sophistre

Lovely! It is true that what made me consider piercings again is the nice jewelry.

I got my tragus & rook back in March/April... the tragus seems to be 100% healed, fingers crossed... But the rook is still sore on-and-off. It's sore right now goddammit. But I am hanging in there. It is going to heal!

Cartilage piercings are always a long heal, sadly. It depends on you, obviously, and the gauge you were pierced at, but, yeah. I was always tender for months.
I've taken out more piercings than I will likely ever have again, for professional reasons years ago, but I still have some. Philtrum, septum, just took my nostril out to get symmetrical nostril piercings in about a week from now! And ears, currently stretched up to a very modest 7g.
I probably would never have gotten my philtrum and septum pierced last year, but jewelry has come a looooooong way since the 90s. There's some gorgeous, classy stuff out there, these days. Jewelry-store quality stuff. Just take a gander at BVLA's catalogue sometime.
I got some pretty stuff recently. My face is so fancy. (Though not as fancy as it'll be once I get those nostrils redone.)

The first time I travelled to Asia was in 2008. I was very privileged to have my Sifu (Master, RIP) take me along with his family to Foshan, China to learn about the roots of Wing Chun kung fu and experience Chinese culture. Then we would spend time in Hong Kong to train Ving Tsun with his Master (my Sigung, grandfather teacher).
We had some free time and went to explore the street markets one evening. We had been in the area the day before and I noticed the big blue “TATTOO” sign on the busy street. My curiousity had me drawn to it and I wanted to see what it was all about. I would say I was still inexperienced at this time, 5 years after my first piece (maybe 50hrs in?) however tattoo culture was becoming something I had become very fascinated by. If you wanted to see pictures of tattoos you would muster some courage, suffer through the intimidation of ~actually going into~ a tattoo shop; you could see what your punker friends had scratched on each other; you would sneak a peak at the BME website (the internet! Oh my!).
I went off on my own at night time to find this mysterious tattoo shop. I had split off on my own, away from my group. My time was limited to explore. I found the building underneath the big blue sign, went up several flights of a dark dingy stairwell. And there it was “JIMMY HO TATTOO”. Just an apartment door framed with classic tattoo flash pasted to the wall. So I rang the buzzer…
I thought maybe it would be cool to get a tattoo in China…but I was also very hesitant. Did I have enough time? My group didn't know where I took off too and I had to meet back pretty soon. I was uncertain about the safety of the needles and ink. Healthwise it seemed risky. China isn't exactly the cleanest place in the world. How was I going to heal a new tattoo being in the hot sun all day and then training (contact) the evening? Afterall, my focus in Hong Kong was Ving Tsun.
...I remember being so nervous when I rang the buzzer. Shaky. There was no answer. So I waited for a bit, my curiousity had brought me this far. But what the hell was I doing here? Sketchy. And then a head suddenly appeared through a gap in the flash covered window. This older gentleman opened the door, poked his head into the stairwell to see who else was around and waved me in.
I was pretty mesmerized. Here I am a younger, naïve kid, swept up in the energy of Hong Kong at night. Here I was in a sketchy, dimly lit building in an old man’s apartment studio. Old timey flash, certificates, photos, a lot of tattoo history covering every square inch of the 300 sqft apartment. What in the hell was I doing here?
“Tattoo?” He said. That was about the only English he knew and would speak to me.
He motioned at my long sleeve shirt, I didn’t have any of my tattoos showing. So I took off my shirt and showed him the work I had amassed at that point. Both my arms fully covered. Some leg tattoos. A big dragon on my ribs. He gave an approving half smile and motioned for me to sit down.
I think this man knew that I wasn’t there to get a tattoo from him that night. However he made my curiosity feel welcomed in his studio. Looking around the studio it felt like a risky place to get tattooed and I felt I wasn't experienced enough to think otherwise. Not very sanitary by North American standards (but probably cleaner than some of those tattoo conventions haha). The bench pillow was covered in ink and blood stains. I couldn’t see an autoclave. The ink bottles in the corner looked a little crusty. The older tattooer gentleman didn’t have any visible tattoos and there was a serious language barrier.
He gave me some his photo albums to flip through. It wasn’t a portfolio. It was more like family photo albums. Very old pictures of some American-classic tattoo designs he had made on people - eagles, panthers, daggers, hearts. There were pictures of him with groups of shirtless Chinese men, dragon and tiger backpieces and sleeves on display. Photos of this older Chinese gentleman with who I would assume to be elder American and European tattooers (I would be to naïve to have named at that time in my tattoo journey…I’m pretty sure there was a pic of him with Hardy, I think Pinky too? I really can’t remember).
The whole experience was very surreal, I was nervous and awe-struck. I was going to have an amazing story about meeting Jimmy Ho, but would anybody really believe me? Or care? Afterwards, I did a bit of research (in which there was and still is limited info online). It turns out Jimmy Ho was the son of the late James Ho, who opened up Rose Tattoo, one of the first tattoo shop in Hong Kong back in the 1940s. My mind was blown that I had just had an exchange with a man from tattoo royalty.
The next day I was exploring and ended up checking out another tattoo studio “Star Crossed Tattoo”. It was run by two friendly UK ex-pats Ross and Julia. I spent the afternoon talking with them about HK life, punk rock, tattoos, watched Julia tattoo and confirmed a few things. Yes, I had just met Jimmy Ho. He was tattoo royalty in Hong Kong. Hygiene standards were very questionable in Hong Kong/China at that time. Very risky, healthwise. The HK tattoo scene wasn’t regulated by the health board.
Later on in the trip I would venture back to the area of Jimmy Ho’s tattoo shop. I didn’t take any pictures inside his shop, I was too distracted by the reality of the interaction - a human exchange about tattoos that happened in spite of a language and cultural barrier - and I didn’t want to be disrespectful towards a man that had let a stranger into his studio apartment. But I wanted to get a picture of the big blue TATTOO sign from the street during daylight.

At that time I realized that I must have been a batshit crazy kid (even if I did know some kung fu!) to take a back alley into this area at night time, as there were a bunch of strip clubs, bath houses, massage parlours and gambling going on in the area with Triad looking Chinese (dragon/tiger halfsleeves) working the doors on the block. Not a place a young white tourist would want to find himself alone at night time. No guts, no glory I guess haha.
I didn’t get a tattoo on the trip. And I have no regrets about that. But what Jimmy Ho did give me was an incredible memory and experience. Another story to go along with all the pictures I wear on my body.
Thank you for reading :)
PS If anybody has any further info about Jimmy Ho, James Ho, Hong Kong tattoo history please do share, love to learn more about it.
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I did find this https://www.facebook.com/jimmy.ho.7127/media_set?set=a.292623604111543.71717.100000917175393&type=3

Got this Rock of Ages from Bradley Tompkins last week when he was guesting at Frith Street. So happy with it and as an added bonus its started peeling already.

Cartilage piercings are always a long heal, sadly. It depends on you, obviously, and the gauge you were pierced at, but, yeah. I was always tender for months.
I've taken out more piercings than I will likely ever have again, for professional reasons years ago, but I still have some. Philtrum, septum, just took my nostril out to get symmetrical nostril piercings in about a week from now! And ears, currently stretched up to a very modest 7g.
I probably would never have gotten my philtrum and septum pierced last year, but jewelry has come a looooooong way since the 90s. There's some gorgeous, classy stuff out there, these days. Jewelry-store quality stuff. Just take a gander at BVLA's catalogue sometime.
I got some pretty stuff recently. My face is so fancy. (Though not as fancy as it'll be once I get those nostrils redone.)

To be honest, I like your tattoos more than I like that Cripwell body suit. Your arms are fantastic, there are so many good pieces on them from great artists, everything sits really well, the stars and dots filler is great, and they're these perfect traditional arms that don't feel forced or overly deliberate. Maybe part of it is because I've seen your arms mainly through spending time with you instead of seeing pictures of them on the Internet, but I feel that I get a sense of you from them.
I guess it all comes down to different ways of getting tattooed and people wanting different thing out of tattoos. For me, how I get tattooed has been this fairly gradual process of learning through experience. What I wanted before I first got tattooed is very different than what I want now both in terms of extent of coverage, and what styles and designs I want, and I think that while this inevitably means that I'm going to reach a point where I'll wish that I did things differently, left more spaces open, got fewer little things until I'd gotten more large pieces down, or the thousand other ways I might have done things if only I had the knowledge or foresight, I think there's something cool about tattoos being this record of a process of learning and understanding, even if the results are sometimes less than something that looks incredible in a photo. Japanese tattooing aside, I guess I don't really understand the motivation of somebody who goes from no tattoos to a deliberately planned out (and kind of anachronistic) bodysuit, it almost seems like a fashion statement.
Anyway, different strokes and all.

Well I haven't posted in forever but I've been following along, anyway, started my back on the weekend, didn't finish the outline but after 7 hours I had to call it quits, Im pretty embarrassed I had to tap out. Anyway, Done by Scott Duncan at Sugar Shack Tattoo in Kincardine

Cartilage piercings are always a long heal, sadly. It depends on you, obviously, and the gauge you were pierced at, but, yeah. I was always tender for months.
I've taken out more piercings than I will likely ever have again, for professional reasons years ago, but I still have some. Philtrum, septum, just took my nostril out to get symmetrical nostril piercings in about a week from now! And ears, currently stretched up to a very modest 7g.
I probably would never have gotten my philtrum and septum pierced last year, but jewelry has come a looooooong way since the 90s. There's some gorgeous, classy stuff out there, these days. Jewelry-store quality stuff. Just take a gander at BVLA's catalogue sometime.
I got some pretty stuff recently. My face is so fancy. (Though not as fancy as it'll be once I get those nostrils redone.)

It's almost as if you're talking about my knees!

Tattoo number two today! With Greg Whitehead again, photo from his instagram...not a great shot but it's good enough!

Sounds like I'm coming back in a week to put a rose on my elbow, too. I'm guessing that one's gonna be fun.*
*not fun

@CABS: Oh, I see. That Cripwell suit with the legs, I guess? It's pretty amazing to look at. Who knows, it may wind up that way with my arms! I have so many mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, Greg is a great guy, he's nearby, and I'm totally thrilled with what we've done; it's fun to go in and flip through books of classic flash until we see something we like, and have him put together his take on it. It feels a little bit like getting a present every time I go, since I haven't known exactly what it'll be either time. I definitely wouldn't hate doing that indefinitely.
On the other hand, I'm so curious about experiencing how other shops and tattooers do their thing, and that's on top of admiring their tattoos (and I'm still discovering new tattooers all the time, since I'm a noob).
Tough choices! But, I feel lucky to have that kind of tough choice to make.

Went to the Calgary convention today and picked up a piece by Todd Noble and a bulldog by Shaun topper, both really nice guys, my partner got a native girl head by Todd and I can safely say it's one of the best I've ever seen in person, met a few other artists aswell and was good just to have a look around and catch some of the local talent at work

Agreed completely with this. Dan Gilsdorf is my favorite tattooer. I really should fly out there and get something. Cheyenne Sawyer is killing it too.
I also want tattoos from Jeff P and Ross over at Art Work Rebels too. Portland's got lots of good tattooers.

It's a real classic look to have one tattooer do everything. I no longer can do that, so I try to live vicariously through others. I think it's rare to find someone that wants one tattooer to do an entire cohesive body suit.
It goes back to that Cripwell bodysuit. Right now, Mikey Holmes is looking for people with no tattoos that want to get a body suit. I myself want Jason Phillips to do my entire front. While it's not an entire bodysuit, I think an entire front by one artist will look good.
But I know part of the fun is collecting from as many tattooers as you can.
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I knew I recognized that Erl tattoo. Nice one!!

I kinda hope you get tattooed only by Greg. A Greg bodysuit!
The elbow sucks so hard. But the second elbow isn't as bad. True story.

Tattoo number two today! With Greg Whitehead again, photo from his instagram...not a great shot but it's good enough!

Sounds like I'm coming back in a week to put a rose on my elbow, too. I'm guessing that one's gonna be fun.*
*not fun

You really should go by Atlas. Incredible tattooers and great guys.

Tattoo number two today! With Greg Whitehead again, photo from his instagram...not a great shot but it's good enough!

Sounds like I'm coming back in a week to put a rose on my elbow, too. I'm guessing that one's gonna be fun.*
*not fun

As they say, it's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog.
"Booze, Blues & Tattoos"

Had an ass and back of thigh shading session yesterday. It wasn't so bad. The imperial stout helped keep my spirits up.

The length of your session depends on several factors. Others around here can add more.
- The size of the tattoo. If it's small, couple hours, it's easy to sit through in one session. If you don't, you will be mocked and ridiculed. Maybe even to your face. If it's larger and your tattooer has the expectation you'll sit for the whole thing in one sitting, you do it or try your damnedest.
- Your tattoo artist's scheduling methods. Some only schedule in well defined time slices, for example, 3 hours. If the tattoo takes longer than that, you sit multiple sessions. If your tattoo artist schedules open-ended sessions, then you'll go until he finishes whatever goal he set for the session. This could be time or a particular part of the tattoo. Or, he'll keep going until you absolutely can't take another second and you have to tap out. No one likes to tap out. It's a sign of moral weakness, contributes to global warming, and will cast poorly upon your family and children. Even after many hours, it's so psychologically awesome to hear, "Ok, we've reached a good stopping point" instead of crying silently into your hand and whimpering that you're sorry you just can't take it any more. The silence that follows such an abject admission is enough to curdle milk and paralyze small dogs.
- The body part. Personally, I can't speak to many body parts because I'm only working on a back piece, but yes, location can play a role. (Although your back, in terms of pain, is it's own set of differing body parts.) My one and only tap out was after 5 hours on the top/middle of my back that included spine down to the bottom of my ribs and the bones of one shoulder blade. Apparently, many think the shoulder blade isn't bad. My next session is to do the second coat in that area. I'm queasy just thinking about it.
- Your own preparation. How you prepare for your session has a big effect - some may argue that good preparation plays as big a role as where on the body you plan to get tattooed. If you go in tired, hung over, or on an empty stomach, body part may matter very little.

This came across my newsfeed today. Poked around and didn't immediately find it, so posting here! Pic captions are taken directly from the article.
THE VISUAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN PRISON TATTOOS

A snake around the neck is a sign of drug addiction.

This inmate is not an authoritative thief, but has tried to imitate them with his tattoos to increase his standing within the prison. The lighthouse on his right arm denotes a pursuit of freedom. Each wrist manacle indicates a sentence of more than five years.

The eight-pointed stars on this inmate’s shoulders indicate that he's a criminal.

This prisoner is one of many who contracted syphilis, AIDS, or tetanus while being tattooed in unsanitary conditions. (GNARLY!)

The devils on this inmate's shoulders symbolize a hatred of authority and the prison structure. This type of tattoo is known as an oskal (grin), a baring of teeth towards the system.

A dagger through the neck indicates that a criminal has murdered someone in prison and is available to hire for further hits. The drops of blood can signify the number of murders committed.

The skull and crossbones on the prisoner's shoulders indicate that he's serving a life sentence, and the girl "catching" her dress with a fishing line on his left forearm is a tattoo commonly linked to rapists.

Tattoo number two today! With Greg Whitehead again, photo from his instagram...not a great shot but it's good enough!

Sounds like I'm coming back in a week to put a rose on my elbow, too. I'm guessing that one's gonna be fun.*
*not fun

Tattoo number two today! With Greg Whitehead again, photo from his instagram...not a great shot but it's good enough!

Sounds like I'm coming back in a week to put a rose on my elbow, too. I'm guessing that one's gonna be fun.*
*not fun