semele

Bailey Robinson put a spider on my foot today. I'm pleased!

Bailey Robinson put a spider on my foot today. I'm pleased!

Bailey Robinson put a spider on my foot today. I'm pleased!

My appt. with Chris O'Donnell is TODAY!!! YES!!!

I got mine three days after my eighteenth birthday--I'm sure I thought I was showing maturity and restraint by waiting those three days too--and I looked so young I'm pretty sure the tattooer thought my ID was fake. I wanted a bird, so I got a swallow off the wall. And now I have a whole bunch of bird tattoos, but it's still one of my favorites. Done by Joao Paulo Rodrigues.

Here is a picture of the tattoo I have from Zach. He has a better picture of it on his website.
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This is after my most recent back piece session with Jay Cavna. Next appointment in two weeks. More color!

Timothy Hoyer

My right foot done by Frank Carter at Frith Street Tattoo last night. I took the photo from his instagram. Next step is to get cobwebs coming from my ankles down to surround both images he's done on my feet :)

This post is most emphatically NOT about a legendary tattooist, but mayhap a legend of tattoing?
So, many moons ago, when I was yet a youngster, we went to Walter's Barber Shop, out near Mannheim and Ogden. This was a real-live, old-time guys barber shop. You know, True Magazine, Esquire, pinups on the wall, racing sheets available, the whole drill. Walter was probably in his mid-sixties at the time.
One day, I must have been maybe 12, I was in getting a haircut, and for the first time, it registered that he had tattoos on each arm! Actually, a sailing ship on one forearm, and a nekkid pin-up girl on the other. Both looked to have been done, probably during the maiden voyage of the Ark. Nice, even greenish ink, I"m sure you've all seen the stuff.
Anyhow, I asked him about them, and he tells me "oh sure, I used to do tattoos right in the backroom here!"
Well, I had to see it, and he took me back to his storeroom, and sure enough, he had all kinds of tattooing gear there. Machines, hand-needles, flash, all kinds of stuff that I didn't recognize but knew I wanted! "No, it isn't for sale, I guess I just like to have it in case I ever decide to use it again." That, and he didn't want my pops to come looking for him with a baseball bat, I'm sure.
So as we talked, it turned out that he had tattooed in that area for maybe 15-20 years, pretty steadily, and had made a nice bit of extra change at it. Back then, in Illinois, you could get a tattoo as a minor if you had your parents permission. You can guess the rest. He did a full chest-piece of a sailing ship on a young lad who presented a note from his dear old Mither saying he had her blessings, and wouldn't you know the little rascal was only 14 and had forged it!!!
End of tatttoing in LaGrange. Walter escaped any serious repurcussions, but had to hang-up his tattooing shingle after that. Still had the sign there, too!
Don't know what his last name was, I'm going to do a little digging, see if I can track him through his Barber's License. Who knows what stories the man could have told, or what the equipment was?!

When I was six or seven there was a sixteen year old girl on my block with a tiny spider on her ankle. I was in awe of this, and wrote in my diary that I was going to get a spider tattoo as soon as I turned eighteen. Found this diary when I was cleaning out my mom's basement a few weeks ago--I'm a bit late, but am finally getting that spider done Monday.

When I was six or seven there was a sixteen year old girl on my block with a tiny spider on her ankle. I was in awe of this, and wrote in my diary that I was going to get a spider tattoo as soon as I turned eighteen. Found this diary when I was cleaning out my mom's basement a few weeks ago--I'm a bit late, but am finally getting that spider done Monday.

When I was six or seven there was a sixteen year old girl on my block with a tiny spider on her ankle. I was in awe of this, and wrote in my diary that I was going to get a spider tattoo as soon as I turned eighteen. Found this diary when I was cleaning out my mom's basement a few weeks ago--I'm a bit late, but am finally getting that spider done Monday.

Went in for outlines. Came out happy.
You get more than a tattoo from Robert Ryan, that's for sure.

Here's one Ron Henry Wells did on me last October at the State of Grace Convention:

Definitely my favorite tattoo so far.

Local dude Panhandle Slim aka Scott Stanton has been(illegally-ish) putting up his paintings all over town recently, as opposed to his standard hanging & selling them in galleries. Pretty cool stuff.













http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=297975868496&set=a.209074463496.129527.814093496&type=3&theater#!/profile.php?id=814093496
some of you might remember Scott from the 80s