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Ismael reacted to Stewart Robson in Dreams to be successful
Flux Capacitor? Deception? Cojones?
Also, to everyone who said OCD is a benefit: That's one of the stupidest things I hear about getting work in tattooing and tattoo shops.
Since when did being obsessively compelled to do something, (without logical reason) benefit any profession, employment or craft?
OCD doesn't mean being dedicated or diligent. It doesn't mean that you care about getting something right or keeping things clean.
It stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
"Can I have a job in your tattoo shop? I have a mental disorder that makes me ignore reason and prevents me making sensible decisions based on facts. I won't seek help for this because popular misconception paints me as a hygiene savant or Rain Man with disinfectant."
"No, I'll give it to this rational, dedicated, hard working, person who I tattooed a body suit on."
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Ismael reacted to else in Have your tattoos changed your life?
I've talked about this some before...
A few years ago I found out that I have a neurodegenerative disease that will eventually land me in a wheelchair. I really don't know how fast or slow it will go. There's not any treatment for it, nothing to do for it but treat symptoms and wait for the inevitable.
I got super depressed about it for a long time. I absolutely HATED my legs. Despised them for having this disease, for failing me, for "dooming" me to be disabled someday.
Sometime last summer I started to have persistent dreams that I was getting my legs tattooed. I ignored them as well as I could for awhile, and then started putting some serious thought into going for it. I started looking around the interwebs to see what was out there...
And then I came here :)
Since I started getting my legs tattooed my feelings about them have changed completely. I don't hate them at all anymore. In fact, I might even love them!!! I definitely love the tattoos, and to a great degree all those positive feelings have bled over onto the legs themselves.
And... I'm finding that my perspective about the disease as a whole is beginning to shift some too...
I'm coming around to the idea that I need to view it less as a curse, not "being doomed", and more of just "a change"...
I'm definitely not all the way there yet, but it's something that never would have been possible in the state of mind I was in when I hated my legs guts for having this thing in the first place.
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And I have to add...
I want to thank all y'all here at LST for being here, for giving such great input and advice, for showing off such great work all the time!!
God forbid, what if I'd gotten crappy leg tattoos?!?!
I doubt it would have had the same positive impact that it's had...
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Ismael got a reaction from hogg in Religious tattoos...on the non-religious
I have religious tattoos, and I am an agnostic with strong atheistic leanings.
But what seems to me is that the meaning of tattoos seems like such a big deal nowadays. Almost like as if someone needed to explain why did they get every single piece they have, and if they fail they'll be seen as a frivolous person.
I believe that images have a power of their own, that cannot be properly put into words. This also happens with with tattooing, there are images that have been tattooed over and over again, which no one can properly pin down as to when did people start getting those tattoos and what do they mean. But they have such a visual impact that carry on it's wordless appeal and make people keep on getting them tattooed.
And with religious images I believe it's the same, even tho some images now have been associated with this or that specific religion, they have been around for aeons. There are crosses in a lot of religions, there are many cults to female deities virgin Mary like, there are many saviour like characters in several religions like Jesus and Gilgamesh, and so on. So getting a religious tattoo can be an identifier for some people, showing their devotion to a specific religion, but it can be so much more than that... particularly if it's done by a good artist.
It gets on my tits when people are more interested in the meaning of a specific tattoo, than in its wordless impact that goes well beyond meaning.
And sorry for being so pedantic...
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Ismael got a reaction from gougetheeyes in Religious tattoos...on the non-religious
I have religious tattoos, and I am an agnostic with strong atheistic leanings.
But what seems to me is that the meaning of tattoos seems like such a big deal nowadays. Almost like as if someone needed to explain why did they get every single piece they have, and if they fail they'll be seen as a frivolous person.
I believe that images have a power of their own, that cannot be properly put into words. This also happens with with tattooing, there are images that have been tattooed over and over again, which no one can properly pin down as to when did people start getting those tattoos and what do they mean. But they have such a visual impact that carry on it's wordless appeal and make people keep on getting them tattooed.
And with religious images I believe it's the same, even tho some images now have been associated with this or that specific religion, they have been around for aeons. There are crosses in a lot of religions, there are many cults to female deities virgin Mary like, there are many saviour like characters in several religions like Jesus and Gilgamesh, and so on. So getting a religious tattoo can be an identifier for some people, showing their devotion to a specific religion, but it can be so much more than that... particularly if it's done by a good artist.
It gets on my tits when people are more interested in the meaning of a specific tattoo, than in its wordless impact that goes well beyond meaning.
And sorry for being so pedantic...
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Ismael reacted to Avery Taylor in Do we really need apprentices?
Tattoo Zeke Owen’s Column
ASK ZEKE WITH ZEKE OWEN
This one’s from the legendary tattoo artist dates back to May 1998.
Dear Zeke:
I want to pursue a career as a tattoo artist very seriously. I am currently an aspiring artist with no tattoo training. How do I go about it?
—Chris Sisler, Vacaville, CA
Dear Chris:
I’d like you to know, Chris, that my editor goes through all this mail out in California, picks out the things he wants and sends them to me. So I don’t have a lot of choice with really picking out my mail and the questions that I’d like to talk about. In other words, it’s just random and I don’t say, “I don’t want to answer this, I don’t want to answer that.” I say, “Oh there’s a juicy one,” and go on. I just have to take the ones that he sends.
First of all, I’d like to tell you a little story about something that happened to me up in Seattle, Washington, one time. And I might start this little story out with a caption that went, “So you want to be a tattoo artist?” By the way, did you see in local business magazine that tattooing is now the sixth largest growing business in the United States?! Well anyway, next to my shop—my shop was on Skid Road. Skid Road was named originally as the logging road way back in the 1800s when they used to skid the logs down the road to Peugeot Sound to put on the ships. Well, anyway, I was out on First Avenue in Seattle for a little while and it was really neat. One of the coolest things that I used to see up there was that the people from Alaska and all over up north used to come down and put their money in the bank and go to the poker rooms and live in the old, beat up, stinky, I mean really stinky hotels right down there on First near the Pike Place Market and Skid Road. And this one guy used to bring down, every year, a couple of typical sled dog looking dogs and they were probably three years old or right around there. And he’d stay in one of those Skid Road hotel rooms where they let you have anything—I mean anything. And in the morning, you’d see the dogs and this guy from the Arctic Circle or someplace, down on the sidewalk and the dogs would both have collars on and each collar would be attached to the other one, kind of like Siamese-twin collars. So, consequently, he’d have one dog on the port side and one dog on the starboard side and they’d both be leaning in about ten degrees against each other and that’s they way he’d walk. Man, it’d be funny right there at the beginning of winter. They’d be falling, a struggling and a pulling. But, after a while, after a few months, winter would start winding down and they’d go down the steps and outside on the sidewalk just in unison—just as happy as they could be, with their tongues hanging out. And they’d run down the street when he’d call them. It looked like he was training them for sled dog work, but I’d never seen that before. It was really strange to watch them.
Next door to my tattoo shop in Seattle was this old bar called the Forty Niner Tavern. And that’s exactly what it was. It was full of all them off the ships and miners. Honest to God they still have mines up there, of course they’d be there for the winter. And Seattle was kind of growing in those days, they were building all over the place, so we had a lot of steelworkers. And the tavern used to open up at six in the morning, and I know that because one of the opening bartenders used to be my girlfriend, Carol. And I’d be over at the arcade—it was open 24 hours a day with a pool hall, and the little guy who ran the grill—and I’d get her home fries and scrambled eggs and coffee and go over to the bar at six in the morning. And the place would be so smoky from cigarettes, it’d be the middle of winter and there was no movement of air in there, and the fire would be going and it was just thick with smoke. And the sun would make rays through the front door and the first few tables had a spotlight like one of the helicopters that flies over the lakefront when you’re out there barbecuing and partying.
Anyway, I was in there and it was packed with all the steelworkers in there partying and doing shooters before they went to work up 20, 30 stories. They’re as drunk as hell going off to hang steel up there. Somebody ought to write a book, if they haven’t already, about how these guys used to save each other’s lives from falling to their deaths by catching them on the floor underneath. Anyway, I was sitting there drinking my coffee and I’d just finished my scrambled eggs and home fries when all of the sudden the most horrible, putrefying smell came into the place. God it was horrible, you know? And I looked around. I once had tattooed a South Korean Sailor for two gallons of kimchee because he didn’t have any money—this was back in the 60s—and he brought me this two gallon can of kimchee and I tattooed him and he went back to the ship. I had zero communication with the guy. So I put the bucket of kimchee—after taking out about a quart size jar of it—and put it in the reefer box in the Forty Niner Tavern and we were looking in there. We thought that was it, because it can get pretty foul sometimes. But that wasn’t it. And I looked up toward the front of the bar, and in the middle of this blazing sunlight cutting through the cigarette smoke here sits this old wino. He has a Korean War era watchcap in a shade of green that was particular to that era with flaps hanging down over his ears. And he had two or three suits on underneath his big overcoat, because it was below zero degrees outside. And his hands were just—you couldn’t tell what they were because the guy was so grimy. He had on big, heavy army wool pants and I looked down and I could see steam coming off his right boot, this old army boot. And the guy’s face was leathered and beat up. And he had his hand wrapped around a double shot glass of some kind of wine or something. With the sunlight on him, he’s just sitting there with head down—he’s drunk about half of it. And the steam coming off his shoe was coming off a freshly laid turd. Somehow, before he had sat down, he had crapped in his pants and his turd about the size of a scoop of vanilla ice cream had slid down his pants and landed on the toe of his shoe. Just balanced there. And the stink was just ripe. It was horrible. And the funny part was I was only one who got nauseous—ready to get sick over it. The rest of the seamen that were in there—a couple of guys from the hotel, a couple of Indians, all these steelworkers, my girlfriend Carol behind the bar—when I pointed it out they said, “My God, there it is, it’s on his shoe!” They all turned and broke into a rolling laugh, but they weren’t sick. It didn’t bother them a bit. They thought it was funny as hell. Well, I didn’t think it was very damn funny. So I went over to the guy and I told him, I said, “You’re gonna have to get up and leave this place and take that fucking thing on your shoe with you! Get outa here!” Anyway, he drank his wine, got up and walked out the door real slow, with his head bent down. Poor guy, he looked like a refugee from WWII, with that shuffle, like those guys with the tattoos on their arms, given that number from Hitler. Out the door he went, and that stinking thing on the toe of his right boot.
But you know, that’s all part of life of being in a tattoo business. So I thought about that for many, many years. And there’s not a real point to all this that I’m telling you. But before you do anything—before you go about planning a big career move into the tattoo business—you really ought to find out more about what it’s all about. Where you want to go, what you really want to do with it. I mean, do you have any tattoos? In other words, before I give you directions to build a bomb you better know what the hell you want to do with the damn thing after you get it finished. Because most of the people who got into this business have a real kinship with their customers in that it really gets into their blood, so to speak, and you keep coming back for more. They stay in it. And I’ve seen real good tattooers just go nuts. Actually, one of Mike Malone’s that came in my shop, what was his name—from Germany—Freddy or something. Anyway, he went back to Germany and he was one of the very first ones on the crack of the wave of the tattoo scene and he took Germany by storm. It was 24 hours a day and it got to him so bad that he had a breakdown and went off to the hospital. And I haven’t heard anything from him since. Mike will know what I’m talking about.
But the point of it is I can tell you right now, don’t take it on your own to try and do this or experiment with anybody. And here I am telling you exactly what I did, and a lot of others did, experimenting on their own. I can’t say it’s a mistake but it’s just a better approach to go into a shop of maybe the guys who’ve been doing your tattoos. I’m sure you have a bunch, right? And talk to them. Bring your artwork in to show. I’ll tell you what, there’s been a phenomenon in this business that went right past me. I missed it. Only just now am I getting to find out about what’s going on. I call them entrepreneurs. They have a job with the transit system or maybe they’re in the bricklaying business in the daytime and they have ten or fifteen tattoos, so now they decide they’re going to have a tattoo shop. They go down to Ocean Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida, and they rent a little store. They put an ad in the paper and they hire six or seven guys and they give them 35% of the gross to sit in there and tattoo. But if they don’t have the equipment, by God, they send off to somebody up north and buy all the machines and the designs and the tools to do the work with. And that’s one way to do it. And they just get together like a big Chinese cluster-fuck and sit there and mark each other up and everybody else that comes in the place.
But that’s one approach, I suppose. I think it’d be better off though if you did find somebody who had a reputation and they would sit you down and let you watch and talk. That’s really the way to get started. Hand to hand—kind of like the old-fashioned apprenticeships used to be at the shoe repair shop. After about a year, they eventually let you put a heel on somebody’s boot, you know?
And also, this is another kind of business where you want to get next to the best person you can. If you have some serious art abilities or training and everybody goes “oooh” and “aaah” when they see your painting, then evidently you’ve got the kind of ability that you need today to succeed in the business. Most of the old time guys are what we call mechanics—take a pattern, slap it on your arm and follow it along. There were some guys that could make it look like Rembrandt. You could tell, it was sort of a mechanical follow-the-dots sort of a deal. But today, when you’ve got so many great people, it just blows me away. I never knew Brian Everett was an oil painter or a portrait artist before he got into this. I just didn’t stop to think like that. The scope of the way I thought was pretty much limited to the tattoo community that I developed myself in. And it didn’t include people like that. And today Mike Malone says I’m the last guy to find out anything. I don’t know—he’s probably right. But today I’m beginning to find out these people in fine arts are getting into tattooing. I’m beginning to think, is there more money working in tattooing than there is working in the art department at some big magazine? And evidently some of them actually like tattooing. So then again, you have to think very carefully about what you say or what you do around this or any other business. But especially in tattooing, because most of the people who are in tattooing are pretty down to earth. There’s not a lot of fiction in tattooing like a lot of people would think. When a guy comes in and you work on him two or three hours and he gets up and runs out the door with your money, that’s pretty real. It’s not a real good example either but—also I don’t just sit there when I’m tattooing somebody. I’ve got something to say. I ask them what’s going on and you get to hear a lot of what’s really happening in the rest of the world. The kind of people I work on are everything from deep sea divers to CEOs of major corporations.
But again, you need to learn or find out more about what tattooing’s all about before you decide I’m an artist and I want to be a tattoo artist. Find out something about it first. Go to a tattoo convention. There you go. Hang out with all those drunks after the tattoo room is closed and they’re all in the bar slinging shit at each other, wrestling around in the parking lot like Bob Shaw and I used to do, drunk as hell in the grease. Things like that. Then that’ll give you more of an insight and whether you really want to be a tattoo artist or not.
See ya.
—Zeke.
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Ismael got a reaction from Graeme in Religious tattoos...on the non-religious
I have religious tattoos, and I am an agnostic with strong atheistic leanings.
But what seems to me is that the meaning of tattoos seems like such a big deal nowadays. Almost like as if someone needed to explain why did they get every single piece they have, and if they fail they'll be seen as a frivolous person.
I believe that images have a power of their own, that cannot be properly put into words. This also happens with with tattooing, there are images that have been tattooed over and over again, which no one can properly pin down as to when did people start getting those tattoos and what do they mean. But they have such a visual impact that carry on it's wordless appeal and make people keep on getting them tattooed.
And with religious images I believe it's the same, even tho some images now have been associated with this or that specific religion, they have been around for aeons. There are crosses in a lot of religions, there are many cults to female deities virgin Mary like, there are many saviour like characters in several religions like Jesus and Gilgamesh, and so on. So getting a religious tattoo can be an identifier for some people, showing their devotion to a specific religion, but it can be so much more than that... particularly if it's done by a good artist.
It gets on my tits when people are more interested in the meaning of a specific tattoo, than in its wordless impact that goes well beyond meaning.
And sorry for being so pedantic...
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Ismael reacted to peterpoose in The ForbesTAT List!
I was bored one Sunday and thought I would make a map of decent artists around the world, with their details and small thumbnail of the style they do. I thought it might also help new people to find an artists near them :)
I am adding to it all the time and trying to incorporate all styles, so if you don't find someone on the list and they should be, I can add them :) or if anyone feels that someone shouldn't be!
I know alot of the people on here are into old school tattoos, which are basically the ones I know least about.
Anyhows, here is the link :)
Enjoy!
The ForbesTAT List! - Google Maps
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Ismael reacted to Hogrider in Face tatty's like whoa
As the old saying goes, "You can't fix stupid."
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Ismael reacted to Graeme in Face tatty's like whoa
Her walking into a shop asking for her face to be tattooed doesn't mean that the shop or the artist is under any obligation whatsoever to give her that tattoo.
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Ismael got a reaction from Petri Aspvik in Face tatty's like whoa
She will regret it. Doing a tattoo based on strong emotions is always not the best idea.
She wants to tattoo his name on her face now, in a few months she would be happy with just a heart with his name on it, after that she would be glad with only his name on her wrist, and maybe given enough time she would tattoo a severed head resembling him with the words bastard. All this to say that emotions change, so called love most of all, but tattoos stay forever.
Maybe I'm being too much of a cynic, but I believe she will indeed regret it, and that this guy should not be allowed to tattoo no one else ever again.
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Ismael got a reaction from MGblues in Face tatty's like whoa
She will regret it. Doing a tattoo based on strong emotions is always not the best idea.
She wants to tattoo his name on her face now, in a few months she would be happy with just a heart with his name on it, after that she would be glad with only his name on her wrist, and maybe given enough time she would tattoo a severed head resembling him with the words bastard. All this to say that emotions change, so called love most of all, but tattoos stay forever.
Maybe I'm being too much of a cynic, but I believe she will indeed regret it, and that this guy should not be allowed to tattoo no one else ever again.
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Ismael reacted to Dan S in Face tatty's like whoa
I read the article before commenting, and the first thing that struck me was if they are so much "in love", maybe the hot ticket would be to wait, oh, I dunno, maybe three or four months before tattooing shit all over her face? I think the guy is lame, and would bet money he moves on right quick, now that he's made his mark, as it were.
Just cause it's new and different doesn't mean it should be done.
And FWIW, I was an 13 y.o. with a pierced (left) ear and tattoos in 1967, and an 18 y.o. with a pierced nipple and even more tattoos in 1972. Believe me, things were WAY different back then.
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Ismael reacted to irezumi in How do you react to positivity???
I hate everybody so I just mumble a "yeah thanks" and wait for them to finish ringing up my groceries.
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Ismael got a reaction from gougetheeyes in When you got tattooed
Got my first, one month after i turned 18. At the time I was working at a record shop, and most of the people i used to hang out with, had tattoos that would tell other people what music they were into, even if they were naked. I mean like, having Japanese crust band logos tattooed on one arm, and a misfits skull on the other. Some people get a t-shirt for a band, them guys got a tattoo, and so did I.
I liked tattoo as much as any normal 18yo at the time, so i decided to get a tattoo. And nothing made more sense to me at the time than getting a band tattoo, so I got a tattoo from Neurosis, a big tribal sun on my elbow,
Well, not really regretting the piece, I believe I could have waited. Since it's a bit out of tune with the other stuff that I got, it gets the most attention from strangers and the customary "what does it mean?" question more often. Still love the band tho, and miss my job at the record shop.
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Ismael got a reaction from rightbrigade in When you got tattooed
Got my first, one month after i turned 18. At the time I was working at a record shop, and most of the people i used to hang out with, had tattoos that would tell other people what music they were into, even if they were naked. I mean like, having Japanese crust band logos tattooed on one arm, and a misfits skull on the other. Some people get a t-shirt for a band, them guys got a tattoo, and so did I.
I liked tattoo as much as any normal 18yo at the time, so i decided to get a tattoo. And nothing made more sense to me at the time than getting a band tattoo, so I got a tattoo from Neurosis, a big tribal sun on my elbow,
Well, not really regretting the piece, I believe I could have waited. Since it's a bit out of tune with the other stuff that I got, it gets the most attention from strangers and the customary "what does it mean?" question more often. Still love the band tho, and miss my job at the record shop.
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Ismael reacted to Jimison in September 2012 Best Tattoo of the Month Contest
Makara Snail
Tattoo by Chad Koeplinger
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Ismael reacted to lving4today in September 2012 Best Tattoo of the Month Contest
Oh what the hell...
Lester at Electric Ladyland Tattoo New Orleans, LA
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Ismael reacted to chrisnoluck in September 2012 Best Tattoo of the Month Contest
got this little pipe in my ditch yesterday for my birthday. by timmy tatts @ tattoo marks
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Ismael reacted to SnowyPlover in How do you react to stares??????
I can deal with stares pretty well and can usually tell the difference between interested vs a$$hole stares. I just smile and go about my business.
I've only had one very negative reaction where a man took time out his day to tell me I "was ruined! Tattoos are for sailors and prostitutes!" . He was so angry. I thanked him for his "insight", several other customers told him to shut it.