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Got this little guy from Nick Rodin at Black Heart last week! Always wanted a tattoo with tattoos. We all know it, but I'll state the obvious here: great shop, great dudes, seriously great time.. I got the cute tattoo and my lady got a super tough eagle from Cody Miller, which I'll have to get a picture of once it's healed.

This one isn't on me, it's on my Dad. However, I started an apprenticeship near the end of the summer, and this was the 50th tattoo i've done. Obviously, there are things that could be better with it, but I was honored he let me do it (and basically let me do whatever i wanted). Jay Cavna design...

This is the alien that lived inside the Ultimate Warriors skull in the 1980s- courtesy of Matt Bivetto

A partner thread to the stares thread because of a little exchange the other day. Walking down the street in my running clothes towards a pack of super loud teenagers you'd usually wanna smack around with a rolled up newspaper (or, around here, maybe worse..). Obviously just out of school, running around like little assholes.. always puts me on edge. Goddamn kids! But I walk by and they all quiet down and just kinda look at me and once I passed one kid goes, "Hey dude, we like yo tattoos!" No laughing, just stayed quiet. I said "Thanks buddy!" And I thought, man, I'm such an asshole for always thinking the worst of these kids, that was a really positive exchange.. even if it was them kinda staring at me. I guess I woke up on the right side of the bed today! Anyone got good, positive stare stories? I know there are a few buried in the stares thread..

Kevin Marr

some bert grimm flash from dan santoro

This is one of the most beautiful tattoo photos ever IMO , the tattoo is by Horitoshi I and the photo from Takagi Akimitsu's Tattooed Ladies but also features in other Japanese tattoo photo books .

I was browsing the youtubes when i came across a music channel that had a playlist called behind the ink. Basically they interview band members about their tattoos. Some are absolutely crap and just warp tour body suits, but i found this little gem. Purified in Blood has some very tattoo enthusiastic members who got work by Thomas Hooper and Tim Lehi just to name a few. (if someone else allready posted these feel free to remove this) Take care

I was getting my flu shot and the nurse commented on my tattoo and said "wow, a lot of people in my family have tattoos but they don't look like this, they are kinda crappy" Of coarse I went on to credit the artist and recommend a shop where her family could fix their crappy tattoos

Photo-drop continued ..

You mean a hipster cross--note the thick-rimmed glasses.

Right get this now, i'm from the uk and old so didn't at first.....;)

My parents were born in Hawaii, so I've plenty of family on the islands and go back every few years. There are actually a lot of tattoo shops and tattooed people so I don't think you'll get any harsh stares. If anything, I found it interesting that the last time I was there I got more than a couple of head nods from Locals. And it wasn't because Locals are crazy nice either. Enjoy your trip and be sure to have a "plate lunch" while you're there and if you find yourself in Maui, you've got to try "Guri Guri" in Kahului. It's a must have and everyone on the island will know what you're talking about if you ask.

He's well-known in these parts, but I haven't seen much mention of Dave Cummings from PSC Tattoo, Montreal on LST: - - - Updated - - - Another local guy who I feel deserves some recognition (again, pretty well-known locally) is Pol from Pol Tattoo, Montreal.

When I catch people staring at my hand tattoos on the train I'll slowly move my hand towards my crotch and then pretend like I caught them staring at my dick and give them a disgusted look. That or just lock eyes and don't break for a solid 3 count, it freaks the shit out of people, actually had someone switch train cars after that once.

I was at my local tattoo shop last night getting some work done on my backpiece and got to witness an 82 year old lady accompanied by her grown children get her first and probably only tattoo. She got "DNR" in small fancy script over her heart. Turned out she has a bad ticker and wanted a Do Not Resuscitate tattoo. She took it like a champ. It was awesome!

Thanks to all LSTers (new & old) and the tattooers who have taken the time to do an interview with us and give your time and knowledge to try and make a good tattoo site/forum for customers and tattooers!!!! Also to the moderators @hogg @gougetheeyes & @slayer9019 who have taken on a thankless job of managing the daily playpen!!!! Lastly, I would like to thank the Wrights and Sylvias for their time and energy that they put forth on this venture of ours!!! To many more years and continuing to work to try to help people get better tattoos supporting the good tattooers and shops.......

Hello everyone, will try to keep this short! I grew up in a few places around the world, mostly Australia, and still live on the road so that's why the "From...?" title. I'm a tattoo enthusiast, not a tattooer, and next year I will have been collecting for 25 years. Got my first tattoos at Tony Cohen's Illustrated Man studio in Sydney - he tattooed the original members of Rose Tattoo and I would say being a fan of that band was what got me started on this journey. After I had got my first tattoo or two a friend gave me a copy of Tattoo magazine imported from the US. It featured the work of people like Jack Rudy - suddenly I was aware of just what the possibilities on skin could be and what was going on beyond Australia at the time in those pre-internet days. So started travelling and collecting over the years, now wear the good, bad and ugly results of my choices, and more interested than ever! Currently I'm involved in producing a documentary on the history of tattooing in Australia, and I hope to post on this forum to get any input that might help or who might be the people to try and talk to. In case you're interested have been tattooed by (more or less in order I think): Terry Roberts - Illustrated Man, Sydney Tony Cohen - Illustrated Man, Sydney Creeper - Tattooland, Anaheim Vyvyn Lazonga - Madame Lazonga's, Seattle Nino - Rising Dragon, NYC Kian Forreal - Inner Vision, Sydney Anil Gupta - Inkline, NYC Milena Sergi - Bologna, Italy Yamato Bonten - Tokyo Japan Jack Rudy - Tattooland, Anaheim Michie Kojima - Sacred Heart, Vancouver Mike Parsons - Doc Dog's, Tampa Sailor Jerry Swallow - The Dutchman, Burnaby BC Pat Fish - Santa Barbara Jose Lopez and Abey Alvarez - Lowrider Tattoo, Orange County Steve Wimmer - Monster Tattoo, Delaware Tom Renshaw - Eternal Ink, Michigan Boris - convention Horimasa - Gunma, Japan Horiyoshi III - Yokohama, Japan Brittan 'London' Reese - MD Tattoo, Northridge Bob Tyrrell - convention Uncle Tim Heitkotter - Blue Tiki, Kauai Jake Burton - Fat City, Burnaby BC Cory Ferguson - Good Point, Oakville Don Nolan - Acme Tattoo, Minnesota Next on the list - hopefully Ian of Reading in the UK and a traditional hand poked piece in Cambodia or Thailand Take care Energy

you definitely won't be disappointed. the shop is awesome, the dudes are all extremely nice, and of course the tattoo will be badass!

@jayessebee, so good! I had the unfortunate pleasure of seeing Mercer's ass-tat finished up yesterday. Yeeesh. I think I need to go ahead and get that done. I complain enough as it is. - - - Updated - - - That is so much fun! I need to get out there.

That's just too good!

There's nothing a panther won't fix, is there?

Thanks, LST (including all the moderators and staff and regular members), and happy birthday! Love you guys!

There's an Ed Hardy documentary on netflix. Maybe the best line from the whole thing is what he says about what hurts the most. His answer, "the tattoo you're getting right now".

wait for it wait for it

Dennis from Providence Tattoo

LST, NYtimes, Gmail. Every morning and in that order.

You guys done good! Thank you to everyone for making it happen and sticking with it.. Scott, Dari, Tammy, Loch, Steve, Ross.. Truly honored to be a part of LST, you've built a great forum here. Here's to two more!

I got my first one on my 19th birthday and managed to hide it for at least 2 weeks. Then there was that morning I overslept for college and she went in to wake me up...saw it peeking out from under my T-shirt...She slapped the shit outta it (thinking it was still sore) saying "wait till I tell your Father"!! That evening at dinner my dad says "let me see your tattoo". I show him, he says "cool". Mom just rolled her eyes. No more worries after that. She still doesn't like it too much, but this little 78 year old woman did tell me recently "you know, I see so many folks around here with just awful stuff tattooed on them and I think to myself "My son's tattoos are sooooo much better"". God, She's awesome!

airbnb.com best way to find a place. it was mentioned earlier and i have to back it up

I'll flip this one around... The day my oldest turned 18, I did my best to stop him from running off to the closest tattoo parlour. Didn't work. He ended-up with 'zactly what I warned him he would, a faded-out, spotty, p.o.s. TRIED to talk him into letting me take him to CTC, but NO.....had to be right this frkn minute! Now, my next one down, he was smart, I took him to CTC, and he got some real nice work from Nick there. Next son in line is about a half-year out, and already working on his designs, and the daughters, well, they aren't into it, yet, but as long as they go to a GOOD tattooer...

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I say a coverup is in order... a grizzly bear eating black licorice in a cave... that would fix it right up. CG

That's about as good as it gets! Really nice piece!

Got this from Kyle Crowell at Torch Tattoo in Anaheim back in August.

SOUTH AMERICA!!! Women, landscape and mystery Need I say More!!!

my favorite loose quote on this would be from the Chad Koeplinger T.A.M. interview when he says something along the lines of it almost being a duty to be tattooed all over so you have some idea of what the customer is going through. i like to get tattooed regularly because it definitely makes me more patient with my customers when they start squealing. jst before i started getting my backpiece done i remember a bloke came into the shop for a tattoo from my then boss. it was a big lower backpiece and he wriggled like hell. i definitely remember thinking like 'for f!ck sake man grow up and stop moving' didn't occur that my boss never commented. any way next week i started on my back and within 10-15 minutes it was like......OH! needless to say i'm a lot more sympathetic to my customers having work on their back now

Alright lets see if i can do you better.With an avatar like rarehardtofind,you must be someone of discerning taste. Black Gold Records You have to be ultra hip just to walk into this store.The owner Dan works next door at Smith St.Tattoo if you wan't to get a vintage tat banger. Shirts & Destroy | Home Forget about The Ed Hardy Store,unless you like rhinestones on your clothes. Another store where you have to wear skinny jeans just to walk through the door. Bookstore Cafe — Locations — Housing Works Vintage books & coffee,what more do you wan't? Moo Shoes - Vegan Shoes NYC And if your a vegan,and don't like to wear animals on your feet,this is the place to find all your non leather needs. I hope i did you right this time..Make sure you like this.

I just got this tattooed at the Montreal convention by Mike Rubendall. We did 4.5 hours last night, and then finished it in an hour this morning. I'm so pleased with it.

Well, in that case, I'll submit my dagger I got from Mario Desa last November.

got a good laugh out of this one

Thought I would throw out a fun little encounter from yesterday. I was heading out to pick up a new Rx at CVS. Since I just left the doctors I was in gym shorts and a T-shirt. The lady filling out the prescription was staring at my leg that just got tattooed. Mind you it only shows about 2-3 inches out my shorts. I looked back at her until she noticed me looking back and got a bit embarrassed. She then said "Oh is that new?". Probably not help the situation, I just got a shitton of blood drawn, was fasting then got given a Xanax, I decided to do the following. I pulled my short leg up to my waist to show her my new tattoo and laughed. Looking back I pretty much showed my ass to half the staff at CVS! I did get a "O' shit that is wayyy bigger than I thought" comment and a "that looks crazy!". This again followed up by the obligatory showing of a small star tattoo she had and a quick synopsis of her future tattoos in the works. Sometimes people are just interested, and it is not staring in a bad way. I actually found most people who stare are just intrigued by us tattooed folk, especially if you got some cool tattoos!

Tough geezer .

Accept Wotan, reclaim your heritage.

Yessir, mainly why I've avoided doing my feet. What do you guys recommend for foot healing? Im constantly on my feet at the hospital, so I was thinking maybe just get em done when I have time off and lay around and do nothing

I don't know I have seen people get pretty "bored" of tattoos they got as a sign of a relationship they were in (along with their new boyfriend and or girlfriends). If you just get tattoos that look good, you probably will never have to deal with laser removal or coverup. But ultimately everyone should get tattoos for their own reason or lack of reason. What the hell this has to do with tribal tattoos is beyond me.

We spent a lot of time in Quebec City, in the old section. Beautiful. I ate poutine every day and smuggled foie gras home.

Before I say anything, I know this isn't a history lesson but I think any modern tribal discussion should start with Leo Zulueta- http://www.myspace.com/spiraltattoo Mundurucu Books does a few great but small books on tribal tattoos. http://www.mundurucu.com/books I don't have photos of 'good' tribal but places to look (in my opinion) are: Thomas Hooper - I love his heavy black Micronesian/Marquesan tattoos. - http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashooper/sets/72157623072881930/show/ Curly from oxford, UK - http://www.tattoocurly.com/tattoos.htm Jondix, Mike from Athens, Tomas Tomas and Xed le Head have added different influences and taken tribal style tattoos somewhere new and often exciting. Rory Keating does great stuff - RoryTattoo.com Jun Matsui - http://www.lost.art.br/juntattoo.htm There are a few Japanese guys doing amazing tribal style tattoos but I can't remember their names right now. I see tribal tattoos as much the same as any other style, in that of you see it executed badly enough, often enough, you'll learn to dislike it. Unlike other styles of tattooing, I think it's very difficult to find good reference for tribal tattoos as most of the history is verbal. If you need reference for Japanese tattoos, American Naval tattoos, Californian or Russian prison/gang tattoos etc, it's relatively easy to find helpful reference these days. Most of the visual tribal reference we have is recorded by western explorers. In the next couple of months I'm due to start some Marquesan style shorts on a customer of mine. I'm really looking forward to it because a) I don't do that style every day so it's a refreshing change of pace and b) His reference wasn't the same gym flyer every else brings (the one with a muscular guy stroking his abs with swirly spikes across his chest and arm).