nico

Tuning and building tattoo machines is totally easy. Anybody can do it.
I have a drawer full of machines and every singe one of them was made or tuned by someone who did it according to a manual, on their day off from a real job.
I learned everything I know (tattooing and otherwise) from a dvd too.

We eventually didn't do it because we could have fucked up and gotten picked. Then I'd have to get tattooed by Kat Von D.

My buddy Bruehl and I once conspired to get on LA INKED by telling the producers that we were two of DR. BRONNER's adopted children, and that we wanted Kat to tattoo portraits of him on us. With banners that read ALL ONE OR NONE.
Had we just said we were addicted to porn.... we wouldn't have had to lie.

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

I'm not going to get on here and scream about how you shouldn't be a tattooer, even though that's a preset gut reaction nowadays and it's totally valid. After all, I'm a fairly new tattooer in the game and why should I be telling people what they should or shouldn't do. However, what I will bring up is something that continues to plague me at every turn, and it's something that I struggle with every day.
Think and consider a few things most people don't before they just "decide they want to be a tattooer". Such as the effect you have on the craft and it's craftsmen/women. Specifically in your area. With every new tattooer the pieces of the "tattoo pie" get smaller and smaller. The pie being the personal benefits of tattooing. Not just financial, but all the benefits. The more tattooers, the smaller the pieces of the pie. Less money, more people doing desperate things to try to grind more loot out of tattooing, especially in the slower seasons, like tons of random discount days, undercutting the previously established shops prices to steal clients, etc. Think about what you're doing to the people who've already been there, who've already worked their asses off to establish a clientele, and a relationship with their neighborhood. Think about the taking you will be doing.
That's not to say that you should not become a tattooer. What I'm trying to say is this: before you start on your journey to take from this craft and the people who held it on their shoulders through all it's iterations and think about how you're going to justify your actions and their consequences.
How do you justify making everyone's pie smaller? How about by becoming lots more pie to those people.
Get tattooed by righteous tattooers. A LOT. Blow loads of money on them. If your sitting here reading this thinking that " I can't do that because tattoos are too much money and I'm broke, which is why I want to be a tattooer in the first place dudes!" then you probably shouldn't be considering becoming a tattooer.
On the other hand, if you are thinking "well, shit I'm broke, but if I get this second job and stop dropping a bunch of money on sneakers and beer then I could afford lots more tattoos, so now let's look and see who is good and figure out how I can throw bunches of money at them frequently", well then maybe you might be an asset to tattooing.
I won't give anyone any advice beyond that. Tattooing is a career and if you become a tattooer that's a lifetime of taking. Maybe start evening the score early by giving back to it first. If there is any hesitation in your mind about that at all, don't even try. Save us all the next money sucking middle achiever. We already have enough of those.
I'm not saying any of these things to be harsh. My mind is heavy with these thoughts all day long. I spend hours working my ass off, trying to make my clients as happy as possible but that's no where near enough. I spend all my money on tattooing. I buy tattoos, machines, pigments, supplies, flash, prints, paintings, books etc from righteous tattooers. I owe heavy debts to the guys that brought me up and I will never be able to repay it. Anytime I get a compliment from anyone on my tattoos I let them know who taught me. It's important to pay to your lineage no matter who it was. I spend time conversing with as many tattooers as I can that I admire just to hear what they have to say. I have a list of tattooers in every state and I frequently refer people to places to get the work they desire. Al that and I still feel like I owe tattooing everything. I expect I will always feel the need to justify my existence here among the people that I respect and admire by paying them heed in any way that I can. They do deserve it after all.

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

There's a guy in SF named Maron Hasegawa. He had full sleeves from Colin Stevens, then decided he wanted a full suit. He flew to Japan and, in one year, got fully suited by Horiyoshi III:


It's not shown in those pics, but it goes down to his ankles. Donburi style, as they say in Japan. I think he got tattooed every other day for a year. Just think about that for a minute.
I had the pleasure of meeting Maron at Diamond Club a few years back, and I asked him a similar question: does it feel weird to be [/i]done[/i]? He seemed to imply that it was. He said he asked Horiyoshi about tattooing his head, to which the master replied, "Nah...you're done."
There's also a guy in one of Horitaka's books who has a full 9-dragon body suit that Horiyoshi did in a year and a half. It's everything but the strip down the center of his chest ("river style"), and the whole thing--neck to ankles, full sleeves--is black and gray. I think about that guy from time to time, because it's insane to me to think that someone went 30+ years without a drop of ink, then made the huge decision to get fully suited. I just can't get my head around it.
As I alluded to in the Collecting Different Styles thread, I'm really happy with what I've got, but it's all over the place. The thought of having a full cohesive body suit is absolutely foreign to me.

Chris Trevino aka HORIMANA
The 9 dragon bodysuit is legendary for sure ,theres a guy named Edward Burd who has one also tattooed by Chris Trevino .Its in a few books but theres also some great shots on his web-site.

Today is Cliff Raven day. Some (edited) footage from 1974 and a documentary called "Tattoo Take Two: A conversation with Cliff Raven"

Sometimes it's nice to get tattooed when you're not wearing pants.


The quality on this is TERRIBLE, but.... hell... thats the point of getting this stuff saved.

The Bluray version of Santa Sangre is SO f'ing nice. When Topo and Mountian finally come out, I'm going to lock myself in my movie room and not come out for a few days.
I had a chance to go see Holy Mountain in NYC about four, five years ago. They had just restored the print and it was crisper than I had ever seen it. Before the show starts, they introduce Alejandro and we collectively gasped. He spoke for a little bit, then sat right down with us and watched the movie. I had met Kenneth Anger earlier that night, so walking up and shaking hands with Jodorowsky.... that just made my year.
Sadly, I don't ever see KING SHOT getting made. It's been in "preproduction" for a couple of years now.

And now, an absolute facemelter by the one Horitomo: