frankentooth

Welcome or (re-Welcome)! I like your work!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back!

I have to do it. I'm sorry.

Just stoppin' in to say hello, My name is Krista and I'm an apprentice just startin' out my journey. I've been learning the ins and outs of the trade for the past 4 years out here and just love it. Nice to meet everyone and hope you have a great day! I have some of my work posted on my tumblr account if you wanna check it out, www.tumblr.com/frankentooth or a few pictures I've posted on here. :)
- krista

I don't have television for the reason of shows like these. I'm still an apprentice, have been for the past 4 years and I know I may not know a whole hell of a lot yet but I try to read as much as possible, talk with older folks, and find as much as I can. I feel as though shows like this portray tattoo artists as a joke. They over dramatize the industry for ratings and make every viewer an expert on tattoos. I work with great people who've been tattooing for many many years and I respect the hell out of them and to see something that they've worked their whole lives for and that we all love shown as a high school sissy fighting contest I feel saddened. Not to mention that being as how people aren't exactly the smartest these days and no one tries to find anything out for themselves they just listen to the television.. we have a barrage of arrogant asshole customers thinking they know better than us and that everything should only take "15 minutes". This show is just another recycled piece of crap like all the rest, top chef,next top model, etc. My thought is if you don't like whats going on, than turn off the television once ratings go down things go away. Just my two cents.
cheers,
krista

This makes my blood boil up into my scalp. Everyone gets a few days in the year to feel like shit and be sad. Work is hard, and tattooing is REALLY hard some days. Clients can make you feel like you'll never make them happy, appointments can start to back up... and most of all, sadly, other tattooers in your city can make you just want to quit on certain days.
It happens.
But as a young'n of 29 years myself, working in tattoo shops for 9 years now, I still can see the bright bits of light through the clouds on those days and man... I'm PSYCHED to be where I am, and I feel lucky to have this job.
I don't understand the type of tattooer who has been doing this for not long enough to be jaded and crusty, yet wants so badly to have that old man attitude of "No Tits in the Biz" or "That guy needs his thumbs cut off" or "This job ain't what it used to be" or... well, being a complaining, whining, crusty curmudgeon who'd rather TALK about everytihng wrong with tattooing and the other tattooers in his city, than he would just sit down and zip the lips and work on learning to draw hands better or doodle something that you can sell later....
It's SUCH an amazing job. It affords us the craziest opportunities all in the name of doing something that most of us don't just "love," but are consumed by.
I just want to offer this pat on the back to keep in your pocket and next time you feel like you're having a complainy day about this amazing job, take it out, pat yourself, and remember you're doing this for you, so smile and pick up a pencial and be thankful you're still making it.

I don't have television for the reason of shows like these. I'm still an apprentice, have been for the past 4 years and I know I may not know a whole hell of a lot yet but I try to read as much as possible, talk with older folks, and find as much as I can. I feel as though shows like this portray tattoo artists as a joke. They over dramatize the industry for ratings and make every viewer an expert on tattoos. I work with great people who've been tattooing for many many years and I respect the hell out of them and to see something that they've worked their whole lives for and that we all love shown as a high school sissy fighting contest I feel saddened. Not to mention that being as how people aren't exactly the smartest these days and no one tries to find anything out for themselves they just listen to the television.. we have a barrage of arrogant asshole customers thinking they know better than us and that everything should only take "15 minutes". This show is just another recycled piece of crap like all the rest, top chef,next top model, etc. My thought is if you don't like whats going on, than turn off the television once ratings go down things go away. Just my two cents.
cheers,
krista

Here's something (sorry for the length) taken from the blog of a fairly well known and well respected tattoo artist. I think I'll omit his name for now.

"I've always found anti-social imagery compelling. It challenges ones common sense; a persons sense of decency and their idea of "Good & Evil".
It also can adversely reaffirm ones core instinctual concept of right and wrong and, if you are so inclined, bolster a persons "Fuck You" attitude about the world around them. So in this regard such "taboo" subjects prove to be different masters for different servants.
I find the hazy margin of ambiguousness an image commonly held as offensive exists in fascinating. How is it that one image is acceptable to one person while it causes another to shrink in terror or sneer in disgust? Inside this line in the sand so to speak are the real questions.A question that cuts to the core of the subject matter itself. What is right and what is wrong? If there is such a thing why can't everyone agree what it is in the first place? And more over an even deeper question arises from that as well. If we are merely animals then wouldn't the horrendous nature of such a dark symbology just be an extension of our core instinct to annihilate what ever gets in out way?
Finally where do you fall INSIDE the line of demarcation ? This taboo no mans land?
While I obviously Cringe at the idea of romanticizing Nazism in any form and just so I'm clear I don't feel the manner in which this painting was conceived does that by the way, what is it about this painting that identify with and even like? Why would I chose to spend my time painting such negativity into the world?
Perhaps it's my desire to be left alone by most people? Nothing in the world could possibly top this as a way of letting people know to stay the hell away from you. Still I feel the composition grasps on to a certain charm as rotten as the core may be.
My painting is drawn in a style indicative of 80's tattooing A period of time I view as more cut and dry compared to today's blurred line of reality and fantasy. Of real and unreal. Of scripted reality Vs. cold harsh brutal reality.Of black and white (no pun intended).
Happiness and "feeling good" is what our society is based upon here in the West after all. This belief sprung from the 1960's, flourished in the 70's, matured in the 80's and 90's. And now at the start of a new decade in a new millennium the cracks have begun to form at the base of this structure from the shear weight of all of its moral and social entitlements. And of its own grotesque vices as well....I'm Left to ponder: what are the consequence of this way of life both good and bad going to be for us all?
I feel I made this painting because I just felt like adding a few more needles to Joe camel's back so to speak. Not for some kind of pro-nationalist statement or an affirmation of some kind of bloated illogical racial idea but because I felt like saying fuck this easygoing softness in us. I want the viewer to reaffirm their commitments. I want them to think past the fleeting pathetic pre-programmed plastic knee jerk television has drummed into them. I want the viewer to connect to the painting in a manner that causes either anger and resentment or praise and adoration. And ultimately I want the viewer to emerge from the moral no man's land that so many in today's world apathetically wonder through recommitted. I want battle lines to be draw so we can bring last centuries tired arguments and the beginning of this centuries short comings and false promises to a close.
In essence I want the house of cards to fall."