AverageJer

Pretty good day for my wife and I at Smith Street. Angel Fish for her by Frank William and a koi for me by Eli Quinters. 

Pretty good day for my wife and I at Smith Street. Angel Fish for her by Frank William and a koi for me by Eli Quinters. 

So my wife got in on the Chad Koeplinger world tour when he was at Aloha Monkey in Minnesota. Obviously I'm happy for her but also I am a little jealous. 

Here are the end results of my trip to Denver. My wife got some balloons and I got a praying mantis. Both by Destroy Troy at Til Death. Great shop and fun artist. Also, The Cure was fantastic, the beer was cold and I used Saniderm for the first time. 
 

So my wife and I are going to New York City next weekend for a long child free weekend and this morning I was a little bored and got to thinking and next thing you know I called Smith Street and made us each an appointment. We plan to just walk in and pick something off the wall. I gotta tell you- we are both looking forward to it. 

yes of course, I wouldn't let him tattoo me if I knew he didn't have the skill or the experience lol
 

I can't wait for the days where I can do that with my partner.

So my wife and I are going to New York City next weekend for a long child free weekend and this morning I was a little bored and got to thinking and next thing you know I called Smith Street and made us each an appointment. We plan to just walk in and pick something off the wall. I gotta tell you- we are both looking forward to it. 

So my wife and I are going to New York City next weekend for a long child free weekend and this morning I was a little bored and got to thinking and next thing you know I called Smith Street and made us each an appointment. We plan to just walk in and pick something off the wall. I gotta tell you- we are both looking forward to it. 

So my wife and I are going to New York City next weekend for a long child free weekend and this morning I was a little bored and got to thinking and next thing you know I called Smith Street and made us each an appointment. We plan to just walk in and pick something off the wall. I gotta tell you- we are both looking forward to it. 

So my wife and I are going to New York City next weekend for a long child free weekend and this morning I was a little bored and got to thinking and next thing you know I called Smith Street and made us each an appointment. We plan to just walk in and pick something off the wall. I gotta tell you- we are both looking forward to it. 

Hi everyone! I'm a 24 year old and just got my Master's degree in public health. I have one tattoo but plan for many more. I'm a huge fan of body modification in general. I'm a huge animal lover and have a few dogs with my boyfriend. I'm currently studying to be a health educator. I've also been binge watching a lot of things on netflix recently  I'm also a PS4 gamer and pokemon gamer. 

That would be great, I'd love to do something like that.  That'd be about the only reason I'd what to visit NYC.
Hoping you share some pics with us.

So my wife and I are going to New York City next weekend for a long child free weekend and this morning I was a little bored and got to thinking and next thing you know I called Smith Street and made us each an appointment. We plan to just walk in and pick something off the wall. I gotta tell you- we are both looking forward to it. 

So my wife and I are going to New York City next weekend for a long child free weekend and this morning I was a little bored and got to thinking and next thing you know I called Smith Street and made us each an appointment. We plan to just walk in and pick something off the wall. I gotta tell you- we are both looking forward to it. 

Sweeeeet! One of these days...

It's not much news but one month from today, I leave for my west coast tattoo bender. The countdown is on!

Just my opinion but I think you have as good a chance of making it worse as you do of improving it. It's a nice, solid tattoo. I'd finish it and live with it a while before thing about what to do next.

@AverageJer any suggestion on adding above the lighthouse? We stopped the water outline where we did so that we could leave room for some smaller tattoos on the side/top. Think it'll come out okay with doing that and bringing the water around to the front?

sweet!

When my wife and I first got together she had tattoos and I didn't and actually I was kind of an asshole about them. Eventually I decided to get a small tattoo that we both got together and I haven't stopped since. We frequently get tattooed on the same day, sometimes at the same time and sometimes back to back by the same artist, and we have a lot of fun with this- but I suppose I've already said all of this upthread...

Call Smith Street! @AverageJer You never get what you don't ask for. :) You can always drop by, too. You never know.
I am so looking forward to Pagoda, already. @Synesthesia I am back in with Grez but no other plans at the moment for anything else. 

Going to NYC in May and thinking of trying to do a walk in at Smith Street for a small flash piece. Any thoughts on this? Should I try to make an appointment. I won't be too sad if it doesn't work out but it would be cool if it did. 

Very true. It's actually going to be hard to narrow it down once people start confirming they'll be there. And I live less than an hour away so I'm reeeeally debating making the drive up every one of the three days and potentially getting tattooed every day, which would be very bad for my bank account. 

I've been tattooed by some super "famous" tattooers and by some people no one's ever heard of. I am very, very wary of a sort of "starfucker' mentality in tattooing. There are so many amazing people that aren't as well known as they should be because maybe their style isn't trendy, or they're not on social media, or they just don't prioritize instagram like others do, or they don't travel to conventions as much, etc. People who are well known only gets you so much. And that one tattooer is more well known than another is not necessarily because they are "better".
There is a lot of noise in this subculture, and I am very careful to pay attention to what really turns me on, so to speak, about a tattooer's work, and not get swept up in their name, hype, trendiness, whatever. I had a really good chat about this with a fairly "famous" tattooer recently, who said that while they get a lot of "collector" types coming to them, they can immediately tell the difference between someone seeking them out because they are really psyched on their work, and someone who is more interested in their name and adding it to their list. Apparently there is a pretty big difference in the experience of tattooing these different kinds of people. It was a nice conversation in that I sometimes feel self-conscious when people ask me who my stuff is by, or who I am planning to get tattooed by in the future, and this person was basically like: don't worry. If you are genuine in your enthusiasm, people can tell. If you're a douche and just want to cover yourself in big names, people will know the difference. Our true intentions show through, and it's important to me to connect with a tattooer's work in a very primal way. Basically, to this person, there is an upside and a downside to having a "big name".
All of which to say that I think there is an important difference between recognizing, talking about and respecting the work of people who are doing awesome, creative and inspiring things, and getting wrapped up in names and tattoo celebrity. The former is what makes this community so great, but I think the latter is basically poison to any sense of creativity and authenticity. And the line between them can be thin.
I also agree with others that the experience of getting a tattoo, or if I can put it in hippie terms, the vibes that go into it, is super important. At this point I am unlikely to get tattooed by someone that I haven't heard about through someone else as being awesome. Instagram photos are not enough.