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Here is a wolf head that Ron Wells did for me last night at Congress St Tattoo, in Portsmouth, NH. Not sure if you can tell by the pics, but it's on my right forearm, up close to the elbow. LOVE IT! Great experience, Ron is an awesome dude. Also had the pleasure of meeting @Graeme, and @Pugilist, who drove down from Canada for an appt with Ron as well. Pugilist got something amazing, but i won't divulge as I haven't seen her post a pic here yet.. but I did see it on instagram and it is completely and totally sick. rob true to iphone form, the pics are pointing the wrong way, which is annoying as can be.

Mike Wilson duel jax beach, FL. Less than two hours. Tapped out on doing any shading. (I blame it on the late night arrival the night before, it makes me feel better)

Here's my last two Panther by Stewart Robson Eagle by Valerie Vargas

Bones Brigade: An Autobiography. Seriously. If you walked upright during the 80s this will make you super nostalgic.

Someone recommended that I post up my latest tattoo on this forum so here goes. I am almost done with my half sleeve from Horitomo. Although a phoenix is colorful, I'm a big fan of black/grey tattoos so that's what I went with. I was on his waiting list for 2 years before I stepped foot into State of Grace in San Jose, Ca. (I fly from Dallas and do back to back sessions). He is one of the few people I know in the U.S. that does tebori so after 28 hours this is what I have. I took this picture straight from his instagram.

Only depression I feel is having to wait to get another one. Or perhaps realizing there's another awkward spot ill have to fill. But mostly excitement here

I used to think I had to slow down, so I don't run out of space, but now I don't have as much free time or money to get tattooed and all I want to do is get more tattoos. I can't imagine I will stop. I see other friends who are a little ahead of me and they seem to find ways to keep getting tattoos with limited or no skin left. I don't really want face tattoos even though that seems to be the trend right now, I have a feeling it will slightly harder to live with and a little more regretful than all the tribal armbands that came out of the 90's and I would just assume skip it.

I've experienced this before. It's usually a very fleeting feeling, but I think it has to do with getting used to the change. I know I'd be a lot sadder if I woke up and a tattoo was missing.

Nope, never happened. Not with stuff I put on myself, not on stuff I've gotten since then. Always enjoyed planning it, having it done, watching it heal.

I remember feeling awkward after the first session I did on my front. It was really weird to look at myself in the mirror afterwards. Only took a couple days to get used to though. Besides that one time, I can't say that I've been anything else than stoked after getting a new tattoo.

A fun and quick one last night. By Aron Dubois at Scapegoat Tattoo in Portland, OR.

Thanks for your comments! I'm very excited with the piece. I forgot to include another part of my experience that I think you all would appreciate... So when I was going crazy with anticipation waiting to see a drawing for the piece and checking my email a billion times a day, Eddy sends an email saying that his "old friend Dan Higgs" said "whoa" three times in a row when he saw the drawing and that that was a very good omen. And then my head almost exploded ;)

People are always going to have an inaccurate representation of tattooers and the tattoo lifestyle. I don't think this show started it, the world is full of mediocre and bad tattooers who are completely delusional with over inflated egos, this show just happens to give those people 15 mins of pseudo fame. But I don't even know if this could be considered Z list celebrity status, the contestants are pretty forgettable and at best have a short career headlining traveling tattoo conventions. Why does it really matter what people think about the lifestyle. People who are serious about tattooing whether it be clients, or tattooers understand the hierarchy and where this show place is in it. People who aren't into it probably already have their per-conceived notions or don't really care one way or another. I have had to listen to plenty of customers rattle off their interpretation of what happened on last weeks inkmaster, and a lot of them are completely clueless about a lot of things, but most of them understand that these people aren't that good and are full of themselves. All I really have to do to give tattooing a better perception amongst them is just not act like the contestants. And as annoying as listening to this stuff, if people watch a show about tattooing and it makes them want to get tattooed, I am not going to complain. For the record there are hundreds of threads about who is the best tattooer, favorite tattooer, who's doing your next tattoo, a thread for each genre of tattoo, a thread for each animal that people get tattooed, and so on. If you added up all the activity of these threads you would probably see how little people really talk about this show in comparision. But really why wouldn't we talk about this show. This season alone has had Rubendall, Jack Rudy, Richard Stell, and Forrest Cavacco judging tattoos. I don't know one person in tattooing who hasn't watched one episode (most have watched more, but some will only admit to watching it once).

Here you go guys, todays fun. Inner arse cheek is... interesting to say the least. Anyway ill probably wait for a few more sessions before I upload any more pics, so here ya go

This is the first commission I've ever done. She wanted a skeleton in a lime green Dodge Super Bee, this is what I came up with and I'm pretty stoked on it. 16x20 pen and liquid acrylic on cold press Arches board.

My boss said a few months back that I needed to, at some point, do a backpiece painting as homework... his specific instructions were to make it my "apprentice masterpiece." i don't know about that, but this was the second one i did for him... the first didn't live up to my expectations. after a print by Kuniyoshi

I did this one the other night to try to practice black shading with the FW liquid acrylics as I find it goes from dark to light really quickly sometimes. Still practice need but it's an improvement I think.

We do this thing on the Jalopy Journal(an online forum for hot rodders) featuring an occasional friday art show where Pinstripers and the like share their artwork. Some really cool stuff would be shown, and I think that would be a fun event for this forum. So how about a picture of your favorite painting(s)? I'll start with this one, it's a liquid acrylic and coffee stained painting featuring Hans "King Whiskers" Langseth...Guinness World Record holder for longest beard.

Hi! My name is Alice Carrier. I have been tattooing in Portland for just under a year. I'm looking forward to checking out the forum! I work at Anatomy Tattoo. Thanks a lot! Sorry my intro is so awkward, I can't think of anything exciting to say. I like tattoos! My life is basically all tattoos, husband, kid, dog, in roughly that order. Thanks again!

So far i only got one tattoo but i can somewhat relate to your post. The proces of planning it, getting it and specially healing it was awesome. The tattoo was on my mind 24/7. When it was fully healed i got this feeling of ' well, now what?' I just couldn't really comprehend the fact i changed my body for the rest of my life. My tattoo is now a year old and it makes me smile when i look at it. I love it. Now what? Get more work done and keep on living

Agreed! My tattoos are more precious to me than almost any materialistic item in my life. The "can't be stolen, broken or lost" aspect makes a strong selling point. I lose and break shit all the time.

I can relate to the awkwardness @Iwar speaks of now. I thought for the longest I'd never go through with getting my chest tattooed and looking downward I'm like holy shit my chest is tattooed. It's more of a fuck yea followed by staring at myself for 10 minutes. I never felt this way about any tattoos on my legs or arms. I guess it's because it's a big step versus extremities which seem to be just commonplace

David, I sure appreciate your thoughts and must say its nice to have a discussion on a forum without anyone getting mad or taking the subject personal. As I agree with the heart of your post and the fact there are mediocre tattoo artists as well as mediocre work in any profession from health care to land scapers. I also agree that this show did not start the rep for the industry(good or bad) but certainly does not help it. I believe that the one and only thing it does teach is what to look for in good work much like looking at a home builders completed homes. I also agree that there is a % of people that this show will not affect one way or another but I certainly dont see anyone on the "fence" getting any work done due to airing the pathetic drama that reality tv addicts crave from week to week. That is what I disagree with. There are many of us, and I would assume the honorable Mr Flores would agree:), that wish we could get away from the petty fights, insults from contestants, pshyco artists, etc. and just have a legit show on the work. As you mentioned, there have and will be great judges throughout the show whom I have mucho respect for but, I long for criticism and praise without the sarcasm, petty comments, or acting like a spoiled child from the contestants. I suspect they could judge a show with professionals as easy or easier and we could spend more time appreciating the work for ourselves and learning. I sure could learn more from any of the judges spending more time discussing than a break away to artist telling each other that they are going to kick each others ass. Right? My social circle of artists and friends do not act like this, nor do we allow ourselves to be exposed to adults that have the inability to police themselves in a social situation. Much like men and women in any profession that take their industry seriously and act professional, they should too. I honestly dont care what people think about tattooing or me, and never have. I have been judged my entire life by many that have no idea what I have done, who I am and where I am going. At 43, I can hold my head higher than many and honestly could care less. If anything, I hate TV and the uneducated douche puddles that create controversy for shock value and ratings. You know as well as I that there is potential for a reality drama in ANY profession, no matter if the subject matter is surgeons, housewives, little people, alt lifestyles, hookers, etc. Again, I honestly see your side and appreciate the discussion. I suppose just take this show personally(and thats my hangup) much like true bike builders who dont like to watch American Choppers to watch a Father and Son act like they do week after week, they just want to see the builds. Have a great day David.

It was worth watching Miami Ink just for Chris Garver. Dude is a living legend.

Wow... There's a lot of really good stuff in this thread! I've been trying to use up some of the art supplies that I've had laying around for the last couple of years, and I ran across some full sheet labels. Everybody's been having a lot of fun making stickers to slap all over the place!

Happy holidays to you too - and welcome to LST!

A panther from Stewart, an eagle from Valerie. You make good decisions.

I love this part too...

@taaarro so good! I, too, followed on instagram and showed a buddy of mine who is also into flying saucers and "sci fi elements." Really dig it... "the stoke will pull you through."

1.) Best LST Thread: FUll back piece thread, latest tattoo lowdown 2.) Worst LST Thread: 3.) Favorite tattoo you got this year (pls say by who and what shop): Back piece by @Scott Sylvia BlackHeart Tattoo San Francisco: Our Shop - Jeff Rassier, Tim Lehi, Scott Silva, Nick Rodin, Cody Miller, Juan Puente 4.) Favorite tattoo another LSTer got this year (pls say by who and what shop if you know): @Ryan back piece by @Tim Hendricks Gold Rush Tattoo and @bulldog eagle by @Valerie Vargas http://frithstreettattoo.co.uk/ 5.) Favorite tattoo artist you discovered through LST: my tattoo education is in thanks to LST so I have learned about all the tattooers I like from here 6.) How'd you find LST: searching for ideas on covering my back, lucky day for me 7.) Favorite part of the site: forums, this is my social networking I dont have FB twitter or any of the other stuff so this is where I go when online 8.) Area of the site you spend most your happy time at: Interviews, they genuinely make me happy to be around all this great stuff 9.) What do you want more of: I liked reading posts by tattooers and it has dropped some and I know why but it would still be cool to read more of that 10.) Sum up the year in one word: mourn BONUS: Favorite quote of the year...... @Lance "This is one of those times where one looks at this, knows they are conciously starring at man-ass but just can't take their eyes away from it nor do they care too. ;-)" in regards to full back piece thread

Cool mate the devils in the details , the Serratus Anterior on that bad boy is spot on I wonder if Regino came up looking at comic books ?

scan0047 | Flickr - Photo Sharing! look at these fucking hipsters....

I love show and tell. I've been wanting to do some big tattoo inspired acrylic paintings. I did a color study for this one last night. It still needs some refining, the leaves are a bit too large in my opinion, but hopefully it's getting there.

I have been trying to teach myself to paint over the last 6 - 12 months and these are probably my least crappy attempts so far. Still a long way to go but thought I would stick them here as I didn't realise there was a thread for this!

Saw this guy on reddit...pretty funny

I bought one of those non-photo blue pencils w/ the intention of speeding up my clean-up to scanning process. My damned scanner still picks up the blue lines. I guess I need to adjust the settings. I also forgot to mention that I'll draw stuff on the tracing paper first because it's cheaper, get the lines right, then use a light box to trace those lines onto the final paper in light pencil, mess with it a bit there, and then line in ink. Things change for me as I do that and helps me make decisions along the way.

Invest in a non-photo blue pencil. It allows you to start out with basic shapes and sketchy lines (I always find it helps to draw "skeletons", gestures and work out composition first). I go through those things like there's no tomorrow.

I finished this about a month ago. Just got prints made through Shirts and Destroy. Ron Henry Wells | Webstore

this is rad, I was thinking of staring a thread like this bit figured everyone would just shit all over it. anyways, glad to see it's already here.. This is what i'm currently working on (unfinished at the moment) It's hand embroidery and paint on fabric. It's going to be a patch for a denim vest. I've also been making what I'm calling embroidered talismans the past week, here's one of them It's also hand sewn and is about2.5"

I just started reading Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk today. It's very, very weird. I'd like to read Anna Karenina again, I think I would definitely noticed some things I missed the first time. Anthony Kiedis' memior, Scar Tissue was really good. I read a lot of Stephen King and Augusten Burroughs.

I do free-lance graphic design, this was for a skateboard graphic, I didn't end up selling the design to the owner because, he was being sketchy and never wrote out a business agreement. I'm saving this for a skateboard art show tho. This was influenced by the 80's Powell Peralta series.

Keeping this thread going....I've got 100's of paintings but not to many good pictures!?! FLiP

Just a little mermaid and shell i painted the other day not the greatest but thought it turned out ok

heres one i did for the Dia de los muertos show at Flying Panther. shitty photo, taken after framed.

I'll put a few more up. These are on my Bookface page anyway. Page I painted for Nick Colella: One I did for Mike Shishmanian:

I like to see more paintings, so I guess I should post one of mine.