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@sboyer and his partner are about to drop another book via their Yellow Beak Press label- Born Weird. I figure he's been so damned busy working on it that he's forgotten to start a thread. Since I'm super excited about it, I'll jump in and start one up- hope you don't mind, Scott? I've been pretty vocal about my love for Higgs, Dave Lum and Scott Harrison's work in the 1990s- that "American Weirdo" style that Hardy talked about in Tattoo Time V. It really influenced how I got tattooed more than just about any other 'school' of tattooing save esoteric/occult stuff. I think it's fair to say that Weirdo stuff led me to where I am now. I just put a few teaser images up from the book on Occult Vibrations, and... it's just weird. So weird. Almost (blissfully) untattooably weird. It's going to be like the Zeis book- first 200 (of 2000) copies gets a watercolor print. I'm really geeked about this one. Were you BORN WEIRD? « Occult Vibrations

Hi everyone! Just signed up to say thank you for one of your threads on lower leg tattoos, I recently (5 days ago) got the back of my calf done and my ankle and foot has swollen, which being a novice at this it made me panic, so asking the good doctor Google what was wrong it lead me to one of your threads and now I'm much more confident about the healing of my tattoo! so thank you, much appreciated! Ailsa

I agree with others who say that you have to let it heal. I am NOT a tattooer, but I do have a lot of gray-shaded tattoos, and depending on a number of factors, their healing time varies. Until it's completely healed, you won't really know how it will look. Gray wash heals differently than other colors in that it looks reddish for longer. Agai: not a tattooer, just a guy who's healed a lot of tattoos. Good luck.

@jayessebee is not fat as hell, he just has a bit more to love. you know he's on the level because the bubble is in the middle.

Damn, Rev...you got hit three times?!?!?!?!?!?

So, this definitely doesn't have anything to do with tattoos, but I thought y'all might get a kick out of it. This was Monday evening, around 18.30. The temp was like five degrees, an it was heading south to minus five Fahrenheit. Cold. We had just finished dinner, and my oldest boy and his daughter and dogs were leaving to go home. he let his dogs out, and stopped to fire-up my car so it could warm-up. When he turned his head to do that, the dogs made book. Now, the dogs. There are two, the older one is a dawg, maybe 75 pounds, short hair, curly tail, yellow looking thing, kinda resembles a dingo. He's a real nice dog, but has a screw loose about running away. When he puts his mind to it, he's fast as hell, and if he decides to go, you aren't going to catch him till he's ready to come home. The other one, the little fella, he's a boxer pup, maybe four months old and 35 pounds, skin n bones. Anyhow, the dogs took off, and by the time my son noticed, they were out in the field already. My place is on the middle of about 500 acres of corn, so it's pretty dark at night. We all got in separate cars and went out looking for them...no sightings, and really, no chance of coming across them except by sheer luck. All of our spotlights were burned-out, batteries cashed, and the cars weren't digging the temperature. My oldest had walked our road, about two miles, both ways a few times, and saw nothing. About 24.00 we packed it in, and hoping that at least the little guy might be holed-up in a barn somewhere, went home. 06.00 Tuesday my oldest gets a call from a Lady, asks if he belongs to a couple of dogs. Yes he do. She was driving up from Illinois to go to work, and when she got to the state line, she noticed sommething odd in a deep ditch. Stopped, backed-up to it, and saw it was two dogs curled up together in the bottom of the ditch. Couldn't tell if they were dead or alive, but she went down and check on them. When she got close, the older guy got up an made unfriendly noises at her, but when the dogs saw the door to her truck was open and the motor running, they decided maybe it would be better to bite her AFTER they got warmed up. Sums it up. She delivered them to my son who had been busy trying to resign himself to them being dead...but was sure 'nuff glad they weren't. They spent the next day racked-out together in my office, the old fella is a bit TOO old for that kind of thing. Thought this was decent...

Here's the little Bob Wicks piece I got from Ron Wells last weekend. The day before Stephanie Tamez lined my knee (ouch!). Hell of a fucking weekend. Photo from Ron's Instagram.

I accepted a job offer today. I'm waiting on paperwork and what not before I hand in my notice but it looks like I'll be in a new job soon. The job isn't for a place that I'm super excited about, but it's a much easier workload than I have now for slightly more money and it means that I'm not going to have any shiftwork. For the past couple of years I've been working about five months a year on nights and pretty crappy hours otherwise and I'm pretty much completely burned out and hopefully changing jobs is going to help me to decide whether or not I'm in a career that I want to stick with (which would mean finding financing to start my own business in the next year or two) or whether I need to find something else entirely. Work things aside, I feel that working normal people hours is probably going to be great for my marriage and it's also going to give me a chance to pursue other interests like playing music with other people, which is pretty much impossible with shiftwork. So yeah, I don't feel super excited about it, but when I think about it, it's pretty awesome.

Yeah just for all y'all information.... that's a dude.

i only do it if i'm at the gym; because i hate most people and it helps me block them out like white noise.

I have and get alot from my friends but plenty of randoms too, i think its being tattooed all over that makes you look cohesive haha

im fat as hell and im done from belly button to neck, and back soon....fat really aint no big deal and you cant think what idiots think matter, what counts is how you feel about it

I dunno, "fat as hell" sounds pretty tough.

My home shops are NY Adorned and Kings Ave., so i'm not sure i'll have any skin left by the time i've run through all the options at those shops. I never realized how lucky i was to have those two in my backyard until i started coming here.

What??? I have seen plenty of fat folks with both done and I am a fat person getting my back done!

Well, you already have something on one side. You are now required to get something on the other side. The decision has already been made and you know it. ;)

NYC trip went well. Neurosis show the first night. My wife started her Timothy hoyer kitsune sleeve . We both got a little more work from hooper ( I may be mostly finished with arm/body next trip and my wife will prob done with her arm...pics then) and Chris O finished the bottom of my sleeve....now I need to laser then Start the top later this year. Stoked

Started this Upper-back piece with Valerie at Frith Street yesterday, lines and half of the shading done, three more sessions to go:D:o

I'm kinda late on this converation, 'cuz I've been traveling for work - but I am both happy and sad that this information is now "out there". Happy because I've supposedly been on Hooper's "Austin-to-be-contacted" list since November (patiently pacing the floor). Sad because now I'll have to compete with all y'all for appointment times . . . ;)

Colin Dale, that man fucking owns! I wish this was on me - - - Updated - - - Colin Dale, that man fucking owns! I wish this was on me

You bring up a valid point. Just getting a tattoo is giving up a big level of trust. For me, I stick with Kings Ave not because I only trust the people there, but because they also are guaranteed to bring in new tattooers and guest artists of a high caliber. The whole idea of "trust" is just an iffy word for the idea of getting tattooed. Rather, a client should trust THEMSELF to make good decisions when choosing an artist or a shop. As long as you know a tattooer is legit and does good work, then "trusting" them or a shop is a non-issue.

Agreed, here is how red the grey work looked on me. It took longer than the black for the reddness to subside.

Seth Wood did this, scroll down. http://sethwoodtattoo.com/page/13

I just want to say how awesome Bookmistress is because her shipping is super fast. The friends I sent the books to got them within a day or two of my order which meant that they brought them up with them when they came for a visit, so I've had the books for a few days now. I probably don't need to say this but I will anyway, they are at least as good as everyone says they are and if you haven't bought them yet you really have to.

Very nice, clean work. I'm diggin it. - - - Updated - - - Very nice backpieces, I really like the 2 by Kurt Wiscombe

My friend Matt let me borrow his copy of Iron Will. Jesus Christ it is nothing short of amazing! Grime's style is so original and intense and this book is just filled cover to cover with some of the best tattoos i have seen. I dont want to give Matt his book back but when i do I will definity cough up the cash to buy my own copy because it is WELL worth it.

Tattoo Age is the absolute best series out there about tattoos. I keep finding myself checking the website almost daily to see if a new video has been posted yet like i kid running to the fireplace on christmas morning to see what ole santy clause brought them. I think the Grime and Freddy Corbin ones are my favorite so far but that just might be a bias desicion since i am from the bay area. Theyre all fucking awesome though. I can watch them over and over again and never be bored of it. I watched the Mike Rubendall ones the other night before going to bed. Its refreshing to see something like this out there that is able to show tattoing at its finest to the masses without bastardising it.

Great idea and sounds like a great event. Looks like it was pretty successful to me too. Anything that brings together a bunch of people for a good cause is a success in my book. Its events like that make me jealous of the tattoo community. Such a good strong bond between everyone. I'm a graphic designer, you don't see us coming together to benefit one another's families in need. But in the end, I'm just glad people like this exist.

Ya gotta stay on top of the pix in this place, or ya end up having to get a bodysuit just to catch up!!!

Hahaha caught! I feel weird about posting it when it's in progress, but @Graeme and I are down in NYC for more work on our respective big projects next week, and I am sure there will be some photos on instagram!

Speaking of "can't wait to see your back"... when do we get to see your back? Where are you in your back piece @Pugilist? Have you posted any updates about it lately?

I'm almost at the point where it makes more sense for me to move to NYC than it does to keep on going back and forth. By the end of the sessions I have booked on my arm I think me and my wife will have gone down something like six times over a little over a year and a half to get tattooed? There are so many stupidly good people and shops there.

Saturday!

I'm not taking anywhere near as big or exciting a plunge as @ChrisvK, but I decided I was sick of making excuses and working a 9 to 5 I don't love, and I'm packing up my things and moving all the way across the country to try and make an honest go at things with my music in a new city with a new scene. It's a smaller leap of faith, for sure, but it feels like a leap of faith nonetheless and I couldn't be more excited about it!

Screw this. Who wants to do this? Let's form an awesome tattooed posse and just live and say fuck everything...

@Dan S Fuckin hell Dan only just saw this. That is so good. - - - Updated - - - Amund Dietzel dragon. Tattooed by Jordan Teear, Frith Street Tattoo, yesterday.

I'm also in the losing weight with a tattoo reward camp. I'm currently at least 50lbs overweight. At 6'3" I carry it well while clothed but shirtless is a different story. My two arm tattoos have already increased my confidence. My goal for 2013 is to drop 50lbs of fat and replace a bit of it with muscle (the scale is irrelevant to me, really, but I think that would be about right to really improve my appearance). I'm planning a road trip to Texas around Novemberish and if I can drop the weight a visit to Austin and Mr. Steve Byrne will be in order. Epic chest piece? Yes, please.

Welcome. We all have secret decoder rings as well.

Shit, dude. I really appreciate that. :) Thanks so much again!

Talk to the person who tattooed you and let them know what you are not happy about. No one on here can tell you something better than a tattooer seeing it in person. Also, just for reference, adding "white" will not help anything. White pigment won't lighten already applied black.

I wanted to bring this thread back and remind everyone how important it is to contribute to tattooers and quality suppliers. The more money we can keep between people who "get it", the more we can control who we support and who we buy from. Remember to support people who really care about tattooing and the craft. Even people new to tattoos can do this by choosing a tattooer and shop that does quality work and treats people well. Don't patronize, buy from, or support something that doesn't help and contribute to the industry, culture, and job we love.

If you come up for lasering, we will be happy to treat you to a sore beer!

I was thinking Scott Sylvia should keep a stash for each time he tattoos a LSI member that way he could save on postage and said person doesn't have to wait till the end of the month to receive their shirt .

i got another 2 hours in on my back today.

Roses on my elbow by Scott Sylvia

Dagger through neck, Valerie Vargas

p90x! i lost 40 lbs. ive kept 30 of them off and ive been lazy

Greg Irons ships are some of the best in my opinion .Although this beautifully simple piece by Tokyo Hiro may just take the cake for me .