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A friend of mine found this and scanned it for me. Since it's in Life magazine--in 1961--I expected it to be on some, "Well, thank American Jesus that's illegal now!" Instead, they seem to complain about the ban. "Effete civilization is smothering the 4,000-year-old art." I'm also intrigued that a Coney Island carney still counted his 59 tattoos, all of which had devolved into "purple pictures." About this "needles and matches" method: I assume the matches are to burn paper to create soot which gets mixed with water (or, you know, piss)?

Got this beauty from Frank Carter at frith street yesterday :D Nabbed the pic from his instagram. @Iwar here's the pic you wanted

I don't get it. Why would you get a tattoo that didn't offend someone, especially uptight people at the supermarket.

I don't have children so I'm only speculating here, but if I had a daughter and she was getting married, I'd like to think that I'd wear a shirt and pants to her wedding.

I know it's been months without any significant news but... Here's a trailer. Please spread the word.

I had my consult today and we are going to start in July of next year, or earlier if he has any cancellations. I'm super stoked, the tattoo is going to be amazing, and I just get such a good vibe from him and that shop.

Hardy Marks Publications and Don Ed Hardy Archive - Books and artwork from tattoo legend Don Ed Hardy Hardymarks just reissued this book. It is a good one, and at $30 nearly impossible to pass up. Mine is already on order.

Here's my rib tiger Ross Nagle did while he's here in Chicago.

It's always weird cause everytime you get tattooed it feels different so it's hard to say what hurts less. I really don't have a clue. Coil does sound more aggressive for sure. In regards to the getting through the pain.I have much respect for people who sit through long tattoo sittings, I wouldn't say I have a high threshold for pain, but I guess if I want to get a tattoo I have to find a way to get through it. The best advice I have ever been given is to sit there and take it. You can take pain killers, rub cream on there, or whatever ritual you have, but the only answer is to accept the pain and try to relax, at times it sure sucks, but to me that's part of the accomplishment.

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

Oh man, I want a tattoo! I have an appointment booked for Oct 5th to add to my right arm, and will go to consult about it soon. Decided to go back to Kim Saigh. While there are hundreds of artists whose stuff I'm into, I figured who better to continue this arm than the person who already started it. I am really fond of her, and her work, and her shop. When I got the roses from her on my upper arm I didn't know I'd want to turn it into a sleeve, but I have full confidence she can figure it out.

I don't think this tattoo is done well. The background should not be the same color as the flower and I don't think it adds to the tattoo. All the blues and greens and purples are cool colors and could really use more warm colors like gold and orange in the tattoo, the pink just isn't enough of a contrast to the purple to pull it off. I am not a big fan of this genre. I think sometimes people feel like they have too choices, bold line traditional and no outline realistic, and I think there are plenty of things in between that could better suit a person who wants a tattoo that looks a little more realistic, but still has and outline and enough black to hold up over time. But at the very least using colors that compliment each other if you do go this route.

I will always remember a quote a friend who is heavily tattooed and also has been tattooing close to 40 years said to me (and I agree 500%) He said: "I liked it a lot better when I was considered socially unacceptable to the socially unacceptable!" Pleas don't get me wrong....I am not being nasty or anything..... I could give a rats ass what others think of my tattoos in public and if they taught their children properly not to stare at people who were different like I taught my kids.....then they wouldn't have to worry about the fact that I have an old shriveled up penis with a peg leg and prickly balls tattooed on the outside of my upper right arm! I get tattooed for myself and no one else and if the public feels what I have is too profane for them or their children to look at then they don't have to look! ;)

Who knows, you may change your mind. Let's set up a mock wedding between your animals at the park just to make sure you don't show up in your birthday suit.

Can't wait to see these... just watching the trailer, it hit me how amazing it was to get to go there this summer. As some random kid from the middle of America, seeing all of the walls, getting tattooed by Jordan and Stefano, being there for Dante and Lal Hardy's banter one day, and (as important as the quality of the tattoos) everyone being so nice almost seems like a dream. Hopefully, the next time I'm there, I can hear another of Jordan's "hori-" jokes, and Stewart may have his hair in pigtails again.

I made my $500 goal! Woot! There was at least one LST member in there- I really do appreciate it! I'm going to raise my fundraising goal but be far less aggressive about it.. our team is trying to raise $1500 and right now, I'm a 1/3 of that. Let the other five members sweat, I say. Did I mention we're going to be wearing matching 'seventies gym teacher' shorts? Oh yeah. It's going to be uncomfortable for everyone running behind us.

Welcome Scott, my opinion is that mixing styles is pretty rad. - - - Updated - - - Here's one from Henning Jorgenson's instagram from a few months ago. The front was done by Grime, the rooster by Scott Sylvia, the eagle by Tim Lehi, and Henning tied it all together with background and did the armpits. I think that looks super rad.

Very nice Inntrospect is it by Diego? - - - Updated - - - I had a session on my back at Frith Street today, while I was there Stewart managed to squeeze me in for a qucky, and I so glad he did, I love it

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..

Look what I just stumbled over! FST: On the Shoulders of Giants is a documentary film, currently in production by Stewart Robson, a tattooer at Frith Street Tattoo (FST) in London. This project is expected to be completed in late 2013. Shooting started in August 2012. Stewart has interviewed his friends and colleagues, some of them world-renown in tattoo circles but all of them have worked in the cramped infamous basement shop in the heart of London’s seedy soho district, to share this portrait of one of the most interesting, vibrant and influential modern tattoo shops. FST: On the Shoulders of Giants There's a bunch on cool teasers from the different interviews on the blog too. I'm super stoked for this to come out! You gotta share stuff like this with us @Stewart Robson - - - Updated - - - This was great by the way! (Also by Stewart)

This October me and a group of friends are going to be raising funds and running a 5k in support of the 2013 Philadelphia Aids Walk. In my life I've lost too many people to this horrible disease and while things are better than they've ever been with meds and hopes of vaccines and cures.. people are still dying. I'm not sure if a lot of folks here on LST know what I do for a living; I work in a gay bar in Center City Philly and every day I see people who's lives have been affected- directly or indirectly- by HIV/AIDS. My own mentor, Jack Yount, died of complications due to AIDS. It's something that hits very close to home with me and this year I've decided that instead of just donating money to the walk... we're going to run. I'm going to hit up some of my tattooer friends and see if we can't get a donation of artwork for an exclusive Occult Vibrations shirt design, something non-related to the event but available only to folks who donated, as well as whipping up special OV dvds of deleted footage that I can't show on the blog. Those of you who've seen the unedited ROYBOY tapes know how out of control they got... Here's the pitch: AIDS WALK 2013: 5k TEAM OV! | Sacred Debris

Nobody in the world cares about my tattoos. But I really like them. I've got a bird friend on my shoulder who will be with me always. Poor little Squeaky, the real bird, died when I was away. I never got to say good-bye and now I don't have to because Squeaky is always there on my shoulder. I've got a story of hiking a long trail on my leg. If I ever get Alzheimer's I will probably at least remember that experience since it's right there on my leg to remind me of all that I saw and did out there. I've got big blue roses. Lots of color. I was hated and criticized mercilessly all my life for being ugly but now I have pretty colors on my skin to make me happy. And finally, my butterfly. First time I went to a tattoo shop the artist there told me of giving an old lady a tattoo of a butterfly on her arm because she had always wanted one. There are so many things in life I've always wanted to do and it took me a while to realize that someday never comes. Do it now. And even though a barely-graduated apprentice did my butterfly, he cleverly mirrored the motif of the leaves of my roses and tied it all together. I feel like I carry a flower garden and a little bit of spring around with me wherever I go. I claimed my body from those who had prior claims, defined it my own way, not theirs, and made it my own. Nobody cares about my tattoos, some people probably scorn me for them, and for that I even feel more grateful because against their disapproval, here I am, taking up space with my garden and my memories, just being me.

Your first posts are now approved. Welcome to LST! The guy's legs (color photo) you posted are by Stuart Cripwell. I've been tattooed by Stuart a few times, and I know for a fact that his client achieved that look by giving Stuart a lot of (if not total) control. Just a heads up. The best results are usually achieved when you put your trust in a solid artist. Speaking of, if you're anywhere near Amsterdam, I highly recommend checking out Salon Serpent. tattoo Kim Anh Nguyen has a style that you might really like, and the other tattooers at that shop are great, too. Good luck!

My husband and I have actually discussed ways to embarrass them...our son is a little too young right now but our daughter is about the age where stuff starts to matter more...so I'm thinking if she and her friends saw me being silly at my preschool, making the kids laugh by hopping from foot to foot, scratching my armpits and hooting like a monkey she's going to be quite unthrilled with me. I'm the most heavily tattooed in our district, and most of those kids have seen me since she was in Kindergarten, so they're used to my tattoos..and really, you'd think they'd be used to me enough to remember that I hopped and hooted around for them too. As far as tattoos in family portraits or at social/family events...they're a part of *me*, I dig tattoos, I dig tattooed guys. I find it sexy to see tattoos poking out of shirt sleeves or just clothes in general. We're a tattooed family, so tattoos showing in photos goes with the territory. If JD is walking London down the aisle when she gets married and she's super casual so it's short sleeved dress shirts, the tattoos on her daddy's arm will show, and there's no reason to be embarrassed by that, and if she's super against tattoos when she gets older, then that's something *she* would need to deal with. It's not up to me to make everything about myself un offensive for everyone else. Beside the fact that it's impossible.

Thank you both! I'm so excited - it's going to be a long month. Hopefully my first post will be back from the mods soon, it's absence makes my thread quite odd :rolleyes: Sorry 'bout that. Do the Basillus Bresler drawings look like they might translate OK to tattoo? I found some later botanical prints (18th century) that's kind of like the barest bones of how I imagine it might be done. These: Jacquin Botanical Prints 1763 Particularly this" Jacquin Botanical Prints 1764 As well as Besler, Giovanni Baptista Ferrari Ferrari Citrus Prints 1646 and Johannes Zorn Johannes Zorn, Icones Plantarum Medicinalium 1779 really appeal to me. Am I on a path to madness and, well, would it probably look crappy?

When I think of the number of ways @Graeme and I will inevitably embarrass our hypothetical children, our tattoos seem pretty low on the list.

Your artist knows what tools work best for them.....some prefer one over the other....some prefer to use them both....whatever works best for the artist............and every tattoo feels different to the majority of people based on where it is on the body and even where their mind is that day. What is crazy painful to one person is no thing at all to someone else! :)

I've no experience at all with this, I'm on a steep learning curve with little RL imput TBH. Am terrified of ending up with something crappy - I think it his work looks qualitative but, well, I don't have a clue when it comes down to it. Annoyingly I haven't met him and can't until my design and lining appointment. Any idea if that's odd? So, yeah, nothing to do but over-think everything. - - - Updated - - - Oh, hello Cork - x posted there. I put a shed load of stuff in my first post that's stuck in moderation. They'll probably just vanish to mod again if I give it a second go... Probably best described as a black and grey 3/4 sleeve (in the sense that an arm full of nicely placed flash is a sleeve, as opposed to a japanese sleeve), mainly based on some 17th century botanical drawings with some other stuff in there too. - - - Updated - - - any critique of the chaps work (good or bad) really would be massively appreciated BTW. - - - Updated - - - OK - trying again anyway. Am inspired by this sort of thing: I like the way it ages: Here is some random stuff by Bresler - I'm thinking his work will translate to proper lined and shaded tattoos really rather nicely but I can't be sure: http://www.audubonart.com/00_imagedisp_sc.asp?stockno=BESD-0035-01-13&file=IMAGES/CATALOG/BESD/BESD_035_01.jpg&price=%20$3,800&returnurl=/02_gall_BESD1.asp Flowers at the bottom left and right http://www.audubonart.com/00_imagedisp_sc.asp?stockno=OKBE-145-300-13&file=IMAGES/CATALOG/OKBE/OKBE_145_01.jpg&price=%20$600&returnurl=/02_gall_OKBE2.asp http://www.audubonart.com/00_imagedisp_sc.asp?stockno=OKBE-101-300-13&file=IMAGES/CATALOG/OKBE/OKBE_101_01.jpg&price=%20$800&returnurl=/02_gall_OKBE1.asp peony 'cause it's such a known thing in tattooing so maybe easier to visulise translated. Possibly.

I would put anyone at that shop at LEAST on par with if not better than Johnny's skill level. Zack IMO has a better understanding of Japanese tattooing than he does.

Oh god. I've met this douche before; he has his head so far up his own ass its unbelievable. A few years ago a regional southern living for young people magazine based in Savannah did a spotlight on a few local tattoo shops with little quickie interviews. This pompous prick had the gall to say that he is the best tattoo artist in Savannah. Went on to say that all the other artists in town were hacks and junkies. On a rock poster forum (where as far as he knows he's the only tattooer on there) he showed a before and after pic of a tattoo he went over to 'fix' it; which was basically where he blasted white on top of some shitty line work and shading. Good job man, that will hold up well over time. He can eat a dick and I would say the same thing to him myself if we were in the same room at the same time. Whatever this asshole has to say means little to nothing to me or any of the accomplished tattooers in Savannah. If he thinks there have been no gallery openings that focus on text or lettering he is oblivious to talented artists such as Chaz, Big Sleeps, Retna, Defer2, Steve Powers, Seen, etc. that list could go for an entire page. Sorry Shawn, nothing personal or against what you do on your blog; I have always enjoyed it before and will continue to.

Choose your tattooer carefully or this could happen.

Seems I am enjoying attempting to paint snakes and daggers, basically the same design modified and or repainted.

I saw that Dobleman piece the other day. So awesome.

oh! And Simon Erl has graciously donated artwork for an exclusive OV tshirt available only to people who donate (a specific amount. we're going premium 3/4 sleeve raglans!) so that's fun. Reign Supreme has donated a shirt/cd package... we're having a blast!

Every single one of my tattoos is black & grey, so I don't have the luxury of the "fruity pebbles" experience. Instead, my girlfriend calls my flaking black tattoo remnants "hamster poop". Equally as breakfast-appropriate, if you ask me.

If that's the case you're getting tattooed at the wrong places. Why would you get a tattoo from someone whom you can't trust for input and guidance? If you tell us where you're located we can maybe recommend some good shops in you area instead.

I'm happiest with whatever gets the job done more efficiently.

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).

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.

I endorse this statement.

sooo you compare women to object now are you? this isn't the 1800's you know?

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.

People have given their answers to your question, and it seems you are ignoring them. This really is fine but I don't understand the point of asking the question. Most posters at LST genuinely try to give the best advice. In the end it is your body and your tattoo, so if you'd like to risk it, that is fine. As far as live and let live, then come back in for a touch, you might hit some friction there. I know anyone who has tattooed me has no problem doing free touchups IF you follow their directions for aftercare.. If you disregard their professional opinion, I'm sure they will touch it up, but at a price. As far as my one personal experience with this, I can say. I've modified the last 3 summers to no pools, direct sun, oceans, beachers, etc because I invested some serious cash, time, pain and my artist's time into my tattoos, and until I'm done healing them all, I will keep doing that. Yea it can suck but I also don't want a wrecked tattoo.

Are you any one of these people?

so your saying you want to have more one night stands as a memorial to your dead pets?

Fucking gold...classic shit!

I find based on questions I get asked a lot from "plainskins" is that people who aren't big tattoo-heads think they have to justify getting tattoos by giving them personal meaning. A quote or a small image is easy to be meaningful. A badass battle royale tattoo probably has no meaning. It's just badass. People can't make that kind of commitment without a personal connection. Just like some people can't have one night stands. (This is just my opinion based on the dumb people I know who get lame tattoos).

"do you know how much this would hurt with pants on?!" hahahaha

aka Squid Sox Swap meet .

I got my leg tattooed from ankle to knee for 3 records.