Dan S

@Dan S if I ever find myself on vacation in Chicago, at least I know when i get out, I'm not far from Hot Doug's.

There ya go...a little too tony for me, but I hear tell it's good. Personally, I'd stick with Manny's-best bang for the buck in the Chi.

I've always said you just can't trust a guy with a nekkid face and no tattoos.

Somebody always knows a guy.

So, many, many moons ago, I got an all-expense paid vacation at an all-inclusive luxury resort at 26th & California in Chicago. Locals will know what I mean. While I was there, I hear from my boys on the street about a guy slingin out of a motel near a local truckstop. He's doing pretty much whatever you want for the price of a quarter-bag. Hey-it was the seventies. Anyhow.

New vacationer comes in, he's got this big, funky green dragon tattooed on his arm.

"Where'd'ja get it?"

"At a party at a motel onna Sout Side"

"How much"

"Twennyfi bux."

"BUT IT ITCHES!!!"

Man, that thing was still oozing from a hole in the center about six months later when I had to leave! Turns out I stayed friends with the guy, and that damn tattoo didn't heal for almost a year. Don't know what kind of infection it had, but it would skin-over, then break open and start oozing again. Nasty.

Oh, and someone stomped the scratcher and busted up his shit after he put some shabby work on a chick. Sout Side, baby.

R.I.P. Gip MPGL

I wouldn't want to restrict people from viewing parts of the board, but I think we could benefit from more uninterrupted advice and perspective from qualified people, but really blogs could fill that niche.

Blogs would work, but you really have to look for them. Don't know how many people do.

You could always set a certain board, say the "Professonal Tattoers Advice to the Tattoo-Lorn", as a read-only board for all but members of a certain group, like "Professional Tattooer". Not a problem at all. Then anyone could read the board, submit questions via PM, and it wouldn't get clogged with all kinds of "what type of lotion should I use for my zit-on-a-stick?".

I can certainly understand the appeal of cash, but it may not always be practical.

I have been in many shops where I wouldn't WANT to walk to the end of the block for coffee, let alone to stand at an ATM and take money out and then run the gauntlet back. And I'm not a hardass or tough guy, but if I don't want to do that, I bet not too many other people do. THAT'S where the CC comes in handy.

As far as processing fees go, you can shop around and get the best rate possible. We have to take CC, and when we started to, I think our rate was like 6%, but now we are down to about 2.25%. Makes a major difference.

You aren't "supposed" to charge extra for using a card, but I would build that right into the price, and if the customer offered to pay cash, then you can always give them warm and fuzzies by offering a discount.

Dont have a lot of experience with forum software, but I think merging new redundant threads, would clean up things a lot and these are the things that clog up the forum. Moving posts would be nice, but probably not neccesary. I also know there is only so much time in the day. I guess the only other thing I could think of, is once again increasing post counts before posting threads but not sure if that works

Well, I've run a couple different forums that both used vbulletin-type software, so that's my only frame of reference. Using Jelsoft, I believe you can merge threads, but with the Vbulletin, you couldn't merge threads per se, but would have to cut-n-paste original posts, and they wouldn't show up as being posted by the actual writers.

Again, you could have a board, or section, titled "Whi Should Tattoo Me", or whatever, and dump all threads started about that into it. Piece o cake.

As far as increaasing the post count, you can create User Groups, say, "Trusted Poster", and "Trusted Poser", each with it's own distint post count requirement. So if you had a requirement for a "Trusted Poster" of 1,000,000 posts, then a mod would have to manually punch that into the poster's profile. Doing that, you could create boards that are accessible only to certain people. Just a thought.

I'm telling you merging threads as soon as you see redundant threads. People would get the hint right away if every time the asked a question that was already answered it was moved to a thread where 20 other people asked a similar question, it would promote searching the board and clean up the board. I have some suggested titles

What should I get tattooed ( people not sure about design, or people's first tattoo)

Who should tattoo me (thread people can ask advice about what tattooers are in their area)

This one should probably include links to the shops page on this site and the endless days blog about tattooers and the forbes tattoo list.

What is wrong with my tattoo( People freaking out about the healing process)

That would be 95% of threads right there.

Sounds good to me...only problem I can see with it is that depending on the software, it can be difficult or impossible to move individual posts. You can move a thread around with no trouble, so if you made those titles their own boards, then it could be done. Turning the post, or a new thread into a post and sticking it into another thread, well, that's a different story.

Going through all of this, I can certainly understand tattooers getting tired of having people ax the same lame questions every day. Maybe someting to think about would be an addition to the boards, something like "The Lotion Board", "The There's a Tattoo on my Pimple" board, the "Why is my Tattoo Healing/Not Healing/Turning Green" board, like that, to address the commonest questions and get them out of the way.

Since I am not a professional tattooer, mods, please feel free to delete this post if inappropriate.

Just my little .02, but if the goal of the site is to educate the public about good tattooing, then I guess the artists are stuck with having the public post.

I can totally understand tattooers wanting to be able to talk to each other without the counter-crowd looking over their shoulder. I think that could be a valid part of the site, and wouldn't be hard to set-up. The software for most bulletin-board types sites provides for limiting access to various boards to members with differing levels of permissions, based on post-count or other criteria. As far as who gets to post there, I would say strictly established, known tattooers. If someone who did not fit that description wanted to post there, they could contact one of the tattooers who post in the restricted area and ask for a reference. Those allowed in this hypothetical area could be identified with a title, or another customization of their member name.

It's really a double-edged sword, eh?! If you want to educate the public, and in turn, get the opportunity to have clients who appreciate your work and are willing to pay for it, in time and treasure, then you are going to have to interact with them to some extent. And clients, if you want to have the opportunity to get work from someone who can do more than scar you for life, then it behooves you to read and learn here, and to avoid hassling the pros with endless bullshit.

And now you can flame away.

If this is a site for the general public, then don't complain when they show up. If it's a site for professional tattooers, then by all means, don't post if that restriction isn't honored.

Nick, looking forward to your new venture, I'd say "good luck", but lucj won't have anything to do with it! I'm sure your new shop will be a success and an inspiration.

Accept Wotan, reclaim your heritage.

Write it in your native-tongue, I'm sure someone here will be able to translate it.

The great unknown of self-defense..."can I pull the trigger".

If you haven't had to face that choice, I hope you never do.

If you have, you know that it forever changes your life.

Frank Williams is well on his way to being a first-class tattooer, for sure.

As to what they have planned, I'll ride with @David Flores on this and wait to see, but I think I can safely say that Nick has a HUGE collection of tattoo history, including what is probably the largest stash of Cliff Raven's work extant, so I know that wherever they land, the shop will be exciting, historical, and au courant. Their styles compliment each other, and Mario and Nick are both Masters of the trade, and artists to be reckoned with.

Hang on, kids, this promises to be exciting!

Just as a kinda closer, my oldest has booked what I believe is Nick's last opening at CTC. The ink-pig!

I'm pretty happy with Nick's tattooing, so I will stick with him, as long as he doesn't move to frkn Paris or something! I would never rule-out having work done by the other tattooers at CTC, they are all first-rate.

Don't really know too much past this, except that it is anticipated that there will be a new shop opening in a few months.

Just ask the Axis...

I think the girl been booted in the ass about enough. She said she gets it, so leave us all lighten up a tad.

Pretty simple. Talk to your tattooer, ask them how long they figure each session to be, roughly, and about how much they figure on charging for it. TELL them what your budget per sitting is, and let them adjust accordingly.

No sense making it into a mystical transaction, and no reason why you and the tattooer shouldn't both be on the same page vis-a-vis the coinage.

Too many chiefs and not enough indians, as we used to say back in the pre-PC days. Far too many tattooers have simply put a few pieces on their legs, rented a shop, and look ma, I'm a tattooer.

Here's my dumbass moment. Did it on myself. Some people seem to genuinely like it. Me not so much at all. :P

Certainly have seen worse.

Just walk in, he's there most days.

Yeah, it's not THAT serious. I want something by the dude, figured this would be cool, but I have other ideas for easier parts. Plus there's other's I can have do my knees who are around here. I'm in Chicago, plenty of talent to choose from. Thanks for the insight.

Nick Colella at CTC did mine.

I had to travel after I got mine done, left a trail of scabs from Chi to Seattle and back.

Got both of mine done in the same sitting, pretty much solid black over the entire kneecap. Took a good month to heal completely, and maybe a solid week before I could walk comfortably.