Latest tattoo lowdown.....

[Graeme]

@Cork I got pictures from Ricky and you looked really chill for a guy who was getting his ribs and stomach blasted.

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@Cork I got pictures from Ricky and you looked really chill for a guy who was getting his ribs and stomach blasted.

[Cork]

@Cork I got pictures from Ricky and you looked really chill for a guy who was getting his ribs and stomach blasted.

Would have taken a nap if it weren't for that annoying buzzing.

Honestly though, I was prepared for the worst. I was going in thinking it would all feel like the lower back, which is still by far the worst spot I've ever experienced.

[Pete tattoo freak]

so cool cork. johan is one of my favorites

[Hospitelli]

@Cork Awesome Kirin and can't wait to see it finished. Did Johan say when he'd be back to NYC again?

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@Cork Awesome Kirin and can't wait to see it finished. Did Johan say when he'd be back to NYC again?

[9Years]

Super good heart, attitude and knowledge of tattooing and art.

Wrathful offering of the five senses by Jonas Nyberg from last year.

Dude. That wrathful offering is killer. So is the Jondix work too, but you knew that already. Very cool stuff.

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Got this super-cool little moth from @cltattooing . It was a nice change of pace from the large-work I've got going on right now.

Pumped on this little guy!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEC8O07DEkE/?taken-by=handoftheforge

[Joey Ryan]

Finished up my chest piece by London Reese in Lake Forest, CA. Took 18 hours on my back to

piece together this dragon. Was inspired through various influences and references. London is a really cool and easy going guy. 10/10 would get tattooed by him again.

Vatican Studios is seriously wicked too. Rad artsy layout, with some seriously talented artists.

[Lance]

Awesome beginning @Cork! So would you say it's easier than getting a backpiece then? Also how long did you sit for?

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Awesome beginning @Cork! So would you say it's easier than getting a backpiece then? Also how long did you sit for?

[Cork]

@Lance I'll elaborate on the story a bit, it was a fun trip after all.

I show up at the shop around 12. Like I said, I came expecting the worst, but I wanted to exceed the expectation and knock this thing out in one day. Johan shows me the drawing, and in my head all I can hear is Gob from Arrested Development, "I've made a huge mistake." So much hair and little lines, fuck me. So we spend the next 45 minutes or so with general setup and talking about placement as I reconsider my goals for the day after seeing all those lines.

All laid out, I assume the position. He starts low at the hip and works the way up in sections. The hip bone made my body vibrate, and the nerves radiated at certain times where I swear he put a line down my shaft, or up higher it felt like he ran over my nipple. Nothing worse than expected though. Nothing that made me break out in an instant cold sweat like when my lower back got hit. Just general "this sucks." so I was able to make it. @hogg recommended a focused breathing technique, and pretend to blow out candles from far away, well I blew out the equivalent of a forest fire over the course of the day. My lips were chapped and my throat was dry.

Anyhow, after almost 4 hours of lines, I was again reassessing goals for the day. This was about the point when I was feeling the worst. I was almost ready to call it a day, but I was actually looking forward to pretending to be tough in front of @ironchef, so I pushed on.

Johan and I had to be realistic about what was left, and what we thought we could finish that day. We opted for coloring the low hanging fruit; the horns, the belly, and the fire. Especially because we couldn't settle on body/hair colors.

So after the first strip of fire, Johan can tell I'm close to the end and I might not make it. He offers some vasocaine spray. At first I'm a little reluctant, but after some time to consider it, I take him up on the offer. He assures me that for most people, it takes away ~50% of the pain. Well goddamn if it didn't work for me. At this point, ironchef shows up, and who knows what he thought of meeting me as I'm able to hold a conversation getting my ribs worked on. A second wind combined with relief from the spray, I felt really good at this point.

We all talked and had a good time while Johan wrapped things up, and ironchef and I took obligatory nude pics together. I was out of the shop around 8 and on my way home for a shower and very restless sleep.

[tatB]

@Cork excellent tattoo and great summary of the experience!

[Naiemh]

Finished up my chest piece by London Reese in Lake Forest, CA. Took 18 hours on my back to

piece together this dragon. Was inspired through various influences and references. London is a really cool and easy going guy. 10/10 would get tattooed by him again.

Vatican Studios is seriously wicked too. Rad artsy layout, with some seriously talented artists.

Such an awesome piece! I'm so impressed! Your tattooist is so talented!!!

Bahamut wings are so beautiful <3

[marley mission]

from Chad Koeplinger @ Tattoo Paradise in Wheaton, MD

[SStu]

@marley mission = that's you're best one yet!

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@marley mission = that's you're best one yet!

[Synesthesia]

Forgot to post pics. We nearly finished this up a couple weeks ago. One more short session next month to darken and tighten things up. Here's some terrible quality photos I got the next day:

And just yesterday I got a closeup of the horse head, which gives you an idea of how much the blue is really starting to pop now that it's almost fully done healing. I need to get better quality photos of the whole thing.

[Jackrabbitt666]

from Chad Koeplinger @ Tattoo Paradise in Wheaton, MD

Yes!! This is killer!

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from Chad Koeplinger @ Tattoo Paradise in Wheaton, MD

Yes!! This is killer!

[oboogie]

I got all of these touched up last week by my artist, Josh Henderson.

Next tattoo is scheduled with Richard Stell at the Oklahoma Tattoo Convention at the end of this month, then I'm finishing my half sleeve on my right arm with Josh in May. Looking forward to both!

[polliwog]

Funky frog courtesy of Eddy Deutsche. Picture stolen from him. He pretty much read my mind. It's really angry here because inner thigh tattoos are a dumb idea.

[marley mission]

Funky frog courtesy of Eddy Deutsche. Picture stolen from him. He pretty much read my mind. It's really angry here because inner thigh tattoos are a dumb idea.

that frog is so dope - saw that on the IG and wanted to like it 100x

hoping eddy is coming to jersey soon

he was at smith not long ago but i missed him - no $ or something like that

he's a tattooing legend and i've heard a pretty cool guy too

and oh - yeah - thighs are a tough tough heal imo

but who cares right - enjoy :)

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Funky frog courtesy of Eddy Deutsche. Picture stolen from him. He pretty much read my mind. It's really angry here because inner thigh tattoos are a dumb idea.

that frog is so dope - saw that on the IG and wanted to like it 100x

hoping eddy is coming to jersey soon

he was at smith not long ago but i missed him - no $ or something like that

he's a tatooing legend and i've heard a pretty cool guy too

[hfs40000]

Funky frog courtesy of Eddy Deutsche. Picture stolen from him. He pretty much read my mind. It's really angry here because inner thigh tattoos are a dumb idea.

I love this. I'm curious about what you asked him for. I need something from Eddy but the best ones he posts are always things i would never have thought of. Like the goldfish with the kappa inside someone posted recently.

[polliwog]

I just said I wanted a frog and told him I liked the one he did recently at Skull and Sword. I suggested flames, waves, anything else he wanted to add, but he came up with this with almost no input from me. I think if you give him a lot of freedom, he'll do something cool.

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@marley mission you have to catch him when he's in New York.

[exume]

@polliwog nice! I was loving that one when it popped up on instagram, glad it belongs to someone here! Eddy is the man.

Oh, I got a little filler yesterday from Nikki Balls, I'll get a picture up soon.

edit: here's a picture

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEbXDZfIzSb/

[Zillah]

Got a gecko rose morph done this week; waiting for the healing to finish...

By Nick Agnew of Kingsland Ink, Auckland, New Zealand

https://www.instagram.com/p/BELE1HbCSjf/?taken-by=karliahquinn&hl=en

[jjb911nj]

Finished my arm about a month ago at leathernecks tattoo in Brooklyn. Done by Rich Bustamante.

[chrisnoluck]

got this sacred heart from joe nickley almost 2 weeks ago

and this from chris kline at the scranton convention this past weekend

andddd yesterday i made an appointment with bert krak for next month while he's at old soul!

[oboogie]

I popped in to see my artist Josh last night, and I got this. I've loved Prince since I was a kid, so it seemed appropriate. #musicnerd

[otisc]

Well, today was the day!

What a long, but great day! It began a little before 11:00am. I was the first one in Triple Crown Tattoo with Scott Ellis (most of the day, there were 10-15 people there, and at one point six artists were tattooing simultaneously). He had been working on a few designs based on the sleeve length I wanted. Over the week between today and our consultation, I had decided to ask him to put the dragon's head somewhere on my arm instead of with the head in the more traditional chest area. I was a little worried to be asking for this, as Scott has a relatively new sleeve with the head in the center, and the last thing I wanted was for him to think I was trying to copy his own tattoo. Luckily, when I got there, he informed me that the last several dragons he had done had the head on the chest, and he was dying to do something new. Perfect! His sketches had just what I wanted. It was a really good sign.

However, getting it right took some time. Using thin paint brushes, he created the design over four separate layers. The dragon's head had to be moved several times, and the unique swirl of the dragon we decided on what difficult to get right without looking like the head was plopped onto the center of the body... but Scott is a perfectionist, and after a lot of erasing and revising, and then relining, and revising, etc... we were finally done with a design ready to be inked at 2:40. With only a few short breaks, it took a lot longer than I expected. But the result is something that works specifically with my body as opposed to just slapping a template onto my arm. I love it.

Here is a quick snap of Scott somewhere between layer 2 and 3 of sketching on me:

I haven't had a tattoo in nearly 20 years, so I had no idea what to expect from the pain, especially over so many areas. Tattooing in the ditch was no treat, but not as bad as I had come to expect from reading. The outside of the elbow lived up to expectations. But the worst was around my collarbone, where any wincing or tightening of my face would risk pulling the skin under his needle. And there was one spot on my chest where I could clearly feel the vibration on my pec, but the pain was in my neck. I could have sworn at the time he was tattooing my upper-middle neck.

Long story short (yeah, right), we finished up the linework a little after 5:00pm. I am absolutely thrilled with the result... and was getting tons of compliments on it by the many artists and clients in the shop throughout the day. Here is a front shot:

It is a little difficult to see from this angle and with only linework, but the dragon's body actually goes out the back of the head and swirls up and around the shoulders through the clouds and comes out belly showing under his head before turning again towards the end of the sleeve. It makes a little more sense visually if you can see the back. I also have the dragon clutching a pearl with his talons on the back on the sleeve and will actually be filling the pearl with a significant flower logo in the next session.

Overall, a fantastic day. I couldn't be happier that Scott got all the elements I wanted into the design, was able to keep it very traditional, but also with a great deal of uniqueness built just for me. If any readers are in Austin, Triple Crown Tattoo on Chicon Street (right around the corner from Franklin's BBQ!) is a must-visit.