Cork

Seeing Eddy Deutsche in a couple weeks. Really fucking excited.

I finally have an appointment to get tattooed by Freddy Corbin.
This is the third time I've tried in a bunch of years.
I'm already so stoked :)

Johan Svahn appointment getting so close. @ironchef You busy on April 11th?

Still chipping away at the front. Here's the latest on the right thigh.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDjFMyVMVH7/?taken-by=horitomo_stateofgrace

I've been lazy as all hell and haven't posted any new bangers in a while.......

Right BUTT cheek - Alex Boyko - December

MOM Cover up on the wrist AND LEMMY tribute- Jon Larson - January

©Ankle - Jon Larson - February

Wrist banger - Jon Larson - March

Left SWELLbow - Chad Koeplinger - March

Henning requested pics of my healed back with a black background. Believe it or not, it was tough finding large enough black material like a curtain or spool of cloth but luckily my local dry cleaner had something I could borrow. I had to email him LARGE files because he may publish the photos in something. Fun looking at all the details. Maximize your browser!

One tiny little touch up/detail session left next month!

Tomorrow I get my back finished by Shane O'Neill at Infamous Tattoo. On the 8 hour drive to Delaware today my friend barfed all over the dash of my car not once, not twice, but three times. Now the car is going to reek for the rest of the trip.

I'll be there all day.

Johan Svahn appointment getting so close. @ironchef You busy on April 11th?

I have 2 appointments lined up. First is another piece by Shawn Van Oven at the Electric City Tattoo convention. I will be getting it done on lower right leg next to a piece be did last year. I have no idea on what he is going to do. I told him to surprise me. I trust him and love his style. He knows what I am into and giving him 100% freedom is sure to be a killer tat.
Second date will be in September at the Shamens Den in Binghamton NY. This is my dream tat and I cannot wait. We are flying in Peter Lagergren from Sweden. Not sure on what i am gonna do yet. Torn between some kind of Reaper king on horse, pirate, head hunter king, wolf in sheeps clothing. Any ideas please help me out.

Touchups and party rap with OllieXXX next week.
Trying to line up a tatt-party at Liberty Tattoo for when we hit up Seattle in July.
May also try to squeeze in another banger before then, lots of space and lots of dumb ideas!

Finishing my half sleeve with Yoni Zilber March 29 with a Mandala, flowers, clouds, bars, whatever he wants to use.

Jon Larson - April https://www.instagram.com/larsontattoos111/?hl=en
Joe Chatt - May https://www.instagram.com/ihaveadeathwish/?hl=en
El Monga Sasturain - July https://www.instagram.com/elmongasasturain/?hl=en
Vinny Stevenson - July https://www.instagram.com/vinny_stevenson/?hl=en
El Rotor - July https://www.instagram.com/elrotortattoos/
El Dimoni - July https://www.instagram.com/dimonibcn/
SUPER STOKED to be in Spain this summer....

This is where we are at present.
Even getting close to the nipple sucked so I can't imagine what it feels like on it.
My thoughts are it isn't as stark not being done as I expected as it flows with the clouds etc.
Comments?

I've been gone for a while. I'm stoked to see so many great tattoos being done.
Started my back with Horitomo in December.

Started the line work on my lower sleeve today with a Jizu - will be adding a Kannon on a dragon line work on the other side of the arm in a couple of weeks. Than moving on to filling in the gaps and colour. so it begins.

Arm by Dan Innes at Pearl Harbor

cheers thx GraemeHi Becky @Clementine
People ask me hey Budd where did ya get your tattoos done. I just say "Edmonton" haha. We have a lot of tattoo shops per capita which is a good and bad thing. In the sense that we have a lot of accessible good tattooers and saturated with what I consider just-average tattooers; it can be tricky to navigate as a newcomer.
Your first tattoo...the shop itself should as an important qualifier as the tattooers portfolio because we want you to have an awesome and memorable first experience.
Champion Tattoo *
This is Shawn Hedley's shop. He has been tattooing for a long time and is a 'tattooers tattooer'. He is superfriendly, has some great war stories and has a reputation for customer satisfaction. I'd like to get something from Shawn one of these days.
Teddy Kardos* has a few years of experience and is pretty good. Solid dude. He has been tattooed by a lot of wicked tattooers so he knows his stuff. I have the 2nd worst tattoo he's done lol.
Champion looks and feels like a tattoo shop should in my eyes. Walkins always available in all styles. I've been pointing people here lately cause I had such awesome experiences at the shop last year.
Showdown Tattoo & Skateboards
Dope shop in Chinatown.
Casper* works out of here that's who first came to mind for what you've described in your post. I've got some early colour work on my legs from Casper which is funny cause he runs the Blackworkers page and tattoos in black ink exclusively. This is your guy if you want that illustrative/black style. Ryan Buttar does some dope colour traditional and also seen some nice geometric/mandala/fillagree black tattoos. Andrew is a rad dude and does it all. Get Taz or Hot Stuff from him.
Doing Tattoo
This is Severino's shop. He does some incredible grafitti neo-japanese in a very unique big style.
OllieXXX* is my homie he's done about 25% of my tattoos. He does it all but really if you want the brightest god damn colours around and black that's blacker than blackity black. His tattoos are fast and furious but damn do they hold up. Kat may be also be a good choice if you want illustrative or portrait black n grey tattoo.
* I've been tattooed at the shop or by the person
Other decent shops:
Lucky Strike Tattoo*
Fountainhead Tattoo
Easy Tiger Tattoo - Spencer Evans new shop. Bunch of pals have small trad bangers from him and they like em.
Shades of Grey Tattoo* - cool spot on whyte, esp if you like geek stuff like star wars. Danny Gordey just started doing walkins on weekends here which is amazing opportunity to get a piece from one of the OG-best tattooists in town.
Kirk Shandro - i think he's at atomic dragon or something. nice young dude with a sick tattoo and flash collection. actually his simple black illustrative tattoos may be up your alley.
I know you've said black n grey...that's what i wanted and got for my first...and ended up with a big colourful background. and 10 years later a royGbiv bodysuit life is much fuller in colour. And don't be afraid to go much bigger than you planned ;) tattoos look better that way eh
It really depends what YOU want, I mean that's what tattooing is all about.
But here's a starting point. The rest of the work is you. Good luck ! and let us know how it turns out.

Check out Mike Moses in Columbus, OH. He's very illustrative, but not exactly like the above style. There are plenty of sketchy tattooers in the US however, they usually do full sleeves for a pack of smokes and dimebag.

Hey guys...I'm not on the boards too much lately because frankly, I'm kind of tired of even thinking about tattoos at the moment. This current project I'm working on is the most grueling yet. Once I finish this piece, I think I'll go back to traditional one shots on my arms, because this thing is burning me out. Anyway, I met with Sam Warren recently to work on doing some coloring (so far we've done one for lining, one for black and gray shading, and now one for color). One more session to go next month to finish coloring and maybe do some touching up. Sorry the pic is horrible but have you ever tried taking a picture of your own thigh? It ain't easy.

Here's some close ups of the key components:

made a trip to michigan over the weekend
jeff zuck @ name brand tattoo. not sure why the picture looks weird at the top of the flames

alex boyko @ sunhouse

then today on my way home i swung by old soul and got this from john hill

A little twist on a classic. Picked from the incredibly twisted, but amazing, sketch book of Matt Kerley.

Greggles and I did a thing today. Haven't been in a tattoo shop since last summer. I dunno if that was the reason, or if this spot was just really tender, but holy crap, I feel like I just got hit by a truck! Poor Greg. I was unusually squirmy. Worth it though, as always.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCmDYNNzBHG/
We set the appointment to line my back for April 9th. I am legit scared of a day that consists entirely of lining! Haha. Especially since we're aiming to line the whole freakin' thing in one shot. Excited, though.

@Cork thanks for that, I love Kian's style much to my bank balances disgust. A few days ago I committed to continuing to both ankles, so bodysuit here we come. :)
As for everyone else thanks for the input, I like when the nipples are incorporated into a design and not necessarily tattooed, however at least for my RHS nipple it happens to be right in the middle of background clouds so my guess is we will be tattooing it. :( And if I do RHS then LHS will be done. On the bright side though my front will include the Munewari so at least we don't have to have another conversation about including something else sensitive. :) :)

I got this skull tattooed on my foot yesterday by my good friend Sándor Jordan. Lines done with a machine and everything else he did tebori. Super fun and relaxing way to get tattooed.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCLLOuZjAtJ/?taken-by=jordanist
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCLDBjMkGEY/?taken-by=havetsherre
- - - Updated - - -
I got this skull tattooed on my foot yesterday by my good friend Sándor Jordan. Lines done with a machine and everything else he did tebori. Super fun and relaxing way to get tattooed.