sophistre

I should really remember to check in more often. There are so many good things in this thread. The fudo meow cat KILLS ME. And the bamboo tiger is also fantastic. Every time I come back after getting busy with RL there are pages of awesomeness for me to look at. I love it.

Dunno if this has been mentioned anywhere yet, but Greggletron/Greg Whitehead relocated to Atlas (also in Portland). Tim Lehi is apparently also there now. I guess anyone watching those instagrams would already know, but anywho, there ya go.

So about the bun-twitching.. honestly, my best bet has to been to just keep it clenched. Sounds dumb and hilarious, but that's all I've been able to do to keep it from jumping up into the needle. Kahlil and I have had many laughs about the rogue jumping asscheeks, and he said he basically had to keep the muscle contracted the entire time to keep it steady as well. Hope that helps

I landed an apprenticeship! I will be working under Jeff Wilson and John Dohe at Infinite Expressions in Charlottetown PEI, Canada.
Realy stoked, but just trying to figure out money/moving stuff. Herecare a coupke pieces by them. Super low key, but awesome artists/tattooers. Im hoping to start practicing tebori early as well, as its something Ive always wanted to do. We'll see.

Got a call from a recruiter a couple of weeks ago, didn't really think anything would come of it. Now, two phone interviews later they are flying me out to New Hampshire next week for a F2F and likely an offer. Would anyone in their right mind move from Dallas to New Hampshire at the beginning of winter?
Oh my, I'm going to have a decision to make soon. Crazy times. 
 

I received this one today from the photographer my college hired to shoot pictures of the Sporting Clays Tournament - he asked me to pose for this one (shotgun was not loaded).

Got this burnin' hot chick from Willem Jansen today. What a nice guy, and a great tattooer!
Done at the always fantastic The Sailors Grave in Copenhagen.
Picture via Willem's Instagram (@willem666).

Finished this one up Saturday!  (I hope the Instagram linky thing works...first time I've tried it this way)
 
 

From 19:th of september, by TomasTomas at Into You. That was a beautiful and special day. Maybe 2 hours of tattooing and in total 8 hours with all the talking, planning design, preparing, listening to music, watching videos, sharing stories and experience. Tomas is fantastic.

Hey everyone  just got back from the shop a little while ago. Went in for a touch-up, left with some old school sailor jerry dice. This'll be my last tattoo for a while though, taking a little break.

Finally ! I have a reason to post haha ! So stoked about this ! I mean........SO stoked ! Bandage and endorphins still on lol  And the freakin' pics will likely be side ways ;)
I finally got my crawling panther, like everybody should ;) By Franz Stefanik at Okey Doke in Toronto, ON. 
Awesome personable guy, awesome chat, awesome tunes. Just a cool chilled out hang and I got to go home with a wicked tattoo at the end haha. 
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Wow ! Upside right ! Who knew haha !
 

Finished my crane arm with Yutaro at Seven Doors Tattoo in London today. Everyone in the shop is super nice, highly recommended! I'll miss going, but will try to have a bit of a break from getting tattooed...for now...

Chris Anthon put put this Fudo Meow-O on me. I love him. That is all.

Heather Bailey did this one for me a few months ago. Inside the upper arm is a fun area.
 
 

Jon just knocked these out on my arms last night. Really stoked. I felt so sick that day, so Im glad I was able to power through it. Just chugged apple juice and soda to keep myself concious through it all. Thankfully arms are easy spots for tattoos, and my arm was asleep for the diamond lady because of the awkward position, so it didnt hurt that much.
Getting a Fudo Myo-o cat by Chris Anthon today. Will post photos latter.

Japanese dragon sleeve by Scott Ellis is finished!
 

My Dad went into the Marines at the end of WWII - this is him in July 1946, just scored as high shooter in his training platoon at Parris Island. His tattoo was a killer skull with a snake intertwined in the eyes and mouth. I wish I could show him mine now - he died in 1997 while I was commanding a battalion in Bosnia - but he was my incentive to finally do it. I'm still looking for that rifle - serial number 2860035. I've come close to it and have several M1 Garands in my collection. I know that he would have never considered putting something on him that reflected an image of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, North Korea or China. Still, he loved the oriental and German cultures and visited Asia and Europe many times over the years before he died.
 

Here's the start of my jaguar.Unfortunately I have to wait until December to get it finished.....
 
 

Twofer done by Matt "Craven" Evans (of Crooked Claw Tattoo) - guesting at Frontier Tattoo, Cardiff.

@Rob I, you've got something really similar to what Chad did for me in the same spot, except mine is a panther and rose. The first line he pulled basically knocked out a whole leaf in one go and I was like  on the inside but trying to look tough, I thought he was never going to lift his machine.

I want a new tattoo so bad but I'm going to be going through a minor financial crisis soon and I can't. I'm just going to live vicariously through you guys and people on Instagram.

I got tattooed by Chad on an "easy" spot  (outer thigh) and didn't have bruising even though I'm a big wuss and bruise easily. If you really want to get tattooed by him, you should!

Got this one shot done by Chad Koeplinger today! The chest was way more painful than I thought it would be!
 

Picked this one up from Marc Nava at the London tattoo convention yesterday. Such a nice guy and i had a great time being tattooed by him. Really wish i was at the convention today/tomorrow as there seemed to be a LOT of artists taking walk ups that had time (Frankie Carracioli, for example, was in the booth with Marc and didn't do a single tattoo on Friday, at least not by the time i left around 8pm).
Bumped in to a few LSTers too, wish i knew their names here but it was a pleasure seeing you all, even managed to stumble across my main man @Iwar when i was literally on my way out of the convention.
 
 

So, this turned out way better than I could have expected. Got it finished in two sessions with the second one at Allstar Ink in Limerick, Ireland. Chris Stuart was guesting there for a day prior to the London convention so I was lucky enough to grab the spot.


A great experience again. I couldn't speak highly enough of Chris and the atmosphere was enhanced with the liked of Nagle, Peck, Topper, Noble, Arment all working there on the same day.


Anyway, I'll let the pic do the talking ?





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just for reference, pics off the whole thing