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Hadn't seen a thread for this?.. saw the page yesterday on facebook, can't wait to see it - https://www.facebook.com/TattooNationMovie "New Feature Documentary Film, Coming October 2012 Tattoos used to be a sign of rebellion. A middle finger salute to the rest of the world. Outlaw bikers got tattoos. Sailors on leave in Singapore got tattoos. Lifers in the joint got tattoos. Now, your mother’s got a butterfly on her ankle and your kid’s sporting a tramp stamp. What happened? How did tattoos go from the renegade, readymade, carney cartoons inked as fast as possible to the art form they’ve become today? That transformation is the subject of the new documentary film, TATTOO NATION. TATTOO NATION tells how a few incarcerated but very talented Chicano artists changed the world of ink forever. It follows three tattoo pioneers, Charlie Cartwright, Jack Rudy and Freddy Negrete, and shows how a new, fine line style using detail and shading to achieve a remarkable realism revolutionized the world of ink. In 1975, Cartwright and Rudy boldly opened the first tattoo parlor in the heart of East LA’s Chicano community. They hired a recently paroled teenager who, while in jail, unknowingly established iconic images that spoke to an entire generation of Chicanos. Freddy Negrete became the first professional Chicano artist employed by a mainstream tattoo parlor - a tattoo parlor that was embraced as a new vehicle for self-expression by the Chicano community in East Los Angeles. For the first time, these legendary figures tell their stories in a feature-length documentary film. Included are other important figures such as David Oropeza and “Chuco” Caballero, winners of many prestigious tattoo competitions. Their victories brought international recognition to the uniquely American approach known as “Black & Grey”. The world of tattoo, and the way we regard tattoo, was forever changed."

pay me 15,000 and ill tell you all the "secrets" better make that 20,000 i just realized how many there are

Forgot I didn't have pic of these up here. My 3rd tattoo- Inside right bicep from Ezra Haidet, Triple Crown Tattoo, ATX

My .02, All of them (and myself) are influenced by symbolism, Russian constructivism, and Art Noveau:

on me, by Chad Koeplinger.

New piece from Tim S. @ Anthem in Gainesville, FL.

Hell yeah! Scored an appt with Jeff Gogue!! Fucking stoked!!

I'm a dumbass. I posted earlier that Anderson Luna does Conn-esque work. I was wrong--it's VICTOR KENSINGER I was thinking of. All you New Yorkers look alike to me. ;) Anyway, here are some girl heads that remind me a lot of Conn, but are all done by Victor Kensinger (soon to be at King's Avenue):

Did somebody say seventies?!?!?!?! So, these aren't strictly tattoo pix, wasn't posing to show off the work, just pix from back in the day that happen to show tattoos. In two of them, you can see an original first-edition Chicago Tattooing Company tee-shirt. In the first pic, the guy doing the restraining is wearing ink he got in Milwaukee in the early 60's. Can't see it, but he had a tat we called the "jumping green jesus" on his chest that he got when he was 15, probably the single worst piece I've ever seen come out of a "professsional" shop. The other two pix have work by Dale Grande from CTC in them.

Again, looks like conn but no where as good. I wouldn't get one.

Morning after shot to show placement.

Straight from a 70's film set - Chicago Tattoo Company .Instagram

@autosdafe Post some fucking photos of your work already. So we can tear it to shreds.....................

Stell

@Jennifer Stell awesome especially dig the knee and death rose heres one from yesterday

@thebadnewshughes fun one! @Joel Ang nice! Can I ask about those little frog dudes? Hangin out, not givin a shit.

And here's the same corner today...only thing that's the same is the head shop/sex shop/whatever shop across the alley, and The Alley. The pic posted above was taken on Belmont looking west from the south side of the street, and this pic was taken on Belmont looking east from the south side of the street. Note that where CTC was is a yuppie restaurant. Desecration.

We children of the 80's call the Q-Bert cubes

Jack from way back .

more poutine!! Or if you're in Fl, go for chicken fried steak and sweet breads.

Yeah, the spelling is "Miranda", wonder if he put "rights" under it.

I currently have the least amount of musical gear I've had in a long time. been selling it all off to pay the bills. here's what's left: Gibson Custom Shop '57 Les Paul Jr MIJ Fender Telecaster that's heavily modded. that guitar through the 67 bassman I just sold was twang heaven. Fender American Vintage '57 P-Bass 1987 Ampeg "Skunkworks" SVT Classic head. #49 out of 500. And still too many pedals...

M.C. Escher did a ton of work using variants of cubes and other mathematical figures...necker cubes and penrose triangles, tessellations, or "tiled" cubes such as the pic you posted. He also used polyhedra and distorted geometric figures. Not my cup of meat, but hey, to a mathematician, I guess they're pretty hot!

Going in June 2 to get a tudor rose on my elbow, with a compass rose above it covering up some old garbage, my birthday is the 3rd so its my present to myself. Stoked to finally cover up that old tattoo, and i just got out of a job where i couldnt have tattoos visible with a t-shirt, so im happy to finally be able to go on/below the elbow!

Cheers!!!! I don't have many great pictures - waiting on a couple more pieces & I am going to get some done.

Ha ha. Worst thing I've had is tops of both feet & they were like ham hocks the next day, they wouldn't fit in my shoes but they weren't all that bad after that I don't think. I am 100% put off knees now! Sod that.

Sweet. That was a rough-ass 'hood back then, bigtime. Great place, tho', Cliff, Buddy, and Dale always had some craziness going on. You went east a bit on Belmont, you were at "Chickenhawk Corner" of Clark and Belmont, you went west a half-block, and you could see the look-outs on the rooftops and in the alleys with their walkie-talkies, ready to tip the dealers to the cops. It was always fun.

Hey there, @Daggboy! Nice to see you here again, buddy. I'm in a similar boat, as the back of my thighs are taken by my backpiece. I'm planning to get Americana pieces on the front of my thighs. Gotta keep doing squats to get more real estate. :)

Ahh yeah nice one thats it, the white ink has settled in now so looks a lot more subtle. I also took my copy of his book over there hoping he would sign it for me, he asked me to leave it with him a few days so i did, when i came back to collect it he had done this for me, as you can see i was pretty happy with it haha. Such a nice bloke.

I like the way the uncovered lead from the machine is laying across his leg. But it's ok cause he's wearing gloves.

Let me chime in here for a second. I have been lucky enough to be tattooed by him twice and watch him tattoo 2 very large tattoos on a friend over the last year or so. My opinion is he is very very good and extremely versatile in style. He has nailed it on tattoos over and over again. I will be going back to him until he stops tattooing or I'm covered (probably the later). This being said, to ask is he the best tattooer is a crappy question. He is by far one of the best I have seen (and been tattooed by) but remember there are also other artists. I highly recommend him but remember NYC has tons of talented guys (Invisible has a chunk of them), and to say is so-and-so the best is a bad question. All that said, I say go for it. I know I am signing up for my next tattoo from him (and the biggest to date). If you care to see any really colorful pieces he's done check my gallery.

Yeah....Seth is really a bad example to try to use....and agreed a very random name to throw out! I am sure the guys on the Read Street Forum would love to answer that question for you though! And the answer is yes.....seth has been tattooing on occasion....I have gotten two from him in the last couple years! ;)

This photo isn't so much funny, as it's more just awesome

I can't help but read this as "I'm too busy making money to properly learn the craft." Maybe I'm missing it but I don't see what shop you work at and your gallery appears to be empty. Maybe you can shut us all up with the quality of your work. You came for advice and got it and I know for a fact plenty of the people offering the advice you're not willing to accept are coming from a place of experience and offering their clients work of marked quality. If not them, who are you willing to learn from? I may be a hardass about this stuff but it's older than all of us. I count myself blessed to be a part of it and have seen far too many people walk fresh faced into it demanding that it change to suit them. This thing wasn't designed to suit the overly eager and unbending. It was designed to weed them out.

Its just a matter of respect to the forum. We were asked and agreed to not ask Tattooing related questions and you did. Thats why you are catching so much shit. The sad part is you dont understand, so far all you've done is make excusses of why you asked it. Then you went on further to throw oters under the scratcer bus. Yes some of once were but the reason we still aren't is because we had enough respect of the craft that we are doing to step back and learn properly and ask questions the proper way. On a side note: How is someone gonna get pissed because your going to spend money in there shop. Maybe you need to look at the common denomonator in this picture and adjust the way you ask shit and pay attention to the rules, written or unwritten.

BUT THATS A COOL NAME TO USE BRO. And if you (autodude) were to use Seth as an example, you should also know that he had his brother and P Wee (both well-trained and experienced tattooers at well respected established shops) to help him out when he needed it, by being on hand in person to get it done right. for real though, there is no shame in seeking out a second apprenticeship to learn how to do it right. It would really benefit you and your ability to grow at better pace with a well-trained mentor. If the owner of the shop you're at now can't help you, then it's the blind leading the blind. so what if it sets you back a step from what you are currently doing; it will soon launch you 5 steps ahead of where you are now. The internet will get you absolutely nowhere.

@autosdafe eHow | How to Videos, Articles & More - Discover the expert in you. | eHow.com Yahoo! Answers - Home First Internet Clown School. Academy of Performing Arts in Clowning But you're right. It's not your fault, it's someone else's. Don't feel bad about it.No, it isn't true that "Some people don't take ink" but it is true that some people don't take bullshit.

Dude I was literally just there, that's awesome. It's a clean piece man, pretty dapper. Did you go to that tattooing convention?

Just booked an appointment with him :)

Here's one Ron Henry Wells did on me last October at the State of Grace Convention: Definitely my favorite tattoo so far.

Good on him. I watched an interview of him once where the interviewer asked him what he was drinking. He yelled "ITS FUCKING GIN!" and threw the bottle or some object across the room. I love that man.

his fake teeth look rotten.

Whenever I feel down, I remind myself "fuck. At least Im not Shane McGowan". Cheers me right up.

i'll just leave this here...

Exactly. There's "is it worth it" and "is it worth it for me". For me- nah. Not really. Conn's stuff is super clean and I love looking at it, but has never struck me as someone I'd get tattooed by. Even if his rate was $200 instead of $500. Conversely, if Robert Ryan called me up and said he raised his rates to $500/hr.... I'd just save up and work with that as my budget because getting tattooed by Robert resonates with me and would qualify as 'worth it'.

Well for whatever reason Mr. Conn isn't replying to our emails. Having heard that he's charging $500 an hour though, I kind of don't care now. Anything I'd want from him would be at least a two hour deal and there's no way I'd pay anyone $1000 for a hand sized tattoo. Fuck that. He's an amazing artist but I can get just as good of a tattoo from Mike Wilson, in the same town I live for $150 an hour.

Some Stell roses...

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.

here's the cover of the book.read it if you can. his second book is about his experience as a sniper in cecenia war the guy is also a tattooer and has an exibition in milan going on