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that is an extremely defensive reaction to a statement that wasnt confrontational.

Did the upside down, red script say "Ink"?

I kind of secretly love when I see someone with upside-down script. I am obviously a jerk.

Wanted to share my torso piece, I don't have a pic right now of it finished, but this session was the 2nd to last before we did everything else. This was done by Nick Ley, and we plan on doing background on my ribs and fill up toward my shoulders in 2 months. We started this piece back in 2007, finished it 2010.

numbing creams.. many tattooers dont mind tattooing an area thats had the cream applied. personally, im not a fan of tattooing an area of skin that has been numbed with cream. an example of a numbing cream would be a product such as EMLA. i find that the treated area of skin seems to have changed when it has numbing cream on it. it seems more 'spongy' and feels off. i find it difficult to get a good saturation of ink in that area and find that linework doesnt appear as clean. perhaps my issues are due to lack of experience with the product? i dunno... feedback from clients tell me that the area does get a little numb and that the cream does take the edge off pain. traditional die-hards might argue that the pain is part of the whole process... the right of passage so to say... its my own preference as a tattooer not to work with numbing creams. i feel it hinders more than helps when it comes to my job of getting the artwork in.

All of the better shop's are on the lower east side. http://thickerthanwatertattoo.com/ is a street shop on LES. Daredevil Tattoo has plenty of good traditional tattooers.And it's down the street from Kat's deli where you can get a good pastrami sandwich. Kings Avenue has some excellent tattooers.And if you wan't a good banh Mi,this place Banh Mi - Vietnamese Sandwich is close to Kings Ave,and is real good. Red Rocket Tattoo New York City You probably can do a walk-in at this shop. Invisible NYC - Art Gallery and Tattoo Studio | Tattoo Artists has some excellent tattooers.Smith street as mentioned is a real nice traditional shop.If you go to brooklyn,check out Brooklyn Flea on Saturday in Fort Greene has some real good food. HopStop.com - Transit Directions and Maps for New York City (NYC) is a pretty good site to help navigate around the city.

i always count (quietly i should add) and pay in front of the artist (including tip), unless i'm told to go pay at the counter. then i'll pay, and then tip the artist directly (like i would for a haircut). i don't know if that's embarrassing, but at least then, they know i'm not jipping them of dough, and i know that i'm not accidentally spending more than i can afford. i aslo always say what i'm tipping, because they should know that they did a damn fine job, and that their customers appreciate all the work and effort that goes into the finished product, as well as their craft. sorry if that's also embarrassing, but that's how i feel. oh and i almost did the same thing to Lizzie! we had such a great time talking, that i totally didn't even think about payment, and luckily she stopped me! i felt embarassed, but it was purely an accident! we sort of joked about it after it happened, and i think it was pretty clear i was just being a doofus and excited to have met a really awesome person. afterall, we're only human, artists and customers alike. sometimes we do mindless shit on accident, but it's truly an accident. you realize your mistake, make it right, and then remember it from there on out.

When asked by my customers why i'm not in a tattoo tv show ( they think a lot of me ) . I explain that leather pants don't come in size 18.

Man, everybody already used my smart-ass answers but the Greg Irons quip was funnier than I could have come up with. But back to the original question. This is one of the newer approaches to tattooing that makes me slightly uncomfortable to be honest. Myself and a few tattooers I know and work with have noticed the trend of customers finding a sense of pride in how long they had to wait for their tattoo. As if that makes the tattoo more worthwhile. With some of the currently living/working tattooers mentioned in this thread, I personally know people (not even on the internet) that have tattoos from all of them. Filip, Horiyoshi III, Shige and Mike Rubendall. Yeah, they had to wait a little while for some of them but not as long as you'd think for others. Mike Roper is a different situation because he makes it deliberately difficult to get in touch with him, which answers the question posed above. But that wasn't really the question that was asked and it's rarely the question that gets asked. The question, or at least the implication, is "who has the longest waiting list' or "who has appointments booked furthest into the future". If I were to be snarky "who gives me the most bragging rights". For me the hardest people to get a tattoo from are the tattooers who are located furthest away from me. The ones where I have to get off my ass and do something about it. Time is easier to overcome than distance although patience is a different matter. It astonishes me that people call our shop from the outskirts of the city expecting us to change the way we work because they are catching a train to get here. On the other hand, we are humbled and honoured by the people who cross seas and continents to get tattooed regularly with us. But that's aside from the issue. Why is it a trend that makes me uncomfortable? Because I've heard people brag about how long they had to wait for 'x' artist and wear that information like a badge of honour. It feels almost as distasteful as bragging about who charges the most. Yeah, tattoos are for tough guys and tough buys like to brag and maybe that seems harmless, but it makes me uncomfortable and I have trouble clearly explaining why. Maybe it's because it's a phenomenon spurred on by the internet and the gossipy world of hearsay. Nobody calls and checks with the artists or shops they want to get tattooed at. Nobody travels down to the shop to ask the question. They just ask random strangers on the internet who have a lot of time on their hands and like to talk about something they know nothing about. Then the reality gets lost or twisted and in the end the real information is lost. I see this a lot with regards to the shop I work at. Forums are (or certainly used to be) bursting with 'facts' about how much we charge, how long we take, how far 'x' and 'y' are booked or how long their waiting lists are. Nobody calls the shop to ask and nobody suggests that the person calls to ask. I know that happens with a lot of things but it seems like this is starting to have a real-world effect, however small. People who wanted tattoos that we would love to do heard that we wouldn't tattoo them at our shop because we were so cool and busy and booked up for decades and rolling around in money 'n' bitches or something. We've heard of this a few times and it seems to be happening more. Yeah, we're busy, you may have to wait a little, maybe not. If someone has contact information, especially a phone number on their website it means that they want you to call. I'm not really going to touch on the tone of the "are they a fad or are they really worth it?" comment, except to say that if you have to ask, the answer is "no". Sorry to jump on this fun thread with a rant. I look forward to more witty quips.

Shawn's comments make perfect sense. Your reaction to them leads me to believe that you look for things to offend you. He said he treats every customer with respect. However, he realizes that taking money from a jerkoff comes with a bigger price, so he chooses not to deal with them at his business. I follow the same thought pattern. Maybe it is because he and I are both from the Philly area. Either way, maybe you are too sensitive. People need to realize just how nice the tattoo business is now. It is much more customer friendly than it used to be. Customers should be treated PROFESSIONALLY. It doesn't mean like friends. Sometimes I become friends with customers and, other times, I never want to see them again. Regardless, I treat them professionally as they are paying for my service. I welcome anyone into my shop and expect that nobody treats them badly. On the other hand, I'm not really there to hold a customer's hand and pat them on the back. Sometimes customers are looking for friendship and usually I'm looking to do a good tattoo. Lastly, counter people have a lot going on in a busy shop. They are not paid to get the customers food and drink. At my shop, sometimes they ask customers and sometimes they don't. It isn't personal either way. If they have a lot going on they may not think about it.

At my business, I always say: The customer is always right, but management decides when you're a customer. If the man with the money is an asshole, he's not the boss. He's an asshole who we eject. As an ownership team we decide what's best for the business. If someone comes in with a swagger and is disrespectful of our business or staff, we don't need their money. We have pride in what WE do and don't sell that out to the highest bidder. We had a gentleman in last night who was screaming "I pay your salary!" He was saying that from the street, cause he certainly wasn't coming back in.

I was tattooing at a busy shop outside of Ft Benning Ga. Don was stationed there working as a Ranger instructor. He got tattooed at the shop and soon became my client.within a few months he began working there also learning how to tattoo and working the 10-3am shift. We were friends , he had a girlfriend and I was married to another tattooer at the shop and had a little boy. Don became a close family friend, a trusted coworker and I know that we really bonded during the hours spent tattooing him. I guess we were friends and coworkers for about 2 years or so when I became single again. I can't say that we had a wild romance but just that we were such good friends and we really liked and respected one another. Our first date , so to speak, was in June - and we were married at the end of November. For the next 10 years we tattooed wherever Don was stationed ( he worked in the army and tattooed till he retired from the military, almost 10 years ago) We also went on to have 5 more children. this November we'll be married 20 years.