Leaderboard

I grew up on a cattle farm, so it's all the same to me. House made charcuterie is a blast; specially when you make it at YOUR house. I do a duck breast prosciutto that only takes a week to cure-link here: Duck Prosciutto « Modified Ingredients and a house made mozzarella- link here: Mozzarella Cheese- delicious frustration. « Modified Ingredients that are not only tasty but a hoot to make. The first time you make cheese you literally say "holy shit, I just made CHEESE!" outloud.

This is from Jeff Rassier's blog. I rarely use the word brilliant, but I think that it is appropriate here.

Yeah. That album is perfect. And I mean perfect as in Amazing lyrics that I can compare with out hint of sarcasm to lyrics from people such as: Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, fucking Neil Gaiman. Anyone who can write so much in so few words is someone to admire to Just the perfect lenght. You just listen to it and press play again. And fuck, how many albums are there where the opening is as amazing as "The Outsiders (AKA Hell is for Heroes, Part 1)" Fuck choruses.

Witness is my personal favorite. That album just hits a nerve. Fuck it. All their albums are amazing.

that reminds me... Lochlan and I gave our nephew quite the xmas present last year. he shaved off his mustache and I shaved off my beard and we put them in ziploc bags for him to be able to have his own facial hair. hahahaha. he's super skeptical of gifts from us now.

Sarah won the lottery after i hired her..10 years later and 2 kids..yep im a dream walking!!! Ha!

i met my girlfriend/future wife in brooklyn 2007. i was doing a guest spot at saved tattoo, she was my final appointment on my last day there...we immediately knew we'd be together. after visiting her every month for 9 months, she moved here form new jersey in 2008. i owe EVERYTHING in my life to tattooing.

This thread is awesome.

Those Lieber sailor girl acetates are damn good. On another note about the source of references and influences, last time Lehi tattooed me I asked him if he liked Wido de Marval's tattooing (he works with Leu in Switzerland). Lehi said he'd never heard of him. I asked him whose Japanese-derivative tattooing he paid attention to. He said "No one's, really, I just look at the old Japanese stuff. That's what all these tattooers are trying to do, anyway." Reminds me of the Mike Malone letter to Keith Underwood that was published in TAM a few months ago. Malone adminished Underwood to "Look Look Look" at how Jerry executed his flash. He emphasized Jerry's formulaic approach to drawing archetypal images. Same thing as Lehi looking at Yoshitoshi, Kuniyoshi, or Horiyoshi II. I'd guess that Chris Conn's work, as distinct from someone like Jerry's as it might seem, relies on a very similar formula.

Boyer's photos make a strong argument. Guy named Jim LaPorte sold his extensive Lieber collection a couple years ago, and the pin-up sheet two photos above was $1600. A chunk of dough, yes, but a very fair price, considering the obvious influence Lieber had on Jerry, who's sheets go for three times as much. If anyone's interested in LaPorte's high-quality book of his collection, I can pass on his email. It goes for $250, I think, but it's sizeable, and fucking dope. Brooks turned my bud Kyle on to it, and we swooped on what we could and couldn't afford. Brooks got a couple great sheets. The Scott Harrison fish girl tattoo above is on SBoyer, and is flash from the Lieber sheet I went into more dumb debt for. My bud Kyle saw a picture of that Harrison/Lieber piece and said "That tattoo is perfect." Fucking strong. Back to girls: There's tons of good girl head stuff that leans more towards the realistic, too. Sboyer just turned me on to Jose Lopez. Very impressive. My blind ass was also just made aware of how good Lenherr's girl busts are, as well. Jason Brooks does excellent girl/rose heads. I fully agree that Uzi's a very good tattooer, too. Conn is obviously outstanding. I slid ass first into a pile of sugar when I got that Rock of Ages (pictured under the ROA thread) from him on my thigh in 2003. I was just getting my feet wet as a collector, and luckily picked up on how good he was when I flipped through his book at Temple the previous year. One thing that's impressive about his art is that it appeals to people who're new to looking at tattoo art (like me in 2002), but continues to reveal deeper layers when viewed by a more experienced eye. That's when tattooing truly becomes "art", in my opinion. The apex of this dynamic is reached when staring at a Van Gogh, Kawanabe Kyosai, Soga Shohaku, or Kano Hogai painting or print. Fuck, every time I look at the Van Gogh print on my wall at home I get tractor-beamed into some aspect of his holistic vision that I never noticed before. Hokusai, too. Hell, I can ogle Mike Malone's shit all day, as well. He was real into Soga Shohaku and Kano Hogai. Go figure. Speaking of traditional tattooing that is true art, look at Richard Stell's tattooing. I was beyond dumb-lucky enough to get a couple tattoos from Mike Malone when he was around, and wish I had done the same with Ed Hardy and Higgs when they were tattooing. To people who dig my Malone tattoos (and covet the experience of getting tattooed by a dude like that), I say get tattooed by Stell. Eddy Deutsche is tattooing in L.A, too. He's another one who's tattooing is true art.

I've been tattooed a bunch by Adam Ciferri and Stell's tattooed me twice, will tattoo me two more times in SLC on 02/18 and 02/19. Both are fast, but the full back Battle Royale Stell put on his son in 7.5 hours or so shows what tattooing for 30 years can bestow. Bert Krak tattooed me enormously quickly, his "simple" style nonewithstanding. Eddy Deutsche put a full hamstring and dragon head on my bud Kyle in 3.5 hours, one sitting. That tattoo, and Josh Arment's Hardy chest panther (otherworldly indelible velocity) are the two most impressive displays of speed and quality that I've seen. Filip Leu covers terrain like no other. Even a non-tattooer like me can tell by just looking at the composition and how he puts ink under the that he hauls. Style is obviously of immense relevance. Scott Sylvia did a half-sleeve on my ex very quickly, and, as with everything I've seen that guy do, it's technically as close to flawless as it gets. Lehi did the other half-sleeve on her (her only tattoos, courtesy of what my 34 neurotic laser sessions taught me), and that guy hauls. Tim's finishing my bodysuit. He backgrounded my traditional front (Malone Sacred Heart, Adam Ciferri stomach eagle, Grime snake) so fast it was done before I really knew what was going on. Lehi also employed restraint in not overwhelming the foreground, at all. Brooks emphasized this skill when advising my bud Kyle, at one point. I remember Jerry writing something to Hardy about the complexity of conveying the six layers within a tattoo or something. Like I said, I can't draw or tattoo my own dick, I'm just shooting from the hip as I find this crap interesting, for whatever reason. I'll shut up now.

Part Two Chicago’s Tattooing past is as deep and influential as both the Bowery and The Pike and South State Street was the spot for all of these tattooers to come through. Like I stated before hundreds of tattooers came through to work on South State Street, from the early 1900s through until the demolition of the area in 1967. Here are a few of the oldest photos I have found of unidentified tattooers tattooing on South State Street, if anyone knows who they are I would be stoked to hear it. These photos looked very staged, but it looks like the typical arcade style tattooing, just a small little corner or spot underneath some stairs where these arcade owners could house a tattooer as well. These photos where found in an online archive of old Chicago pictures from a local paper that no longer exists. A lot of the tattooers where complete winos and would tattoo for the Mob owned arcades just long enough to get some drink, then would disappear until they needed to work again. Other like the ones I will mention below made South State their homes if not only for a short while. Most notable tattooers that worked on South State are but not limited to. Ed Thornton Bill Moore (Chicago Tattoo Supply House) not affiliated with Chicago Tattoo Co Paul Hansen Bill Killingworth Jerry Pope Ned Resinol Ernie Sutton Randy Webb Mickey Kellet William Grimshaw Owen Jensen Bert Grimm Philadelphia Eddie Don Nolan Oakland Jake Stoney St. Clair Amund Dietzel Phil Sparrow Buddy McFall Cliff Raven Ingram Sailor Jerry Collins Ralph Johnstone Tatts Thomas So there are 22 of the heaviest hitters to ever hold a tattoo machine and they all came through Chicago at one time or another and the history is relatively unknown or not talked about. To me this makes Chicago’s history even more intriguing. When people talk about tattooing they either mention The Bowery or The Pike, but Chicago was home to some pretty amazing tattooers that helped shape not only the look of what tattooers today call traditional designs but they where also trying to improve their tools and techniques. Out of the list you have a few stand outs that are obvious you have of course Sailor Jerry, he was said to be introduced to electric tattooing by Tatts Thomas, here is the only card in existence that shows Sailor Jerry was tattooing on South State Street in Chicago. This card was in China Sea when Rollo bought it after Jerrys death, Kandi Everett had it in her possession for the last 20 something years and passed it on to me recently. Bill Moore had the Chicago Tattoo Supply House and worked closely with Tatts Thomas over the years, Tatts and Bill moved shops a bunch of times during Bills stay on South State Street. Bill used to run ads in Popular Mechanics at the time touting his “Tattoo Outfit” so there you have tattooers selling to the general public way before Spaulding ever graced the back cover of Tattoo magazine. Bill Moores earliest ad was found in Billboard magazine in 1932, where he is listed at 434 South State the same address that Sailor Jerry used to work at. This was the Burton Arcade, which a lot of other tattooers had worked at as well. Bill Moore died in Chicago in 1944. Ralph Johnstone to me is one of the most under rated tattooers of this time. Not only was he one of the most amazing circus banner painters but he also was an amazing tattooer that by all accounts was extremely kind and never had a bad word to say about any other tattooer. Ralphs business cards used to say he would work off of photographs, which meant photo realistic portraits in the 1950s. Ralph and Tatts Thomas worked side-by-side for Ralphs entire State Street Career which lasted I believe until everyone left in 1963. Johnstone also painted flash for Milton Zeis who at the time had a supply business and tattoo correspondence class out of Rockford Illinois. These business cards below show some of the address that Tatts and Johnstone worked at. The cards where also drawn by Ralph himself, as you can see he was light years ahead of his time in the way he approached illustration and tattooing for that matter. Here you have a couple of Ralph Johnstone’s clients with full chest pieces, and the third pic is of 3 backpieces with Johnstone in the front the center was done by Tatts Thomas it is on Sailor Bill Killingsworth the other 2 where done by Johnstone. Thanks for your interest more to follow on some of the other tattooers that shaped South State Street.

Cigarette burns are always worth it