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Im glad the article got people talking. my point in writing it was because I was reading an article on the "iceman" and was blown away that the earliest piece of human skin we have preserved had tattoos on it, it really put into perspective how long we have been doing this to ourselves and how funny it is that what we consider the "old days" was only a few decades in a span of at least 7000 years. As usual, some folks feel the need to split off into camps and some folks have implied that Im saying that flash is "bad" or "custom" is better buit anyone who has seen my work knows I do both with equal respect and the same goes for most tattooers these days. It was about keeping the "big picture" in mind, not about what sort of tattooing was "best".

Bob Wicks:

Had a pretty hilarious "tattoo nightmare" last night. Don't feel obligated to wade through my subconscious insecurities here, but I bet I'm not alone here and I'm sure you tattooers have work nightmares. Anyone wanna share? (C'mon @Perez, you can't tell me those loft murals didn't invade your dreams..) So here's the dream: Went to a reputable shop to get two small tattoos and asked for the line drawing because it was my wife's birthday and the tattooer wrote Happy Birthday on it for whatever reason. He said he wasn't sure I would treat it right and I promised I would frame it and give it to her as a birthday gift. One of the tattoos was on my leg so I simply detached my legs from my torso ("I can't believe I never thought of this sooner!") so I could sit and watch without feeling a thing. Everything seemed cool, and then I went to pay and it was super crowded. The counter guy was talking really quietly and I finally got close enough to hear him say, "Ninety fifty." Huh? "Nine thousand fifty dollars." I tried to explain I just got two smallish tattoos, and only brought about a thousand bucks with me, which I figured would be more than enough. He said the tattooer was concerned because I was disrespectful and had some really "questionable work." The other people behind the counter (there were like a dozen and they were all dudes.. true nightmare..) were all just kind of talking and the one dude said, "Listen, they're all arguing about it now and it's gonna be a few weeks before they decide on a price." Right then, I realized I'd scheduled an appointment with a dude doing a guest spot for that day.. though apparently I decided to just get em done earlier? And then the dude came in the door and I decided I needed to get the fuck outta there. So I booked.

Dude, this is the second time you've brought up some derogatory shit about black folks. First time was in the knuckle tattoo thread (http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-101/244-knuckle-tattoos-best-youve-seen-your-current-fav-page12.html).. It's not about "being PC" it's about not spreading negativity or racism just to be funny or get a rise out of people.. I'm sure you joke with your friends about some things, and when I'm around my good friends, we talk a lot of bullshit about pretty much everything, but we know the limits of what's considered funny within our group.. and that's probably where you should keep your love of ignorant knuckle tattoos and whatever else you wanna do to "continue the hatred." I'm sure you didn't mean anything by it –– I'm hoping you didn't mean anything by it –– but it's tough to see through that kind of bullshit on the internet.

Also, when I was younger, like highschool early 20's I had a recurring nightmare where I somehow thought it was an awesome idea to get a Marilyn Manson full back piece... pretty glad that never came true. I remember even in the dream thinking wow that was a fucking awful idea and being really bummed on the tattoos.

permanent mark rules. from his facebook yesterday: "For fuck sake,quit wishing sailor jerry a happy birthday,u dident know him,he wouldent like u,or me, and hes rolld over enough in hes coffin to last 4 life times!he was a bastard,a talentd one,but hes not ur emo freand!" he was the godfather, the link to ed hardy and modern tattooing.........but celebrating his 101st b'day with half price tattoos?? really?? jesus christ.

Trevino told me another story when he tattooed me in 1993. A guy came in and said, "Do a Mickey Mouse on me, any way you want." So of course, Chris's eyes light up, and he says, "Any way I want?" Then he grinned at me and said, "Mickey was holding his cock, which was green and as big as he was. There was a big drop of purple cum drippin' off the end, and Mickey's tongue was out and his eyes were rollin' back." I just looked at him and said, "Really?!" "Yeah. He came back a few years later and I covered it up."

pre orders should start in the next few weeks. i will be sending out an email to everyone that signed up on Yellow Beak Press about the specific date. first 150 get a limited print. i don't expect them to last long given the amount of interest we have had. this book took almost a year and a half of research. the biography aspect of it was a huge undertaking. i hope the end result is something milt would have been happy with.

they're just hoping that they can appeal to a new crowd of groupies, they are probably tired of chics that have been overtanning since the 80's with a wall of big bleached crispy hair poking them in the eyes during a "guitar solo" (ie skank groupie handsies). oh, and i'm pretty sure this will do the opposite of mainstreaming tattoos. if anything it will make sure that our kids think that tattoos are not cool.

Great story! I've never had any tattoo nightmares that I can recall, but I had a girlfriend who had a recurring nightmare that she had an actual life size crocheted bikini tattooed on her, and she really hated crocheted bikinis.

Last night I dreamed that I sunburnt my forearm and all the skin fell away in a big hard lump, including my tattoo. I bandaged the hard dead skin to my arm in the hope it would re-attach whilst knowing it was fucked. I don't know what it means other than perhaps I want to have sex with my Dad or something. Or I am worried about getting sunburn on my tattoo. One of the two.

just got a mini-battle royale from stell a little over a week ago. snake and a jaguar. i like to go to tattoo artists i don't have to explain much to, so i can give a vague description and trust i'll get an awesome interpretation. i was thinking the snake would be in the jaguar's mouth of course but i didn't say that. shortly after stell starts drawing something up he says "so you were thinking the snake would be in the cats mouth right?" i said "yeah that's what i was thinking but you can do it differently if you have a different idea." stell says, "well, i think that's the best idea...otherwise it just looks like they're hanging out together." i really like the dragon/eagle/snake designs...but i sure as hell wasn't doing all that in one sitting.

Blk n Gry | Facebook @Reyeslv dnt know how to post the pic, but heres a link to said penis portrait.

Tony Polito

Badass Pete Poulos 1975 style .

I dig some Social Distortion. I read a really cool interview Mike Ness did with a tattoo magazine and used the term "credit sleeves", referring to rock stars that want to get some street cred so they rush out and go from untattooed to sleeved out overnight. For me, bands like this embody cool and tattooed.

Yeah, the new VH song is pretty lame. I had to cleanse the palate with with this.

Theres a guy to keep an eye on although currently in the apprentice level with Alex Reinkes Horikitsune family .His art has a cool twist kinda like modern Japanese fashion house Evisu meets Irezumi .Check out his blog here as hes coming up fast . Horikitsune Family-Horishishi:

Being bummed about a Manson tattoo? IS that possible? I mean look at all those bitchin' ICP tattoos!

I think many tattooers know about his work, but I love Greg Christians tattoos. Solid bold clean traditional tattoos and obviously you can see the direct influence on chad k.....my wife got one from him and now Im trying to meet up with him later int he year to get one. Next to Mike Wilson,chad, scott and a handful of others Greg does some of my favorite panther heads.

i'm glad i can no longer own a firearm.....cause i would have just blown my head off after listening to that. i can't believe the same band wrote "unchained". wow.

@RoryQ I just picked up that magazine and enjoyed the article. Honestly, I was just excited to see new photos of new tattoos, but reading the article was pretty interesting. I arrived at this forum from those videos to find out more info about traveling for tattoos, jet lag, etc. Found good info and interesting ideas. Now just putting pieces together to make it happen. @Ben87 That's awesome! Getting life in order to make a journey like that myself, sooner rather than later, one hopes. I, along with many others, I would imagine, look forward to seeing how your tattoo turns out. @exume I just saw that they were made private. Bummer, the vids were great.

We have a sewing machine. I just might try to re-create that outfit for Scott, it'd be so hot.

Whatevs I'd drink Cherry Creek rum

Honestly I remember a bunch of a people doing specials for his birthday last year so this is nothing new, it's just has corporate sponsorship this year and free rum and the "media" is now covering it. Bottom line is he died in 1973, so I can't really pretend to have a moral high ground on this issue, I wasn't even born yet. It could be worse, there could be cherry creek rum and tattoo johnny vodka.

I feel exactly the same way. I have been part of one free tattoo event and it was invite only to people who are regular customers (who tipped) and people who we actually wanted to hang around with all day, we chose 12 desigs in the lobby and put golden stars by them, if you can find a star you get the tattoo for merely a tip. I made wings, we had pizza delivered and made a party out of it as one of our tattooers was going to New Zealand in a couple of weeks. Everyone made good money, but one guy didn't want to do free tattoos because he just doesn't give deals and he made just as much if not more doing 3 full price tattoos that day and actually had time to hang out. Needles to say the guy is back from New Zealand and I think we will have a party but not do the free tattoos this time. Here is a picture of one of our regulars Chris posing next to the makeshift sign that day.

Here's the pics from yesterday. I didn't get a chance to get anything new, but had a chance to talk with Cris Cleen and Idle Hand crew, Triple Crown, and AP Shrewsbury. I was going to try and get something from Andrew Stickler, but he got booked with 3 people right before I came up. There's was tons of great art and merch. Most of the pics I took were from the art show that featured original pieces from the new "2012. The End is Here" from LLL Books (limited edition run-definitely worth picking up: 2012: The End is Here from LLL Books I didn't take any pics of people getting tattooed; it seems kind of stalkerish and weird when it's a stranger getting tattooed.

ha before i finshed reading this, i was thinking - "sounds like a rassier tattoo'

I find it all a bit ironic considering the man didn't drink and hated cheapskates.

I'll make sure to include a squidpants drawing with your shirt.

I imagine Drake's "enforcers" look something like this

My Grandfather told me that his tattoos were a secret code to other fishermen and sailors, like a weird sea-faring Masonic thing. I was with him in a pub in Dublin as a kid and someone bought him a drink. He claimed it was because of his mermaid tattoo, but the guy probably just owed him. Might have file this one under 'bullshit my grandfather told me'.

Get off the couch lads -this tickled my fancy.

I wasn't sure it was eligible considering one of the creators of the site made this tattoo (and it's only an outline), but as per @Lochlan's suggestion I'm submitting this one: Done by Scott Sylvia of Blackheart Tattoo in SF.

Les Skuse 1950.

I fumbled about for the right term for these but thanks to my man Hogg i've now got it ,Capt Coleman dragons .Anyway this "did me up like a kipper " as the say over here .Hope this is cool to post...great new stuff from Valerie Vargas .

Cu_Bu: completely agree, it's very beautiful. gougetheeyes: I hear you, but works for myself, has been listening to Kore's interview the past week or so, pretty much on a loop, while packing lumpias, washing dishes, making bread. Youtube and podcasts keep me from going nuts at times. I hope you enjoy them, to show how ignorant I was, and still am, as I ruefully learned on my other thread of the day, I completely thought at first that Jeff Gogue was just a client and was amazed....'Wow...what great hospitality, he's picking up his client from the train, sharing dinner, etc. etc......'.....sad I know.

Haha...I have a mini Battle Royale done by Rassier. It's a panther-headed eagle versus a Hot Stuff-headed snake: