heathenist

I find myself staring at people who have good tattoos whenever I see them, which is actually pretty rare in my area, sometimes I'll ask who did them, etc, but I try not to pry or anything. I'm not heavily tattooed enough (yet) for people to really stare at me because of them.

We have consitutional carry...if you own it, carry it. The food in NY is great tho I agree.

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Not to further de-rail the topic but what are you getting your degree in?

Sociology, because I want to be a professor, because I'm an idiot.

Yeah, I don't care about the gun laws, as they scare the shit out of me anyways, but the number of people, the high prices, and the fast pace all seem really terrible. Given that, I'll likely be applying to NYU for my PhD in the upcoming application season, but only because it has an excellent program with people who do research in my area.

Haha powerhouse is down the street from me. I knew it sounded familiar. Never actually walked in there

I didn't realize Krooked Ken also worked at a shop in NJ, that's pretty cool. NJ/NY people are spoiled, living blocks from tattoo shops with artists like Krooked Ken and not even realizing it. Not to mention the plethora of amazing artists and shops in that area, ugh, I'm just jealous. Though, I can't say that I'd be particularly fond of living in NYC.

Nick is, IMHO, the best traditional American style tattooist out there. Mario's work is most excellent, slightly different feel to it, but I'd recommend either of them in a hearbeat.

Course, if you go to CTC, it might pay you to take a look at Mike Dalton's work. Man been there something like 30 years, quiet, steady, tattoos like a mofo.

Hard to beat-or equal-that shop for talent, history, and surroundings.

One thing I like about Nick working is that he's working. Oh, he's friendly, personable, all of that, but I mean, forget about smoke breaks and all that shit, unless you request it, it's needles in for the whole time, str8-up. The last work he did on me, he stopped after he did all the blackwork, maybe an hour and a half, two hours in, for a tem minute break to let me stretch and hit the head, after that it was another couple hours non-stop.

Some artists, especially the smokers, man, they can make a 4 hour tattoo take 6 hours!

And he works so goddamn fast, it's unreal.

But I agree, him and Mario have such distinct styles, both are great though. If I'm going to get something that's straight up American traditional, I'd go to Nick, but for something kind of weird, Mario does some cool shit.

My wife has promised me a trip to the US on our 10 yr wedding anniversary for a sleeve from one of the great artists over there. That's 7 years from now, maybe Valerie will be taking new customers again then?

Valerie Vargas? Doesn't she work in London at Frith St.?

made a 10 hour drive to chicago recently to get tattooed at ctc.. was totally worth it and will be doing it all over again real soon.

Are you going to get tattooed by Mario again or someone else at the shop? Do you know when you're going?

I take a 5-6 hour train up to Chicago to get tattooed. Which sounds like a lot, but it's not too bad considering it's a train ride and I usually take the 3am train, sleep most of the way, and show up at 9am.

@stormface, you time to get a few in before that appointment. Head on down to Spider Murphy's and pick something off the wall.

Agreed.

Seems like such a cool shop with a ton of great artists.

This is seriously always a pet peeve of mine and it's amazing how often people use it. Because I'm getting tattooed and working my way down one of my arms right now, my girlfriend always tell people I'm working on a sleeve, and it always makes me cringe just a little because it gives people the wrong idea. Because really, I'm just getting a bunch of tattoos on one arm until it's close to full then getting some filler afterwards, and it will be a long time before I'm done, so saying I'm working on a sleeve kind of seems silly.

my first tattoo was a half sleeve, go big or go home!! ;)

While that is a pretty rad tattoo, especially for a first, is it a sleeve? It doesn't look like it wraps around.

I'm stealing these from a friend on facebook, too good not to post here.. They are on his granddad who got them from Paul Rogers and R.L. Connelly (not sure who did which) sometime between 1952-53 in Jacksonville, NC. This is after 50 years of working in construction.

I dig it, that's a solid way to finish off an arm.

I'm going to be in Chicago in 2 weeks for an entire day, by myself, with nothing to do. The temptation to get tattooed is so strong, but I'm flying to visit my mom the next day then a week later traveling to NC to visit my family/hometown so I'm likely going to want to swim/be outside. What to do, what to do...

Tattoos are seriously the only reason I want to visit NYC ever again.

My next few tattoo plans are: panther, skull, eagle, rose, torch.

Already have a dagger, lady head, and butterfly. At what point do you have too many of the "go to" tattoos?

I look forward to the blank stares/looks of confusion when people look at my tattoos and wonder why they aren't all super custom and meaningful.

oh and Lemes book is a good read...a little gay, but a good read

and old Bowery stan's book, really historical and a little hard to follow but interesting

Just curious, what makes it "a little gay?"

@Wedge you can lurk artists on twitter and get the info without joining

I do this with a handful of artists.

What would you tell him if he came in with a Clenched Fist over "Black Power", or a portrait of Che Guevara? How about "Viva la Raza"? Would those be racist too? Maybe a nice solid black Hammer and Sickle, is that hateful?

Comparing Black Power symbols to those of the Nazi's seems a little harsh. The former are symbols of pride, pride of overcoming discrimination and oppression, something all the white people who like to use the term "White Power" have never had to overcome, and are in fact the ones perpetuating that oppression. One symbol is promoting equality while the other is doing just the opposite. Black Power movement leaders didn't execute (or order the execution of) millions of people.

But yeah, this just sounds like an all around uncomfortable situation. Post updates.

I was kind of thinking the same thing, but I like when big torso/back pieces have a good amount of negative space.

Someone on the instagram did an incredible fighter plane tattoo a few days ago...

Did anyone else see this. I want to say it was Desa.

I believe you're thinking of this backpiece Nick did.

Change that "or" to a "and"

Pretty much.

hahaha my next step is getting my bicep done, and I'm actually planning on either a skull or a panther.

Nick is in all weekend, and I know Mario has some time as well. Someone actually blew Mario off for an appointment tonight, didn't even call in and tell him so sorry! Anyhow, call 'em up and get your time booked-how can you go wrong with those two? LEt me know when you're going to do it and we can have a "junior meet-up" there.

I wish I could just go asap and set appointments, but living 5 hours away (granted there is a daily train) on grad school income kind of prevents that from happening. I'm thinking near the end of the summer I'll probably set up something with Mario to get my bicep done and hopefully talk to him and Nick about future plans. What I love about that shop (besides the obviously talented tattooers) is the fact that you can usually be worked in within a week or so, rather than having to schedule something 4 months in advance. But when I do set something up I'll be sure to post about it.

So, this is a painting by Ralph Johnstone, done for Tatts Thomas way back when they were working on south State Street in Chicago. Nick Colella is putting it on my ribs tomorrow, (without the lettering) that should be fun. I'll post up the finished work as soon as possible.

Just saw this on his FB, looks awesome.