Hello from Southwestern Ontario CANADA.......

[guitguy]

Hi everyone,

Another former lurker/ new member. I have been checking out this forum for about a year now and have become a much more frequent visitor in the last few months and decided I might as well join. Seems like a great thing is going on here. A wealth of info and a lot of interesting people.

At the age of 44 I am still what might be considered a novice with 5 tattoos (not counting a few little hand poked things I did myself at age 14...haha....I still love them). And my tattoo experiences have been rather few and far between. First one at 16, second one at 17, then a huge lull until my 30s. My 5th and largest piece was done just short of my birthday last year. I have had a fascination with tattooing since childhood that has never left me. Even through said lull, I stayed interested and was a big fan of tattoo publications throughout the 90s. I remember quite clearly reading the Freddy Corbin "Mr. Niceguy" article among others and now wonder if I still have those mags in storage somewhere. Nowadays I am hooked on "Tattoo Age" and "The Gypsy Gentleman". IMHO, they can't make enough of those and I've had to watch them all a number of times.

My first tattoos were not terrible, but not great either. But, they are mine and I still dig them. I have become quite fussy however, in terms of who puts needle to my skin. The turning point was getting a piece from Tim Hendricks some years back as a walk in in Miami. It is just a small, very simple traditional piece but, the quality of it turned my head. I then knew what flawless line work and shading looked like and it ruined me, in a good way. I had no idea who Tim was at the time but, I sure found out and have followed his work ever since and have made it a goal to have him work on me again. Flight from Toronto to Cali are a bitch on many levels though lol!

I have the itch almost constantly and am always thinking about where and what my next piece will be. I am foremost a fan of American Traditional and have become a fan of Steve Byrne, Valerie Vargas, the crew of Smith Street and countless others. I also love traditional japanese. I also have a serious fascination with the work of Thomas Hooper right now. I am rather jealous of folks who live in near proximity to these great artists but also know there is a lot of talent right in my backyard. My last pice was done by Tim Pausinger at The Pearl Harbor Gift Shop in Toronto. Great shop and Tim is a fine young man and talented tattooer with many great years ahead of him.

I would love to hear from people about artists in this neck of the woods that they have experience with and would reccomend. I do quite a bit of research but, sometimes it gets kinda mind boggling with so much info out there. Sometimes my eyes begin to cross and all the shit looks the same ;)

Anyways, thanks for reading. I look forward to becoming an active member of this community. Cheers!

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Oh, I would be remiss if I did not mention Scott Sylvia's interviews as an obsession of mine along with the Tattoo Age and Gypsy Gentleman docs. The interviews are awesome and educational. My fave has to be the Oliver Peck one. Fucking hilarious! What a character!

[SStu]

Welcome!

The turning point was getting a piece from Tim Hendricks some years back as a walk in in Miami. It is just a small, very simple traditional piece but, the quality of it turned my head. I then knew what flawless line work and shading looked like and it ruined me, in a good way. I had no idea who Tim was at the time but, I sure found out and have followed his work ever since and have made it a goal to have him work on me again.

Great story, and what f*kin' luck.

Can't help you with strictly traditional in Tononto (some here likely will be able to), but I really like David at Archive Tattoo :: Home

[guitguy]

Hey SStu . Thanks for the shout out.

Yeah I do consider myself lucky to have a piece by Mr. Hendricks. It was one of those things that just turned out as if it was meant to be and was really a life changing experience. Finding my way under his needle again is proving to be a hell of a lot more difficult ;)

And thanks also for the link. I'll be checking it out shortly. Cheers!

[Graeme]

Nice intro, and welcome. Sounds like you have some great tattoos. I'd suggest looking into Cory Ferguson who tattoos in Oakville and does really nice blackwork.

[guitguy]

Cheers Graeme. Thanks. The name you mentioned rings a bell. I will check Mr. Ferguson out. I have not always been a big fan of black and grey but that'sstarting to change. I do have a small celtic knot that is just black. I would love to have black and grey done by Tim Hendricks or Freddie Corbin. Although it's not of my world I have a great respect for the west coast black and grey masters and the So Cal vibe in particular. And speaking of awesome black work,again, Thomas Hooper. Wow!

I'll be posting some pics in the coming days. Cheers!

[Mark Bee]

Hi @guitguy - great introduction. I'm in Toronto and I am a big fan of Tim Pausinger as well. In fact, The Pearl has several great tattooers and I am working towards getting tattoos from all of them (Bill Baker, Glennie W, Lissa Vino, India Amara, Tim Pausinger, Daniel Innes, and most recently, Nathan Draper.) I tend to stick to The Pearl and the guest tattooers they have coming through on a pretty regular basis. In the last few months they have had visits from Nick Collela, Mario Desa, and Nikki Lugo. I missed Mario last time, but managed to get in to see Nick and Nikki. Looking forward to hearing about your next foray into The Pearl.

[guitguy]

Hi Mark Bee, Thanks. I have seen some of your posts and thought I might hear from you at some point as we are nearly neighbours (I'm in the Waterloo area) and we have the Pearl in common. I seem to have missed a bunch of the guests of late. Do they actually anounce them on their website? If so, I haven't been paying close enough attention. Yes, Tim is great and a really nice dude ta boot. I am very curious about Bill Baker. All I know about him is his reputation and the fact that he is a veteran. Although I've never seen any of his work, something tells me I should get tattoed by him. I would love to hear from anyone that has had experience with Bill.

Cheers Mark. Maybe swe ya at the Pearl someday :)

[Mark Bee]

Hi Mark Bee, Thanks. I have seen some of your posts and thought I might hear from you at some point as we are nearly neighbours (I'm in the Waterloo area) and we have the Pearl in common. I seem to have missed a bunch of the guests of late. Do they actually anounce them on their website? If so, I haven't been paying close enough attention. Yes, Tim is great and a really nice dude ta boot. I am very curious about Bill Baker. All I know about him is his reputation and the fact that he is a veteran. Although I've never seen any of his work, something tells me I should get tattoed by him. I would love to hear from anyone that has had experience with Bill.

Cheers Mark. Maybe swe ya at the Pearl someday :)

Hey - yes, they usually post on their website about visiting artists. I think they should get a Twitter feed up and running as well. I often miss guests because I forget to continually check their site. I haven't got a tattoo from Bill yet, but I am definitely going to. I'll report back afterwards.

Good luck with your tattoos and yes, perhaps we will meet at The Pearl one of these days!

[guitguy]

I think I may have figured out how to post a pic here. We'll call this is test. If you can see this image, it was done for me by Tim Pausinger at The Pearl Harbor Gift Shop in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on November 27, 2012. This pic was taken by Tim on my phone as soon as it was done. I still need to get a decent healed pic but, suffice to say right now that it has settled in very nicely. It is inside my right bicep.

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Success! :)

[guitguy]

This is the walk in piece that I got from Tim Hendricks in Miami in 2006. As stated in my intro post, it is simple, traditional and, imho, f**king awesome ;)

This pic was taken earlier this evening, June 2, 2013 by my patient room mate. It resides on my left pec. We took a few shots and then the hairy beast that I am decided to do a bit of shaving to do it justice. I'm itchy already lol!!! I have some pics of the session that I hope to reclaim from a broken computer.

This tattoo means a lot me on many levels. And, it may give me the distinction of being one of very few people to have their mother-in-law's name tattooed over their heart :)

This was also the first of my tattoos that I didn't pick off the wall....I had an idea, among many others that I didn't bother to pursue because time was too precious.Keep in mind, I had no idea who was working on me. Just a super cool nice dude with obvious skill. While we waied, we watched him complete a b&g army helicopter scene on a gentleman's back that was amazing.

It was the first time I had an tattoer interperet an idea for me. Without detailing the whole experience, when he came back with the drawing I had to take some time with it because, although it contained the elements I was after, it was different compositionally than what I had in my minds eye at the time. Perfect lesson in "Trust Your Artist -101". It was a great lesson for me, again, on many levels. Thanks Tim. I look at his every day and love as much if not more than the day I got it :)

[guitguy]

Well, for better or worse, here's a brand new pic of my first tatoo. I still love it despite its obvious short comings, although, it has looked better to me in the mirror than it does in the pic. Ugh! LOL! It is now between 29 and 26 years old.

I metioned a few deatails about it the "Dropping the bomb..." thread.

The original design and tattoo was done by Carol Nightingale.

Carol "Smokey" Nightingale

I was recently flabergasted to find out that the old guy is still around after hearing stories to the contrary.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=442403932478914&set=pb.158616314191012.-2207520000.1370246089.&type=3&theater

Kinda cool. Any way, in terms of the tattoo......

Origanally done in the winter of '83, it was re-done and had birds and filagree added by George Lewis in Kitchener, Ontario around '86 or so. At this point I don't know who to blame for what LOL.....but I still love this. It's mine and I meant it at the time and I still do.

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Feel free to imagine wher the red used to be LOL

[Shaun1105]

I'm in Southern Ontario as well. I was also tattooed by Tim Pausinger, he does indeed do great work. I echo the sentiments of others that staying on top of when The Pearl has guest artists come through means that you will be able to be tattooed by some of the world's finest without ever having to travel. I don't know if the shop publicizes them, but I have been made aware of guests coming either by this site (probably from @Mark_Bee) or through the guests websites. I am keeping my eye out for the next time Nick Colella comes through.

I have also been tattooed by a young tattooer named Franz Stefanik, who was in Burlington at the time but has recently moved to the Okey Doke in Toronto. His style of traditional is a bit different, but I really like it. From what I've seen of the portfolios of the other guys at that shop they do good work also. Tim mentioned that shop in a positive way while he was tattooing me, actually.

[guitguy]

I have also been tattooed by a young tattooer named Franz Stefanik, who was in Burlington at the time but has recently moved to the Okey Doke in Toronto. His style of traditional is a bit different, but I really like it. From what I've seen of the portfolios of the other guys at that shop they do good work also. Tim mentioned that shop in a positive way while he was tattooing me, actually.

Thanks @Shaun1105. I just checked out the Okey Doke website and yeah, there is some pretty stellar work coming out of there. Do you find that Tim and Franz have similiar styles? I was really impressed with the work of Alex Snelgrove, especially the hand poked stuff. Wow! I had seen her name here on LST but had no idea she worked in Toronto. Very cool.

[Shaun1105]

Thanks @Shaun1105. Do you find that Tim and Franz have similiar styles?

They both do quality traditional work, but I wouldn't otherwise call their style similar. The stuff Franz does is 'simpler' - but not in a bad way. If you compare the bird/rose tattoo that Tim did of mine with the lantern that Franz did you may note the difference. The way Tim blended the colors on the bird isn't something that Franz would do (not saying he couldn't, just doesn't that I've seen).

[Mark Bee]

They both do quality traditional work, but I wouldn't otherwise call their style similar. The stuff Franz does is 'simpler' - but not in a bad way. If you compare the bird/rose tattoo that Tim did of mine with the lantern that Franz did you may note the difference. The way Tim blended the colors on the bird isn't something that Franz would do (not saying he couldn't, just doesn't that I've seen).

I have to agree with you guys. There is some excellent work coming out of the Okey Doke. Franz Stefanik's work is top-notch. I know what you mean, Shaun, about his style compared to Tim's. I think anyone would be proud to sport his work on their skin.

[Iwar]

Great intro! Welcome to LST