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Matt Howse did this on me yesterday at Fortune Tattoo here in Portland and yes it is right up in my business.

This is a photo taken by my friend, @Iwar, right after Marius Meyer did a hell of a oneshot on me. I was almost dead, at least very close to fainting. Haha! See a better picture of it in the august contest. The front is just a collection of good and bad tattoos. Some day the owl is going to taste the laser..

because people don't know shit. getting a bad tattoo can be traced back to customers not trusting their own instinct (walking out of a shit shop when they don't get a good vibe and getting tattooed regardless), not trusting/listening to their tattooer or just getting a design theyve seen repeatedly before whether it's good or not. people will get what they see. tattoo flash used to help in some cases for the undecided. The google image search feature has harmed the customer/tattooer relationship. it gives people the idea that they can get whatever they want as long as they like it, but there's so much more to that equation. I mean of course you can and you should, it's your tattoo but listen to your artist when they tell you it's gonna look like crap 10 years from now, that it needs to be bigger or to simply not get an upside down tattoo just cos youve seen it on your best friend or some blog on tumblr. it doesn't make it right. I dont really see anything wrong in the designs people choose to get tattooed today, i just think it's much more important that they get a better version that will look good in years to come rather than the attitude i've seen tattooers take, such as doing exactly what the customer requests without advising on size, placement and clarity of design.

I don't think this thread could teach someone to tattoo, but if someone came in an requested to get tattooed by a rotary I would be besides myself that they thought they had a say in the matter. Why can't tattoo machines, be magical devices conjured up in secret lairs with parts unknown to modern man. I have been tattooed by a rotary machine and i guess at times it was less painful than a coil, but not rainbows and unicorns better, and after two hours it sucked just as bad. Tattoos hurt

1 Shot Rib Tattoo (5.5 Hours) by Tim Hendricks at Gold Rush Tattoo .

not the most recent but got this back in december from jaie devore haven't posted many pictures of my tattoos but here you go looks a little crooked in the pic but not when my arm is down

You should be used to it by now? The skull is pretty cool, I will say that. There has to be a common ground, I mean the skaters didn't care for the BMX kids, but they could agree they hated the rollerbladers, we just need to find the rollerbladers.

I once had a customer show me this method that was being used on her foot tattoo (i tattooed something else on her arm) and it looked horrific. it did indeed take off the tattoo (mostly) in the spots where the treatment had taken place, but if anything it makes a cover up way harder because of the contrast between the 'skin' spots and the rest of the tattoo. she also said the scabs took months to heal, were incredibly painful to apply and heal, the area stayed swollen for weeks. she said the spots had to be over an inch apart due to the swelling, the person doing it told her. if a customer of mine brought me a tattoo in such a estate asking for me to cover it, i'd be very dubious as to take it on. google image search results. i'd say speak to your tattooer before you do anything, the tattoo you want covered up might not need such drastic removal, or simply a couple of laser removal treatments might be enough to evenly fade the tattoo away to allow a less heavy cover up.

I hope when you complete that thought it isn't total nonsense like it is here. When I look at the lettering tattoos that people like Tim Hendricks, BJ Betts, Katie Sellergren, Anderson Luna, to just name a few, I don't think for a moment that lettering as a craft, or tattooing as a craft, is being degraded. That is melodramatic garbage and I don't think you care enough about non-tattoo forms and ways of lettering to even believe that yourself (and if you do, you're still wrong about it). Even getting away from people who have made their names doing lettering, there are so many more tattooers who work hard to improve their lettering maybe not because it's the area of tattooing that they're the most excited about but because people ask for lettering, and they want to give their clients the best tattoo they can. This isn't just a new thing...read George Burchett because he writes about doing huge amounts of text on his clients. Obviously a lot of text-based tattoos aren't done well, but that doesn't mean that text is bad as such. Also, for the purposes of this forum and our attempt here to actively promote good tattooing, I think that completely dismissing text in tattoos as being bad is counterproductive.

My girlfriend, @Ninab, is now booked in with Civ and Stuart Cripwell for the convention, and I am still waiting for a confimation from Mike Rubendall and Ichibay. What do you want from Henning Jørgensen if he gets a cancellation, @jade1955?

We don't have those over here, so I had to google it. Looks about right.

Finally done after 16 hours. Rodrigo Melo out of Northstar Tattoo in NYC.

Both of these are by Clamore Wolfmeyer at Amillion here in Austin. I didn't get a shot of the Higgs Druid, but here is my wife's pillowcase the next morning! Haha! Boldwillhold!

Here is a little piece of mine :-) This dragon sleeve has been done last year by Bonel of Corazon Santo in The Netherlands, which is currently working on my other arm (and a Phoenix backpiece on my wife :-) )

it all boils down to the every day normal person being dumber than dog shit

Got this moth done yesterday by Josh Damnit at Donovan's Autumn Moon.

A lot of judgements on appearances in this thread. Thank goodness nobody ever judges us on how WE look.

Hard to beat that hooper sleeve, but I got this little party cat from my buddy Chris Cotner from Austin. More people should check him out, he rules.

Gaaawd!!! So many cool tattoos being posted in this thread lately. I absolutely love this one!! Been thinking of shunga for my own pits for a while (although I once swore i'd never get my pits done. Ha!) but I'm not sure if I have the balls to get that type of imagery tattoed on me yet.

Do it!

Defo getting one of these aswell @jade1955

I dig that little clover in there. I also think this thread wins for best title.

You can, but I will still add that typographical tattoos aren't necessarily bad ones either. Stephanie Tamez being an example of somebody who has done pretty spectacular large scale type-based tattoos.

Can I just point out that there is a gigantic difference between script tattoos and typographical tattoos?

Man I thought this thread was about bad tattoos (difficult enough to define as it is without entering douchey territory), not about tattoos I don't like. That distinction seems pretty crucial to me. I can't stand black licorice, but that doesn't mean I'd call it a "bad" food (although I definitely have done that when my husband has eaten it because I'm a jerk).

Scott Sylvia says he can make it on the 19th too, and he suggested we reserve a big table at Lolinda on Mission St. in SF. Sound good?

Yeah it's on a sheet of flash in the Spider Murphy book, but I just assumed it was a Simpsons Reference. Not the main reason I got it, just a bonus.

Aesthetically I can see what she is saying, but the rest of your arm has a certain look for sure, but if you like your tattoo and it brings you luck then keep it I say. Often tattooers frame tattoos instead of covering them, because people don't know how sentimental they are about there old tattoos or maybe just the experience of getting that tattoo or just being 14, and it sounds like that is the case.

i like loud noises

what others think is their problem, not yours. me personally don't give a flying f**k what others think of any of my tattoos anyway...but thats me...

I've never been tattooed with a rotary, so I can't really compare the sensation between the two machines. All I know (or at least feel) is that the sound of a coiled machine is such an integral part to the tattoo experience. I can't imagine going into a tattoo without the artist setting up the machine, running it and adjusting the voltage before asking if I'm ready to start. I need to hear that sound!

as soon as i get back from SF and save up some cash i'll be working on mine. hopefully that will happen before thanksgiving.

Several years ago I had a sweet little first-grade student of mine tell me, "tattoos are evil". That's what her very religious mom had told her. I didn't want to go against her mom by saying too much...but I did say something like, "Well, they are just pictures. Can pictures be evil?" She looked thoughtful and we left it at that.

That's awesome! Looks like the shroud of turin LOL

I got my third piece from Ron Wells Friday, and I LOVE HER: & if anyone wants the link to my Grez back piece progress, PM me. I don't want my butt all over the internet before its finished--after that, I of course give zero fucks.

Stoney by Steve Byrne.

get it re-worked, if it makes you feel better. Polish your good luck.

Well, I can't speak for the expo at all, but Neil was super focused, funny as hell, and just an all around awesome dude :)

It's a combination of 'trying too hard to be weird' and this general air of hipster irony.

I think you should go with your gut. Anything can be art I suppose, but not everything can be a good tattoo. Tattoos are a mixture of art and craftsmanship. This isn't vietnam there are rules here, mark it zero. Whatever the client decides to get is fine, but if you don't know or pretend there are no rules, how can the client get the best tattoo. You have to at least have professional input. People often want professional advice on tattoos, and want to elevate there ideas beyond their literal interpretation, even if they don't come into the shop saying that. People have to wear these tattoos forever, you can sell a shitty painting or better yet donate it. The everything is art thing is a cop out and excuse for people to do shitty tattoos IMO.

@ILikePie, it's great to be enthusiastic about something. When you like something, you like it. I think it doesn't receive as overwhelming of a response here because tattoos like that lack longevity. Bold will hold my friend.

You make several good points. I think maybe it is time for me to re-evaluate my thoughts on lettering in tattoos. In the past, no matter how hard I think about it, text always feels wrong to me. I can't exactly pin why though. Even without thinking about any other reasons than my own, I still can't figure out why I don't like text. shits weird...

Is this thread borderline "how to tattoo"? Not sure if some of these technical terms should be thrown around... Mods?

that backpiece isn't even on me and im stoked for the next session haha

I had a similar conversation with myself. Also realizing the whole fruity pebbles correlation made me get sick at the idea of eating them.

So I bought some fundoshi's off of eBay a while back, thinking I might use them when I start my backpiece. In hindsight I should have known that only japanese men with bodysuits can pull those off. Pale norwegian guys, not so much. Had to cherish the moment with a picture though. I hope you all feel privileged! :cool: - - - Updated - - - Only thing I made my mind up about pretty early on was that I wanted to go big on my front and back. Other than that I'm just randomly filling it in with different styles of work from different tattooers I dig. I guess my thighs and feet match each other, but other than that I just pack'em in there. I absolutely love the look of japanese bodysuites though, but that's not for me. I like too much from both worlds. Now let's see the rest of you in your fundoshis! If you don't have any laying around, all you need is an old bedsheet and a pair of scissors, and voila.

Agreed! I got some leg shots on my instagram. Here's one. Kinda crappy shots for the purpose, I'll throw these up for now till I get home. Here is my two thighs. I like the placement and some of the tweaks done to make it look good when you seem them next to each other. They at least to me compliment each other, while being by 3 different artists (Stewart Robson, Matt Van Cura and Regino Gonzales). This one you can see the "clashing styles" that I seem to think looks pretty good almost touching.

After wading through the 433 pages of great art here i thought i'd include my own art too :) Currently my artist and I are working on my second sleeve (and chest piece), this sleeve is Tamatori-Hime themed. And a close-up of the chest piece: Next week we are going the continue with the background on the upper arm, and start on some coloring. This is a picture of my other sleeve that we did last year: And the chest piece: All the work is being done by Bonel of the Corazon Santo tattoostudio in The Netherlands.

"Does your mother know you have those?" (I'm 47 years old btw) Answer: "My mother's dead ma'am. Her skull is on my back." (not really, but i felt like messing with her) :D

My grandmother and I were chatting yesterday. She's 90 years old and is one of the most important people in the world to me. Well, we were talking about life, work, and how my apprenticeship is going. She looks at me and asks "Would you tattoo me? Right here, a big butterfly, and you can use this mole as the head of the butterfly." I'm still grinning over that.