heathenist

Grew up and went to undergrad in eastern NC, but only really go back for visiting family now.

I can't wait to see this.

Since we are posting Hardy backs, this one is from the panther tattoo thread:

We should all start taking notes from @Rob I on how to kill time before appointments.

Here is my latest. Done on Tuesday by Aaron Coleman (Immaculate Tattoo, Mesa AZ).

I asked for a crawling panther plus "whatever, as long as it's fairly traditional". Got a sword and some roses and I am extremely pleased of course.

Done in only 2.25 hours as I mentioned in the 'fastest tattooers' thread.

Okay, that's it. I'm tired of flip-flopping on this. I'm absolutely getting tattooed by him one of the next times he comes to Tucson.

Fuck me for moving away from Illinois right before the shop opened.

I've seen them in my tattoo books in pairs, not really enough room for another one. I shoulda thunk it out a little better back in 1982.

The rest of my tattoo work is fairly new, this was the oldest piece on me and it was getting hard to make out the features on it. The hair could be a little finer now that I look at it, I'll discuss it when I go for round II with my artist.

Nah, I don't think that he was implying the hair in the re-work needs to be finer, just that he liked it in the original. While I agree that the original looked great, especially for it's age, I think if most of your work is new, it probably didn't fit super well with everything else.

Definitely want to get something at Blackheart once my tax refund comes in.

Fuck, I always forget about tax refund money. Can't wait to blow it all on tattoos, and I can actually afford to do that this year because I'll have money saved up for the summer months. I'm a grad student so the summer is always tough, but this year should be an exception thanks to a first year fellowship in the program I just started. I'm seriously just realizing now that I can probably afford to just blow the entire refund on tattoos this year. Probably not super responsible, but fuck it right?

I love the way my sleeves have taken shape, but I do wish I had a couple of extra arms to keep working on. This forum has a way of making me want more and more and more...

I'm hoping Mario is going to travel to Toronto again. I've got a couple of spots saved for future tattoos by him.

It's both frustrating and really fortunate that I have tons of space left. Fortunate, because I want to keep getting more, but frustrating because I'm tired of not having more of my body tattooed.

Ha! Yup looks like just about the same spot. I love that little folk bird. Is that by Mario? Great tattoos! I've got a few roses too. Redefining masculinity ftw!

Yeah, everything in that photo is from Mario except the rose on the elbow, which is from Josh Stephens. And thanks, your arm looks pretty killer as well, the difference is that your arm looks finished, and mine unfortunately has too much empty space.

Came to post this Sailor Jerry sheet:

- - - Updated - - -

I do love a good butterfly tattoo. I was talking to a guy who is planning to write a book on the history of tattooing and we got into a discussion on butterflies and masculinity. He laughed and told me that he thought a guy getting a butterfly tattoo in this day and age was almost asking to get beaten up. He is not particularly dialed into the scene. I rolled up my sleeve for him to reveal my SJ butterfly that I picked from a book of Jerry flash at my local shop. I love it and it has never for a moment posed a threat to my masculinity (however it is that I may wish to define it.) Edit: This was done by Glennie at The Pearl in Toronto. She has a much nicer pic on her instagram feed, if you were to scroll back the better part of a year.

Is that on the inside of your elbow? If so we are twins, and my friend got one at the same time (Mine from Mario Desa and his from Nick Colella) in pretty much the exact same location.

Also notice the rose tattoo on the elbow and the cutesy folk bird near the armpit, I'm clearly concerned about my masculinity and being tough. Sorry about the terrible photo:

(Oh Do Fuck Off Dear)

I don't think that's a thing.

I'd Love to see him compete with Kat Von D.

I really hope this is a joke.

@heathenist

that tattoo straight up rules

Thanks man, your Quinters lady is rad as well.

My friend drove from NC to IL by himself to come visit me for my birthday and we went to Chicago and I got tattooed by Nick and he got something from Mario. Decided later on that night to go back and get matching Sailor Jerry butterflies. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures.

I keep trying to talk my mom and brother into getting matching tattoos, nothing going so far though, but I think they would both be up for it, just hasn't happened yet.

Sorry to be off topic with the way this thread turned out but regardless of any "witchy witchy" (whatever that means) or other current tattoo trends. Sometimes we gotta take it back and look at why?...

Not just why you got a particular tattoo but why certain symbols are grouped together in the first place.

Female figures and the moon make more sense than most associated designs. - As a side note, Diana worship became very popular in Europe in the early 19th century as part of the revival of earlier religious ideas by the middle classes (who had more time on their hands, probably because of the Industrial Revolution) which led to more works of art, visual, written and performed that included these ideas and symbols. These are often the very works that modern tattooers appropriate.

Remember that some tattooer, somewhere knew this when they included a moon in a design of a lady head. (or they took it from an illustration by someone who knew.) Then it was imitated because it looked cool or resonated in some way.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I strongly believe it's a tattooers job to understand the mechanism of symbols and apply them to create relationships that have a deeper value than just looking cool. There's nothing wrong with looking cool and often I don't bore my clients with a lecture about the historical connections with the symbols I include. I just try to make their tattoo look cool. Hopefully one day they will discover the meanings and connections behind the symbols and realise it makes the design slightly richer.

Sorry to derail yet another thread with a boring self-righteous rant...

This is great, no need to apologize for the history lesson, I love this kind of stuff. And yeah, it is cool how much tattoo imagery comes from Victorian artwork. Mario Desa clued me in on this one of the times I got tattooed by him, sure enough when I did a google search for Victorian art woman moon, got a bunch of hits.

Doesn't Dietzel have an old flash with the lady head in the curve of a crescent moon?

LOL what ? no,all I said was some guys I meet seem to think that guys WITH tattoos are tough guys.

I was making a joke by suggesting that the only reason someone would get tattoos is to appear tough, and therefore it should be a good thing that people think you are tough because of your tattoos.

Admittedly, these types of jokes don't work well through text (in fact, I've found that even in person people often don't catch my sarcasm).

If we really wanted to look tough, we'd be getting shitty tattoos that nobody would bother us about (mayber because they would feel threatened). Instead, like an idiot, I just have to go out and get tattooed by good artists, and then I get old ladies bothering me about them in grocery stores and shit.

I have found over the years that bonehead macho asshole guys seem to think that because I have tattoos that I am good at & like to get in physical confrontations,well,I hate getting in physical fights & I really suck at it anyway,I'm a peace loving man, not a fighter,but because I have tattoos some idiots seems to think I'm a tough guy boxer MMA fighter. LOL

Wait, so if you didn't get tattoos so people would think you were tough, then... why?

Posting in this thread. Ugh, it's bumming me out that I have a bunch of reading to do, otherwise I'd be watching all of these videos now. Just rewatched Tattoo the World over the course of a couple of nights before going to sleep, so now I'm in the mood for more things Ed Hardy.

I like to look at this every time I'm on here( which is everyday) just because it's so badass , especially those eyes

Thanks! Actually, what I originally thought I was getting was a full scale fight between the two animals, but the morning of Phil called me up and asked if it was cool if we did a close up because he thought it would be better to capture the details in the expressions on the faces. And while it made me a little nervous to change it up like that, it definitely paid off and I super glad I took his advice. So let that be a lesson: LISTEN TO THE ARTIST!

Honestly, I'm starting to feel the same.. After having trouble finding a spot for a palm sized tattoo when I was in SF it really hit me. Since January 1st I have been tattooed 10 times (and got tattooed 2 days before new years this year). I also am getting tattooed on Friday and then again on December 4th. So that will make it 13 before New Years again. Last year I got tattooed around 15 times. As much as I say I want to slow down a bit, I love traveling and I love tattoos and getting them. I'm already planning to go to the Philly convention in February and then getting tattooed by Rob Ryan the day before the convention.. Also planning a trip to Ann Arbor in April to get tattooed by Jeff Zuck & Cole Dunn.. maybe after then I will take a little break :rolleyes:

Riiiiiiiiggghhhtt...

Wait? Really?

No, my wife did. She is a vet tech and does id tattoos on animals at her clinic. My dog already had a 7yr old alphanumeric tattoo in one ear from the breeder...green ink and it is fading out and getting hard to read. So we took the opportunity to put an additional ID tattoo in the other ear while my dog was getting a dental and under full anesthetic.

/offtopic

I'm really glad this was cleared up, I was a little concerned.

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Finally figured out how to post correctly.. Apologizes !!

Tattoo by Chris Garver , Invisible NYC

This somehow showed up on my notifications as a quote of one of my posts... I have no idea.

However, that thing is brilliant. Unbelievable.