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I won't argue with you about the TV show. I have to disagree with the one part about Ami's tattooing skills, here is a photo of a tattoo he recently finished in Miami, it took him under a month and he texted the pics to a few friends. He is very far from a bad tattooer. FYI: He drew the whole dragon side on with a pen <script src='http://img831.imageshack.us/shareable/?i=amiuy.jpg&p=tl' type='text/javascript'></script><noscript></noscript>

Shunho, Tattoo Soul: Horiyamato: Horiyuki: Horimatsu: Horiyasu: I have found a new appreciation for large scale Japanese work. I never thought I would want any of this style work done, but I have recently brewed a strong desire for a Japanese sleeve or back piece.

Tomorrow with Nikki Balls.

I just had lunch withy 73 year old dad, he's from Berkeley...I told him what hunter said, his response was, "that guy must be from Nebraska, or he's just a pussy". My dad is pretty awesome.

Just say no, who gives a fuck if he gets mad or is asshurt. I dont do gang tattoos or racist tattoos. You dont have to do everything that comes in the door. We arent prostitutes.

Welcome to my world. I looked at all these before I even got my first tattoo and they blew my mind. I thought "Tattoos can look like that?! I want one."

Just got a notification that mine has been shipped. Six to 10 working days via UPS, to get to the UK. :)

I like the shop I use for mainly that I like the artists who are down to earth people that listen to what I'm going after and they do their best to fulfill my wishes. Are they the best artists around? Probably not, but they are well-respected and do a nice job all the time. I've sat in the chair in other shops with flakes for artists and that back and forth thing wasn't there. I basically sat there like a piece of meat. I go where I feel comfortable. CG

In case any of you were still wondering, I have unfortunately not gotten a call to appear as a canvas for this season. My kim jung il pinup doll giving the 'shocker' and wielding a chainsaw will deplorably go unrealized.

I decided to group together all the threads currently about old tattoos, and tattooing in the past. He is a list of links to all the threads I found relevant. If I missed any please post up a link in the following and I can see if I can get it edited into the original post. The interviews posted here by @Scott Sylvia, which are located in the blog section. Here is a selection below: LST Interviews Erik Gillespie Stewart Robson Valerie Vargas Danny Reed Chad Koeplinger Henk Shiffmacher Hanky Panky Beppe Strambini Phil Kyle Oliver Peck Katie Sellergren Jeff Cribb Dan Dringenberg Kore Flatmo Tim Hendricks Bryan Burk Freddy Corbin Nick Colella Josh Arment Juan Puente Books books tattoos tattoo culture hanky pankys awesome new book milton zeis tattoo boooks traditional-american-tattooing-books ed hardy tattoo world tatoo history books shops tattoo books tattoo book review world compromise i dont bob roberts Videos/Documentaries old tattoo documentaries marcus kuhns new project who else has seen true love documentary video three tattooers one tattoo white dragon belfast henk schiffmacher art tattoo essence amsterdam video ed hardy tattoo world documentary ppv tattoo documentary john samson tattoo age vbs video asian art museum shige horitomo horiyuki horitaka horiyoshi 3 related Misc old tattoo photos acetate stencils legends tattoo history museum exhibit local tattoos sailors exhibit Old ink archive tattoo discoveries found sale horiyoshi iii exhibition london's somerset house If you would like something added to this list please add a comment and mention @slayer9019

'cause I hate the thumbnails! Some are better than others, what can I say? If admin feels this a waste of space, feel free to delete.

@jade1955 Cool! I managed to resist, must save more money... Also, Frith St have the best appointment cards!

That's the first I've ever heard of red fading out that quick. I'm the exact opposite in that red is the more stable of colors

Episode 4 is up!

Thanks. I won't re-touch the old stuff, it is what it is, and it's a reminder of a different time and place. I do have some pretty colorful stuff planned to go onto that arm to sleeve it, so I hope it will more than offset the large chunks of black and faded-out colors! There is another thread on here about red-reaction...note that ALL the red in the parrot, and the dragon on the top of my left arm is gone. Didn't last a year.

The only way I can remember what year I got a tattoo in is to try to recall what house I was living in at the time when I got it, and backtrack from there. Shit all blurs together. I dont really care, or keep track of money or hours involved. I just get tattooed.

Can't wait for it and it will arrive in time for my flights to Bordeaux so it will give me something to distract myself with :)

BART is fine. I've been here my whole life and never had a single issue. @Bubbleberry is being a retard.

This would separate the men from the boys in a hurry.

First tattoo I ever did...I believe it was 1968 or 1969, "Secure Youth Detention Facility"! Amazingly enough, you can still almost read it. Hope I didn't burn too much of your bandwidth with this stuff...feel free to delete any or all of them if that's the case. I read about everyone's work, and some of it is in galleries, but I'd really trip on just seeing it up close and how it's laid out. Just me.

Less anchors/diamonds on faces. More daggers/skulls/roses etc on forearms.

1. wash it with a loofa 2. continue to touch it with dirty hands 3.aftershave 4. and the best one i heard is apply semen on it ( yeah i know right, some chick told me that a scratcher told her to put semen cause ill make it shinny, smh.)

Some better pix, a little detail of sections. Right Arm, full shot, sleeved by Miles Maniaci @ CTC in around 2001. Right Arm, upper detail. Right Arm, Back. Right Arm, Runestone Detail. Right Arm Front, World Serpent. Right Inner Forearm, Parrot, Dale Grande, CTC, 1973. Wotan, Right Arm, Rear. Right Elbow. Left Arm. Left Forearm, Demon coverup, Dale Grande, CTC, 1984 Left Elbow and Transition, Dale Grande, CTC, 1984. Left Upper Arm, Dragon in Clouds coverup, Mark Miller, CTC, 1982. Left Elbow. Left wrist, Panther Head coverup, Dale Grande, CTC, 1972.

While I could give a shit if I ever became friends with the artist, I would also never get tattooed by an asshole or one of the "rockstar" types. In my opinion getting tattooed is a business transaction and should be handled as such. When I deal with work clients sometimes we end up getting along and grabbing a few beers, which is nice but not required. This being said, I have only been tattooed by one person that I would never go back to again because of the general attitude I got the entire time. I always felt uncomfortable, like I was a nuisance the whole time. On top of this he talked about customers in the shop (me included), but he never got it that I could understand the language he was speaking....not cool (a few comments were justified).

Just wanted to say how awesome this book is. The layout and overall look of the book is just as amazing as the content! Great job Scott!

That's a tattoo!

The long awaited and dreaded P-Knee #2 sesh These leg-top tattoos are in progress by my homeboy @caspermugridge (Instagram) at Shades of Grey in Edmonton, AB. My knee ballooned like a cantelope, so gross. But the colour purple...delicious!

Actually do get into Seattle a few times a year. I'll fly you a kite next time I do. Was just there last month, so it will be a bit.

i'm at least glad that they're good at clean, readable graphic design, with a heavy emphasis on the hierarchy of information.

You rhymed so I now follow you

Do what I do when people ask what my tattoos mean. Talk up a storm about how the demon on your leg relates to how the stars looked when you were born and that same night the moon did a backflip and when you were little ypur bother died and then it also means strength and courage and reminds you that you can never give up like that one time in school as a kid you fell and it hurt but you got up but because it was pizza day you were sad because.....eventually they walk away. Haha

bomcconaghie mostly tats and cats on mine.

holy shitballs. i'm too lazy to do this.

4 sessions down, (hopefully) one more to go! OUCH!

We're all good on my end. I respect your decision to turn down the work, and think you did what was right for you. As far as the Black Power thing, I know all about COINTELPRO, and similar ops...hate to say it, but I am old enough to have hung out with Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, to have argued politics with Huey Newton and Abbie Hoffman, and to have shared a bottle of wine more than once with Chi Chi Rodriguez. Not only am I old to enough to have done it, but I did. So I guess my take on that is a bit different. But that's all ancient history. For now, as I said, far as I'm concerned, you're good people, and I've got no beef of any kind with you.

i kinda wish i didn't read this thread... i think ima go home and eat ramen for a couple months.

I think when I realized I didnt have to have a "reason" to get a tattoo, and it didnt have to have a "meaning" it changed my perspective immensely. I credit this site and actually getting off my ass and going to a lot of different shops and seeing what the hell is really going on with tattooing. I think the biggest mistake people make when they come here is that the dont do some lurking first. I learned a lot more about what tattooing is about by just listening to the interviews, reading the posts of people who are either tattooers or serious collectors. Now that I get what a good tattoo is, its enough. I dig just going to a shop, knowing the artists are all kick ass, and then just picking a piece of flash off the wall cause I just love tattoos. I dont have to go to therapy before hand to disect my relationship with my mom and pick an image that shows our conflicts blah blah blah I'm not gonna lie, I like the attention of posting a new tattoo...I think we all kinda do to a certain extent. But yeah, shut up and get tattooed is kinda my mantra at this point I guess.

I try to stay away from bashing the tattoo tv shows, but i think they play a big part in it. People decide that the tattoos need to mean something so they ask the artist to jam fifty different elements into a three inch tattoo. The artist says yeah i can do it if that is what you want, but doesn't jump up and down about how new and original the design is or most likely gives a suggestion to simplify the thing. Everyone of their friends and family has told them what a great idea it is, and now the person that they have came to get tattooed by is telling them that it isn't. They get all butt hurt about it, and go looking for some other people to reassure them that it is as great of an idea as they think it is.

I hesitate to do all this politlcal shit on what is a forum for and about tattooing. That said, there seems to be no one more intolerant than one who espouses tolerance. If you don't want to tattoo something, that's fine, totally your business. But don't call the "racist" bullshit if you're willing to do the portraits of Che, the clenched fist, the Hammer and Sickle, all those other symbols that are, ultimately, racist. The swastika is derived from the Sunwheel, which was/is a symbol used by the ancestory of ALL White people for thousands of years before a group of fanatical SOCIALISTS cloaked themselves in Nationalism and used it as a symbol of their regime. Many people still use the sunwheel, or various iterations of the swastika, as a sign of their beliefs. MAny people today still have swastikas tattooed on them that have no political meaning whatsoever. I know it's hard for someone that is, say, in their twenties or early thirties to imagine an era before political correctness, but int he sixties and seventies, the swastika was extensively used, especially by "bikers", as an emblem to shock, or to express their alienation from society. This does not make them racist. If such a person were to get that tattoo retouched, it could well be nothing more than refreshing their memories of that time. If a person got such a tattoo in prison, it's quite possible that they have an attachment to it that transcends politics or race. A mark of survival, if you will. I've posted before that I've done too many "bad" things to judge ANYONE for anything. I guess I've lost touch with that essence of absolute innocence and conviction that allows one to condemn sommeone they know nothing of because of a symbol they have tattooed on them. And just to prove what a racist I am, my oldest son's Godfather is Puerto Rican, my Granddaughter is a quarter "Native-American", and my best friend and main partner is half-Riquenoo tambien. To be truly tolerant of others means to be able to be tolerant of them even when you don't agree with them. .02

if the approach is quoting a high price in hopes they'll walk, you should be ready to do the tattoo if they agree to the price. either way, it should be a lesson learned on what your values are and how you will stand up for them.

Intent is everything: ManWoman

I believe you are seeing things a bit out of context. In the first place, if we say as a fact that the Third Reich ended-up killing six million assorted peoples, then how is the swastika more of a "hate symbol" than the Hammer and Sickle, the insignia of the Stalinist regime that was responsible for the death of over sixty-million people? As for the "Black Power" movement, you should do a little research. There were a fairly large number-not in the millions, certainly, but a fairly large number, killed by those espousing it. Maybe read-up a bit on the Nation of Islam, see what their early teachings regarding the White race were...and to a large extent still are. Azatlan...now that's a real good one. The "Reconquista". Check that out and feel the love. Last but not least, I will reiterate two points. One is that many people used the swastika without ANY political or racial connnotations in the not-too-distant past. It was actually a very common thing for bikers, especially, to either wear it or have it tattooed on them. The second point is that if the work was done in a prison, it was quite likely to have been done in order to survive. Whites are a distinct minority in almost every prison in this country, and there are groups such as the BGF to name but one, who would dearly love to see that nminority erased. Once inside, many Whites band together for protection, and the swastika is a very common symbol of those groups. White Power, Black Power, Brown Power...I put them all on the same plane. A racist is a racist, no matter what color he is.

I don't do that stuff, not because I'm half Puerto Rican which is the case but because I choose not to makey money on stuff that's in direct opposition to my conscience. You don't have to pass judgment to tell someone straight up that they're entitled to get what they want but they won't get it from you. I understand that it can be difficult for the first time it walks in the door and you're unprepared so get prepared. Determine your boundaries on how you choose to make your living and stay true to them. Everyone I work with knows what I will or won't do and respects my decisions. What I believe I don't push on people but I believe firmly enough that I never feel conflicted. A lot of us got into all of this because we choose to live on our own terms. I've never felt the need to trade that in for a day's pay.

Oh yeah-don't misspell "Racist" if you tattoo it on someone.

I think people who post on Last Sparrow should be tattooed.

I take full responsibility for inserting ICP into this forum.

Victor Kensinger - Kings Avenue Tattoo

I'd have to say real traditional Japanese you would have to look at Kiku. Doesn't matter if they are Japanese or not, tebori or a machine.

I hate categories .

@ANTONIO - for westerners, it is indeed a weird placement. But this is on a Japanese guy so I'm guessing its so that it can only ever be seen when he wants it to be seen ;) some companies over there have very strict rules about tattoos, so if your a 'salary man' you could loose your job/whole life if anyone found out about it. (the tattoo is still bad ass... pun intended.)