Deb Yarian

Well, the Coasts have both been written up, so I guess I have to throw in my vote for Chicago.
Cliff Raven. I don't usually like linking to Wiki, but this is a fairly concise and accurate summation of his career.
Cliff Raven - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
While it is accurate, it doesn't really convey just how much of an influence the man had. When I first started hanging around his shop at WAY too young an age, Buddy McFall was still working there, and it was a pretty rough and tumble place. Phil Sparrow was there at times, as was Tats Thomas.
Cliff was called "The Father of Modern Tattooing in America" by those in the know in this area. He may have been, or he may simply have been one of the earliest and most influential advocates of Japanese-style tattooing.
Continuing his style, and also his renown, were some of his apprentices, especially Dale Grande, who still owns Chicago Tattoo, and Bob Benedetti. That line continues with the man I consider to be one of the finest traditional tattooists in the world, Nick Colella, (Tattooing by Nick Colella) and with another outstanding artist, deeply immersed in the Japanese tradition, Miles Maniaci. ({ Miles Maniaci }) BTW, that's my arm in the "Progress" section.
It seems that these tattooists get short-shrift in books and print in general, and that's a shame...Chicago Tattooing is literally a shrine to the art. There is original flash on the walls by Cliff, Dale, and Nick, along with such greats as Sailor Jerry, Don Ed Hardy, Tats Thomas, and many others. Cliff was named "Tattoo Artist of the Year" at the very first International Tattoo Convention in 1976, and shortll after bought out Lyle Tuttle's shop in Hollywierd. While there, he tattooed many celebs, including Ringo Starr.
I got tattooed by Nick Colella a few weeks ago, and he told me that he is hoping to continue the thread on tattooing history in Chicago he had started here as soon as he got a minute free from ink-slinging. The man is busy, but you can still get a walk-in with him without too much difficulty.
So give Chicago it's due, some of the heaviest names of tattooing in the modern age came out of here! Add another to your list, Bunny...you can book a spot with Nick, chat with Dale while you're there, and then maybe hit Miles the same day-he works out of Deluxe Tattoo, not too far from Chicago Tattooing Company.
I am fortunate to have work by by Dale, by Miles, and by Nick, and have more planned with Nick.
.02

@Cu-Bu hold onto your horses (and T.V.) homes , I feel something may have been lost in translation here . Pretty sure thats not Horiyoshi III of Yokohama rather a collector called Yoshi who has been tattooed by the main man and who also wears a tigers head by Bob Roberts .

I was really surprised how in shape he really is!
He has to be at least 55-56 because the shop opened it's door in 1976!
He told me that the BBC had just been there doing a TV taping because they had done some research and his shop had been open the longest out of all the remaining shops (either in Brooklyn or NYC)..... so he told them about Tony P. and he had Tony come in to talk with them.....and Mike wound up tattooing Tony during the taping for the show!

Here are two living legends that i know have already been mentioned but I got to hang with them both this past weekend and had such and awesome time! Mr. Tony Polito....who showed up to surprise me....and in the background you can see Mr. Mike Perfetto tattooing! Sorry....I look like crap....mostly because I had already been tattooed earlier in the day by Steve Delgatto...ha ha ha!

Yeah Deb.....I am doing what I can....and you know that for a fact......ha ha ha!
I thought I blew it when I didn't get Tony Polito last year BUT I was given a very rare chance to add a tattoo by him and I jumped all over it!
I should have gotten Steve Delgatto.....but I dropped the ball......it's in the works though!
I need to make a trip down the VA Beach area to add a little something from Scott Sterling as well!
And a trip up to Philly in the next few weeks to get something if I can from Jerry "Reds"
I am gonna be a busy Bunny!
Deb.....you really need to plan a trip to the East Coast sometime soon.....you know your name is on my list!!! ;)

Another who truely fits the tag legend is the godfather of Italian tattooing ,Gian M Fercioni .He pioneered the stylish Italian look of reduced palette and plenty of skin within beautiful traditional design, compounded by his colourful personal style .He's a real tattooers go to guy and is revered in Europe ,personally I would love to see more of his work.

Having lived in the West Country, UK for most of my life it would have to be Bristols Les Skuse. I would have loved to have been tattooed by Les, he died in 1973 a couple of years after I got tattooed for the first time. Here is some of Les Skuses work.

Lance Mc Clain is still goin strong in Hawaii, my mate just got tattooed off him. Danny Romo is still doin 3 days at least at Shamrock in Hollywood for the real old East LA style. Phil Bond is probably still tattooing in Torquay England with 2 of his sons, he always did great tattoos. And Dennis Cockell has a new shop in Soho in London and is there all week, Dennis painted some of the nicest tattoo flash ever, most of it is still in the shop in Walkers Court that Darryl Gates has now. There are a lot of real good tattooers with 30 years in still tattooing today, sitting in shops waiting for ya to walk in and get something put on you.

I bought this book- Amazon.com: New York City Tattoo: The Oral History of an Urban Art (9780945367208): Michael McCabe, Hubert, Jr. Selby: Books and went to some of the shops and had them sign it.I had to take a subway,and a bus,to get to Polito's shop.Also went to Pete Giaquinto's shop in Queens.Here's a pic of Pete. Tattoos By Casey
Another guy who's been tattooing in Brooklyn for many years is Stevetattoos.com I believe he works with Polito a few day's a week.
Ronnie Dell'Aquila is another legend who still tattoos in Allentown. Swallows&Daggers | Interviews | Smivee Valencia In this article Smivee talks about him.I believe Ronnie may tattoo at his shop sometimes.

I thought I'd start this thread along the same sort of vein as tattooer's deserving some recognition ,except more like shedding some light on the classics.So i'll kick this off with one of my all time favorites,N.Y.C's finest -Tony Polito

Loved it!!

Loved it!!

on breaking in to the business of tattooing. A good laugh.
Contact me at [email protected] for availability$20 shipped in the US
$25 outside of the US

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.

Courteousness is key. It shouldn't matter who you are, how many tattoos you have, what you're getting, etc., you should be treated with courtesy. There are so many great tattoo artists out there that I can't be bothered by getting tattooed by someone who is rude or is a dick.
It's also bad business sense. A couple of years ago my wife @Pugilist emailed a very good local tattoo artist about getting a tattoo (for what it's worth, it wasn't the easiest tattoo request) but instead of just saying that he wasn't interested in doing it, he sent a really assholey reply...though, curiously enough, he didn't actually say he didn't want to do it. It was probably good in the long run that he did that because that got her looking into travelling for tattoos, which led her to Stephanie Tamez at Saved who is completely amazing both as a tattooer and as a human being, and who is now doing a full back piece on her. There's a few thousand dollars that the first guy potentially deprived himself of.
Obviously, that courteousness goes both ways. To me, that means appreciating the fact that tattooers are often busy and might not respond to my emails as quickly as I'd ideally like, that appointments often run late, that when they suggest something it's often to make a better tattoo, and so on and so forth.

on breaking in to the business of tattooing. A good laugh.
Contact me at [email protected] for availability$20 shipped in the US
$25 outside of the US

I really don't like this!! I think her options on covering the original tattoo, we're pretty limitless--- I can't imagine her wanting a solid black square on her back if she were getting something on bare skin. This is a situation where I would have refused to do the tattoo--- not sing judgmental , just exercising my right to decline.

As a tattooer and shop owner I pay particular attention to how I am treated when I walk in to a tattoo shop----- I 'm older and i'm not particularly cool, hip looking, overly attractive, and I normally don't walk around in a tank top and shorts, with exposed tattoos. That being said, I shouldn't have to give another tattooist a resume to expect good customer service, as a customer or fellow tattooist.
If able, you should be kind and courteous to every one that walks through your door.
- - - Updated - - -
-----------Unfortunately, or fortunately - I've found many tattooers are often without boundaries and are verbally expressive.Many that I know wouldn't willingly go out of their way to hurt anybody- but their choice in music and speech borders on insensitive---- Whether it's talking about specific sexual techniques, religion, politics, gender preference, stance on euthanasia, vegan vs carnivore etc. rarely have I encountered a "PC" shop.
Our shop has a sign on the door stating "graphic images and colorful language spoken here"just in case.
We share a building with a religious - charitable organization and are right next door to a Baptist Church. One of my husband's ( the reason we have the sign) customer's was going to make a sign for my husband- " if you don't like the language here, go next door!" But i'm definitely not making excuses or saying you should subject yourself or friends to an uncomfortable atmosphere.

As a tattooer and shop owner I pay particular attention to how I am treated when I walk in to a tattoo shop----- I 'm older and i'm not particularly cool, hip looking, overly attractive, and I normally don't walk around in a tank top and shorts, with exposed tattoos. That being said, I shouldn't have to give another tattooist a resume to expect good customer service, as a customer or fellow tattooist.
If able, you should be kind and courteous to every one that walks through your door.
- - - Updated - - -
-----------Unfortunately, or fortunately - I've found many tattooers are often without boundaries and are verbally expressive.Many that I know wouldn't willingly go out of their way to hurt anybody- but their choice in music and speech borders on insensitive---- Whether it's talking about specific sexual techniques, religion, politics, gender preference, stance on euthanasia, vegan vs carnivore etc. rarely have I encountered a "PC" shop.
Our shop has a sign on the door stating "graphic images and colorful language spoken here"just in case.
We share a building with a religious - charitable organization and are right next door to a Baptist Church. One of my husband's ( the reason we have the sign) customer's was going to make a sign for my husband- " if you don't like the language here, go next door!" But i'm definitely not making excuses or saying you should subject yourself or friends to an uncomfortable atmosphere.

As a tattooer and shop owner I pay particular attention to how I am treated when I walk in to a tattoo shop----- I 'm older and i'm not particularly cool, hip looking, overly attractive, and I normally don't walk around in a tank top and shorts, with exposed tattoos. That being said, I shouldn't have to give another tattooist a resume to expect good customer service, as a customer or fellow tattooist.
If able, you should be kind and courteous to every one that walks through your door.
- - - Updated - - -
-----------Unfortunately, or fortunately - I've found many tattooers are often without boundaries and are verbally expressive.Many that I know wouldn't willingly go out of their way to hurt anybody- but their choice in music and speech borders on insensitive---- Whether it's talking about specific sexual techniques, religion, politics, gender preference, stance on euthanasia, vegan vs carnivore etc. rarely have I encountered a "PC" shop.
Our shop has a sign on the door stating "graphic images and colorful language spoken here"just in case.
We share a building with a religious - charitable organization and are right next door to a Baptist Church. One of my husband's ( the reason we have the sign) customer's was going to make a sign for my husband- " if you don't like the language here, go next door!" But i'm definitely not making excuses or saying you should subject yourself or friends to an uncomfortable atmosphere.

on breaking in to the business of tattooing. A good laugh.
Contact me at [email protected] for availability$20 shipped in the US
$25 outside of the US

As a tattooer and shop owner I pay particular attention to how I am treated when I walk in to a tattoo shop----- I 'm older and i'm not particularly cool, hip looking, overly attractive, and I normally don't walk around in a tank top and shorts, with exposed tattoos. That being said, I shouldn't have to give another tattooist a resume to expect good customer service, as a customer or fellow tattooist.
If able, you should be kind and courteous to every one that walks through your door.
- - - Updated - - -
-----------Unfortunately, or fortunately - I've found many tattooers are often without boundaries and are verbally expressive.Many that I know wouldn't willingly go out of their way to hurt anybody- but their choice in music and speech borders on insensitive---- Whether it's talking about specific sexual techniques, religion, politics, gender preference, stance on euthanasia, vegan vs carnivore etc. rarely have I encountered a "PC" shop.
Our shop has a sign on the door stating "graphic images and colorful language spoken here"just in case.
We share a building with a religious - charitable organization and are right next door to a Baptist Church. One of my husband's ( the reason we have the sign) customer's was going to make a sign for my husband- " if you don't like the language here, go next door!" But i'm definitely not making excuses or saying you should subject yourself or friends to an uncomfortable atmosphere.

As a tattooer and shop owner I pay particular attention to how I am treated when I walk in to a tattoo shop----- I 'm older and i'm not particularly cool, hip looking, overly attractive, and I normally don't walk around in a tank top and shorts, with exposed tattoos. That being said, I shouldn't have to give another tattooist a resume to expect good customer service, as a customer or fellow tattooist.
If able, you should be kind and courteous to every one that walks through your door.
- - - Updated - - -
-----------Unfortunately, or fortunately - I've found many tattooers are often without boundaries and are verbally expressive.Many that I know wouldn't willingly go out of their way to hurt anybody- but their choice in music and speech borders on insensitive---- Whether it's talking about specific sexual techniques, religion, politics, gender preference, stance on euthanasia, vegan vs carnivore etc. rarely have I encountered a "PC" shop.
Our shop has a sign on the door stating "graphic images and colorful language spoken here"just in case.
We share a building with a religious - charitable organization and are right next door to a Baptist Church. One of my husband's ( the reason we have the sign) customer's was going to make a sign for my husband- " if you don't like the language here, go next door!" But i'm definitely not making excuses or saying you should subject yourself or friends to an uncomfortable atmosphere.

As a tattooer and shop owner I pay particular attention to how I am treated when I walk in to a tattoo shop----- I 'm older and i'm not particularly cool, hip looking, overly attractive, and I normally don't walk around in a tank top and shorts, with exposed tattoos. That being said, I shouldn't have to give another tattooist a resume to expect good customer service, as a customer or fellow tattooist.
If able, you should be kind and courteous to every one that walks through your door.
- - - Updated - - -
-----------Unfortunately, or fortunately - I've found many tattooers are often without boundaries and are verbally expressive.Many that I know wouldn't willingly go out of their way to hurt anybody- but their choice in music and speech borders on insensitive---- Whether it's talking about specific sexual techniques, religion, politics, gender preference, stance on euthanasia, vegan vs carnivore etc. rarely have I encountered a "PC" shop.
Our shop has a sign on the door stating "graphic images and colorful language spoken here"just in case.
We share a building with a religious - charitable organization and are right next door to a Baptist Church. One of my husband's ( the reason we have the sign) customer's was going to make a sign for my husband- " if you don't like the language here, go next door!" But i'm definitely not making excuses or saying you should subject yourself or friends to an uncomfortable atmosphere.