ChrisM

Past few months, sorry about the pic quality
Diego Azaldegui
Mostly healed

back fresh (not healed)

Cobweb off Diego again (healed)

Frank Carter
fresh (not healed)

Sara Schor, not healed swollen and flakey :D

I need to get some healed photos soon

I have an appt with @Scott Sylvia monday october 22nd to start my back.
Eagle and roses maybe something else who knows also penciled in for friday the 26th
saturday oct 27th @Valerie Vargas is doing 2 tattoos for me
sunday oct 28th Stuart cripwell in the A.M.

I have an appointment with Jeff Zuck to work on my back scheduled for the last Saturday in September. I'm really, really stoked...I haven't been tattooed since March, and with a wedding scheduled for October and my first daughter due in December, it'll probably be a while after that before I can afford to get tattooed again. I normally like to do short 2 hourish sessions (because I'm a wimp), but I think I'm gonna try and stick it out for 3 or 4. I'll make sure to post pictures.

I have an appointment with Matt Arriola on Friday. We are going to work on bringing my 3/4 sleeve down to the wrist, and my wife is going to get some more work done on her tiger. I am also hoping to get down to Olympia to get some black and grey skull type shit from Marco Hernandez. I also heard a rumor that Aaron Coleman was coming back up to Yakima in September so I am going to try and get down there for a little something. I am also hoping to pay rent in September.

Veves:
Veve - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Haitian voodoo banners:



Spirit bottle:

Marie Laveau:


Mojo bag:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__RuP2uZFqD0/SiH9UIuUlkI/AAAAAAAAA3U/EEUSfrMGSxc/s400/HighJohn5.jpg
High John the Conqueror root:

http://www.thegemtree.com/images/HIGH%20JOHN%20THE%20CONQUEROR%20INCENSE%20POWDER.jpg

i took a short trip back in March to Chicago. my objective was to just take a trip by myself and do some sight seeing. well on my last full day there the mood struck and i went down to Taylor Street tattoo and decided i wanted to get something cool. i was looking at the walls full of flash and they were so amazing! the man and artist running the shop that day was Rickybird. i said i wanted to get something awesome maybe a panther or a swallow or anything that catches my eye really. he went and grabbed a huge black binder and flipped straight to a page with a photocopy of an acetate drawing. it was a panther done by Rollo and underneath he had written "the best panther i've ever drawn". immediately i knew that, that was the one i was going to get but just for the sake of it i wanted to compare it to some of the other flash on the walls and honestly nothing could compare. so i left chicago with an amazing tattoo and a very full belly! i promise i will return again because i had a fantastic trip.
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Dietzel is one of my favorite tattoo artist and i have both of the books that John Reiter has put out. i love all the flash and i love his story. i've had it in my mind for a while that i wanted to get an anchor and possibly a ship. so of course i went back to my books to look for something and found and awesome piece of flash that i gave to Adrian from Speakeasy and made it his own. it turned out amazing and i love it alot!

this is the thigh piece i started back in September. if i remember correctly i posted a picture a while back in October after my second session where all the black was filled in. then i went back 2 more times (Dec and Jan) to get the color finished. now its all done and i couldn't be happier!

I love the "your body is a temple" logic against tattoos. It is the perfect example of using something totally out of context. I am a bit rusty on my bible study, but I am 90% sure that when Jesus said that he was referring to prayer. I think that he had travelled to the temple and everyone there was acting like an asshole so he stood outside and said "fuck the temple, it has become a real fucking mess, so just pray wherever you are. Your body is the temple and wherever you pray God will hear you" I am not sure when that was turned into "don't get that anchor on your arm". I know that there is a line or two in there about don't mark yourself, but there at least that many lines about not eating bacon as well.

Neato...someone quoted my first post here on LS; thank you very much. Well, as long as were on this subject, I'd like to share a couple of experiences that I feel are pretty interesting...they've become lore amongst the friends and artists I work around, so I hope you dig 'em too.
FIRST- During my apprenticeship, in 1992, my mentor, Mr. G at The Ink Zone Tattoo in Lodi N.J. taught me an important lesson in the things I may do to my clients as a professional tattooist, and how they may feel.....with the educational variable of how they were "supposed" to feel. Both Mr.G and I did small to moderate sized areas of "needle work", using a solution of distilled water and Green Soap so as not to make any permanent marks, since this was just an exercise, and "tattooed" almost every conceivable part of my body.....EVERY PART! Some of these sessions consisted of up to 3hrs. of work, punctuated by direction and Q&A. I've felt confident during the span of my career giving answers to the popular client question," where do you think it hurts the worst? " based on my personal experience. Now wait...I admit, I may not have full knowledge of what longer sessions feel like in many areas, or what it feels like to receive work in those same places by an artist with the determination to make solid and or bold lines, as well as solid color and or perfect blends. ( Man, please excuse my grammar today!) Since then, I have taught two "students" most of what I knew about the art of tattooing, who, with encouragement to also develop techniques on their own based on the unique strengths they possessed, but regretfully, did not put them through the same rigors of understanding the "feel" like my mentor had with me. I remembered that I had a tough time healing these areas, and while I didn't necessarily get infections, I did experience the "crash" of my immune system when I got a lot of this "green soap work" at once. To this day, longer amounts of needle time seem to make my ear, nose, and throat system act up. This is why i chose not to pass on the lesson, but nevertheless, both of my students became very talented, accomplished tattooists. Smiles.
Well, since that got rather wordy, I'll make the 2nd and 3rd stories quick.....I had Grime begin my sleeve/chest plate in 2 sessions, but 4 days apart. He was on a guest tour, and I reserved as much time as I could, and he informed me that by keeping the 1st days work wrapped until the next session, I'd be fine.
I also had 2 artist work on me at one time. They were guests at my shop during our local tattoo convention.
Both of these experiences were very educational, and I feel I can now give advice regarding them. Both hurt a lot, and the particularly "extreme" parts of both felt unlike any other tattoo I've ever received. Both sucked and I'll never do either again...I would advise the same, LOL. The end. I hope no one fell asleep....

I have the consultation for my back September 1st with GRIME :D
Fuckin' pumped!!!

Funny a couple of years ago a client and friend of the shop was dating this girl who was starting tattoo school. It was her birthday so he bought her a tattoo, but was at work so she came in to get it alone. She brought a bunch of Milton Zeis reference and a Stoney St Clair Sheet repainted by Danny Reed that is in the revisited book. She wanted a crawling panther type design like on those sheets, but with leopard spots. Pretty straightforward design, piece of cake. She must have made one of the guys draw it like eight times. First it was too simple, then he drew a better cat and it wasn't enough like the flash, there was a bunch of nonsense about the claws and putting eyelashes on it, but this went on for like an hour, the whole time she was trying to ask a bunch of questions about being a tattooer. So the last time we just handed her a piece of paper and a pencil and told her to draw what she wanted. She claimed she didn't work well with pencil and paper and did all her drawings on computer. At that point my boss got up from the back and asked her point blank "You actually think you are going to become a tattooer? I can't wait to see how you deal with a customer like you. " At that point she was instructed that these were not the droids she was looking for and decided to leave before she was asked to.

A bit more on my ribs. Tattooed by @Stewart Robson at Frith Street Tattoos.
One more session to go.

Chris O'Donnell. Saved Tattoo. BK, NY. Session 1 of 5.

So last week I had a bunch of meetings and one ran late. Since uncle @Lochlan was at the house already I asked if he could pick up our 2 boys from pre-school.
Then I called the school to give them a heads up that the random totally tattooed guy was not trying to kidnap my kids. I tell the supervisor who is very sweet but a little goofy that:
Uncle loch was going to pick up the boys. He is a handsome guy covered in tattoos.
She says no problem and Loch picks up the kids.
Today at drop-off one of the teachers came up to me and said:
Remember the day the boys got picked up by their uncle....the supervisor came in and told us to expect "a handsome guy in tap-shoes" and I was listening for tap shoes

I have not one panther tattoo on me... But, you're right to each their own, and when you find something you like and it feels right, none of this malarky/ jibber jabber/ opinions/ stuff will matter...
And I will quote my ole Man, " Just because it's a traditional design doesn't mean it has to be ugly, or dumbed down", Richard Stell
Make it what you want, but don't going calling it "Neo-traditional", or Neo Trad, that's a whole 'nother oxymoron I don't feel like even touching. As well as "New School, new school means that you would rather skip learning the traditional steps to the tattoo dance and show up do your own "walk like an egyptian", and call it new school.
You can't do the tattoo dance if you don't learn the steps first.
Non sequitor. Sorry.

got this today by Landon Lewis @ Black Thorn Gallery

@Natveggie45
If you want PM me where you are at and we can talk as I may have some leads for your daughter in your area. Most my colleagues and I work from a Motivational Interviewing and Harm Reduction framework which not only has great research to support change but also change we've seen facilitated by individuals more often than not.

Honestly, if you have the most unique tattoo in the world, it's probably not a good tattoo. There is a reason all those things you mentioned are popular and fairly common tattoos.

@Our Endless Days , I agree, which is why I went into Temple to get this wolf from Jason McAfee last week to keep me happy until my September appointment.

photo is from the day after

Internet strangers are awesome. I was in deep on a bottle of Johnny Walker Black last night when I started the thread...woke up with an "oh-shit-what-did-I-do?" feeling. But it is nice to read these entries. I hope more people post their own experiences.
There have been a thousand little triumphs to come from this one tragedy, but to keep it relevant to LST: I got to check out two of my Uncle's old tattoos. I had never seen them before, as he lives in New Hampshire and we don't get to see each other very often. We were having a BBQ on Saturday and I notice a faded hummingbird on his forearm from about 30 feet away. I'm like "Uncle Mike, can I ask you about that hummingbird?". He thought I was rustling his jimmies because his siblings and coworkers have given him so much shit over the years for this old tattoo. I assured him that I'm an enthusiast/collector/whatever and he eased up told me that it was done while he was in the Navy and stationed in San Diego, and that it would have been done in 1973 in a shop on Broadway. He then showed me another one on his bicep - a sweet old rose with an eagle above it, all of it framed by a daisy chain design. That one was also done in SD around 1973.
"I don't remember who, just picked it off the wall and gave the guy $20...we were just into doing stupid shit back then". He was pretty amused that I took such interest in them and he told me that nobodyhad ever paid him any compliments on them.
I was trying to remember if Hardy was around San Diego back then. Can someone shed some light on tattooers who were around San Diego back then? I know there were a ton of 'em.

Just got home from getting tattooed by Chad Koeplinger at the Cleveland Convention. Awesome experience and Mario Desa, Greg Christian, and Mike Wilson were just chilling nearby chatting with Chad as it he tattooed me. Awesome experience.
This is on my leg, I realize it looks like an arm.

For all you Chris Conn fans, compliments of Lindsey Carmichael... this is original flash painted by Chris in '96 and yes, Lindsey gave me permission to post it :D

I know I'm a couple pages behind on the response, but I was stoked to log in and see the Carmichael and Leu tattoos on the same page. Can we get less scratcher bullshit/ego stroking/personal validation threads and more awesome tattoos like these instead? Please and thank you.

Sorry for the awful pic, you can't see much but i wanted to share anyway, ill try and get a better pic soon as I can. First session with Filip Leu, this goes down to nearly my ankles, you can't see the dragon unfortunately but as I said ill try getting a better pic soon, cheers

Ladies and Gentlemen, let's see what I can light I can shed here without going into specifics about anyone ;)
First - I should say it's not as bad as the media makes it out to be (funny that?) However, there has been an increase recently in shit popping off between certain M/C's and the use of handguns which makes it a lot more high profile (We have pretty stringent guns laws, but that's a whole other story that I can explain later)
The M/C's don't have a lock down on shops. You can be independent and remain relatively hassle free (everyone has some hassles in life ;) ), and it's usually the better shops that choose to go the indie route. They are tattooers who want to tattoo. Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure members or associates would frequent these establishments also, but they aren't club shops.
What it is, is that there is currently a bit of turmoil going on within and between certain clubs (patching over, women the usual issues etc) and associated businesses are being targeted (and the po po, I'll see what stuff I can find and upload). Funny thing is though, the footage of the Gyms' and what not that have been shot/blown up are hardly shown as I'm thinking it doesn't help with ratings? I'll find a link for you guys later to check out a program that aired recently on whats been going down. NSW government have or are passing laws which makes it illegal for members or associates of a M/C to own a tattoo shop (amongst other things)
This is really quick and brief and I will go into a lot more detail later when I can, with links :)
In summary - not as bad as what you hear, we're still cool.