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Mikki I understand exactly where you are coming from with your analogy regarding bikers. My son's dad was a 1% and I remember experiencing some of what you mentioned, even though I was just along for the ride. Those who can't hear the music think the dancer is mad!

He was tired of his pollen allergies and wanted to remove his sinuses. The doc at the norte hang out suggested a more "invasive" procedure. I would have recommended an allegra script and a box of kleenex. To each his own.

Thomas Hooper/ Chris O'Donnell collab from Hooper's blog-outstanding: full post here: Odonnell – Hooper, Snake and Skull Back Piece Project. « Hoopers Electric – Meditations in Atrament

Boom! Facebook Friend Sleeve Tat Is a Hoax, Artist Says [VIDEO] I, for one, am relieved.

There is so much to chew on. Where to start. I guess, time does distort perspectives in alot of cases. I used to think my pop's was heavily tattooed. I know my mom was when she was alive. She even had a monarch on her hand. Then, years later I started hanging with my pop's as an adult, and I remember, being shocked, when seeing his tattoos, that he really wasnt as blasted as I had remembered as a kid. I mean he was heavily tattooed. But by this time, I had full sleeves. It was odd to wrap my head around, the distortion of my childhood perspective. When I started getting tattooed, you were either an adventurous collector which consisted of the norm, you were a stripper, in a band, a convict, or a tattooer. The adventurous collector, didnt reveal their tattoos unless they had crossed the line and jumped head long into the freak catergory. I dont mean freak in a bad way at all. It was just how society treated them. They were people who went way out of the standard of the norm. Past the military regulation. Past the caution of their tattooers advice. Past what their family thought of them. They jumped out there, when no one else was out there...just to do it. The price they paid was being treated poorly by their peers, their families, by society in general. Not all of course. Some, and I still think this is a variable, had mental illness. Attention seekers, one shot ponies trying to make a name for themselves, being a freak. The magazines pushed this into the limelight. I saw quite a few people dive into the trend because after a couple shots of themselves in the magazines, it seemed they became addicted to the exposure. Every magazine for a stretch, you can see them having more tattoos in a short amount of time. I won't name the obvious. All you have to do, is look back in the archive of the rags. I thought I was heavily tattooed with my half sleeves and chest panel in the early nineties. I was to my biker boyfriend. Then I met a young woman in Sacramento that blew my mind. She was younger than me and had her entire body tattooed. I loved it. I had known Elizabeth Weinzirl, and a couple other heavily tattooed women. But not any around my age. I had been the freak amongst my peers, until I met this other young lady. It was inspiring to me. She was beautiful. My point being. It wasnt so common to be obviousily tattooed. The norms hid their bodysuits under their fancy suits and white ties. The little old swinger lady carefully dressed herself while in public as to not stir a commotion of interest in her until she wanted to reveal her secret. The rest of us, didnt care what anyone thought and we werent trying to be apart of a clan. Then, the mtv generation hit. Every dumb fuck from every part of the planet wanted to purchase the look of a rockstar. Neck sleeves, hand tattoos and socks. Let me tell ya, you get those boys naked and it was a huge turn off. They had run the course backward. It was a turn off to me, because of the time I came from. I was brought in through a different door, so to speak. So, in the beginning of my career, there was no, tattooers being tattooed vs. norms being tattooed. We were all in the same boat living on different islands. As society became more seasoned to the art of tattooing. I noticed high end restaurants in SF and NYC hiring tattooed beauties as servers. It had become schick. And it certainly was. Main stream had caught on, with how beautiful tattooed people can be. The only shortcircuit feeling I get from people now, is those that get tattooed to be apart of the scene. Example. Look at when the suicide girls started. It was hot!. All those lovely punkrock grrrls I had never seen naked, were displaying themselves for the world to see. Difference from then til' now. Those first bunch of grrrls were the real deal. Most all the ones that came afterward, got tattooed to be like them, or they simply got tattooed to be a suicide girl. I hope you can see the comparison Im trying to make here. Its like watching the eighties style cloths come back into fashion and the youngsters are wearing all the crap the cool people didnt wear back then. They are caught in a trend. I definitely have been caught in a few myself. Guess thats how we learn. What you see now on tv, is because its a trend. Its acceptable, so the networks seem to be marketing towards those that they think would be interested. They too, and Im thankful for this, have missed the mark. As some of you may be experiencing. Its past tense now. So, once they see that with their ratings, they will move on to something else that strikes our fancy. Im too old and fat now adays to be sold to the public. Especially on tv. The tv shows came after my prime. We didnt have internet, websites, even some of my close tattooer pals in the industry, didnt know what I could do. They didnt seem to care who was doing what unless they were in a magazine to confirm their talents. And if a bunch didnt know you, then who were you but someone slinging ink to get by. I guess another way to explore this, is if I had a kid, he/she would be in their mid twenties now. Possibly heavily tattooed or not, having been raised in a tattoo household. Being a different generation. Even my kids, if I had had them, would not know how it used to be, accept from the stories I would have told them as to how it used to be when I was a kid. Sounds like repeated history. :) Is there a moral? If you love tattoos, then wear them. Just make sure you are doing it, because you love them and not because everyone else does too. Respectfully, Mikki ps. Sorry Deb to rant on your topic. :)=

I'd like to know why there are at least 3 pictures of the dude being taken at the same time. Was there a line behind them with everyone in the ER getting there cameras ready? Oh and as far as a story, he is accident prone and this sorta thing happens to him monthly bases. After a few years he got that tattoo, still holds true... so far.

My town is a town of about 25-30 thousand people just outside of the chicago metropolitan area in Indiana. There are over 5 shops just in my town alone and if you go 10 miles over there is another 7 shops in the next town. Yeah it sucks but if you do good solid tattooing you won't have any issues. Hell, one of the shops that opened two blocks from where I work has a lady working there who is a photographer for Skin and Ink and goes around taking pictures of huge name artists and it still doesn't help their business one bit because my shop has been here for over a decade and quality will always beat quantity. People spread rumors, get into price wars, yet we keep our heads down and stay tattooing and things work. We tattoo every day all day and just added a 4th artist to the shop so as long as you keep on staying positive good things will come your way! The greedy may temporarily be rewarded but it never lasts. Case in point, another shop that opened up two blocks from us in the other direction is closing down and moving locations because they can't seem to make any money.

pretty stoked right now!! just saw our name in the video and banner!! whoo hoo!! Tattoo Artist Magazine is starting their West Coast tour on Friday, June 3rd, 2011. Ink Health is proud to announce that we are a Primary Sponsor of Tattoo Artist magazine on this tour. TAM will be promoting Ink Health at The Ink and Iron Festival in Long Beach, California on the Queen Mary and introducing our bandages to several Top-Shelf West Coast shops and Artists. Follow the action here TamBlog. For more information about our bandages visit us at Ink Health

I would get crazy on that guy and delete him after he got my facebook face tattooed on him. Just to be the first one he had to cover up.

Or this...

yes quite the self promoter. FYI ; i was the back cover of the first issue.

Loch, I like it. My entire body has already kind of turned into The Great Hodgepodge, and though I'm working on only getting large-scale stuff (weirdly hard to make the commitment lately) I've really enjoyed getting the smaller one-off tattoos from folks who have been traveling in the area (or near enough to make the trip) or doing the occasional pop-in for something little. Pretty satisfying and fun! Care to share the design idea?

My pops just got one of the Garmin things. Its got a USB drive that stays on your computer. When you get back from your run, it automatically sends all of your data to the Garmin device, and graphs/charts/compares it to your pervious runs. Its unreal.

Almost my whole life I have always ran with people years older than me so I think I forgot and often times still forget they are older than me, set in their professions, and lots of other variables that I forgot/forget when starting to get visible tattoos. Not gonna psychoanalyze it and I don't regret it one bit, however, do know even living in SF/Bay Area it has limited me in certain cases here and working elsewhere. I do know I've had to and continue to have to prove myself to many people in my profession not familiar with my work due to being "heavily" tattooed. I wear suits to my contracts to compensate for the tattoos though I do have an obsession with suits and think i partially developed it due to the visible tattoos and my work. Bottomline, I totally get the argument and support the argument to get a fair amount of other spots done first. I had to goto other tattooers early on as Scott and some others would not tattoo my hands, fingers, and/or neck until more recently like the last two years or something. My first finger/thumb tattoo was done by I can't remember who around nine years ago. My first hand tattoo which is a small one in between my thumb and pointer finger was done by Tim Lehi around nine years ago at Tattoo City and had a mutual friend of ours take me in-between some of Tim's other appointments. Tim didn't seem too phased by the fact I didn't have my arms fully covered. For my other hand tattoo I went to Zach Johnson when he was at Picture Machine in SF which was a spur of the moment thing. I swung by the shop to hangout with some of the guys there before dinner and one thing led to another and blammo, hand tattoo covering the whole top and missed my dinner reservations. My fingers were also done at Picture Machine except I believe by Iggy and I was pretty well covered on my arms and about half my front done by this time. I went to Nick Rodin when he first moved up here to do my neck tattoos as Scott Sylvia refused to do my hands and neck for many many years though I had almost both arms sleeved and my front pretty well covered in tattoos. I totally respect Scott for his reasons and acted like a kid hiding something from their parents, haha. I remember my heart beating pretty damn fast hoping he didn't ask what I was in getting tattooed that day. For those who don't know they both work at Blackheart so I just acted like I was there getting a regular old tattoo from Nick. I remember when Scott walked over mid tattoo, looked at what was going down, shook his head and gave one of those chuckles/laughs he does. I am very satisfied with the tattoos Nick did and Scott even came over and gave Nick some visual help on the front of the neck tattoo as Nick asked for his advice. Scott has since given in and tattooed my upper knuckles and sides of my fingers. As mentioned above, I don't regret them though know it has limited me and will continue to limit me and/or put obstacles in my way. Yes, Scott and some of the other older friends were right and can say, "I/we told you so".

I got my hands and neck done only a year into tattooing (1998), admittedly before I should have. I had sleeves, but no torso work yet. Anyway...my hastiness was due to wanting to look like a TATTOOER. ONLY tattooers had hand and neck tattoos and often 9 times out of 10 a person with sleeves was a tattooer. You ALWAYS knew a tattooer when you saw a heavily tattooed person. (I used to always get asked "Where do you tattoo?" now it's "Are you in a band?") Of course, these days, a lot of hipsters and rocker types wear the look. It's been diluted, and in my opinion, destroyed. It's the reason being a tattooer is cliche, like a girl with weird hair being a hairstylist. (No offense to hairstylists). I hate being associated with these douchebags because of my hand and neck tattoos, and even I roll my eyes at these jokers. And as much as we'd like to think so, these tattoos are no longer "job killers". Wether it's Hot Topic or Target, or even Nordstrom or Marc Jacobs i see employees with sleeves and neck tattoos. I even had a TSA screener at O'hare Airport that had a giant script tattoo on his neck. Times have changed, and i know it's just the way it goes...but i can't help but feel we (tattooers) lost something special.

I got two pictures sent to me recently that looked like they were straight from 850 Bryant (SF's County Jail) processing area but the person who sent them to me had no idea on any of the history. I couldn't decided where on the tattoo forum I was going to put them as the "Photography of People with Tattoos" was good but didn't seem right. Then the next closes thread was the "Russian Criminal Tattoos" thread but that wasn't a fit as they were clearly American and one was for sure Bay Area specific. I was thinking how cool it would be to see a tattoo picture book of American Prison and County Tattoos. So I've done a l little research and believe I located where they came from, Robert Gumpert, though could be wrong as the two I got weren't on his site but match his style. So while in the process I gathered some more prisoner tattoo pictures and thought it would be cool to have a thread of tattoo pictures of American prisoners in county and/or jail. It would great to get ahold of all the pictures they take of people and their tattoos when processing new inmates to the county/state bed and breakfast. Here's is an article I found on Juxtapoz about one of Robert Gumbert's recent projects: Please share your photos and also if you know of any books. Here is a book I found that looks good: Prison Tattoos

Carlos Truan, he does some of my fav daggers

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.

Are you happy with this tattoo? Did you flip through any of the galleries, threads, interviews or blogs on this website, or did you just start a new thread? I know this sounds mean, and you'll probably ignore it, but my advise is to not let this artist get near your skin again and start a new thread here that reads "Who in my area can fix this?". Sorry dude, I'm not trying to starte a flame war or offend you, just trying to point you in the right direction.

I found the healing to be pretty easy. It's not like healing an elbow or ditch or some other joint, at least in my experience. And Gouge, I feel you on the first 5 or 10 minutes. It always takes me a while to get acclimated. I liken it to getting into a swimming pool: it's freezing at first, and it feels like you'll never acclimate, but within a few minutes, the water's fine and it actually gets worse if you get out and jump back in. Another reason why I don't like taking long breaks during tattoo sessions--then I have to get acclimated all over again! I remember getting birdies tattooed on my chest over 15 years ago and thinking, "Man, there is no WAY I could get a full back piece!" But then 10 minutes went by....

That's because your back is weirdly sensitive. Ever asked someone to rub your shin? Nope. But back rubs are awesome because your back has a million sensitive spots, all of which feel super fucking awesome when getting tattooed, especially the lower back. You already know that tattoos hurt, and you seem to be acutely aware that the back will hurt, too. You also know that you're already on this path (didn't you just get your hand tattooed?) and that the back is the ultimate canvas. you just need to figure out what you're getting and who's gonna do it, although something tells me that you have more than a few ideas in mind. While I did find the process to be painful (and expensive), I have no regrets at all about doing it. It was so exciting to see it come together, session by session. There's something about having a full back piece. It's something that I've always admired, but for years, I didn't think I'd be able to make the physical/financial/mental commitment to go through with it myself. Completing it was a big milestone for me, and I have a beautiful souvenir of the experience that I get to wear for life.

No idea, just keep waking up with new ones.

I was going to mention Peter Lagergren in this thread, I'm glad someone did. I really love the tattoos and paintings of Cris Cleen (cris cleen works). The feel to his tattoos are really relaxing and amazing.

I think I see where some of your issues are coming from, Pauly.

HA! get on your boots!