Deb Yarian

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.
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-----------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.

I think I have more of an issue with the "human canvases" than any other issue.
I've had clients empathize with them- over poorly done tattoos etc., but my thinking is - they get what they ask for.
They voluntarily submit to being on the show without knowing which tattooist they will get tattooed by, and often don't even have much of a say about what they are getting.
So they get what they get and deserve it, imo! Really, just so they can be on tv?
Why don't they support their local tattooers?
I would not have much sympathy if one of my customers went on tv and was less than pleased with their tattoo.

Stewart, thanks for that. This is the kind of stuff I do feel privileged to know, to be able to connect the dots. And the kind of connections I bet others will be talking about over the next 50, 100 years.

I do have to say that the guy doing my friends Phoenix is absolutely amazing and is probably going to be the guy for my other calf. Regino Gonzales from NYC Invisible REGINO GONZALES - NYC - INK. Below is the outline my friend has started so far (6 sessions or so from complete)

I think mister Ron Henry Wells need more spotlight. He has been tattooing for what, 4½ years and is allready doing something of his own with the owls etc.
The Laughing Hyena

I reckon Rich Fie in Queens in New York deserves some recognition for keeping the old hard style New York tattooing alive. His shop is covered floor to ceiling, wall to wall in hand painted flash by either him or Rob Freund or Dave Mowers, anyone can walk in anytime and get a genuine east coast style tattoo anytime, no big deals.
And he's a real genuine fella who gives back as much as he takes from tattooing. A gentleman.

I follow this guy on Instagram, He goes by the name Alexander Grim tattooing out of Russia. His recent work he has been posting is amazing,he has a really unique style to his work,the majority of his work is Japanese style. These are some older pics off his myspace.

Robert Ryan is one of my favorite tattooers, and the majority of my tattoos were put on by him.
Cobra design originally by Sailor jerry, repainted for the asbury park tattoo convention. the script underneath was tattooed by Rich Heller, also at Electric tattoo in Bradley Beach NJ.
and the girl was tattooed on my 20th birthday, lots of fun.
the dagger on my shin was designed by Dan Higgs. One of my favorite tattoos so far
ALSO, an extremely underrated tattooer is Tom Yak, also at Electric Tattoo

Marco Hernandez is a great tattooer. He owns Lit Fuse in Olympia, WA. It is hard to find examples of his work online, but he does have an Instagram account. He is very versatile, and his lettering is as good as anyone around.

the day i got the cobra pictured above by Robert Ryan, Marco was guest spotting at Electric and he did this AWESOME black and grey rock of ages on a local tattooers throat. the tattooer also had black and grey ladyheads on both sides of his neck, also tattooed by Marco. very nice guy and a super solid tattooer. Apparently he's coming back in the spring and I can't wait to get tattooed by him.

Mike Moses tattoos:


Favorite right here:

He's well-known in these parts, but I haven't seen much mention of Dave Cummings from PSC Tattoo, Montreal on LST:



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Another local guy who I feel deserves some recognition (again, pretty well-known locally) is Pol from Pol Tattoo, Montreal.

What Max said.... Isaac Fainkujien . I got tattooed by him while he did a guest spot at The Sinner & The Saint in Aachen, germany

I love drawing ladies faces - but rarely get to do them, maybe only a couple a year):
Has anyone mentioned Isaac Fainkugen? Definitely one of my favorites!

I love drawing ladies faces - but rarely get to do them, maybe only a couple a year):
Has anyone mentioned Isaac Fainkugen? Definitely one of my favorites!

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.

@missStark I teared up! You are awesome.
My best friend/mother passed away less than two months ago, so I've been keeping myself busy. Enrolled in a stain glass class, so I'm sinking money into this new hobby. But I freaking love it.
And gearing up for holiday craft time. Christmas is right around the corner!

I love drawing ladies faces - but rarely get to do them, maybe only a couple a year):
Has anyone mentioned Isaac Fainkugen? Definitely one of my favorites!

Awesome things I am doing lately.....
Worked my first convention
Went to my first seminar
and I've made a point of being more honest and true to myself.
Goal next year, travel more.

Awesome things I am doing lately.....
Worked my first convention
Went to my first seminar
and I've made a point of being more honest and true to myself.
Goal next year, travel more.

Awesome things I am doing lately.....
Worked my first convention
Went to my first seminar
and I've made a point of being more honest and true to myself.
Goal next year, travel more.

Awesome things I am doing lately.....
Worked my first convention
Went to my first seminar
and I've made a point of being more honest and true to myself.
Goal next year, travel more.

Awesome things I am doing lately.....
Worked my first convention
Went to my first seminar
and I've made a point of being more honest and true to myself.
Goal next year, travel more.

Awesome things I am doing lately.....
Worked my first convention
Went to my first seminar
and I've made a point of being more honest and true to myself.
Goal next year, travel more.

@missStark has the best feel-good story of the day!