Paul Shachtman

Trevino, 2002: Login | Facebook Lehi, 2005-2006: Login | Facebook Grime, 2007: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=578681696&aid=177091#!/photo.php?fbid=400781846696&set=a.400181946696.177091.578681696&theater Not so Japanese, but . . . Brooks, circa 2007: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86583&id=578681696#!/photo.php?fbid=80219796696&set=a.80214381696.86583.578681696&theater Brooks did this is on Carlos Truan (Perfection Tattoo). One of the best traditional backpieces I've seen: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86583&id=578681696#!/photo.php?fbid=80219886696&set=a.80214381696.86583.578681696&theater

hogg: Please go to my facebook (Peter Shakman). I'm too tired to upload shit right now. Look under "Vanity, Inc." (not witty) and "Tattooing."

Aha. Trevino, Lehi, Horiyoshi III, Rubendall . . . A class of their own with the Jap trash. Did you see the snake head Trevino put on my clavicle? That tattoo looks cool in black and white photos. Willie D was my savior in high school: "Letz talk about stanky/I'm smellin' yo' pussee with ma mu'fuckin' panky!"

For some reason, I don't think the blossoms look like Lehi's . . .

hogg: Did Tim do the wind background on your right arm? Can I have it, either way?

kylegrey-Is the Ice-T Geto Boys reference directed at me? (I am indeed an unabashed Geto Boys fan.) I can only hope . . . Don't fuck with the W, etc. hogg-Thanks for posting the pic. Those tigers have depth, to say the least. Both of their facial expressions are killer. Reassures me that I'm doing the right thing having Lehi finish my stuff.

Super cool putty tat.

Cool. I'm sitting next to him at his shop in Woodbury, MN, Rose of No Man's Land right now.

Pinky Yun's tiger flash is among the best.

Arment's back is on flickr. Go there and type in "Josh Arment."

hogg: No luck with flickr. Do you have any photos? To reciprocate, go to my facebook and check out my tattoo photos. Thanks.

HOGG: Tim's tigers are my favorite, too (I like Stell's a lot, too;different styles, to a great extent). I'm planning a black and grey (?) tiger/snake duel cover up with wind and lightning (?) background on my thoroughly lasered thigh. Please post pics of your ribs as they progress. Lehi did both of my rib panels armpits to kneepits. Find me on facebook (Peter Shakman), if you would. I'll check your flickr account right now for photos. Want to see that shit. Tim did a great black and gray tiger/snake in his 2003 flash set. Whole set is outstanding.

Those Rudy girls are excellent. I like the "Mooneyes" Rat Fink on the girl third from the right. Dope.

I actually think the guy's a decent actor. No Harvey Keitel, but also no Keanu Reeves. I'm watching "The Other Guys" right now, and Wahlberg plays a good foil to Ferrell. The screenplay's well-written, which is critical. Julio: You've been "lucky" with your removal. You actually got the rough tribal to completely vanish after three sessions? Impressive. Handpoked stuff comes out pronto, but if you have something really laid in there (esp. with greens and yellows), have fun . . .

My deposit's worth more than $50 at the sperm bank . . . :)

That Stell tattoo's great. I dragged my bud out to Aloha Monkey in Burnsville, MN a couple years ago for something similar when Stell was here. I really like the one above, though even better. Awesome placement. I've seen that Rassier tattoo on Hogg''s flickr. That's Rassier's forte, and no one does it better. Regarding the panther head: I lasered the head of my stomach eagle a few times, as the composition of it and the surroudning legs makes no sense. I'm planning to have Bert Krak put a panther head on it. Above tattoo (and comment that further drew my attention to it) reassure me that I'm not as skewed as the eagle looks in trying to pull it off. The rest of the eagle's solid . . .

Bert Krak put a fantastic belligerent panther cover of a "hippy-dippy" (Mike Malone's accurate description of it) sunflower on my calf a couple years ago: Login | Facebook I met a chick at Rock of Ages a couple years ago with a Lehi full-sleeve snake/wind cover of a bunch of flowers. Big part of what compelled me to laser a big chunk of my sleeve.

Those Lieber sailor girl acetates are damn good. On another note about the source of references and influences, last time Lehi tattooed me I asked him if he liked Wido de Marval's tattooing (he works with Leu in Switzerland). Lehi said he'd never heard of him. I asked him whose Japanese-derivative tattooing he paid attention to. He said "No one's, really, I just look at the old Japanese stuff. That's what all these tattooers are trying to do, anyway." Reminds me of the Mike Malone letter to Keith Underwood that was published in TAM a few months ago. Malone adminished Underwood to "Look Look Look" at how Jerry executed his flash. He emphasized Jerry's formulaic approach to drawing archetypal images. Same thing as Lehi looking at Yoshitoshi, Kuniyoshi, or Horiyoshi II. I'd guess that Chris Conn's work, as distinct from someone like Jerry's as it might seem, relies on a very similar formula.

If I wanna see this I'll watch MMA. Strikes me as asinine. Why didn't he knock him out with a high kick? Muhammed Ali lost his 15th career shutout for this. Smart.

"When I started removing them, they said it'd take five to seven visits. I'd been 20-something times . . ." I've done 34 laser sessions. Complete removal of professionally-done tattoos is a virtual fallacy. I did here that Eddy Deutsche (?) got a tattoo completely removed from his neck. Could be BS. I like Mark Wahlberg, and think he's talented, but the above article elicits a smirk.

Boyer's photos make a strong argument. Guy named Jim LaPorte sold his extensive Lieber collection a couple years ago, and the pin-up sheet two photos above was $1600. A chunk of dough, yes, but a very fair price, considering the obvious influence Lieber had on Jerry, who's sheets go for three times as much. If anyone's interested in LaPorte's high-quality book of his collection, I can pass on his email. It goes for $250, I think, but it's sizeable, and fucking dope. Brooks turned my bud Kyle on to it, and we swooped on what we could and couldn't afford. Brooks got a couple great sheets. The Scott Harrison fish girl tattoo above is on SBoyer, and is flash from the Lieber sheet I went into more dumb debt for. My bud Kyle saw a picture of that Harrison/Lieber piece and said "That tattoo is perfect." Fucking strong. Back to girls: There's tons of good girl head stuff that leans more towards the realistic, too. Sboyer just turned me on to Jose Lopez. Very impressive. My blind ass was also just made aware of how good Lenherr's girl busts are, as well. Jason Brooks does excellent girl/rose heads. I fully agree that Uzi's a very good tattooer, too. Conn is obviously outstanding. I slid ass first into a pile of sugar when I got that Rock of Ages (pictured under the ROA thread) from him on my thigh in 2003. I was just getting my feet wet as a collector, and luckily picked up on how good he was when I flipped through his book at Temple the previous year. One thing that's impressive about his art is that it appeals to people who're new to looking at tattoo art (like me in 2002), but continues to reveal deeper layers when viewed by a more experienced eye. That's when tattooing truly becomes "art", in my opinion. The apex of this dynamic is reached when staring at a Van Gogh, Kawanabe Kyosai, Soga Shohaku, or Kano Hogai painting or print. Fuck, every time I look at the Van Gogh print on my wall at home I get tractor-beamed into some aspect of his holistic vision that I never noticed before. Hokusai, too. Hell, I can ogle Mike Malone's shit all day, as well. He was real into Soga Shohaku and Kano Hogai. Go figure. Speaking of traditional tattooing that is true art, look at Richard Stell's tattooing. I was beyond dumb-lucky enough to get a couple tattoos from Mike Malone when he was around, and wish I had done the same with Ed Hardy and Higgs when they were tattooing. To people who dig my Malone tattoos (and covet the experience of getting tattooed by a dude like that), I say get tattooed by Stell. Eddy Deutsche is tattooing in L.A, too. He's another one who's tattooing is true art.

Anything archetypal that's stood the test of time. Imagery that properly conveys the tattoo aesthetic survives on its own. When Malone tattooed me, he talked about "flags." When he did the Sacred Heart thing on my chest (brutal, I dry cried throughout) he made a cross in the air and said "A cross, now that's a good flag. Two lines." In my limited interactions with that guy I really paid attention to what he said. He knew what he was doing. His flash is pretty much perfect to me. Not that Jerry's isn't. And Joe Lieber's. I need to look at more of Jensen's crap.

*Re: Leu in first above post: "under the skin . . ."

Brooks tattoos fast, as well, among others. Regarding Stell, I ran into Chris Conn when I was in San Francisco getting tattooed by Lehi last September. I showed him the big dagger/rose Stell did on my groin. Conn said "What'd that take him, 15 minutes?"

I've been tattooed a bunch by Adam Ciferri and Stell's tattooed me twice, will tattoo me two more times in SLC on 02/18 and 02/19. Both are fast, but the full back Battle Royale Stell put on his son in 7.5 hours or so shows what tattooing for 30 years can bestow. Bert Krak tattooed me enormously quickly, his "simple" style nonewithstanding. Eddy Deutsche put a full hamstring and dragon head on my bud Kyle in 3.5 hours, one sitting. That tattoo, and Josh Arment's Hardy chest panther (otherworldly indelible velocity) are the two most impressive displays of speed and quality that I've seen. Filip Leu covers terrain like no other. Even a non-tattooer like me can tell by just looking at the composition and how he puts ink under the that he hauls. Style is obviously of immense relevance. Scott Sylvia did a half-sleeve on my ex very quickly, and, as with everything I've seen that guy do, it's technically as close to flawless as it gets. Lehi did the other half-sleeve on her (her only tattoos, courtesy of what my 34 neurotic laser sessions taught me), and that guy hauls. Tim's finishing my bodysuit. He backgrounded my traditional front (Malone Sacred Heart, Adam Ciferri stomach eagle, Grime snake) so fast it was done before I really knew what was going on. Lehi also employed restraint in not overwhelming the foreground, at all. Brooks emphasized this skill when advising my bud Kyle, at one point. I remember Jerry writing something to Hardy about the complexity of conveying the six layers within a tattoo or something. Like I said, I can't draw or tattoo my own dick, I'm just shooting from the hip as I find this crap interesting, for whatever reason. I'll shut up now.