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Got this guy from Fergus Simms while he was at ThirdEye Tattoo in Melbourne, Australia for a few days. My sister has 'forever young' in script on her foot so I thought it would be cool to surprise her by getting sort've matching!

Yeah seems a lot more active with knowledgeable collectors here. Your back piece is looking amazing! - - - Updated - - - thought i would share pics of my back piece. so far about 20hrs in done by horiyen.

Kinda stoked on this one. We can thank Jason Brooks and his tat-wizardry for this. LEGENDS - Tattoo Flash Book

Mike Malone flash tattooed by Matty D'Arienzo at Great Western Tattoo Club.

Booked with Ron Henry Wells for this Sunday at the West Texas Convention. One of my co-workers is as well, and one of our shop's good friends/hang arounds is in with Daniel Albrigo. Should be a great day trip!

Hi Folks, Just wanted to introduce myself here as I've been lurking for the better part of the past year. My name is Ricky from NYC. Born, bred, and still working/living in the lower east side of Manhattan. I got my first tattoo in 2009 at the ripe old age of 33 and have been getting tattooed every year ever since. I have two 3/4 sleeves and a thigh piece, all by Henning Jorgensen. Currently Henning is working on a collaboration with Mike Rubendall on my back. It's been a fantastic experience getting tattooed by these two great artists. I have to say that the Internet and Instagram have been a blessing in doing research and just looking at all the wonderful talent that is out there. I'm always in awe of artists, as I can't even draw a stick figure to save my life and I personally consider tattooing a true art form. I decided to come out from behind the shadows as I wanted to branch my collection out a little bit. In NYC, there's just so many talented artists to choose from and I'm starting to run out of real estate. What I was searching for on the forums was an artist who is really adept at nice bonji characters. I really wanted to get on Thomas Hooper's wait list, but he's booked solid and he will be moving away from NYC this coming June. I prefer to stay local and I may contact Chris O'Donnell or someone else, but still wanted to hear people's recommendation's on solid bonji work. Troy Denning has great bonji characters around his neck and I'm going to email his shop. Hopefully it was one of his artists that did them. Anyways, thanks for putting together this great forum and hope to meet many like minded individuals who share a love and passion for beautiful tattoos. Cheers

I'm heading into Austin in a few hours to get a tattoo from Marie Sena :D So excited!

Got this one from Simon Erl the other day and I am really happy with it. He didn't draw it as I had envisioned but made it much better. If you are in Stockholm make sure to swing by Swahili Bobs, he'll be there for another month or so.

Watch yourself. MMA is the flavor of the month now, so there are LOTS of semi-shady places that claim to teach it. That's not the real problem, the problem starts if students are "fresh-meat" for the other fighters training there, or if the instructors don't control the play. What I tell anyone that's wanting to get into it is to get some grounding in the basic arts FIRST. One of the big issues everyone has, especially in the big city, is price. I know of plenty of schools that charge $100, $150, $200 a month, for anywhere from 3, 45 minute sessions a week to 6 one hour sessions a week. I also know of good schools that charge $35-$50 dollars a month for 3-6 one hour sessions a week. For that kind of money, you should be getting top-flight training from someone who has been there. For someone just starting out, getting in the kind of shape you need to be in for serious training is gonna be an issue. I've had guys come in straight out of the Corps who couldn't cut our warm-up section. Given all that, I'd humbly suggest that anyone really interested in serious training shoud start small. Probably the best thing, again, just in my little opinion, is to sign-up in a TRADITIONAL TKD school. Specifically, I would look for one that DOES NOT advertise "Olympic-style" training, and look for one that practices "Blue Cottage", or Chang Hong-style forms, or Hyung. These are the original patterns developed for, and practiced by, TKD, as developed and taught by General Choi, Hong Hi. A year or two of old-school training in an art like this will give you a rock-solid core of basics to build on, taught in a scientific progression. you will get yourself in shape like you won't believe, and learn, even in a few years, things you can use right now. If you can hack it, stay for the full course...in a real, live, no bullshit dojang, expect to spend something like 5 years to learn enough for a black belt. That isn't for everyone, so if you just want to get in shape, learn the basics, and move on, your next stop should be in a traditional Judo school. Again, I say traditional, because there are so many schools teaching Jiu-jitsu now that it's almost impossible for the average novice to sort the good from the bad. Seems like everyone and his uki are "Brazilian jiujitsu masters", or "Gracie-trained fighters", or some such. Learn the basics of actual Judo and you will find that Jiu-jitsu is nothing more than the actual, combat version of Judo. Learning the basics in a straight Judo school will give you an immense advantage when you go to train in Jiu-jitsu. Spend a year or so training there and you will be bigtime ready to hit that MMA thing WAY yonder ahead of anyone else in your class. Don't listen to all the bullshit about how "forms are just dancing" and etc. In a traditional school you will learn discipline, how to fight, how to train, and how to work with other students. Okay-end of lecture. Sorry to run on, but man, I get people in almost every week asking me to "train me to fight in the next MMA tournement". I tell them all, sure, I'll train you, but you gotta learn all this other stuff too. "But when do I get to fight?" After you've trained for 6 months or a year, then you can spar with me. When I think you're safe-not a threat to yourself or others, then you can spar in class. Amazing how few are willing to make that commitment, and how many think they can just wrestle for a few months and magically become fighters. Enjoy, and if you ever want any assist in finding schools for a specific style or type of training, hit me up.

Between last month's winner and @else 's tattoo can we amend the rules for future contests to say that all tattoos can enter but only combinations of panthers and cobras may win?

The only way to improve on a panther is to add a snake, and the only way to improve on that is to add several snakes. You did that, and then put a crown on it. If this doesn't win....

I can also post this, just saw that Knibbe Pallius @ Never Die Tattoo in Gothenburg had posted it on instagram when it was done like 2-3 months ago. Shame we'll have to redo the lines, they aren't black due to bad healing. Back of the knee = pain.

Went to Stay Gold in Albuquerque yesterday for a little walk-in, got a little variation of the shaking hands design pieced together from some SJ flash. It's on my shin and wraps quite a bit so it's impossible to get a good picture, but here is the gist of it (it's fairly symmetrical):

Wow. I definitely should have given a slight bit more of a fuck, because I got waaaaay too drunk last night. Like texted my ex-girlfriend, cried a little, and got a little sick kinda drunk. Damn moonshine snuck up on me. Edit: I am pretty proud of the fact that I spelt egotistical right while that drunk, yeah!

ahh nice...i haven't got myself any of these new video games so i don't play online anything..i'm stuck with my nintendo 8-bit! still going strong!

Leaving shortly for NYC for my next session with Hooper. I think we are going to try to finish my forearm.

Just booked a trip out to NYC Feb 28th-March 4th. I have an appointment booked with Bailey Hunter Robinson. Really stoked about this. I also plan on stopping by Smith Street to hopefully get a tattoo or two.

I think.. that my next tattoo will be my upsidedown rock of ages done by Peter Lagergren. But that's not until the begining of May. If Monga swings by Stockholm I might have to get something by him too. (edit: that is: the cross will be upsidedown, not the whole piece haha..)

Met with Horitomo on Saturday to discuss my chest/rib piece. Looking like we are going to cover my whole front side with Fujin and a tiger. Hopefully will start around May!

the guadalupe was done by Jason Mcafee at Temple Tattoo

Got this from Jason Mcafee at Temple Tattoo in Oakland, CA. Super stoked on it. Real cool dude too. Temple is my home base.

nice, cult. when im out in va im coming to see you to "bar-out" my entire arm.

Just an update, my business launched and we're going strong. I won't be mentioning the name of my business because i don't feel its a good idea to use LST to advertise, so if you wan't details. Let me know!

It's a message board, not a Minor Threat show.

@Graeme @Pugilist & @else: You guys are making my wait until all of FRIDAY seem interminable!

Some of their flash is very nicely done. Like anything else, you pays your money and you take your choice. Or don't. For the casual tattoo person, they might be perfect... maybe not for us tattoo-festooned freak shows... Rob

I save pictures of things that I like, not necessarily tattoo flash, but pieces of art I like. I stock up elements that I like to have in a tattoo, something even to fill out background. So simple things like flowers, clouds are among the things I can work into having old tattoos freshened up or new work as well. My artist likes when I walk in with things to show her. Rob

Yes! Excellent life decision.

Here's the complete Stoney documentary for those interested. Such a cool video, I love all of his old sideshow flash! Stoney Knows How

Not quite sure where to post this, but I'll stick it here. My non-biological daughter gave me this awesome piece of art for my birthday. Some of you saw it on IG. Now I have to go get it framed. I think that at some point I'll end up wearing it.

Last session. We're all done. Mike Wilson @ ink smith and Rogers

Here is a homer pigeon on a friend Big Rob, his grandfather raced pigeons in the old days in Philadelphia Done by myself at Tattoo Alley in Horsham, Pa

Greg Christian at Love Hate Social Club London. Such an ace time this afternoon, sounds like he has a fair amount of free spots while he's there... edit: My smartphone is bust, so I robbed this from Greg's Instagram http://instagram.com/gregchristian4130/

The blue one is fresh. Done by RJ Hitchcock at American Graffiti. He also did the red one...both are from Higgs flash. The crappy pic doesn't do it justice.

Y'all, I'm drunk. I'm sleepy. I'm eating cold cornbread. Goddammit.

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.

I hope I am posting in the right place. Done by jeff gogue took about 4.5hrs Done by carlos torres, second session about 8hrs in so far Thanks for looking.

I saw a little preview of the content. Top notch. So stoked Jason is doing this.

ok if i'll stoke along?

Yep, waiting would be the only downside. And the cost...but I've come to terms with that :)

I can't wait to see it!!

@MoistTowelette That looks epic man! So awesome! How is the hand method? Something I ahve not experienced, but hope to get at least a nice little one shot tebori at some point.

Here are the last three...

I feel that Ron could make a reasonable living just tattooing people from LST at this point.

We are a gang of sorts , well we have an initiation thread .

Sounds like you already are in good hands.

There is an irony in people thinking you are a "broke low life" because of your tattoos, due to that fact that people with nice tattoos are usually spending hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars to get tattooed, but this isn't understood by the general public. In terms of the majority of my friends and people I know with tattoos they live a life where they work hard and have the means to pay bills, provide for a family, put food on the table, then are able to afford the luxury of getting tattooed. Obviously there are exceptions to this view point, but it is especially true in the case of the people on this site that are paying top dollar to travel and get work done by world class tattooers. This is something that a good amount of people who are judging you wouldn't be able to afford, but people are ignorant and refuse to take the time to educate themselves.

I thought this is a forum for good tattoos. Why is this even a question?

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.