Leaderboard

THIS is a tattooers uniform! Maybe it should be in the "Tattooers with little or no tattoos" thread too. :p Awesome photo.

I'm getting tattooed by Robert Ryan on Monday and Deno on Tuesday. Both are in hellish (inner thigh and armpit) spots that I expect to leave me crying like a wee baby. This whole painting myself into a corner thing was dumb. I should have started with the shit spots and ended up 36 years old and making appointments for my forearms.

Nobody who tattoos simply to make a living, to put food on the table becomes 'great'. Maybe it's starts that way, but somewhere along the line something will change. Anybody who became 'great' at anything sacrificed a lot to get there. That's where the respect comes in. Tattooing isn't just another artform to 'express' yourself. It's something very different that has similarities to other crafts and arts but it's something that stands alone. You can draw similarities with other fields (and it can be fun to dream them up) but in the end nothing else has the same mix of craft, decoration, artistry, service and an emotional connection. The respect doesn't come from the amount of tattoos someone has. The lack of respect comes from the hypocrisy to dare to do to others what you cannot allow to be done to yourself. A subtle but very definite distinction. I would like to add that ANY craft is sacred. The time and energy spent perfecting any craft is akin to spiritual devotion. Anybody who fully understands their craft deserves respect. It's impossible to fully understand tattooing without having tattoos. One or two small ones doesn't count. I understand that visible tattoos are not for everybody, but that's not what's being discussed here. Anybody who buys supplies, attends conventions, buys magazines etc, serves the 'industry'. Those who get heavily tattooed and take their shirt off for a photo shoot, serve the 'industry'. - I never mentioned them, or the industry, as they are a different argument that I have no interest in. Tattooers who aim for quality and get tattooed serve the CRAFT. They also HAVE respect for the craft, so they deserve nothing but respect in that regard. Being 'cool' has nothing to do with it.

saw somone online today use 'toos how lazy can you be, just type the extra letters and make it tattoos.. my biggest cringe though is people who spell it tattoo's there's no apostrophe in the word!!!!!!!!!! Learn how to spell your own trade!!! And of course the obvious ones that have been mentioned - tatt gun, leg sleeve, tatted up, tattys.... I think the next asshole who tells me I'm all tatted up might get a dick/vagina punch. Actually I'm gonna also add another.. Don't tell me I'm all tatted up or 'damn you gots all kind of tatts' because I FUCKING KNOW I HAVE TATTOOS THEY ARE ON ME.

"30 pieces of flare!!!!" Blackheart's having a shop meeting tonight, I'm going to ask Scott to suggest a uniform. Maybe dirty jeans, long hair and beard, black band t-shirt, black vans, and maybe a denim vest with patches. There should also be a rule about how many patches one can sew on their vest each month.

Really my only goal is to take any opportunity I can to get tattooed by people I enjoy to be around and do phenomenal work. There are always people I would jump at the opportunity to get tattooed by but in the meantime I have managed to get a pretty good list going just going about my business getting tattooed and just paying attention to who is around what week and dropping into shops when I am visiting a city.

Almost don't want to jinx em by talking about them. Is that weird..?

I also just got an email from Thomas Hooper sneaking me in for finger tattoos- the day after my birthday. Jesus. Sumerian priest sounds awesome... cant wait to see it!

i waited to get my first until i was 20. my parents are both tattooed (my dad is about 75% covered, mom has a few smaller ones, a few big ones, and is finally getting her sleeves done starting in a few months). i knew i wanted some text my dad has on his forearm for about four years, and i added the skull underneath because i like skulls. also, the straight edge XXX underneath... at this point, i wasn't sure how tattooed i was going to be, so i had long sleeve shirts in mind, and also wanted to get the two most important things in my life represented (the parents and the straight edge bits). the arm that looks like you could pole vault an IV into it is my dad, with the original...

I had just turned 18 and knew jack about tattoos- ended up with a really crap pointed heart from the Alkaline Trio logo on my wrist. Upside down on my wrist, no less. The guy who did the tattoo had done my mam's, and she insisted I went to him for my first. Thankfully, a few months later I stopped being an irresponsible jackass, learned more about tattooing and managed to get it fixed, adding a traditional banner on it so it looks a little better (why thank you, Hayley Parkin!). I don't think I'd do it any differently if I had the chance though, to be honest. In fact, a year or two later I got an upside down Smashing Pumpkins heart on the other wrist, just to remind myself that I don't exactly make the best fucking decisions sometimes. Every time I have to sign something or make a big decision, I look at those first, haha. Thankfully, my other tattoos are far better (and they're not cheesy band logos!).

It's been an amazing opportunity for me as a non-tattooer being able to have seen all the art in his shops and a lot of stuff him Mike, Richard and others who've been through the shop have collected over the years. Priceless really. Being around his shops really helped me learn a lot about art and what a good tattoo can be.

Tattooing came to Eric later in his life. He was close to forty years old and unlike the majority of other tattooers who become interested in the business and art of tattooing after collecting tattoos , his interest in the art, culture and history and especially the how's and whys of applying beautiful tattoos - came first. He does have only a couple of tattoos on his arms but on his legs are solid, bold, strong tattoos that he is known for - often as a result of his experimentation early in his career. Eric is a rarity.

Finally got A Bob Wicks girl head from Eli three weeks ago. Will post a healed soon.

The tattoos should separate you from the scratchers- not your clothing. There are plenty of ways to appear professional without looking uniform. You KNOW IT when you walk into a legit studio, regardless of the wardrobe of the artists. You can put a scratcher in a uniform but that doesn't make him PRO.

There are sometimes exceptions to any rule and I agree with Tim but I would go much further and use the term parasite. They are feeding off something and giving nothing back. I fail to see how any tattooer can understand what they are doing to people if they have no tattoos. Yeah there's the pain side. Mostly it's not that bad, but if you're tattooing ribs, chests, backs etc you should at least have empathy with your customer. But more than the sensation of being tattooed, there's the mental and emotional side to being a tattooed person. The way it feels to have made a deliberate choice to get a tattoo, placed a certain amount of trust in a stranger (usually) and to have the results with you every moment of your existence. To know what it's like to live with a tattoo, to see it age with your body etc. Not forgetting the social side, the way other people interact with you, either positive or negative. All these things cannot be understood without having tattoos. Being heavily tattooed is certainly no indicator of the quality of a tattooers work, but I have zero respect for tattooers with no tattoos.

This was something I suggested on another forum, but never saw any progress on it. I plan on getting tattooed every major city I visit, but sometimes I'm unaware of who's tattooing in the area. A map would be awesome.

All those terms are fine by me.... As long as a tattooer is using them. If the person doesn't tattoo and uses them, I wanna smash their head down into their neck. I'm a jerk

I really would like to see a collective effort on LST to start promoting SQUIDS/SQUIDDLING. Anyway, Tats and tat-guns remain the worst in my book.. I don't know what's worse though, getting asked about "my tats" from folks with no visible tattoos or folks who are covered. I almost like LEG SLEEVE simply because it sounds like a euphemism for some kind of weird, cozy, leg love.