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I think Tony Nilsson at Blue Arms Tattoo here in Oslo needs to be in this thread

Oookay- here's a peek:

Got this today, sorry for the bad photo.

This is the best picture I could get of the Thom Devita backpiece when new. Snagged from my copy of Tattooing A to Z by Huck Spaulding

Had my first Saturday off in months. Was able to catch a walk-in with Brad Stevens at NY Adorned - very fortunate. Got this pretty lady to cap my left shoulder. here's a photo of it from his instagram.

I think it would make me a better dancer at raves.

The ectasy frying her brain probably has a lot to do with that, but nothing wrong with partyin a little while you are young I guess, and her blacklight tattoo, will be the equivalent to 90's armband tattoo that a lot of people regret.

The kind where I walk in and no matter what people say hello and are friendly. I've been lucky to find so many of those around the bay area.

This is slightly off from the question but still relatable. This idea of "Japanese" is a funny one for me. I've always loved the traditional Japanese style growing up. Without getting into details I was less fond of tattoos I'd seen around the neighborhood. Both in terms of subject as well as how they looked. Traditional Japanese stuff always looked clean and cohesive, the neighborhood stuff were blotches. I didn't know spit about anything. That's straight out fact. I attributed bad tattoos as American. But even then I did develop a discernable eye for recognizing traditional Japanese on a subconscious level. When japanese influenced tattoos started becoming increasingly popular or more readily seen in the US circa the kanji craze, it never looked really "Japanese". I would flip through magazines see the images and would be able to blindly point to images saying,"American, European, American, Chinese, European, European, Japanese.". Then I'd look at the tattooer's names. 90% of the time I'd be spot on. There seemed a time when it was very discernable between the traditional Japanese style, American Japanese, and European Japanese. American stuff often seemed busy, sometimes cartoony, blue water almost definitely signaled American, but also solidly packed with colors. European stuff almost seemed delicate with smooth shading. Chinese was painterly(???). And Japanese stuff had balance between detail and legibility or if the detail took over it seemed that the point was to create texture or patterns on the wearer's skin. I don't know how else to describe it. This was all just by looking at them and not taking into account stories or any of that. Again this was during my ignorant phase, pre-tattooed but looking, when I still couldn't appreciate an Ed Hardy piece. Skip to today years later, however and looking around it's much harder to pull up a magazine and call out traditional, American, or European. So many artist's works from outside Japan these days look more traditional than artists in Japan and same with the opposite. So many artists in japan are flipping tradition on its head and giving a fresh breath to things w/ western influences. I've come to figure it's all good. There's room for all. After hundreds of years of the same thing traditional Japanese can probably stand to take in a fresh breath. I am still intrigued by people when I hear them say things are traditional only if done by hand or if they have a hori title and all that vice versa those who don't think it matters. An interesting debate to see viewpoints. Just to be a stinker, lets just remember traditional Japanese is not even the same in Japan. What I mean is there are families. The rules of one family are not necessarily the rules of another. Then you have variations by regions too. It's all very interesting and overwhelming. Okay nuff said I'm just rambling. Btw, all the above, take it with a grain of salt. I'm no tattooer, historian or anthropologist on the matter. Just a random guy giving you his personal and I stress personal history, recollections and experiences. Rip into me if you will.

Seriously, I just buy books. Like, books I'm never going to read but sound awesome.

Like @Dhopper said in the original thread to me it's a ratio or matter of degrees By my eyes traditional Japanese is similar to traditional Americana in that the motifs are very bold and almost simplified , when I see Western influenced Japanese it looks more "busy " . When you look at the older style trad Japanese it is mainly single deity stuff you don't see dragon/tiger sleeves and most often sleeves are sakura and clouds , water with possibly goldfish or even just water or maybe a single Dragon . This may be to tie in with a full body suit as a whole concept , again I'm no expert just my thoughts . For anyone wanting to see good examples of Traditional Japanese Tattooing there's a nifty series of books put out by the Japanese magazine Tattoo Burst called Nihon Dentou Shisei vol 1,2, and 3 easily identified by their red, black and blue individual colours . The books are in Japanese and beautifully photographed and are normally listed on e-Bay . Here's some very clear examples of the type of thing I'm alluding to by Japanese Irezumi designer Osen from the 50's and 60's - http://www.kspublishers.com/?page_id=1497

hope this helps.

I'm starting my back. Panther and snake!

I had a hell of a weekend at the convention. Pictures stolen from their respective instagrammers. First, got this reaper from Richard Smith of Thicker Than Water on Friday. No pictures really do this thing justice. And yesterday I got this ghostly wolf head from Ron Henry Wells. Words can't even express how excited I am about this tattoo.

I can't afford to travel all over the place to go to all kinds of famous shops either. But I do believe it's important to visit your family. I mean, I want my kids to know their cousins/aunts/uncles and all. How can I help it if they happen to live in Texas, Arizona, Florida and California? As long as I'm driving/flying all the way there to visit them anyway, wouldn't it be borderline criminal not to visit some famous shops with a pocket full of cash and ample bare spots on my skin and, you know, just see what happens? Well, that's what I'm telling my wife, anyway.

Thanks man. I need to get added to that list! I just called and they say they're open Wed-Sat 1130-700. So I can't put a deposit down today. I just had this idea in my head that Grime's booked out for years. So I always ruled him out as a possibility. You've inspired me. Thanks again.

really, really dig this dudes tattoos. would love to get tattooed by him.

I'm not an expert on etiquette by any means, but I've never minded the couple times it's happened to me. Anyway I look exactly like this.

Awesome new episode! As usual it did not disappoint. But... ...Shige, Horiyoshi III, Genko, En, and a bunch of dudes swinging swords! Yup, just peed my pants. Like full on loss of bladder control. Can not wait!

Now I want that book, @kylegrey! I thought this article was really interesting -- particularly the part where he calls the Horiyoshi III drawing "heavily influenced by Western tattooing, and did not have the authentic character that I was looking for." In Search of a Traditional Japanese Tattoo Totally challenges what I've been thinking of as a "traditional Japanese tattoo." As another example, I never really thought of Kiku as strictly traditional because his style seems so distinctive and different than a lot of recent Japanese work I've seen, but by that metric, maybe his stuff is more old-school traditional than most? KiKU - Tattoos

And probably toxic.

Nice backpiece @a1steaks! Jason did my right sleeve before he moved to Portland. Great artist and great guy.

Just another way for people who don't like tattoos but want to "be tattooed" to do so , one step below white ink tattoos. Honestly I haven't heard any one speak about Blacklight tattoos in a couple of years, and usually just someone with no tattoos tagging along with a friend who is getting tattooed to ask questions about tattoos.

this episode was great. the tin-tin interview was my favorite of the series. how fucking cool does japan look?

I do a bunch of research on the internet, and through various books that I own. I email myself photos of the different ideas that I have so that I can show them to whoever it is that I am getting tattooed by, and then I get to the shop don't show them any of the photos and then I get something completely different than I had planned on getting. This happens every time.

OMG this. At the last Montreal convention, we were pretty sure we spotted @eisen777's wife as we recognized her chest piece that he had posted on here, and then we felt like the BIGGEST CREEPS EVER.

I always think it's funny to imagine the LST cocktail party where everyone has to make sure their most recognizable tattoo is showing or else no one will know who they are.

Had my second session on my thigh panel with Scott Ellis and finished the jaguar. Next up will be the background color. Sorry, but you'll have to wait until next month to see the finished tattoo:p

Might as well. Greg Christian @ Handcrafted Miami More pix in the latest tattoo lowdown. It's hard to shoot photos of your arm yourself, haha.

Hey guys, I just joined the forum and figured I'd kick things off by posting my in progress back piece. Jason Kundell is doing the work, though things have slowed a bit since he moved from SF to Portland. Hope to wrap things up in the next year and then it's time to get back into shape!

Amazon on your phone is the worst thing to happen to our collective wallets since women.

I've talked with my tattooer about this before and from what he says about tattoos causing harm to the body is more likely cause of cross contamination. Like the US artists worked with the same needles, but something that never happened in the US is the after tattoo bath. When a group of yakuza were all finished for the day they would all take a shared bath together and have the tattoo apprentice wash them. If the tub is not large enough for all of them, they would go one by one after the tattoo is finished but, the water is still shared cause it's never changed...... America had bad procedures like no gloves, reusing ink, improper sterilization, and needles. Japan had all that to but I guess it all combined with the drinking and drugs set it over the top. I think this thread is getting hijacked though.

The cool thing about Gypsy Gentleman and Tattoo Age is that they both have very minimum overlap as far as their guests are concerned (Valerie Vargas and Dan Santoro being the exceptions). I've been exposed to lots of great artists because of both shows, but Gypsy Gentleman especially. This was my first time discovering Laura Satana. Dig her work. That Tin Tin interview was so good. Seems like such a character. I dig that.

"The Gyspy Gentleman... causing full loss of bladder control since 2011." Someone get @Lance an adult diaper, stat!

I had my first treatment on Friday and my tattoo has faded way more than I thought it would right after the first session. I've been reading the stories on this forum about the first session being quite painless and even though my patch test hurt like hell I thought the guy would turn it down for the full treatment seeing as my tattoo is quite big so I wasn't too worried. Well, I should have been because he kept the same settings as the patch test and boy was I in for a surprise. There's no swelling or blisters though, it's just still quite red but it's all looking pretty good so far.

I got an Amazon gift certificate from family over the holidays and picked up a copy of DeVita Unauthorized and a Benchmade Mini Griptilian folding knife as well as some random bits. Two of my better purchases in a long time, I find myself flipping through DeVita's work on an almost daily basis.

not at all, I think we all share the tattoo geek gene ;)

Excellent show! Great meeting you @ShawnPorter

I'm personally grateful for the built-in filter that my tattoos provide; I have enough now that the guys who don't like 'em mostly don't bother to approach me. Narrowing the dating pool a little isn't necessarily a bad thing--a whole category of "not good for me" I don't have to worry about! My current boyfriend has no tattoos but has seen me through about half of my collection, and has been pretty supportive of it.

Here is a pic of my wife's chest (shhh don't tell her I posted it ;) ). Her right side by Trevor McStay and her left side by Jason Kundell. They are my favorites!

Headed to the Bay in 10 days to see The Grime! Hopefully finish all the black shading on my back this trip :D

I hope this works. here's some of my work...

This is healed up enough to get a reasonable picture of it, so here's the progress on my arm so far. We're about six hours in right now, and my next sitting is in a week and a half. Thomas Hooper did this. Obviously.

I don't think I posted this new one I picked up from Greg Christian at Chris Nuñez's new shop, Handcrafted Miami just after New Years: Super excited for South Florida to have this new shop, which is beautiful. They're bringing in a lot of big name guys, which we don't often get here. Chad Koeplinger visited a few weeks after I got the moth and I was kicking myself for not having the budget to get something. But, I did book in with Heath Nock for June. (Holy shit that is a long ways away!) Getting a gator head with a Florida banner.

I (Liorcifer) will be working there too, and can't wait... Tin Tin did put a convention there in 1999-2000 and it was amazing, as it was put together with Miki Vialleto ( organizer of the Milan, London conventions...) which makes it a very well put together show, and many many great artists on board. We have been waiting for this event for so many years, and very glad to see it back, and honored to be able to work there. and Paris is always a good place to go see in general- very artistically inspiring city!

myke chambers in progress Tattooer Myke Chambers

Tattoo Artist Magazine just posted an article about him on their blog, I'll try to find it, or if anyone else has a link for it, please share. I just found it. http://www.tattooartistmagazineblog.com hope that works.

IMO, BJ Betts (Vol 1,2,3) and Boog (Vol 1, 2) came out with some good reference books to do good script if you are having trouble coming up with your own style give one of these a try,,i have used these books several times and they have paid themselves off.