Androosh

This thread is f*cking rad if you hunker down with a nice porter and read from the very beginning. So many good tattoos and stories. Made me fall in love with LST all over again.

This thread is f*cking rad if you hunker down with a nice porter and read from the very beginning. So many good tattoos and stories. Made me fall in love with LST all over again.

This thread is f*cking rad if you hunker down with a nice porter and read from the very beginning. So many good tattoos and stories. Made me fall in love with LST all over again.

This thread is f*cking rad if you hunker down with a nice porter and read from the very beginning. So many good tattoos and stories. Made me fall in love with LST all over again.

This thread is f*cking rad if you hunker down with a nice porter and read from the very beginning. So many good tattoos and stories. Made me fall in love with LST all over again.

This thread is f*cking rad if you hunker down with a nice porter and read from the very beginning. So many good tattoos and stories. Made me fall in love with LST all over again.

This thread is f*cking rad if you hunker down with a nice porter and read from the very beginning. So many good tattoos and stories. Made me fall in love with LST all over again.

Here's the little Bob Wicks piece I got from Ron Wells last weekend. The day before Stephanie Tamez lined my knee (ouch!). Hell of a fucking weekend. Photo from Ron's Instagram.

Thigh, by Aaron Carmody @ SKin Thrills in ROAVA

Just pulled the trigger on this via the banner link... I enjoy the Spider Murphys book so much that the comparison was enough to sell me.
Plus I've just drank a load of Left Hand 400lb monkey pale ale.

@Lance, if you have a chance to get tattooed by Horitomo...well, you know how this sentence ends. Have him do your front. Hell, get a big Fudo from him, munewari be damned! You're already weird; embrace it.
I might as well jump in here. It's not very recent, but it is my latest. I finished this up with Stuart Cripwell (based on a painting of his) in December, but I never got around to taking pics of it. And I'll just add a disclaimer that it is damn near impossible to photograph a knee tattoo. I swear it doesn't look crooked in real life. :)

I've been working in commercial construction for the last ten years, mainly in project administration. For the last seven years I've been really busting my balls to become a Project Manager. Which, in this economy/job market, has been an uphill battle. Last week I was finally offered the title - and the huge nut that accompanies it - but turned it down. I can't take the industry any longer. My wife and I are moving to my home town of San Diego and I'm going to barber college. I'm excited to take up a new trade that offers a little room for creativity.

I've been working in commercial construction for the last ten years, mainly in project administration. For the last seven years I've been really busting my balls to become a Project Manager. Which, in this economy/job market, has been an uphill battle. Last week I was finally offered the title - and the huge nut that accompanies it - but turned it down. I can't take the industry any longer. My wife and I are moving to my home town of San Diego and I'm going to barber college. I'm excited to take up a new trade that offers a little room for creativity.

@Dan S Fuckin hell Dan only just saw this. That is so good.
- - - Updated - - -
Amund Dietzel dragon. Tattooed by Jordan Teear, Frith Street Tattoo, yesterday.

I'm dont want to toot my own horn or anything, but I am :cool:...I did the layout for Deb's article.

I had to check the city you live in to make sure we're not neighbors.

I am pretty excited about how creative and involved i've been, not only tattooing but in the tattoo world---
I was asked to and participated in an art show in NY
Two different tattooers books of flash
Drew a series prints that I was able to sell, trade , gift and donate to a couple of auctions for good causes
Wrote and sold a satirical book on getting in to tattooing
And for the first time was a feature in a super tattoo magazine
And still happily married & raising a family! (;

I had to check the city you live in to make sure we're not neighbors.

Last night, my wife dreamed that she went to get a small tattoo on her forearm: a bust of Mary in a traditional Americana style. The guy she went to said, "I use laughing gas for all my clients, so you'll be out for the tattoo." He showed her the drawing, and it was all wrong: a photorealistic rendering of Mary. So she told him she didn't want that at all, and he fixed the drawing--a little. Then he gave her the gas, and when she came to, he'd tattooed a shitty dragon that went from her forearm, onto her palm, and then--somehow--onto her forehead! She started freaking out, and even the other guys at his shop said, "Dude, that's not cool. Chicks don't get their palms tattooed."

I'll throw my compliments on top of the others...that ROA is beyond comprehension. I spent an hour looking at it last night...I'm zoned in on it again tonight!

A fun and quick one last night.
By Aron Dubois at Scapegoat Tattoo in Portland, OR.

Since I will lose anyways...lemme post up my snake/skull/dagger just for shits and giggles to see how it fares..
Regino Gonzalez



- - - Updated - - -
I love the black flames!

@Hogrider I'm by no means an authority on this stuff, but I'm travelling along the same road you've just started...
Part of the reason you can't find what you're looking for is because you're looking for literal or binary meanings.
Most of the images you've seen tattooed are taken from Japanese and Chinese folk tales or religious stories.
Imagine of you asked someone regarding western cultural art or tattoos:
1) "What does it mean when there's a guy hanging on cross with his arms outstretched?"
2) "What does it mean when there's a woman in blue holding a naked baby"
3) "What does it mean when the muscle-bound guy in the black mask overpowers the brightly dressed skinny man in the clown makeup.
The answers depend on your level of interest/sympathy and how abstract or literal you want to be:
1a) It's Jesus. His father, God, sacrificed him to atone for the sins of the world.
1b) The wearer has faith in a religious power higher than himself and possibly feel kinship with or sympathy for the figure and character of Jesus Christ.
1c) The wearer wants to be forgiven for past wrongdoings.
2a) It's Mary, Jesus' mother. The baby is Jesus.
2b) She's a figure of worship because some people believe she should be revered because God chose her as the vessel for his earthly offspring. Her cloak is blue because traditionally goddesses were associated with the moon and night sky. Sometimes it has stars on it. Christianity adopted this symbol to make it easier for people who held older religious beliefs to adopt the new faith.
2c) The wearer may have sympathy or empathy with the concept of being the vessel for divine power or lineage. Also this symbol can have an added element of sadness because we know the eventual sadness and loss of a mother witnessing her only son be sacrificed for the good of mankind - possibly a greater sacrifice than Jesus, some might say.
3a) It's Batman, he's fighting the Joker.
3b) Batman is a symbol of vigilante justice. He works outside of recognised laws to bring justice to a world crippled by wrongdoing.
3c) This scene is a metaphor for the darkness of repressed homosexuality and it's power to overcome the sinister flamboyance of non-hetro feelings.
etc, etc.
In short, think about what you want your tattoo to 'mean' or 'say' - tell that to a tattooer who knows his stuff and let them find a story or theme that fits your idea.
Or just pick one you like from a woodblock print.
I try to tell people all the time that western traditional tattooing has just as much symbolism and poetry but nobody will listen. It's all sex, death and the struggles of humankind.
Good luck.

A fun and quick one last night.
By Aron Dubois at Scapegoat Tattoo in Portland, OR.