Old tattoo photos

[Johannes]

iwar. that's great! i have an old dude here in gothenburg who i discuss tattoos with from time to time...i'll try taking photos of his old pieces some day

[Brock Varty]

Found this on Tumblr, but there were no tattooer credits.

Lady Viola, tattooed by Frank Graf in the 20s.

The two dudes with body suits are freaking awesome!

[smiling.politely]

I tattooed a lady who helps run art shows monthly at the local Masonic Home today, and she said she's spent a lot of time talking to old timers there about tattoos, and has been considering asking them to photograph them. If anything comes of it, I'll share anything of note...

[Graeme]

I met an old Swedish sailor a month or so back that let me take a few pictures of his tattoos. All he could remember was that the top two were done in the US, and the bottom two in Sweden, all from different artists during the 50's. He seemed stoked that someone took an interest in them, and I could see him stare at his own arms as he walked away after our conversation.

There's so much magic in old sailor tattoos. I love that stuff.

[Energy]

I know Rollins' backpiece wass done by Rick Spellman, but I was always really curious as to where he got his other tattoos.

They were all by Rick Spellman, weren't they?

[thesandmanisme]

This was the first tattoo I got. 1973, at the Long Beach Pike. Done by "Leroy", at "Leroys Tattoo". He looked like an old sailor. He tattooed his name inside his lower lip. People would ask him if he was Leroy, and without saying a word he would turn his lip down so you could read it.

[thesandmanisme]

I did this freehand in prison. 2001

[kylegrey]

Les Skuse, Bristol Tattoo Club , 1950's

Don't know what happened to the pics but if you guys can't see them could a mod delete this post please

[kylegrey]

Advert for a Ed Hardy guest spot , thanks to Paul Sayce for allowing me to share .

[thesandmanisme]

I did this about 20 yrs ago. Yes, in prison.

[Kahlan]

Wow the spider-web actually kept pretty well. I would say nicest prison tattoo I've seen. heh

[kylegrey]

Mike Brown and Tattooland

[Great Lakes Tattooing]

nothing worse than redoing an old tattoo. I tell the folks that they got that back before it was popular for soccer moms to have their mantra tattooed on their wrist and they should keep the patina and wear it proud. Shoot, today, kids would pay good money for a ready made "old" looking tattoo.

[kylegrey]

I took this pic of a tattoo on a work colleague of my wife , he's a London fire-fighter and he said he got it around 30 years ago from Jack Zeek in Hayes .Jack Zeek - DERMOGRAFIX TATTOOING

Zeek Collection | Old Ink

[Graeme]

I'm sure that a lot of you are already clued into this, but Nick Colella is putting up a bunch of really great old stuff on Instagram under the name "greatlakestattoo" so check that out if you aren't already.

Instagram

[Dan S]

Nick has been running under Great Lakes Tattoo for some years now, he's got his Facebook account under that as well.

[Graeme]

Nick has been running under Great Lakes Tattoo for some years now, he's got his Facebook account under that as well.

The IG account seems to be a new one though with historical things whereas his other IG account is more for his tattoos. Anyway, because he seems to look at this place from time to time, thanks Nick for making this stuff available.

[Dan S]

It is neat stuff-hooked-up with Nick to put on one of the old flash pieces here shortly.

That arcade at 500 S. State is the first place I ever saw real tattooing done-neat stuff.

Don't follow IG, so I don't know about his accounts, but I know that Nick got hassled my FaceBook for having too many followers because of the tattoo business, he had to start another "commercial" page for Great Lakes.

Either way, it's good to see people appreciating Nick's work, the man is a trip.

[Mark Bee]

Looking forward to meeting him in a few days. He is doing a piece on my arm next week when he visits Toronto.

[ethenbrown]

I watch the picture of you old tattoos which you share with us in this post. I like the first picture of Lion tattoo. It looks amazing and i am crazy about the Loin tattoo.

[rads]

This tattoo was done on my boss Ross Ferrie by Pinky Yun in 1982. Ross always tells this story of getting this dragon along with many others of Pinky. Pinky basically dipped a toothipick in some black ink gave himself a few reference points and just started tattooing on his arm. Ross admits he wasn't so sure at the time but the end result turned out.

The other photo is Ross and Pinky in 1982 and a painting our friend Ashley did for Ross shortly after Pinky's death. Note Ashley painted this while in New Zealand only from what he remembered it looking like.

I haven't finished working my way through this thread yet, but I thought i'd have a look for any mentions of Pinky Yun. On my back from getting tattooed I got talking to a taxi driver and he said that he loved tattoos but had only ever gotten a few in his younger days.

I'm sure he said that he was something to do with the army - searching the sewers for bombs. He said that whilst he had been in Hong Kong he had been tattooed by Pinky, a dagger I think he said. Whenever one of his team passes away the surviving members had something added to the tattoo - I apologised and said that I wasn't familiar with the name, but the tone of his voice when he told me his name made me think he must have been someone important, so it stuck in my head.

A couple of months later I ordered the tattootime box set and in the first few pages Don Hardy mentions that he was a great and influential tattooer and they have an interview with Pinky (although I haven't got that far yet)

I hope I bump in to him again so that I can tell him about tattoootime and the interview with Pinky. Wish I'd seen the tattoo too. If I ever manage to get a picture I'll post it here. I think he would love to see the interview, he seemed so excited to tell me about it.

[Graeme]

I haven't finished working my way through this thread yet, but I thought i'd have a look for any mentions of Pinky Yun. On my back from getting tattooed I got talking to a taxi driver and he said that he loved tattoos but had only ever gotten a few in his younger days.

I'm sure he said that he was something to do with the army - searching the sewers for bombs. He said that whilst he had been in Hong Kong he had been tattooed by Pinky, a dagger I think he said. Whenever one of his team passes away the surviving members had something added to the tattoo - I apologised and said that I wasn't familiar with the name, but the tone of his voice when he told me his name made me think he must have been someone important, so it stuck in my head.

A couple of months later I ordered the tattootime box set and in the first few pages Don Hardy mentions that he was a great and influential tattooer and they have an interview with Pinky (although I haven't got that far yet)

I hope I bump in to him again so that I can tell him about tattoootime and the interview with Pinky. Wish I'd seen the tattoo too. If I ever manage to get a picture I'll post it here. I think he would love to see the interview, he seemed so excited to tell me about it.

There's also a really cool blog post here about Pinky Yun:

http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/blogs/gia-dobson/38-pinky-yun-my-freehand-dragon-tattoo-other-musings.html

[rads]

There's also a really cool blog post here about Pinky Yun:

http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/blogs/gia-dobson/38-pinky-yun-my-freehand-dragon-tattoo-other-musings.html

Thanks for that, what a great story to read - I really I hope I bumb in to that taxi driver again :-)

[kylegrey]

Bristol Tattoo Club

[el twe]

Oh man, any idea who did that Bert Grim Sundance back piece? Les Skuse maybe?