cltattooing

First off, congrats on your first tattoo!!

I've read through the whole thread and I have to say that some of these replies have kinda pissed me off. As a tattooer, I see a couple of sides to this thing. From a responsible professional standpoint, I would never do someone's first tattoo on their neck for all of the reasons that everyone has already been so quick to mention.

From a personal standpoint, fuck yeah!! That's really cool to me that you went with what you felt like was right for your first tattoo. The only reason that getting your neck tattooed off the bat is so heavily frowned upon in the tattoo community is because of the prejudice and general hassle that it will cause you on a practical level from regular people in the daily world. So to see the same sort of prejudice and heckling coming from folks in the tattoo community toward another person who is now in the tattoo community, is like a major fucking bummer. Like obviously the tattoo may (or may not!) make the dude's life more difficult in some ways, do we really need to be compounding that too? Like is everyone trying to make the kid hate his first tattoo? Yeah I definitely think that was a quick and heavy decision, but I also think about where tattooing would be without people like the Great Omi who left the Royal Navy to file down his teeth, tattoo his whole body, and join the circus. All because he wanted to and didn't give a fuck what people thought about it.

And this post isn't directed toward anyone, just my thoughts on the scenario.

My consultation is in a week! I can barely contain my excitement and nervousness. I am really fucking nervous. I am a total wuss about getting tattooed, this is going to hurt :(

Got this on the same day i finished my sleeve. lol.

Oh my god. Epic tattoo. You rule.

I don't understand artists who make egregious errors. You'd look up an anatomy reference for an animal you're not 100% on, so why not spend the less-than-a-minute it takes to be sure everything is spelled right? Clients should be checking too, but that's another issue altogether.

I don't understand people who make sweeping generalizations?? Sometimes we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the shop and little things slip your attention. Misspelling a tattoo isn't a justifiable error, however we are human and we make mistakes and what with most tattooers having decade-long careers, the probability that something like this will happen is high. This thread feels very bitchy and ranty overall. Everyone needs to accept responsibility on both sides.

Just communicate with as much notice as possible. Since you're getting tattooed at a convention and normal shop facilities are not present, I think the more time to prepare that the artist has the better. Especially because a rose morph is an intricate design which requires careful intention to pull off well. I think whether it's a bother or not depends on how much work they've put into it already abd how much time they have to change the idea. Yeah, communicating is good :cool:

Tribal Alien, I'd very much like to see that :cool:

Hi, welcome! can we see pictures of your tattoo?

hahaha yeah youre right. and thanks! full disclosure: i follow ya on IG & dig yer stuff.

Oo thank you, cheers!

Just let Austin run with it, you'll end up with a fantastic tattoo either way. The dude slays.

Also hello and welcome to LST!

My friend Nick Paine is putting this show together and I'm telling you guys, it's gonna be amazing! If you live in the bay area, I definitely encourage you to check it out. Prince Gallery is a small but cozy space in downtown Petaluma, and knowing everyone who has work in the show, it's basically going to be a relaxed gathering among friends coming together to appreciate good art.

I designed the poster up there and will be selling a single edition of 25 prints for only $30 each. Total steal, I know, but I wanted people to be able to afford them in good conscience if they wanted to buy one.

I'm sure some of you have already seen this all over instagram, but it's gonna be so rad that I feel like everyone needs to know!

Hope to see some of you guys, cheers :)

This topic came up in the shop the other day, I'd like to get some perspectives from tattooed folks who live in other areas of the country and the world.

It was Friday, I had just gotten to work and it was just me, Carlos, and Sean that day. Our 14th anniversary party was the following day and the shop had just painted 10 sheets of over 120 original designs for people to come in and pick from at the party. Between expressing our excitement about getting to tattoo fun designs all the next day, and mentioning how glad we were that it was so busy this January after a slow December, we got to wondering! How does a shop full of flash affect the flow of business?

FTW is located at the very tip of North Oakland, just a couple of blocks south of the Berkeley border on Telegraph Avenue, which runs all the way down to Downtown Oakland. We are just across the bay from San Francisco, and in Alameda County alone there are over 200 shops. 200 tattoo shops! Is it a coincidence that the 3 busiest shops in Oakland, one of which is ours, is a street shop with flash, paintings, and classic tattoo iconography covering every inch of space?

The bay area is undeniably changing. If you are looking for a place to live in the bay area, asking rent changes on a monthly basis and it's definitely not going down. With the sudden and dramatic influx of money to the area, it seems as though tattoo shops are gentrifying as well, becoming more like salons and art galleries, and less like street shops. With that being said, there is still a very large population of lower-income working class people who I would easily say are still the majority of folks here. Anyone who has worked in a street shop is familiar with what the "money makers" are as far as designs go. Usually, you will make a lot more money in a day if you tattoo several smaller designs over the course of the day versus the regular hourly for one or two longer pieces. Largely speaking, unless you are a known name in tattooing and booked steady, walk-ins pay your bills.

So as tattooers do, we catch up with our friends in other shops from time to time, often inquiring about work and whatnot and it seems like most people are working by appointment these days.

This was our theory:

Are gallery shops losing walk-ins on account of image? Do the blue collar people of Oakland go into a tattoo gallery and feel intimidated by fine art on the walls and think that nobody working there wants to do their tribal armband or kids' names for them? Are street shops more relate-able and comfortable for people who aren't necessarily looking to get a sleeve done?

I'm not saying that either way is right or wrong or even that my thoughts on this dynamic is totally correct. A lot of business comes from the internet for most tattooers here and now more than ever is it easier to be tattooing the subject matter and style that you're interested in doing, for that I am very grateful.

Is this something that you have experienced or noticed? Looking forward to hearing other perspectives.

Excellent job!! I found a card for Blue Arms randomly in the bathroom of a bar in NYC once, I thought that was a rad coincidence given my interest in the shop. Very cool to learn more about the folks working there. I'll be posting this to my blog as well :)

When people get tattooed it is usually an outward reflection of their internal climate, and what with damn near every person on the planet being obsessed with their death, skulls tend to be a popular motif.

See you guys tomorrow!

I'm a 23 year old tattooed lady with green hair if anyone wants to say hello (:

Oh actually come to think of it, I have learned a lot about Japanese folklore through tattooing which I might not have found out otherwise.

Loose lips sink ships, including your own.

I have to think hard on this one because I'm not really sure if I can separate tattooing from the rest of my life. Especially what with having gotten into it really young, I definitely still feel like I'm forming my identity and that tattooing at the base of it, so like... yeah, where does that start and end?

I can definitely echo that my appreciation for art has changed a lot. Growing up, I was always attracted to really dark, fantasy based, hyper-illustrared realism and through more tattoo exposure, I'm finding that I could give two fucks about those styles in tattooing. I'm learning a lot more about the language of symbols and visual narrative, so more folky, graphic, and older art is more appealing these days.

I think the biggest one so far that I am learning the most about right now is how to manage yourself as a self employed business person. Granted, tattooing is pretty far removed from the business world but there are undeniable overlaps that can be effectively used to one's advantage to propel their career, and I find that stuff pretty interesting!

I have only tattooed two peoples' faces and they already had facial tattoos so I was alright with it. Fucking difficult type of skin to tattoo though, so thin and delicate! I'm generally not a big fan of face tattoos, although the two people in my opinion who do pull them off well are Sonju and Freddy.

As a general rule though, the face is the last place on a person that I would tattoo. Like for instance I would way rather tattoo your dick than your face and even that's a stretch (do you see what I did there?). I also won't tattoo your face unless you have significant coverage on your hands/neck/head.

since i only have a sleeve I can't comment on any other places, but the places that hurt the most for me would be around the whole wrist, the inner elbow and right around the armpit. My artist would try to have small conversation, but i wasn't able to say anything back. I just zoned out for those places.

I personally don't use anything to distract me, i'd rather much listen to my artist talk away or just listen to the sound of the tattoo machine to keep me calm.

I'll second that as far as arms go

You're #41 (but #1 in the hearts of LSTers everywhere).

#42 is next week: Brian Kaneko.

Psh you can't count it if you haven't gotten tattooed yet!!

Anyway, I just ran down my list and I'm at 28 people, woo!!!

First tattoo and I couldn't be happier. The work was done by David Hale out of Love Hawk Studio in Athens, GA.

Oh my god I fucking love that

well said hogg... now do tell who's #42

If I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure it's me?

@CultExciter awwww shit gurl :o

So I know the Horiyoshi III thing had been dropped, but I've been blessed enough to see 3 of his tattoos in person and they are OUT OF FUCKING CONTROL. One of them is a peony on the forearm, want to know what sort of stencil he used? A square. Drawn on with a sharpie. Let's not forget that the man is in his 70s. Ahem, anyway

Tim Lehi is a great example of a very loose tattooer who delivers with power every time.

And also, to touch on the statement that Stuart Cripwell has gone the more wonky route when he could have been cleaner, I'll just say this. After a certain period of experience in tattooing, your style reflects your natural drawing. Your early years are largely about learning how to put the tattoo in, and then once you kinda figure that out, you can bend the rules of tattooing to suit the sort of art that you want to make. So to me it seems kinda silly to say "oh he could have done this but instead he chose to do this," when I think most of us are just trying to make tattoos that we think are awesome.

We should figure out another dinner! Either way, super down to hang out!