hogg

One more session on this Martin Hildebrandt tribute, by Rich Hardy. Damn did that lower torso session suck.

Granddaughter's 6th birthday party yesterday.

We noticed that "Marshall" the mule next door was in distress. We found he had a 2 1/2" infected cut on his lower leg. The owners disappear for weeks at a time so we had to call the SPCA. The poor guy can barely walk and needs immediate medical care.

From Saturday... Bottom of shin/top of foot

Jeff Zuck @ Name Brand
Saturday night, went to see Motorhead for probably the last time. Fun and sad at the same time as Lem seems every bit of his hard lived 69 years of age. I've seen them almost 20 times and this was kind of a teary goodbye for me.......

Hello, my name is Chris hailing from the Toronto, ON area. I'm an apprentice, 8 months in, at a small shop west of the city. Finally decided to join the site after lurking for quite some time. The site has been really helpful and insightful for me, and I'm excited to share my work and thoughts with everybody here.
Here are some sheets I have painted this year. Thanks for looking!

Yikes!

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I remember talking about tattoos 15 years ago at my Dad's house. He has an old one on his shoulder from the navy, circa 1954. My wife just got a small traditional rose (her deceased mother's name was "Rose") and I already had two. My conservative brother then blurts out, "Only bikers and whores have tattoos."
You could hear a pin drop.
My wife was about to jump his shit when I jump in and say, "Well, it looks like we'll need to buy you a Harley since you sure aren't a whore." I gave him the stink eye. My sister even came to her rescue saying, "I have eye liner tattooed to my eyelids and I'm no whore." My brother backed down and stayed that way. Dick move was called out.

my 7yo nephew:
"Uncle Eric, why do you have a Chinese guy on your back?"
"Uncle Eric, do you have a tattoo on your bum?"
"Uncle Eric, I'm gonna get a tattoo like you. Like a Metal Mulisha tattoo. Or maybe Fox Racing."
...don't worry kiddo, Uncle Eric will set you straight when you're old enough ;)

I did not know what my my side/rib/hip tattoo was going to be until I met with the artist at the show,a couple years ago,
and I had a first session yesterday on my arm/shoulder,I told the artist that I liked water lilies and skulls and told her she could do whatever she wanted with those basic elements,she loved it,I consulted with her a week ago and when she showed me the drawing,I was blown away and told her I love it and to do it that way,and IMO this tattoo is going to be amazing !

This is fantastic advice. My thighs swelled, but nothing remotely close to how swollen my lower leg tattoos were. I think you'll be fine.
And have a blast at SOG (one of my favorite shops) and SF (my city)!

I want to wear those to my office next Halloween, then take them off at lunch and see if anyone notices.

The part of the story I find perplexing is this "teacher" went with these students to a tattoo parlor? Was this same teacher having alcohol with the kid that were able to drink? This just seems like a recipe for something destructive.
I grew up in a different time, I would never had wanted to hang out with a teacher and vice versa. There was a distance between teachers and students.

A belated hello LST!
I’ve been posting here for over a year, but I realized that I never did the obligatory introductory post. So here goes...
I’m a female, in my late 50s. I started getting tattooed kind of late, around when I turned 50, when my husband suggested I get a tattoo because he thought it would be attractive. I was reluctant, but finally said “what the heck! It will be an adventure, and he will be happy. I’ll get one, and that will be it.” So I got a well-hidden tattoo. I loved it, and wanted another. I was hooked! I wanted another one, and then more and more. I now have eight, including half sleeves, and I’m thinking about a back piece.
I’m otherwise pretty conventional, and work in a professional business setting, and have something of a mental block about showing my tattoos in public, even though I love, love, LOVE them. Old lessons are hard to unlearn, and I fear being judged or stereotyped. LST folks have given me support, and partly as a result of that, It hink I’m getting to a point where I can more comfortably go public with my ink.
I joined LST because I have no, none, zero, zip friends (except my husband) with whom I can share my tattoo enthusiasm. I really like being part of the tattooed community, among people who are accepting, supportive, and enthusiastic about tattooing, people who “get it,” who know what it is like to feel the needle, understand the near addictive attraction, and have stories and experiences to share. I love to talk about tattoos and tattooing. I love being tattooed, it matters a lot to me. It is an essential part of who I am now, both physically and mentally.
LST is my outlet!

I am Marcel, 38 from Hoofddorp, Netherlands (10 miles from Amsterdam). (sorry for my grammar as it's not my native language)
Was just looking around the net and came across this forum, did a quick look around and think I could spend some time here :)
Because of that it is nice to introduce myself so here goes..
I started with a little tribal on the shoulder when I was 17, couple of years later another bigger tribal covered up the small one..
At this point I didn't know there are good, better and master artists. A tattoo artist is a tattoo artist....How wrong could I be...
Started looking up different artists in my country and talking to other inked people where to go for the best work.
Couple of years went by without getting any new ink...But then my mother died, that is almost 5 years ago now which changed my mind to wait any longer.
I found a good artist in Amsterdam: Tycho Veldhoen
He was an apprentice from Holland's most known tattoo artist: Henk Schiffmacher and his wife at the time, now he's one of Hollands best.
Now I'm just 4 appointments away from a body suit...Which I'll post when I can use HTML otherwise there will be a huge number of posts in this thread.
Tnx for reading, any questions..?? Just ask :)
See you around..!!
Marcel.

Hahahaha! Those are great. Oh man...a treasure trove, indeed.
Reminds me of a story that an old friend of mine told me. He was getting tattooed by Chris Trevino around 1991, when Chris and Sean Degan still had Perfection in San Antonio. A guy comes in with his girlfriend and says, "I want this." It's a horrible likeness of his girlfriend with the words "SWEET CHILD O' MINE." Chris says, "Yeah, I could do that, but I won't put that drawing on you. I'd fix it up first." At which time his girlfriend interrupts and says, very angrily, "No! I DREW THAT! That's how it has to be."
I think they went someplace else.

The peony on my left arm was done over a very dark older tattoo with a lot of black in it. This was done in 2011 and the white and blue have held up well since then. I'll have the white touched up on a future appointment. I would have never guessed it was possible and was entertaining a chemical peel or having it lasered off.

i got my elbow tattooed yesterday by ivan soyars @ old soul tattoo; canonsburg, pa.

Hi Jeff,
I will give you the polite mesaage before harsher fellas chime in. This is more a forum for tattoo appreciators. It is not a place where we, who are mostly clients as opposed to tattooers, discuss technical aspects of the craft.
Good luck in your search for info, but you won't find it here.

Most of what I post isn't so consistently death oriented, but I can and do love to tattoo in that style about 90% of the time.
http://instagram.com/handoftheforge

Had a whirlwind trip to Demnmark this weekend for my second session with Henning Jørgensen. I am extremely happy with how it's turning out.

After going big, I go home; I prefer to shower there.

Kneecap fully healed by Danny Rossiter at Rain City Manchester - Bonus healed monmon cat!

This is so crazy. At first I thought it was one of those rumors that exploded and you could snopes it and find out it's really bullshit. Oh boy, it's true. Thank you , Internet, for community exposure. Shit like this would actually land without it.

Signed it.
And I know that this has been posted by at least one other member, but it deserves its own thread. Thanks for starting it, @cltattooing.

Signed it.
And I know that this has been posted by at least one other member, but it deserves its own thread. Thanks for starting it, @cltattooing.

Signed it.
And I know that this has been posted by at least one other member, but it deserves its own thread. Thanks for starting it, @cltattooing.

From an artists perspective, i'd say go in at least with an idea of the tattoos the artist youve chosen has done that you like and explain why you like them (colours, layout,subject etc) and at best say youd like something along those lines.
dont go in saying 'do what you want', no one ever really means that and if they explain something they'd be stoked to do and you say, yeah but not that. well, then you will have a deflated and slightly annoyed artist in your hands, vague guidance is great.
the artist puts out there work theyve enjoyed or that shows their ability, all within the realm of what that customer asked for, however, so just cos you like what you see them posting doesnt mean it's what they want to do, it might be something entirely different that they simply havent gotten a chance to tattoo ever before.