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long time lurker, first time poster. My latest from Andrew Slater, All for One Tattoo in Richmond, VA.

dude, get what you want, don't get what you think others will approve of. All this tattoo elitist bullshit popping up around here is not cool. Just because you've collected cool tattoos by good artists doesn't make you any better than the next guy.

This thread has been beat to death so hard that there's pics of stencils bein posted as "the worst ever tattoo"

I'd avoid an asshole, largely because I don't like giving my hard-earned cash to douche-bags. I've been tattooed by all kinds of types. Some are super friendly and talkative and others are the silent types - and a range in between. All are totally cool with me. Just don't be a dick! I've noticed a really unpleasant trend on instagram recently - some artists have taken to posting pics of their clients, mocking them for being fat or ugly, or generally dissing their choice of tattoos. That's fine, I guess, but I sure wouldn't go to their shop. It strikes me as an odd way to do business, but hey, its their choice.

Just finished the first sitting of my Rock of Ages, backpiece. It is done by Robert Aalbers at his shop Clean Solid Tattoo in Waalwijk, The Netherlands (the Land of the Dutch). All the lining is done, can't wait to get some color in.

Strange that I never posted mine to this thread; I must have thought I already had(?) According to Steve Byrne, I was the first person to ask him for a RoA (in 2011 if you can believe that), so I guess that's my claim to fame:

This is from yesterday, really fun piece on my buddy as part of a trade before he moves to Australia. A little red and bruised, but I think I got a good picture. be nice, I get really self conscious posting my work among so many amazing tattoos :o (although I am totally open to constructive criticism if anyone feels so inclined!)

Interesting thread. I've gotten tattoos from three different artists so far and all were cool, professional folks. Probably the best of the three was not very talkative the first time in but the second time, we had a good yack about kids and stuff. As others have said, I don't go in expecting to make a new best friend but I would be put off by an arrogant/obnoxious attitude. I'm a programmer and we geeks are stereotypically not very social. But while I don't yack a lot at work and don't see it as part of the job description, I would never treat a client unprofessionally or rudely. Word gets around.

Thanks, Rob! Much appreciated (: I really don't think Mike's tattoo is bad either, and there are plenty of images on this forum that could be considered overplayed. It's as classic of an image as the Durer praying hands, the lady Guadalupe, or any other religious theme.

There's a whole section of this forum dedicated to tattoo designs, try looking in there. Go to a bookstore or library and look in art books. I know you didn't like people busting your balls about your tattoo, but getting good tattoos requires doing some work researching artists, looking at reference, learning about tattoos, art, and design and while this forum is a great resource and starting point, the onus is on you to do something with it. Nobody here is interested in holding your hand through the whole process.

Thomas Hooper experimented a bit with video of his tattoos on his blog, but I don't know to what extent he is pursuing that line of documenting his tattoos. I agree that well-done video of tattoos is great to showcase them, but I still think there's something to be said for good photography. Look at Taki's book Bushido and the photos of Horiyoshi III's tattoos in them and how well they show the tattoos and the way they sit in the skin. The photos are really pretty amazing. I think the problem is that we've just gotten far too used to looking at crappy pictures taken by camera phones on tiny little phone screens and while I think it's on the one hand so great to have this massive amount of access to seeing some amazing tattoos that are being on daily around the world, we've also lost a lot. An iPhone just isn't going to give you the richness and texture that a decent camera will, and the nature of the internet, and instagram especially, is that it's very much about immediacy and getting as much information out as quickly as possible which means that amazing backpiece or sleeve or bodysuit (or whatever, even a one point!) that you and your tattooer have been working on for months or years and that you're going to carry for the rest of your life and is going to age and decay with your body becomes this image that somebody is going to stop and look at for a couple of seconds, "like" it it not, then move on to the next tattoo, dog photo, or picture of somebody's pretentious lunch. I haven't tried Vine, mind you.

It will be worth it.

I've got a 6 hour drive for a consult in July - and I've been waiting for that since last November!

it is a great idea do it (ETA: Hahaha I wrote the above in all-caps but this smarter than me software was like "no, that's too much" and toned it down.)

I have a crazy idea in my head: tomorrow morning I should drive 4 hours down to NY to make appointments for 2014 with a famously hard to book artist... This is a good idea right?

speaking of slugs... by Jacek Minkowski at Mom's Body Shop in San Francisco. Alright, I'm done blowing up this thread..... for today.

Got this on my arm last week from Joe Ellis: Done at Lab Monkey Tattoo in Stirling, Scotland although Joe now works at Sacred Electric in Leeds.

A relatively recent one - from Deno when he was visiting Tattoo Paradise last year. Picture borrowed from his Instagram.

Eddy Deutsche finished mine a few weeks ago. Terrible pic of the whole thing and one of the mini ROA in the book at the bottom. Four total in the piece ;)

Stu at Progression Tattoo finished my Medusa last night, I'm really stoked with it!

Paul Dobleman just posted this amazing R.O.A. print on instagram, so good

Thank you. That was an interesting read.

@Mike Clayton Mate you've been through this on the other forum, now you've hopefully learned to choose a great artist. It's pretty normal to have your first tattoo being your worst. Now is the time to suck it up and go get something amazing by a world class artist.

we watched "Killing Them Softly" tonight, I'll never be able to get back the 100 minutes I lost :( what a POS !

It's fairly common for that to happen depending on the location, difficulty of the healing process, and how the tattoo was applied. Just go see your artist and have them touch it up, it's not a big deal.

Thanks SStu. Heres a few to start

Speaking of Mr. Flatmo, check out his interview right here on LST. Kore Flatmo Interview

let tattoos be your only vice! works for me... + coffee

Agreed! And the level of discourse around here is uncommonly thoughtful, I find, in addition to the general friendliness. Go LSTers ;) Go team!

bump scorpionfront.com - - - Updated - - - also, there's this

stole this from sonju's injungram

what do you guys think about this one?

My wife picked this out for me last night. Done by Jason at Taylor Street. Good times were had.

Scott Sparks can eat a dick.

Just returned from Scotland. Here's what I got on Tuesday from Joe Ellis (his IG pic):

Nuttin' fancy. Inside forearm done by Dustin Hysell at Fate Tattoo in Columbus

I've seen the aftermath of a F5 in 1987. Shopping malls cleaned right down to the concrete slabs. How anyone can live there is beyond me. I'd have to sleep in the basement or storm shelter. It could have been much worse from the reports of the width and wind speeds. Rob

Yeah, that tiger and snake backpiece belongs to me. I have another session coming up this Monday.

I saw this one in Brian Bruno's book over the weekend. Picture stolen from his instagram. Unreal, I am jealous of whoever has this.

Might as well give this month a shot too then :o From Xam at The Family Business, London.

Just cause I feel like playing. I got this last summer from Mario.

Got this fella from Deno.

Just for the heck of it, I'll throw in my right arm 3/4 sleeve done a couple of years ago by Henning Jorgensen when he was guest tattooing at Kings Avenue Tattoo (both the Manhattan and Long Island shops). This picture was actually compiled by Henning and shared with me. Enjoy!

didn't enter last months but this is my most recent. made by Justin Hyde @ Old Soul Tattoo

Finally got around to getting a descent, healed picture of mine. posted it on IG earlier, it constrained it till you cant see it all. It was done by Paul Pearson at Tried & True Tattoo in Smyrna , Tn

I think Abelive's last post summed it up for me: Basically I don't expect to be sitting down and discovering a friend for life when I get tattooed, or be treated to some kind of therapy or show-and-tell as well as getting the tattoo ... But I expect to be met halfway in terms of civility and customer-service. I don't mind someone being gruff or not particularly wanting to talk, but if someone is actively being a dick then for me personally it doesn't matter how good a tattooer they are, I would probably prefer to go to another competent tattooer (and luckily there are a lot out there and I can swing traveling etc. if necessary) rather than give my money to someone who treats me badly. As for people's personal private lives (their beliefs, addictions or lack thereof, whatever), I don't think I would consider it relevant unless it impacted on their delivery of the tattoo and the way they treated me as a customer.

I think personality/attitude is very important. I will take a less than perfect tattoo from a great person before I take a world-class tattoo from an asshole. Anyway though, I think their personality shows in their work to the extent that I wouldn't be attracted to an assholes artwork...at least I don't think. Short answer -- personality is very important to me. The experience and memory of the moment is going to outlive the crispnesss and vibrance of the tattoo, I think...

A friend of mine once said, "If a chick is hot, her tattoos don't have to be good." I used to agree him, but I don't so much these days. Hot chick + great tattoos = infinitely hotter.

When I met my wife over 36 years ago I had a couple of tattoos on my forearms and some hand poked tattoos on my hands which I was in the process I having removed. The ones I had on my hands had been done whilst I was in an Approved School in the UK (Reform School as our trans-Atlantic cousins call them. That was a time in my life I wanted to put behind me. My wife was never bothered by my tattoos and had one done while we were still going out on the top of her arm. I have had a few done since, she loves all of them and has had some important input into at least two of my tattoos, design wise. Last year I took the plunge and had a heart & swallow tattoo with my wifes name on it at the London Tattoo convention and when I showed it to her she said "I suppose I'll have to get one done, so a couple of months later she booked in with the same tattooer and had a lovely black and grey tattoo with my name underneath. This month she is going back to get another rose added underneath. So it can put a bit of a dent in the finances but worth every penny.