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Not sure if this the right place to do this or not, but I wil do it anyhow. I was wondering if any of you had been tattooed by Higgs. That was one of my big regrets, I would love to have some of his work. I have a couple of friends who have, but there are not a lot of pictures on the internet of his work and I would love to see more of it. One of the shops I go to has a couple sheets of his flash and I think it is pretty awesome. Kenny

Today we added a new 'Like' feature - this is not tied to the Facebook like system, instead it gives us a way to tell each other which posts we like or enjoy so that other members can navigate to the popular content more easily. This will be the most valuable for threads that span for several pages. You will see the 'Like' link appear at the bottom right of each post next to 'share' when you move your mouse over the post. The forum home page now has a new section that lists the most liked threads. Once people start using this new feature, a dropdown menu will appear at the top of each thread giving you a way to quickly jump to the most popular posts in that thread. I attached an image showing what it sort of looks like. Try it out and let us know what you think!

So in response to recent inquiries about Chicago and its place in tattoo history and to try to up the ante here at The Last Sparrow Tattoo Forum I will try to breakdown what I know and have acquired about tattooing in Chicago from early on up until present day. All of this will revolve around the history of Chicago Tattoo because honestly I don’t know or care to know about any other present day shops in the city. This of course will give a broad range of information at first because most of the photographic history was lost to the trash or to the flea markets at the time. The stories of South State Street are very few, 99% of the tattooers that dominated that street in its hey day are long gone. There are a few still left and their stories are amazing, some look upon those times fondly as the last truly honky tonk time in tattooing other look upon South State as Chicago’s tattoo demise. The 4-block area of South State Street in Chicago from the early 1900s to the mid 1960s was considered the worst red-light district that ever existed in this country to date. It consisted of skid row flophouses, porn theatres, liquor stores, wino bars, shooting galleries, arcades, and of course in every corner of every arcade were the tattoo shops. Chicago was supposedly home to hundreds of tattooers through out the early years. All making tattoos cutting their chops and making their bones on the abundance of fresh sailors from Great Lakes Naval Base just north of Chicago, and the working class folks looking to let loose on South State Street. These first photos show the very early days of south state notice in one of the photos the Armed Services recruiting center, this later became and Army Navy Surplus store. This is one of the main reason I believe that attracted the tattooers to South State they had a fresh abundance of young men signing up to serve their country and at that time service men especially sailors and tattoos went hand in hand. These other three photos show the burlesque barkers looking to get customers in to see the show Thanks for your interest, more to come later

222 Tattoo was a fabulous shop owned by the world renowned Eddy Deutsche. When Eddy decided to close the shop in 2000, it was a great loss to the tattoo community. An astounding amount of great work came out of that shop in a few short years. If you have stories and pictures of work to share from any of those great artists, please do! And yes, Eddy's still tattooing, and you can find out more about him and contact him through his website if you'd like- http://eddydeutsche.com/

Does any one have any water colour tip e.g getting greys to blend out perfectly ,or who makes the best products , and do you really need to stretch the paper with water first .... Any tips would be cool

Pharoahs horses one of my all time favourites.

Rock of Ages is a great one. Here are a few that I like. The one that is finished, and more traditional is by Vinse One. The other two are by Matt Arriola. The one on the arm is me. The Ed Hardy "Rock of Ages" book has great stuff in it. Freddy Corbin's back is in that book. I have also posted a link to a piece of Chad Koeplinger flash that I love. Tattoo Elite International The fourth one in the set is the one with the Rock of Ages.

I stole this picture from old ink its a Ed Hardy freehand tattoo done in 84 I think its amazing !

London Miles Gallery is proud to present " Pens and Needles" a art exhibition celebrating Tattoo art, Culture and Life Style. The exhibition will feature the original artwork, tattoo stencils and photographs from more than 20 international tattoo artists and photographers. The exhibition aims to open up Tattoo culture and educate the public about the talented artists that shape the tattoo industry. With skills not only in tattoo art, these artists work with traditional mediums such as acrylic and oil. The opening reception is on Friday, February 25th 2011 at London Miles Gallery. The reception will include live tattooing, installations, music and a complete exhibition of paintings, photos and more.. This is a London art exhibition not to miss, come to the opening and show off your own flesh art! Feb. 25th 2011 to March 7th 2011 London Miles Gallery 242 Acklam Road. Westbourne Studios. London. W10 5JJ. www.londonmiles.com more info: [email protected]

I got my first tattoo a while ago, and fell in love with the medium and the art of the trade. Since then I've been engrossing myself with as much information about tattoos I can find. I was hoping you guys could give me some recommendations for books that have information about the history of the art and some of the key artists in the past. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance, -Maxx

You see I think it goes in cycles..i remembered when i first got tattooed the tattooer told me kings and queens and royalty getting tattooed....(little did I know HE was tattoo royalty)and then convicts...unfashionable.....and then it became fashionable ...again....this recent..last decade maybe just a little longer is the "in fashion" times...not diffrent than elephant bells.....or hip huggers...baggy verse tight...crimefighter underwear versus boxers...well thats pushing it there.... But if you look at the recently released Ben corday and amund dietzel books...those designs were the artistic forefather of ones that later became cruder...after someone did a rubbing...then copied it...to someone else not as articulate... that arm became less graceful...or a certain line was left out Ii will try and give you an example tonite(hopefully)there is a hula girl that Corday drew that you see in so many other peoples flash..some drew it very well..others missed the mark....and you can see it mutate... In fact the center of roses...changed...and i think it was a mistake...you see ones with the classic s and y shape...well the s in the center...I see guys do them now with the 3 petals..which was a posiitive mutation..they look good..but it came from a missing line in the stencil.... I think with the explosion of artists now it is really hard to tell where people learned from...the access to all the reference that was so protected...now its easy to see what a good dragon looks like etc.....so with popularity comes what...mud...in a sense... I digress....I think the genre that was born in the last 20 years of tattoo painting is amazing.....It still does not have a name..like impressionism or surrealism...Where a hundred years ago ..tattooers paInted to have designs...now they paint to paint... In fact there was a period where(at least in my experience) a young tattooer was not allowed to paint flash...if you did the guys that brought you in that painted all the flash in their shop would ask"why are you doing that..." painting? " ...you gonna open your own shop?"...use our flash....or you wanna know how to mix colors...why??? you gonna open your own shop??? use our colors...etc.... but of course that is all diffrent now...and no i am not bitching about the state of things...because to tell ya the truth..I stay busy..so what do i care about 20,000,000 tattooers now...as long as i have work......it really does not effect me...EXCEPT NOW ITS HARDER TO GET OLD MACHINES AND FLASH BECAUSE EVERYONE IS COLLECTING...that is my only gripe now i guess.... I DIGRESS AGAIN...what i was saying was at ome point in the mid 20th century not as many tattooers had the talent artisically as at the turn of the century..... That is why some of them shined so brightly....again it comes in circles..or little circles..no I mean cycles...