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Someone claiming to be Sue created an Etsy profile just to send me a message this morning. It was again going on about the cancer and how hard she's had it and blah blah blah. I replied and told her, don't apologize to me, I'm not a tattooer you ripped off, go talk to them. Re-itterated that I thought it was wrong and suggested if she wants to make a public statement to us (us meaning the LST members who posted in this thread) to do it here and not through my online store. @JAllen is right though, we should all (myself included) maybe focus our mob energy and influence, 'cause it appears we as an online tatto group have one, towards some of the positive things on this site like the amazing interviews and articles Scott and others have posted for us to enjoy.

i don't care what this chic did/does mostly for all the negativity it generates. it's like that all over the intervebs, if this had been a thread about something positive or cool it might've taken 6months-year to generate 4 pages worth of posts instead of only 4 days. it was one of the biggest reasons i deleted my facebook page. all the anger, rage, distain, and righteousness in the world won't stop lame or crappy stuff from happening. but a deliberate intent to promote all that is good will help to direct more people's focus towards all the things that might benefit or enlighten their lives. i've always wondered why it take so much more effort to create a "mob mentality" towards things that are good. when it's something shitty, there is a storm of attention. ftw

Mike outlined my back piece in about 1.5-2 hours. Including any very quick breaks. You can see a photo of it in the full back piece thread to get an idea of the size and detail of the outline. One of the very nice things about getting tattooed my Mike is that he is not interested in taking breaks, or spending half the appointment talking about bullshit while his machine runs in the rinse cup. He's a tattooer, and an amazing one. I have never once felt like he's over charged me, I've never felt like he wasn't in the mood to tattoo, never felt like he was rushing through something, nothing like that. He's always been really open about how long he wants to work on something for, and for how much money and it's always turned out awesome. Plus like the others have said, he can draw and tattoo just about fuckin' anything. I mean you could want a weird chair, or traditional sailor tattoo or some Japanese stuff and it will all be top quality work with no complaints. Let me know when you are going to be in town, as I will have moved back to Jax by then. Oh and book your appointment in advance, when I was getting my back done I usually had to book about a month ahead of time, so coming from out of town I imagine you would want to get that appointment locked in while you can. He's working at the location on 3rd st, the # is on their website Inksmith & Rogers Tattoo

no attack meant here, so please don't read this in that way. i understand everyone's point of view is different, as are everyone's experiences, but i've never understood being proud of one's heritage in that fashion. research and knowledge of it is one thing, but why be proud of anything you have no control over. i'm not proud to be ginger, have ten fingers, or to have astigmatism, so why should i be proud of whatever color my skin is? i'm proud of the things i've worked hard for in my life, the things that i had control over. things that weren't determined by a genetic happenstance. is there a double standard about it in the world? yes. but if that's going to change, aggressive acceptance of one side of said double standard probably won't be the way. mind you, at this rate, we may never reach a "we're all humans, who cares about race, creed, color, or religion... let's party!" stage, but i guess we can hope. and actually, slight retraction... after the years in metal shops and wood shops making sculptures with bandsaws and grinders whirring away and liquid metal being poured around me frequently (and occasionally popping out of wet molds and showering me and my compatriots), i guess i am somewhat proud to still have all ten fingers.

GREAT experience getting tattooed by Jaie Devore at Perfection yesterday. I surrounded by so many cool pieces of art and history- having an original dragon from Ed Hardy's Dragon scroll project stare down at me while I was getting tattooed, not to mention all the other various pieces of art from various heavy hitters was something else. I also had the immense pleasure of talking to Bob Moreau for most of the tattoo as well, sharing stories about the old days, books, traveling, etc. Well worth the price of admission. Jaie knocked the concept out of the park:

Here's where I get flamed... So, no, this isn't an intricate, beautiful piece, but the style and execution were hot stuff in the street-club "Greaser" culture of the late sixties. This one was put on with a sharpened shoe-nail and boiled ink from a BIC whilst in a "youth home" around 1968 or so. I've thought about having it covered or removed, but for some reason, just can't bring myself to do it. It was the third tat I put on myself, the other two are long covered. Oh, and if anyone here is into old watches, let me know-always open to buy/sell/trade for Elgins and other good quality old watches.

The only person I know that has actually met him has absolutely nothing at all good to say about him. Used to beat up his shopkid/apprentice, bullied him into spotting him & his roided out buddies while they were working out(the kid would never be able to actually spot the amount of weight they were pushing), kept horrible care of a bunch of animals in his basement, etc. Ha, out of all the things Jack told me about Roy Boy, the most distaste he had was that Roy Boy was a 'smut peddler' at conventions back in the 80s. Personally, the shit with the animals is what bothers me the most.

Awww you got caught doing something shady, better pull our the cancer card!! @The Hyena Ron, you are a great guy and a great tattooer, you said all that was needed to be said, and you said it well. Like it has been said many times here and elsewhere, in the end, if you are the truly talented one, no one ripping you off will ever be as good and they will never be able to take away the true clients who can recognize quality tattooing. Unfortunately this type of thing is never going to stop happening and I commend any artist who stand up for themselves when they have been ripped off. Like I insinuated with my first remark of this post, and like others have said here, having cancer or any other illness doesn't mean you aren't an asshole and a thief. And to the 'friend' of Sue's sticking up for her, if Sue is such a commendable person why doesn't she come here herself and change our minds about what she did? Oh wait, it's cause she was wrong and nothing will change that.

I think Mike was 22 and I was 19 or so and we're in the shop and these girls come in. Mike smiles and says "hey, ladies... do you know why women wear makeup and perfume?" And the girls giggle and say no. "Because they're ugly and they stink" and went back to tattooing. He made a lot of friends, young Mike Wilson.

Hi I'm Luke Muller from true love tattoo, brisbane australia, check us out at True Love Tattoo or my stuff at welcome to lukemuller.com custom tattoos, art, prints, tattoo enquires and bookings., i have been tattooing 8 years now and i fuckin love it, i eat, breathe and sleep, tattooing, i am only new here and just wanted to say this forum is a great idea, hope to be travelling around europe in august and september, working with some friends in denmark, and visiting shop across europe.

So...where do I begin? First off, I will say this: I am 16, working my ass off in as many art classes as I can get my pudgy little hands on in order to better my skills. While researching the long (may I repeat that...LONG) list of 'dos and don'ts' in the tattoo industry, I came across this website. While reading, I came to the understanding that the tattoo industry is highly competitive; I also understand that it takes a long time to become an actual tattooer, and I accept the challenge! Currently, I am working on learning to draw anatomically correct hands, as well as lineart without erasing the page. Anyhow...wrapping it up. Wish me luck. (:

Bro, I ain't here to argify politrix, so I'ma just go with this last thought... Who defines what racism is? Viva la Raza...Latino Pride, a good thing. Black Power...Black Pride, a good thing. White Pride...oh man, EVIL RACISM!!!

Agreed ,but sometimes in this age of neutrality its also cool for members to get medi-evil and vent their frustrations .Shit doesn't affect me but when our homies are involved we all get our backs up.

@RoryQ Tutti does some stunning work,he invited me over to look at the tattoo he was working on. I like his work as well. Another great shop to check out, maybe worth a trip?

@Duffa Thanks man. Haven't heard back from him yet. If it is my home town I'll get something from him. I'll put in a good word you you. :cool:

@Duffa Crispy is back in Australia next year, so had to get in quick, going to book more work from him before he leaves. He is a real nice guy.

i'm taking my board! should be awesome!

Sounds like you're off to a good start. So many people "back into" tattooing, learning the mechanics of it without having the art skills to use those mechanics, that it's good to hear of someone getting the art psrt donw first! Patience, patience, and lotsa grapefruits!

@Shannon Shirley there's a thread called 'stell spott'in' i believe and Jen tries to keep it updated. I believe he has a personal Facebook page still as well called (obviously) Richard Stell

Every tattoo you do has to have my birth date in it. "So, I put 8/2 in it because this dude who thinks you smell like taco meat was born on August 2nd. That's cool, right? right?" I'm a huge competitive cooking show fan; Iron Chef, Chopped, Best Restaurant etc... so I guess I shouldn't be so offended that there's a competitive tattoo show... but why does it have to be so fucking BAD?

Mike is a tattooers tattooer.

Had a great day at Black Garden Tattoo in London with Crispy Lennox, today. First of four sessions on my half sleeve. Got the outline done in three & a half hours. I had just about had enough by then but worth it. I love it.

@hogg perhaps a Bob Roberts Viking tattoo may be appropriate for your hammer skill?

The ban hammer was swung with a vengeance. Fare thee well, Abigail.

These are a few of my tattoos. The most recent one is the tree of life tattoo. I'm not exactly loving it. The artist and I failed to connect on my concept for this certain tattoo. I'm supposed to go back in a couple of weeks to make some adjustments. Let's hope it goes well.

to cover up the fact that their ugliness stinks...

I was tattooed by Steve Delgatto at Black Panther in Brick NJ recently. He put a small pantherhead and dagger on my bicep. Hell of a guy with a lot of great stoires

In a nutshell... yes. I obviously prefer 'you smell like taco meat' but it's not my place to dictate which meat product you drop. Duffa to tattooer: Man, you smell like a wallaby just cracked a fat; can you make my tribal more tribal? (I had to consult with an Australian to make that authentic) We can add flavor to it. :D

franz stefanik is gonna be there april 28- may 1st at wood. you should try to get something from him!

I think this is more or less healed up. Bit of a rubbish photo but I'm only using the Mac. Got to get a proper pic later to forward onto Ching. The last session (face and headpiece) has settled down and blended in with the rest. And yes, I really am this pale. Over the rest of the year I am looking at a couple of smaller traditional pieces on my right leg, and then sometime towards the end of the year I am going to try and sleeve the rest of my right arm with Ching - got a design planned out already.

A polite "what should I bring" isn't out of line. Quality work is priceless, but living in the real world means budgeting; so once you guys get the design sort of worked out, asking for a ballpark isn't a faux pas.

I made posts on the facebook page because there were at least 5 of MY designs in there. None of the stuff I posted or really anything anyone else posted was actually "Shit talk". It was people just finding out about it, and being upset. I posted something about this on another forum, so instead of retyping it all, I'm going to go ahead and copy and paste it. "In a case such as this where the person can't even make a simple clean design she is clearly tracing shit off the net and trying to make her name on it. The owl of mine that she used isn't flash. It was a tattoo that I did on one of this forum's members as a matter of fact. The other stuff of mine that was used was from one painting that I made for another tattooer that while in flash form, was a one shot painting. No prints. So she traced it and added it to her sheets. These are all in a book that she was selling in Philly. Making her name off designs that obviously aren't hers. Tattooing DOES have a history of reinterpretation and appropriation, but there are lines. When I design flash for sale I don't care who tattoos it as long as it was bought from me and you aren't telling anyone that you drew it up. When it hangs in your shop or sits in your flash racks or book, my name is still on it. No problems at all. Go for it. When you use it instead of drawing something because you're lazy and then tell someone it's yours that's bullshit. Also, when people are tracing tattoos right off the net and passing them off to the unaware masses as their "clever" designs it's bullshit. And I completely understand, once you put it out there, it's liable to get lifted, but does that mean that opinions on such behavior can't be voiced and standards shouldn't be set against such behavior? Absolutely not. People need to say shit to suckers. Tattooers seem to forget that yeah there.s a big tradition of lifting designs and whatnot, but there's also a tradition of protecting what's yours. Either by booby trapping it, making sure your name is ALWAYS attached to it, or by keeping it off radar. In this economy I'd love to be the off the radar guy. Just can't make it work, and if I'm spending the amount of time drawing, researching, reading, collection references, and building a stylistic vocabulary that is at least a little my own, then yes, I should be protective of it. There's also the thing where tracing, and repainting flash by long gone, or otherwise retired old timers is different than repainting and then SELLING under your own name a bunch of shit being done by today's current people. Shit's gonna happen, people are lazy, everyone LOVES to say there's nothing new under the sun, but it doesn't make it right or true. Chick is a thief. Ain't nothing on those sheets hers and a huge amount is from current people tattoos. Not even flash. She was at our booth in Philly this weekend. She didn't even buy my set after selling her book with my shit in it." So to the person who was saying these things were never meant to be made public, and they were for personal use and to show clients, or to show clients, why even do that? Why trace my shit to show HER clients? So the people who don;t know ay better will see those designs as hers. That's not cool. Her illness aside, it's still a crummy thing to do to a lot of people. I take issue with how You've come in here using "our favorite medium to talk shit" and try to talk to us like we're 12 year olds. Sorry she's in a bad way with cancer, but my sister is fucked to the nines with cancer but I still think she's the shittiest person I know. If this was truly about the merits of the sketchbook, then just stick to that. Don;t bring up things that don;t matter to the argument to just try to drum up some sort of viewpoint on her like she can't be called out on this shit. I was AT Philly. She was in my booth. Talked to me. Still sold sheets with her name on in and mine, and other tattooers designs on them. None of those pages said anything like "designs by Wells, re-imagining by Jeiven." Which is kind of the thing you do when selling some shit that isn't yours. I didn't even know about this shit until a few days ago or I would have said something. And when get to Brooklyn next week I AM going to talk to her. Like an adult. So save the "you guys are all shit talkers" crap. Some of us are pissed. Look. I'm no tattoo genius. I'm just a dude making tattoos and trying to make clients happy like everyone else, but I work my ass off to do so. My library is huge and very little of that is tattoo books. I spend hours upon hours drawing and re drawing. Again, I'm nothing special, but why can't she do that if her stuff is supposed to be so personal? Go to museums and collect old books. Not facebook tracings. The sketchbook you said was so AMAZING is 98 percent CURRENT tattooers drawings. Not old Jerry flash.

Im with some of the other comments....although i personally have done some of these things... prosthetic painting? pinstiping? etc.... what has this got to do with tattooing. how bout acetate etching, needle making, hell toilet cleaning. maybe have some drunks show up and haggle price....these things have a lot to do with street shops.

AUCKLAND TATTOO STUDIO - MERV O'CONNOR - 64 Ponsonby Rd Ponsonby Auckland Auckland Merv O'Connor oldest living tattooer in New Zealand. He operates out of Auckland and not sure if he will be there, but he's a good guy that puts on a solid tattoo and he won't be doing it for much longer. My friend had the oppurtunity to work at his shop during 2011.

Welcome Luke..I saw your work in the book Done With Electricity

Here's a closer picture of my back.. The last ones I posted I now realize were reversed.

there's some amazing stuff in this thread! totally blown away. anyways here's my back, in progress by Mr. Mike Wilson at Inksmith Jax Beach obviously this has been worked around an existing tattoo on my upper back

Have you thought about having some laser sessions? Make it light enough that you'll be able to cover it up with more options then a large tribal piece. If you like tribal, then it will allow for different patterns.

Mario Desa Tattooer at Chicago Tattoo Company

i sincerely think, keeping it clean and dry is the best way, for me. i leave the wrap till either bedtime or the morning, depending on the area tattooed or the size of the tattoo.i wash mine with fairly hot water and soap for the first few days to stop it from weeping, the first wash is the most important and i will take a while to wash it. if towards the end of healing it feels a bit dry thats when i might use a pea sized amount of unscented moisturizer. i get too many customers believing its the cream that heals the tattoo and look at me funny when i tell them, its not the cream doing the healing, its the skin, so take care of it and dont smother cream on hoping for a miracle.

I don't have an opinion on this, but I'd like to share a lingering resentment. I was at the Salt Lake City convention a few years ago, and had just gotten a tattoo by the fabulous Mike Wilson. I was trying to read the ingredients on this alledged aftercare product when this shmoozy sales guy proceeded to ask me who did the tattoo, pretend to know who Mike was, and in a very condescending fashion tried to edjumacate on how to heal a tattoo. As far as I could see, this asshole didn't have a single tattoo anywhere on his body. For the rest of the day, I could hear Brad Pitt muttering "Don't condescend to me motherfucker" in my head. Actually, I can still hear it now.