ChrisDowning

Truth's about me.

About me

I try to help young people avoid mistakes that damage their bodies and their spirit--such as drinking, taking drugs, and getting tattooed. I oppose the many predators and enablers here, who encourage young people to live self indulgent and destructive lives, doing as they please--an attitude that is destroying our society and the lives of countless young people who are not receiving the guidance they need from their parents and mentors. My questions and answers are hidden only because I am targeted by tattoo predators who are furious that I expose them for what they are--abusers of the young people who mistakenly trust them. If you want to email me, keep it clean, and I will respond politely to you. If you act out and abuse me with vile language, either privately or publicly in the forum, I will do my best as a Yahoo subscriber and stockholder to close your account and ban you forever. If you want to partner with me and help me oppose tattoo predators, write me! God bless you.

I've seen her posts around for a while... She is either a masterful troll or a lolcow just waiting to be milked.

Thanks for the support guys.

I've been glued to the tv for 12 hours straight now. Latest is that atleast 80 kids were killed at the massacre on utøya island, and atleast 7 killed from the bombing. Looks as if it was all the actions of one man, a 32 year old norwegian right wing extremeist.

I'm always so amazed by the amount of damage one sick determined person can cause.

Don't get consumed by the coverage. Watch the response over the next few days, shit like this brings out the very best in people. I suppose that's the natural response to something as evil and vile as a terrorist attack. When you look back at things like this remember the compassion and kindness that followed, that's what I have tried to take away from seeing the attacks in the US.

Glad to hear you guys are ok. Things will feel a little bit better with every day that passes.

I seriously just shot redbull outa my nose when I saw that picture. So so awesome.

I know a few people who have completely switched to electronic cigarettes. Probably not great for you but much better than the real thing. I'm thinking about trying them out myself. The nicotine gum worked well for me a couple times, managed to stop for a couple months here or there.

I don't know how it would look stuck in the middle of a Japanese sleeve that was meant to be traditional Japanese. I think it looks pretty awesome next to traditional stuff. In my opinion done right, the way Thomas Hooper and a few others do it, I think it has the same power as well done traditional so they compliment each other very well. On a very basic level a lot of those stippled pieces follow the traditional formula; a third black, a third color, a third skin when you substitute the color with the lighter end of the gradient so it's not really surprising they work well together.

I'm with hogg, that Higgs quote is the first thing that popped into my head when I read the original post, that video was the most inspirational thing I've seen for a while.

I've always felt there was a huge disconnect between the tattoo and piercing communities, with a very small crossover, though folks outside of them like to wrap them up into one. Which I guess has a lot to do with the combo tattoo and piercing shops. I had my ears gauged for about ten years but recently took those out. Other than that, I never felt like I was part of any piercing community -- nor did I ever want to be -- and while I think the two are very loosely related at some kind of basic level, I think they're pretty far apart.

In conclusion, the term BOD-MOD makes me cringe.

I completely agree with what you said and thankfully we don't have anything to do with piercings in the shop I work at. In the mind of the general public I don't think the separation is nearly as large as in the tattoo community. I mentioned it because I see it in all those crappy "industry" mag's that show up in the mail a few times a month. I die a little inside when those magazines come in, what a waist of paper.

Industry conjures up images of assembly lines, mass production, corporate goons and a low cost for low/average quality. Even if the dictionary definition accurately describes the profession it's not a label I like.

Wow Bill, thats really great. I'm gonna get some ordered soon as I get some extra bucks. Been wanting to try them out for a while now, and even if I hadn't I would just because of what you are doing.

I don't like the words.... tats, gun, or the word "industry" when used to describe the craft/business of tattooing!

I don't care for industry either, there's nothing industrial about what I do.

Anyone said body-mod? That word makes me want to slam my face into my desk. I guess thats more of a piercer thing... Come to think of it, I feel the same way about most piercers.

It really depends on the person. For the most part when a tattooer visits, to get something done or not I really enjoy it and try to be a good host. I like talkin shop and sharing stories. Over all, most of the shop's I've visited have treated me the same.

Every now and then we will get someone who is practically bragging about being a tattoo artist. Usually the type who are in it for the life-style or whatever. They get the blow off pretty quick. It may impress the drunk chicks at the bar, it's sure not going to impress me or any of my co-workers.

I don't watermark my photos, if I did it would be subtle. I also don't put a lot of stuff online so I don't think its that big of an issue for me.

Mario made the same point I would have made that most of the stuff I see watermarked is total garbage. That becomes a put off to me watermarking my own work, like somehow it would lump it in with the hack tattoo's I see. That's probably not a sensible way of thinking but I'm ok with that. I've never been much good at promoting myself online.

A watermark to give credit is great, don't get me wrong. Watermarks for "protecting" an image have always just annoyed the hell outa me. Once an image goes online, you lose control of where it will go and how it will be used.

It's one of the best series out there. I'd like to get my hands on a better copy, because youtube doesn't do it justice.

The way Mario suggested is probably the best way to do it. I've got one I built on a roller stand that I have been using for about 5 years now. It's pretty heavy duty though. If you are going the tripod route think about using a cymbal stand. Cheap cymbal stands are usually sturdier than cheep tripods.

About 4 years ago Dustin Mendenhall did a big compass and sea serpent that takes up most of my forearm, and I have big arms, in about 2 and a half hours. I still look at the thing and wonder how the hell he moved that fast. I remember it hurting a lot.

I always love seeing the machines you build Larry!

Nice looking site!

My name is Chris Downing. I've been tattooing for 7 years, I've been at Forever Tattoo Parlour in Cape Coral, FL for the last 5. Found out about these forums over on some other forums, nice to see quite a few of the same people over here.

forevertattoo.net

the facebooks

I'll tattoo whatever. I don't even mind tattooing the inside of lips, I've got it pretty figured out and it's fast money.

What bugs me is when there is a language barrier. I tattooed a group of 6 Germans a few weeks ago. They were perfectly friendly, nice people. When communicating takes twice as long as normal it makes for a hard day. When I got home I was still talking slowly and using hand gestures.