Graeme

Is this shops that actually exist now or can we also talk about historical shops?

I've had an idea for a tattoo for a couple of years that I've never seen anybody do before that I think Mike Rubendall would do an excellent job of if he is interested in doing it, so I was thinking of trying to get an appointment with him, but because I'm still working on my back I don't think I have the budget for that tattoo right now. So I really don't know who I'll get tattooed by. Maybe I'll try to get a walk up.

@Shaun1105 Haha yeah, I am a little later than usual with the post this year. Though January was probably a bit early. Brunch last year was fun so maybe we'll do it again this year because it seems easiest to coordinate a meetup before the convention starts. @exume It's totally worth the effort to get here, BUT I would say that Montreal poutine is imitation poutine. You have to go off island to get the good stuff. Here is poutine from Chez Ashton in Quebec City. You can't get anything close to this in Montreal.

The 13th Annual Art Tattoo Montreal show is coming up in September. It is moving to a new and larger venue while the normal venue undergoes renovation so this installment is going to be even bigger than previous years, and from the artists who have been announced so far, it's going to be spectacular. The convention always draws so many great artists and many are returning--Henning, Mike Rubendall, Tin Tin, Todd Noble, Nick Colella, Ron Wells, Turk, Guen Douglas, James Tex, Ishmael Johnson (who I got a great tattoo from last year), and really far too many others to name--but this year there are going to be a lot of new attendees too: Steve Byrne, Katja Ramirez, Paul Dobleman, Juan Puente, Shawn Barber, Henry Lewis, Eckel, Wendy Pham, Jim Sylvia, and so many more. I have no idea who I'm going to get tattooed by because there are so many excellent choices. Like last year, the convention is opening with a vernissage at the Yves Laroche gallery, and this year the show is new paintings from Turf One, Shawn Barber, and Mike Davis. And, of course, if you're coming in from out of town, Montreal is a great city to visit and spend a few days in. I've organised LST meetups the past couple of years and I am totally up for organising a meetup again over food, drinks, or whatever, because it's always a lot of fun getting to meet and hang out with you folks in person. Who is in? art tattoo montreal https://www.facebook.com/pages/Montreal-Art-Tattoo-Show/9786505473?fref=ts https://instagram.com/arttattoomontreal/

Welcome! Check out Hero Tattoo because they're in your state and do first rate tattoos.

Welcome Darrin. Without seeing your work I would suggest that if you are serious about learning to tattoo that instead of soliciting critiques from strangers that you spend a lot more time in the shop getting tattooed.

I had a spot on the back of my thigh that caused my ass to involuntarily twerk. Totally weird, but there was nothing I could do about it. I have a session later today. I don't know if we'll finish but the end is in sight. Not much left to do now.

This guy.

Wikipedia says that a luxury good is "a good for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises, and is a contrast to a "necessity good", for which demand increases proportionally less than income." So in an economic sense we've been mostly using "luxury" wrong because there isn't a correlation between income and desire for tattoos.

I can't think of anything else that you take into your grave with you though.

Very good idea for a thread, @mmikaoj and there's so much great discussion here. My wife is as into tattoos as I am so what I spend on tattoos isn't a contentious point in our relationship. For all the things my parents have said about my tattoos, they've never really brought up money. I recall my mom once made a comment once about how they must be expensive, but when I confirmed that without offering any specifics she didn't make any judgmental comments or say that I could be spending my money on better things or anything like that. They have all kinds of feelings about my tattoos and particularly the extent to which I'm getting covered, and surprisingly not all of them are negative anymore, but they've never tried to make me feel guilty about spending money on them. My inlaws would be super judgmental, but that's why they don't know either of us have tattoos. So basically I don't feel any guilt or have any bad feelings about spending my disposable income on tattoos, and when I think of things that I spent money on before I started getting tattooed (booze and records!), tattoos are a much better use of my time and money. Tattoos given me experiences, growth, stories, and friendships that I wouldn't have had otherwise and they've enriched my life in countless ways. I agree that tattoos are a luxury in that they don't shelter or feed you--tattooers will rightly disagree with me here--but I like what @cltattooing is getting at above about them meeting a psychological and spiritual need. I don't think they're entirely frivolous in the way that I think that, say, buying the latest electronic gadget is. It's fascinating how tattooing is something that has been around probably as long as humans have been around and yet still persists. We all have our reasons for getting tattooed but I think there must be some deeper, primal drive down there at the root of it and that getting tattooed and being tattooed is a fundamental part of what it means to be human. I am not so sure about tattoos being a "product" though. Yes, there's an exchange of money for a service rendered, but it's not the same as going to a car dealer and driving off the lot with a new car, or buying a TV. Obviously the process is entirely different but there's something more happening there and tattoos have a different economic character than most goods. Economics isn't my strongest subject, so somebody here who does understand economics is probably going to bust my balls here and say that I am totally wrong because I am applying economic analysis of commodities to something that isn't a commodity because I'm a fool, but it seems to me that tattoos don't have exchange value and that sets them apart from most goods we spend money on. I can't trade in my old dated tattoos for the latest most fashionable ones. It's not like art collecting in that there's no speculating on the future value of my tattoos. If we want to compare tattoos to other things we spend money on, I think tattooing shares more characteristics with spending money on education than it does with spending money on things. Or maybe it's more like spending money on a vacation or something like that? I don't know. I'm thinking out loud here and poorly articulating half-baked ideas.

The real question should be "is it still a panther if it was made with vegan inks"?

Looks like a legit study on a legit website.

Welcome Kelby!

Please do tell me more.

That's a bummer because each of those tattoos was great. People need to get more great tattoos and post them!

I recently met Khalil and Megon who work at Fist Full of Metal in Seattle and both are really nice people in addition to making great tattoos. I believe they had some good examples of coverup work in their portfolios.

It's true, I am the grumpiest person here. And of course we all have our favorites--you can tell who mine are because I've been tattooed by many of them--I just really don't like the idea of a top whatever list or ideas about "the best" because that kind of stuff belongs on reality TV or on know-nothing clickbait sites. The best tattoo is the tattoo that is made well, that you like, and that you had a good experience getting. If you like a tattooer, get tattooed by him or her. Everything else is silly.

Looks good, man.

Don't ask for opinions if you're unwilling to hear the answers you receive. How many of your "top five" have you been tattooed by?

I don't like this idea of ranking people to be honest. Nothing against any of those people.

Welcome! Lower leg really sucks to heal because of the swelling, so you are certainly not alone there.

Bummer, man. You know how to get in touch if you're ever out this way.

What about Virginia Elwood?

@jimmyirish There's not really any getting around how daunting a full back is. I knew that getting one would be a huge commitment but I don't think I actually understood how much of a commitment that was until I started it. I think without that dedication it would be as easy to abandon a back done locally as it would one you travel for because it still takes a lot of time, pain, healing, money, and so on. It is nice though that I don't have travel costs, paying for hotels, having to take time off work in addition to the tattoo. I don't have to worry about the exchange rate. There have been sessions where I haven't been able to take the whole day off because my workload can be super heavy but I start work early so I can work a half day and then go to my appointment. I don't especially miss driving home eight hours with a fresh tattoo, and I think that would be especially uncomfortable with a back session. If I had to travel to get the tattoo I wanted I wouldn't hesitate to do that, though I would get tattooed at a slower pace and would probably sit longer sessions than I'd like to, so it is great to have Dave in the same city.