cltattooing

So I was browsing through some catalogs in my friend's boutique and came across something very curious. A company called Cartel Ink, or Kid Cartel, has a tank design depicting a machine with baseball-style lettering that says "Dringenberg, (something illegible) Company"

Now, those of you who have seen the LST interview with Dan Dringenberg would probably also find it a bit hard to believe that this guy would license his name off to a clothing company. I find it especially curious, because if he actually did license his name, there would most likely be more than one single shirt with his name on it. I mean the whole point of licensing is to build a brand name, right?

Now I'm totally open to being wrong on this one, and I truthfully hope that I am, but I think that the tattoo community needs to look out for each other and squash the leeches. Sooo if anyone has any fact-based information on this situation, I would appreciate that knowledge before I go ahead and send Dan an email being like "look at this shit."

pictures for your eyeballs:

(contact info for the clothing company)

sleeping baby ostrich

Mark Cross original

found in children's underwear section at walmart

halloween rules!!

my boss

Just got this yesterday!!!!! 4 hours by George Campise.

Sat for a 4 hour session yesterday on the elbow. It was pretty easy considering the spot. When I go in for a longer session, it's basically a mix of great sleep, hydration, a big breakfast, and snacks/more water throughout.

Long live the tattoo nerds!! :D

Dunno if anyone has posted this one yet, but this is one of my favorite horrible hipster tattoos:

definitely don't do it if you have any actual scabs on there, as they will get waterlogged and the ink will fall out.

Hey, quick question. Is this an event that you can pre-order tickets to? The website says it's just 20 bucks a day, I know a lot of convention type events will raise the prices of tickets as the date draws nearer. It doesn't appear so, but I figured I'd ask some people who have already been.

All from regulated studios in my city.

What the fuck happened here, did they just tear up the skin and think it would heal red? o.o

So the longest ive sat to date is about 3 hours. I'm a little nervous as on Wednesday I'm looking at a 6 potentially 7 hour session. However it's on two different tattoos. One after the other by two artists in the same studio. I'm hoping this might make it easier ? Has anyone got any tips on what to eat etc. I've never really had to worry about blood sugar levels before however after 3 hours I'm usually shivering etc. I'm excited tho even if its a whole new level of pain haha x

eat a BIG FUCKING BREAKFAST and keep hydrated.

I like to have lots of protein on hand when I get tattooed. Trail mix, fruit, and jerky are life savers! Any sort of high-calorie yet nutritious snack, really.

edit: ah damn, you've already gotten tattooed by the time you've read this. Well.. for future reference!

But to answer the initial question, my longest session sitting and tattooing was 7 hours on myself. Never again.

The longest I've sat for someone else was 4 and I think the longest I've worked for was 6. The sense of accomplishment makes it worth it in my opinion.

I never knew scrimshaw was a term for it, that's rad. I've often admired this style of tattooing and not really known what to call it, other than "looks like an etching or lithograph."

One of my favorite artists who works in this style (and I feel almost bad because I am constantly telling people about his work, I just really think it's so beautiful) is Max Buchi. He travels a lot, mostly between New York and London these days.

some good stuff:

That Dietzel repaint is killer!!! His eagles are seriously the shit.

Here's one of my interpretations of his work:

I think they're so cool!!! One of my favorite pieces of flash that I've ever seen was a gypsy-style bearded lady bust with her arms cut off, sprouting out of a boot. I can't remember who painted that, but goddamn, I would love to get that tattooed. My homie has a tater tot with these really sexy burlesque pinup legs, that one's pretty fucking funny.

Interesting topic, @ironchef!

I don't have too much time to post at the moment, but it brings to mind a few things I've been chewing on for awhile now, mainly: what impact do the images you permanently mark yourself with have on your life/life energy, if any? Robert Ryan had some interesting things to say about this in his interview in the most recent Tattoo Culture Magazine (voodoo symbols and a guy dying soon after the tattoo was finished) (I'm writing this quickly, forgive me for any sloppiness!), and I remember at some point, somewhere (don't remember where!) reading that Horiyoshi 3 was tattooing his son and had not finished either one of the symbols or some of the characters...dammit...I don't remember and now I will be looking for this article to post here. The point is that something wasn't finished, something 'bad' or unlucky happened, and once the characters were finished the imbalance was righted.

Soo...this is a good topic, and I will look for more interesting and specific references before posting again. And I'm definitely looking for the Horiyoshi article, grrr!

Forgive sloppiness and quick posting! Will right THIS imbalance soon enough!

Thank you for bringing this up! Reading that Robert Ryan interview in TCM really affirmed some personal superstitions about tattoos for me. I don't like to tattoo symbols of evil, as far as my own comfort zone goes. Simply speaking, a symbol is a distilled image intended to invoke a very specific idea/memory/feeling/desire. Because of this immediate association, symbols are very powerful visual tools. Brand logos are an accessible and modern example of how a symbol can instantaneously trigger a reaction in a person. Alphabets are also a good example. I think the reason why most clients have a hard time understanding this is because it is a very ideologically superstitious practice on my behalf, and also because the idea of a tattooed symbol of evil having real-life repercussions seems magical at best.

If symbol X triggers reaction a, b, or c in nearly anyone who looks at it, and all of which are negative reactions/feelings, I don't want to be the means by which that negativity is brought into the world. That's really all that it comes down to I guess.

(on a side note, I think that there is a huge difference between the power of symbols and the power of illustrations.)

My calf was worse than my chest. I never thought it would be, but it was. its on fire right now.

This. Back of the calf is just fucking awful.

Some of my favorite tattoos that I have were impulsive decisions. Most recently have been a small rooster(right below my knee if you must know) from Alex at FTW, and one of Jacek's awesome slugs from Mom's. A lot of the tattoos I've done on myself have been somewhat spur of the moment decisions, mostly because I was itching for practice at the time.

I'm not sure if anyone has discussed this so far, but I have a question I'd like to throw by some of the other tattooers in this thread. What are your 'rules' (if you will) regarding tattooing people that you are dating? I don't mean long term relationship kind of stuff, but people that you've been with for less than a year.

Thank you, tattooedgirl!

And thanks, hogg! I gather that there are a lot of bay area people who post here?

Thou shalt tip your artist on a job well done!

One of the tattoos that I've done that never fails to make me chuckle was actually a piece I did during my apprenticeship. This 45 year old mexican man had come into the shop and browsed through some of the Cherry Creek crap we had in the flash racks. He found a tribal sun that was intended as a lower back tattoo, and he wanted it as a wrist band. Fucking hilarious. This man must have spent every day outside since he knew what the sun was, cause he had something more along the lines of elephant hide for skin. Reminded me a lot of tattooing pig feet, haha. I think his wife ended up getting a grim reaper from our other apprentice. Too funny.

thanks, party people!

I submitted a post with a bunch of pictures, I think it still needs mod review.

Getting tattooed by George Campise at the end of May, that's been on my mind for the last couple of months.

I missed out on last year. Can't wait to attend this year!!!!

oh right, of course (:

(I know the webs are very scratchy here ): )

Hello, Last Sparrow. I've finally decided to join you.

I guess I heard about you guys from being linked to your artist interviews from TAM blog interviews. So far I think that this is a pretty rad forum, and seems to be lacking a lot of the nonsense and fluff that saturates a lot of other tattoo forums.

I also think it's really cool that technical secret spilling is discouraged here. More attention to focus on the actual quality of art, rather than who thinks they know what. But! Forgive me for not thoroughly looking, but is there a section for critique? I'm a novice who has confidence in their potential for great tattooing, but I also feel that I have a really long way to go before that becomes part of my reality. I think one of the biggest obstacles in my progression is that I don't often get to make art in the company of other artists and don't really have a lot of people who are available to give solid and honest feedback. There are a lot of people posting here who I look up to, so I'm pretty stoked to be able to dive into the community here.

I live and work in Oakland, California. I would choose no other place to be at this point in my life, it's probably one of the state's best kept secrets. Also, the caliber of tattooing that is present in the area is both astounding and overwhelming. I often find myself comparing my work to those who have been at this for (usually) 5 times longer than I have, and I still haven't made up my mind as to whether that's a good habit or a bad habit.

Anyway, hello, nice to meet you all.