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I know this is slightly off topic but I thought MsRad's question was interesting and it's not worthy of a brand new thread. I'm not a historian, so I won't attempt to give dates and I don't know how long everyone has been tattooing but knowing where those guys worked makes it clear that they all influenced each other. That makes it all even cooler to me. I didn't work with all these guys so maybe I'll miss some important detail but I know a few of them and the people they worked with. Hooper used to work at IntoYou, when Xed LeHead worked there. Jondix used to visit and do guest spots. So did Mike the Athens and his 'student' Tas. Then, Tas' work had much more Thai/Tibetan and Borneo/Micronesian influence than it does now, so did Hooper's. Tomas Tomas moved from a different shop in London to work at IntoYou. So at one shop, including guests/friends you had: Alex Binnie, Xed, Thomas Hooper, Jondix, Mike the Athens, Tas, Tomas Tomas and Duncan X. There were of course other awesome tattooers working there who specialised in different styles but these 8 people are very influential in the dotwork/blackwork (non-tribal) styles. Hooper and Jondix are close friends and have done series of paintings together and a few collaborative tattoos. I see Mike's and Alex's influence a lot in the work of Jondix, Thomas and Tas' (non Japanese) work. A lot of the dot shading comes from Xed and Tomas Tomas, I think Tomas in particular took it further than anyone, to great success. It's been awesome over the last 8 years or so, watching this amazing work grow out of existing tattoo styles and have other influences slowly added to each person's work and seeing them push themselves and tattooing in general. To me, that's perfect way for new styles to develop, rather than someone deciding that they have invented a 'new thing'. If these guys weren't awesome enough most of them can do great tattoos in many other styles too. I have learned a lot seeing their work, particularly Hoopers healed work in the flesh and nervously tattooing next to it.

Okay, here's the update. Hotstuff and Panther by Scott Sylvia. Kewpie and White Tiger by Bryan Burke. Both tattoos were done in 2 sittings, black in one sitting, color in the next. Scotts side was about 5 1/2 hours. Bryans side was 4 1/2 hours total. I started Bryans side first but finished Scotts side first. I lagged on Bryan and was procrastinating getting it finished a bit because Scotts side hurt so bad. Bryan actually had to call me up and be like, "we finishing this tattoo we started or what?". Sorry Bryan. Both these guys are quick as can be and for a painful spot like the ribs I really appreciated that. I gotta say the second sitting with Scott i was feeling a little nauseous and almost ready to tap out towards the end. Scott hurt more!

I had several hand poked tattoos on my hands, but as a teenager in a young offenders institution I suppose I had a good excuse. The tattoos were done by my best mate Phil. Phil sterilised the needle before each session with a lighted match which was good but probably cancelled out , on the hygiene front, by the location which was one of the traps in the shitter. Phil had an unusual technique for ensuring a straight line by dragging the tip of the needle and then poking the Indian ink into the shallow cut. From what I can remember it was very, very painful. Within a very short time of being released I started to realise that these tattoos were not a very good idea so I got them removed. None of that fancy laser surgery in those days, just local anaesthetic and a scalpel. One of the surgeons asked me if I wanted to watch and he pulled over an overhead mirror. It took many years for the scars to fade. Here’s some after pictures.

You're already on the right track by referencing Valerie's work. Those are all great tattoos. I'm pretty sure you could go to her (or someone of her caliber) and simply say "I want a lady head tattoo" or "I want an anchor tattoo" and you're gonna get something pretty bitchin'. If you're going to a good tattooer, 99.9% of the time what they draw is going to look cooler than anything you imagine and layout in your head and (in my opinion) you're best off letting them create the design and ask you whatever pertinent questions they have.

im surprised it hasnt been mentioned yet, but who else knows about Simons Cat? i love these little videos and heres my favorite one "

The guys at the Government St. shop in Victoria all do good traditional stuff. I live in Vancouver and I know quite a few people who have been tattooed there. I met Chris a couple of months ago and he was a really cool guy. I don't think that it can be said enough times. Being nice is huge part of good tattooing.

"A picture is worth a thousand words." If I wanted a tattoo with those effects, I would bring a picture with me to show the tattooer.

yep, hand signals are the way to go. and he doesn't stray far actually, he likes to hang around their other two dogs or their family, i think because then he knows what's going on. he's in love with their son Waylon, who's only 20 months old, and lets him climb, hug and pull his ears all he wants. he's a great dog, and a pitbull mix so just another one on the list to put the stereotype to shame.

Zatoichi our eyeless cat, adopted from the wonderful no-kill, vegan animal shelter Freshfields in Liverpool (and Wales): Freshfields Animal Rescue Centre Damn, I love this ridiculous cat. I used to work at Freshfields and can guarantee that it is a great place and really worth supporting. If you are thinking of acquiring a beast I would urge you to give them a try.

Hahahaha when I showed my wife this she said "Yes double pain in the ass"

I love when after a quick passing glance when someone feels the need to yell 'I like your ink/art/work/tatts/sleeves' How can you tell that I have nice ink when you've taken about 2 seconds to glance over my forearms. It's been a while so I knew I was due for one but the other day I had a "are they real tattoos" and when I said yes, she asked me again just to make sure.

When someone says "nice work", I immediately know they have a great eye for the "ink" aesthetic. They should just fart on my salad and get it over with. With all due respect, the concept of an exclusionist dialect for "tatterz only" is about as "awesome" as the fact that a bud of mine was not allowed to buy an issue of TAM that his "sik work" was in. Multiple times. In one issue. Wait, my disgusting ass is going to be in an upcoming issue. I'll guess I'll have to kiss some "fantastic" "ink under the pink artiste" ass to get a hold of an "amazing" issue. All tattoos are "amazing." I am an "amazing collector." I hate language. I hate tattoos. God Bless.

Well it's just a name, doesn't mean anything. I made a mistake (just checked a book that talks a little bit about him) that I said horiyasu is not a true horishi, he started with tebori but quickly changed to using a machine. But it's just a name, a rose by anyother name is going to just as sweet. Good tattooers are going to produce good tattoos, bad ones will make bad tattoos. In the western world you could call yourself salior xxxx, it's all the same.

yep. i dont care if customers know some terms or not. to be honest, there's no terms as such really. rays, clouds red bursts, thats it really. if a customer was being incredibly picky as to highlight every last bit of the design i'd be a lot worried. best thing to do if youre dead set on certain details is to print out examples from the tattooer's online portfolio or point them out at the shop when having a chat. ive had people bring me an almost entire portfolio of other people's work expecting me to do it, and i always say to just go to the guy whose all this work belongs to.

There often aren't any official descriptive terms for decorative tattoo elements. Even if everyone in a certain area or country use the same terms, someone from elsewhere will call it something different. Please don't use words like 'clouding' or 'rose work' etc, nothing says "I spend all time on the internet" like asking for some neo-trad clouding with rose work. Don't try to make up names and descriptions. Just say what you see.

You hit the nail on the head bigjoe. I call gimmick. I know some people who offer Japanese style tebori and one of them is Japanese and the other learned in Japan from a master. Outside of that structure it doesn't seem to make much sense aside from the points mentioned by David. Basically fake authenticity in place of talent, practice and hard work. Real authenticity is hard to find but many tattoo clients look in the wrong places. I've seen too many white dudes with botched Japanese style work done 'with bamboo' in Thailand. I guess they think if it's done by any guy from Asia it's authentic, right? I'm not sure how popular it is in the US or Canada but at conventions in Europe and the UK there used to be a few (mostly white) guys with facial tattoos working by hand, trying tattoo styles from the islands in the south seas. Even going so far as to sit cross-legged and stretch the skin with their bare feet. Often they were working within spitting distance of a great tattooer who knew more about their field of 'expertise' but he wasn't wearing a sarong and was tattooing snakes, eagles and skulls all weekend, listening to Motorhead.

Is there any way to make blog posts and blog comments appear when hitting the "what's new?" button? I always forget to check what's new on the blogfront because usually just hit the "what's new?" button whenever I log on here. I know it's pure lazyness, but it would be a nice to get the blog updates when using that function as well. It would also be nice to have a "new photos" button that basically did the same thing as the other one only with photos posted since you last checked.

Yeah, I read that when it came out and I have to say that it did a HUGE amount to educate people (including myself) about certain aspects of autism. The fact of the matter is that books and films tend to focus on high-functioning autism such as Asperger's because it can lead to almost miraculous skills (as shown in Rain Man), whereas the normal day-to-day lives for most autistics is more problematic, particularly spatial and 'face reading' issues. I don't work with autistic students anymore but I remember how much certain aspects of their lives improved because of how popular that book was.

Yeah I went and looked up some stuff after my last post. I had forgotten about the repetitive behaviour and not being able to grasp certain concepts or activities part. I read a really interesting novel that you might like since you work with autistic kids. It's called The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time. It's written from the point of view of an autistic teenager who finds his neighbour's dog dead on their lawn. It was really interesting and opened my mind up about autism which I knew nothing about before reading it.

Pretty much Ursula. She is able to get around very easily using a mixture of very good smell and hearing, plus her whiskers which are longer and more pronounced than most. She jumps around and catches flies, and knows where everything is. She doesn't adjust very well to moving, obviously, but once she gets used to a place she walks around as if she has a fully formed mental map of the layout. Yeah MsRad, it took me a good while to get that. I'm not sure about those bumps - they could be tastebuds, although they may just be a way to grip food in the mouth - particularly if it is still moving (ugh). Yeah, Zatoichi had severe glaucoma and was dumped in a box by a canal in Liverpool. The eyes were too far gone and removing them was the only way to make sure she survived. Luckily, her glaucoma was so severe that she was most likely blind from birth so she can adapt brilliantly. Most of her quirks are related to her personality in a way that I don't think is because she is eyeless. I love that the dog barks when it sees others barking! I imagine it does other wacky stuff too that is in it's nature. Our other cat is autistic. Damned disabled animals....

that last picture of it's mouth is just rad! i love the detail of the tongue and all the little bumps (maybe tastebuds?) on the roof! crazy! also, what's it like having a blind cat? i know people who've raised hard of seeing pets, but never completely blind or eyeless. i also have friends who are fostering a deaf dog, but he watches everything so he get's right along just fine. he even barks with the other dogs because he sees them barking haha.

Hahahaha me too buddy! It's all part of being in the tattoo world. We tend to be a pretty opinionated bunch who aren't scared to show it. Back on the pets track.... Here's a couple more shots of Sophia my mom's cat, my dogs and tiny tiny cross stitch I made of a beagle for my dude

I got halfway through that video and couldn't bear to watch the rest. I've had to take my dog to the emergency vet twice and both time was told if I hadn't she's be dead. Sometimes I think about what I will do when that time does come. It almost makes me want to give my dog away so that I never have to deal with her death, but I know in the end, I will cherish her life and be able to move on. It is one of my biggest fears though. On a happier note, those cat pics are awesome Rask! (your name is too long and weird to type out in full every time haha)

our cat Vanilla was like that growing up. he loved being around my mom, and my mom said it was like loosing a child when he passed away. he helped her get through the first part of my parents divorce, then he had some sort of stroke and we had to put him down. we all loved that cat. he couldn't even kill a mouse (he was actually afraid of them, along with my pet rat, and my rabbit Henry!), but man did he love campbell's mushroom soup.

I'm sorry to ruin the good atmosphere of this thread, but this is worth watching if you haven't seen it already....

I like on the Skull and Sword site how Henry Lewis is listed as Horimackerel.

She's right, they are called squid spots.

Oh god Gouge. I want to murder stuff when I notice some look at my tattoos and then start talking loudly about how they wanna get all tatted up. Usually it's dudes that are just trying to look cool in front of the tattooed chick and usually I laugh in their face 'cause that's how I roll. So I'm at work right now and someone just touched my arm and said "you're all marked up arnt you" I said yup I've got a couple. Her reply "do they come off?" "no" " you mean you're stuck with that forever!?" "yup"

MsPout. Who cares about the big kids anyway? Buck up.

Adding to Stewart's earlier post about all of the guys working at Into You around the same time. There was a guy that worked there named Jason Saga. He did a lot of Japanese stuff that was pretty incredible. He passed away a few years ago, but if you Google him you can still find a few examples of his work. I feel a bit weird posting about someone that has passed away, but he was a really good tattooer, and I think that he deserves the recognition.

Also, goddamn. Jade wins in the Tough Guy category.

I don't find this to be true at all. If the customer does everything you tell them to then maybe. I find that almost all customers think that once they leave they know better because their friend told them a better way to heal. I've seen people come in get a tattoo be told all the info and then I see them the very next day with the thickest layer of lotion and a cloth bandage to keep it moist, and all kind of other dumb stuff. I think giving the general public the idea that if their tattoo heals bad it's the tattooers fault is dangerous. I know sometimes it is the tattooers fault but I feel like usually it's the customer not listening to the instructions. I know, when I've had stuff heal shitty, it's been usually my fault. I think it depends on the area of the tattoo as well. For example, I've only ever seen one elbow ditch tattoo that didn't heal kinda shitty.

I finally got around to sorting pictures of my chest - these were done in February / March of this year so I'm not sure if they count as 'latest tattoo lowdown' material though... This oni head, also by Mo, is older, but I didn't have a pic of it until now. It's funny, when I look at this picture I don't so much see the tattoo as all the bare skin below it, and I think 'damn, better bring that down the arm'.

This one by Chad Coeplinger is one of my favourite tigers

my chimp is smoking a pipe and wearing a monocle

I'm sorry but the heart on the couple is fucking retarded.

I'm with you on that one 100%. Another one I don't get at all is Noon. I know this thread is about artists that deserve recognition but what the hell are these supposed to be other than a very bad idea.

Absolutely nothing wrong with getting an awesome piece of flash!!

Geometric black & grey isn't really my thing but Tomas Tomas turns out some pretty amazing work. Apologies if he's already had a mention.

i found this sweet dog(pug??) face tattoo in Valerie's gallery. i know it's not any of our pets, but thought it was fitting none the less (and very classy!)

I make a habit of saving silly pics to spam my friends with (they secretly love it). I'll have to go dig out the good ones. for now here's these.

Shit's fucking retarded. There are infinitely more resources available to learn electric tattooing than tebori. Like the initial post stated, only guys who should consider fucking with tebori are those who've mastered electric Japanese tattooing. I'd think you might need someone legitimate to TEACH you, as well. Anyone know who taught Horitomo? Was it Horiyoshi III? Shit's impressive. I liked Stewart's description of pathetic wanna-be Polynesian tattooers. How stupid can you be? Apparently, a lot dumber than me. And I'm a shithead. 99.9% of everything tattoo-related is rank idiocy. I can't take it. And I'm not even a tattooer, for Christ's sake. People need to stop being full of shit.

Kiiitttaaays! PK is the calico and Radar is the white and grey. Radar's a momma's boy. He whines for me, wants to be carried (seriously, he'll asked to be picked up) and follows me around. I've never seem a cat that was clingly like that. It's like having a kid. PK's pretty normal, but she really really loves to be warm.

It's kind of like my thoughts on white guys with dreds talking about jah.

These two yesterday. Both from Sailor Jerry flash. Tattooed by Matty D'Arienzo at Self Sacrifice, London.

Got this from Chad Koeplinger 2 weeks ago in Chicago.

Oh and jaycel, first thing would be not to refer to it as ink. That generally turns and real collector off the moment they hear it, makes them not want to tell you anything.

I love that coin collection. There are coins from places I'd never even heard of and I remember there was one from an island that had since been renamed or made part of a bigger country or something. @Rory it took the husband 5 years to make a dent in the book hording. I've started shipping books out to family members in what we call the "traveling library". When someone finishes one they sign the cover and send it to the next person. Last person donates the book to a senior center, hosipital or library. Bad thing is I bring in so many that my collection never really shrinks, but it keeps it from growing. Then there are the books I refuse to let go of because I like them. There's a lot of those... A guy I work with had to have his floors reinforced to handle the weight of all the books he has. He has two rooms with floor to ceiling bookshelve. He's my hero.

I look forward to banning each and every one of you.