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So I got tattooed two weeks ago and am due for another session on my back at the end of the month, so I have really not been in "need" of new work lately, but a local shop had a fundraiser yesterday for a family affected by domestic violence, and I could not resist stopping in to get something for a good cause. I got this tiny but awesome little flower that magically fit perfectly between the two larger pieces on my thigh, like it was fate! Done by the fabulous Eilo at MTL Tattoo here in Montreal. I love it. (Please pay no attention to my torch, which is still healing and majorly flaky!)

On my way to Frith Street to get tattooed by the epic Stewart Robson, a ship on the back of my calf :-)

Although not a tattooer, I work in a shop and can I please add: 5 friends + 3 iphones taking pictures should not equal 1 tattoo. That is annoying math.

Well, what the hell...this month is in the bag already, but might as well toss one in just to keep in practice. Tattooed by Nick Colella @ CTC this past summer, a little family action.

Since I will lose anyways...lemme post up my snake/skull/dagger just for shits and giggles to see how it fares.. Regino Gonzalez - - - Updated - - - I love the black flames!

(It's been a while since I've posted, so let me quickly reintroduce myself: I'm @hogg 's significant other. A tattoo collector, not an artist. Also, I'm an American historian -- a.k.a. an academic.) Perhaps we're all being a little hard on @SailorClaire because she is a self-identified academic. But those of us in that world are not all the same; we've all had different training, and we approach our research, our subjects, our writing, and our instruction from various perspectives and with various levels of discipline and care. With that said, @SailorClaire, you may have exposed yourself as the academic equivalent of a scratcher. Your heart seems to be in the right place, and you offered some evidence of background research (albiet too little, too late). But I'd agree with others who have questioned the time constraints on the project and asked whether it isn't ultimately "lazy" to mine internet forums for a sociological study like this. It's an amateur approach rather than a forward-thinking one. As you continue with your graduate work, read more, practice more, you'll certainly be able to better recognize the difference. Interviewing people as research subjects is a delicate undertaking, which should be obvious considering all the legalese in the paperwork you'll need to submit with your thesis. But paperwork aside, engaging in this kind of first-person research requires better training, a greater sensitivity to your subject matter, an awareness of how you will be perceived by your interviewees, far more reading, and a great deal of practice honing your methodology -- especially your skills as an interviewer, a writer, and a student of your "topic of choice." If you really do want to make an impact in your field, the research process (and ultimately your writing) can't be rushed. Cutting corners may get you your master's degree, but it won't make you a respected scholar in the field and certainly not within the tattoo world. I'm sure the tattoo artists on the board can appreciate the value of these kinds of missteps along the way. Best lessons.

xbox, you got a zit. You'll live.

@SailorClaire Margo DeMello was my first wife ,I helped her write that shit. 20 yr old boring crap.If you don't believe me research who I am. - - - Updated - - - f#ckin vampires....this is about research for the sake of research. So you can finish a useless degree....and then you become an authority on something you truly know nothing about. life experience has lead me to hate this academic BS. - - - Updated - - - If I package a bunch of shit someone told me as facts,how does that make me an authority? - - - Updated - - - Oh yeah Margo Demello claimed she spent alot of time in a tattoo shop with GTC and I, Bullshit ,your following bullshit. Sorry for the truth. Hope this helps with your research...remember publishing bullshit doesnt make it true. You don't look like a Sailor. A trade many are proud of ,monikers are supposed to mean something. When did everyone start giving themselves nicknames?

ummm...washed yer 'stache lately?!

Made my first booking for the year on Saturday; back with Valerie in April to get a Gorilla and Snake on my calf. I've wanted a gorilla for a while then saw this on Tim Lehi's instagram and thought 'yeah the addition of a snake might be cool...'. Also put my name on Chad Koeplinger's cancellation list for while he's at Frith St, but I doubt that one will come off and I must be somewhere near the top of Xam's list as it's getting on for 2 years since I put my name down...

I was supposed to be waiting until the end of the month for my next session on my back, but I accidentally got tattooed today. Whoooooooops.

Five natural kids, a step-daughter, and a granddaughter. My pops always said "kids are gods way of teaching you humility". And hey-nothing else to do when you don't have cable! The eagle is a piece of old Cliff Raven flash.

Heading into Spotlight Tattoo tomorrow! Had an appointment this weekend but I had to change it! Can't wait to see what Grant Cobb cooks up!

It's not that we make mistakes but how we deal with them, that is important. It's not easy to be classy.

As an academic who does interview-based research, and who spends a lot of time teaching people how to do qualitative research, I have to agree with many of the concerns raised in the last thread, and question the logic of trying to do this online in this rushed way. I did my own masters in the UK and I know masters courses are short there and make it difficult to engage in sustained, profound research.As this seems to be the case for you, that doesn't mean you can just do the same research project, but accelerated. It means you need to think about what you can accomplish with the time/restrictions you have, and what knowledge you can genuinely generate from that. Thinking you can ask fairly complex questions and answer them through message board focus groups is like the opposite of rigour. You need to find a research question that can be answered in the time and with the resources you have.. At my university, we strongly encourage our students to do literature based masters projects as it is unfair to both researcher and potential subjects to take on something so ambitious is so little time. Message board research feels lazy. The only time I have seen it done effectively has been when that's the subject of the actual research- I.e. how social media is used in x community. IT CANNOT BE A REPLACEMENT FOR DEEP QUALITATIVE RESEARCH just because you don't have time. Focus groups are great for gathering easier-to-access info--you want to talk about identity? Meaning? Gender? You need to sit down with people. If you have read all of this research literature, then you know that qualitative research is about building trust, relationships, etc. And that there is no research without it. I am a total self-hating academic so I get why so many folks in the tattoo world are so skeptical of researchers. We can be a really tonedeaf bunch. Many researchers take without giving back. But I just want to be clear that as someone who is very much embedded into this world, the above would not be ok with me, either. In fact, much of my career has been spent trying to push people to rethink what it means to work with people, similar to the stuff @Lochlan has been talking about. And to the OP: I get that as an MA student this may be some of your first attempts at doing original research, and so this strong reaction may be really painful. I encourage you to listen to it carefully; I have learned some of my own important lessons about how I present myself, why I do what I do, what I hope to gain from my work, and what I'm asking of other people, in these kinds of tense encounters. I encourage you to think about what the goal of this project is beyond it being interesting to you (you want others to share personal moments of their lives with you? That's not enough.) and think especially about what useful, respectful, rigorous research can actually be done with the time and resources you have. If a message board conversation is all that you are able to do right now, it's not enough to credibly try to answer the questions you are asking with the depth that they, and we, deserve. Research with people takes time. I empathized with how painful such a strong reaction like this must be for you, especially as your supervisors clearly signed off on this plan and no one appeared to realize the problems with it, but I have to say that this: Pretty much removed any good will I felt for you. The above is basically a threat. If you do, indeed, believe in "ethics", then such a nasty statement would never have appeared in your message. Whether or not our posts are publicly available, threatening us that you could use them if you wanted to, but you're just too nice not to, is a dirty, dirty thing to say. Think about what ethical means.

Yeah, kinda like last month...this month's contest was won, I think, the first day. And if it wasn't, there are enuf other crazy-good pieces to fill a years worth of "best of" contests. The piece I posted isn't anything special to anyone but me, just my way of holding my kids a little closer to my heart. Thanks, Lochlan, and all of you posting these most excellent pieces!

I got out of the hotel and into a house today! And fired up my spinning wheel for the first time in over a year. (But dang! I'm so bored and lost in this big ol' empty house with no tv and no internet except for my phone). I might do a lot of spinning. And knitting. And reading. And whatever else I can think of.

Other than a fellow heavily tattooed person asking me "Who did it!?" I absolutely hate when random people I don't know ask me about my tattoos. I don't really know why, but I just find it incredibly annoying. I would rather listen to car alarms going off at 3 am.

One more thing, and then I'll shut up about this, but this: Is a genuinely very good explanation of what you would contribute to academic knowledge about tattoo culture. Great. It is of course important to be able to explain a research topic's place within the wider literature. What it is NOT, however, is an explanation of what you would contribute to tattoo culture itself. Many academic confuse these two--they think that by contributing academic knowledge they are "giving back" to the people they research inherently. That's bullshit. When in the other thread, people posted about academics taking and not giving back, this is what they meant. When you embark on this kind of research where you hope to have people share pretty intimate parts of their lives, you have to think about what you will be able to give them, and not accept this fallacy that the world somehow gives two shits about the academic "contribution" your making. It is MUCH HARDER WORK to make sure you're making both an academic and a social contribution, but it's also, the only truly ethical way to proceed.

Thank you for your apology though I must question, "limited time scale"....going into grad school you know you need a thesis so by a good advisors advising you should be encouraged to begin developing your thesis at the beginning. Of course it is going to take different shapes and forms while being modified as you go through your lit review and intro classes though people tend to stay close to their original thoughts and reason for seeking a higher education...ie you think your work contributes to a specific missing element, a unique pov, etc so you seek to add to the subject. I do not know the specifics to your program/department so don't know how long your program is but I do know your university and some of their work so believe you have longer than a "limited time scale" unless procrastination got the best of you? Or other variables which I am not privy to..... Once again welcome to the site and hope you find it useful if you decide to stick around and you can contribute as other LSTers have. You can always PM me or respond here or elsewhere. LSTer are truly a unique, devoted, and caring bunch in the world of tattoo forums and in person (at least those I have meet) and we are blessed to have them here! Online research is a new thing where very few researchers have seen desired results and those who have, have had to put large amounts of money into it. The ethics and ways of doing it are still developing, it's in its trial and error phase if you will. I have found your joining the site useful for me professionally (not LST) as I am currently out of the country for a few months working on furthering a research infrastructure we have used successfully with large research funds to become available at an affordable price for the everyday person including grad students. So thank you for teaching me and helping me further my desire to be a better researcher that I am grateful for.

Here you guys go. Just popped this up on youtube.

If you've looked at previous work or flash or paintings of theirs, maybe let them know why youre excited about that particular person- which is the reason youre comfortable giving control. "I saw X tattoo in your portfolio and X and X and I really liked those! Im open to whatever youre into right now, I trust you etc" and typically they can feel you out from there and start firing off some ideas. im sure a quick consult will get the person going in the right direction.

Is it seriously your first pimple? Jesus. Keep your dirty fingers off of it and don't pop it. Else you just might get that infection after all.

1. Upside-down tattoos (Tattoos that face the wearer rather than correctly facing the viewer) and the same arguments that come as a result of trying to persuade them to get it right. ("But it's for me!"etc...) 2. Hawk-eyes. Those who try to follow every movement and every line on the skin as though they are actually moving the needles with telepathy. A bonus is when they swing their head the other direction in the middle of lining to see who just walked in the door. "No charge for that extra line, friend-o" 3. People who refer to permanent things (tattoos) with vague or intangible answers. "How much for a name- where, how big and what style?" "On my arm. Not very big. Regular letters..." 4. Folks who ask the line of questions that are the equivalent of playing Stairway to Heaven in a guitar store. "What's the craziest tattoo you've ever one? What's the most painful place to get a tattoo? Have you been an artist all your life?" I understand being nervous and unaware of how annoying some things can be...but it's still annoying. Plus many others already mentioned.

But how will my friends no how cool I am???

This. A lot of here have put a great deal of time/money/sacrifice into this passion. I hope @SailorClaire sticks around, and contributes, and you'll only learn more and more. And from there, hopefully, we can guide you where to go.

Holy shit, I never knew this existed. Footage of me being tattooed by Dave Gibson. Ha!

Souryou Kazuyoshi son of Horiyoshi III

Yeah, his stuff is very pleasing to the eye, looking forward to the appointment today. Been wanting to get something from him for a bit. I was in the shop on Saturday and I felt like I was thrown into the past. Not sure which guy it was, but he was plugging away on an eagle on this guy's thigh. He said it was time for a smoke. Which I thought meant he was taking a break and going outside. What is meant was he was announcing that he would be smoking right there. He was doing the outline as he puffed away! Haven't seen that in a long time!

What is Egyptian lettering????? Rock/fish/fish/fox/sun/planet/ibis...

I sent you a PM @xbox12 on this already. Stop posting duplicate threads on this. This will not be tolerated

leave it alone...

Go there. Get tattooed by Lucky Bastard. Trust his opinion over everyone else's, especially your own. That man is one of the best tattooers working today. His Japanese stuff is just unbelievable, and it doesn't get much more traditional than his Americana.

Actually I think PRISON could be unsafe! :-)

sorry, this is a weird thread,using computers to compose tattoos is still strange to me. Asking the world their opinion is also strange.

It sounds like an awesome tour. - - - Updated - - - Nothing tastes better than good beer after starting chest pieces.

So, this was an apology, or...

"...and will leave as a member shortly. thanks, SailorClaire." Adios. Don't let the door hit you in the ass.

@SailorClaire welcome and think you just got your Community Research 101 course on going into a community todo research without doing research ahead of time and how that can backfire therefore excluding you from being able todo actual research. Consider it a gift very few grad schools could teach their students. A researcher needs to be more humble. The only thing we know is nothing and we are always students. There is no master! Unfortunately this hierarchical thought process that grad schools give their students who are accepted and/or graduate is historically how many researchers have tried todo research and it is almost like colonialism thus leaving a bad after taste on the community long after the researcher has left the community...i.e. what did the community actually gain from partaking? Or, how factual is this researchers work if they didn't actually enter the community? Amongst many other things, any good person questioning your thesis would ask then leaving your research irrelevant. Or even worse drawing a BS (yes that is a clinical term, haha) research study that influences others who care not to actually learn about a topic or community, i.e. mainstream news or books. These are thoughts to help you better defend your thesis when the time comes. As a professional who does lots of work in communities and research internationally your pitch to do the research is what I fight not to do. May I suggest a book for you? Research Methods for Community Change; A Project-Based Approach by Randy Stoecker. I am just one of many people who work with many exploited populations so I write this as a polite offering. Lastly, as was suggested by many LSTers take a look around the site and I think you will find lots of good pre-research to your research....consider it a Lit Review. I had one of my old staff actually join the site for her thesis on Tattooed Professional Women in Social Work and she got some impressive results from LSTers. So check out that search feature and put it to use and maybe reintroduce yourself and maybe the community will re-welcome you. LSTers, thank you for voicing your concerns politely and offering constructive criticism so this site is not exploited!!! As well as an opportunity to teach the ones who unfortunately get into positions to teach about others when they are not a part of the other and/or truly know about the other(s) EDIT: oh yeah as one of the site owners you may want to contact us first or if you're trying this on other forums as well the mods.....

Did a photoshoot the other day, and starting the new year with a chest piece! (on the 17th)

Aaron Coleman, three sessions.

So I'm pretty much a packrat. And I have 1000s of hours of VHS video in various rubber maids around my house. Some commercially produced stuff. Some literally one of a kind transfers of old 8mm films that were left to me when older friends passed away. I found out last night that my "dazzle" video hub doesn't work with a mac, so I put an order in for a Apple compatible device. Soon I'll be transcoding old films to digital. I'll try to remember to post links to anything I put on youtube here, though some of the footage (Cliff Raven tattooing naked) may not be everyone's cup of tea so I'll use discretion. First up is some NON naked Raven, some classic Realistic Tattoo stuff with Hardy, Irons, Salmon, Zulueta and the gang. Just have to wait for the hardware to arrive!

I hope your piece come out well. Right on the spine can get pretty painful but everyone is different. That spot I think has a minimal pain level compared to the rest of the body.

that's funny....

Hello, all. I've been following Last Sparrow for some time. Great bunch of people here, and loads of great interviews- my fav. Because of one of those interviews I found the amazing Kore and Brenda Flatmo of Plura Bella Tattoo in Cincinnati, Ohio. What a stroke of luck they were within my traveling distance, and over the course of last year I got sleeved by Kore, and best of all, got to know a fantastic bunch of folks. I really couldn't ask for better. I'll post pics of that sleeve soon as I look about and see where. I've been fairly obsessed with tattoos and tattooing for about four years, now, and it only seems to be getting worse, lol. What else? Worked for ten years in a fabricating art shop, which sadly went under during the recession, but gave me a decade of sculpting, painting, welding, molding- you name it, and a hell of a lot of laughs and hard work. Still at it and loving it in my home shop, producing prop replicas for the cosplay set (another great group of people who take fun seriously), painting and sculpting for my own weirdness and, of course, Halloween. I'm headed back to Kore and Crew this spring for another round. Working hard and doing my thing. Just watched the interview with Phil Kyle, which was great fun. Am I aspiring? Damn straight. Thanks for everything.:D

Make sure and post a photo. When I get down to San Francisco Rassier is my top pick. I just booked an appointment with Steve Byrne for the first week of February.

When I was working service industry jobs, I would frequently be stopped by customers who wanted me to stand still (while holding hot food en route to a table!) so they could inspect my tattoos, people would grab me and try to touch my tattoos constantly. Almost always older men, but sometimes women! My husband is heavily tattooed and other than the occasional "sick ink, bro!" he has never been accosted the way that i have. The worst thing about something like that happening at work is that you are trapped and you have to be nice, even if people are being totally inappropriate. I used to complain that if i were a stripper, at least i'd have a bouncer who'd boot the jerks trying to grab me. working in service jobs in a more affluent neighborhood also brought to my attention the fact that a lot of square, office-type dudes definitely have a sense of exoticism about tattoos, like "ooh you look just like a suicide girl!" like i'm supposed to be this available babe who loves taking her clothes off because i have a lot of highly visible tattoos. nope, sorry bro. i'm a married mom, just like your wife. calm down.