ChrisM

I got a lovely new tattoo today from Valerie at Frith St in London....
https://instagr.am/p/IR82kEOt4R/
(It's the purple ranunculus flower. The pink rose is on me too, I had that one done 6 weeks ago)

Grime just posted this Oni Vs. Panther pic on the Black Claw facebook page and I can't stop staring at it.
Check out his facebook page here: BlackClaw | Facebook

I wish I had something intelligent to say, or at least a witty comment or observation... but all I can say is - F@#k Me. By Mike Rubendall kingsavetattoo | Just another WordPress.com site

On my ribs. Super pumped!

Second!! I love the pantherhead from his newest flash set.

I think mister Ron Henry Wells need more spotlight. He has been tattooing for what, 4½ years and is allready doing something of his own with the owls etc.
The Laughing Hyena

Robert Ryan is one of my favorite tattooers, and the majority of my tattoos were put on by him.
Cobra design originally by Sailor jerry, repainted for the asbury park tattoo convention. the script underneath was tattooed by Rich Heller, also at Electric tattoo in Bradley Beach NJ.
and the girl was tattooed on my 20th birthday, lots of fun.
the dagger on my shin was designed by Dan Higgs. One of my favorite tattoos so far
ALSO, an extremely underrated tattooer is Tom Yak, also at Electric Tattoo

Dipping into the darkness-Chriss Dettmer the black hole ,Hamburg.
chriss dettmer: glaub ich selber nicht...

Got this from El Monga today. Gotta be the gnarliest tattoo I've had. It's in a real awkward spot.
Underneath the inner bicep and then wrapped around part of the the back of the arm.

Got this little inner biceps number from the most excellent Mr Stewart Robson at the Brighton Convention yesterday:

I am exceedingly happy with it. Cheers Stewart.

Got this one yesterday from Valerie at Frith Street Tattoo.... Really stoked with it.

Got this today from Jef Whitehead

I got tattooed by Chris Trevino in 1997, right before I left Austin for SF. He said he had just done a guest spot in SF, so I asked him what the coolest tattoo he did on the trip was. Now, for those of you who are familiar with Pre-100% Japanese Style Chris Trevino, you know that "coolest tattoo" also meant "craziest tattoo." He went on to describe an insane armpit-to-waistline rib piece that involved, among other other things, a jackelope wearing a fez, a waterfall of blood, and a lady with a beehive hairdo making the devil horns with her ring and middle fingers tucked away in her special pocket. I couldn't really get my head around it, but that was the case with many of the tattoos Chris described to me.
Fast forward to 1999, when I finally had enough money to get tattooed by Eddy Deutsche. I went to 222 on my lunch break and booked the appointment with some guy at the counter. We got to talking about my tattoos and I mentioned that I had work from Chris. He said, "Oh yeah, he did my ribs" and lifted up his shirt. It was that piece! And the guy was Jeff Rassier, who is in a league of his own when it comes to putting weird (and awesome) tattoos on people.

There are a ton of fantastic artists and operators out there these days, overwhelming.
30 years ago the general public didn't want to know and for the most part shunned the cultures/lifestyles of tattoos, bike builders, dumpster divers, bug exterminators, hog hunters, truckers, pawn brokers, storage container buyers, bounty hunters,and most of what "reality TV" and their marketing expertize has generated into "good TV consumer ratings" that generates BIG BUCKS logically or they wouldn't have pursued such.
These things all come from evolution and these things will evolve to a degree that overpopulates these areas, because now a person who searched storage containers can't show up without being outbid buy dozens whom figured they could do the same and profit, same goes for truckers, more people taking CDL tests now than ever before, the home grown bike builders are everywhere, much of these areas have grown to insane proportions like everybody and their step nephew being "professional tattoo artists".
It is much more complicated now with todays technology, the "Tattoo Directory" went the way of the phone book and if ya can't find it on the net it doesn't exist attitude is overwhelming. As to the "niche shop" from yer designated area of your home? Why not? Coney Island Freddy Grossman did better after they banned NYC tattooing and going into his gated community tattooing underground, was it legitimate? not so, did he get away with it for many years? Yep, but Freddy really didn't have a choice in his location and we do. Also in some ways with the shops popping up everywhere you can expect that tattooing's rep may get burnt by the shortcomings of the "fly by night" shops and drag us back to 1975. But the parallel I want to draw to the question posed is this;
The consuming public knows that McDonalds food is garbage but there are many more Mickey D's around than the Mom & Pop restaurants that buy select cut meat and farm fresh vegetables yet the public will continue to feed on the trash while the smart seek the better meal. Both business's come and go but the truly good eateries build a more lasting clientele and reputation for good cuisine. Now to think you can sit in the front yard and attract drive by patrons for a slab of ribs off the smoke from your grill or set up a more eloquent dinning area in a large home will not lend much for any lasting legitimate business reputation. The point being is this;
We have come a very long way in becoming "recognized" as an art form, "legitimized" by all forms of media and to expect that going "underground" might lend to the area that has come to be considered part of that which will burn the rep., operating costs today in tattooing is greatly increased from 30 years ago and it's difficult to compete in the consumer market against all the people who settle for lesser for cheaper but I say hang in there, keep the lights on, give the public a place to drop into and keep your work to the best of your abilities and the highest standards and you will survive. When times are at their worst you can pick up work in other ways in the way of art or a second job, I know that sounds difficult but it's what it may take and others did it before us. Take Walter Cleveland for example, went to work at a lumber yard to keep his doors open and cut cost's by sharing the same location of a surplus shop and non the less he is today still revered as "Walter Cleveland, Master Tattoo Artist, innovator and Legend" and he's been dead since the 60's, check it;
The Cleveland's
Whatever direction ya choose, just keep a good rep and do the rep and public justice. If ya have to take it home and State and local regulations are met and that is what it takes for you to survive then do it and have no shame in it as it's been done before in the history of the tough times in tattooing. As for myself, I am on third generations of Families that are devout and maintain steady work enough to keep me evolving as a business of over 32+ years on paper and legit and I will be there till I drop out of my chair chucking up a tube and needle.
Don't mean to sound so serious but when I started I knew that I NEEDED to get legit with a shop and a shingle to start changing up the rep of tattooing as it was then, now it has come so far that a chump with a 50 dollah tattoo kit has come between me and feeding my family and I don't want to give up on the image/rep that I helped build by allowing myself to be compared in my home to the guy scratching "live laugh love" on a chick in his back bedroom as the general public won't see or distinguish the difference between the ones that do it right and professionally.
Customers are going to become a harder and harder sell when there are soo many out there but reputation, word of mouth and most importantly the quality and customer treatment will be what builds a lifelong customer base, Bert Grimm knew that and he had three shops runnin at one time but Bert Grimm was "The Name" and his main shop was the legacy that cranked out many more legendary tattooers.

My Brooklyn Joe Lieber piece all done and pretty well healed. Tattooed by @Valerie Vargas, Frith Street.

He is about 40 miles south of Portland in Salem OR. I know a couple of people who have been tattooed by him recently and it looks like his signature stuff still.
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=np&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=dave+lum+tattoo&fb=1&gl=us&hq=dave+lum+tattoo&hnear=0x5495082476f88863:0x10e0cf158aacbd08,Beaverton,+OR&cid=7572867145008337774

Found it. So cool.
Rassier back piece drawing one
Rassier back piece drawing two

jaie is super nice too. if you're in austin you should for sure get work from him.
he put this crazy skull on me about a year ago.

I just got a huge calf piece from Danny Reed - A Kewpie Viking- its the most kvlt brootal piece ever (i will see if I can figure out how to photo it)
edit- here it is, my house is dark and i suck at camera

First sitting today. The secret to getting through it was cherry and strawberry Starburst. I think they made it hurt less...

second session with derek noble. got all the shading done. about 8 hours in so far? doing color in a few weeks

Found this pic of my boss, you can really see the panther head done by Dan Higgs on his chest. I would say the tattoo was done in 1991-1992 and the photo was 1994, but it still looks pretty good to this day. Funny I was hoping to find a photo of his Freddy Corbin Rock of Ages on his ribs, but all you can see is a little water in this photo.

Here is a nice Higgs tattoo I found recently. It was tattooed by him, not someone else tattooing his flash.

I've had mixed experiences as the Richmond show, but no experience with the new folks running it. More than anything I just need a dang vacation, and Richmond means boiled peanuts and old friends. So if the show sucks... I'll go see a movie :D

These were posted on another forum, and I thought some people here would appreciate the scans.