The Hyena

I am not looking forward to the palms, the ribs, and the butt.

Awesome!!!

"Rose of Jericho" is supposedly a rose with a purposefully hidden vagina in it.

I'll put a few more up. These are on my Bookface page anyway.

Page I painted for Nick Colella:

One I did for Mike Shishmanian:

I watch either some Twin Peaks episodes, Blue Velvet, or Deadman.

I heard a story of the Dagger through the rose starting off as a fuck you to England. Dagger through the English Rose.

A friend of mine has DEAD MEAT on his. Dude is such a scrappy bastard too. So rad.

And on my second set I have "Snake oil Salesman" vertically.

Mine say "HUMILITY"

Bill fucking rules.

The hotel comped me the last night from the blackout, and it was awesome meeting everyone. I had a great time even though i spent all Saturday nursing the worst migraine I have ever had in my life.

Agreed. I love doing tribal. Something hypnotic about laying in all that black.

I have a Karl shader that kills the world.

Yo hogg. I didn't even realize that was you.

I'm having a fucking blast.

You're welcome! I'm glad it's making you guys some money!

Come on out LIZZIE!!!!!!!!

Dealing with different people everyday is hard. It's a pain in the ass sometimes, and depending on what kind of a shop you're in and where it is can dictate a lot about your clientele. Just because you're a tattooer doesn't mean that you magically get amazing, smart, considerate, thoughtful clients. They are the unknown quantity of this job. So they can be tough to deal with. Commiserating with your peers is a way to blow off steam out of sight of the clients eyes. It's hard to care this much about what you do and not get bummed out or frustrated at times, and it's unrealistic to not address the realistic frustrations we deal with.

HOWEVER, when you become the constant bummer, or the constant super tough dude who only posts about how much their clients suck, well yeah, I agree. There's so many of us, and we all have off days so it sometimes seems like there always someone complaining, but a large part of that is that individually, our off days all come at different times. There's bound to be at least a few people having "one of those days" on just about any day of the week.

I think gathering on the internet has it's pros and cons, and one of those cons is that it's hard to gauge accurately the climate of tattooing as it appears in forums like this. Don;t get me wrong, I agree, Lizzie. I do. I love my job more than any job I've ever had. Even more than the idea of any other possible employment. It's something I obsess over, have dreams and nightmares over, and something I spend more time than I probably should thinking about. I'm not one of those guys who tries to down play his enjoyment of it so that he can seem like he's "keeping it real", and Im not one of the dudes who tries to equate tattooing with a job that's so obviously boring and mundane so he can walk around talking trash about people who try very hard at it. I love tattooing. But there IS that frustrating element. Sometimes it's healthy to vent to people who can understand you're frustrations because there aren't many who do.

I'm glad you made the thread though because it's always good to get out of that way of thinking as soon as you can.

Thanks.

Everyone's different. And it's got nothing to do with toughness. Where your nerve endings are most sensitive is where you're going to feel it most. Other things to take into account are how you are feeling that day. If your body is putting up with anything else, that is energy it doesn't have to dedicate to putting up with the tattoo process. Things like being hungover, having slept bad the night before, no food in your system, being sick or fighting off a cold, other infections.... These are all things that can make it feel worse. Not to mention how the tattooer tattoos, and weather or not you even feel like getting tattooed that day.

People talk about the ribs being crazy painful, but I have this group of tiny college soccer team girls that get rib shit. All big, script, pictures,... You name it. They have no problems at all. Soccer girls and snipers are the best for that shit. People who can accomplish a goal under duress make the best clients. They are able to not even see it as discomfort.

BUT I also tattoo big burly dudes who get all stressed and titchy over outer arm tattoos. You can see them just in agony. It's all different.

I was told that the inner bicep was hell. That's why everyone in the 90's who was getting tribal armbands would leave that are blank and have it not connect. I waited forever to do that spot. Come to find out it was the easiest shit for me to deal with. Possibly one of the two tattoos I could have fallen asleep getting.

My legs on the other hand? FUck. In normal places on my leg where normal ass people get normal ass butterflies and shit... FUCK shit is ridiculous. Hurts my soul. Getting my ankes tattooed makes me feel like a girl broke up with me in 8th grade.

Thanks dudes. Stephan, I've always liked your shit.

I never even saw this part of the forum. I just went all head first into long winded annoying posts.

Anyway.

I'm Ron Wells.

I work at Anonymous Tattoo in Savannah GA, but may soon be relocating back to New England where I'm from.

Hello all!

All the parts of this are tattooed really well, but I'm going to be the jerk and say that I wish you didn't add all the extra stuff. I feel like it ruins the silhouette of what is truly one of the stand out pieces in that whole book. I think you loose the coolness of the mask and how strange it looks by cramming a bunch of unneeded ephemera. Again, its tattooed real well.

next is our counter guy, Matte Wagner.

He does a lot of cool collage shit.

His is titled "Evolutionarianism"

It's a digital collage on paper. Mounted on wood.

Here's mine. It's a front and back of the same imaginary person.

They are titled: "A Travelling Man 1 & 2"

Ink and watercolor on paper. Mounted on wood, and shellaced.

72x36

Thanks. Hope you enjoyed.

Next is Zack Spurlock.

His are titled "untitled"(panther) and "Chains"(jap)

Liquid acrylic on paper. Mounted on wood.

Next is Ricky McGee

His are both "Untitled"

Charcoal and acrylic on wood.

Ok well, let's see. Hope this helps build the thread. Not really sure if there's any theme or anything here or if we are just posting work.

So here:

Our shop (Anonymous Tattoo) just had an opening for a show of paintings we've all been working on and planning for the past 9 months or so.

We each did two body suit paintings. However we felt like doing them. Some are very tattoo-ish some are more painterly and loose.

Hope you enjoy.

First up is Clay McCay.

His are titled: "Kundalini" and "dragon"

Acrylic on wood. I think they're like 7 feet tall. by probably 3 wide.

Next is Kim Reed.

Hers are titled: "Garden of Eden 1 & 2"

Oil on canvas