KYboy

I have an appointment confirmed w/ Nick Colella March 2. (picking something off the wall, any suggestions ideas??) and we have plane tickets for San Francisco in June and I'm definitely getting tattooed out there as well. Pretty pumped about them both it will be my first time traveling for a tattoo. I think it will be a little weird as I have been super comfortable with my tattooer (Nathan Abney Nasty Nate Tattoo Artist). He's a real good friend and we bullshit the whole time, it keeps my mind off the pain.
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I love what they do at that shop, I am getting tattooed there as soon as I can
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just confirmed an appointment w/ Scott Sylvia as well Mon. July 1.

Part Two
Chicago’s Tattooing past is as deep and influential as both the Bowery and The Pike and South State Street was the spot for all of these tattooers to come through. Like I stated before hundreds of tattooers came through to work on South State Street, from the early 1900s through until the demolition of the area in 1967.
Here are a few of the oldest photos I have found of unidentified tattooers tattooing on South State Street, if anyone knows who they are I would be stoked to hear it. These photos looked very staged, but it looks like the typical arcade style tattooing, just a small little corner or spot underneath some stairs where these arcade owners could house a tattooer as well. These photos where found in an online archive of old Chicago pictures from a local paper that no longer exists.



A lot of the tattooers where complete winos and would tattoo for the Mob owned arcades just long enough to get some drink, then would disappear until they needed to work again. Other like the ones I will mention below made South State their homes if not only for a short while. Most notable tattooers that worked on South State are but not limited to.
Ed Thornton
Bill Moore (Chicago Tattoo Supply House) not affiliated with Chicago Tattoo Co
Paul Hansen
Bill Killingworth
Jerry Pope
Ned Resinol
Ernie Sutton
Randy Webb
Mickey Kellet
William Grimshaw
Owen Jensen
Bert Grimm
Philadelphia Eddie
Don Nolan
Oakland Jake
Stoney St. Clair
Amund Dietzel
Phil Sparrow
Buddy McFall
Cliff Raven Ingram
Sailor Jerry Collins
Ralph Johnstone
Tatts Thomas
So there are 22 of the heaviest hitters to ever hold a tattoo machine and they all came through Chicago at one time or another and the history is relatively unknown or not talked about. To me this makes Chicago’s history even more intriguing. When people talk about tattooing they either mention The Bowery or The Pike, but Chicago was home to some pretty amazing tattooers that helped shape not only the look of what tattooers today call traditional designs but they where also trying to improve their tools and techniques.
Out of the list you have a few stand outs that are obvious you have of course Sailor Jerry, he was said to be introduced to electric tattooing by Tatts Thomas, here is the only card in existence that shows Sailor Jerry was tattooing on South State Street in Chicago. This card was in China Sea when Rollo bought it after Jerrys death, Kandi Everett had it in her possession for the last 20 something years and passed it on to me recently.

Bill Moore had the Chicago Tattoo Supply House and worked closely with Tatts Thomas over the years, Tatts and Bill moved shops a bunch of times during Bills stay on South State Street. Bill used to run ads in Popular Mechanics at the time touting his “Tattoo Outfit” so there you have tattooers selling to the general public way before Spaulding ever graced the back cover of Tattoo magazine. Bill Moores earliest ad was found in Billboard magazine in 1932, where he is listed at 434 South State the same address that Sailor Jerry used to work at. This was the Burton Arcade, which a lot of other tattooers had worked at as well. Bill Moore died in Chicago in 1944.
Ralph Johnstone to me is one of the most under rated tattooers of this time. Not only was he one of the most amazing circus banner painters but he also was an amazing tattooer that by all accounts was extremely kind and never had a bad word to say about any other tattooer. Ralphs business cards used to say he would work off of photographs, which meant photo realistic portraits in the 1950s. Ralph and Tatts Thomas worked side-by-side for Ralphs entire State Street Career which lasted I believe until everyone left in 1963. Johnstone also painted flash for Milton Zeis who at the time had a supply business and tattoo correspondence class out of Rockford Illinois. These business cards below show some of the address that Tatts and Johnstone worked at. The cards where also drawn by Ralph himself, as you can see he was light years ahead of his time in the way he approached illustration and tattooing for that matter.


Here you have a couple of Ralph Johnstone’s clients with full chest pieces, and the third pic is of 3 backpieces with Johnstone in the front the center was done by Tatts Thomas it is on Sailor Bill Killingsworth the other 2 where done by Johnstone.



Thanks for your interest more to follow on some of the other tattooers that shaped South State Street.

I have an appointment confirmed w/ Nick Colella March 2. (picking something off the wall, any suggestions ideas??) and we have plane tickets for San Francisco in June and I'm definitely getting tattooed out there as well. Pretty pumped about them both it will be my first time traveling for a tattoo. I think it will be a little weird as I have been super comfortable with my tattooer (Nathan Abney Nasty Nate Tattoo Artist). He's a real good friend and we bullshit the whole time, it keeps my mind off the pain.
- - - Updated - - -
I love what they do at that shop, I am getting tattooed there as soon as I can
- - - Updated - - -
just confirmed an appointment w/ Scott Sylvia as well Mon. July 1.

I've talked to @Dan S and he is the man! Helped me out a lot. If you got any ideas on some killer flash I'll listen. Thats the one question I forgot to ask.

I have an appointment confirmed w/ Nick Colella March 2. (picking something off the wall, any suggestions ideas??) and we have plane tickets for San Francisco in June and I'm definitely getting tattooed out there as well. Pretty pumped about them both it will be my first time traveling for a tattoo. I think it will be a little weird as I have been super comfortable with my tattooer (Nathan Abney Nasty Nate Tattoo Artist). He's a real good friend and we bullshit the whole time, it keeps my mind off the pain.
- - - Updated - - -
I love what they do at that shop, I am getting tattooed there as soon as I can
- - - Updated - - -
just confirmed an appointment w/ Scott Sylvia as well Mon. July 1.

Portraits? Na these dudes do a lot of whispy line stuff w/no outlines and infinity symbols... lots of infinity symbols!

I know that some of the folks here on LST play in bands, so I made this thread for us to share our music, touring schedules, music videos etc.
I play guitar, or at least try to, in a band called Serenity Trace. We play metal/hardcore'ish music with a dash of techno/samples/strings/industrial. This is a song from the full length album we just finished recording.
Theory#3 by serenitytrace on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Portraits? Na these dudes do a lot of whispy line stuff w/no outlines and infinity symbols... lots of infinity symbols!

Just saw this thread.. I'll share two quick experiences.
The first, my lady and I tried a restaurant in the neighborhood we'd never been to. Our area is half young white kids, half old school Italian/families. This restaurant was an Italian spot and not one we knew anything about, just figured we'd try it. We sit down and our waiter had a pretty bad 'tude.. wasn't looking at us when we ordered drinks, came back for the food order and that was that. He ran the food and barely said a word to us. This was summertime, and we both had on short sleeves but in New York you don't even think twice about visible tattoos.. it's only when you go somewhere else (like when I go home to rural MD) when you notice people kind of staring. Anyway, a couple sat down next to us, kind of yuppie, dressed in khakis or whatever, not tattooed. Our waiter comes back out and gives them a whole introduction, talks about the specials, makes jokes and is all smiles, talking with hands and being the kind of affable that feels like he's making a point. Then he brings them bread! We were amazed.. We got no specials, no bread, no water refills... we flagged him down to get the check and our only conclusion was that he saw us and instantly figured we'd be bad customers.. so we were sure to actually leave a good tip. Still don't know what the deal was but we never went back.
Second, is I was recently in small claims court and it was one of the few times I thought to myself, Man, am I glad I don't have any hand/neck tattoos. You can't control other peoples' snap judgments.. and when that person is a judge (ok, arbitrator) it seemed in my benefit to look as "normal" as possible. Hopefully, one day I'll be able to seriously consider some Everlasting Jobstopper tattoos... but for now, I just want bread and water refills like the rest of society.

Ok...you convinced me. haha
Nick Ley

Luckily I'm pretty close to Cleveland, but I'm Going to Chicago in March and getting tattooed by Nick Colella, and San Francisco in June where I hope to get tattooed by Scott Sylvia (haven't made the appointment yet) so if I can I'm going to Get one by Greg Christian somewhere in between if I can catch him while he's home!

Portraits? Na these dudes do a lot of whispy line stuff w/no outlines and infinity symbols... lots of infinity symbols!

Portraits? Na these dudes do a lot of whispy line stuff w/no outlines and infinity symbols... lots of infinity symbols!

Portraits? Na these dudes do a lot of whispy line stuff w/no outlines and infinity symbols... lots of infinity symbols!

Portraits? Na these dudes do a lot of whispy line stuff w/no outlines and infinity symbols... lots of infinity symbols!

Yeah not sure who they are, Watched every episode of Inkmaster and still came up with nothing.

That's great, Nick. I remember reading an interview with Ed Hardy about 20 years ago (in the old Modern Primitives book) in which he talks about the shame that's been heaped on a lot of old guys for having tattoos. He said that he always approaches them, compliments them on their tattoos, and asks who did them. That really stuck with me, and I'm happy to hear that you're doing the same.

The two largest pieces on my arm, on my forearms actually, are Sailor Jerry flash. It's history. I eat that shit up.

Luckily I'm pretty close to Cleveland, but I'm Going to Chicago in March and getting tattooed by Nick Colella, and San Francisco in June where I hope to get tattooed by Scott Sylvia (haven't made the appointment yet) so if I can I'm going to Get one by Greg Christian somewhere in between if I can catch him while he's home!

Might as well. Greg Christian @ Handcrafted Miami

More pix in the latest tattoo lowdown. It's hard to shoot photos of your arm yourself, haha.

I hate that PBR is considered hipster. In Chicago most of us grew up with PBR and Old Style. It's what our father's drank. It was Union made, working man's beer.

the problem is in my opinion is that just because there are more and more tattooers everyday the ratio of hard working creative and original ones are falling off.. part of self promotion is you have to make yourself and your work public. if not no one outside your town would really get to know your work. its obvious valerie is an amazing tattooer, with that comes all the no tallent as clowns who rip everyones shit off. i think its sad that people arent just willing to sit down and learn to draw a girl head with an animal head of their choice. instead to rip it off. then there is the part of a customer wants the exact thing. fine . try to steer them away but if they are persistant dont fucking publish it on the internet.... i love how people are called out on it...

haha, that woman also has the butterfly i did on El Wood's arm. i remember seeing this a while ago, think a customer pointed me to it over twitter. i dont really know what to say on the matter other than i think the biggest shame is for the owner of the original tattoo, they put their trust and money on that piece to have someone else get a nastier cheaper version.
ive had a couple of customers bring up this point after seeing a bad copy of their own tattoo online and the only thing to say on this matter is that at least you got the original and best.
i havent crossed words with customers that pass through frith st who wear bad copies of my work, i stay away from it and leave them to get tattooed by the other guys. i assume that when i open up my book at some point the people who wish to get work by me will, and the ones that keep getting cheap copies wont.
a while a go i finished a black and grey girl/tiger head backpiece and i remember stumbling across another artists website with a tshirt they designed and selling with a near enough tracing of the original design i did for my customers back with a tweak or two. ive since had the fortune to speak to said artist face to face and tell them how unhappy i was about it but they didnt apologise and instead chose to lie about it. but whatever, i told the owner of the backpiece and he was at first upset then kinda laughed about it thankfully.
I def post less and less work online, not purely through these type of happenings but they certainly do not help. my newest funnest work is now printed in photograph form and added to my physical portfolio at work/conventions. it is sadly a very much double edged sword, i just try to toe the line and not disappear entirely.

A few years ago, Bill Salmon told me that I should get all the tattoos I want as soon as possible. He said that the older you get, the more it hurts and the longer it takes to heal. Mr. Salmon knows a helluva lot more than I do about these things.

While I imagine that most of the regular posters on this board are extremely discerning about the tattoos they put on their bodies (at least in terms of quality--perhaps not subject matter, haha), the idea of being a "tattoo snob" gives me douche chills.
Most of my friends are not really into tattoos, and so they are likely to come to me for advice if they are considering one, and I am absolutely happy to help--I want folks to get beautiful work and I want the awesome artists in this city to get the recognition they deserve. But as long as they're safe and clean I have no interest in being some great arbiter of whether or not their work passes my muster. They have to live with it.