PopsBdog

I don't think people should limit themselves with simple big and black. I ask the client what they really want for a new tattoo. Then I figure out a way to make that happen through lots of lines various colors , and possibly going over the image with white up to three times before I put the new image on. But overall if I never did another cover-up I'd be stoked. I keep telling myself - no more cover-ups. On the other hand, it feels great to eliminate unwanted tattoos for people. I'm close to having a suit and I have no cover-ups. If the tattoo is there it doesn't lie. If people keep covering their work with the trend du jour, the cover-ups don't stop and they end up looking like a confused mess. If you don't like your old work just wait 10-20 years and it'll either be cool or funny. I know there's all kinds of exceptions to this theory, so whatever, there's my 2-cents worth.

This is sad.
My first tattoo was an ankle band. There's a tattoo artist who is a friend of a friend who I ran onto at a party. I started talking tattoos because I wanted more serious work in the future but when she saw what I had she literally turned her back and walked away. Years later I have more ink than her.
Don't judge. It does no one any good.

Read the whole thread and it touches on many things that I've thought about over the course of getting tattooed. Let me try to add something that's not all ready been formulated five times.
1. Tattoos now are like jeans. At first when jeans became a mainstream phenomenon jeans itself was the trend, and wearing jeans was hip. Then it went in waves, with different type of models that were "in", often making the previous model hopelessly "out". I'd say this went on until quite recently when really tight jeans for men became mainstream. Now it's not about a type of model anymore, but different brands and smaller nuances that decides if a pair of jeans are in or not, (good or not). I see tattoos going the same way. People are doing both old and new styles, and even if certain motifs at time/geographic context can be considered in the mainstream as more cool than others, no style of tattoos is really "the only thing" or is totally forgotten and shunned. This is from my perspective of course, someone not hanging out on this forum and keeping track of 200+ tattooers would possibly have a different analysis.
2. Being accused of following trends. I feel that the more tattoos you get, the more people you know/random folks on the street will accept that you are not following trends. Trends are in a way somewhat cheap, you can't invest in them too much if you are to be ready to throw it away for spring and jump on the next new thing. With something as permanent as tattoos, big portions of your skin all ready covered, you'd have to slightly retarded to put so much into a trend. I think most people can see that in general anyone who is so dedicated is doing it for herself/himself and not to "fit in". I also think that a small percentage of people really are slightly retarded and will go to such lengths.
3. The old ideas of earning your tattoos, I believe that they are there for good reasons. Not only because of the very real social and possible economic problems that a "job stopper" tattoo can make you face, but also to separate those in it for the love of the art from those who are more about being a tattooed individual. Generally the later group will be more likely to follow trends.
4. In this time tattoos are still a radical thing. One very tangible example is that certain types of tattoos/placements will stop you from getting certain types of jobs. People will have all sorts of ideas about you when they see your tattos. In some circles you will not be welcomed, and this includes some of the most influential parts of society. This is something you will have to relate to if you have visible tattoos. Some people jump on tattoos like a trend not thinking anymore of it, and in a way I guess that's always been a factor, but even these people will still have to face the resistance inside of society against their behavior. Just like every woman, every person of darker skin colour, different sexuality or any kind of handicap (for example) eventually will feel the problem that the mainstream of society has with her/his person, so will most tattooed people sooner or later feel unjustly treated in some way. It is very interesting that people can arrive in this (permanent) position from following trends.
(Excuse my academic language, I enjoy writing like this. The last part was a bit more ideological. Personally, I think subcultures and counter-cultures are a very important channel for change in society. I believe that being at odds with what is "normal" or "correct" often forces people to think about their own position, their choices, the life they want to live, and what needs to be changed in order for them to not feel constrained by social/economic/ideological forces. Tattoo culture and associated subcultures, in my opinion, has this potential for radical awakening. Depending of course on how far you go and the resistance you encounter)

I never judge based on 'trendiness'. if someone sat through a tattoo and are wearing it for life, that's badass no matter the design.

If that is a trend now it sucks for me because I have been into the occult since the early 90's :( I hate when people get occult symbols tattooed, yet they never even invoked a demon...
Haha jk

People staring at my tattoos doesn't bother me in the slightest. I've had them for a long time. But I agree, the uninvited touching is beyond aggravating. Along with having tattoos, I have long, thick, curly red hair (at the risk of sound arrogant - it is beautiful). A few years ago I was standing in line at the market. It was just one of those days and I wasn't in the nicest of moods. The woman in front of me turned around and started stroking my hair telling me how beautiful it was and asked if it was natural. I smiled, reached out and put my hand on her boob, as I started to squeeze I said, "Gosh, thanks so much. Your tits are beautiful too. Are they real?" She was so shocked and looked like she was going to cry as she quickly walked away to get in another line. I just laughed. It was extremely satisfying.

good god this

I think you'll find it has EVERYTHING to do with him being a creep.
I can't be arsed to critique the rest of your post. Musn't engage with creeps on the internet (unless they are extremely attractive, then they cease to be a creep and instead become charming. Hmmm.... Can you post a face shot so that I can decide?)

I'm actually so narcissistic and passionate about tattoos, that I take every stare for envy, admiration or blatant sexual desire.

If that were me I would have just showed her my.

Hahaha, I didn't realise "Les Elephants" was a popular Dali tattoo. I have them on my back, I had just turned 18 and they were my first tattoos. I didn't really know very much about tattoos at the time, but I wanted something from my favourite painter.
Would I get something different now? Sure, but do I regret them? Not in the slightest. I think it's pretty easy to rag on people for their design ideas, but as long as it's done well, who gives a shit if they're walking around with a popular owl, or a famous painting? I'm sure some on my tattoos wouldn't appeal to a lot of people, but that's why I am wearing them; because I like them!
I used to work at a tattoo shop as a receptionist, and the artists there would definitely suggest improvements on weird concepts, or poor placements, but the biggest thing was they would respect that some people's ideas are definitely subjectively "cool", so just make sure it's executed well and there you go.

"I want a sleeve. You know, clouds and stars and shit."
So we did a painting of a sleeve of clouds and stars and....shit. Actual turds, with bits of corn in them and everything. Strangely enough people start to get a bit more specific when we whip it out.
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Haha. Sticking a pair of tits on a tattoo when they ask it to look more feminine. That thought proper tickled me.

julio i'm with. you bust your ass to get a clientele and then spend every night at your drawing table doing day of the dead mary sleeves. or koi sleeves with cherry blossoms. could be worse i could be tired of doing cherry creek flash. or i could get up at 4 in the morning and break beef for quarters for three hours then make ground beef and then clean all the cases all in 40 degree cutting room floor. ill stick to finding a anew way to do marys cloke, hahahaha were all jackasses

Hey Folks, Thanks for this thread. Instead of it being a big ole bitchfest, it really has given me a good outlook, stuff to remember when I feel like I have to write a six paragraph bible verse the size of a postage stamp. I tattoo whatever walks through the door, and sometimes it is taxing to my soul, but what is more taxing is the thought of not tattooing.

Well i pretty much do what ever people ask me to do. even the celtic tree that "should feel like strenght and love" what the fuck is that suppose to look like.....oh crisp and bright. right. when i get all upity about my job i just remind myself its not my tattoo my ego only extends till im done then its thiers for the rest of thier life. even if you got john mayers sleeve tattooed on you. haha.but i did that shit tight. seriously ill do it all i actually love tribal shit and people think im kidding but i do like it ,just not most of the people who lend to it, much like the anal retentive people who like celtic. but what can you do? i dont believe everyone should be tattooed, shoot me but this aint for eveyone.

I don't want to flog a dead horse, but Jennifer Billig put up some pretty cool pictures a couple weeks ago. This is just a tiny picture on a computer screen but I'm in awe of how durable a good tattoo is, and how skilled a good tattooer is. If it hits me in the gut the style doesn't really matter to me. Yay tattoos!!! This makes me want to go get more right away.

@Graeme ????❤️❤️❤️❤️??????
If that string of emoticons is unreadable, just know I sent a string of googly eyes, hearts, and party horns.
It's been a long time since I've been around someone that aggressive who really enjoys upsetting people so much. I've never understood that kind of behavior. I have a friend who one time tried to explain to me the art of the troll and why it was so much fun...and messing with your friends just a tiny bit is a fun and time honored tradition - but rad's trolling takes it to a different level. It's not funny? I dunno.
Thx for taking care of it mods!

I saw this on Instagram, it's on user tfjesse1046. Sailor Jerry put this on him in 1967. Readable and strong as fuck almost 50 years in.

YES!!!

^^^Well I know what I'm doing tonight!

Ok, I'll type up a quick little recap with some pictures of the weekend. I'll be honest: I didn't really take a ton of photos. There were some people there taking pictures of absolutely everything. I felt weird doing that, so I tried to just get a few that were representative of what was there. I'm sure more will surface, but this is everything I took.
Also, I didn't go to the lectures, but when I got there on Saturday for my 12:30 appointment, the lecture had just ended. The place was absolutely mobbed when I went up, and Ed was signing books and posters for a long line of people. He ended up leaving fairly soon after that was done, but Trevor stayed there and showed art and chatted with anyone who had questions or wanted to buy stuff. By all accounts, the lectures were incredible. Rubendall said that they'd be up online in the near future, and obviously @Iwar posted that teaser above.
First and foremost, I'll start with some of the art. Ed had a few different collections of things. These first ones were my favorite. They were all paintings, with an etching or rubbing over the top, in a way that almost reminded me of some of the Devita stuff they've had there before, but with Ed-styled paintings underneath. Very cool.

In that same collection were two incredible tiger paintings. I would've killed to buy these, but they were sold already and I'm poor as fuck. Haha.


He also had a lot of crazy morphs. Below are two of them, and the panther/snake morph on silver had about six others that were similar. Grez actually bought the one posted below.


There was also this collection with the "pig thing" and a bunch of drippy/bendy/wild panthers. My buddy was about to buy this one, but his wife was NOT having it.

I think the real highlight was going through a ton of original stencils and drawings that Trevor had in a binder. He didn't have them out for the longest time, then when I saw him take them out, I bolted over. I only took one pic, but there was some amazing stuff in here. I just pored through a ton of it with a few people and each thing was more amazing than the last.


Here's the flash they were tattoing from as well as the Hardy gorilla my buddy got from Grez (bloody eyes and all). Grez was beyond excited to do it, as he'd never done that tattoo in all of his years. He told us stories about getting tattooed by Ed, as well as one about Ed freehanding on Brian Bruno towards the end of his career. Next time I get tattooed by him I'm making him take his pants off to show me. He said he would.



I think that's it for now. I'm sure more will come to me, but I wanted to share a bit of what I saw.

agreed. and of the remaining likeable 1/3rd, I don't want to be around them 2/3rds of the time. and that 1/3rd of tolerable time with likeable people usually occurs after consuming 2/3rds of a 6-pack.

My husband has zero piercings or tattoos, and I have both. He's into Jimmy Buffett and I'm into the Dead Kennedys. He accompanies me to punk shows (what's left of them these days) and to the tattoo parlor, and supports whatever I'm into. Our next anniversary will be 25 years! Opposites attract sometimes...
P.S. I took him to a Buffett concert last year for his birthday and had to walk out to the parking lot. Could. Not. Take. It. He's a much better spouse than I!

That's rough, I suppose I'm extremely lucky. I'm currently a plain skin gal but am starting my fisrt 3/4 sleeve in one months time. (life long dream) Hubby is SO excited for me but he's getting a little green too, so he's making himself a conseltation to start his back piece. :) We are both fairly conservative as well as Christians. I think it's such a shame people should be made to feel bad for their personal choices, that DO NOT hurt anyone else. I might be naive, at this point but no one has a right to judge.