Dan S

So, to start, your tattoo is going to cost you, probably, like $1000, for one lousy word! Most decent shops have a minimum charge for tattoos, in the places I've sen in major cities, it typically runs about a hundred bux an hour. You will get charged that regardless, one letter or the entire dictionary.

Add that to the drawbacks you list above, maybe think about getting "wanderlust" tattooed on you in whatever language you find the locals speaking...English, German, French, Liverpudlian, whatever. Pick a spot, maybe on the legs, since they motte you everywhere you travel, and make a band of the words?

Just an idle thought.

Poor soul?

No, that would be described as DUMBASS! Getting tattoos from unqualified kitchen-mechanics just isn't very bright.

Righteous work. Now all he needs to do is go back to the first place, bust up all his equipment, and do the roadhouse hop on the tattooers head.

Damn, Andrew! Five days and none a these hosebags has even said hi to ya?!?!?!?!?!

Welcome to LST, hope you enjoy your stay on the boards!

Got my package today, including all the extra goodies...excellent stuff, thanks!!!

Took my baby (21 year old) sister to the aquarium yesterday and got to pet sharks. It was awesome.

Yeah, I had to go to my lawyer's office yesterday, too.

If people around you are judging you based on a little bit of tattoo peeking out from under a sleeve, then you're most definitely hanging with the wrong crowd.

Well, I've got work that's 40 years old, thereabouts, and I've never done any "maintenance" at all. Guess a lot depends on how they were put in in the first place.

Dry heal. In my admittedly limited experience the less I do to the tattoo the better it heals anyway.

Typically don't use anything until a few days after getting new work done. For whatever reason, if I wait two or three days, then use lotion VERY sparingly, it seems to work the best.

Wait what is this and how do I get one? I take the greyhound 4 times a week!

PS we had a nice quick visit to New York, which ended with being notified, during our drive home, that we got the dream apartment that we applied for on Monday! It is a fucking palace of an abode at an insanely reasonable price and it will finally be enough space for all our books, art and animals!!! There are so many rooms that I'll never have to talk to Graeme again!!! Party at our house!!!!!!!!!

Whoa! PArty @ Pugilist & Graeme's new place!!!! I'd SO be there...if they'd let me in Kanada anymore. Ah well, congrats on the new crib!

But on the Dog four times a week...damn! I haven't been on one in close to forty years, and that's STILL too much!!!!

But animals LOVE having lotion rubbed on them. Soft, non irritated and freshly exfoliated/non ashy lab mice are often happier than the ones in the wild.

T

And it ain't nothin worse than a mouse with the ashy's...get all crinkly n shit. Besides, when the mice eat the poison we put out for 'em, they smell ever so much better if they're all lathered up first.

And I'd wonder about the figures on wool production vis-a-vis pollution. The US produces less than one percent of the wool produced in the world, with Australia and China being the largest producers. American wool-producers are typically small, family-type operations, as opposed to the huge commercial concerns of those countries. Personally, I've never met a farmer here who didn't take pretty durn good care of their animals.

And anyhow, what about those poor damn silkworms?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I didn't claw my way to the top of the food-chain to eat grass, but check it out:

Top 3 Vegan Lotions - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Yeah, but he'll be the coolest kid in (pre) school!

Wilkommen aus LST.

Last Sparrow Tattoo - Newbie Guidelines

General guidelines there, intros here, and there are a number of threads on the boards that relate to what kind of tattoo/motif to get. Browse a bit and chime in on one, I'm sure you'll get some answers.

Pictures to follow but I had a great session with Thomas Hooper today and my sleeve is nearly lined. On my forearm there's a nautilus shell with an almost acanthus leaf-like pattern in it (Haeckel's Art Forms In Nature has a shell like this in it) amidst Japanese water with water cascading over it. On the inside of my arm is a Haeckel-inspired mandala and next session we'll cap off my shoulder with an atmospheric mandala with flames and clouds. Really kind of amazed at it and feel so fortunate to have a tattoo so beautiful.

Righteous, Graeme-good on ya!

Ralph Johnstone is a new name to me (but I'm new to this stuff). I'll check it out. That's all I am looking for is old school shit. I love it, it's just classic. That brings me to a question I have for this forum, when is too many?? For example... I could get an eagle tattoo 800 times and be happy with it every time. When is too much? I have one arm full of ideas that I've had since I was a kid, but now that i've used them all I look at traditional flash, which share a lot of the same imagery, so at what point do you say "I can't get another eagle, or rose, or anchor or etc. etc. etc...???

Beats me, I haven't hit that point yet!

Ralph Johnstone was one of the old South State Street tattooers and sign painters. He worked with Tatts Thomas a good bit, and I believe Nick has some of his old stuff there. I know he has a lot of Tatt's work, and other old-time stuff. Man, he's hog for that action, and he'll set you up righteous.

Man. Cody, just tell Nick the type of thing that floats yer boat, and show him how much room he has to work with-he'll go off on that. They have a ton of Sailor Jerry and Sailor Jerry type flash, but you might ax him to show you some of Ralph Johnstone's stuff-old school rules!

Hit me up with the skinny, Grant, if it's something we can work with, we will.

Mike Malone flash tattooed by Matty D'Arienzo at Great Western Tattoo Club.

Sweet!

But what's with the shabby jeans?

i officially started mma training tonight. i got a groupon for a month, which only cost me $50 for a combo package of striking and grappling training. so damn excited i finally bit the bullet. the training is kind of expensive moving forward, but i'm pretty sure i'm going to continue with it.

Watch yourself.

MMA is the flavor of the month now, so there are LOTS of semi-shady places that claim to teach it. That's not the real problem, the problem starts if students are "fresh-meat" for the other fighters training there, or if the instructors don't control the play.

What I tell anyone that's wanting to get into it is to get some grounding in the basic arts FIRST.

One of the big issues everyone has, especially in the big city, is price. I know of plenty of schools that charge $100, $150, $200 a month, for anywhere from 3, 45 minute sessions a week to 6 one hour sessions a week. I also know of good schools that charge $35-$50 dollars a month for 3-6 one hour sessions a week.

For that kind of money, you should be getting top-flight training from someone who has been there.

For someone just starting out, getting in the kind of shape you need to be in for serious training is gonna be an issue. I've had guys come in straight out of the Corps who couldn't cut our warm-up section.

Given all that, I'd humbly suggest that anyone really interested in serious training shoud start small. Probably the best thing, again, just in my little opinion, is to sign-up in a TRADITIONAL TKD school. Specifically, I would look for one that DOES NOT advertise "Olympic-style" training, and look for one that practices "Blue Cottage", or Chang Hong-style forms, or Hyung. These are the original patterns developed for, and practiced by, TKD, as developed and taught by General Choi, Hong Hi.

A year or two of old-school training in an art like this will give you a rock-solid core of basics to build on, taught in a scientific progression. you will get yourself in shape like you won't believe, and learn, even in a few years, things you can use right now. If you can hack it, stay for the full course...in a real, live, no bullshit dojang, expect to spend something like 5 years to learn enough for a black belt.

That isn't for everyone, so if you just want to get in shape, learn the basics, and move on, your next stop should be in a traditional Judo school. Again, I say traditional, because there are so many schools teaching Jiu-jitsu now that it's almost impossible for the average novice to sort the good from the bad. Seems like everyone and his uki are "Brazilian jiujitsu masters", or "Gracie-trained fighters", or some such. Learn the basics of actual Judo and you will find that Jiu-jitsu is nothing more than the actual, combat version of Judo. Learning the basics in a straight Judo school will give you an immense advantage when you go to train in Jiu-jitsu.

Spend a year or so training there and you will be bigtime ready to hit that MMA thing WAY yonder ahead of anyone else in your class.

Don't listen to all the bullshit about how "forms are just dancing" and etc. In a traditional school you will learn discipline, how to fight, how to train, and how to work with other students.

Okay-end of lecture. Sorry to run on, but man, I get people in almost every week asking me to "train me to fight in the next MMA tournement". I tell them all, sure, I'll train you, but you gotta learn all this other stuff too. "But when do I get to fight?" After you've trained for 6 months or a year, then you can spar with me. When I think you're safe-not a threat to yourself or others, then you can spar in class.

Amazing how few are willing to make that commitment, and how many think they can just wrestle for a few months and magically become fighters.

Enjoy, and if you ever want any assist in finding schools for a specific style or type of training, hit me up.

Booked with Ron Henry Wells for this Sunday at the West Texas Convention. One of my co-workers is as well, and one of our shop's good friends/hang arounds is in with Daniel Albrigo. Should be a great day trip!

Sounds most excellent-enjoy!

Here goes!

This is my hindu influenced panther by Chad Koeplinger done 1/18 at the Star of Texas Convention in Austin, Tx

There are some truly awesome pieces here this month...but it's hard to beat this many snakes!!!

There are a lot of shops run by/affiliated with various clubs. That doesn't mean that they are in any way operating illegally, or unethically. To assume that a M.C. is a criminal group is a typical candy-ass mistake.

Read it through, and all I can say is from the perspective of someone who has ridden in a club, who has friends in a large, mainline club, and who rides.

Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

Does this douche-nozzle stop for one fucking second to think about the ramifications of the spew he writes about how the entire industry is being extorted by M.C.'s?! Fuck no. Straight sensationalism. If he qualified it, and said "in this city...", or gave some type of back-up, "this is my friend who ran such and such a shop that was extorted...", but no, he just ssquirts it out there and runs.'

Thought the rest of the article sucked too.