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Here is the second session on my back piece: Panther vs Tiger – Stewart Robson 6 hours in and I can't believe how much has been done. Even though Stewart has done my entire front torso I'm still amazed at how quick he tattoos. Also on a side note, not being up for 30 hours before getting tattooed helped a lot. So glad I managed to sleep before this session.

Art Forms in Nature « Hoopers Electric – Meditations in Atrament Here's a set of photos of my just-about-finished sleeve from Thomas Hooper.

Having worked this job myself I can tell you what my experience was. a) How are you determining their pay? Do you pay in tips or are they guaranteed a certain salary per week? When I worked in shops it was for tips, the guy I worked for was nice enough to realize that he had to tip me pretty well to make it worth my while (he had a very small shop with only 2 tattooers) In a shop with few tattooer who can't afford to tip highly it can turn into working for way less than minimum wage, especially on a slow day. If your shop has more than three tattooers you should be able to split between you all tip a decent amount. If you are paying by the hour, you need to pay higher than minimum wage. When you pay someone minimum wage you are basically saying to the employee you must do the minimum amount of work to get by and your time is not very valuable to us which makes them not want to try hard. You really need to think about how much that person is worth to you. What is it worth to you not to have to scrub tubes and deal with customers? If you run a busy shop it shouldn't be a problem to pay someone well. If you are paying in tips you also need to make it clear to your tattooers that it is everyone's responsibility to pay the help, if one person decides they don't want to pay for that help it takes money out of everyone else's pocket and causes a very bad dynamic in the shop. I wouldn't want to scrub your tubes if I know at the end of the day you're not going to bother to thank me for the 5 customers I sent your way. b) Who are you hiring? The people I worked for were close friends. This made it difficult for them to say something to me when I made a mistake or did a bad job. This also made it easy for me to slack off when the shop was slow. Hiring someone who is knowledgeable about tattooing can be a plus when answering customers questions. Not everyone who is knowledgeable about tattooing wants to do tattoos for a living, and if the person is, just make it very clear that you are not looking for an apprentice and that you will not teach them and that while at work they are not being paid to watch people tattoo. You can also do what the other have suggested and try to find someone who has experience in retail or secretarial duties. Someone who's worked say in a hair salon at the front desk may have what you are looking for. c) Is there room for promotions? A few people I know who've held this job ended up quitting because most tattoo shops offer no room for promotion. Would you want to hold a job for more than 6 months or a year if you knew there was no chance of ever making more money or moving up in the company? I wouldn't. When someone is doing a good job you need to reward them for that, be it an annual raise, really good Christmas bonuses, or some other way of showing your appreciation in a manner that actually helps the person move forward. Maybe someone starts off as a shop helped and later turns into a shop manager? Or maybe they over time gain more duties like ordering your supplies or becoming a key holder who opened and closes the shop for you. d) Are you treating them like a shop bitch? People who do this job are there to help make your day go easier. They are not there to bend over backwards at every tiny request you have. When you treat someone like dirt it doesn't make them want to work for you, even if you are paying them well. I had a tattooer once spill his india ink in his pencil case the night before at home, instead of cleaning it up right then, he saved it brought it to the shop and asked me to clean every single pencil and pen and all his erasers, etc. This was a tattooer who usually didn't even bother to tip me. I cleaned his pencil case and never did anything for him again. This person is your shop employee, they are doing the things you don't have time and don't want to do, you should be thanking them for doing this instead of laughing at them and giving them shitty jobs on purpose. Feel free to mess with your apprentices in that way, not a paid employee who you claim to respect. So basically, hire someone who is smart and willing to work, pay them well and don't treat them like a slave. Do those things and you should be able to keep a good worker around for a while. In the end it's a pretty fun job with a lot of perks. I've heard of shops who had the same counter person for 10 years.

dope! SmithTownRadio.com

err I mean cool as shit tattoo

@asradinGreat ass

also i havent seen anyone mention henning jorgensen , which im pretty sure most people know who he is, but i did see his name mentioned at all on this site so i figured id add him as well not only is he one of the hands down best tattooers out there everytime i see his work it just seems to somehow get even better, i ahd the chance to meet him a while back and spend 3 days hanging out in his booth at a convention and he was one of the coolest most down to earth person i ever met ,

Honestly is someone is getting good tattoos and they are stupid enough to let someone else finish them just 'cause it's going to be cheaper, then they probably deserve the shit quality work they are bound to end up with. However, if you got a tattoo started, aren't happy with it and don't see any way of the original artist doing a good job then it's your choice who finishes it. Also, if I want a tattoo really close or added onto another tattoo that should be my choice as it's my body. Personally I think it just looks better when your tattoos don't run into other tattoos but a lot of people I know just don't have the space for that luxury. In the end people sometimes need to just get over themselves. There's always going to be assholes doing tattoos and if you're good at what you do those assholes shouldn't hurt your business.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA He got really mad at me and James one time for habitually driving with less than a half tank of gas. He always has a full one and full cans around just in case. Neither him or his brother could believe that prior to living in the USA I had never handled or even really seen a real gun. (I had shot air rifles in Cadets) About the show: I like it, I don't think it's as good as everyone seems to think. I still think breaking bad and true blood are better. It's def a cool show and I like the dynamics of the group. It's probably the only show that I've actually had edge of the seat moments for in a long time. I know I've been watching while smoking a joint and notice that my entire joint has burned without me cause I've been to wrapped up to smoke it hahaha.

One of our own members of the message board sent me a personal message saying he would but my art and offered me $25. And this was from someone who's a tattooer. I didn't even humour him with a reply. I bet he wouldn't do a $25 tattoo on someone. Sorry Deb, to hear that people can't recognize what your work is worth, but you problem don't want someone like that as a customer anyhow.

i love this show found out about it about a month ago hit all season 1 and am now caught up. I have a AR upstairs in my movie room which has a picture window overlooking the street. I could fend off a few hundered zombies before i pull out the machete or war axe. If there was really zombies I would be around a bunch of jolly folks that way In a pinch i would never be the slowest.

My personal preference is the more Polynesian influenced designs ,to me they seem more deeper rooted and likely to stand the test of time .Some of the new stuff ,although amazing is a little tripped out for me.Check out Chris Higgins at IN2U also and our fearless leader Scott has a cool pic of a chest piece .

it's the wearer's tattoo. if they're unhappy with the tattooer who started it, they have every right to have someone else finish it. if it happened to me, i'd probably be bummed for a minute and wonder why they didn't want me to finish it, but you move on. you can't be attached to every one you do.

Is there another thread on the Walking Dead series, and I'm just missing it? Because this show is the best show on TV right now. Clay sucks, but he won't eat your brains. Is anyone else making preparations for a Zombie Apocalypse? (besides Jeff Cribb, I mean.)

Apparently legendary Mike Brown has passed away :( R.I.P. Mike Brown - Amsterdam Tattoo Museum Lost another of the OGs. Fuck me...

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/art-talk/art-talk-mike-brown

Long list does not always equate to good work

stalking the hip are we? this some how for a moment makes me love the ignorant south.

Well aren't you a lucky bastard!

If I wasn't across the other side of the world I would have already applied ;)

was she hot? maybe the guy was just trying to "shoplift the pooty" not that thats admirable behavior either.

Im not sure if there was. We should have one general "FX THREAD" with sub-categories for all the shows. All Im doing is hitting up bass pro shop in Manteca then going to the Costco around the corner in case of zombie takeover. Hella guns and food.

i would love to see henning jorgensen interview he is hands down one of the best tattooers ever

@jade1955 - Thanks for the article link, very interesting indeed and reminded me about some things I had forgotten. My Dad was a shop steward in the British Airways union who supported the miners strike and the local anti-poll tax federation in West London. There's a couple of good books about the galvanising of support for the anti-poll tax movements - a truly unique moment in people not prepared to take Tory shit anymore. I wasn't involved with Class War for long - mainly because they were mainly arseholes, although there were some people involved in it who were genuinely interested in local activities, rather than just grandstanding and getting pissed in Brighton pubs all day. Their presence at the Poll Tax protests was one of the first times I had come into contact with them, and as a 16-year-old it was hard not to be caught up in the sense of humour and kicking against the pricks attitude. When the protest kicked off it was pretty scary, at least for me, and people were getting royally battered. But it was also invigorating to see people helping each other and being genuinely angry about a completely unfair Government policy. I agree with your last paragraph, but the anti-poll tax movement at least had a very clear law and set of people to oppose, which helped. The current movements are opposing the very system that creates something like the poll tax in the first place. yeah, it's probably too broad, but single issue politics only deals with symptoms, not the real problem. The net is being cast wide because it has to be, and involves so many people with differing political viewpoints that drawing together a communal manifesto is practically impossible. For me it is a huge step that the notion of capitalism as a flawed social system has become mainstream. When I was at school in the 80s, pointing out that the current financial markets do not work, and that the banks should be nationalised, and that pursuing a system of laissez-faire free-market capitalism is ultimately a form of destructive social Darwinism, was tantamount to treason.

The best episode yet, He has the PMA thats for sure.

I totally agree with why are they even being mentioned. now where can i get one of them splendid black toaster power supplies. te he he

Blazing. alot.

I've been really into the geometry/3 dimensional tattoos lately. Though I'm running very low on space I'd love to be tattooed by Thomas Thomas and/or Xed Le Head. Sometimes I wonder if the more 3D ones will become the 'tribal of the 90's', I'm still diggin' it :D Unfortunately for those of us in the States, Thomas Hooper seems to be the only guy known to do it here. Here's some cool ones.... Thomas Thomas Chisaki's back done by Tomas Tomas Foot done by Chasaki Joe Munroe Cammy Stewart done by Xed Le Head Tattoos by Cammy Stewart

So I worded it correctly afterall :D

Man that could be taken out of context so perfectly

Next time I'm in England... watch your ass.

Ok, so lets set this straight "it's the indian not the arrow" stands pretty true in tattooing to a certain point. Some great tattooers tattoo with pretty crappy machines. i use a kaplan pretty regularly. i did rebuild it but the thing is so crappy they should just be disposable. secondly, spaulding and Rogers sucks.....really they do. all the previous defense is half true, paul Rogers designed the frame and ordered 250 to re-drill the geometry and only used the frame. old spaulding coils were great, the ones with fiber washers were good, the ones now would work great for a fishing weight. my first machines were a cut back supreme, which was the second machine aaron cain made, and my shader was a puma frame, both of which are the thicker older castings. i have every casting and they get cheaper and cheaper. as for the part where they sell to everyone this was true about waters, moskowitz, jenson and so on. The difference is that unlike today, where every dude that can ride a fix gear or grow a beard is a tattooer, back then the market was much smaller. they also sold veterinarian set ups. i haven't seen the work horse iron vet set yet but if there was a market they would be leading it. ha ha. In reality, there is no way i could go to college and apprentice at the same for the simple fact that when i should've been studying i would've been drawing...all night. but with todays line drawing books and the current folk revival technique, artistic fortitude can be waved as the bar is now easier to jump. sounds bitter but its true. in reality if your gonna be a tattooer your degree wont mean shit when your whip shading a jenson design. You're lucky if you've found a decent tattooer to apprentice with, and the longer you've been putting the effort, the more the tattoo community will open up to you. To me, that's always been one of the most important things about tattooing, the more you put in, the more you will get out of it. Oh, and Nick, if you've got so much free time, shouldn't you be doing some laundry or changing a diaper or something? At least go get your poor wife a cup of coffee.