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Just back from the West Texas Tattoo Convention. First convention I've attended, drove 10 hours with two of my best friends to get there, then drove back the morning after into a blizzard. Totally worth it. Tattoo and photo by Ron Henry Wells (poached from his Instagram).

What is there to think about? Cancel your appointment with her, forfeit the deposit if needed, then get tattooed by someone you're confident will to do a good job. - - - Updated - - - What is there to think about? Cancel your appointment with her, forfeit the deposit if needed, then get tattooed by someone you're confident will to do a good job.

Started the chest eagle today and I'm stoked with the results, and by how far we got with it today. Tattoo by Paul Pearson.

@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.

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.. migration complete. i need a drink. j/k we (I) will be tuning the server for the next few weeks to improve performance, but it should be better than before already. let me know if you get any error messages etc.

In all fairness, dude probably isn't in to tattoos just wanted that one for his wife. It's not like he was going to cover it with a dragon or a panther. Even considering that the tattoo couldn't get any worse, I think the outcome was pretty good for the guy. To paraphrase Joe Dirt, It's not about you, it's about the consumer.

planning a trip to Austin in May and hoping to get an eagle tattoo from Steve Byrne...

This is a first for me, I'm taking two friends to get their first tattoos today! I'm pretty excited, it's been 8 years since my first tattoo and while I always look forward to my next one, it's not the same as that first experience, so it will be cool to be present for someone else's. I am also hoping to get something myself, time permitting.

Brian Bruno is in Richmond VA, not super close, but closer than NYC?

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

Thanks for all the work you put into here, Steve.

i would rather have the first one because at least it looks easy to cover...

I think it's the same everywhere. I don't really like starting these threads myself but some places seem to find it rude if you don't. I'll try not to make three posts and then disappear.

Taking the day off from work tomorrow. Burning gift certificaces from Christmas and Birthday. Getting a chest eagle w/ "AIRBORNE" banner (1st session, at least outline and shading) to make up for the one and only military tattoo i had that was on my back that's been covered with the ROA

Dana Helmuth is in Baltimore. Between him and Brian Bruno, you have choices of two very different but equally awesome variations on Japanese style tattooing.

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

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.

I'm getting my dragon finished up by Kore Flatmo tomorrow.

Thought I would post this as I am sure you all have seen it a million times. Looks ace now :) Scott Versago http://www.facebook.com/versago Quote, I got to tackle the official "#1 worst portrait tattoo in the world" today. I'm sure you've all seen it a million times online, as had I. I couldn't believe my eyes when this guy walked in and showed me this project. I think my jaw literally hit the floor. He went on to tell me the story behind the portrait; He had just married his beautiful wife and not even three months afterwards she was killed in a horrible house fire accident leaving him to raise their three children alone. Shortly after he went to a local tattoo studio to memorialize his wife and was left with this abomination. He later returned to that studio for one more session, thinking that perhaps "he had done something wrong in the healing of the tattoo" and they butchered it even more the second time. Finally, he drove all the way to my studio, Empire Ink, just to meet me and to see what his options were. Touched by his story, I gifted the entire project to him for free. Now he has closure and I have an amazing story to add to my portfolio!

You guys know the drill...post up some insane tattoos you guys have been getting! Should be interesting to see if we get any tattoos from the Philly tattoo convention! LST Monthly Contest The tattoo picture that gets posted in this thread for February 2013 with the most 'likes' for the month wins! The contest starts on the first of the month and ends on the last day of the month. Contest Guidelines Your tattoo picture must be posted in this thread (both tattooers and tattoo customers can win) in order to qualify. Include with your photo/post...tattoo artist name & tattoo shop. You MUST be the one who has the tattoo or did the tattoo. You can 'like' as many tattoos as you want. It can be a finished or in progress tattoo. To increase your 'likes' or to show off another's great tattoo share the link to the post in this thread on facebook, twitter, etc. - to get votes from your friends.. Lets do it.........

Hi all, I'm 26, originally from Montreal, QC. Now I live in Vancouver the last 5 years. Really loving this forum, and it feels great to jump back into posting again. I'm more of a loyal, long-term kind of poster when I fall in love with a site. :) I love drawing, art, and I have my own little studio in my home. I'm definitely looking for an apprenticeship, working towards that... Looking forward to sharing my tattoos & stories, and hopefully meet some cool people! Cheers everyone. xox

Welcome, and nice start for your tattoo (is it your 1st?)!

Howyis. My name's Imogen and I'm from Ireland. I'm a collector at the moment but I've wanted to be a tattooist since my early teens. I'm actually planning on dropping a CV into a tattoo shop tomorrow so wish me luck with that! I'd only be working at the counter but it's a foot in the door. I got my first tattoo when I was 17, which wasn't my best ever idea in hindsight. I'm currently working on my leg sleeve- Aasgaardreien by Peter Nicolai Arbo but changed around slightly to fit my leg.

Often I end up spending more time dealing with customers than the person tattooing them up until the day of their appoinment, one time I wasn't there the day someone was getting tattooed and they asked where i was. My boss told him I was getting tattooed across town. He responded by asking him why I didn't want him to tattoo me and wondered if my boss was cool with that he said, I already tattooed him this week and like 50 other times. He told me as long as I don't get tattooed by hacks he doesnt mind. I can relate to feeling weird, there is one shop that one guy always bugs me about getting more tattoos from him, but I really want to get tattooed by the other guys he works with and don't have that much space, so to avoid that scenario I don't get tattooed there, or i guess I have to wait till he is guest spotting somewhere. Most tattooers aren't like that though.

I LOVE the instagram feed! It's so fun to watch all those great tattoos go by.

I can't say Andrew Conner more than enough. He has done my arm and my chest. And he's also one of my mentors. So........

if you dont mind the drive i would vote for dave fox. i love his punkish take on trad japanese.

Brian would be my first choice just on talent alone. Andrew Conner | Artist is very good. E Y E S P E A K | tattoos by Mike Sikes Dana Helmuth : TONY MORRELL l 2012 Resp Martin@ Olde City Tattoo | Just another WordPress.com site www.davefoxtattoos.com

Thanks everyone for the warm welcomes. Better late then never haha. @Graeme tattoing is pretty good here for the most part, the best shop in town by far is trouble bound studio. There is also a page on facebook called "Newfoundland scratcherdirectory" which is pretty good at informing people where and where not to go all over the island.

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

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.

he will labor for hour for you.

iwar, i will someday, probably. i'm kinda that guy who doesn't really like posting that many pics of myself or my tattoos online. the internet is the devil you know and me and him are not best friends hehe but i'll guess i have too pretty soon, it's LST after all....

you can never have too much of anything! i have atleast 50 different skulls on me and a whole rose garden by now! a flock of eagles are forming aswell. (flock of seagulls? nice hair...)

Man. Cody, just tell Nick the type of thing that floats yer boat, and show him how much room he has to work with-he'll go off on that. They have a ton of Sailor Jerry and Sailor Jerry type flash, but you might ax him to show you some of Ralph Johnstone's stuff-old school rules!

I have an appointment confirmed w/ Nick Colella March 2. (picking something off the wall, any suggestions ideas??) and we have plane tickets for San Francisco in June and I'm definitely getting tattooed out there as well. Pretty pumped about them both it will be my first time traveling for a tattoo. I think it will be a little weird as I have been super comfortable with my tattooer (Nathan Abney Nasty Nate Tattoo Artist). He's a real good friend and we bullshit the whole time, it keeps my mind off the pain. - - - Updated - - - I love what they do at that shop, I am getting tattooed there as soon as I can - - - Updated - - - just confirmed an appointment w/ Scott Sylvia as well Mon. July 1.

Off to Frith Street the 1st week of March. Have 2 more sessions on my back with Stewart Robson. Getting closer to the end.

@RoryQ That ROA is unreal! I saw this on IG and was instantly jealous! That is so, so, so good. I hope to get a dragon head from Greg Christian someday. Or anything, really.

Drove down to Allstar in Limerick for around midday. I had a quick breakfast first and then threw the car on cruise control for the motorway trip down (takes around two hours from Dublin). There's nothing quite like the sensation of speeding down the country knowing that you're on your way to get some (hopefully) world-class tattoos when you actually should be working for The Man and watching the clock hands tick by. Allstar was the same as when I was there the previous week: Full of guest artists and with a great atmosphere as a result. To be honest I recommend anyone to go there and get tattooed by Ross or one of his guys at any time: You'll enjoy looking at the amazing flash and art collection on the walls if nothing else. Everything from Smith Street / Frank Carter / Nick Colella sheets to one-off signed pieces by many of the greats. Fortified with a large americano I ended up getting tattooed by Chad first, who rapidly elected to do one of the two ideas I had come with: A rock of ages on the back of my leg. I gave him a free hand and you can see the results further down my post. I'm super pleased with this, I feel like he got all of the elements I like about the ROA motif and managed to somehow get them into a leg piece without having it feel crammed. Next up was Oliver Peck, rubbing his hands and querying what I wanted on my other foot (he had tattooed a panther head on the other one the year before). I had originally thought a matching cat head, but he pointed out that really so long as it was the same size I could get something else if I wanted. Taking the hint, I mentioned that I'd always wanted an anvil tattoo, and suggested putting that over some flowers. We chucked around some other ideas, but he seemed stoked to do the anvil so in no time at all I was in the chair for the second time and getting zapped once more. The mismatched size of the images in this post reflects my complete lack of technological know-how, sorry. I tried to get my own photo of the ROA but I practically pulled a muscle trying to get a decent shot of the back of my leg. As a result I've stolen the pic Chad put up on instagram, which is not ideal, but hey - at least it's my leg, right? It's just a pity my calves are so skinny... Years of squatting and you wouldn't know to look. I heard Arnold Schwarzenegger had the same problem in his early days.

May as well give it a go as its healed at this stage. :) By Ross Nagle @ Allstar Ink Limerick.

These might be the best you'll see for a while... Mike Wilson at Lucky Supply make haste.

Peter Lagergren lousy picture, but great head/mouth. Nice eagle, too.

I've been waiting to get tattooed by Xam for a long time now, pretty sure I'm getting towards the top of his list - excited about getting a skull and snake from him.

William Yoneyama knows how to lay down a snake or two.

i did this a few months ago

Snakes! Love 'em so much. Maybe too much. I have three, and I'm really trying to stop. One on my back by Jill Bonny, one on my elbow by Scott Sylvia and the aforementioned weirdo battle royale by Jeff Rassier:

Fucking amazing!

Kevin, is 100% in the right in everything he has said in my opinion. Hes an artist not a baby sitter. Drake is a fkn pussy. If I ever make it out to the US, I'm def getting tattooed at Will Rise. Been a fan of Norm since his graf days. Sick cunts (In Australia, thats a compliment).

Aside from a little bullet button my AR is just the same as yours ;) Unfortunately the magazines are 20 rounds lighter :(