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Thanks for bringing this up @Shannon Shirley while we've never met, people who I think are awesome tell me that you're awesome. Everyone here should pay attention to what this guy says. I still check the forums every day but I told myself I'd try to only get involved if I could be constructive in some way (even being a dick in a particular way can have a positive outcome). Lately there hasn't been much 'new' information or discussion where I felt my opinion would make any difference. Often someone else gets to the point before I do. I don't want every post I make to be a verbose "Me too." On the other hand... The more help or insight we give, the more help or insight we're asked for. Everyone likes to say they "Did their research" for their tattoo but that often just means looking at pictures in a Google search or checking Instagram. But what about the kind of research where you follow an idea that someone mentioned and find out for yourself? Learning and discovery is fun. Information discovered is more cherished and valuable than information that's spoon fed. Everyone wants a book or website recommendation where the mysteries of life and everything will be explained, with pictures. Explorers will eventually tire of conversing with tourists and consumers but they may feel nourished conversing with other explorers. (I use these terms with their proper, non-insulting intention) If more people try to be explorers (intelectual, spiritual or physical) this site, and the world will be a better place. I've said it before but I don't come here to help with tattoo questions. We have a phone at Frith Street Tattoo. Helpful people are paid to answer it and answer questions. Most tattoo shops work with a similar system. You can get a helpful answer pretty quickly that way. Even if you're in another country. International calls are not very expensive compared to the price of a tattoo. I come here because I realised that it was a place where professional opinion meant something. I only started typing when I knew that nobody better qualified had answered. The turning point for me was Bryan Burk's post about Japanese tattoo politics. Finally we had first-hand, sensible and interesting information or opinion from a reliable source instead of conjecture or wiki-regurgitation. I knew then that I'd beter keep my mouth (or keyboard) shut unless I was sure I could contribute something worthwhile. I'm aware this approach doesn't make for a lively forum but it was great to see it in action earlier this year when Bart Bingham put a halt to some whining about tattooers drawing directly on the skin with a simple, direct and thoughtful post. Sorry for the lack of links to threads and @ mentions. LST seems to be loading extremely slowly so I couldn't check where stuff was. Other that the fact that one of my favourite tattooers started this site, I still like it that real-world experience holds water over post-count here at LST. I also like it that the mods (well, the one's I've met) are heavily covered with genuinely great tattoos. That really makes a difference.

Got some more work done on the squid-pant. (Jacked the image from Regino's Instagram. It is a pain in the ass to try and take this picture yourself)

Thank you, @Shannon Shirley and @Stewart Robson for starting this thread and adding to it. I agree that part of what attracted me to LST is that some of my favorite artists posted here, along with other artists that I've come to be familiar with thanks to LST. And the passionate, knowledgable collectors here are unrivaled. I'd love to see more great tattooers post here. I know that Jojo Ackermann, Bryan Burk, Juan Puente, Mario Desa, Nick Colella, Doug Hardy (to name but a few) have posted here in the past, but don't much any more. I mention them by name not to call them out, but because I genuinely admire their work as well as their opinions. And of course, they all have great, great stories! For my small part as a moderator, I try to help LST be the kind of place where tattooers feel welcome and want to share their knowledge, tell some stories, weigh in with considered opinions, and of course, bust a few chops here and there. Non-tattooers can only benefit from that kind of community. I am very grateful to everyone else who has the same goal.

I started on here about a year and a half ago, I would not like to see this site crumble. It seems to me that lately, less and less knowledgable people are commenting,posting etc. It also seems that thier are more lurkers with "I know some shit" attitudes. those that fit this profile should understand that you are ruining this site. This site was started in hope of an intelligent place where some could learn about the nuances of this craft. Stating amateur attitudes on here does not help.Having gotten three tattoos does not make you an authority.

So, I know there's an Instagram thread around here were we are all sharing our usernames. Being the social media feel that I am, I thought it might be useful for us to start using a hashtag on there so we can easily see one another photos on that network. So, any images you'd want to share with the community, you'd just add #lastsparrow to your image captions (you can add hashtags to your older images by adding them as a comment). Just an idea ... Tagging my tattoo-related photos in a bit. Mods: if y'all want to move those thread somewhere more appropriate, feel free!

@kylegrey perfect response. The crux of the matter is that this site is only as good as the things people here say. Lets ALL try to be thoughtful and help others be thoughtful too. Although I can't say I speak for all tattooers... "we" - meaning tattooers, tattoo artists etc. were busy before we joined this site. We're still busy. That's not why we don't post. Switch the focus from 'busy' to ' interested' and think about what keeps people interested. If someone can be entertained by, benefit or learn from someone else, they are interested. Otherwise it's a one-way-street. Entertainment is easy to find on the internet, so that leaves the other two if we're talking long-term. Tattooers is peoples too.

I think we can be blasé and attribute the reasons to whatever but that's just speculation , what we do have is feedback from the artists that remain and should entertain the possibility that each of us is slipping and take it upon ourselves to do something about that . Remember the words of my man Jimi Hendrix " Knowledge speaks but wisdom listens " or that other hippie Arthur Schopenhauer " Treat a work of art like a prince : let it speak to you first "

I think the only etiquette is don't start cancelling appointments for the bigger piece because you spent all your money getting smaller pieces.

Andre Malcolm has been doing some amazing snakes. These are from his blog:

I am new to this. I am still trying to figure out the format, so I have not dug very deep yet. Most of the things Ive read do sound like counter talk. I get enough of that and have nothing to add. Some of the threads i have read(the ones i get the most out of) are a little out of my league and if i had something to add, its already been added. I do have some things to discuss, but they seem to come too close to giving away information to whoever may be on here. I own and am the sole tattooer at my shop and I am at a turning point in my ten year career. I have a customer base that needs education, but shows potential. I have nobody around me to take advice from, but I know I have a chance to bring real tattoo culture to my town. I am hoping this site fills some of those gaps for me and, in turn, I can find folks I can trust with advice i have to give. I am a tattooer and i am here, learning the ropes and waiting for my turn to contribute. Thanks for this.

Thanks for the continued awesomeness you guys priovide. I'm sure everyone appreciates all of the time, money and hard work that goes into LST.

im newish with a rising post count, so i hope im not a suspect here. im just here to browse and not really post in the tattoo subjects where people know way more than me, share about my laser experience, share random other shit in subforums, and then get some damn good art work going. i understand that the tattoo world, just like everything else in life, is a give/give culture. ive learned more in just the few months that ive been here than a lifetime of reading magazines or talking to people on the street. im greatful for that. but i agree about the artists not being on here kind of sucks. when i got here i was learning a lot from guys like stewert and mario.

Picture from Kore Flatmo's Facebook of our progress this week! Such an amazing experience, I'd recommend PluraBella to anyone and everyone here! Here's one I took to show how it matches up with my Kurt Wiscombe piece. I'm so pumped!

Interesting History They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & Sold to the tannery... if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor" But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot... they "didn't have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest of the low The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s: Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell... Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting Married. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!" Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof... Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs." There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold. (Getting quite an education, aren't you?) In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat. Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous. Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust. Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would Sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake. England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive... So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer. And that's the truth....Now, whoever said History was boring

Ok - we have confirmed that the switch to the new server will happen starting around 8pm PST tonight. LST should be offline for less than 30 minutes - might be a good time to watch some interviews on our youtube channel or something. ..insert clever ideas of other stuff to do here...

since i certainly know some shit....no not really. i like tattoos. and i have to say, i do not like internet and such but i do check LST daily! I'm hooked. I wish i knew you all for real. this is my facebook, instagram, whatever..

Heads up that we're probably moving to the new server tomorrow night. Fingers crossed there will be minimal downtime, but after last nights' shenanigans by the web host I'm crossing fingers and toes on both hands and both feet. Regardless, we WILL end up live on the new dedicated server with enough hardware to easily handle the site's growth for a good while. There will probably be some performance issues and what not for the first day or two while we tune the server, but it should be smooth sailing by the end of the week. Thanks again to everybody for putting up with it and not complaining too much lately. Not that we mind bug reports etc, but you know what I mean. There have been some especially craptastic moments lately.

Just visited Portland and was able to score a walk in at Acme Tattoo. Ross Ferrie put a great panther head on my knee. Not only a great tattoo but a truely awesome time at the shop! I cannot speak highly enough of the great time I had there. A top notch first class shop. Will definately make a return trip. Pic is in my gallery, IPhone not letting me put in post.

@Stewart Robson, thanks for chiming in. Apologies for the forum running slowly. We are hopefully moving to a newer and faster server this week! ------------------ We have grown quite a bit on LST and that can be a good thing because we have had some great new members contribute, but like any situation, there are going to be some members you don't mesh with. Our goal of LST is to help people understand how to get good tattoos. To do their research beforehand. To educate on the good artists vs. scratchers. Also educate that you sort of get what you pay for and tattoos are not something you want to start bargain shopping for. We are going to get some noobs that do not know where to start but if we send them to Stewart, Valerie, shannon, Scott, Tim, etc. (too many to list) instead of some cheeseball, we have done a good thing. Regarding noobs asking the same question: we have started to create a welcome PM that has some FAQ's directing them to more common noob threads like "is my tattoo infected?", "what lotion/ointment should I use?", etc. Would love if we could get some input on this FAQ so we can put it in one place for noobs to read.

Maybe things have picked up for them. Thank you to the artists that do i.e. you Shannon, take time out of their day to comment. There does seem to be a lack of quality lately on the forum of questions and answers. I don't think Stewart, Valerie, Mario, Dan, Bryan, you( Shannon), or who else that is a professional, wants to have their name on a thread about " I am new here and bought a tattoo kit off eBay" or " I am a vegan, that wants only tantric music playing while I get my tattoo of a reminder to not screw my neighbor that is an alcoholic because I pistol whipped him with my taser!"

Yikes, that's not good. I don't know if I would be supporting that business in any way, shape, or form. I wouldn't be concerned enough to do anything about it, but probably would make sure they made $0 of me. Realistically their supply practices don't necessarily reflect their level of ability to put on a tattoo or pierce, but all the money goes into keeping that shop open.

Here is the finished dragon by Kore Flatmo. We did five hours yesterday. Long day but worth it. We started the project in October and its awesome to finally see the finished product. Back in two months to start the tiger. - - - Updated - - - Here is the finished dragon by Kore Flatmo. We did five hours yesterday. Long day but worth it. We started the project in October and its awesome to finally see the finished product. Back in two months to start the tiger.

Don't ever wear that thing on a plane...

Since there are obviously going to be far more tattoo collectors in the world than tattooers (especially good ones!) then as time goes on and the site grows the posts by tattooers will become (relatively) fewer and farther between. That's even if every one of them was as active as they were when the site first started out which for reasons already mentioned is unlikely. I for one am always excited to log in knowing that there is going to be good discussion of quality tattoos going on. That there's a chance one or more of the best artists in the world has shared or contributed is a bonus and is what makes this forum great.

I was very stoked on this mag when I heard about its pending release and was really impressed with the first issue...Seems like Tattoo Artist Magazine set the mark for us tattooer and Tattoo Culture Magazine is using that mark of quality to educate and entertain tattooers, collectors or those people who are just curious about the community that is tattoing. I do like the the digital layout and the flow of the app when downloaded. I think digital this is a great way to make it readily accesible to more folks than print. Im getting more used to reading and looking at print on my smart phone. I looked at an actual magazine the other day and caught myself wanting to double tap the pics that I liked...YIKES! Tattoo Culture Magazine in my opinion is rretty cool stuff! I cant wait for the next issue.

I can only speculate, but most of the people who have gone, have had things happen in their life that make their life a lot busier. A lot of people have gotten married and or had kids (grandkids), some people have become much more in demand as a tattooer, others have other projects that occupy their time. I agree that the dynamic has become the same as the tattoo shop, and that is why I usually am on in the morning and not so much at night. Usually someone has sucked the life out of me by the time I get home from the shop, and i am done talking about tattoos for the day.

lol yea didn't even realize what I did there... This drum is MASSIVE. Probably close to 5x5. The 808 references never stopped

I see what you did there. I loooooove that. Mitsudomoe on a huge drum with the most solid black possible. Super cool.

Had a fun time with Jason Scott at Congress St today. Originally i was going to get a grim reaper , but we both agreed that this was a better idea. Love it and had a great time! Rob

Probably not a very good idea to give out the address of a place selling tattoo supplies. The cat is out of the bag with this one anyway...there was that guy who started an intro thread a week or so ago saying that he bought a "starter kit" on Amazon so shit is easily available to anybody who wants it. Scratchers bother me but I think the best way of dealing with them, at least in the context of this forum, is to promote the art and the craft of good tattooing and to show people that if they're willing to put the time, money, and effort into it, that anybody can get truly great tattoos, and that great tattoos are absolutely worth it.

A big THANK YOU to those who liked what i had to say and mentioned me in this thread! I would love to see this in print too...I really enjoy being able to look through a magazine if it is worth looking through! There are bound to be bugs and glitches....and grammatical errors and such BUT I really love what they are trying to do! I didn't want to say too much in the Tattoo Collector Magazine thread but i think most got the "hint" LOL Support this please! tattooists actually taking the initiative to educate the public....it has been missing from the community other than places like this site and maybe a few others!

I added the #lastsparrow feed to the right side of the forum - thanks for the awesome idea @Lori Todd !

Just in case there's any crazy Lyle Tuttle fans out there with $4k to burn... Rare Collectiable Lyle Tuttle Body Suit Tattoo Shirt by inkwizard

I'd continue for minimum of 14 days. Just because topically things are OK doesn't mean the underlying skin isn't still dehydrated.

You will make an awesome client for someone in the future. A 60ish dude coming in for sick neck tats brah!

yes....If It sounds like the counter at a tattoo shop,We get bored.

Hope to get something from him when he's at the strasbourg convention in may.

It wasn't much, really, a tiny safety pin, and a deposit slip from the Sterling Savings Association (We Appreciate Your Business!!!) dated Dec 14, 1989, in the amount of $107.50. (brought this persons balance up to a whopping $163.20!!!) I put it back in the pocket, and there it shall stay. I like having the former owner's mojo/karma, whatever you want to call it, traveling around with me. Besides, the jacket is comfy.

like life, why dont you just let it happen, get a damn tattoo.....pre planned mementos seem very strange.It seems to miss the point to me. instead of forcing meaning into your tattoo,get tattooed , it will have meaning,especially when traveling.....

My ski pinup I finished up on the weekend, nothing better than hot chicks doing the things I like. Done by Scott Duncan at Sugar Shack tattoo in Kincardine On side note, taking a half decent picture of your own side is not as easy as I thought it would be.

Dry heal. In my admittedly limited experience the less I do to the tattoo the better it heals anyway.

this dude is the real deal. welcome to lst.

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

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

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

I was talking to my sister the other day about my plans for upcoming tattoos (she's supportive of me no matter what I do, but thinks I have plenty of tattoos already). She asked how I find out who is doing what and when they're going to be in town. I told her I was following a bunch of them on Instagram and her reply was "um, maybe you should quit following so many tattooers on instagram and just look at pictures of cats like everybody else".

Having lived in the West Country, UK for most of my life it would have to be Bristols Les Skuse. I would have loved to have been tattooed by Les, he died in 1973 a couple of years after I got tattooed for the first time. Here is some of Les Skuses work.