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From the few conversations I've had with the dudes at Smith St. it's more revolved around(though not limited to) random people and their random photoblogs and such. People who take a picture and just post it with all these other random things that have zero to do with the tattoo, the tattooer or really anything. It's a band t-shirt to them. "These are all the things I think are cool, and I want you, the viewer to see me in this image." Which by itself is pretty harmless, but when you think of the scale of how often this happens and what it leads to, well then, yes, that's where the sore spot is. Someone posts a pic, then it gets re-blogged six hundred times, eventually it loses the credit as to who did it, if it even had one in the first place and then ends up on some fashion blog, and then on some t-shirt in a random Etsy account. That's not free advertisement, that's a few hundred selfish people not thinking about what they are doing because the internet is essentially the wild west. I know people want to show appreciation for others works, and I do too. But there are tactful ways to go about it. How about if someone really wants to bring attention to another artist, ask permission. We text and email all the time. It shouldn't be such a hard thing to do, but for some reason people react horrendously when they have to all of a sudden think and act respectfully when it comes to the interwebz. Like it's a form of slavery or something. Just ask permisson and maybe don't post their whole portfolio. Or even a picture. After all it isn't about you it's about the person you're trying to bring some attention to. Maybe just post one pic, small enough to see and a LINK TO THAT PERSONS WEBSITE. Not hard at all. But people are harping on the tone of their argument and justifying their actions with sayings like "Come on, get over yourself. This is 2011. It's the internet." First off, I don't know what any of that means, but it just sounds like lip service to me. Sounds like he/she meant to say "Come on, it's been so easy for me to define myself on the internet with pictures and now you're telling me I shouldn't maybe just rifle through peoples stuff as if it were my own and post away without a care in the world? BULLSHIT." From what I gathered, it isn't necessarily directed towards tattoo oriented forums and the like because those tend to operate with a keen set of morals as to posting of pictures. I mean, this site itself has a thread about giving props to under the radar artists, and many threads on who does what stuff well. That's not really what those dudes are talking about. It's more like the people who use someone's 50 hour work week as some sort of bragging rights as to what they like. It's weird that people even do that to begin with, never mind being surprised that the person who did work hard to make these images in the first place might not want it treated like a sticker on your Trapper Keeper. It's not even a bad thing that someone wants all the credit for their work. How could it be? If a plumber fixes your pipes, he would expect all the money and thanks for that job. And deservedly so. It would be shitty if it went instead to neighbor who pulled the plumber's business card down from a cork board at a laundromat on the other side of town, OR the laundromat that had the cork board. PLaces like this are beneficial to tattooing. What they are bringing attention to are the leeches who are playing it out everyone's hard work with no credit given, without thought to how this could effect us or our craft. Sorry for the long response, and sorry if it was a bit convoluted.

i re-posted the smith street blog post on my own site and even though i never close the comments option, i was keen to not delete comments posted with people's thoughts on the issue. well, that stopped pretty quickly. what it developed into is a bunch of un-approved posts that i will be deleting full of shitty attitude from idiots who dont give a crap about tattooing whatsoever, some even got personal throwing insults at myself and steve (boltz). any negative replies usually were posted by people who didnt even have the balls to leave their real name ( a quick email search on facebook showed who they really were). and the kind of language used would have gotten them a first class ass whopping if uttered in any of our shops. really, what it comes down to is exactly what the hyena said, way better explained that i ever could, im useless at explaining stuff. back in the day the only reason to own your own domain name let alone a website was to showcase your creative side or to sell something, you had to put the work in and learn basic html at least, some CSS also and build it yourself. now with tumblr etc any tom dick and harry has a 'stage', it takes two seconds to create one and 2 more seconds to fill it with re-posts of the things you feel define you. i aint looking to stop this cos you simply cant but bringin light to it has certainly sparked a discussion and good on smith street for that. on the other hand, its sites like LST that are doing good, bringing tattooers together and showcasing good tattoos, discussion and true helpfulness. there's REAL content within created by its own members. keep it up!

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Feel better Jolly? Sounds like you've wanted to say that for a while now. You had me thinking about a shop in Augusta. The owner doesn't tattoo, but her son does. He's not very good either. He thinks he's all that and a bag of chips though. The owner completely bombarded the radio and tv with ads and discounts and give aways of all kinds. She did have some great artist working for her until they got fed up and left opening their own shop across the street. She wouldn't hire anyone that wasn't tattooing for less than 10yrs and wouldn't let any new apprentice in unless they had a assoc degree in art. Now that shop is only surviving on the military crowd that doesn't realize that they are over paying by 100%. A tattoo that would cost 100 - 200 anywhere else with better artist they are charging 300-400. Crazy.

I joined last sparrow specifically because I found that this seems to be the only place online discussing this,and in my opinion it is a growing problem.It may be okay for the non-tattooer to be an owner of a shop,but for an artist it can be hell and for so many reasons!I have had many bad experiences working at shops run by non-tattooers,too many to list here. The main problem is that the tattoo business is a whole different animal.Running other types of business establishments is not the same at all,and nowadays far too many people get a decent size tax return & a book on business and think that they know what they are doing,because they spent a few hours in a tattoo shop.They all spit out catch phrases that they acquire in these books.I had a non-tattooer recently tell me(after putting me through a bunch of unnecessary nonsense) that he worked in the"retail" business before & that the "retail" business can sometimes be rough.I told him that he should take it up with his "wholesaler",but I don't think he was bright enough to understand what I was saying.A lot of these "business" people also don't understand why if you get a detailed description of what the customer wants from them and then when you spend 6 hours drawing it,only to have the customer come in for their appointment and say "yeah,I was talking to my friends and I have decided that instead of that I want this...." why you won't draw them something else after they have wasted 6 hours of your life that you will never get back.I don't think that is hard to understand,but what do I know,I have only been tattooing for two decades. I have a phrase-"the customer isn't always right,you can only try to do right by your customers".Most non-tattoo artists that run shops don't understand this.If someone comes in with say for instance a horrible maze-looking tribal design that their little brother drew at school on a spiral notebook and I tell them that it isn't really a drawing that translates to a tattoo and that I can draw something that is similar,but better (rather than saying that the drawing is shit and insulting them).Yet still they are insistent that they want it EXACTLY like it is on the paper,the non-artist owner that owns the place will say,"that's what they want,so just do it!"-not understanding that they are trying to force me into doing a bad tattoo,which in turn would give me and their shop a bad reputation. The non-tattooer also normally doesn't do research before they open a shop,I think they just watch television shows & figure that is how it is supposed to be.So when they are building up the inside of a shop,they say"okay I will have a row of barber chairs over there that 5 or 6 artists can work at (in this small town) ".Not realizing that without dividers of some sort if the customer wants a tattoo in a private place that they will be exposed in front of everyone else in the shop and a small town doesn't have enough business to support 5 or 6 artists.They are worried about having a koi pond,crushed red velvet curtains,leather couches & flat screens,but don't worry about things like a thermographic copier,because the artist can hand trace everything and what do they care if they make the artist work way more than they have to,it isn't making them work any harder. When a non-tattooer opens a shop they will post something online that normally says "No rock stars!".I have grown to realize that this is code for:leave your individuality and self respect at the door,because really they are looking for rock stars.I am one of the least pretentious artists that there is.I just want to make a living and do great tattoos,which after all these years of denial & error I have finally become very good at my work.I love tattooing,but I am an artist not an entertainer,some people may be both,but I choose not to be a part of that.The non-tattooing owner doesn't seem to understand why I don't want 10 people leaning over me while I'm working,all taking photos & video of me on thier cellphones.They don't understand why I don't work at conventions and have no urge to.They don't understand why I don't care how many people press the like button on their shop's facebook page,or why I don't want to pose for a group photo outside their shop with everyone folding thier arms and acting tougher than they are in their Ed Hardy shirts and with thier fauxhawks.I don't want a biography on your stupid website,let my work speak for itself! Some job postings online say "must have own clientele,you will not be getting walk-ins"-that is just an insult to anyone with any intelligence,especially if your not looking to work near where you live & looking to relocate.What would they be doing for their half of a 50/50 split,providing paper towels? Most of all I have had problems with non-tattoo artist owners trying to give away my hard work for nothing."Welcome to our tattoo family,now we will take advantage of you like we do our real family" they might as well be saying when they say"we are giving away $200 gift certificates on the radio,because it will be good for business!" .Who's business?-not mine,I don't work for free."we are running a special:as long as you can sit for $250,it will be good for our business!".Yeah,sure,maybe for you-you don't have to depend on this for your living,you have another job as a contractor or a bartender or whatever it is that you do when you are not here most of the time.I appreciate you stopping by for an hour every day and bitching about how tired you are & how hard your primary job is & then telling me something I should do differently.You must know more than me,you have done 5 tattoos in your lifetime & have been in the industry for a staggering 6 months!with expertise like that,you must know what you are talking about! It feels good to vent! Can I get an Amen?

i hate sleeves that go onto the hand. looks awful, ruins the whole thing.

my horror story is that i never apprenticed or tattooed out of my house. i lied about having years of experience and got hired at a shop and started tattooing the general public for money in a shop my very first day. it was awful, i couldn't ask for help because i didnt want to give away that i didnt know what to do. i didnt use rubber bands for my first couple of tattoos and even when i started using them i didnt know why i just saw that everyone else was using them. my first tattoo was "ranch industry" written in 1 inch old english and it took me almost 5 hours. every tattoo i did was lined with a 3 but looked like it had been tripled lined with a 14 round because i kept going over the lines thickining them in an attempt to "clean" them up. when asked why i was doing the outlines so thick i claimed that i was also a graff artist and that that was the style.

yeah, i know the forcefields came from old sheets, but bert and the boys picked it up and it was immediately copied and absorbed. boltz told me they kinda did it as an amusing experiment, to see how fast it would be copied. it took two days for some kid in argentina to copy it and post it online haha...

the indomitable Tim Lehi. Interesting to see an American image of an eagle with the Japanese background

i talk people out of backgrounds and useless additions all the time. i see so much garbage online. people just throw every trick in the book in there. or just tack on a bunch of roses around something, it looks awful. just let the image be itself, it has strength on its own. a gypsy head doesn't need blood splatters, a crescent moon, fog, a tree, roses and fake cholo letters all around it. except for a few people, tattooing is in a sorry state creatively. by the way, the outline thing is a SMITH STREET thing, which has now been beaten to death by anybody with a computer. you can't do anything new and cool without vampires sucking it dry. ok, i'm done...haha

I am so pro strong silhouette. I've been working on fighting the urge to put bursts and nonsensical background behind everything just to preserve the silhouette. Sometimes it;s difficult, but I find that If I think the image needs some background 9 times out of 10 it's because the drawing is weak anyway. So I redraw. If I do add an element into the background or something, I try to make it add to and preserve the silhouette, not take it away. I fail miserably at it all the time, but I work on it constantly.

i'd rather just tattoo in my kitchen than work for a non-tattooer, or a piercer. i don't fault others, i know we all have different situations and it is very hard to get the perfect job, but i just couldn't do it.