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Looking great. I love the expression on the face. - - - Updated - - - Second of my pair of Amund Dietzel inspired dragons. Tattooed by Jordan at Frith Street, yesterday.

I always feel a little weird running to the computer to upload a pic of a new tattoo, I don't know why. I like to savor it for a little. Then I rush to Instagram to pop it up hahaha. But anyway here's what I got on Sunday from Chris Smith at Deluxe Tattoo in Chicago. He took the picture. I stole it because I couldn't get a better shot, it's tough to get a really good photo. You get the idea.

Hello again! here's a little update after my 2nd session with Valerie at Frithstreet yesterday! One long session left before we finish the first part of my back :D Yay!

So, many, many moons ago, I got an all-expense paid vacation at an all-inclusive luxury resort at 26th & California in Chicago. Locals will know what I mean. While I was there, I hear from my boys on the street about a guy slingin out of a motel near a local truckstop. He's doing pretty much whatever you want for the price of a quarter-bag. Hey-it was the seventies. Anyhow. New vacationer comes in, he's got this big, funky green dragon tattooed on his arm. "Where'd'ja get it?" "At a party at a motel onna Sout Side" "How much" "Twennyfi bux." "BUT IT ITCHES!!!" Man, that thing was still oozing from a hole in the center about six months later when I had to leave! Turns out I stayed friends with the guy, and that damn tattoo didn't heal for almost a year. Don't know what kind of infection it had, but it would skin-over, then break open and start oozing again. Nasty. Oh, and someone stomped the scratcher and busted up his shit after he put some shabby work on a chick. Sout Side, baby. R.I.P. Gip MPGL

I just recently got a tattoo in honor of my grandfather. He was in the Navy and had brilliant Navy tattoos. Out of all of his tattoos I love his hinges the most and that's what a wanted but I'm a gal and I didn't want big metal plates in the ditch of my arm. So, I switched it up a bit and did an olive hinge with scroll work for the metal plates to keep it from being to masculine. I really look forward to hearing (reading) what you think, good, bad, or otherwise. Chris

I think they have a MITB skull in there too...I should get one some day.

Just your luck, because I managed to find an hour free wifi at a gasstation somewhere near Austria and I'll be writing another fancy story now

hey mate, that's a lovely piece you have. Its just that sometimes it feels like the old school type tattoo people (sounds wrong labelling people lol but you know what I mean) seem to really want these new types of tattoos to fail. All i ever get and its always from the same crowd is "that wont last, blah blah blah" From what I have seen, they look very likely to last, obviously dependent on artist and techniques which I know nothing about :)

Your first tattoo is on your elbow ditch!?

@Chris3000 your tattoo looks well executed. Lines look good, points are sharp. This does not look an easy tattoo and not an easy spot to heal, but that black looks solid.

Rory, as you walk in the door, look to the left-hand side of the gate/half wall. You can't miss it. It's snuggled in there with a rad Integrity logo.

I wish! Actually @jayessebee was the one who originally dropped that on me in a conversation we were having.

A gimmick that should have been left behind along with big spiky black Dusk Till Dawn tribal! But meh, each to their own. Even if I wanted that kind of work my missus is suitably squeamish that a skin rip would just make her uncomfortable forever so not gonna happen haha. I agree with you re:Bez too, he has posted pics of a mental front piece lately which has to be one of the most impressive tattoos I have ever seen, regardless of the style... Will try to find it when I am not posting from my phone!

I've always said you just can't trust a guy with a nekkid face and no tattoos.

I've taken on an apprentice. I'm 12 years in and do not feel like I could've or should've taught anybody before this. First, a little shop background I work in an small isolated area that is expensive and inconvenient. You can't drive in or out and while we have some of the modern conveniences, like costco, we do not have a lot of things, like art supply stores or fast food restaurants. I bought the shop almost two years ago from the original owner, who moved back south. I did not ever expect to take on an apprentice. I also did not think I'd work alone for a year and half straight. I thought I'd make the shop the best I can and some one would slip right in to that glass slipper and it'd be sweet. Well, nobody did. A few artists expressed interest, but costs, inconvenience and ever gloomy weather killed the deal every time. Sometimes the tattooer would be pumped, but their significant other couldn't hang with living a borderline "village" lifestyle. So I worked alone for a while. I wanted the best for the shop, so I didn't turn down anything and worked myself silly. I got a sweet eye twitch out of that that has finally went away unless I'm really tired. So after talking to enough artists about why they couldn't make the move, I started to realize that I may have to grow my own. I took on one of our shop's regulars as counter help. How do you get to work at a tattoo shop? I wasn't looking to hire a friend as I've seen that go bad, so I hired someone that I had built a professional relationship with already, because they were always at the shop getting tattooed. Once I saw that he was doing a good job and began to notice that his other plans (school, etc) starting to fall to shit, I realized that I may be able cultivate a mutually beneficial apprenticeship. It wasn't that I didn't want to mop, or I wanted my ego stroked or I wanted to try and get an extra $15,000. We talked a lot about his future and future plans before we entered in to this and if fulfilled, he will contribute back into the shop for several years as his obligation for having a place to learn and a person to learn from. It was understood that he would not be tattooing for quite a while, it would be the slow road and that he's going to have to learn a lot of things that are other people don't, like needles, mixing pigment, painting flash, taking apart machines, making footswitches and all the other stuff folks with real deal apprenticeships learn. I'm trying to give him a combination of the apprenticeship I had and the apprenticeship I wanted. So far, I'm pretty proud of the little fucker. He filled a sketchbook of traditional designs cover to cover ( most tattooers I know haven't done that), put a machine together, rewired a footswitch, made needles and we've done an oversized split sheet on coquille. He studies a lot. He looks at good stuff. And while we have a pretty good generational gap, I'd like to think we've become friends. Being busy, isolated and working by myself made me feel like I was a little stagnant. He's into it and younger, so he looks at both my influences and shows me the stuff he's into. So it's not out of the question for him to introduce stuff to me, even at this point. When you have to teach, it makes you step back and present things to somebody else. That step can often make you put thought towards something that had previously become automatic. So, in that respect, I get charged up on shit again. That's the new blood factor. Overall, I hired a regular who was already familiar. Not a friend who will break my heart if things didn't work out right away. And I do feel as though there is a need for entry level tattooing at the shop here. That can free me up a little to do the best I can on the bigger projects for now. There is another factor that I don't know if it has been addressed directly (richard's quotes were closest) but yeah, it takes time and a lot of effort to teach somebody right. I'm invested in this shit now. I have a one year old baby and a wife, and I'm sneaking out in the middle of the night to teach him how to make liners at 3am on a friday night. Why would I ever do that for a stranger? I don't know if I could even hang in the same room with the person,let alone have to teach them all these pain in the ass aspects about tattooing in the middle of the night. Also, If I still tattooed down south, I would never take on an apprentice. There was just never a need. ps- I also asked the people who taught me if it was ok for me to teach someone. They looked at me like they had nothing to do with the decision and granted me permission, but the fact it, if those important people to me said no, I wouldn't have an apprenntice right now

@Dan S, man, you gotta write a book! I'd read it.

Last Sparrow Fight Club, oh shit I talked about it. I just wonder what we have to talk about that would be so secret. I Also, does it become a popularity contest to gain access, like if Rubendall and Grime (just examples) joined the forum, would we make them rack up some posts before allowing them access to good stuff. But I am really up for giving anything a try.

Not sure what you are trying to read, nothing to be read there lol On a more serious note :) No need to be sorry mate, I will probably not even be alive in 10 years lol. I got it for now and however long it lasts, it lasts. I know alot of people specially on this forum are all for the old school type tattoos that do stand the test of time and everywhere that old school tattoo people say the same thing. Its like the Old school tattoo people vs the new type of tattoo art artists are throwing out nowdays. No one is sure really whether they will last, you can only presume, inks are better, machines etc. I am not talking about mine but all of this new type of tattoo work seems to get the same treatment specially from people like yourselves that are into old type tattoos, which I am not. I never wanted an old school tattoo and was only until I saw this new art that I fell in love with tattoos. I can appreciate the artwork but I just don't like old type tattoos even though I grew up around them :) I did ask Dmitriy while I was in Odessa about my concerns and the fine details, so he sent for a friend he did 5 years previously with an intricate piece of this new type of art that people are saying wont last (no outlines etc) to show me how it aged. I have to say it was like it was done yesterday and exactly the same as what I saw on the internet years before. So I live in hope lol Some folks on here said because I have alot of black it should hold up better, either way I don't care, at the time I got it, its a beautiful piece of art whether it lasts or not:)

started the color on my chris odonnell hannya 3/4 sleeve on friday. its amazing how much more awesome it looks with color. no pictures of the full piece yet but i posted a closeup photo of one of the hannyas and a leaf on instagram (tagged it with #lastsparrow) i think i have 4-5 more hours until it is complete. edit: decided to not be lazy and uploaded it here too

i like it when people think there is a special "technique" to making this type of tattooing last. tattooing is poking holes in people with needles dipped in ink. thats the technique. it has always been that and always will be. each new generation learns the hard way.

hahahaha when i saw the santoro episodes of tattoo age they talk about it and my first thought was "why haven't i got one yet?" integrity...aww remember seeing them in sweden, maybe 96? good shit.

Yeah Manny's is great, love that place. The only thing is I got the Hot Doug's logo tattooed on me so I can get free hot dogs for life, so it's a shame not to cash that in the couple times a year I am in town.

that mad bio fire honeycomb thing ? Amazing stuff . The Vulture is amazing too

I like realism, doesnt fuss me whether it'll last or not, i suspect thats down to the technique and talent of the artist, and the pigments used. Saying that If I got the chance to get some work done by Mr Devries or Mr Porter, I think I would go for something different than the usual hyper real colour portrait. For example check out the stuff that Bez from triplesix does - amazing. What I dont like however, is skin rips , has to be the shittiest of all tattooes, esp when combined with realism.

welcome chris! nice first tattoo! hope you'll enjoy LST and be sure to watch the interview vids and read old threads to get an idea whats up on this here forum! - - - Updated - - - ditch, hurts to get tattooed, heals a bit slow(for me atleast)since you cant really keep it still. i tried but to not bend my arm or anything...doesn't really work out that good it seems since i basically use my arms all the time!

We don't really concern ourselves with the opinions of plainskins here. Get however many tattoos you want to get.

My skin-flint cheap mofo brother in law is like that... how much did that cost you... He always seems to know someone that will work for $75 an hour. I asked him is that why all his tattoos look like shit. Rob

My wife was quite supportive of my decision to get a tattoo last year. The tattoo I got since then, and the ones I have planned for the future - not so much. I'm not entirely surprised; we'd been married for 13 years and I hadn't made more than a passing reference to wanting a tattoo; and now that I've started collecting it is a big change. At least she hadn't been. Major tattoo relationship news - she had been dead set against the idea of her ever getting one of her own. Then a couple weeks ago she started collecting ideas on pinterest. Fast forward to today and I find myself on the phone with the Pearl Harbor Gift Shop starting to plan out us both going in to get tattoos, mine by Tim and hers by Lissa. Very exciting times - and proof that anyone can change their mind about tattoos!

@peterpoose I like your view on it, you will be happy either way and thats whats up

Hey,I wanna go fishing......

I have a "guy" guy. He is my guy that finds me a guy for everything else.

Awesome, man. Working nights is so rough...for the past couple of years I worked five months out of the year on night shifts (the last year was a 7pm-7am shift) and it wasn't until I quit that job and am now on a normal person schedule that I realised how utterly miserable I was and how much of my pessimism came from that job. Not that I'm in a dream job now or anything like that, but being able to go home and have dinner every night with my wife, being able to see friends and do things really makes so much of a difference.

I didn't realize this was the thread you posted when you quit your job. I stepped down from being the manager of my department at my night job. They brought me in the office to offer me a promotion, and somehow my reaction was to tell them I was done being in a leadership role. I have managed to rearrange my schedule so I can eat dinner with the family 4 nights a week and didn't take a pay cut. Also I have more flexibility to go to the shop when I am needed on my days off from there.

@JeffK Nice, Chris is a cool dude. That piece reminds me of a forearm mace piece he did a while back... Really cool. Made an appointment with Steve Boltz in May. Just going to pick something off the wall in Smith St...

I don't know if he has been mentioned on this thread yet, but I am loving Curt Baer's snakes! Also this through the neck snake by Rodrigo Souto Bueno is ace too!

@davelang Great post, man. I came across something really interesting when reading up about Bill Reid and formline drawing, which is that a lot of what we see in terms of carvings, jewellery, and paintings originated from Reid's study of traditional Haida tattoos: So, in a sense, tattooing these designs is really taking it full-circle. There are a few really cool things online about Haida tattoos as well, like this: Haida Tattoo - The Bill Reid Centre - Simon Fraser University I grew up on the West Coast of Canada, and I love this style of art, but as a whitey I have a hard time getting it as-is on me so I've been trying to find ways to take some of what I find powerful about Haida art, as well as myth and legend, and interpret it in a way that doesn't feel so appropriative. My (in-progress) sleeve is an interpretation of the Raven myths, and because it's being done by Thomas Hooper it's interpreted through a sort of hermetic lens with some sacred geometry, Ernst Hackel references, and so on. The eye of the raven is referenced directly from Bill Reid's drawing on the cover of the book The Raven Steals the Light. I'm thrilled with it. I've been also thinking of one day getting a gagiid mask, maybe done sort of in the style of a hannya. I'm still figuring that one out though. - - - Updated - - - And just because I love to geek out on this stuff, here's a picture of a print I bought last summer by an artist named Jonathan Erickson. From what I understand, he's mostly working in jewellery right now, but the guy at the gallery said that he's also done tattoo designs...kind of figures that I'd be drawn to art done by a guy who also designs tattoos. Anyway, I think it's super cool. I need to get it properly framed still.

Another half-breed right here. But I'm from Alaska, so none of our imagery has come up in this conversation, but here you go anyway...I did a fair amount of northwest native (aka Haida or more accurately formline) style tribal during the first 3/4 of my tattoo career while I was in washington state, but I moved back to Alaska four years ago and really started to research the style. I started working with a local carver and studied on paper first, eventually painting and working my way up into a carving apprenticeship. I know this style is usually a pain for a lot of tattooers and I understand. When someone brings a design of this style in and it is tattoo-able, it's usually still a lot of work and doesn't feel too rewarding until you are done. But after studying it, I love designing formline from the the ground up and tattooing it. I know this is pretty specialized and leans more towards polynesian tribal than whip shaded indian girl heads or navajo designs that are (or were) on trend for clothing and fashion, but some things are the same for all of those different variations on American Native Art. When I see stuff in formline style, now I know right away if the tattooer found it, had to change parts for the tattoo and make up shapes, collage together a few different designs or bullshit something entirely. I image its what a Polynesian tribal artist sees when they look at designs cut and pasted by tattooers going strictly off of visual aesthetic and mixing designs regardless of meaning. "Nice half sleeve, so looking at this, from the parts I understand, your people are the shark fishermen of the mountains? That doesn't make sense". At least now, I feel like I'm learning the language of it enough to design with respect to the culture and not have to worry about if it belongs to a tribe or clan or would offend anybody. It was one of the first questions I asked when I got here "what can I and can't I draw for people?" and was assured by my teachers that an eagle I draw does not belong to the Eagle clan, unless I were to directly copy a house front design, drum, blanket, etc that has been passed down and I appropriated the design without the right to do so. If I draw it and build it from scratch, it is my gift to give to the recipient. And within this style there is plenty of possible abstraction to go even further away from anything that wound be considered disrespectful or clan property. How do the Native artists that I've talked to feel about people around the world getting their cultures artwork tattooed on them? They are fucking stoked. Especially since most of them have been commissioned by their friends and family to design tattoos for them. Just like any artists, they appreciate when it's done right and the medium and design work as one, they hate it when the design is great, but tattooed badly or tattooed well and badly designed. And I think, not to speak for all Alaska Native artists, but I know I'd rather see the art on as many people as possible, especially if I get to design it. I'd rather make the best native tattoos I can on anybody that not do it as much because of some cultural guilt. I know that this is a very specific corner of Native art, but I figured I'd chime in, because I was pretty cautious about the rules and stuff when I began to study. I've been lucky enough to design a fair amount of custom formline and even tattoo some of my carving designs. Lots of times the designs have stories, like the carving of the fish that I got to tattoo. When I carved that design I was illustrating a specific story about how Raven gave the Bullhead fish it's shape. If you look, the body is a Raven head. I won't bore you with the story, but when the customer came in who got the tattoo he asked "do you do that local native art stuff?" I said "'yeah, I carved that stuff right there", he saw that carving and went "that's bad ass. can I do that, but green instead of red?" and I was happy to give it to him. We didn't get all spiritual about the story and he was happy to get it because he thought it looked cool and he wanted some Alaskan art to remember the years he spent here. No problem, buddy. Have a seat.

Just wondering who this piece is by and is it classed as traditional or new traditional. I love it :)

All said and done, I had a great session with Tim Forbus at Acme Tattoo Staunton on Thursday. Inner bicep, which wasn't as nearly as painful as I thought it would be. Couldn't be happier with the design. The blue rose is skewed due to the bend in my arm.

Calling a tattoo on your shoulder a half-sleeve...

Done by Cecil Porter. Douglas from the movie "Where the Wild Things Are".

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.

Courteousness is key. It shouldn't matter who you are, how many tattoos you have, what you're getting, etc., you should be treated with courtesy. There are so many great tattoo artists out there that I can't be bothered by getting tattooed by someone who is rude or is a dick. It's also bad business sense. A couple of years ago my wife @Pugilist emailed a very good local tattoo artist about getting a tattoo (for what it's worth, it wasn't the easiest tattoo request) but instead of just saying that he wasn't interested in doing it, he sent a really assholey reply...though, curiously enough, he didn't actually say he didn't want to do it. It was probably good in the long run that he did that because that got her looking into travelling for tattoos, which led her to Stephanie Tamez at Saved who is completely amazing both as a tattooer and as a human being, and who is now doing a full back piece on her. There's a few thousand dollars that the first guy potentially deprived himself of. Obviously, that courteousness goes both ways. To me, that means appreciating the fact that tattooers are often busy and might not respond to my emails as quickly as I'd ideally like, that appointments often run late, that when they suggest something it's often to make a better tattoo, and so on and so forth.

Unfortunately, I don't really have anything to add to the discussion as such (due to being an Australian with very limited knowledge/understanding of native american culture) I do however have a kick ass tattoo to add (technically it's two, but you get the idea) Done by the always impressive Ben Leland-Grillo Ben Leland-Grillo | Facebook

I hate e-mails (and probably typing in a forum haha) I always feel like an asshole or something, I'm pretty sarcastic in real life and typically cuss like a sailor (my moms fault) and when I type something I always feel like a tool.. idk why. but anyway I just got tattooed at CTC and the dude on the phone was super helpful and when I e-mailed Nick about the tattoo he was super cool and helpful. When I got tattooed there my wife, her sister, and my good friend were with me (sightseeing Chi town) they wanted to come in and see the place and were going to grab a beer while I was getting tattooed. Without even asking him Nick right away said "bring your wife back we can get her a chair" They had left for the bar already but I thought was cool and nobody seemed to give a shit about it, even on a super busy Saturday.

Great thread and I'm enjoying reading about everyone's personal experiences. I'm ABC (American born Chinese) born and raised in Chinatown/Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC. Most people are aware of the negative connotations associated with tattoos in Asian cultures (think Triads and Yakuza). My younger brother was actually the first in the family to get a tattoo. He got it back in college with a couple of close frat brothers. I remember the first time my dad saw it, he actually flicked and slapped at it with a pair of chop sticks! Fast forward to 2009 and at the age of 33, after much planning and back and forth, I get my first tattoo, a koi half sleeve. I figure I could still hide it under a t-shirt. Summer 2010 rolls around my dad spots it. He doesn't really give me the riot act but questions my thought process. My mom was more concerned if I had now permanently damaged my chances of meeting a nice girl. Now we're in 2012. I've two 3/4 sleeves, which both mom and pop have seen. They don't know about my thigh piece nor the HUGE back piece I'm getting worked on right now. This summer could be a very interesting one, especially during Sunday family dinner at the folks.

Judas as a saint-tattoo on my thigh tomorrow, by Iain Mullen. Going to be fun!

tomorrow my youngest turns 1 (!!!) and i just quit my job. good times.

When I got my right hand done, I did it on a Saturday and didn't need to wear gloves until Tuesday. Then when I did, used a size bigger glove and was just very careful. Did a completely dry heal and it worked out just fine. The pocket thing sucks though. I just remember to switch everything to the other pocket.

Wow that sounds really cool, MsRad! You'll have to keep us filled in, I really want to see it when it's done! :) Thanks about the new tattoo.. well, I say thanks, it's not like I did anything, lol. I always feel weird saying thanks when someone compliments my tattoos, it's like I'm saying thanks for someone else's work. But you know what I mean :) I love it. Didn't have a picture on my computer of my tattoo from Charlie, but thankfully everything's on the internet these days anyway. Hope this isn't too big...