dari

Still don't get it.

I mean, I suppose it'd be cool to have a tattoo drawn by Paul McCartney, if the design didn't suck, but I think I'd much rather have a cup of coffee with him. Or more preferably, a dress designed by his daughter.

I don't get it.

How about if we just decide that Iwar's hotel is the center of the earth, and spiral outwards from there? I'd love to go back to Source again, but I'm kind of a kook. I know he'll be kinda close to Golden Era, although that place always gives me a stomach ache, but probably from eating too much. I'm open to anything, except the Ruth Chris type spots. We could also just go to the Mission. Can anyone think of a Mexican place that can seat a large party and not be rushing us out the door? We could also maybe do a sushi thing somewhere, I know that there's one place in the Castro on Church that has a back room for private parties. Chow on Church can also be fun, depends how big our group is going to be.

Yelp | Search Businesses In San Francisco

Possible spoiler alert.... (?)

Did anyone else think that Opey had a weird look on his face during the vows/ring exchange? For a second, I thought he was gonna back down. I loved how this season opener ended, it's gonna be a good one!

The 21st would work for us, too, I believe.

Glad to have you here, thanks for chiming in! BTW, on the top right in red, it sometimes goes unnoticed, that's where you check your notifications for private messages, likes and mentions. I did move that post for you, just message me if you run into any other problems.

Thanks,

Dari

I love this idea. When I can figure out what that green thing on my grandfather's arm was, maybe I'll get it on me. And there's no way you could go wrong with that design.

I'm generally a romantic and a defender of the young and foolish, so I want to like this "tattoo concept," but I just can't pull it off. Maybe I could've gotten closer if he'd taken off that hat.

The first chicks arm does just look like some child painted on her, I'm sure that was the idea though.

My kids have always been big on drawing on themselves, I think like most kids. Unlike most parents, we don't tell them no, or to stop. It was actually one of my son's preschool teachers that decided my son could color on himself in any fashion, saying that it was our "family culture." That being said, my two yr old daughter's "tattoos," as she calls them, rarely look as good, placement wise, as that first picture.

Hello all,

A few days before the show comes down, Space Gallery has posted photos from the Blackheart Show. I'm sure that whatever doesn't sell in the gallery can be bought from the artists themselves post show:

Black Heart Tattoo SCAB-FREE : Space Gallery

I'd recommend against that. When not used to shaving that area on the leg it's very easy to put little nicks in it. Cuts (shallow or not) are bad thing for the area to get tattooed.

Good point! I never would have thought of that.

Sorry to go off topic here, but I saw a picture of this lamp on Tim Hendricks blog, and it was truly stunning!!

I agree! It was worth it. If all the stuff doesn't sell in the gallery, we will eventually put it on here.

I'm not a tattooer, just a tattooer's wife, but I know my husband makes lots of sacrifices regarding creating art and traveling and building cars and riding motorcycles and doing all kinds of things that he used to do. He is lucky, however, in that he'd been tattooing for at least 15 years before we had kids. But yeah, tattooing as a job can be hard on family life. For the past few months, Scott was painting his ass off for an art show, which meant that he was up 'til really late every night, which meant that I couldn't leave the house at 6:00 am to go practice yoga, which is part of what keeps me sane(ish.) And then on a bunch of nights when he'd normally be home, he was at his warehouse working on a lamp that he was super excited about, so the impending art show really hijacked my life. I solo parent a lot due to the hours that tattooing requires, but this was much more than usual, so I skipped a lot of the normal stuff I'd be doing. There's always sacrifice in parenting, unless you're a really shitty parent.

Kids do make painting and tattooing harder. Our kids steal all Scott's pencils and good pens, he can never find an eraser, they play with his watercolors and mess up all his brushes and keep asking him to draw stuff for them or make paper airplanes or just insist on sitting on his lap while he's trying to draw for work. Right now Scott's in the middle of a 2 week Sweden trip. Guess what? I'm exhausted. Tattooing makes parenting harder, especially for the one occasionally or frequently parenting alone. But you know what? Every time I talk to Scott, all he talks about is how much he misses the kids. He says, "I mean, of course I miss you, too, but it's different with them." And I totally get it.

To quote Freddy Corbin, "Kids make everything harder. And they make everything wonderful."

Funny. One of my best friends from Philly is out here visiting. She lived here in San Francisco and Oakland for about 10 years, but moved back for more affordability regarding buying a home. Her wife called to say that the hospital she works at in Philly was being evacuated. When I first moved out here, lots of people asked me if I was afraid of the earthquakes. Almost everything out here's retrofitted to be earthquake safe or built that way in the first place. I'm not saying that I want the whole east coast to crumble to the ground or anything, but would be ironic.

Such a bummer to sign on and see 3 pages on this thread that only started yesterday. For the record, I can close a thread so we don't have to go on and on in circles, I might've closed it as soon as the other thread on tattooers with little to no tattoos was referenced. I appreciate that everyone was civil and thoughtful in their responses, and everything has been resolved, but I'm going to close this thread. Please feel free to "report a post/thread" if it ever feels needed, that's the little ! in a triangle on the bottom of every post, left of center. And the next time someone new to LST asks a question about "breaking into the business," we can refer them to THIS thread.

BTW, welcome to LST areilla.

Wow, NATFMS sounds like a pretty cool organization. American tattoo history is all about the enlisted man, its great that it's partially designed to show them respect and keep them from getting ripped off. As far as this-

I know these are kind of incomplete but if you would like I can make a thread that has all of the regs as current as I can find. The regs change pretty regularly so it will have to be updated occasionally. Just let me know and i can get everything together.

It sounds as though this could be an awful lot of work for you, but it would be a great resource for other tattooers that aren't near bases, and I'm sure a lot of people would find the whole NATFMS pretty interesting. I can speak for the rest of us at LST that we'd love to have that thread if you were willing to put it together.

Personally, I only know one person in the marines. He more or less has a full bodysuit, but he's a sniper medic and has done multiple tours in Afghanistan and elsewhere, maybe they need him enough to let him do whatever he wants. (?)

By the way, we also have two kids. 180 miles round trip is crazy! Although, my husband will be waking up in Sweden to do some more tattooing in a few hours, so I get the traveling for a job that you love thing. Is where you and your family lives much nicer than closer to your shop?

The shop that I work at is a part of NATFMS, which means that we will not tattoo anyone who is in the armed services outside of that branches regs. I think its pretty cool, especially when the vast majority of the clientele are new in the Army.

Hi Schmitty,

Welcome to LST. Can you tell us a little more about NATFMS and the tattoo regulations for the different military branches? I read the article that Jaycel had posted, but it was a little confusing. I don't know anything about this, and I'm sure I'm not the only one on here who's more than a little curious.

Thanks,

Dari

Hey, besides the friends I did see, did anyone else make it to the Blackheart show last night? There were quite a few amazing pieces there, and a great turn out.

I just looked, it doesn't seem to be one of the things I can change either, although I can change your signature or avatar.

Steve?

when I came out of the shadows I had to put shades

on cause this place was so enlightening.

glad you joined

Good one

Wow, irezumi, thanks for those.

Hello and welcome! Have you photographed your own tattoos?

Hello and thanks for joining in on our little party.