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I can't compete with that epic back piece, but here is my chest, completed last night. Dave Fox is the man.

it happened

Kev reminded me I have not posted a picture of my ribs on my recent trip to texas.. Here is my amatuerish attempt at self photography

Haven't seen a dedicated all-around art thread, and Hogg couldn't think of one either. Tattoo-related or not. Stuff you've done or stuff you like. Hobo Nickels: Appalachian History » Hobo Nickels Coin collectors today consider the hobo nickel a numismatic treasure, a tribute to long- forgotten folk artists who often literally carved for their supper. The Buffalo nickel debuted in 1913, but it wasn’t until the Great Depression struck that hobo nickel carving reached its peak. During this period, buffalo nickels were the most common nickels in circulation. The sudden scarcity of jobs in the early 1930s forced a huge number of men to hit the road. Certainly some coins were carved to fill the idle hours. More importantly, a ‘knight of the road,’ with no regular source of income, could take one of these plentiful coins and turn it into a folk art piece, which could in turn be sold or traded for small favors such as a meal or shelter for a night. In a community of generally anonymous drifters, two carvers rose to prominence among hobo nickel creators. Bertram ‘Bert’ Wiegand was born in 1880 and carved from 1913 to 1949. He signed his coins by removing L I and Y from L I B E R T Y, leaving only B E R T. He tutored the man coin collectors consider the giant of hobo nickel carving: George Washington ‘Bo’ Hughes (born between 1895 and 1900 in Theo, Mississippi). Bert met the young teenager in a jungle, or hobo camp, along the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio railroad line, and Bo’s first nickels appeared two years later, in 1915. Bo carved till about 1980, when he was last seen by his friend of 40 years, Williard Chisolm, in a Florida camp. Life as a hobo took its toll: the rigorous manual labor Bo undertook to survive during the money-tight, poverty-ridden 30s rendered his hands stiff and permanently damaged. Frequent beatings by ruthless detectives prowling railroads (where many hobos resided) in search of freeloaders and thieves compounded his dexterity impairment. Nevertheless, devoted to his craft, Bo worked through the pain and frustrating impediments throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s, but in 1957, while he was working on a nickel, his chisel suddenly slipped and struck his hand. The injury forced the once-great hobo nickel engraver to resort to a haphazard punching method. Bo continued his work, but with less frequency and diminished quality, and as America moved into the post-war era genuine hobo nickels became a thing of the past. The U.S. Mint ceased striking Buffalo nickels in 1938. Skull Nickels: Skull Nickels | Colossal A number of Hobo Nickel artists etched away the flesh of the subject to reveal these awesomely macabre skulls.

Matt Arriola's Photos | Facebook 7:30pm until 3:30am with about 30 minutes of breaks total. One more session and we should be finished.

Just finished up about 30 minutes ago. Now enoying a nice cold pint of Perroni.

@Texas Chris the way that I see it, if you did it the right way and got your palms done after a suit, you can get it which ever way you like. You've earned it, not like this upside down lettering on the wrist of 18 year old girls......

More from Horitsune II

@dari, Jonidix arm, you say....???? @ShawnPorter, interesting about the xanax, I wonder how that'd go for me. If I have any left after my flight to Mexico I'll try it out next time. Because.. yeah, they make certain things a bit easier. Like being 30,000 ft. in the air..

Painkillers make it worse, but that's no reason not to use drugs. Here's my recipe: before the tattoo starts, I pop a muscle relaxer. You're going to be getting your ribs worked on and that's going to hurt. A lot. Evolution isn't a dummy, and we've evolved to protect our vital organs. The ribs protect your lungs. Your lungs are important. Therefor, your body has a nice network of nerve endings all around the area to alert you that you're getting into dangerous territory. Which means that you're going to be hating life. As such, you'll tense up. Probably a lot. You'll be sore from the tattooing the next day, sure... but you're also going to be sore from tensing yourself up. Because ribs hurt. That muscle relaxer (metaxalone for the win) will make you tense up less and the next day, you'll feel better for it. The next step is to take an anti-histamine. Tattooing is basically a large scale scratch test. If you take a nondrowsy anti-histamine, you'll swell less. The artist won't be bogged down with puffy, swollen skin. The last step for me is a xanax. Because I hate getting tattooed and the xanax just makes me happy. Caveats: I'm not prescribing any medicinal treatment since I'm not a doctor. Don't use drugs unless you know their side effects. Respect: Ask your tattooer if he/she minds you taking pills. Some do. You don't want to be the loopy customer they hate dealing with.

That looks great, but we can see your hand is not a complete virgin, it's had a fling before.

dan's pretty right on with his analysis. every tattooer wants to be the traveling cool guy and loves the attention they get from the people blowing him at a convention or "guest spot". i remember when someone coming to do a "guest spot" at a shop meant a good ass tattooer was coming to work. now its whoever is willing to come by to sit and rape the town with 9 round outlines and dogshit ethics to make a buck. when we have had a "guest artist" at my shop, we have a good tattooer doing custom work on people from all around (scott sylvia, rassier, lehi, stell, hori taku, Higgs, whitehead, etc...... those are "guest artists". when i need someone to sit in on a shift, that aint a "guest artist", thats a working tattooer. and the idea of working at a shop whenever the hell you want and traveling whenever you want is mind boggling. i mean i guess its fun to do the same 5 or 6 tattoos in every city you travel to but dong the same shit everyday doesn't make you a great tattooer. how about paying some dues and actually doing what all those good tattooers have done instead of sucking each other off and riding each others dicks. but hey, to each his own. right?

Cows smooze, people schmooze. Hard work and dedication to the craft always stands out in the end, while people seeking fame are generally recognized for what they are. I think it's okay that the masses are sometimes drawn to the less talented self promoters, not everyone deserves a great tattoo.

I've made the 7-8 hour drive from montreal to brooklyn new york twice of late. Once in july and again in october. I went to Smith Street both times as well as getting an appointment with Bailey Robinson on my last trip. In my opinion it has been totally worthwhile. There are some very good tattooers in mtl, but nobody is putting out work that is so representative of that style.

This thread is going from strength to crazy strong .

Javier Rodriguez, LTW Tattoo, ES- powerful stuff; guest spot at NYAdorned 11/13-17:

of course, but i think some should have alittle (no, alot) more self respect. but then again, that is my opinion and intended only for myself.

we must all continue getting work to keep this on the top of the first page

And just incase anyone forgot who the 5 best rappers of all time where ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixNY6oFXXTc

inspired by @Ursula ;) I'd almost forgotten how dope Ice Cube was... And adding George Clinton to pretty much anything is going to make it the shit.

still kills it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPuvn4-x8ww

Presented by a gentleman named Maxime Buchi who appears to be the person that wears the Filip Leu bodysuit with Thomas Hooper accents... http://vimeo.com/31207876 The Leu Family's Family Iron The Leu Family's Family Iron I wasn't personally aware of his publications, though I'm sure some of you might be...

I can highly recomend these. Had one of these 50 minutes before my tattoo today. Worked a treat. :)

I have used some kind of numbing creme before, but when it hits the spots where the creme didn't take it's really, really intense. However, my husband recently brought some home and it's sitting in our medicine cabinet, we're planning on using it to finish my stomach/lower ribs. (I sat extra super crappy when we did the outline.) I think the creme's to make him feel better. I had my Jondix arm finished yesterday, he worked on it with a few leisurely breaks from 1:00 pm to 6:30 pm. I should've taken ibuprofen before I got there like I usually do, but forgot and didn't take it til we had been going at least an hour. I ate a big salad and some tofu for protein about halfway through which always helps me. And right before the last 45 minutes, right around the point where I want to tell the tattooer that it's done/that I can't sit any longer, I ate some dark chocolate, got me the rest of the way through. I have taken vicadin or something like it in the past, just made me say dumb shit and feel sick later on.

cosign sleep and eat a pbj like 30 minutes before appt. bring some starbursts or other sugary snack while being tattooed. I recently got ribs/stomach done and while raw it was ok. I did not get good sleep and then traveled 6 hrs for 12:00 appt. I am a believer in sleep and food making all the difference

@Duffa holy SHIT how did i forget about Sugarhill

@Duffa I just watched that Dave Chapelle episode a few days ago. Sooooo good.

I took percocet before an appointment once. It just made everything worse. The ribs hurt...but its not the end of the world. I recommend a good nights sleep and eating well...you should be fine.

Thanks. Well I guess this is a little test at uploading a photo to the site, and sharing a link, so hope fully it works. This was my first tattoo, by Steve Byrne a couple years ago. Got a few other pieces since, but no photos to hand. http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/gallery/member/8665-hourglass.html&imageuser=2131

Thought this was probably as good a place as any to put this ;)

Daniel Albrigo at 12 noon today.

not sure who the smoozers are or even how you know of these things but you have the opportunity to define your world/your reality. i'm out here in putting in the work and trying to do my best to give every customer the best possible work i can do as well as making their tattoo experience a good one. sure i'd be nice to get any sort of comments from peers or other tattooers but in the end, the people i'm putting tattoos on are the only ones that matter. whatever success i achieve its really for one purpose and that's to provide for my family and give what i can to those that need it whenever i can. whatever element in your life is invading with these negative vibes, remove them and seek out what brings positive energy and you won't give a shit who's sucking cock or who's famous and how they got there.

Had this done by Morten at Electric East Tattoo yesterday. Fun little zap that was over in a jiffy. Check out his blog: CUSTOM TATTOOING BY TRANE

@Iwar it shall be done my friend ;) And from now on, any LST members who don't blog their tattoo travels possibly faces the all mighty ban hammer of doom. (not sure where @hogg is right now, but I do know he just got a warm fuzzy feeling, he's not exactly sure what it was from, but he does know it has something to do with possibly flexing his ban hammer muscle ;))

Dude, you have to blog the shit out of that trip!! It should be mandatory for all LST members to blog about their tattoo travels :)

I just booked my flights, and I'm heading back to Kyoto in December for 2 days of fun with the Cat Claw crew to finish off my sleeve :D I might do what @Iwar did and make a blog this time round... either way I'll be sure to share once finished

I'm 45, heavily tattooed, and have a good paying career where it won't matter if I get hand or finger work done. I know exactly what I want on my hands and fingers, but I won't feel like I've earned it yet until I get some other spots done first.

I had the honor of getting a Peony tattooed by @Stewart Robson last night at SFO. What a great guy (and obviously world class artist)...awesome time talking with him. Amazing experience sitting there being tattooed while artist after artist came up to greet Stewart/Valerie and check out what they were doing. I was being tattooed by Stewart right next to Valerie tattooing a girl while watching Mike Rubendall and Henning Jorgensen tattoo about 10 feet away. Insane! If Stewart doesn't put something up, I'll try to get a good picture when it heals.

Yeah contrary to popular belief, the cool Grimm and Jensen redraws are the exception rather than the norm. At least that's been my experience thus far.

From handbag to douchebag

Love away. I find them annoying. It's what people in my age group do; hate people younger than us and thinking their trends are stupid. And sure- I had said before that at some point people in this thread would get butthurt because something would hit too close to home. I ride a track bike. I LOVE my track bike. It's really light, was cheap and gets me where I'm going. I wear the same outfit literally every day. (black logo-less tshirt, jeans, new balance sneakers; when I dress in the morning I don't have to think about it; I just grab a clean shirt and pair of jeans and cut out the entire decision making process.) I have a beard. Some, if not most, of my tattoos make no sense. So sure, someone could call me a hipster. that's fine. As long as I'm washing my hair every day and not dressing like a total ironic douche, I don't mind. I still hate hipsters.

Sometimes I really can't tell the difference anymore. Tattooing is SO over saturated that it feels like i work at hot topic most of the times. I mean when everybody has a fucking tattoo what's the difference anyway? I've seen tons of kids with tough traditional tattoos wearing hipster v necks and thick rimmed glasses. But what about tattooers? Dickies and flannel? I mean fuck! It's all been done and over done. None of us are original, we might have got there sooner but does it matter anymore? How about we all dress like it's the 30's? Oh wait that's done... How about ties and button downs... Fuck another cliche. Today tattooing not just about the tattoo it's about the total image of the client wearing it... And I think that's bullshit. When "alternative" is the mainstream, what's alternative? I don't have a clue... Side note: some of the above tattoos are really stupid!!!

Ooh an acceptable casual racism website! Neat!

it's not the cassettes, it's whats on them that sounds horrible.