nico

heres one i did for the Dia de los muertos show at Flying Panther. shitty photo, taken after framed.

in that horrible chics defense, that johnny dangerously dude is a fucking moron. Anyone who has a mohawk and is not a punk is an idiot.

I posted this on my introduction thread, but I just got the tattoo last week so why not post it here too.... Got my first tattoo from Nathan Kostechko while he was doing a guest spot at Ink and Dagger. a little snake with pattern on my chest - almost didn't get to put a pattern in because he doesn't travel with his patterns, but there was a book at Ink and Dagger we were able to use. I wanted an asanoha pattern, but I think this worked out nicely.

heres one i did for the Dia de los muertos show at Flying Panther. shitty photo, taken after framed.

heres one i did for the Dia de los muertos show at Flying Panther. shitty photo, taken after framed.

What an inspirational thread!
Picked this one up today.

Tony Nilsson
Blue Arms Tattoo
Oslo, Norway

New one from Thomas Hooper last week

Mario Desa was kind enough to tattoo me at the Richmond Tattoo Convention.

I started my clean arm!

Here's the progress on my back piece from Stewart. Really stoked about the progress!!!!

It's my favorite convention in one of my favorite towns! I can't wait for it to happen! I'll be wandering around all weekend and I'm bringing some Bluebird Black samples as well as Waverly Pens!

i'm coming this year.

youse guys are all bastards.

So one of my Brothers was getting divorced, and as part of the settlement, he had to pay his ex $200 to get his name, which she had tattooed on her shoulderblade, covered up. No big deal. He gave her the money, they got divorced, all is well.
A few months later, we see her at a party, and she asks do we want to see the cover-up? Sure!
Instead of covering his name, she had gotten a tattoo of a dog with it's leg lifted alongside it, pissing over it.
One of the best tats I've ever seen!

I'm going to start an OV thread because I'm way too lazy to mention things in specific threads.
Sooo.
Today I posted a digitized version of a huge interview that Jonathan Shaw did with Col. William Todd in ITA 1/1 in 1992.
Mr. Shaw gave me permission to digitize all the interviews that he did for ITA- takes forever (OCR for the win) but TOTALLY worth it.
Here's the first one:
Jonathan Shaw Interviews: Col. William L. Todd « Occult Vibrations
SO MUCH good stuff in this interview.

I've been wanting a butterfly/moth for a while. Theo Mindell does amazing butterflies, and the shop he works at is pretty close to me. Not sure who I would go to for a moth, though.
Theo Mindell:

Classifications are silly ,contradictions are cool , if someone wears anything with confidence they can pull it off .

Capt. Mike had a hummingbird tattoo over his heart in "Benjamin Button"-pretty lame movie, but that guy was an awesome character:

and Il Duce had a bad-ass butterfly on his hand in "Boondock Saints"

That being said, I've been planning on a butterfly tattoo for awhile (probably inner forearm). In Mexican culture, butterflies are the spirits of ancestors pointing out important lessons or just giving you a reason to pause.

What about non-tattooers selling all of us tattoo equipment? Some will speak strongly against those who don't tattoo owning shops and swear off ever giving them money, but then will make an order with a non-tattooer owned supplier and unknowingly act hypocritical. I think in tattooing these days, in my opinion, we need good people who care about the business and who bring something positive to the table of tattooing, tattooer or not(although tattooer preferred). I just came back from working at Frith Street Tattoo in London, I watched a bunch of very well known and respected tattooers work there in the last two weeks, not to mention the incredibly talented crew that are residents their. The owner, Dante, is not a tattooer, but he is a good human being and cares for his employees as if they were family. I am proud to say I worked there and as far as Dante(the owner) goes, I would take a bullet for him.

I like to give the artist a rough idea of what I want. I can't draw, so I leave that up to them. And I agree that seeing the stencil for the first time is half the fun. When Tim Lehi unfolded the huge drawing for my tigers, I went wide-eyed.
I don't believe in dragons, but they sure do make awesome tattoos. Along the same lines, I'd still like a Rock of Ages and maybe a curly-bearded Jesus at some point.

@dari, Jonidix arm, you say....????
@ShawnPorter, interesting about the xanax, I wonder how that'd go for me. If I have any left after my flight to Mexico I'll try it out next time. Because.. yeah, they make certain things a bit easier. Like being 30,000 ft. in the air..

Painkillers make it worse, but that's no reason not to use drugs.
Here's my recipe:
before the tattoo starts, I pop a muscle relaxer. You're going to be getting your ribs worked on and that's going to hurt. A lot. Evolution isn't a dummy, and we've evolved to protect our vital organs. The ribs protect your lungs. Your lungs are important. Therefor, your body has a nice network of nerve endings all around the area to alert you that you're getting into dangerous territory. Which means that you're going to be hating life.
As such, you'll tense up. Probably a lot. You'll be sore from the tattooing the next day, sure... but you're also going to be sore from tensing yourself up. Because ribs hurt.
That muscle relaxer (metaxalone for the win) will make you tense up less and the next day, you'll feel better for it.
The next step is to take an anti-histamine. Tattooing is basically a large scale scratch test. If you take a nondrowsy anti-histamine, you'll swell less. The artist won't be bogged down with puffy, swollen skin.
The last step for me is a xanax. Because I hate getting tattooed and the xanax just makes me happy.
Caveats:
I'm not prescribing any medicinal treatment since I'm not a doctor. Don't use drugs unless you know their side effects.
Respect: Ask your tattooer if he/she minds you taking pills. Some do. You don't want to be the loopy customer they hate dealing with.

I hate myself every day, just for a little bit.
That said... I don't think he was saying Joy Division (whom I love) is hipstery, just that people only pretend to like them because you're s'posed to. Or maybe I misunderstood, too. I was too busy listening to Joy Division to read into it much.
Though one of my fiance's super politically correct friends won't listen to Joy Division because of where the name of the band comes from. Though she listens to Blondie. Go figure.

Hey I love Joy Division and I was around when they first hit the scene (that doesn't qualify for being a hipster but it probobly qualifies for a hip replacement in a few years).

Love away.
I find them annoying. It's what people in my age group do; hate people younger than us and thinking their trends are stupid.
And sure- I had said before that at some point people in this thread would get butthurt because something would hit too close to home.
I ride a track bike. I LOVE my track bike. It's really light, was cheap and gets me where I'm going.
I wear the same outfit literally every day. (black logo-less tshirt, jeans, new balance sneakers; when I dress in the morning I don't have to think about it; I just grab a clean shirt and pair of jeans and cut out the entire decision making process.)
I have a beard.
Some, if not most, of my tattoos make no sense.
So sure, someone could call me a hipster. that's fine. As long as I'm washing my hair every day and not dressing like a total ironic douche, I don't mind.
I still hate hipsters.

some progress on my backpiece!