Dude

Agreed! And the level of discourse around here is uncommonly thoughtful, I find, in addition to the general friendliness. Go LSTers ;)
Go team!

I'd avoid an asshole, largely because I don't like giving my hard-earned cash to douche-bags. I've been tattooed by all kinds of types. Some are super friendly and talkative and others are the silent types - and a range in between. All are totally cool with me. Just don't be a dick! I've noticed a really unpleasant trend on instagram recently - some artists have taken to posting pics of their clients, mocking them for being fat or ugly, or generally dissing their choice of tattoos. That's fine, I guess, but I sure wouldn't go to their shop. It strikes me as an odd way to do business, but hey, its their choice.

Dunno if anyone has posted this one yet, but this is one of my favorite horrible hipster tattoos:

I personally dont like to watch those shows and dont agree with them. Tattooing shouldnt be a competition in the aspect of a tv show and time limits and to win a cover shot on a tattoo magizine. Competitive tattooing is fine, but in the right way. Taking your time to create the best piece you can and going to a convention and entering it the contests there.
One tattoo reality show that I do personally think is worth watching is Megan Massacres show Tattoo Nightmare. They do some amazing cover ups on that show!
A lot of people speak badly about the amazing artists that are the judges of those shows like Oliver Peck, Chris Nunez, etc, but at least they have great tattooers judging the work! I will say that I do like that aspect of the show. Not to mention some of the artists on the show are really good but I dont agree with the premisise of the show.

Phantom of the opera done by Fat from Spain (Iker Ruiz)

How do people get weird tattoos? What I mean is, I subscribe to Our Endless Days and a couple other blogs and watch the tattoos scroll in each day and sometimes they are really super weird. I would not ever come up with ideas like that and I can't imagine if I did that I could ever communicate to another person the details of my crazy idea.
Here are some examples.
What did the customer say? "Please give me a skull and flowers and put an afro on half the skull with the eye popping through? Oh and put green octopus tentacles at the ends of the bones." Really?? How could anybody think of this?

Or how about this one. "Please give me a brown rose with the outside petals looking like a sunflower and the inner ones black like a bowl of hearts with white outlines." It's beautiful but how does one muster the creativity to ask for something so unique?

I didn't even know what this was until I looked at it for 10 minutes. How does someone describe this to an artist? Or do they?

Okay, I want a tiger that's a stand-up comedian with a flower on its chest and a foot standing on a skull. Put a fish swimming up the cord into the microphone.

I'm not criticizing these tattoos. I honestly would like to know how one goes about acquiring such strange tattoos. I could never think this stuff up myself but it would be so cool to have something weird like this.

I suppose when dealing with people that think money=respect then you will start to get some kind of personality clash.
I work in the public service sector dealing with water delivery and waste water management, Daily I work on the road dealing with disgruntled people that tend to blame me for their sewer service not working as it should, its like they think I designed the system or something, often people treat me like crap because there taxes pay my wages.
The facts are when people do not understand what you actually have to do they are very quick to judge. I would love to see my customers stick their arm into their own piss and shit or get shit in their mouth or in their eyes to get the system working again.
Everyone has good and bad days.

8.1 Thou shalt not google "Hatchet Man flash" hoping to get a glimpse of the aforementioned Smith Street sheet because you know very well that shit is not on the Internet and you are going to be upset with what you do find.

9. Thou shalt not Freak The Fuck Out if you get a microscopic pimple on your new tattoo.

Thou shalt shut the fuck up and listen to good advice.
Thou shalt not keep blabbing and ignore good advice.
Thou shalt lurk long enough to understand good advice.

Anus. I won't be that girl.

Might as well post this here too even though the shit posted so far has been ridiculous.

In my opinion yes- blood sugars are important - fainting is bad

I love this piece by Matt Hart at Inspirations Tattoo Studio, Leeds, UK

I love the soft colours and full coverage of it, think it looks ace. When I get my chest done I would like a bit more symmetry personally, but still think this is the bomb!

Horitada

Shige

@Wilhell posting his back piece made me curious to look up Marius Meyer. Saw this killer front.

I see some shops with a $100 minimum charge, which is fair as there are new needles, things to be sterilized, sundry shop supplies that get consumed, etc. And it all takes time.
Rob

I suppose one thing to keep in mind is even though the amount of time they might need to actually tattoo you is short, they still have to setup/breakdown, clean and everything else that would be involved in the longer session. Just something to think about.

Valerie Vargas at Frith St Tattoo on my calf.

7 years. That's a long time. The longest stretch for me was 2-1/2. Im done, not goin back, too old for that crap.

@ggilman try layering a thick, (water based) unscented cream on top of organic extra virgin coconut oil after you shower.
Do this for at least two weeks after every shower. I think it will help! I used to use cetaphil moisturizing cream pretty regularly, haven't checked the ingredients since going all hippy though, so make sure it's made well! As @Hogrider suggested, Vitamin E oil is a good one to add to the mix, as well. Always finish with the cream to really seal the moisture in!
I believe the water based creams and lotions allow your skin to breathe, so make sure H2O is the first (or close to the first) ingredient in whatever you choose to use. I have also read that EVCO allows your skin to breathe, as opposed to other (petroleum based?) oils, but I can't find a good enough source at the moment to say that with utmost confidence. But I think so? Anyone want to weigh in on that?
I was hit with a really bad eczema outbreak this past fall and found this really awesome calendula lotion by the super salve company at my local hippy store, where I can buy it in bulk. The EVCO + Lotion layering system worked really well for my torn up skin and helped to ameliorate the eczema. As an added bonus, I discovered that this same combination works VERY WELL for prepping your skin for tattoos, and now it is routine for me to hit the areas I'm planning on being tattooed with this combo for about two weeks before the tattoo - much improved healing with the skin soft and taken care of pre-tattoo.
During the eczema outbreak I had to change to super sensitive skin soaps, and now tend only to heavily soap my pits and privates on the regular, hitting any other dirty spots as needed (sorry if TMI) (I am a very clean person, I promise!). You may be having a reaction to a soap or something? Have you started using any new products lately?
My $.02.

This is a discussion about the last Batman movie. I'm laughing a lot. (if you don't like Kevin Smith you might not like it.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W_PoL-dXf0
Dude

Lost my LST shirt so maybe my tiger can help out.
Tony Hundahl - Rock of Ages Austin, Texas - one shot

the spot on my arm I hated the most. I appreciate ones that accent the action of the ditch, but anything there that looks good is a tattoo that works. Nothing beats a good ol' hinge but I can't find any good ones. Wish I had ore time to fish around on IG and whatnot but I'm on my way out the door to work. So here's some shit from Google. Sorry for sizing, I'm in a rush.

Robert Ryan

Someone named Cassy in Bournemouth

Person I havent heard of named Kristy Walker
Knee ditches are great too.

Mitch Allenden
I'd post mine, but they aren't stand-alone tattoos; the ditch in an over-all sleeve aren't quite the same in impact.