guitguy

I've been too busy/lazy to post these...... from the last 5 weeks:

Wrist and Left Ankle/Achilles - Jon Larson @ Harlequin

Couple little guys on the bicep- Lightning Bolt and Flying Eyeball - Tony Caporusso @ Lucky Monkey

Right Ankle - Greg Christian @ Tattoo Faction

Texas style devil sparrow, Charley Marquez at True Blue, ATX.

Well it's been a year since I've had my back worked on and per our usual fall schedule, Henning was in town and this time we FINISHED my back! Some of you might have seen the updates via Instagram. So happy with this collaboration between Henning and Rubendall being completed! WARNING, PIC HEAVY!!! Put your browser on FULL SCREEN!
The master himself, Henning Jorgensen. Such a great artist and humble man.

Filling in the phoenix...tail feathers, breast, head and a few touch ups here and there.

Such a pleasure watching Henning work. I was so stoked with the zebra/tiger striped pattern he chose for the remaining tail feathers.

Touch up on a tender spot...the spare tire.

Slowly getting there.

Details details details...

Close-up of the phoenix...beautiful!

Full view from my right side. There was poor lighting inside since it was dark out, so they propped me up on a table and surrounded me with lights.

A quick reminder of the work Mike Rubendall did on the lower half of this collaboration. LOVE his water!

Another angle of my lower half.

Here's the finished top half.

Finished full back in all it's glory. My back is a sea of colors! Hope everyone enjoyed my show and tell! (don't mind the feet on the left or right, hahaha)

By Jon West @ Imperial Tattoo Company.

By Todd Noble, at the Montreal Tattoo Convention. Sorry about the sideways view. Was right-side up when I took the picture. Anyways, you get the idea.

Have been enjoying this thread and while I have no new tattoos to show off, I do have a new cat :)
Eva is a little over a year old and has been with me for a few months now. She owned the place within a couple of weeks, of course. I got her from a friend who could no longer keep her. I had lived with cats before but never had one that was my own. I had been thinking semi-seriously for a while about getting one and decided to save this little girl from an uncertain future.
Aside from being cute as hell, she came with skills too. She is the queen of the tinfoil ball and actually fetches ! Not unheard of, I know but, it's cool ! Makes my job so much easier ha ha ......

Finally lost my cherry today. A great experience and I love my new tattoo.
By Bradley Tompkins at Frith Street.

Thought I would also upload and share this dope action shot. Plus you can catch a peak at my backpiece that's about 5 months settled in as well as Len's great hair lol ;)

Another reminder that it is the tattoo experience as whole - that truly makes the tattoo. that's what matters. Tattooing is a very powerful, deliberate and permanent act and series of events.
Last Wednesday was an incredible day. My work in the morning. Popping into the tattoo shop to just to say what's up and casually flipping through Len's book - I have 3 tattoos from Len now and each one was a spontaneous act with permanent results. Going and getting a dope haircut so I didn't get a cheap $25cent razor fade (found a new barber, an older black gentleman, he shared his cool snake tattoo on his dark skin, he got in 1967!). My tai chi practice in the park. An encouraging doctor's appointment. The boys keeping the shop open into the evening to accommodate me (shout out to Champion Tattoo Edmonton). The stencil and re-stencil to get the placement just right. The first 30 seconds when I thought holy shit man, this is brutal have I gone too far? Bishops Green on the stereo. Tattoo talk with the boys. Sweating through the table. Feeling my nose about to get crushed sideways on the table. the post-tattoo newport smoke, the vulnerability and the satisfaction with the end result. The morning after when the shower water hit the back of my raw tattooed skin. Even today walking down the street, walking proud and tall with this new tattoo. Hearing the lady behind me in the crosswalk whispering out loud 'damn that's a nice tattoo' to herself. Seriously, I am really buzzing off how this one turned out.
The butterfly symbolism is pretty obvious.
But also this:
I dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering about, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly. Soon I awakened, and there I was, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. -Master Zhuang
I became aware of this taoist quote the morning after receiving my tattoo, and I too had the butterfly dream leading up to this spontaneous tattoo. I found it very fitting, not just in the context of the rest of my tattoos, but in terms of some personal growth I have been making over the last few months. And here comes this profound tattoo experience from a simple design that carries some complex symbolism to me, providing enlightenment when I needed it the most.
Thank you LST for providing a medium to share the tattoo experience together !

"Yknow what's awesome about this budd?...you have a whole bodysuit of tattoo and MY tattoo is going to be the one everyone is gonna ask about haha"
Keepin' it real w/ King Len, guest spot at Champion Tattoo in Edmonton, AB

Deadly placement, deadly evening, deadly tattoo. But holy fack did this one sizzle and rattle.

We completed my arm last month (last pics I promise). Added a dark grey wash background and a few more floating petals, coloured in the sun, went over my elbow again and some minor touch ups. The sun needs a couple of touch ups, will do these next year when I am back in with Clare to continue with my other arm.

Hi, just joined LST and thought i'd share my latest tattoo.
Done by Tony Hundahl at the London convention, great guy who does awesome tattoos.

Finished off my second rib panel today with Dave C. at PSC tattoo. I'll use the royal "we" and say that we knocked this out in three sessions starting in late September, about 8 hours total. I'm super stoked on it, the colour in the tiger really pops!
Dave is a great guy, and his work speaks for itself, seek him out.

Got this done by Chad Koeplinger today!

Latest and greatest- Great guy out of Portland. Dunno if he wants name dropped or not, but Im sure you could figure it out if you wanted.
Almost tapped @7hrs, but a 15m break and 2 fantas later, I was back in action. Had another tattoo re-done on the inner forearm during this sitting. 8/9hrs total.

i know - but since this boards roots are in the us, the inflationary use of superlatives should be cool ;)

Yeah I live in Moncton! These arent all in Toronto but in Ontario haha
Okey Doke Tattoo shop in Toronto
Speakeasy Tattoo in Toronto
Trophy Tattoo in Hamilton
Sink or Swin Tattoo in Aurora
Crawling Panther in Cambridge
Lucky Devil Tattoo in Barrie
Chris Anthon's private studio in Guelph
Berlin tattoo in Kitchener.

I would highly recommend The Pearl Harbor Gift Shop in Toronto. It's known as one of the very best and they always have at least one artist doing walk ins. Good luck and enjoy your stay.

That's what SHE said...

Mega excited that I have managed to get an appointment with Steve Byrne at the Brighton Convention next year! I'm normally not quick enough off of the mark with things like this but I was up at 5am feeding our bambino, saw his IG post and jumped on it without really thinking too much!

Got this little beauty at the NB HubCity Tattoo con one week ago.
A little hotstuff by Sailor Jerry Swallow, Canada's oldest tattooer. He was taught by Charlie Snow, who was taught by F.A Baldwin, who is arguably one of the first tattooers in Canada. He has the title of Hori from Horihide (Yes, that Horihide) and has been tattooing for over 50 years. He knew all the greats personally. Worked with Malone, Zeke, Jack, Irons, Huck, and all the others. Said Norman Collins was an asshole and Hardy was disrespectful. haha
Funny thing is, the lady who wanted to get a tattoo before me didn't even know who he was and wanted to get a tribal design out of a magazine. haha

No collection is complete without at least one, IMO. Next week I am having a barred owl in flight just below this piece and my left sleeve will be almost complete!:cool:

Most of the outlining done today. Next appt is Christmas Eve, so will outline the underarm and then do all the shading. I don't think there will be time for color so that will be later. There is a mum at the bottom that curves around to the front of my arm, to tie in w/the mum on the opposite side. Then wind/water meet and swirl in the middle.
Sadly, I am not bad assed enough to handle this becoming a full back piece. That very bottom bit of wind/water he added today was the clincher. Yikes.

piss poor excuse for a picture of the actual tattoo, I'll get you guys a better one when it's healed and not completely crusty.

Freddy Corbin, Temple Tattoo Oakland

I have never seen a thread for this anywhere on the forums, but sometimes I see a tattoo somewhere and it makes me go OH MY GOD THAT IS SO AMAZING and I want to share it with you guys, but since it isn't mine, I can't put it in the Lowdown thread. So, I thought I would make a thread for posting pictures of killer tattoos that don't belong to us, just to share them and 'oooooh, ahhhhh' over them.
...As I type this I'm realizing that probably 6 out of 10 rad tattoos I see on instagram turn out to belong to somebody here, so maybe this is redundant, but oh well! If it dies, it dies. :)
And I'm going to contribute something, because my regular tattooer just did a thing that made my eyeballs pop out of my head, and inspired me to make the thread in the first place, because I needed people to squee about it with.
Picture on greggletron's instagram
and, video: And here's a video.

meh ok here is a pic :)
from the amazing Steve Boltz
totally good time talking mostly golf
turns out Steve is an avid golfer and pretty good
I'm neither but I love stogies and beer with friends
and lets face it - thats more important than a decent backswing ;)
anyway - funky fish on my bicep...