Bedroom tattoos--who's got 'em?

[hogg]

I posted this as a blog by accident, but seeing as how I'm soliciting your stories, too, I think it's better as a thread.

Scott asked for stories, so here's mine.

There was a guy in Austin in the early 90s who tattooed out of his house for years. He wasn't bad, and the price was definitely right (I think he charged $60 an hour). He didn't have an autoclave; he used a pressure cooker, instead. Sounded good enough for me. Right after I got my first tattoos, I knew I was hooked, but I also knew that I was poor, so I went to see him about getting more work. I looked through his book (which included a cover-up over a peace sign that said "I WOULD'VE TAKEN A BULLET FOR JOHN LENNON" under it) and found a Haida Indian dogfish shark design that I liked. I'd seen some of his tribal and thought he did a good job on it, so I booked an appointment with him.

I showed up at the agreed-upon time and he stenciled it on. Then he grabbed a 3-round, which he proceeded to do the entire 3.5-hour tattoo with. You can see part of it above the gypsy cat in this pic:

The best part: towards the end, one of his friends stopped by. He'd just come back from Amsterdam and was telling my artist all about it. Then he said, "Hey...you ever smoke hash?" My artist said, "No--but I'd be down to try!" So with my tattoo almost finished, he proceeded to take a smoke break and hit some hash for the first time in his life. He did the last half hour of my tattoo uber-stoned.

I'm sure lots of you have better stories, ones involving Walkman motors and guitar strings, so please share them.

[Lochlan]

Thanks for the new tattoo thread, tattoo picture and tattoo story! All the ones friends and I did on one another growing up with a needle and ink all fell out clearly didn't go deep enough which could be a good thing. Though some would argue and have that I have some done by "tattooers" that look very amateur and could very well be tattoo mistakes.

[ibradley]

I see a tattoo there that comes from around my parts! Where did you get that dolphin tattoo on the back of your leg?!

[hogg]

I see a tattoo there that comes from around my parts! Where did you get that dolphin tattoo on the back of your leg?!

Same bedroom, same guy. :) Austin, Texas is quite a few kilometers away from your parts (and 1992 is a long, long way from 2011).

[Deb Yarian]

Ha! When I first read " bedroom" tattoos I thought it had something to do w valentines day---