Leaderboard

Season One was shot in 2 general locations: NY and the SF Bay Area. Season Two was shot on 3 continents: USA, UK and Japan. So I think it's safe to say it's probably a budget issue. You should have seen the expensive hair and make-up professionals they flew in from hollywood just to make me look handsome on camera. My burritos aren't cheap either.

I had my first session on my first tattoo with Kore Flatmo this Friday. I went in with a weird combination of being very excited and very nervous at the same time. Needless to say everyone was great and it was a great experience. I have to go back for another session to finish in November. Even though I'm not done with my first tattoo, I have caught myself thinking through what I would like to do for my other chest panel. I am worried this is going to get expensive. I am blaming all of you for this.

Okay...as, I think, the oldest guy posting here, I'd best to act as the voice of reason. You need to go out and find as much on Japanese body suits as you can, and then start working with Korey to get yours drawn up, cause buddy, you been had.

And with both chest panels done, you'll look top heavy so you'll have to do a leg. But then you'll look lopsided, etc...welcome to getting tattooed

Here's my latest from Stewart.

just made a january appointment with chris odonnell!

fuckin 3+ hours of just red...

Here's the progress on my back piece from Stewart. Really stoked about the progress!!!!

The good news is that when you get enough tattoos, you're right back at having only one.

I like to go with different people and dont expect my body to have a cohesive flow. The styles on my torso/arms are pretty different and I like that. Back is westeren traditional, front is thomas, one arm is thomas, one arm is chris (asian influnece) so they are all different. Ill prob stuff more tattoos between the bigger ones on my torso but my legs are all random slaped on tattoos from different tattooers. Personally thats the way I like it, but I have full respect for people who do one style/one tattooer but for me I like too maney styles equally to pick one. But...I dont see why you cant get other traditional tattoos from other tattooers and still have it cohesive.

I dont particularly care for a completely cohesive looking body suit. A lot of it, for myself, and I think for others I know here, is that we love the art so much that we cannot commit to just one person. For myself as a non-tattooer, it gives me the opportunity to get some amazing work, and often, form friendships. But also, it's like with "big stuff," the torso, back, I intend on being loyal to a single artist so that it can look as complete as possible.

I go see chris and thomas pretty soon...love getting tattooed by them. Chris will be working at saved and kings ave as well, but next year I am excited to get tattooed at the private studio as well. My wife consults with hoyer soon as well so next year will be some fun new stuff.

guys at airport now will get home around midnight and get to taking some pictures. loch sorry i missed you friday some magician was finishing a 12 hr backpiece for me

As did I. Was Chris Grosso at his booth today, too? That was another highlight: chatting with the man behind the Tattoo Age series. He's a great guy.

getting a sacred heart from Freddy Corbin in March.

I just wanted to say a quick "good luck" to those of us who live in the northeast U.S. as we brace for the pending hurricane this week. I'm in CT and it's supposed to hit us on Mon/Tues but I know there's other members in NY, etc., who are also expected to get hit hard. I lost power last year for almost a week during a crazy October snow and ice storm and that was certainly no fun so I'm hoping like hell the hurricane isn't as bad as they're predicting. I hope everyone stays safe, including myself and my family.

I asked my wife last night, if we had paid the mortgage yet, and her first repsonse was "Why? Is there someone you "need" to get tattooed by." I said "No because it's the end of the month, but I like where your head's at." I guess I am that predictable, but am trying to be good and save up money. Thinking about a trip to Chicago in Jan-Feb, do a Taylor street grab bag tattoo, and set something up with Erik Gillespie. A good friend is moving from Chicago to Boston and this will be the last time we can party and his chance to get one last piece from Erik.

Had a great time at the convention this weekend. It was nice meeting and talking with @Scott R, @Reyeslv, @Stewart Robson, and @Valerie Vargas. My wife was super excited about coming away with this from Valerie: Sorry for the crappy iPhone pic and my lack of ability to take good pictures.

Absolutely! He is a very intelligent, well read man. We spent about an hour just talking about philosophy and the way we approach our lives before we started doing anything else. His apprentice Adrian was great, and Kim was a sweetheart. I am so glad we decided to work with them. Every part of the experience was great. They treated us like we were old friends that they had known for years. They truly bent over backwards to make us comfortable and put us at ease. My wife loved working with Brenda, and she couldn't be happier with her tattoo. After being treated so well and being so happy wit the results, I couldn't imagine working with anyone else. We will keep going back until they throw us out.

I like all this stuff: SATURNALIA TEMPLE: CHRISTIAN MISTRESS: DEATHSPELL OMEGA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DAiFBx1UU0

I took some pics and video of Scott R. Don't want to post without his approval. So I will be sending them off to him and he will get them out. I will say that his back-piece from Scott was awesome and his 2 from Valerie are just perfect!!!

had a blast meeting Ian reyeslv Ross hogg and rubarb ursula, cyportgvee ,Scott sylvia valerie and stuart. Update this is my first time online in days and delayed at airport only halve 30% of battery and 1.5 hrs of wait ahhhhhhhhhh

No walk ups available, but I still had a blast. Got Thom Devita to sign his book in India ink and a brush.

@slayer9019 : buns of steel

Did this on a friend. Its based off of Tom Johnson design. Tom was my mentor and I was lucky enough to get to photograph all of his sketchbooks. Tons of skulls! Anywy,

So my continuing leg tattoo is moving along. Just got home from the shop. Can't wait till my raijin gets his dragon buddy!

By Chad Koeplinger at the London convention a few weeks back

I think the answer to your question is in how you're defining a backpiece. Yes, if it's a traditional style japanese piece that goes from neck to knees then it might easily take up to 100 hours. However, what if it's american traditional or a smaller japanese-style piece that only goes to the waist? That'll take a significant amount of time off. If it's black and grey, or has a significant amount of negative space, then even more. I think my backpiece would fit into this category - it took around 25 hours (OK, maybe 25-30...) :- This backpiece, by Xam (The Family Business Tattoo, London) was done in 16 hours:- Now that does blow my mind. Similarly, I've seen other backpieces on that scale banged out in short spaces of time, attributed to people like Filip Leu.

FallingApartArt and Mindzai Creative ATX put together another artshow / party. It's going down in less than two weeks! New art on skateboards by Scott Ellis, Zach Nelligan, Dutch Welch and many more. Giveaways, music, brews and eats- hope to see you locals there!

Yea....about that. LST does promote some habits of this kind. Like me.... First I did my right calf, but wait how can you have a that without one are your right bicep? Hold on, now my right bicep looks weird so I need another on the inside to "balance it out". Shit, now my left side is all bare and very asymmetrical, gotta get something on my left thigh. Really, just one tattoo to balance out 3? Get entire left leg tattooed waist onto the foot...Uh oh, unbalanced again, sign up with Hooper for a left armpit to knee tattoo.... and the cycle continues!

One chest panel is going to make you look lopsided. Gotta do the other side now.

In a kind of roundabout response to your question, @Our Endless Days , I have often remarked that something I am learning as a tattoo enthusiast is how to look at and appreciate someone's work without, you know, NEEDING to get something from them. I feel like with instagram and other online resources, we can all get very kid in a candy store, and I personally don't have the time/energy/cash/space on my body to run out and get work from every single tattooer that I love. So I am learning to say, "So and so is amazing, but I will probably never get anything from them, and that's ok." Haha. (It helps being married to another tattoo nerd because I can live vicariously through him and it's like we have twice the space to work with. That sounds creepy, doesn't it?) My own ongoing work is a combo of stuff from one person and one-offs from others. I am trying not to overthink it. I neither feel like I want to settle on one artist for everything, nor do I need to go nuts and fit as many awesome artists as possible on my skin (hence my discussion of letting go of all the possibilities above). I find myself returning to the artist I return to because I just connect with her work so profoundly that half the time I have a tattoo idea, it is obvious to me that she is the person to go to for it. But then when I want something else, I've been glad to mix it up a bit. Something I find tough is that I am very sentimental by nature, and I have been lucky enough to have been tattooed exclusively by super nice, fun, awesome and talented people, so I get kind of bummed when I have a really great experience with someone who I likely won't get work from again. (For example, I got an awesome tattoo from Marie Sena at the Montreal convention in September, and I looooove the tattoo, love her work, and she was so nice and fun to get tattooed by. But she is very far away and so I am only likely to be able to get more work from her when she's here for conventions in the future, so who knows! But it was such a good experience that I want more!)

@Lochlan @hogg My only job is to be still so i better do it well lol

i want that look of a coherent body suit where everything is planned and meshes well, but i'm totally the same way. a lot of my tattoos haven't turned out how i planned they would i.e. size, some of the placement, things like that. that's one of the reasons why i want to get tattooed by one person. shit's hard to limit yourself to one though.

Yeah, I know, when I am getting tattooed by Chris, I love seeing what everyone else is working on.

Back-Bacon, eh?! Prices are supposed to double on bacon pretty quick anyhow, can't hurt to stock up.

You're all set.... I picked up a 30 pack of Bud (local supermarket special...), plenty of wine for those who like it already on hand, most of a quart of Smirnoff Vodka, tomato juice, celery. Got about 100 percosets to fall back on if things go really bad. Everything outside is about as good as it'll get. I fully expect to file a homeowner's insurance claim, so if the fence doesn't come down, I'm pullin' the fkucer down. Some wind now, a little rain. Have a call-in number at work so no idea if work is open until I call at 6 AM. Rob

Just finished my "hurricane prep" 1 bottle Kraken Rum 2 Cases of Guiness 1 6-pack Oktoberfest 1 New book 1 Box of Arturo Fuente Double-Chateau Plus a nice selection of non-regiratable food. (dried meats, etc) I'm more worried about having no water to wash my new tattoo! Now THAT would suck!

In my experience, that's not true, in fact that only accounts for about 1/3rd, maybe 1/2 of my business. Sadly, I lived through the early / mid 90's when anyone who had a visible tattoo, or a facial piercing was a vagrant, low life or non-employable punk, according to society. About 1/4 of the clients I'm seeing are removing tattoos not because they are awful, but because they got something small a decade or more ago in "prime real estate" and now want to do a sleeve or larger piece and it's in the way. Another 1/4 of clients have sub-par quality tattoo's from the early and mid 90's, and simply don't want them anymore. The number of people who are having "regretful" tattoos removed is far lower than you might actually think. The sub titles in that video explain the process, but it hurts. The vacuum like thing you see in that video blows cold air onto the skin, a about -30f, some people like it some don't. Most people will tell you that a treatment feels like a hot rubber band being snapped over and over. I'd say from my experience that feeling is pretty accurate. What many don't understand is that the time per treatment is a fraction of the tattoo time, which you see in that video. They go through about 1/4 of the back in 4 minutes, that tech is very experienced, some may take a little longer to cover the same area. Most (including myself) feel no pain within minutes of the treatment ending, and by the time the heat dissipates your skin (totally within about 20 minutes) you're left with virtually no pain at all. The most amazing thing to me was the shower the following morning, expecting the sunburn feeling from being tattooed, there is no shower pain. The skin is also not sensitive to the touch. Answering the 2nd part of your question, if the client properly treats the treated area, within 4-6 weeks another treatment can be done. Most people are suitable to receive another tattoo 8-12 weeks following their last treatment (wither lightening or total removal). In my personal experience healing mine, the skin "looks" normal after about 3 weeks. The best thing I can do to further explain it is this: As a kid, I'm sure you had a scab. If you waited a few days to pick the scab, so it wouldn't again bleed when it came off, under it you'll see a shiny, almost silver-like skin. That appearance on my skin was totally gone within about 25 days. Since tattoo removal relies almost entirely on how well your immune system disposes of the fractured ink partials, you'll continue to see fading of a treated area for up to 6 months in some clients.

I'm on Long Island, the south shore about 1.5 miles off the Great South Bay. I'm out of the flood plain so aside from rain and wind, there should be no flooding. Google "captree ny map" and you'll see where I am, just over the bridge to the north. Fire Island has a mandatory evacuation by 2 PM sunday, so the ferries are doing extra runs. You'd have to be nuts to ride it out. All the exotic plants are in, anything loose outside is either in the garage or lashed to the deck off my kitchen. I hope the pool cover stays on, I may stake some extra lines across it later. Did some late food shopping, milk, beer, steaks.. the essentials. No run on anything in the store, lots of food on the shelves. Got batteries, some ice, candles, gas stove and grill outside on the deck, so we should be okay. The prediction is an Irene-ish type of storm. Hittin' the gym around 7:30, after that will see how close I can get to the beach to see how wild the surf is. Rob

My back piece experience so far. Hmmm, where to begin... Both empowering and humbling is my best description. Empowering, because despite after always admiring the full back pieces I'd see in tattoo magazines in the 80's and 90's, then, especially here on LST, I never in a million years thought I'd ever be able to do it. But, this year, at age 46 I started mine on June 30th. I had it built up in my head that it would be the most painful experience of my life, and was so worried that I'd have to quit halfway through, but then I saw the stencil on my back and I was like "It's so awesome. Cool, so what if it wraps around my ribs and goes collar to waist, I can do this." Well, I did do it. It wasn't easy, but I made it through the outline (Shit tons of lines, but he got it on me in 3hrs 40mins.) Yeah, it was painful as Hell. I knew going in what I was about to put myself through, and went in with my head in the game. All of the shading and coloring has been painful as hell as well, but I always see progress, and it keeps me stoked for the next time. I'm about halfway done now at the 17.5 hour mark, taking it in 3 hour or so chunks, plus random tattoo of opportunity times. Humbling, because all the other tattooers and clientele at the tattoo shop doing my back, and other people that have seen my back piece are now like so reverential of it (think "Whoa, Dude, how the Hell did you do that?") I feel like all I did was just lay there and take it because I REALLY, REALLY wanted a ROA back piece. Once it's finished I'll get get to wear this motherfucker till they put me in the ground and I'm worm dirt.

3rd session on my back,6 hours of background.

I'll try to put together a good photo with the newest additions, it's hard to take a decent looking picture of it because it wraps around my arm, though here's a picture of it from Seth's blog from when it was first finished about a year ago: Seth Wood Tattoo - - - Updated - - - I have a couple of tattoos from Ron and, yes, his tattoos are amazing...like "holy fuck, I can't believe he did that" amazing, especially with some of the negative space tattoos, and he's all around a really awesome dude to get tattooed by. I highly recommend the experience.

well shit i already posted this but hell ill share it here, Eric Inksmith tattooed me at the Wilmington North Carolina Tattoo expo a couple months back

Never noticed this thread before... just read through all of it. I'm Janet and I'm 43. I grew up in small town Connecticut, then moved to Boston for 11 years where I majored in acting, moved around the city a lot, worked many places--the longest run was at a billiard club, and sang in a fun 50s girl-group/rockabilly type band. Then I moved to Los Angeles and I've been here going on 14 years. I teach kindergarten in the inner city. Went back to school to get my master's in education a few years ago. I am into music, esp punk/indie/rock... QOTSA is a good example of a favorite band although David Bowie is my all time favorite (pre-80s). I love animals --don't eat meat or buy anything leather, and I get a lot out of Bikram yoga. My husband ( @DJDeepFried) and I have been together 10 years, married for 5 1/2, and we have an awesome 4 1/2 year old daughter & 2 cats. I can be cynical and skeptical but I'm also positive, open-minded, enthusiastic, and sporadically silly. Whew, that's a lot to sum up in 1 post. Here's a pic of me I recently found from my younger punk rock days (~'86):

That's because your back is weirdly sensitive. Ever asked someone to rub your shin? Nope. But back rubs are awesome because your back has a million sensitive spots, all of which feel super fucking awesome when getting tattooed, especially the lower back. You already know that tattoos hurt, and you seem to be acutely aware that the back will hurt, too. You also know that you're already on this path (didn't you just get your hand tattooed?) and that the back is the ultimate canvas. you just need to figure out what you're getting and who's gonna do it, although something tells me that you have more than a few ideas in mind. While I did find the process to be painful (and expensive), I have no regrets at all about doing it. It was so exciting to see it come together, session by session. There's something about having a full back piece. It's something that I've always admired, but for years, I didn't think I'd be able to make the physical/financial/mental commitment to go through with it myself. Completing it was a big milestone for me, and I have a beautiful souvenir of the experience that I get to wear for life.

I just joined this site, I love lady heads and after browsing the member pictures I'd like to add Stefan Johnson's name to this conversation. I really love his style of girls and not even sure how it would be categorized (help?). I plan on getting a gypsy head in the near future but I prefer the more neo-trad, softer designs like this rather than the pure traditional styles which most artists seem to do. Here's a few examples of Stefan's style which I like and if anyone can suggest a traveling artist or one in the northeastern US who does similar work I'd greatly appreciate it. If I was closer to Stefan's shop in CA I'd be booking an appt. tomorrow. Thanks.