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in early 1983, my dad walked into Charlie's shop, watched him tattoo for two days straight, then started dropping money on tattoos over 10 days. in that time, Charlie did his hands, added the dozen roses around the girl on his right arm and clouds around the eagle on his left arm, and tattooed almost his whole chest, except for the wizard/castle, dragon, and lettering on his stomach. in 1984, he went back and had the dragon outlined, the peace pipe on his forearm, and the text inside his forearm. around that time, he had met my mother, and converted her from house tattoos. her first was a Van Halen logo with a guitar string/casette motor machine. the unicorn on her forearm is hers. of the tattoos i've mentioned, none have been retouched since Charlie did them almost 30 years ago, except shading in the dragon and the clouds around the eagle. Nick Cartwright did a tattoo on my mom's other forearm which is currently being covered in a Koi/chrysanthemum sleeve by my boss, Josh Cruse. the butterfly girl in the midst of the dozen roses was done by a guy named O'Sullivan, who apparently had a fully functional, immaculate shop set up in a garden shed. the castle/wizard and shading for the dragon were done later by a guy named Richard "Critter" Trukken, who also did all of my dad's legs, back, both sets of ribs, and finished out what's on his arms. he also redid the clouds Charlie did on his left arm (hence the lack of closer photos of it). at some point, if he feels like it, i'll get some photos of his other tattoos, and possibly some stories. having been fairly entrenched in the tattoo world of the late '80s and early '90s in Kansas, there's a fair few of them. side note... excuse the scratches on his hands... new, fairly violent kitten in the house.

I got this cowgirl head from Carly Corpse @ Keepsake Tattoo saturday! also, Tomas Garcia did my right palm/finger needless to say I am beyond psyched with both

I'm not trying to derail what is a serious discussion; just pointing out that pretty much any major style in the last 30 years of tattoo culture originated with my pen and ink skillz.

Fresh of this morning, work by JONDIX, i have to say it was the best tattoo experience ever, this man is so asome in many ways.

got another bit of Spider Murphy flash from the apprentice in the shop where i work. not the greatest photo, but it gets the point across. photo and tattoo by Jon Probasco.

In 2008, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco invited Horitaka of State of Grace to participate in their MATCHA series. Horitaka not only gave a lecture on Japanese tattooing--he also tattooed a client in the museum, as did Horitomo, Horiyuki (aka Jill Bonny), Colin Kenji and Shige (who was also accompanied by one of his clients). Horitomo put in a few hours on my arm, then worked on Khalil Rintye's ribs for a while. It was a very odd experience. I've been tattooed at conventions, but this was very different. At conventions, most of the attendees are tattooed. At the museum, that was not the case; tons of people were coming up and asking me all kinds of questions. (If only I'd brought earbuds--plugged into nothing--I could've played it off like I couldn't hear them.) In the end, I was happy to participate. Until last week, I never knew there was a video of the event. Check it out: at 3:40, you can see me and my buddy Clem comparing open spots on our legs. Clem's the guy with the huuuuuuge Jeff Zuck panther on his back (as well as lots of other awesome stuff). But my favorite thing about this is that the top youtube comment says, "0:59 is that Ami James?" :D

Well, in that case, here's the other link that @dirbab asked me to post:

I see what you're saying, but I think you are making a broad statement of everyone's opinion.

Here are a few Dave Lum tattoos I got some pictures of. The dude said they about 30 years old.

they'll definitely let me get some more photos, and i'm glad everyone is liking the ones i've already put up. the majority of the tattoos on my dad are pre-1995, as are most of my mom's (although some have been reworked, and some are going to be covered). as i've gotten further into getting tattooed and learning about the history of tattooing, they've gotten more and more surprised at how much i ask them about what seems trivial to them at times. i actually didn't know "Charlie" was Goodtime Charlie until i was 21 or 22 (2 or 3 years ago, i know, i'm so old), when i was getting tattooed by Dennis McPhail, and mom pointed out a photo from Jack Rudy's wedding with Dennis, Charlie, Jack, and Corey Miller. until that moment, i just thought Charlie was a rando local, since his time in Kansas isn't super known among most people here. and my mom may wind up making an account, but dad is a bit of a Luddite with computers. maybe i can talk her into signing up, even if it's just to do a blog telling some of their old stories. and as surprised as they are that learning all of this is as important to me as it is, i'm not sure they quite understood how many people on here will be interested by it, along with the scope of this particular forum.

he most definitely was not a banker... i know he moved furniture for a few different places, and built barns, worked in a lumber yard, and worked in his brother's cabinet shop after we moved out into the country. the details some of his arm tattoos have left is surprising based on all the years of outdoor construction work. on a side note, he was 23 when he started going to Charlie. as for being awesome, both of my parents are pretty rad. also had them dig out a frame with Charlie's old business card and care instructions. the blue card and "Keep the world artful" bits are from my mom's brother's time in California, and the card for "Sully's" was the aforementioned garden shed shop.

just got a bunch of new photos of my dad's tattoos from Goodtime Charlie, back when he was in Kansas in the early '80s. i'll upload them a little bit later.

If you have ever given a rimjob to a 350 pound ex-con after a post protein powder infused workout then gargled with an ashtray you will know what PBR tastes like.

@dirbab - really nice, lately I've been digging trad style daggers.... Some re-jigging of my get-tattooed schedule for the rest of the year. I know I am going to be in Japan in November and had been dithering about who to get tattooed by (or whether to get tattooed at all) - too many amazing artists to choose from, really. I ended up opting to try and synch it with my GF's sessions in Yellow Blaze, so I rang the shop yesterday morning and ended up having a chat with Shige. Long story short, I'm going to have a consultation with Tomo and squeeze in something ;).

The center piece is tibetan caligraphy by tashi mannox, it spells awakening, jondix decided to put it over an eternal tibetan knot with some eyes opening, the rest of the tattoo is my favourite jondix geometric design. it took 3,5 hours. Lot´s of fun

it hurt but lol i struggled more on the leg bc i was already tapped out by then despite a delicious milkshake in between haha

That was by far and away the coolest post I have seen on this forum. I am guessing that your dad is not a banker. Those hand tattoos are as cool as it gets.

Stopped by Philadelphia Eddie's yesterday and added a tattoo by Jerry "Reds" Donohoe! He did a vulture on me! :)

Here is a how an Australian bakery owner found a possum who had sneaked in and eaten so many jam tarts it couldn't move:

painting Don Nolan did to put on his back, but the tattoo never happened. at some point in time some moisture got in there and fucked it up a little. still ill. I have a better pic of it but this should suffice for now.

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.

Not that the squidpants design wasn't STELLAR, but my buddy Jacob Des drew up a much nicer shirt design for the OV blog, and the shirts are finally in. OccultVibrations | All Products | Online Store Powered by Storenvy I'm picking the shirts up tomorrow, but they're in stock on the store above. oh, and if you use the code lastsparrow you get 20% off (which is free shipping in the US) I'd like to say that the money is going to go to help archive tattoo history, but it's probably going to be used to make more shirts, creating an infinite loop.

Mad Men is BACK finally-starts March 25th with a 2 hour premiere. O/T, but I saw previews for a new series called "Magic City" on Starz that looks awesome- early 60's gangster business Magic City - A STARZ Original Series

So one of my Brothers was getting divorced, and as part of the settlement, he had to pay his ex $200 to get his name, which she had tattooed on her shoulderblade, covered up. No big deal. He gave her the money, they got divorced, all is well. A few months later, we see her at a party, and she asks do we want to see the cover-up? Sure! Instead of covering his name, she had gotten a tattoo of a dog with it's leg lifted alongside it, pissing over it. One of the best tats I've ever seen!

@ Kev Tijerina - I feel you on the intro to A Clockwork Orange. Wendy Carlos killed that score. I've had the Stones' "Get Off Of My Cloud" in my head for a while. I've had Lungfish's "Oppress Yourself" in my head for the last 6 months.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1iR2Wi3u5o

Usually I get idiotic things stuck in there, like things that Limmy sings, or something from Adam and Joe's Song Wars, particularly Doctor Sexy. They often turn into a medley. Unfortunately, I had Lambeth Walk in my head for all of last week, and it was awful. None of this will probably mean anything to people outside of the UK, so I've provided links, as well as understood apologies for any resultant head sticking-ins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ZYBOq2-3o

I think you just described Mike Wilson?

I personally don't think everything Dan Higgs did was perfect and I think Dan even hated the big deal that was made about him.....at least that's what I walked away with from the convo I had with Eddie! Also the tattoos he did on eddies I saw have held up well and do look amazing....light makes dark....dark makes light...I do wish I had added him while I had the chance! Mike Wilson is definitely on my list of people to add to my collection but I personally figure the best tattooer in the world is probably some guy in a street shop somewhere.....a guy who none of us have even heard of....who pounds out solid tattoos day after day and could care less if anyone has ever heard of him because he loves what he's doing and could care less if his peers liked what he was doing or not! I love well done face tattoos and have thought about getting one at some point once I decide what I want.....and if everyone thinks I am dumb for it I could care less! In fact my dragon tattoo being done on the side of my head (at the end of the month) may actually wrap around the front of my ear onto my face And....I don't like any of the tattoo shows....no matter who is on the show! It might make them a little more tolerable to watch but I still would prefer not see any tattooing on TV......but who am I to tell someone not to take the money they get offered to be on those shows! I learned what i know from spending my hard earned money in tattoo shops and from friends who trust me with the info they have told me....they know I won't talk/share the info with anyone but them! I have learned nothing from any of the shows I have seen and usually turn them off in disgust! I know you were being general and not specifically talking about my post but I thought I would at least throw out how I feel on the subjects you addressed! These are just my opinions of course....... And I totally get what you are saying too! But.....i do enjoy coming here and seeing others opinions on the subjects that are addressed and voicing my thoughts! I am very interested in the community even though i don't tattoo and here i can be a small part of it! :)

"Let me ask you something, man..." :) Does anyone else think this season's suckiness has to do with AMC firing Darabont? I have to say, AMC's execs have done about everything they can to ruin their reputation for good shows by haggling with with all their big hits' creators (Mad Men, Breaking Bad,etc). Idiots.

Yeah, I've been watching it. I have to say, if i hadn't seen season 1 and came into this season, I wouldn't understand what the big deal was. Waaay too much arguing about what they should do and very little action. How many times an episode does Shane say "Let me ask you something..."? I'd be like "Asshole, all you do is ask questions and then talk about how you're the only one that does things. If by doing things you mean screwing your friend's wife, killing off an innocent stranger, and traumatizing that's strangers family by shooting all their zombie relatives, then yes, you do things. Now go do your thing out there away from the rest of us." But that's me.

Is skinny and passed out with a shaved ass better than being fat....... :rolleyes: That was hilarious @jade1955 !!!!!!

Two guys that I know that do killer tattoos regardless of style. Stewart Robson Regino GonzalezREGINO GONZALES - NYC - INK

Sorry dudes and thanks hogg! :)

Technically they're not the same squidpants- Cu's were clearly skinny jeans drawn in his unique etching style. Totally different.

Fuck yeah that is a real fucking tattoo! Still... I shouldn't look at this kinda work. Makes me want to get tattooed like crazy and I dont see that happening in the near future... I hate you, dirbab and Mister Quinters... :)

I spent a few hours at Frith St on Friday as Valerie did some more work on my sleeve. It was a really good session and it was fascinating seeing the tattoo building up and some of the gaps being filled. I don't really want to put images up whilst Valerie is choosing to hold off from uploading custom work to the net - I will let her decide if she wants to post watermarked images when the sleeve is completed. However, I don't think she will mind me posting a small detail of a skull. She did this 'free-hand', no stencil or tracing or even an image - just some sharpie lines from memory and then she just tattooed it on. Unfuckingbelievable. By the way the attached image is about the same size of the actual tattoo itself - the detail is incredible. I call him Pablo. He's my new amigo.

Nick Colella

Got this 2 days ago from Eli at Smith Street. It's the first tattoo on my arms and I'm beyond excited about it.

I've seen bootleg redraws of my infamous SQUIDPANTS drawing and... It breaks my heart. I give and I give and I give, and what do I get back? WHAT DO I GET BACK?

From personal experience I say Stewart Robson. Everything that he puts out is amazing and he does a wide range of things. Of course the major focus is Japanese.

i like this guy

Mike Wilson Juan Puente Scott Sylvia Not only are these guys all capable of pulling off damn near anything, but I just noticed that their names are all the same length.

Our space isn't too big, but we pack them in there pretty good. Here is a pretty recent photo of the shop. It's not the whole shop, but it's the only current one I have. I took this photo from inside a car that was up on the lift.

Jeff Zuck. One of my favorites... Jeff Zuck Rock of Ages

my dachshund lucy and bert grimm.