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Erik Inksmith.

I got my Yodaskull from Marcus at the weekend - Im guessing that its not too many peoples on here's taste as its b&g real-sh-ism.

The snake vs. panther is by Bailey Robinson, the eagle and elbow by Dan Santoro, tiger by boss Boltz, snake & skull by Eli Quinters, wolf is Bert Grimm flash by Bert Krak

This thread idea comes from the "Un-planned Tattoo" thread and a conversation I had the other day while getting tattooed plus my general way of getting tattooed.... As most of my tattoos are impromptu I either have a vague idea of what I want or just want to get tattooed so I show the tattooer the open space and say: "Tattoo what you want" OR I give them a vague idea and say "Do what you want" OR I give them a few vague ideas and say "Your choice" I always end up with something I like and often times a tattoo that goes beyond what I could have drawn up in my head then attempted to dictate back to them my "great idea". Then when they show me and/or have drawn it on me I don't do, 'hey can you fix this" or "how about....." or what ever other thought that has me taking the creative autonomy back from the tattooer. Though from my conversation the other day and observations over the years it seems like more often than not when tattooers get the ol' "Do what you want" the customer ends up changing their minds and/or engaging in a back and forth dialogue on the most minor things. So here are my two questions for tattooers: 1) Do you prefer customers to come in telling you what they want or giving you creative autonomy? 2) How many times is too many for you to have to draw and redraw a design for the customer? Tattoo customers: 1) Do you tell the tattooer what you want or let them have free reign? 2) How interactive are you in the process once you see what they have drawn up?

One of the greatest contributors to the LST forum @MsRad seems to have fallen off the face of the earth (or this board at least) the last few months. I wish she would join us again, and I bet I`m not the only one.

I like to give the artist a rough idea of what I want. I can't draw, so I leave that up to them. And I agree that seeing the stencil for the first time is half the fun. When Tim Lehi unfolded the huge drawing for my tigers, I went wide-eyed. I don't believe in dragons, but they sure do make awesome tattoos. Along the same lines, I'd still like a Rock of Ages and maybe a curly-bearded Jesus at some point.

Great thread! 1) I like to be as vague as possible. Seing the stencil for the first time is half the fun for me. 2) The only situation I see myself asking the artist to change the design is if he/she has included some symbolism that I can`t relate to. We`ve already talked about swastikas in a different thread ;) I`m atheist so I probably won´t have any religious imagery tattooed, despite how much I adore the look of it. I usually decide on design after I know who I`m able to book in with. I have no idea what I want to get tattooed next, but if suddenly, say Chad Koeplinger is doing a guestspot in town I wouldn`t have much problem coming up with something on the spot.

Good morning LST :cool: I just got back from Japan and I'm well and truly jet lagged, but before I crash for a few hours before work this evening, figured I should share this... I'll post the blog I promised later ;) Duffa must sleep now zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (seriously need to, I'm talking in third person lol)

jaie devore at perfection in austin it stares at the purple one on my other leg

Well looks like I am going to be getting tattooed regularly. Just started my lady head over at Invisible and am booked out till the end of March, then follows another artist. At the end of it I will be consecutively tattooed for over a year solid with a month break at most. I have a feeling my itch will be satisfied for awhile!

Ps: When everyone is in town, since I like food as much (ok, my waist line may say more) than tattoos... we should get dinner. There's a great place by my bar that's open till 2am, and they have Pheasant confit....

My cover up went from this: to this: Because the original tattoo had a lot of black in it, and colours all over the place, I honestly had no idea if it would work out but figured I'd ask anyway. I am pretty farkin happy to say the least!!! (and yes that is Venom lol)

I've been on a bit of a spree, 7 tattoos since the end of July! I just got tattooed by Eli at smith street. I've now got work from all of the guys at the shop.

This is my tiger done be Mr @byranburk back in october. Done in one sitting. He's very good.

I think the new year requires another meet up of us bay area folks. Shall we brainstorm ideas? There have been some damn fine ones floating around here recently. H2O GO! Yep. Wine drunk.

Yea exactly. I think when people don't understand the meaning behind a tattoo, it works well for a conversation piece. I can't imagine that conversation going well over a swastika unless they were truly open-minded. I just wish random strangers would quit calling my poseidon tattoo "aw it's little mermaids dad!" -____-

I agree with Iwar. I try and be a little vague just to see what they can come up with. I will say sometimes I stare over their shoulder during the drawing process and yell violently to add or remove shit.

So I just read the first 15 pages and I'm skipping the last 10. What have I learned from all this? Next time I go to get a tattoo, I am just simply going to point at the artist, point at the location I want something done in, and then point to the reference material I brought with me so as to not offend anyone.

Backpiece reference anyone?

Welcome Mark. Have you decided on a tattooer and shop to begin getting tattooed again by? As for inspiration.....it's all around us and in our minds. The determining factor in my mind is finding a good tattooer who can execute it and us giving them enough room/faith to do what they do.

pun intended.

I keep on getting more of my sleeve completed bit by bit about once a month. Longest period between tattoos was about 4 years. My last session was a week and a few days ago and I don't have another appointment till the first week in the New Year :) During the time I have been getting my sleeve done, I have been planning out what my next tattoos will be!

As Simone who has some "satanic imagery" I agree. Kinda wish I could move the tattoo but oh well. While to me my tattoo is a montage of dantes inferno by gustave dore, an excellent combo of liturature and art but the general public sees Satan dude. Having a swastika tattoo is like having a devil tattoo on crack...almost anyone will say wtf!?!?

Haha Google "scary guy". Someone has already done that

maybe this dude could get a job as a motivational speaker telling all the kids what not to do.

Cheers guys! I'm pretty friggin happy with it considering what Horinao had to cover up (I didn't think it would be covered so well). i'll post pics etc once I go through everything and do some sorting. What you can't see in that photo is my elbow probably looking like a baseball. Up until Saturday I thought that the elbow didn't hurt it just felt wrong. I now whole heartily retract that statement haha. @Iwar - the blogs for you my good man ;) I believe your words where something along the lines of "you better blog the shit out of it". It shall be done. (that and this way hopefully you won't e-kick my ass for having the "desperate housewives" quote in my sig for a few days ;) lol)

Statement backed to the fullest.

Smoking cannabis is risky business. I bet no one who attended a university ever smoked it

Because I don't have the money for anything else :P

Sorry folks but hitler fucked it up for everybody from here on out to eternity. Along with that mustache. So I'm not into it at all. Not one bit

Troy is going to be holding it at the Convention Center this year; last year was... difficult. Hopefully there'll be a little more room this year.

Unfortunately I couldn´t get a pantherhead or something to properly cover this one due to the tight space, but I think Marius did a fine job making me hate it alot less.

went from the attached picture, to the the picture in my earlier post in pretty much two hours.

My Brooklyn Joe Lieber piece all done and pretty well healed. Tattooed by @Valerie Vargas, Frith Street.

We were all getting our hair cut at the barber shop down the street and he asked if we all "operate an ink gun". I said I beg your pardon. "Do you sling ink!" he insists. My boss just look at him and says "Yeah I tattoo." Then he changed the subject and we started talking about firearms.

Sounds like a leprechaun. Some dude asked me yesterday, "So, you ink, too?" I laughed and said, "What??" and he got all stuttery and said, "Uh.. tattoos. Do you.. tattoo?"

Last time getting tattooed for me was end of August this year... and in less than 3 weeks time I'll be back in Japan getting the sleeve finished ;) (and y'all can bet your collective asses I'm excited!)

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.

[/ATTACH] heres one im about halfway through at the moment

Like Shannon said there are exceptions to every rule. Ultimately I would imagine if you hire the right tattooers take a hands off approach and let them do their thing, a shop would run fine and it does because it is run like a tattoo shop and it would be hard to tell whether it was run by a tattooer or not. I know one shop that used to be pretty talked about shop in the area and was in fact owned by a tattooer and still is. But his idea was to hire a shop manager who was basically a guy who graduated business school and he had put a few tattoos on. He interpreted his job to be to tell the tattooers how to conduct business and somehow had the impression he was their boss and could dictate when they came to work and how they conduct business. It really didn't go over well with anyone and he has basically in 6 years went from having the best shop in town to hiring kids right out of tattoo school. Everyone else moved on and either opened up their own shops or founds shops more than willing to hire them even though he got rid of his manager and runs the shop himself at this point. In some ways I have a similar position, but don't consider myself anyone's boss and I guess understand my role . I am there to make tattooers jobs easier and to talk to people and help them get the best tattoo out of their idea. Our shop isn't the busiest or the most popular but it's a tattoo shop first and foremost and that it something that everyone here takes pride in.

Another Rodney Raines tiger...on me.