Graeme

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.

I pretty much disagree entirely with this.
First, it presumes that you understand the reasons why people get the tattoos they get. I read recently, it was either on here or on IG, a tattooer (I think for some reason that it was David Bruehl, but I'm not certain about that) talking about how there was a point in their career where they were tattooing a lot of yin yangs. The tattooer asked those clients what religion or philosophical belief that the yin and yang belonged to and none of them could give an even close to accurate answer, but that regardless of this, they were seeking to achieve a kind of balance in their lives. Horiyoshi III says in an interview in the book JBxH3 that a lot of people who get tattoos of Buddhist deities don't even know what they mean. They like the appearance or the name of the god, and maybe they learn more about it after. So even within what you describe as a "culture" people are getting tattoos that are outside of their realm of familiarity.
Second, it's useless to talk about culture as this monolithic thing. If you want to talk narrowly about western traditional tattoos, a lot of those are sailor tattoos or military tattoos, or are deeply rooted in those cultures and traditions, and if you want to talk about people "staying within their own culture" a lot of us wouldn't have the tattoos we have.
Third, at this point in time there are very few tattoo traditions that are "untouched" so to speak and aren't influenced by tattoo traditions from elsewhere, and I don't see this as in any way a bad thing. Shit, this isn't even a new thing. I read or heard somewhere...maybe it was from an interview with Horiyoshi III again?...that Japanese tattooing and this whole body compositions were originally influenced by Polynesian tattoos. You look at classic Western tattoos and you'll see all kinds of Asian influence there with dragons and what not--George Burchett went to Japan and observed the masters at work--not to mention that way that Sailor Jerry took that Japanese influence and brought it into Western tattooing with those incredible backpieces he did which have been so influential on the way we get tattooed now. What about Ed Hardy, who synthesised so many things into his tattooing? What about Thomas Hooper who does very European tattoos but is very open about how much he's influenced by Polynesian tattoos? I'm going to say that most of the exciting things that have happened in tattooing have happened precisely because people didn't "stay within their own culture".

I pretty much disagree entirely with this.
First, it presumes that you understand the reasons why people get the tattoos they get. I read recently, it was either on here or on IG, a tattooer (I think for some reason that it was David Bruehl, but I'm not certain about that) talking about how there was a point in their career where they were tattooing a lot of yin yangs. The tattooer asked those clients what religion or philosophical belief that the yin and yang belonged to and none of them could give an even close to accurate answer, but that regardless of this, they were seeking to achieve a kind of balance in their lives. Horiyoshi III says in an interview in the book JBxH3 that a lot of people who get tattoos of Buddhist deities don't even know what they mean. They like the appearance or the name of the god, and maybe they learn more about it after. So even within what you describe as a "culture" people are getting tattoos that are outside of their realm of familiarity.
Second, it's useless to talk about culture as this monolithic thing. If you want to talk narrowly about western traditional tattoos, a lot of those are sailor tattoos or military tattoos, or are deeply rooted in those cultures and traditions, and if you want to talk about people "staying within their own culture" a lot of us wouldn't have the tattoos we have.
Third, at this point in time there are very few tattoo traditions that are "untouched" so to speak and aren't influenced by tattoo traditions from elsewhere, and I don't see this as in any way a bad thing. Shit, this isn't even a new thing. I read or heard somewhere...maybe it was from an interview with Horiyoshi III again?...that Japanese tattooing and this whole body compositions were originally influenced by Polynesian tattoos. You look at classic Western tattoos and you'll see all kinds of Asian influence there with dragons and what not--George Burchett went to Japan and observed the masters at work--not to mention that way that Sailor Jerry took that Japanese influence and brought it into Western tattooing with those incredible backpieces he did which have been so influential on the way we get tattooed now. What about Ed Hardy, who synthesised so many things into his tattooing? What about Thomas Hooper who does very European tattoos but is very open about how much he's influenced by Polynesian tattoos? I'm going to say that most of the exciting things that have happened in tattooing have happened precisely because people didn't "stay within their own culture".

I want to get tattooed by people who do tattoos that I can feel in my gut, which is to say that when I see an artist's tattoos, or look through their portfolio or on their instagram or whatever (though more and more for me I want to see the tattoos, and not just pictures of them) I want to have a deeper reaction than just thinking that it's a good looking tattoo, and I want to have a good time getting those tattoos. I've been tattooed by some "big names" and I've travelled a fair bit to get tattooed, and to be honest, I feel a little self-conscious about it because--and maybe this is only in my head--I fear coming across as somebody who buys into that kind of almost celebrity culture that sometimes goes along with tattoo collecting that I think @Pugilist articulated very well. Because for me it's not about that and it was never about that. I just want to get rad tattoos.

Got this good lookin' little guy yesterday from Ron Wells.

More badassery for you. Starting to see the finish line on this one. By Dave C., PSC Tattoo.

Chipped away a few more hours on my back. I think we're pretty much done the black shading, I think there's some greys to do in the water still, we still have to figure out the scales or patterns on the snake, but we're making progress.
All work, as always, by Dave Cummings of PSC Tattoo.

I haven't posted this on here yet. Session four on my back, we shaded my butt and thigh.

No it isn't!
I picked up this hoju from Ishmael Johnson at the Montreal convention yesterday. I wasn't intending to get tattooed this weekend, but I've been really into Ishmael's tattoos for a while now, and he had availability, I had a strange spot on my arm, so why not get tattooed by him instead of just liking his pictures on instagram like a chump? It was fun times. I'll post better pictures when healed.

Did the first session on my back yesterday with Dave Cummings. Really stoked on it.

This is a really terrible picture but I got this cigar smoking frog from El Monga at Aloha Tattoo Barcelona yesterday. I am super stoked that he decided to attach himself to my leg because I think we're going to have some good adventures together.
@bongsau Really sorry for your loss, and my deepest condolences. Sometimes it's the silly little tattoos that have the deepest significance.

I got this from Tom Yak at Electric Tattoo on Saturday. It's not a great picture because it's hard to take a picture of the back of your own arm, but you get the idea. Electric is a great shop.

Ron Wells finished this one on me yesterday. It's so beautiful and I couldn't be happier with it:

Me and @Pugilist got matching tattoos again. This is from Doc Forbes flash and was done by Chris Hold at Sacred Heart Tattoo in Vancouver, BC. It was a super fun one and Chris was a great dude to get tattooed by. Couldn't be happier with the tattoo and the whole experience.

I got started on this tattoo by Ron Henry Wells last while he was guesting at Tattoomania in Montreal and we'll finish it at a later date. Sorry for the not great photo, it wraps a bit so it's tough to get a good one. As always, it was a real pleasure to be tattooed by Ron, and the Tattoomania crew were very gracious hosts. I love tattoos.

I got this today from Chad Koeplinger at the Montreal convention. Ed Hardy-inspired hybrid rose right over the shin. I am super stoked on it and all of you should get tattooed by Chad not only because his tattoos are fucking amazing, but because he is a rad dude and getting tattooed by him is super fun.

Here's a not very good quality shot-in-a-hotel-mirror with a cameraphone picture of the progress on my sleeve. Thomas Hooper is working on this, and the latest session of shading on my forearm was done at the Rochester convention.

I'll try to put together a good photo with the newest additions, it's hard to take a decent looking picture of it because it wraps around my arm, though here's a picture of it from Seth's blog from when it was first finished about a year ago:
Seth Wood Tattoo


- - - Updated - - -
I have a couple of tattoos from Ron and, yes, his tattoos are amazing...like "holy fuck, I can't believe he did that" amazing, especially with some of the negative space tattoos, and he's all around a really awesome dude to get tattooed by. I highly recommend the experience.

The details that Seth added:

And the start of my sleeve, by Thomas Hooper:

Can I suggest finding a tattooer who does really nice script and just getting their names done simply and beautifully? I don't really understand all the posts above suggesting the necessity of finding a representative image here: it's your child's name, it has way more potent symbolism on its own than any design you could think of.

I don't get asked these questions. I recommend you start giving off unfriendlier vibes.

I want to get tattooed by people who do tattoos that I can feel in my gut, which is to say that when I see an artist's tattoos, or look through their portfolio or on their instagram or whatever (though more and more for me I want to see the tattoos, and not just pictures of them) I want to have a deeper reaction than just thinking that it's a good looking tattoo, and I want to have a good time getting those tattoos. I've been tattooed by some "big names" and I've travelled a fair bit to get tattooed, and to be honest, I feel a little self-conscious about it because--and maybe this is only in my head--I fear coming across as somebody who buys into that kind of almost celebrity culture that sometimes goes along with tattoo collecting that I think @Pugilist articulated very well. Because for me it's not about that and it was never about that. I just want to get rad tattoos.

I don't have a problem with tattoos meaning things, I just hate the way how most people who want "meaningful" tattoos can only think of meaning in the most heavy-handed and literal way. For example, I have a swallow that I got on my birthday a couple of years ago because I was feeling pretty bummed because it was my birthday and I was feeling sorry for myself about aging or whatever. My wife got the same flash from a different artist a couple of weeks later around her birthday. When I think about that tattoo I remember having a super fun time getting it, I remember how my wife got hers done on a miserable snowy day and how we went out for poutine afterwards, etc., and the same goes for all my tattoos (albeit I don't have a lot of tattoos and I haven't been getting them for so long so maybe the details and memories of getting those tattoos is going to become less distinct over time). So those tattoos have a huge amount of meaning and significance for us, exactly none of which has to do with swallows.

Thou shalt not revive the thread about tattooers with little to no tattoos thread because it is FACT that tattooers are required to be tattooed and your opinion will not change this.

Placement is, in my opinion, the hardest thing about tattoos to understand, and it is also often the factor that distinguishes good tattoos from great tattoos. This probably isn't the most satisfying answer, but I think to really understand placement you need to look at real tattoos on people because pictures, especially the tightly cropped Instagram photos that make up most of what we look at these days, really give no sense of placement. Half the time you can't even tell what body part they're on.