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There was a time that I could be pretty sure - that at any given time , I was the only tattooist on a plane flight or at a baseball game or at parent- teacher school open house. That if I met another tattooist at such an event it would be like meeting a former schoolmate while vacationing in a foreign land. What are the odds of that? I remember a time that I could tell , just by looking , that someone did what I did and we shared a common bond and if you spotted one another at an amusement park or a mall- you knew one or the other of you had travelled out of your own territory. There was a time when introduced into the life of a child that they would remember you, for the rest of their lives as the tattooed man or lady. There was a time that when responding that I was a tattooer, when asked what I did for a living - was met with the same awe, disbelief or astonishment as if I had answered that I was an alligator wrestler, an astronaut or in the French Foreign Legion. That was a great time!

BUT if you have well-executed tattoos, you still stand out. Quality still trumps quantity.

I always feel a little odd when people say,"nice sleeves" ive got a hodge podge of stuff. But the real killer is what Cpt Don Leslie used to say," to call the sacred instrument of tattooing a gun, is to call ones mother a whore." dont get me wrong, those that know me, know i like them thangs that sling lead too.

Just saw this dagger tattoo over/around an old tattoo in the LST tattoo gallery that Jade1955 put up by Emiliano Liberatori-Frith Street Tattoo.

Seems like alot of these storys are when people we're apprenticing.. Well in that respect my story's the same, This was maybe my 5th tattoo in the shop i apprenticed at. I was tattooing a friend of mine that i knew from a boxing / kickboxing gym in the mission district of San Francisco back in 2001, I am maybe 30 minuts into this tattoo and some big guy comes into talk to my boss (it was just him & i that worked in the shop) So no big deal right?.. They go outside & i continue tattooing listening my Sepultura Arise cd blasting on the shop stereo. I am all consumed by this tattoo trying to make everything as perfect as i could When the guy im tattooing says he thinks something happening outside, So i stop and look up over the partition i didnt see shit so i get back on the tattoo then a couple seconds go by and i hear my boss yelling for me to "GET THE GUN!!" so i tell the guy im tattooing to stay there & i grab the big ass long barrell .45 revolver we had in shop, I'm on my way to head outside to see what the hell is going on when The guy i was tattooing asks me where the phone is, he's going to call the cops.. So i give him the phone & get the gun again. Then the guy i was tattooing says "whats the address here!??" i put the gun down AGAIN pull a card off the wall give it to him, as soon as i turn around there's 6 guys running into the shop two of them already have knives out and the damn gun is on the chair about 10 feet away from me with the hammer back.. These guys we're already striking distance away from me with knives out yelling this and that b.s. and im thinking to myself "ok this sucks but if it comes between me getting stuck with this knife or them seeing the 45 on the chair i got to make a move for the gun" i look over at my friend the kickboxer he's standing there like a statue, & instead of maybe getting ready to fight, or worrying about them stabbing him in the neck or stomach.. He has both of his hands over his balls.. hahaha even in that situation i remember thinking to myself w.t.f is he doing and finding it really funny. So anyways the boss comes running into the shop all bloody from getting jumped outside there's a couple other guys running after him so finally there's my distraction.. I make my move for the gun everybody see's me doing it, they bolt out of the shop going faster than they did coming in i give the gun to my boss i grab a hammer and we run after these guys as soon as we get outside he starts shooting.. unloaded the revolver.. These guys are understandably running like bats out of hell scattering everywhere.. Well no one got shot and after dealing with the cops and all that mess i finished up my 5th shop tattoo.

I don't care much for tattoo machines being refered to as a gun either. Theres a major difference. Try defending yourself against an intruder into your home with a tattoo "gun".

I knew a kid in florida who made an appt with Eddie Deustche for "one of them elephant headed buddhas" back in the day. I wish I could have been there when he asked for that.

So very rude.

a bartender friend asked me to tattoo a mustache on her finger and her eyes got all big like it was such a great idea. so i got real excited and said "i gotta better idea, why dont we tattoo the words 'played out' on your finger instead"? she got mad but she also never got the tattoo done.