Donn

Chris at Scorpion does some great B/G...tell her to go check him out and he is a nice guy to boot.

I am hoping a pic of this pops up on here

I have no idea what your talking about so would a link be possible?

I am always surprised when people open up shops with the name that a simple google search would show is pretty common and already in use. If your going to put all the effort into starting a shop a new name seems like a fairly simple thing.

I have a booth so if you make it stop by the Tattooagogo booth and say hello.

I am going to have a booth at both Austin and San Angelo so if your coming through stop by and say hello. It's always good to meet the people you only know from online...fb, instagram, forums, etc... So stop off at the Tattooagogo booth and let me know who ya are from here.

nah, man. there's no good tattooers that have stayed for decent amounts of time at Three Tides... or Frith Street, or New York Adorned for that matter. Just a rotation of flaky, inexperienced tattooers... right?

If you read my whole post I said that the few exceptions are owned by people with deep roots in the tattoo community not just somebody jumping in the business as an investment. lori from NYA spent years managing one of new yorks biggest shops before she ever opened her shop.

@catchchaser

Just as long as you realize that no truly good tattooer will work for you and that you will only attract the flakier of tattooers because no reputable tattooer will work for you for any length of time. Any decent tattooer that does come your way will jump ship for a real shop as soon as one owned by a tattooer offers him a job. Its the difference between working for a fast food place and a gourmet restaurant, other than a quick paycheck you can't offer them real job advancement because you aren't really part of the business and have no connections.

I am just being honest with you because the few quality shops that are owned by non-tattooers are owned by people who had years in the business before they ever opened a shop, both in working in shops and getting tattooed by top quality people.

I won't even say good luck because I don't really wish it upon you but feel you should know what road lays ahead of you.

richard stell is chuck norris with a better beard

Richard actually was on Walker Tx Ranger twice. We took pics of Chuck in the shop and I am not sure what happened to them.

Tattooers with no tattoos are just Tourist and should be treated as such. They are just looking at the cash and waiting for the next thing to come along.

Got this off Chad Koeplinger at the London convention on friday, I'm proper made up with it!

Any one got any advice on healing inner bicep tattoos though? inside of my bicep is black and blue now it hurts like a bitch :D

Sweet pic and try an icepack and ibuprofen for those nice tender spots that bruise bad. I keep a bag of frozen corn for such occasions.

Glad you found the links to show people how bad some stuff can be when people try to re-invent the rules. A good friend has a tattoo that is published often and it is so photoshopped it looks as different as these two.

Lester at Electric Ladyland does some sweet work.

just a bunch of Tattoo pics

@Donn2

Yeah it sucks to have that area tattooed but the worst is the underside of it...but its all worth it.

A guy in town has a sleeve by him and none of it looks single needle. His stuff looks like it will hold up in the southern sun just fine.

Donn Davis from Tattooagogo in New Orleans here.

Have posted several times but hey I guess I never did this and so glad to officially be here.

If your ever down in new Orleans stop by and say hello.

New York City Tattoo and the Crazy Eddie books are pretty good too.

Hey Jen who did that one?

I worked for him for the time I lived in NYC and had a great time working for him. He new I was into vintage tattoo memorabilia and would bring old flash, machines and photos for me to look at. This was especially great since it was his begining issues of IT that got me into Bert Grim, Todd and Shaw and he would bring in stuff for me to check out and read every few days. I had never worked for an owner who did more to put people in my chair and make sure that all the tattoo tourist who came to check out the mystique that was Fun City sat down with one of the guys working there and went home with a permanent reminder of what tattooing was like before shops mainly populated strip malls.

I know that many don't like his ways or manner but one thing he taught me was that you should never forgets who you are and start believing what you hear about yourself and that if you can't have a good laugh about your life you probably aren't living much of one.

I would go with Richard Stell because he use to have a serval, which is an african wildcat the size of a german shepard and use to go work at a big cat refuge. He is one of those guys who knows animals inside and out, it's because of him I started collecting taxidermy so that I could really study animals and see how they work. I never did get a full body panther from him just a panther/rose/eagle morph about a decade ago, never to late until I run out of room though.

A friend from Albany NY called today and mentioned that a shop there is wrapping on season 1 of "Tattoo School" for TLC. I have no problems with the reality show done by professional tattooers because in reality it has brought many people in the doors wanting bigger stuff but a show that is about teaching people how to tattoo is a different thing altogether. So I hope this winds up being one more reality show that is shot and never shown, like Americas Next Top Tattooer that was done in Texas.

What I like about this site is it doesn't really have anything to do with the tech aspect of the trade. There are enough forums out there that have tons of tech info on it and still people can't figure it out. There isn't much new under the sun and some things are best learned in person.