Stewart Robson

I probably won't tattoo my face, save for small parts extending from my hairline. I doubt I'll get my ballsack, perineum or arse hole tattooed. Weiner tattoos are too amusing to say never, but I probably won't. I don't have any desire to get the tips of my fingers tattooed either, or between my toes. Fuck that. Stuff I won't tattoo on you: Genitals or anywhere in your mouth (except people I know, if they are not creepy) That's pretty much it, although I refuse to tattoo plenty of stuff based on personal circumstance. I'm probably not gonna do your first tattoo on your palm or eyelid. Stuff I don't really like tattooing: Lips, eyelids, fingers (+thumbs), ears, elbow, throat, under the chin. I do most of them regularly but they are the type of thing you don't always want to do at the end of a long, busy day.

Awesome. My family had a Greyhound for 12 years, from a rescue centre. She was awesome. Dumb as fuck and highly strung but very affectionate. I tattooed her name on me when she died.

Oh yeah, I was too busy watching, re-watching and downloading the Mike Brown feature to post. Thanks for the heads up!

There's not much more to say about Tattoo Age other than "That looks awesome, can't wait to see it". I think that Tattoo Age and LST interviews have come along at the perfect time. Just when it was hard for serious tattoo people to take tattooer interviews seriously. I don't always love what Vice mag does but I do know that the guys behind Vice magazine and the guys behind Tattoo Age are serious tattoo people. They choose good tattooers and know good tattoos when they see them. Between that and LST it finally feels like high quality tattoo media (other than blogs) is 'for us, by us'. Kinda like a video version of TattooTime. The future of mainstream tattoo culture may look dark but I'm totally stoked about the future of underground tattoo culture!

I've been trying to stay out of this discussion up to now. Both online and at our shop. I'm not sure if this will bum anyone out more than they are already and maybe it's been said by someone else.... A petition with thousands of names will prove to TLC that this show will be watched by enough people for it to matter. Has nobody noticed that reality TV doesn't need reality - it's fuelled by conflict. A petition is conflict before the show even airs. Even banners and gifs on websites are strengthening the TLC brand. Subconsciously reinforcing the fact that their channel is the place to find entertaining conflict to while away your evenings. We all know the reality is that you can't learn to make a decent tattoo in 2 weeks, but that doesn't matter. - The conflict and ensuing drama is the entertainment. TLC are selling entertainment. This literally is already the most talked about TV show in our shop, by customers and tattooers. More than Sons of Anarchy, The Sopranos, The Wire, Hollyoaks, Tattoo Age etc. etc. This will either show how difficult tattooing is and reinforce the idea that TV shows are about exceptional individuals who drive trucks on ice, do tattoos, build massive bridges or go to the moon. - making the existing 'reality' shows more interesting and exotic to joe public. Or it will turn into 'Tattoo X-Factor' - 'Ink-Factor - Do you have what it takes?' The future of mainstream tattoo culture is dark.

I'm sure I'm repeating everything here but... Lady heads are super hard to make nice and super easy to fuck up. I don't have examples or links but some tattooers who I think do/did awesome lady heads (and add their own flavour) are, in no particular order: Chris Conn Valerie Vargas Isaac Fainkujen Bart Bingham Theo Mindell Jack Rudy Sleepy G Bob Wicks Justin Weatherholtz seems to be great at everything. Steve Boltz Chad Koeplinger Chris Garver Tim Hendricks There are plenty of tattooers who constantly do great tattoos but these spring to mind mostly because of their individual subtleties with lady heads. I also didn't include realistic style girl heads 'cos that's slightly different. The girls on most of the zeis flash have some great little nuances too.

A professional magician once showed me how to perform a trick. When I told him I thought things like that were secret, he said that a concert pianist can impart tips and hints to a layman because he can never be a concert pianist. I think that's what Ursula just said. If a harmlessly curious/nervous/interested tattoo customer asks me why Im doing something or what that nice smelling liquid is, I tell them and often quietly explain why. When a nosey customer/wannabe tattooer/apprentice asks what needles or ink I'm using, I tell them its a big sharp one and it's monkey piss, or it's red. I share pretty much everything with my colleagues and peers because that's how I learned almost everything I know. I guess that's a long-winded way of saying "I agree"

Ignore it. Extra cream/lotion/whatever won't help the end result. It sucks but you just gotta ignore it and deal with it.

That's pretty much what I do Ursula, but without re-wrapping. For the first night I wear a t-shirt or sleep on a towel to save leaving ink marks on the sheets. I find I don't sleep well wrapped in cling film/saran wrap.

If you come to my house maybe I'll share my reference library with you. I guess the internet exists solely as a free resource. I've been doing it all wrong. Sorry guys, I get it. It's like Candid Camera or Punk'd or something. Boy, do I look stupid now. I'm done.

On a more helpful note: You can take apart cars and scooters, I'm presuming you can drive. You understand how the machine needs to be used and what the various parts are for. Tattoo machines are more like kit cars than production models. You're gonna need to know WHY something does the thing it does. The only way to learn that is to learn to tattoo well or have a good tattooer explain it to you.

Fuck it, I'm digging out the troll food... Are you insinuating that we are acting tough because we are hiding behind keyboards? I use my real name and I make it clear where I work and what conventions and other shops I attend. My opinions here are my professional opinions. I say the same things face-to-face where I work all the time. I don't use any tough-guy posturing to do that either. This isn't a hobby for me. I'm not hiding behind anything - which is why I don't insult people directly and I try to treat people with respect, unless they show no respect. Maybe that's the fucking problem here. It's clear that you want to help your wife learn to tattoo. Her mentor should be doing that. It's also blatantly clear that you have no respect for tattooing. You don't even think it deserves respect. You think that because you know tattooers and have spent money on tattoo products you are entitled to respect. You didn't piss anyone off, that's not why people keep disagreeing with you. It's because -by your own admission- you didn't care enough to think before you post. You want everyone here to feed information to you, just because you ask, before you search google, before you even think about the matter in hand for a couple of minutes. I'm responding to you because this issue and the responses to it will hopefully be useful to someone else later on. I have no desire to engage in discussion with you directly. If you really think you have pumped so much money into tattooing? why not just buy the dvd anyway? Did you really expect a positive response from anyone here? Why not be active and buy the dvd and post a review? Contribute to LST with something positive or creative. Instead of expecting free help and information. Everything has a price. Thanks.

Jay Foran at Alpha does the best 'art prints' I've seen. Most other printers will just give you digital prints/photocopies. Anyone who does Giclée 'art' prints will be able to advise you about paper, sizes and supplying artwork etc. Don't expect to pay print.com prices for Giclée prints on archival quality paper. Depends on the number of copies and price you want to pay I guess.

I thought I did answer the original question. Almost every thread you've started here didn't need to be posted. 5 minutes of thought would have answered your own question. There's an 'old' saying regarding people who constantly make 'controversial' threads and posts on internet forums. "Do not feed the trolls" Do you realise that one of the founders of this site makes some of the best tattoo machines available? Do you realise that many forum members and interviewees also make the highest quality machines and other equipment? It's not about you making money, nobody cares. It's about respect and acting professional while asking professionals (and serious enthusiasts) for advice. People come here to discuss topics in an informative and hopefully positive way. It's hard to do that when people ask if a dvd is a good place to learn anything to do with tattooing. Here's an honest tip: There is NO Bob Ross of tattooing. It's also not like Popular Mechanics or Model Engineering where everybody shares their tips and advice to everyone. You can complain all you like about people being smart asses or dicks, but we've all been in the same position. Really, we have. We found our own way, often with help, but we had to earn that help, usually face-to-face. The journey and the self-discovery is what makes the outcome more valuable. I didn't always tattoo in a shop but I found that pretty much anything I could buy from someone who didn't care where I worked wasn't worth buying. I've said too much. I'm going back to not feeding trolls...

Born in Middlesbrough. Raised in SW Co. Durham. That 'world food market' tours the grim towns to pretend they have culture too. I've had their boar, kangaroo, crocodile etc burgers in Huddersfield, Leeds, York, Halifax, Sheffield and Derby. - My rule of thumb is that if a town has a large slab of modern art next to the bus station that nobody understands, it probably doesn't have a lot of homegrown artistic culture. :) Newcastle is actually ok, there's just a whole load of nothing around it. The shittest places usually foster the great bands though. Venom were from N'castle.

Tuning and building tattoo machines is totally easy. Anybody can do it. I have a drawer full of machines and every singe one of them was made or tuned by someone who did it according to a manual, on their day off from a real job. I learned everything I know (tattooing and otherwise) from a dvd too.

Bummer that I'll miss the exhibit. I'll be in SF in October. I've seen a few of Hardy's originals in various tattoo shops around the world. It always feel special to view one in person. Mel, Newcastle has culture? :p The North East in general is more or less culturally barren, except Lindisfarne, but that's barren in a different way. Yep, I've been to the north east. I'm from there. I visit often. I love it there but there's a reason I don't live there.;) Exhibits with this potential are rare. It's even more rare that anywhere other than SF, Tokyo, Osaka, Madrid, Stockholm, Milan, NYC have anything close to the quality or importance of this exhibit. I guess I'll have to wait for a book to be released.

Then offer the painting to your kind friends for auction. Highest bidder wins. Problem solved. Then you can paint another for the second-highest bidder. Everybody wins. Maybe art school didn't curse you with a sense of entitlement. If not, you were lucky, It took me years to try and shake it. but TV shows sure made you think that sentiment and romance make sub-standard work justifiable. I'm afraid that once you paint tattoo imagery and show it to professionals you are held to the same standards as professionals. So one of the hardest things about tattooing is learning to take advice without offering excuses and reasons. It's difficult and it hurts but you need to take it on the chin and learn from it. I'm sure any tattooer worth their salt would agree.

That's why we have a phone at the shop. I hate answering emails. Well, I hate answering the phone too, but someone gets paid to do that for me. Your question will probably be answered within minutes if you call. Days, weeks or never if you email. Although some tattooers prefer email. I agree with CaptCanada, check their website. If there's a phone number call it.

Like Deb I've done this a load of times. I'm usually pretty organised and take notes but sometimes I don't feel like I need notes. Usually because the design is pretty self explanatory or a large chunk of it will be drawn on the skin or at least figured out on the day an pieced together from smaller stencils. A sleeve of carp and peonies for instance, doesn't need to be pre-thought out with sketches. I draw the individual elements and fit them together on the skin. I wouldn't take notes and make sketches for something like that. Two days is plenty of time to draw a subject that you're familiar with.

A few years ago I tattooed someone who had a lot of experience with decorative tattooing, cosmetic tattooing, makeup and cosmetic surgery in general. After telling me in great detail how he was unhappy with his tattooed eyebrows he did give me a great piece of advice. He said that trying to get the exact colour wasn't important as foundation as other makeup would be applied anyway. He wanted his eyebrows re-tattooed with black or mid-grey as an accurate guide to draw them on every day. That was something I had never thought of. He also told me that your eyebrows should be one or two shades lighter than your hair! I thought that was an odd thing to tell me until I realised I could apply that pinups and girl head tattoos.

This is sadly very true. The day we are forced to use pigments that have passed a safety test is the same day we tattoo with food dye. Six months later, your tattoo will look like shit. Maybe it will seem to someone that this is a good idea - just pay for regular touch-ups, but it isn't. keep tattooing the same patch regularly and it will be an inflexible scar in a couple of years or so. It hurt enough the first time too, thanks. The reason tattoos are permanent is because the ink is NOT safe for the body. The skin protects the body (organs, muscles etc) by holding the ink/pigment where it entered. Yeah, we don't want to use pigment that corrodes the skin and we don't want to use ink that's contaminated. But I like my tattoos to look good. I know they are not 'safe', I paid someone to break my skin and draw skulls, tits, devils, dragons an' shit. Sadly, in mainland Europe Shawn's scenario has began to be real. Certain brands of ink are blacklisted and approved brand's bottles must have batch numbers and expiry dates etc. An un-announced visit by the health board that discovers blacklisted ink can result in your shop being shut down. The brands are not blacklisted because they make shitty tattoos, nor because they are dangerous. Almost anyone reading this will have some of that ink in their skin. Personally, as a tattooer, I like the idea of a craftsman using tools and materials that are the result of another craftsman's passion, experience and expertise. Some of the highest quality materials in tattooing (ink, machines, grips, pens, power supplies etc.) are made by individuals or at least 'cottage industries'. I love being able to speak to the guy who made my equipment and buy it directly from him. Giving him/her feedback about it improves the product too. Demanding that your tattooer use government approved equipment will harm the end result. Not to mention inflate the price drastically. Lets not even get into the discussion of working across different states, countries or continents with 'approved' equipment. Jeez. I need to lighten up and post more one-liners.

This could be cool. I'm looking forward to it.

Another great interview with some insightful ideas. I love the format of these interviews, with no editing or agenda it's a joy to watch. They're testament to Scott's respect for the subjects and his skill as an interviewer. i'm looking forward to the next one.

I know I'm late to the party with this. I'm not really a fan of the embroidered things but for me the difference was that smiling.politely was playing 'our' game. Tattooers paint tattoo imagery based on the designs we have practiced and/or developed for years. Ursula is using traditional tattoo imagery, pretty much straight from old flash but in a different medium. Most tattooers don't embroider and it doesn't really have a place in tattooing or it's history. It's a different game, so it's not disrespectful to professionals who work hard to produce a high-quality version of the same thing. It came across as kind of quaint and hobby-ish - I mean no disrespect by that.