Iwar

This story gave me the biggest smile! You guys are awesome [MENTION=194]hogg[/MENTION] [MENTION=5385]cltattooing[/MENTION]

Awesome tattoos by the way! Kinda funny that both of us got tattooed by Bailey and at Smith Street with only a few days apart.

These were amazing [MENTION=855]jade1955[/MENTION]

Thanks so much for sharing!!

Scissor time!! haha.. Hilarious, awesome and sexy at the same time!

Have you had the pleasure of making any of these into tattoos yet [MENTION=191]The Hyena[/MENTION]?

Good thing I checked the blog section before I posted this in the forum.

Loved the video Stewart! Thanks for sharing this. Hope to visit Frith street again soon.

Another great interview! Thanks [MENTION=7]Scott Sylvia[/MENTION]

Any plans of interviewing any of your co-tattooers at Blackheart at some point?

I love these "three questions" blogs!

I also love religious imagery in tattoos, but as an atheist I feel it would be weird getting something like that myself. I know Seth Wood made a Darwin/evolution flashsheet a while back. Maybe I can get something from that someday instead ;)

No new pics of your back on Marius' blog :(

Frisco was great! I'd go back tomorrow if I could. You can read all about it in my blogpost. Pictures of the tattoos will be posted in the forum section as soon as they are healed.

Thanks [MENTION=133]MsRad[/MENTION]. If I lived near by I wouldn't miss a single meetup. I'm so happy I got to join the 1 year anniversary one though. Maybe I'll be there at the 3 year anniversary :)

Glad you enjoyed it @Petri Aspvik . My budget just for tattoos was around 4 grand, which turned out to be more than enough.

Holy shit Robin! Thanks so much for sharing and making me jealous. Any progress on your back since last time?

This will unfortunately be my last post here. I'm writing this from my livingroom, dead tired after another 23 hour (give/take) of travelling. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I got what I came for and then some, so I'm not in a position to complain.

Thanks for all the nice comments and feedback to this blog thing. I really appreciate it! Next year I'll try to do New York.

Sunday, the day after my Grime appointment, my norwegian buddy that lives in Berkeley drove me out to the Great Mall near San Jose so I could finally do some good ol' shopping. After a few hours there I convinced him to drive into San Jose to find the State of Grace shop so I could take a look around and maybe pick up a shirt. After a lot of driving around we finally found it, but for some unknown reason the doors were closed. I also tried calling but it just went straight to voicemail. Oh well, atleast I got a picture of the entrance, haha..

Later that evening I hooked up with some fellow norwegians from Trondheim that had gotten tattooed by Grime the same week as me. How weird is that? They came in during my appointment so Grime could take photos of their tattoos. Turned out I even share an ex girlfriend with one of them. It's a small world apparently.

I thought I was departing monday morning for some reason, but when checking my papers it turned out I was departing tuesday morning. I was so happy to find out I had an extra day that I decided to once again drop by Blackheart to see if they had time for a walk in on tuesday, which they did!

Cody Miller managed to squeeze in a cute little seahorse between some larger pieces on my right arm. Fillers are fun!

Besides getting tattooed that day I took a long walk around the mission district in the beautiful weather, and also ate the largest burrito I have ever seen.

So that's it I guess. Hope you guys enjoyed my ramblings.

Pictures of all the tattoos from my trip will be posted in the forum section as soon as they're all healed and I have decent pictures of them.

Last picture. Downtown Oslo while waiting for my bus home....

Businesscard collection

Grime teaser

Great! Just PM me the info when you know and I'll try to make it out there if I get back in time :)

Cool! That would have been nice [MENTION=130]dcostello[/MENTION]. I'm going to hang out with my friend from Berkeley today, but I'll probably be back in the city by evening. Any idea of when and where you'll be going?

I NEVER WANT TO GET TATTOOED AGAIN!!!

Ok, maybe that's an overstatement, but my 4 hour session with Grime today was excruciating to say the least. My pain threshold was low from the get-go, and I couldn't help thinking that I had gone in way over my head getting three large pieces on the same leg all within 5 days. Luckily Grime offered to spray on some pain relief at the homestretch. Thank god! I'm a wuss, I know ;)

The tattoo turned out incredible though. I got one of his signature skulls wearing a samurai helmet. Can't wait to show you guys.

I'm extremely happy to be done with getting tattooed for a while now though. My visit is unfortunately coming to an end soon, and I'm kinda sad that I haven't seen more of the city. Maybe next time I'll have a little more time on my hands:) I definitely want to come back to this great city!

Keeping it elevated

Lehi sneakpeak

Today; Grime :D

My first sunset in years

Today I'm getting tattooed by Lehi by the way! :D

That's it for now!

(There's a max limit of 4 photos per post, that's why it's all scattered if anyone was wondering...)

I know, I know, but I had to see for myself...

Me and Alcatraz (wayyy in the back)

I was so happy when I finally stumbled upon this guy

"I mede you hollar, now give me a dollar"

Kinda foggy

Sorry for the lack of updates last couple days... I've had really long days, and merely used my hotelroom for sleeping. I'll try to sum up what I've been up to the last couple days though...

I decided to take a trip up to Haight Street and visit the Idle Hand shop on wednesday before the LST meetup, and before I knew it I was on the table getting tattooed by Iggy Vans. He just did a small filler on me, but it was alot of fun none the less. I wanted a straightrazor, but for some reason I thought a straightrazor was called a switchblade, so that's what I asked for. I was a little bit suprised when he brought me the stencil, but the design was cool, and I gave the green light. There were some straightrazors hanging on the wall by his station, so I asked him "what are those called", and his immediate response was "fuck dude, you wanted a straightrazor didn't you?". We laughed about it, and I got a cool little switchblade instead.

I also got to talk a bit with Hanna who also works there. She's from Sweden, so I could drop my awful english for a few minutes, and speak my native tongue. When my tattoo was finished I walked across the street to Molotov's Bar and drank a beer before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the meetup.

When my taxi pulled up outside Chow, which was the restaurant we where all meeting up at, I suddenly got all nervous. I think it was meeting such a large group of people all at once, and I'm not exactly the loudest person in the room full of new people. I greeted the gang on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, but as the rest went in to get seated, me and [MENTION=194]hogg[/MENTION] got to chat a little bit as I was smoking a cigarette, which kinda calmed my nerves back down.

Well, what can i say about the meetup... It was a blast! If you weren't there you missed out ;)

It was really cool putting faces and names to avatars and online aliases. I got to see some really cool tattoos, hear some awesome stories, eat some good food. I'm so happy you guys arranged the meetup during my stay! Thanks!

Yesterday was my big "stereotypical tourist" day:

Tiger Vs Snake at Golden Gate Park

Some dude playing saxophone to a tree. I hung out there for a few minutes, and he wasn't a street performer, he was just playing to that tree...

So, when I woke up yesterday I walked around the area where I live to try to locate myself a little bit. The sun was blazing, and the taste of Cherry Coke and Dr.Pepper gave me that "USA feeling" that I hadn't had since last time I was here around fourteen years ago. Sounds a bit banal maybe, but it's true. I didn't have much time to cruise around though, as my appointment with Scott was at 12:30pm. I hailed a cab to Valencia street and arrived early enough to get a beer at a bar called Zeitgeist(or something like that) before my appointment. Really cool place which I'll probably try to visit atleast once more during my stay.

Anyways, the Blackheart studio blew me away. So many impressions to take on... The giant Blackheart tattoo sign on the wall, the neon sign hanging in the window, handpainted flash by the artists working there all over the walls, a big black heart on the tiles greeted me as I entered, lots of tiny artifacts scattered all over the place.... The guy at the counter (don't remember his name unfortunately) was really nice and helpful too. He was also a painter and showed me a picture of a watercolour painting he had done of an octopus attacking a ship. It was awesome to say the least!

I had requested a dagger on my shin and Scott drew up a few sketches for me to choose from (which was really hard as they were all awesome). When I finally settled on one and we got going soon after. The tattoo only took around a couple hours to complete, and I couldn't be happier with the result. I'll share pictures here once it has healed properly.

After my appointment I walked up to Dolores park to chill out for a while and see if I could spot some of these hipsters I've been hearing so much about. There was a jam session going on in the middle of the park where musicians came and left continuously which was really cool. On my way back to the city centre I felt a cold coming on, and it gradually just got worse. When I reached my hotel around 7pm I was sweating and freezing at the same time, so I decided to stay in for the evening. Today I'm feeling alot better though, and I'm really looking forward to the LST meetup later.

To be continued.....

Zeitgeist (or whatever...)

Now that's a sign!

Dolores Park

Fresh tattoo

so stoked that we'll get to meet you Iwar!

Superstoked to meet up with you guys on wednesday!!! :D

I've finally arrived! Took around 28 hours from I left my house in Oslo till I opened the door to my hotel room in San Francisco. Jetlag's going to be a bitch! I've slept a lot on the plane, and local time here is 1am now. I'm exhausted from all the travelling, but right now I feel wide awake. I have to try to force myself to sleep though as my appointment with Scott is at noon tomorrow.

I stop by here every day! Only website besides hotmail and facebook that I can say that about. Thanks Team LST!

I got tattooed by Dalmiro at the Oslo convention a couple years back. Awesome tattooer and super nice guy. If you’re in the area and able to get an appointment you should! There's a picture of the piece I got from him in my gallery if anyone's curious.

Thank you for these great interviews Scott!