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I got this from Deno at this summers Inkbash in Stockholm. He came up with putting the gorilla in a tower and the roots there. Midway through I asked him if he wasn't going to put something coming out of the skull. "Like what?" .. I don't know, something.. And he just put that dot trail in there, no pencil or anything. I think the whole piece came out just nice and strong, might be one of my favorite tattoos so far. He was super quick and fun to chat with. Tried to ask him about how graffiti has helped him develop as a tattooer but he didn't have much to say about it, except being taught to work fast. Jelle SOOS came by to say hi too, so I got to exchange a few words with him also. Man travels, a lot! Tomorrow I'm going to be under the needle of Joel Madberg SOOS. Putting a bird with alligator head on and around my knee, same leg as the tattoo above. A little scared of the knee actually, will I shake like crazy? (edit: oh by the way, the picture above is from today so the tattoo is close to 6 weeks healed or so)

I agree. Also, if I could afford (or when I can) to make it to California, booking an appointment with Chris Conn would be at the top of the agenda. To get back on the topic of pet peeves...for me, the only big one I've encountered from a customer's perspective is having to listen to stupid, offensive shit. I realize that a lot of people would consider me to be overly PC, which is fine (I disagree to a large extent with what most people consider to be "political correctness" and see it more as "not being an asshole", but whatever), but it definitely turns me off to hear racist or homophobic shit when I'm getting tattooed. On one trip to a pretty well-known shop, my buddy that I was staying with (who is gay) decided that he wanted a tattoo too and came with and got tattooed. He was super stoked on it and really liked the dude that we both got tattooed by, but during his tattoo a couple of the other tattooers hanging out made a few gay jokes (unrelated to my friend), and it was pretty awkward and uncomfortable for both of us for a minute. Consequently, I probably won't ever get tattooed by those dudes, despite them making rad tattoos. With a finite amount of skin and a Want list longer than I'll ever be able to get through, I want to enjoy my tattoo experience as much as possible, so I'm gonna go with the tattooer I don't worry about having to endure hearing go off on some "faggot" shit during my session.

No offense meant, and no offense meant when I say there WEREN'T three "top shops" in Chi twenty years ago. As far as pricing, a 6-inch square tattoo for $150??? Not in any decent shop-and there were only one, maybe two at the time-that I knew of. I'm not tryina be a dick, (just comes naturally) but there was really only CTC back then that was really what you would call a "top shop". There were what, maybe three or four other shops that opened and closed regularly in different parts of the city. AFAIK, the only one that has stuck was Fat Joe's place. I hear what you're saying about butterflies and stars, but it all depends on how big they are and how detailed they are-how much work went into them. I agree that some tattoo shops are overpriced for what they offer, just as some mechanics are overpriced.

Prices increase plain and simple. When a tattooer gets better they can charge more. When the price of groceries, gas, insurance, you name it goes up so do the price of tattoos, but probably not quite so drastically. $100/hr seems like a fair price for sure, but just to put it in perspective 20 years ago my boss was working on his ribs at tattoo city and was paying $120 per hour and that's not with Ed that was with Freddy.

All I can say is that in this area, 3 hours of work for a deuce would be like a major discount. Most places, I'd say a hundred an hour is gonna be about the minimum. You play, you pay. You can always find someone working at a truck-stop or out of a motel, or go to a "tattoo-party", but you'll get your $50 worth there.

Hello everyone, I have been lurking on LST for a while but have never introduced myself and said hello. Hello! I'm Adam, 27 from London and I'm a tattoo collector. There, I've admitted it. So far I've had the pleasure of being tattooed by the following; Steve Boltz Dan Santoro Jordan Teear Sarah Schor Chad Koeplinger Stewart Robson and Valerie Vargas. All my tattoo's where done at Frith Street Tattoo in London. That's it. Cheers. Adam.

Guess some of you will have seen this already, Valerie at Frith St on me this afternoon Asked for a girl head, then today asked for freckles...

Greg Christian is guest spotting in NYC next month. Got an appointment on the 4th of November. Very excited.

I love this thread. My girls: This is Daisy. She's a retired racing greyhound and is the sweetest, laziest dog ever. We adopted her from a greyhound rescue about a year and a half ago and watching her go from being this dog that had never lived in a home before to being this sweet little girl who just wants cuddles from everybody she sees (except for children, she is afraid of them) has been one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced in my life. http://distilleryimage5.s3.amazonaws.com/a5b74d08dff811e1a2ce22000a1c86dc_7.jpg And this is Susan (grey one) and Willa (orange one). They're sisters. We adopted them from friends of friends who took in a pregnant stray off the street. She gave birth to four kittens. We couldn't decide which one we wanted so we got two. The guys who took in their mother from the street read somewhere that the best way to socialise kittens is to hold and touch them from birth so they have none of the usual cat aloofness and you can pick them up and cuddle them and rub their bellies and basically do whatever you want with them. Willa regularly shits outside of the litter box because she's an asshole. http://distilleryimage3.s3.amazonaws.com/ee70b336e26911e1bb6a1231381f737d_7.jpg

Got this on Saturday night and took this picture Sunday morning (please excuse the photo quality). By Johannes (blackstalliontatttoo.com) at Good Faith Tattoo in Boston/Brookline, MA

Going to Dark Horse tuesday to make an appointment with adam to get my shin done

The question that has not been asked yet is...will there ever be any LST stickers?

Harry Potter Deathly Hallows friend tattoos ... Kinda in shock I did it. Done by Javier Betancourt at Ochos Placas Tattoo in Miami, Fla.

These are my grandfather's tattoos, done in Cape Town, circa 1956!

Some new one from the last two weeks... Two by Duncan X and one by Jondix Got some monster appointments coming up within the next 2 months... 4 with Hooper and the beginning of about 20 sessions with Rubendall.

I'm about the total opposite of PC, but here's what I started the thread with... "...I hear fuck this, fuck that, fuck the next thing, I got cigarette smoke blown in my face, and ya know, the guy never even asked if I was interested in getting a tattoo." As far as the homophobic/racist type stuff, I've never heard any, but I guess it takes all kinds. Hell, take your friend to CTC, they have a whole section of flash dedicated to the hardcore scene..."Prime Meat" and such-I doubt you'll hear any jokes!

I think this is probably the wrong place to bitch about a tattooer being overpriced. Especially when that price is $100/hour. Maybe check out the thread on Chris Conn for a little bit of perspective?

That's quite a lot to take in all at once. Not sure you wanna tout getting kicked off of other boards as a mark of honor buddy! Welcome, hope your time is here is well spent!

I got my first tattoo right after graduating from college when I was 23. I was living in the Bay Area and rode the BART over to Oakland to visit Tattoo 13. Chummy tattooed my upper arm with an scene of St. Michael. Not long after it healed I was visiting home and having a drink on the back porch with my mom. I told her that I really needed to talk to her about something, and rolled up my sleeve. She starting yelling and slapped me, while I was laughing at her reaction. After about a 5 minute rant she asked to see it again, and commented that it was really pretty. My Dad just told me to keep them where they could be covered in a suit. Every time I visit LA these days I end up getting tattooed. My parents have slowly become more accepting of them. They used to say "that's the last one right?" after each tattoo, but even that has stopped. In fact my Dad just texted me about getting his first tattoo at age 60. I honestly thought he was messing with me, but he was dead serious. I guess my point is that parents attitudes can change over time. Mine go so far as to show off my tattoos to friends when I'm on vacation.

I am almost certain that this tattoo is on The Gus, and was done by Matin Lacasse. Both work at Olde City in Philly. - - - Updated - - - I should add that I have been wanting something along the lines of this for awhile. I love this old bike style shit.

What about Temporary Tattoos for little LSTers

Portrait taken at the Brooklyn Invitation Chopper show . Tattooer unknown . BROOKLYN INVITATIONAL PORTRAITS by James Stone

Right? It was pretty painful, as expected. He hung the needle so deep and blasted the f*** out of it. I'm only at 14 hours after the fact now, but it's relatively painful-free at this point and not swollen at all. Surprisingly. I'm totally rocking some DIY sock-gloves I've cut finger holes through so it can breath and remain clean. New fashion trend? Homeless-chic.

"Tattoo poor" I call it. Basically all my money beyond essentials gets saved for tattoos.

Got this from Spencer @Memoir tonight! Session 4 on Weds...

That classic Eddy Deutsche jam .

So here a a couple of pictures of what I got on my west coast trip. They are all healed up now. The dragon is by Jeff Rassier of Black Heart Tattoo. Juan Puente did the sugar skull at the same shop, an hour later! The week after I got Stuart Cripwell to do the moth. While I was a Spider Murphy's I picked up their flash book which is quite beautiful as well as getting two new sheets of flash. I just got the sheets home from the frame shop. They look awesome on my wall! The three tattooers were super friendly, I would highly recommend all three of them for your tattoo needs!

beautiful tattoo Tim, Valerie does the best lady heads in the world IMHO

I've walked in and right out of new shops where the vibe was bad or they didn't know how to treat a customer. I'm not the most PC person in the world, but I put on my company manners when I'm out whether it be Ace Hardware, Petco or in a tattoo shop. Some shop owners are unaware of the first impression thing and wonder why business sucks. Rob

Um...hi.

I think @Graeme is correct. It does not matter. Everyone is always going to have their own opinion on pricing. And what we pay is our own business between our respective tattooers. And @Dan S, I know when I was a bit greener, I probably was an annoying snot nosed kid coming in to get tattooed, pissing them off. I've since had some script covered because it was lame. Trust me, this was the type where I came in with it printed out from Microsoft Word. I am embarrassed thinking about that now.

Agreed. Wasn't the purpose of the thread at all.

When I potentially have appointments with 2 awesome tattoo artists travelling to Australia and don't want to say who or when, to many people look at this site don't want to ruin my chances. Is it wrong to be so selfish?

I know NYC is a bit more expensive due to geography and cost of living.

That's the thing that some don't realize that hourly rates were lower to give people getting large scale work a little break and walk in tattoos were just done like a mechanics flat rate, it didn't matter how long it took.

Agreed @Dan S. While not getting too much into the "money" aspect of tattoos, I would say 100/hr is cheap in my opinion. If you can't afford a good tattoo now, save up and get it later. Once it's there it ain't going anywhere!

Nice!! Sounds like a blast. I think there's something about getting tattooed on the statue of liberty, underneath the hungry and poor bits..

This site needs a Glossary :)

all booked for january. getting the elbow and surrounded area filled with a hannya mask from claudia de sabe. very excited!

idk lol I don't even pretend to have any interest in skate anything. ( @hogg @slayer9019 told you I'd start every comment that way..)

Here is my snake/panther combo on my right forearm. I was taking these pics at my office desk. 4 years old now. Wow. Andrew Conner. Harrisonburg, VA.

Welcome to LST and congratulations on being a new dad! Have you gotten tattooed since your first back at 17?

Joining the Vargas girls head gang on Monday - pretty hyped.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=537755179583877&set=a.197285293630869.58055.145111408848258&type=1&theater This is my right arm shortly after my last session. Some parts are still raw in the picture. The back of my arm is a cover up of some shitty script... The artist is Tim Morris at A Brand New Tattoo in Eau Claire, WI. I am honored to be friends with him. He is an amazing person and really solid tattooer.

Holy shit!!! That is fantastic.

Amazing how people will pay $500 for a phone that will last 5 years tops, but balk at a tattoo costing the same....

Just made my flight and hotel for a trip in March to London! Going back to Frith Street for a couple of days. By that time my back should be in really good shape. I'm also planning a small tattoo in addition... shhhh don't tell the wife this one.....