Brock Varty

Just got this Kano Hogai inspired dragon from William Yoneyama at the New Plymouth convention.
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Those pics need to be rotated, can't work it out on this phone,

Sorry to be the one who says this, but that "tattoo" is never going to look good. Like ever... (please don't stop reading here)
If you didn't mention that it's supposed to be a pig I don't think anyone could have figured that out from just from looking at it. It just looks like you burnt your arm on the stove or something. Shop or not, friend of best friend or not, that guy should not be putting tattoos on people. My advice would be to give it a few months to heal properly, then seek a professional tattooer to get it covered. It doesn't look like it's going to be too hard to cover, but I'm not a tattooer, so that's just me guessing. There are really good tattooers frequenting this board that might be able to weigh in on that part.
I don't mean to be a dick and tell you that your new tattoo looks like shit, but if you just save up a little coin and go to a professional tattooer you can get that covered with something that will look infinitely better than what you've got on your arm now. If you poke around this site a couple hours you'll soon find out what good tattoos look like. I'm also sure that the good folks here will point you to some great shops and artists in your neck of the woods if you're interested.

"How many people would go under if they couldn't get pre-made needles anymore?"
"A lot"
"This table wouldn't"
That exchange is fucking gold.

What makes you want to tattoo your head when you haven't even finished your arms?

"How many people would go under if they couldn't get pre-made needles anymore?"
"A lot"
"This table wouldn't"
That exchange is fucking gold.

"How many people would go under if they couldn't get pre-made needles anymore?"
"A lot"
"This table wouldn't"
That exchange is fucking gold.

"How many people would go under if they couldn't get pre-made needles anymore?"
"A lot"
"This table wouldn't"
That exchange is fucking gold.

Ran across this interesting little teaser on youtube for an upcoming documentary on NYC tattooing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OApQA-ZPaoc
Featuring
Richie Montgomery, Pete Giaquinto, Ronnie DellAquila, Mike Perfetto and Tony Polito
Got another trailer here


Looks like it's going to be released early 2013 sometime.

Hi! First, I want to say that I really appreciate this forum. I've been intensively lurking here for a few weeks now and I love how sincere and respectful (most of) the posts/posters are. It seems to be a rare thing in forums like these for people to be genuinely helpful, nice, and laid back :)
So, Thanks to all of you who are here and contributing in such helpful ways.
I have this disorder which is causing the motor nerves in my legs to die off. This, of course, means that the muscles in my legs are working less and less and less... and it hurts.
For the past 2 or 3 years, as it's been getting noticeably worse, I've been HATING my legs. They let me down. They are betraying me by failing and by robbing me of my ability to do the things I used to love to do and the things I dreamed of someday doing.
A few months ago I started dreaming about getting more tattoos. (I have two now. Old. Not the best quality maybe but I love them anyway :))
I am planning now to start tattooing my legs. Sort of a "value-added" idea I guess. Over time they're becoming less functional, but maybe more beautiful? Definitely MINE.
And... total bonus... instead of feeling self conscious about people watching the way I walk I can choose to believe that they're admiring my tattoos!
So. That's it. That's why I'm here. I am excited to start.

Consultation at Yellow Blaze tomorrow. Glad I'm not under the needle till the weekend- couldn't sleep last night due to the time difference. Got out of bed and went for sushi at Tsukiji fish market at dawn.

I agree, the lines look so solid and clean. I love all the black.
As for me, I have black & gray, but my black & gray left arm incorporates a little "dotwork" type stuff in the background. I don't think I put this pic on LST... This is my inner arm after the 4th session w/a Spencer Briggs Style mandala. It's not finished yet and my iphone takes crappy/grainy pics but here it is:

2 months from today at this time I'll have one session down with Grime and one for the following day :D
T-Minus 60 days......

God I love this forum. Magic up in here, magic.

I love how here on LST within a few posts you guys already beat me to the punch but I will reiterate I guess.
1. Where are you located? I'm sure we can point you in the direction of some great artists/shops in your area. Also would you be willing to travel a bit for some stellar work?
2. Most of us got at least one tattoo we aren't fond of. I do! (and it's a bit bigger than yours for sure!) My approach is to just get some other really killer tattoos around it.
3. The best part about going to a good tattoo artist is they are killer at drawing tattoos! Hell it's their job. I also had the same thought process as you did when I got my first tattoo, which was to make sure I had an actual draw image before I enter the shop. Now I don't do that anymore. Good tattoo artists will draw up some killer tattoos for you. This is kind important if you want to do a coverup as they will know what image will over it up the best.
4. While this is more of a personal opinion double-meaning imagery can be cool but I really enjoy readable tattoos. This doesn't mean that it has to be simple and bland but more along the lines of "within 10 seconds I understand what image I am looking at." At least in my opinion even if people don't "get it" it still is visually appealing for the rest of your life.

I will definitely be checking that out! Any new material i can use to broaden my knowledge of tattooing as a whole is good material to me. Thanks for the stuff dude.
So you are the famous Valerie Vargas, Pleasure to meet you.
I think you just got put onto my, "Must get tattooed by" List :)

Grant, if you get tattooed at lab monkey ask rich about me or Stewart and say hello to the guys from us!

Do you have a tattooer that you normally work with? If you do, then I would talk directly to them and brainstorm together.

Vote #2 for cut-out dagger!

Looks like you could maybe do that thing with a long shape, like a dagger or snake, where it starts on one side, "pierces" the skin when it reaches the wheels of the plane, and then comes out the other side.

I think the general public dont think twice about lumping them together, Its us, the purists, that dont care for the association, I sort of feel sorry for every piercer I have worked around, I probably treated them like second class. Oh well, I too am a dick, apparently.

All of those links will make a very pleasant read :) Cheers for the links :D

It's a place I will visit when I get the chance to "hop the pond".
http://frithstreettattoo.co.uk/
Inked Magazine :: Inked Spots :: Firth Street Tattoo
Frith Street Tattoo | Webstagram - the best Instagram viewer

Packing to fly to Tokyo on Sunday... I think that's pretty awesome (I'm not one of those people who hates packing).
The only downside is that we were due to be leaving tomorrow morning and without any warning SAS cancelled their flight and re-routed us... I thought swedes were supposed to be super efficient and whatnot? Morons. So we're down a day on our vacation, but I guess the silver lining is that I sent them an e-mail laying some EU regulation smackdown on them. Because we didn't get notice in the appropriate timeframe, and because no exceptional circumstances apply, and because we're arriving more than 2 hours later than our originally scheduled time of arrival we should be entitled to compensation. Look at the regs it will be either 250 euro each, or as much as 400 euro each (depends on what whether the whole distance travelled in the intinerary is counted or just the leg they cancelled).
Bought a few bits and bobs to bring the guys in Yellow Blaze today as small gifts. I know they'll probably never do a celtic style tattoo, but maybe what I bought will find a spot in their rather large library of reference material - a few books on celtic design, knotwork, bordering etc. Going to chuck in a bottle of whiskey too.

Hello everyone, my name is Hank.
I have a pretty chill job and during my down time I've been lurking the site for a while now. So, I finally decided to take the plunge and become a registered user.
Here's some factoids about myself:
I'm from Las Vegas.
some of my interests:
Punk Rock/Rock n' Roll
Comic Books
Tacos
Tattoos
I started getting getting tattooed when I was 23 (I'm now 31)
Also, here's a picture of something I got recently.

He is doing a full back piece, neck down to bottom of ass and the entire right leg from hip to toe.
Back is a Huge Tibetan skull and water, leg is a women with veils on like in some of his silk paintings and a crow on a skull. I told him to mix in roses and water as well.
I have not seen any artwork yet and am waiting patiently...First sessions in late january.