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Great time getting tattooed by Valerie yesterday. It really comes through how much she and Stewart care about what they're doing. Weird moment recognising the guy from Stewart's blog with the Saga/Reinke sleeves - those are some awesome looking tattoos (sorry if I'm being weird again and you're reading this, ha!).

I saw this on her instagram yesterday and said, "FUUUUUUUUUUCK," is what I said. Sometimes, I see a tattoo so good that it almost makes me mad that it's on someone else. Almost. Really, though, I'm just happy that it exists. Enjoy it, because it's one of the best eagles I've ever seen.

Latest by Sarah Schor. While she was guesting at Frith Street.

I've worked at places where it was best that the shop help didnt get involved in what the customer wants/what the artist will be doing and at places where the shop help did get involved and made it more convoluted. It could go either way. Most of the time I dont want the counter to tell a client what can or cant be done, what something will cost, etc. Leave that up to me. Girlfriend or whatever it's mostly a receptionist's job. Greet people warmly, answer phones, sign them up, tell them an artist will be with them shortly and ring up what I tell them to ring up. One of the best counter help I've worked with is a dude that works the front at Bolder Ink. He's been doing that job for over 5 years and does exactly those things (also gets tipped out more if we ask him to scrub tubes). The way I see it they get paid by the hour to sit there and do those things. If I want coffee I can walk down the street and get it myself. We aren't rock stars.

I got a Jeff Cribb tattoo! Super cool experience! Jeff says hello everybody! Ursula, Karl, et al..!

Some people are just douche bags. Regardless of any friendship, your tattoo artist should be treated with respect and your appointment should be treated as a business transaction. Try showing up at your dentist, doctor, lawyer, mechanic's with no notice and ask them to drop everything to help you. A lot of professionals charge people who don't show up for appointments, and they should. When you bail on an appointment you are taking money out of the artists pocket and leaving him unemployed unless a walk-in happens to show up. That's not how you treat friends.

Tiger tattooed by @Stewart Robson , Frith Street Tattoos, London, UK I love it!

Spotted this one in el Barrio in Milwakky last summer. Got out to snap a pic, and had to back up to a porch to get it all in. Didn't notice the Vatos were all hanging on that particular porch! Turned out all good, tho', they were digging the piece as much as I was.

I feel that I get VIP treatment at the shop I go to. I've been there since 2005, my son gets inked there and I recommend a lot of people to the shop. I get a good rate, I have a good rapport with all the artists there. First and foremost, I am a good client. I show up early and offer to go out and get drinks and whatever they may want for snacks. Most of them will take a soda or iced tea. I show up clean, sit in the chair and take the artist's advice more often than not. I never ask the price before we start, I always have enough in my pocket and throw a nice tip on whatever they say when we're done. I may pop a vicodin or two before I get there, but never drink before or bring a beer into the shop. If I do pop in to say hi, if they have someone in the chair, I'll only say hi or just fill in my next appointment date in their book. I'm honored that they let me behind the wall to do that. I do grab a few cards to hand out to people on my way out. I can tell when they have a d-bag in the chair.. the vibe in the shop is just off. Aparently, they do get a lot of people who are no shows or come in hours late. My wife asked me to take my son to the shop I use for his 1st tattoo. I clearly laid out for him what he should do and not to and all the etiquette I felt was necessary. Now they treat him quite well. CG

Thanks everybody for these great suggestions! I have implemented this one so that new users are now forced to check a box at the bottom of the (new) Forum Rules page to indicate that they have actually read them. (you won't see the checkbox unless you are new.) Let me know if the rest of you are also being forced to read the rules - I think I have it set up correctly, but one never knows.. Keep the suggestions coming as always - they are much appreciated!

Call me old fashioned.

Yeah shop friends are great, self dubbed VIPs I can do without. If an artist or shop wants to bend a little because they know the person well enough that they won't take advantage of a situation -- whether a drink or two, a phone-in when you only book in person -- whatever, that's a bonus but when the clients think they call the shots, not cool. We run our shop in a way that makes it function best, that works for the artists and the greatest number of clients. No amount of familiarity should make a customer think it has to beworked to suit them alone...but damn if people don't still walk through the world thinking it's a set built just for them.

Thought I would put it out there as I have restored a few old VW buses over the past 10 years or so. My favourite style would be the original paint patina look, I like to fix the rust and try to match the paint to look as original as possible. If you are into cars at all post them up. Here are a couple of pics of the cars I have worked on. from this (recently sold this one) to this Another during work painted and finished

So this is def one of my favorite rides. I confess, I didn't do much of the work myself, but hired it done for a friend in Deutschland. With gas at $10 a gallon there, I don't think he'll be taking delivery anytime soon, and it's just sitting in storage, getting driven a few hours a month to keep the juices flowing. If anyone is interested in a REAL expensive kool old car, hit me up!

Ah cain't hep mahsef! Not sure which day, but set-up 4 or 5 hours with Nick Colella for this coming week. Funny thing is, I'm not even sure what we're gonna do! I've got 4 different projects we can pick from, all of them are pretty equal in priority-'cept the backpiece, I know that's gon take more ching than I got at this point! Just hafta wait n see what he's in the mood to put on!

I've been eagle-rly awaiting to see what this would look like since it was mentioned.... Great stuff.

We all assume a photo is soon to follow.

This sign strikes me as a bit ironic since everyone seems to be Instagraming every single moment of every tattoo these days.

But I did send you some nice pictures of food.

Over the years plenty of people come in to the tattoo shop and friendships are bound to develop. I feel like a lot of friends I have started out as customers in the tattoo shop, or me patronizing their business, which is great. We all seem to be able to still do business with one another, with no real issues, because everyone respects the friendship and each others business enough for the two to co exist. On the other hand a person doesn't have to be my best friend to be a good customer. There are plenty of people that come in get tattooed, we have a nice conversation and we never see each other outside of the shop. They show up on time, sometimes even take your design advice. Some people don't say two words and just want to get tattooed, that's cool too. I guess what I am getting at, is there is a group in between that seems to give me the most trouble. People who maybe have a couple tattoos, they really like their tattoos and or the vibe of the shop, and they think because they spent a little money they have achieved VIP status. They will call about coming in on a certain day and not show up, then call the next day and ask if there is any walk in time and not show up again. I won't make appointments over the phone, it's always first come first served, but still it's annoying when people flake. In certain cases I have allowed a person (a friend) to drink a couple beers (2 maybe 3 at most) while getting tattooed, I don't advertise it but if someone asks I am usually okay with it as long as they are of age and take their empties with them. Unfortunately a few people have interpreted this as show up drunk and drink a whole six pack during your tattoo and not be able to sit still and have to pee every five minutes. I am not their mom or their bartender and it's hard to tell a person who is drunk that they are cut off especially mid tattoo. Recently a guy who was tattooed by my boss who pulled the get drunk thing, and a 3 hour tattoo took just under 5 hours to complete. There were a couple spots in the black that needed to be touched up and honestly he didn't get to blend all the colors' in the tiger as he would like to and the guy came in for a touch up, after calling three different times saying he was going to show up, finally showed up three hours later and was really not very pleasant, he expressed he wasn't happy with his tattoo. So my boss took him to the side and explained that he would be happy to sit down and finish the tattoo free of charge, but explained to him that he just became really hard to tattoo while he is drinking and he would need him to not do so in the future while getting tattooed. The guy seemed to understand but then was kind of pissed off because he had to come back in an hour to get it fixed because my boss was in the middle of a walk in tattoo on a friend who didn't keep him waiting for 3 hours. A half hour later he shouted some stuff from the door way about customer service and stormed off in his car with his girlfriend. My boss stopped him in the parking lot and had another talk with him, but he just wanted to talk about how much money he spent and that he deserved to be treated better. I don't know, I think the guy got treated fairly. I am interested in people's thoughts on this. I really everyone to feel at home at the shop, but it seems to me like some ass holes just ruin it for the others.

Please can we have a thread, area, whatever, to move the increasing number of posts asking for free advice from people who are bored, scared to visit a real-world tattoo shop, attention seeking, lonely, stupid or whatever? I'm not adverse to giving free advice, hell, I can even be nice to people sometimes but it's getting a little cluttered in here. The signal/noise ratio is getting harder and harder to manage or respond to without sarcasm. Reading 'Tattoo 101' is getting more and more like hangin' out on the wrong side of the reception desk on a busy saturday afternoon and less like an interesting or stimulating discussion between people who love tattoos and tattooing. Sorry if I'm pissing on anyone's parade.

i just got I love tattoos today for my birthday, so good!

My '62 Impala from 7 years ago. My pride and joy for 5 years. Started with something like this: ended up with this two years later ( went from a 235 3 speed to 350/350 combo) Under the hood: My current project is a '78 CB750 street tracker/ Jap bobber

At Goldrush tattoo with my brother n law. He's getting his first tattoo. I'm going to support him and get one as well.

Enjoy reading these....great job and great idea.

batmobile ftw

These are excellent Petri. Can't thank you enough for covering these issues and with more than just one artist and how they deal with it. 'Accident' lol.

Everyone who treated me knew I lifted and none of them tried to stop me.. they may have wisely slowed me down for a while 'til I got back on track. I worked on getting my shoulder ROM back and then the strength. I'm not near where I was back almost 2 years ago... have made great progress until my 2011 back injury from a car accident, I'm gritting out a comeback from that one right now. CG

I think a lot of the hipster generation throw that word friend around to loosely.It seems like when I'm in NYC,and approach a person and ask who did their work,it's like 80% of people will say ''my friend'',so and so.It's like it's not cool unless they say my friend did it.I think it's just a hipsterism...to say your friends with somebody,when your probably only an acquaintance.

I usually keep the wrap on until I get home/two hours after the tattoo is finished. Then frequent showers with dial and light A&D ointment. Whoever said "bacteria death trap" hit the nail on the head. Let your tattoo breath.

We are starting July 29th. And I have an appointment every two months after that until we are done. I'm getting pretty stoked.

HOLY FUCK I JUST REALIZED THE ONE KID HAS THE WORD "TATTOO'S" UNDER HIS CHIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOD. DAMNIT. When will people learn that the plural of tattoo is tattoos. No fucking apostrophe.

I got so excited reading this.

Baby's first banger I got while doing a port visit in Okinawa at Ryukyu-Horiyoshi Tatoo studio

Anything that TV didn't teach me I can learn from the internet. Isn't Kat Von D the best in the world???? Now, let me tell you what my tattoo means to me ... my mother died before I was born and my father abandoned me before I was conceived, but this tribal koi riding a skull and fighting a dragon tattoo will make everything all right!

@Duffa No, nothing was waiting for me when I got home. @jade1955 was away enjoying NY

The wife got a little'n from Perez and I struggled through some little finger bangs (ahem) from him while I tried not to shit my pants too much because Electric is an incredible shop.

My first tattoo at a shop, I was 21. I walked near closing time, for a large stomach tattoo. I didn't know any better at the time. So I was quickly informed of my stupidity and quoted a high price. Which I said I would pay. The point I am trying to make, is no body was trying to be my friend, or give me great customer service and they should not have to. All anyone should expect walking in to a tattoo shop is a good clean tattoo. After that tattoo I went back for more, and more. Years later I started tattooing, and I still get tattooed at that shop. I actually may be leaving the shop I am at now because I have a job interview there on Monday. I just feel like a shop should look appealing(good work, clean) but be some what intimidating at the same time. That way people don't ask you if they can do dumb shit while they are getting tattooed. I hate those situations, I always feel awkward being the voice of reason. And I always feel like they can read on my face, me cursing them in my head.

Whoa great recent additions!

Got this torch from Eli at Smith St the other night. Looks so rad with the dagger he did on my other forearm. Way stoked right now!

Dean Denney, Anonymous Tattoo Savannah, Georgia. Cap Coleman:

Finally snagged a cancellation with Valerie Vargas for tomorrow, super super stoked. Getting an eagle on my arm (I had kind promised myself no more for a couple of months, but the twitter alert came through and I couldn't resist).

From my recent trip to New York Tattooed by Bailey Hunter Robinson on Saturday. And this one on my titty. Done on Sunday. Tattooed by Eli Quinters at Smith Street Tattoo Parlour, Brooklyn, NY.

In 1999 I got a snowflake on my leg probably close to 1.5 inches in diameter, didn't really think to much about it just knew I wanted it and why, walked in asked for a snowflake the artist says ok she suggested I put it on my leg so there it is. Considered getting it covered or used in a different design, at one point it was going to be an eye in a sugar skull. Then it was going to be a part of a tall ship design, now it is a snowflake on my leg and will stay that way until it finishes turning into a black blob on my leg.

Take it easy with the juice, Ursula:

Jeff rules.

My rule of thumb has been to only go to phsyios who are attached to actual sporting clubs or athletes. The one I go to right now is the lead for the Irish athletics association, and does (in physio terms, not biblical terms) a lot of youth rugby players. Her attitude is 'ok, you've broken yourself, what do we need to do to put you back in training' rather than the 'You should just stop training - don't you know that stuff's dangerous?' attitude that most G.Ps trot out. I can only handle being told that 'walking is all the exercise you need' so many times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/health/07real.html

Timothy Hoyer

prolonged sun exposure will make you look tougher when youre old. It's OK. hehe