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this is on the same kid who I just posted in the Lion Tattoos Thread Thomas Hooper killing it like always

I am such a huge fan of Valerie Vargas' work. Her waiting list is currently closed. She does take bookings at conventions, or for last minute cancellations, which are announced on twitter. I developed a seriously geeky system in order to monitor any twitter announcements, which includes alerts set up on my desktop and work, and text alerts on my mobile, for all tweets from Valerie or Frith Street Tattoo. Ah, one day.... In the mean time I'm saving up all of my best spots. I sound like a crazy fan girl, don't I?

Nibble and Sip: tattoo nutrition and my experiences with long distance cycling My friend David's take on tattoos and nutrition.

Bolohead if you are happy with this tattoo ,then that is all that matters. As journeymen, skilled craftsmen in the trade of tattooing we look at tattoos from a technical standpoint. You must have looked through the portfolio of the person that did your design, prior to getting the tattoo, and chose to get it. My only recommendation is to leave it as it is.

you know she's on here and bound to read this don't you? ;)

My wife and I just booked with Stuart Cripwell. We are stoked!

To twist the knife so to speak ,Henry Lewis provides some unique variations .

Im drunk on scotch listening to Hoods for some reason. Mike Hood is a strange man. I often think that he has satellites orbiting the planet which pick up on phrases like: "Fuck Sacramento", "That last Hoods album was terrible", and "Is Hoods still a band... oh jesus". Once the satellites pick up on those things, mike hood is sent a message via pager with the EXACT location of the person who was shit talking hoods, sacramento or WCWW. If Mike is for some reason reading this, I love hoods and Pit Beast was a good album. <3 Dan.

Awesome. If I wasnt working I would be blowing this up. I have a ton more "drawings" to post on here.

I think that a lot of the tattooers with the longest waits are the ones that do mostly large scale work. If someone is getting tattooed by Mike Rubendall (Chris Trevino, Mike Roper, etc..) then it is probably going to be a large piece that takes multiple sessions, and that person books multiple appointments. This means that one person's tattoo takes up a lot of that tattooers time so they end up tattooing less people. On the other side of things the dudes at Smith Street do mostly one shot tattoos, and are not booked out for years in advanced. Personally I would never book an appointment more than six months in advance, unless it was based on travel.

grime's at three years?! dang. id really hate to know all the shit ill be doing for the next three months, let alone years!!!!!!!!! glad i only waited like three months to get tattooed by him.

And customers often make the assumption that the person booked out the furthest is the best! I used to work in a shop with 6 other tattooists. We were booked according to seniority at the shop. So, inevitably some were booked out further than others. A customer would come in only to be told that Joe is booked out for 6 months and Jim for 3 months and 2 months out for Jay and John but You can get in with Deb TOMORROW! Customers assumed then that if you weren't booked you weren't worth waiting for, usually not taking in to account that Jay only booked 1 appt a day or Jim only worked every other week. People are weird, they like the hard to get, the over priced .

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.

here's the back of my legs by Scott. there's some stretch marks from when I couldn't walk for 4 months and my legs shrunk down

Here are a couple of Brooks daggers I found online. I am in agreement with Bart on all points.

You're kinda right. We cover some of this kind of thing with EMT training. Basically your body is reacting as if you have an infection. White blood cells primarily try to kill infections in the lymph nodes due to the amount of proteins, antigens, and other things that come in handy. It's just like if you have a sinus infection and the glands in your throat swell. Some people it will be the lymph nodes closest to the tattooed area, other's it can be random. Most people don't have this reaction. Most bodies will just kick in with the reaction to try and blocking your pain receptors mostly by burning up your sugar supply. When this happens of course your blood sugar level goes down, and if you've been around a shop long enough or a convention, you see people pass out. Signs of your sugar being too low can include feeling shakey, sweaty, feeling hot, nausea or vomiting, "knot in your throat", dry mouth, and vision problems. I always take a big coke and a bag of candy when I get work done.

I've been digging black and grey renditions of the ROA also lately -heres another Oh also saw a pic of Freddy Corbin tattooing shirtless ;damn if i had that ROA backpiece i wouldn't even own a shirt .

My buddy Bruehl and I once conspired to get on LA INKED by telling the producers that we were two of DR. BRONNER's adopted children, and that we wanted Kat to tattoo portraits of him on us. With banners that read ALL ONE OR NONE. Had we just said we were addicted to porn.... we wouldn't have had to lie.

i keep getting requests for this rib rose and swirls thing that women print off the internet. i redraw it everytime of course. i think ive done it at least 6 times.