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Hello from Chicagoland

Heidi

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Heidi Initiated

Heidi

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I guess I'm forced to make an introduction here! I googled "most painful area to get a tattoo" the other day because I want to get my ribs done someday, but am 110% sure it will be a nightmare (but then again I'm always 110% sure each tattoo will be a killer, when in reality most of the the hours in the chair aren't that bad). Google led me to a thread on this forum and I found it a great read....and all the votes for full back as one of the worst gave me a little confidence :)

I have ~50 hours of work and am a longtime regular at Deluxe Tattoo (Ben Wahhh). My husband also has work from him. Maybe I'll convince him to register and post photos of his lower legs--they are amazing!

We live in the western suburbs with four cats, a lot of aquariums and a horse at a boarding barn up the road. I write reports on laboratory work as my job and make jewelry as a hobby. I also enjoy running...I ran ultra-marathons in 2009-2010 but lately have focused more on horseback riding since my mare isn't getting any younger at age 21, and I want to enjoy the years I have with her.

I also LOVE horror movies!!! Good, bad, everything in between. I hope this was enough of an intro!

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Heidi Initiated

Heidi

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Thank you.... @hawk, I guess a part of the problem is who I want to tattoo my ribs--I want a realistic b/w portrait of a childhood cat, which is totally not Ben's style, so I need to find someone who specializes in this. So far the only person I have found that I would trust to do a good job is Tom Renshaw.

And yes, I saw the joke about how Detroit hurts the worst :D

RoryQ, yeah I made that mistake with my back tattoo. Did the whole outline in one sitting, then Ben started shading the lower center spine and I was dying inside. I had to call it quits after only 45 minutes of shading. From then on I went in expecting the worst on my back, and the sessions weren't as bad.

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Heidi Initiated

Heidi

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Miles at Deluxe does some pretty decent portrait work:

{ Miles Maniaci }

Yeah, he does great work...but I have not seen many animal portraits from him. I am being extremely choosy about who does this particular tattoo, unfortunately. This cat meant the world to me and he will always have a special place in my heart, so I feel that I need to find someone with a lot of experience doing pet portraits.

Hope that isn't too corny.

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Graeme Autobot

Graeme

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Thank you.... @hawk, I guess a part of the problem is who I want to tattoo my ribs--I want a realistic b/w portrait of a childhood cat, which is totally not Ben's style, so I need to find someone who specializes in this. So far the only person I have found that I would trust to do a good job is Tom Renshaw.

I don't know how realistic you want to go, or how possible travel is for you, but I LOVE Virginia Elwood's pet portraits. Examples here:

Instagram photo by @virginiaelwood (Virginia Elwood) | Statigram

Instagram photo by @virginiaelwood (Virginia Elwood) | Statigram

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Heidi Initiated

Heidi

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screw tattoos... what's your favorite horror movie?

Technically sci-fi but my favorite movie, period, is Ridley Scott's Alien.

After that, I love the 70s/80s classics--Jaws, The Exorcist (directors cut), The Thing, The Changeling, Amityville Horror, The Shining, and more. I prefer those over the old slashers, although those are fun too.

For modern movies, I love Rob Zombie's movies, and think there are some wonderful foreign horror films these days. I also like good ole slashers such as the Saw series, but learned to not eat spaghetti while watching those. Spaghetti and slashers isn't a great combo.

I could go on but...enough about me, how about you?

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ShawnPorter Champion

ShawnPorter

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Technically sci-fi but my favorite movie, period, is Ridley Scott's Alien.

After that, I love the 70s/80s classics--Jaws, The Exorcist (directors cut), The Thing, The Changeling, Amityville Horror, The Shining, and more. I prefer those over the old slashers, although those are fun too.

For modern movies, I love Rob Zombie's movies, and think there are some wonderful foreign horror films these days. I also like good ole slashers such as the Saw series, but learned to not eat spaghetti while watching those. Spaghetti and slashers isn't a great combo.

I could go on but...enough about me, how about you?

Good choices, all.

And I always call ALIEN a 'haunted house' movie. The backdrop is space and sci-fi, but at it's heart.... its just a ghost movie. Perfection.

Absolute favorite is Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I was lucky enough to watch it once WITH Tobe Hooper in attendance and my head almost exploded.

After that- The Thing, The Shining, Exorcist (original cut) Suspiria, Inside....

Apparently Zombie's LORDS OF SALEM got picked up by Anchor Bay....

And welcome to the family.

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Heidi Initiated

Heidi

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Good choices, all.

And I always call ALIEN a 'haunted house' movie. The backdrop is space and sci-fi, but at it's heart.... its just a ghost movie. Perfection.

Absolute favorite is Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I was lucky enough to watch it once WITH Tobe Hooper in attendance and my head almost exploded.

After that- The Thing, The Shining, Exorcist (original cut) Suspiria, Inside....

Apparently Zombie's LORDS OF SALEM got picked up by Anchor Bay....

And welcome to the family.

Oh yes, can't forget Texas Chainsaw Massacre....love that one as well. I love that whole 70s/80s period. It seems like most movies now just try to recreate or reinvent the wheel (the horror wheel in this instance). It's hard to find good ones, but it doesn't stop me from trying. And like I said, I even enjoy the very bad ones....including the ones that are purposefully bad (like Dead Alive--LOVE that one!)

Good point about Alien--you're right. It feeds upon the unknown. I love the movie so much that I have an accurate/true-to-life tattoo of the queen fetus from the Alien 3 box art on my back. My parents allowed me to watch the original film when I was 7, 8 years old and it clearly stuck with me. The first movie I remember watching is the black and white version of The Blob with my mom and little brother. Yes, mom's movie choices rubbed off on me!

I know some people hate them, but for modern movies, I also like the Paranormal Activity movies--the first in particular. But I have to confess that if I hadn't lived in a haunted apartment at one time, the movies wouldn't have the same feel for me....they are so much more believable with that experience under my belt.

While we're at it, I'll throw out a few foreign horror flicks I liked...more modern ones anyway, haven't come across any old subtitled ones on Netflix yet.

-Cold Fish (possibly one of the most disgusting movies I've ever seen--makes Saw look like Disney--but brilliantly done, really enjoyed it)

-The Descent (UK but still counts!)

-I Saw the Devil

-REC (kinda like Quarantine but better IMO)

-The Shrine

I was trying to remember the names of a few others but can't....sadly I watch so many that I don't remember most of their titles :(

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Heidi Initiated

Heidi

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@Heidi...call Miles, honest.

http://milesmaniaci.com/images/tatoos/dogarmmain.jpg

Other than that, take a trip to Moscow and book Den Yakovlev-none better for picture perfect portraits, and the airfare is low these days.

Heh, I'm being steered away from Detroit, ain't I?!

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Hannah Aitchison? She is probably booked up pretty far, but seen her do some pretty neat stuff on the realistic side and portrait work and just happens to work at the same shop. I know a fair amount of shops in Chicago but can't think of anyone of the top of my head other than those who have been mentioned.

I'll have to take another look at her portfolio to see what she can do. It's been a long time since I checked it. It would be convenient to go to the same shop....but I can tell you, it will be very WEIRD to be tattooed by someone besides Ben there!

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David Flores Hero

David Flores

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Heh, I'm being steered away from Detroit, ain't I?!

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I'll have to take another look at her portfolio to see what she can do. It's been a long time since I checked it. It would be convenient to go to the same shop....but I can tell you, it will be very WEIRD to be tattooed by someone besides Ben there!

It's weird to get tattooed by anyone when you think about it. Anytime I get tattooed outside of my shop or by a new person it's a little weird. I can totally understand people being faithful to their tattoo artist, and most of my tattoos are and will be from the same people, but with all the cool stuff out there I can't help but want to have some tattoos from other people. If you worried about Ben feeling weird about it, I wouldn't worry, the next best thing to getting tattooed by him is getting tattooed in his shop.

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SStu Autobot

SStu

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If you worried about Ben feeling weird about it, I wouldn't worry, the next best thing to getting tattooed by him is getting tattooed in his shop.

On the other hand, now when I go back to a shop where 2 out of 3 artists have done work on me I can't help but wonder if the remaining artist is wondering if/why he isn't worthy (which he certainly is).

That wouldn't be such an issue with a larger shop like Deluxe, I guess.

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Dan S Hero

Dan S

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On the other hand, now when I go back to a shop where 2 out of 3 artists have done work on me I can't help but wonder if the remaining artist is wondering if/why he isn't worthy (which he certainly is).

That wouldn't be such an issue with a larger shop like Deluxe, I guess.

Ya kno, I've thought about that vis-a-vis CTC. I've sat for Nick Colella and watched Mario Desa, David McNair, Erik Gillespie, Mike Dalton, either drawing, tattooing, or just kicking it, and it's just like, damn! Any of these guys does absolutely world-class work, I sure hope they don't ever get the idea I'm dissing 'em by not having anyone else but Nick work on me.

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David Flores Hero

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On the other hand, now when I go back to a shop where 2 out of 3 artists have done work on me I can't help but wonder if the remaining artist is wondering if/why he isn't worthy (which he certainly is).

That wouldn't be such an issue with a larger shop like Deluxe, I guess.

I guess I was thinking more along the lines of he owns the shop so at the end of the day the shop makes money and your patronage still helps grow his business. You are pretty lucky if someone decides they want to get tattooed by someone else, but it still helps pay your light bill.

Who knows maybe artistically is does bug some people in some situations, but it make so much business sense to encourage it, I think egos would have to just stay on the backburner.

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Heidi Initiated

Heidi

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I guess I was thinking more along the lines of he owns the shop so at the end of the day the shop makes money and your patronage still helps grow his business. You are pretty lucky if someone decides they want to get tattooed by someone else, but it still helps pay your light bill.

Who knows maybe artistically is does bug some people in some situations, but it make so much business sense to encourage it, I think egos would have to just stay on the backburner.

That's true--Ben will still get my patronage. I'll ask him about it at a later date.

Not only do I love Ben's work, but I guess at this point he and I know each other well and work together well. I know his routine with tattooing and what to expect, and he's pretty much the same with me. Using someone new after being accustomed to the familiar can be a little jarring. In 2009 I used two different artists--Robin King at Metamorph to do a specialty cover-up/re-do tattoo and Cameron Sweet at Electric Ladyland in NOLA while on vacation, and I had to get accustomed to their mannerisms, routines, etc.

Speaking of Nick Colella, he did my first-ever tattoo, in March 2002. Then I wrote about it on BMEzine.com and the next time I went into his shop, he mentioned that...I was thinking "shit, he read that?!" :o

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