worked for me for on a good number of tattoos now.

@Scott R Damn dude that's an awesome Panther! And one sitting... I think your probably gonna win the award for "Least Pussy of the Year".

Double :( :( Nobody ever said you had to be famous to be good either.

"One of the top 10 tattoo artists in the country" Really? which country? Moldavia? Latvia? (My sincerest apologies in advance to any Moldavian or Latvian board members I may have offended in my attempt at sarcasm).