Leaderboard

I guess I'll go first, but I already have a feeling that I'll be going up against some really tough competition this month. Nick Colella formerly of Chicago Tattoo Co., currently going rogue until he makes an announcement about whatever he has in the works:

Lost my LST shirt so maybe my tiger can help out. Tony Hundahl - Rock of Ages Austin, Texas - one shot

While most of my body is still empty space, this particular empty space was bothering me the most... Drove up to Toronto yesterday and had this sparrow/rose done by Tim Pausinger. It was my first time at that The Pearl Harbor Gift Shop - what an amazing place! All three of my tattoo experiences have been great but The Pearl was on another level (maybe due in part to me being more experienced at getting tattoos also) of cool. Definitely now going to be my default recommendation to anyone who asks me where they should get tattooed. If they don't want to drive an hour and a half then they just don't want it enough ;) edit: Just wanted to add that this was my first tattoo since joining LST and my first chance to post in this thread. Looking forward to many more.

My name is Joel Dodds, I have been tattooing since 1989. I started in anaheim with Kari Barba, then moved back to sacramento where i am from and worked at American Graffiti with Scott Sylvia, Nate Sponsler, and Eric Hogan. I have had so many good times and met some great tattooers in my time. I now work and run my shop Old Faithful Tattoo with my Wife in Walnut Creek California. I think this is a great site, and im looking forward to contributing, most of all looking forward to continuing to learn as much as i can. Once that stops the day has no purpose!!

I just want to point out it's only 3 days into this thing. It will take a lot to win this thing with what has been posted. We have to take some pride as a community in the level of tattoos our members end up with.

My newest tattoo done by Ron Henry Wells:

It was a Black Flag Reason For Living board, mint condition, made by Rip City in Santa Monica back in 1983...

My list is getting longer everyday now, and wallet getting thinner.. :O Valerie finishing 1st part of my back-piece and Xam doing my front arm in April Bryan Burk and Chris Conn in May Timothy Hoyer and hopefully Bailey Robinson in September! I got something to look forward to almost every month now :)

ok mine is frome Chad Koeplinger! done at invictus /Oslo a few days ago!

I'll put my newest up there, from Mike Fite:

Are you implying that you don't? Weirdo...

Wait are you saying you take your pants off before posting on LST?!

Hate to be that guy but I gotta point out it is against the forum rules to get to 10 posts quick just to start threads Like @Graeme said, many questions have already been answered so try using the search first as you might find all the information you are looking for. Also if you cannot find the answer to your question post it in your intro thread.

eilin, who needs food when you can have sweet awesome tattoos? your friends should be giving you food for getting nice tattoos.

I got the opportunity to get tattooed by Stewart Robson while he was up in Scotland for the Scottish Tattoo Convention. After the convention Stewart was tattooing at Lab Monkey Tattoo in Stirling so I travelled through and got this Kitsune mask on my shoulder/chest. This is my second small tattoo from Stewart and I suspect it wont be the last. Edit: sorry the picture is massive but I can't seem to make it smaller...

That's such a nice one. I am really overdue for a visit to Toronto, but when I finally make it there I am going to have to make sure that a tattoo at The Pearl is part of my plans.

Thanks! ...I am taking credit for Ron's good choices. :D

At this point I am just used to lifting my skirt and letting everyone stare intently at my ass under very bright lights for five hours or so. Oh, my mother would be SO proud! ;) But yes, despite feeling self conscious, the tattoo studio is a relatively comfortable and safe place for droppin' the drawers, and the results are so awesome I am totally glad to do it. :) I think @hogg mentioned a bathrobe trick? Bring bathrobe. Ensure Lebowski status. Change in bathroom so that the opening is facing the back instead of the front. Waddle out of bathroom. Shake that booty a bit. (my edit, natch ;)) Then be serious and let your artist do her work. WOO Tattoo!! >:)

This will be the 4th session on my back. I waited as long as it took to laser the existing tattoo on my back, documented here... http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-removal-coverup/1663-my-laser-chronicles.html Between the laser sessions and heal time it was a little more than a year. The only reason I got in so quick is I had a super rare skateboard that he was looking for. Unfortunately it was one of only 3 more boards he's looking to collect. The other 2 are nearly impossible to find, one I don't believe even exists, the other I actually found but the condition of it (pretty nice actually) still wasn't good enough.

The Kings Ave crew has been great about putting up temporary screens when I have to drop trow, hahaha. Mostly because they don't want the other customers disgusted and throwing up from my nekkidness, hahaha. I usually keep a long sleeve t-shirt handy during breaks. I end up tying the sleeves around my waste so that the body of the shirt blocks the privates and nothing touches the back/rear that's being worked on. Then I can traipse around the shop or head to the bathroom. It works for me, still scares or surprises the other clients, hahaha. Here's a pic of one side of the Kings Ave Manhattan shop from opening week back in 2011. Yours truly on the left getting worked on by Henning, Rubendall on the right working on another client (Grez and Sara Carter (Schor) in the background). As you can see, sometimes the crew likes to be close by to keep good conversation going and things can get pretty intimate between clients proximity to one another and their state of dress (or undress) haha.

Welcome to LST. We've answered plenty of questions over the years so please explore the board because you just might find answers to your questions in an older thread.

Oh so cool! @Tim Burke what are you getting from Xam? I was really lucky getting my appt with him, he first told me that he didn't have any openings but then I got another email saying it's my lucky day and he just got a cancellation on the day I'm in London so it couldn't resist, even though I might have to live on nothing this summer to be able to afford all this :P Anyways, very stoked :)

And he tattooed this eagle on me. As always, he was a true professional, and I enjoyed shooting the shit with him as he worked. Chicago's favorite, for sure.

Just go to Winnipeg, see Kurt Wiscombe and you're golden :)

Mine stops just below the belt, on purpose... The conversation about how to do the layout on my back piece was as follows... Tattooer: "You don't want this to extend onto your ass do you? I've known you for quite a while now, your my friend, and all, but if I never have to see your skinny naked man-ass in person, I won't feel like I've missed anything." Me: "Eh, same here. If I never have to feel your nitrile gloved hands spreading my ass cheeks apart I won't feel like I missed anything either."

Pasty, sure. White...not so much anymore.

action shot (NSFW) :D

@Mark Bee: a man after my own heart! @vPooch I literally obsess over tattoos. I stare at every tattoo I see (and people think I'm creepy...). I stare at my own tattoos! I flip through all tattoo art books I have. I hover outside of tattoo shops. So...perhaps I don't handle it very well, but I saturate my brain with everything tattoo! That waiting period is brutal sometimes! :) - - - Updated - - - @vPooch I just went through and read the thread from the beginning. I started getting tattooed when I was 17 (on a fake ID in NY! Oh, the days before 9/11 when you could literally walk into a shop and walk out with a fake ID without it being treason! oy vey!). I started small, and I'm really glad I did, because my tattoo aesthetic did not really round out for another...8 years or so? I'm still learning and refining to this day because there is so much great art out there! Anyway - it's awesome that you're going with a cool Japanese piece and that the artist is stoked about it! That said, heed what the others are saying. There is a LOT that happens between 16 & 18, 18 & 20, 20 & 22, 22 -25....things start calming down a bit around 25, but your aesthetic, your life, your ideas - all are still forming and changing and a work in progress...just much less so than when you're in your late teens. (life is ALWAYS and FOREVER a work in progress...don't forget that!) The main problem is that you'll discover more (and better) artists as the years go by...don't want to run out of room for them, do you?!? Anyway - post the pic when you're done! I'm excited to see how it turns out! I'm also getting tattooed on the 11th (& 12th! super stoked!)...we can have picture day! :)

I deal with it by sneaking in for a walk-in or two. Something small to tide me over.

Hello! I got my first tattoo at 34. I have two children. If you can handle childbirth, you can handle a tattoo sitting no bother.

Freddy Negrete zapping Jack Rudy

yes, music...mostly old country when getting lines done since i think they hurt sooo much more than shading. to the shading, anything up-tempo, angry whatever works. latest tattoo i listened to hank williams during lines and some ringworm for shading. delicious, getting to like mr cash is as good as it gets! his barytone voice is soothing.

haha i have no experience with playing music to calm people down, but I now like johnny cash due to hearing him on repeat while I got tattooed, and the loop started over when my friend got her tattoo. 5 hours of johnny cash makes a fan of me.

Exactly. I love looking at all these bad ass tattoo on this mother fucking forum It's living for today. Don't know why I started spelling it that way because its confusing but I've used this username for other shit so it just stuck for me - - - Updated - - - Will do, having two large tattoos next to each other is sucky. I wish society was ok with me not wearing pants, this shit hurts to walk

I refuse to believe that this is a real person.

Thanks for the idea!

So I wasn't sure if I was going to post any of my new tattoos but decided in the end to just go for it. I moved to France four months ago and have been sat in a lab isolated from the world pretty much ever since. I went to the Mondial du Tatouage show in Paris for three days as a birthday present to myself. I booked in with Stewart Robson and Valerie Vargas from Frith Street and also Greg Christian. I ended up getting tattooed six times in three days. It was also my first convention and I'm going to make sure I go to a few more :D I stole all the pictures from the respective artist's instagrams apart from one which I took with my phone. Demon head on knee - Stewart Robson (Frith Street Tattoo) Geisha Girl Head - Cody Miller (Blackheart Tattoo) Flaming Torch - Greg Christian Castle - Cody Miller (Blackheart Tattoo) Medusa Head - Valerie Vargas (Frith Street Tattoo) Devil Head - Nick Roddin (Blackheart Tattoo) I can't wait for the convention next year

Going to SF next month to see The Grime :D <---------- me

!!!! We should commission Scott to make a sheet of flash with LST bangers!

Ahhh 8 days so stoked...Wish I could travel forward in time to get it done :p . How do you guys deal with the dreaded waiting period after booking a tattoo? Sent from my XT910 using Tapatalk 2

@Eilin that's some list... Finally got a call back about getting tattooed by Xam so consultation tomorrow evening then hopefully get the big blank space on my arm filled soon after. Once that's done going to have to save for a while, feeling pretty broke already...

I think that's a fair compromise.

Several people took one look at the entry from @lving4today and decided "think I will save my entry until May's contest".

Bristol Tattoo Club

Awesome. Chris is nice guy, and super fun to get tattooed by.

I'm in with Chris Garver while he's guesting in Amsterdam in June. I'll most likely get a harpy on the side of my thigh.

So, I'm reaching the end of my recent spree of tattooing. I've got one more appointment on Wednesday, then I'm taking some time off. Letting myself heal for a while. I had two done today by Tim Pausinger at The Pearl Harbor Gift Shop. I'm going to post the eagle. The tiger head on my elbow is totally swollen and wont make for a good pic at this point.

Starting my back piece with Valerie vargas next Thursday.

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.

I think a place that is charging you a good bit below the going rate for good tattoos in Vancouver, that tells you that you can go in "almost anytime" instead of setting an appointment, and is going to tattoo a 16 year old is probably not going to give you a great tattoo.