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just got back from another session on my back piece! this Marius Meyer @ Invictus Oslo, Norway 1 tiny session to go..

I went twenty years, then this year I've gone crazy. Seven since June, one being a full sleeve (still working on it). Next appointment - this Sunday.

What catches your eye? Heres some of my favourites ; Willrise/Norm L.A. Tattoo Peter since 1955 Amsterdam The Family Business London Classic Ink Dublin China Sea (no longer) Hawaii

Heading into Frith Street for my appointment with Stewart.

I wouldn't even know where to start with Bay Area rap...E-40, The Click, Spice 1, Richie Rich, Luniz, Brotha Lynch, Mac Dre, 3xkrazy, Mac Mall, JT the Bigga Figga... Had Andre Nickatina perform on the balcony of my apt when I lived on Del Playa in Isla Vista. Will be telling that story to my kids. Along with going to Dennys with Flavor Flav

Found it!

the amusing thing is that spelt is the past form of spell used by british people. some say that they even started the english language.

@RoryQ on the contrary mate it got a giggle out of me .I'll post this on your behalf,not Genko but a classic Doc Forbes from the archives .

Mine, by Maxime Buechi

Rumor has it I will be eating Mexican Food and drinking beer today. I already cooked a Turkey on tuesday with mash potatoes, stuffing, candied yams, cranberry sauce and all that stuff (and yes I did it all by myself while watching my son, which I was pretty proud of). Today I am celebrating my son's birthday more than Thanksgiving.

What a coincidence me too! Except my tattoos come out of gumball machines. But just as intimidating

Tash's album brings me back to college days...as does Aquemini album...sigh...

ah, indeed. after checking the dictionary, both are proper uses of the past tense. this is why i double and triple check stuff before i tattoo it (but apparently not before posting on the interwebs) haha.

Horikin « Occult Vibrations

the only one that kills me (British vs USA english) is math vs maths

The longest time between tattoos for me was about a year and a half (not including the 18 years when I was underage). The last time was 4 days ago. Session 4 of a sleeve that still isn't finished. The itch for me right now is literal.

My longest absence was also 20 years and like you I've gone crazy. I've always said "if you want to be a bear... Be a Grizzly!!". I've completed a full sleeve on my right arm and that includes the chest plate. My left arm is almost halfway cover with an upper and forearm piece. Tomorrow I start my back and that will be a full Backpiece and will end below my waist. I look at tattooers websites all the time. Luckily, I've been traveling for most of the work so there is a waiting period. Otherwise I would most likely be all covered.

Somehow I replied in this thread and it was intended for another. That's odd.

*spelled, haha sorry i just found it amusing that the post was about something with incorrect spelling so i couldn't resist mentioning it. :D

@kylegrey : I saw a recent backpiece from Genko that was ultra-cool... Think it was the last issue of Total Tattoo - a giant pink crab creature running amok through a city-scape. Really gnarly. I don't have a picture, so yes, this post is totally pointless.

progress on my koi. made by marius meyer @ invictus Oslo Norway Instagram

There is a tattooist up the road from me it has a couple of scratchers in it , we used to get all there reworks and cover ups . One day a girl came in and they had spelt something with a S instead of a C so to correct it they coloured the bottom loop in black so she had a name with a dot under it and not a small one . I laugh now but she was crying at the time ! A few weeks later we found out the had had a fight between each other and shut down due to spelling each others names wrong on each other nec . The really sad thing is I know a lot of people who have been there because it has the word Tattoo out side it and pics of tattoos inside and you can't tell until it heals most of the time that the tattoo sucks . My first bad tattoo I did was on my self a full colour bullet on my wrist after I hammered it in with a super long throw and super volts ,all the colour fell out and it is now the best penis tattoo you have ever seen lol .

I really like the bold simple stylings of Jesse Bob ,dude can paint his ass off as well .His shop is Taos tattoo ,looks like something out of dusk till dawn ,and even entices Eric Inksmith to guest from time to time .

Shitty Wednesday because I've become accustomed to checking out a new episode every week. Can't wait for next season!!!

i just heard asap rocky good stuff.

I don't think I've ever wanted to be tattooed by someone so much in my life now. And not because he's 'Freddy Corbin'... but because he is Freddy Corbin. All of the episodes where great for one reason or another, but the Corbin series was next level. I mean, all of them got pretty personal but there was something about these last few that really hit home... Thank you Vice. And to thank you to all the artists that made this possible. P.s Best quote of the whole series, Tim Hendricks - "... at 35, I still want to be Freddy Corbin when I grow up."

woop woop

First sitting today. The secret to getting through it was cherry and strawberry Starburst. I think they made it hurt less...

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.

There, I broke the 222 cherry, so to speak. couldn't stop myself.

Funny thing is I know way more women with tattoos and piercings than men. Haha internet comments. They start off with a solid idea than transition to name calling...always I do have to say I do not think I can trust a Forbes article with accuracy in the area of tattoos. The statistics are always biased and skewed, even if none is intended. Statistics are statistically proven (yup I said it) to be skewed in favor for the argument at hand when presented with an article or statement. Place yourself in the shoes of the person writing the article. You find 3 statistics that either prove or disprove your argument. Would you use a study that disproved your statement? This being said the statistics presented by this article are only a rough estimate on the subject matter at hand. Proof of point would be, who did they ask? If they asked people on an online survey that automatically excludes people who do not frequent that website, do not have internet access, or simply hate online surveys (I fit into the last category). You must also take into account there are way more people with a small tattoo than moderate to heavily tattooed folk, the latter being the ones more likely to be subjected to a biased opinion by a potential employer. When talking of tattoos in the workplace, visible or otherwise, I feel you must take into account the subject matter, size and placement of the tattoo in question. For example if the tattoo was a massive blood-drenched severed head with the words F*ck the World, I would say yea, if they knew about it you probably will be looking for more interviews, but if it is a small butterfly, you probably have a decent chance of it being overlooked. Body piercing also carry the same weight with placement and possibly ethnic background as well. A fine example I have encountered is, I have seen Indian women in the professional world have a small nose piercing and nobody questions otherwise, but if I were to walk in brandishing a fresh industrial bar, there would be questions. I would also like to add that every writer has their own opinion woven into any article they write, simple based on personal experience and human nature.

The original ,amazing Genko from Japan.

Oh, fuck it. DCostello posted that mob shit and it made me think of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB9Eg_5mlko And that made me think of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RJmc-AYDbM And since we're talmbout Bay Area Macs, I have to mention the late great Thizzelle Washington, aka Mac Dre: I can't begin to tell you how big "Feelin' Myself" was in the Bay. It hit big right after Mac Dre died, and every--and I mean every--time that record dropped in the club, shit just popped off. Everybody lost it. It was beautiful.

I'm from Texas, so I have to rep my hometown heroes, UGK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-IS2js72WI When Pimp C pours salt on the cow? Come on! Unfuckwithable. And since I live in SF, I'll rep the Bay with Too $hort: I'll try to play nice in this thread, since I've DJed hip-hop (and Jamaican music) since the 90s and am very, very opinionated when it comes to the rapps. :)

Apparently we all love hip hop... and good shit to boot. Glad I get drunk and make threads.

That guy spelt "ART" like KoЯn.

Worst I know of is my ridiculously thick ex boyfriend. He actually had some really good linework on his arm for a sleeve until we broke up and he decided he didn't want to go back to my friend's studio (or pay him the money he owed him), but that's another story... The idiot, of course, is stupid enough to own a tattoo "kit", and decided to get the word "HOPELESS" on his knuckles. Trouble is, he got mixed up when he was doing it and ended up with "LESS HOPE". I really do know how to pick 'em.