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I don't usually post in the contest threads but I thought it would be fun to have a Henning vs. Rubendall showdown. Done at the Montreal tattoo convention last week:

All healed; done by Chris O'Donnell. I couldn't be any happier with it and can't wait to start on my back in 2015.

Worked on my front today with my boss/mentor, Josh Cruse. Adding a tail for the snake next month, as well as more snake details (I assume scales) and hopefully starting color. EDIT: and once I can avoid insect bites on my forearm during the dog days of summer living in the country, I'll post my Stefano ship from June. Had a few ingrown hairs, then got eaten alive by mosquitoes after some recent rain storms... should be later this week.

That's cool.....I just wondered if for some people they saw 1985 as some pivotal time in tattooing or something and my first professional tattoo was done in 1984 by Juli Moon..... - - - Updated - - - I don't really know why or what got into my head one evening BUT.....I just decided that I wanted to seek out some of the people who had been tattooing 30-40 years and begin to add their work to my body! At the time I was not even thinking I would ever pick up a machine and tattoo but to me it truly was my way of being able to honor those people who had put their time in to the craft and community I loved since I did not tattoo! It really hit home to me that this is what I felt I should do once I was tattooed by Dennis Watkins....the hubby of my now mentor Gale Watkins! Dennis apparently was dying at the time unknown to anyone but himself and had really stopped tattooing totally. I asked a friend to see if he could convince him to do something small on me....and he agreed to do something! That one tattoo turned into three.....Myself...my hubby....and my son have his last three tattoos! After his death I asked a few well known tattoo artists who I was fortunate to be friends with who were others who had this kind of time in and got back a wonderful list I have been chipping away at for some time now! I try not to really draw a lot of attention to myself because I am really no one special.....I have just taken the time to have been tattooed by a lot of really wonderful people who love/loved what they do..... I really would urge others to do this as well if you are just going for smaller pieces here and there on your body rather than larger mural style pieces!

got this from Todd Noble in Montreal yesterday:

I don't understand how being proper and respectable is anything to aspire to.

This one was a lot of fun to do. Pluto forever!

Got this for my girl Cristal after Jay Watkins @ FTW in Oakland finished up my Oakland traditional bridge piece. He does really quality work and she loves this thing. Here is a better pic of the tattoo I just got @ FTW. Going back for a traditional pizza slice in two weeks. (FOOD TATTOOS, Yay!)

Nobody is gonna top Bunny in this thread As far as myself; deVita Tux Higgs Sonny Tufts

This is from Henning Jorgensen. done at Royal Tattoo. enjoy!

@Hospitelli Chris's Japanese maple leaf colors are great!

i got one from bob moreau and my wife has two from him i think bob also taught dave lum how to tattoo thats the extent of my old timers list but bob is awesome

When I saw that you had posted in this thread, I was hoping to see Bob Moreau's name. Not many people outside of Austin know about him, but he is the man who taught Chris Treviño to tattoo. And for that, we all owe him a huge debt.

Here comes another of my "Out of the Norm" submissions. This tattoo was done on the 1st September and is still driving me crazy. (My legs heal terribly). As usual, something different to the norm around these parts. Based on the Constructivism propaganda posters designed mainly in the early 20th Century and done by Gray Silva of Rampant Ink Nottingham @ Teesside Charity Tattoo Show, in about 5 hours, at a guess.

In the battle between snake and tiger, your nipples lost. YOUCH, dude! But that looks awesome and tough as hell.

Managed to get an appointment with Grez to do a traditional Gorilla head on my right foot on Sept 25. Stoked to say the least. Now my right foot won't look naked in comparison to the left.

I feel special because I get to just comment in this thread. I have also been lucky enough to get a hit from Stell. In 15 years I'll get to post again about Dana Helmuth and Dave Fox, haha.

You rule Bunny. You have such an awesome outlook and attitude.

Damn i'm glad nobody decided of a tattoo for me when I was going to the bathroom :P

Got this done by Matt Houston at Gastown Tattoo Parlour in Vancouver. Very happy how it turned out. Matt is pretty cool guy too. I'll be getting another soon enough, im sure.

I got this gorilla & rose situation from Chad Koeplinger last Friday at the Montreal Art Tattoo convention. Believe it or not this was done in an hour and a half of tattooing! He actually broke a mag shading needle partway through. I've never heard of this happening before, but seemed routine for to him. Chad's a super nice guy, and made this a fun experience. He'll finish it up early next year, when he comes back to town. I'm super stoked!

@steve1461686340 @gougetheeyes Thunder Dome ! "two men enter one man leaves"

I hope there are no haters .. but I'm going to post this tattoo again this month!! Haha Done by Tim Hendricks at Gold Rush in Costa Mesa , CA

It hasn't even been a year yet for me here on LST and low and behold I'm being nostalgic and waxing poetic already, hahaha. Needless to say it has been an amazing experience getting tattooed and sharing with kindred spirits here on LST and Instagram. All of this would not be possible if it not for some really awesome people here on LST. So without further delay, here's my way of giving back to LST and paying it forward. Some of you may know that a couple of months back I won a contest on Instagram via the killer staff at Tattoo Culture Magazine and Tattoo Artist Magazine. Received three fantastic prints from three stellar artists. I was super stoked when I got them but then realized with the limited space I have in my place (small NYC apartment and my lady just moved in with me too!) that I would not be able to enjoy these as much as someone else. I want these to go to someone who truly appreciates tattoos and are amazingly cool people. @hogg @slayer9019 @gougetheeyes @Iwar As mods, you have made everyone on LST feel so welcomed and it is a thankless job that all of you have for making LST such a cool spot to chill and share our experiences. I want to send each of you a print of my choice (yes I won three, but I have a fourth sitting around). A small token to say "thank you". Please PM me your shipping info (promise this isn't a scam, hahaha). @slayer9019 and @gougetheeyes since you two are local to NYC, happy to meet up and pass you the print. Cheers to the LST crew!

Don't google Dave Lum's name at work. :)

@Graeme, that is just sad especially when the aforementioned people were taking walk ups. I try my best to educate people and friends without sounding like a total snob but sometimes it's just plain tuff. I got a buddy of mine that has like about 50 hrs + invested in a full arm sleeve in which the work is sub par at best. How do you go about telling them that it's A) Crap and B) Could of gotten a 100% better tattoo from someone else without hurting their feelings? It's extremely difficult especially when they think the world of it and that it is the best thing since sliced bread. Then when you tell them your opinion of the artist that they go to and recommend some solid people they blow up and go ape shit crazy. It's a lose lose situation and makes me not even want to waste my breath trying to help people make a better decision when it comes to something they are going to have on them for the rest of their life.

Here's one that bothers me: This one was done at the Montreal convention over the weekend, and it's on a tattooer. Not a good one, mind you. I just don't understand it. It wasn't a matter of access because there were so many great tattooers working there over the weekend, and if you wanted traditional there were plenty of people who do great traditional who were taking walkups...Todd Noble, Chris Hold, Tim Pausinger, Scott Althen immediately come to mind, people like Phil Holt who maybe don't do traditional but who are fucking incredible seemed like they had time, and I'm sure there were plenty more people who could have done a great tattoo. Money? We're talking a convention here, not somebody's kitchen table, so it's not like this was a $30 tattoo. Never mind that a tattoo like that wouldn't be worth the money if it was free. That it's on a tattooer especially bothers me because a tattooer, of all people, should know better and should be seeking out tattoos from people who inspire them and who make them want to be better tattooers. I try to not let the tattoos other people get bother me and just try to get the best tattoos that I can because I love tattoos, but this shit just stinks.

I like Frisco! Much better than ol' @Cork-y with his San Fran. Frisco makes me think of outsiders, bikers, outlaws, gangsters, PIRATES. Plus, it's in tons of rap songs I love. So yeah. FRISCO. Even if I usually just say SF myself.

Also, you should know that people from San Francisco love it when you call the city San Fran. It's probably the most affectionate name for the city that you can use, and they love to hear San Fran. San Fran..... @hogg

Yep, Bunny crushed it. She also reminded me that I've been tattooed by Richard Stell (knew I was forgetting someone!).

2013 is Henning Jorgensen's 30 Anniversary for his shop Royal Tattoo in Denmark. That places him starting at 1983, does that count? ;)

Ha ha ha.......well this is truly what I have focused my "collecting" on! Can I ask why pick the year 1985? I am just curious...... - - - Updated - - - Here are a few off the top of my head..... There are probably several more but I am not sure they have made it to the 28-30 year mark just yet so i didn't include them...... Debra Yarian Debbie Lenz Gale Watkins (my mentor) Tony Polito Mike Perfetto Steve Delgatto Jerry "Reds" Donohoe Ronnie Dell'Aquila Richard Stell John Black Tom Beasley Ritchie Montgomery Dana Brunson Jennie Peace LeDan Peace Stan Moskowitz Marvin Moskowitz Ernie Carafa Jerry Swallow Juli Moon George Benjamin Mike Skiver

I like all of y'all. When I joined up here, I had no idea what to expect. It's weird, from here and Instagram, I've been able to see into the lives of people I have never met, but I honestly think the world of.

Booked in with Claudia De Sabe for a Fudo myo lady on my thigh yesterday! Very exited about this one! Another girl-head in my collection :D

Well in the Tattoo Age episodes on Dan Santoro, a shop in Hong Kong called "Swallow Tattoo" is mentioned as an inspiration for the SSTP interior and having every surface of the shop covered in flash. I was curious about it and did some googling and found that Swallow, Pinky Yun, and Ricky all apprenticed under a tattooist named James Ho and that Ricky Tattoo is still in operation. It's located in the Wanchai bar/strip club district. So I decided to find the shop. Ricky is not tattooing there, but a younger and also apparently completely tattoo-less tattooer was working, and the interior and the flash on the walls probably have not been updated since the 1980s (there were some Bob Roberts sheets) and most of the flash on the wall was made much earlier. There was also an older manager(?) guy. The extent of service was being asked "what u want?" Absolutely no effort was made to be friendly and there were serious sanitary issues but I decided to go for it. The tattoo is not really anything to write home about, but the experience was incredible. I don't think the guy who tattoed me had any interest in tattoos. It seemed like it was just work he had to do?

I was wondering something similar regarding exercise. I just climbed Mt Fuji Yesterday. It's been a full 24 hours since I finished. I'm stretched, a little sore but not that bad. Today is one of the last days I can get a tattoo started before I leave. Any potential damage or reasons why I shouldn't get a tattoo done on my lower leg? Are the muscles swollen that long after exercise to make a difference in the outcome of the tattoo? I know it will likely be more painful and that's a consideration, but not a deal breaker. I just want to know if throws off the size and color of the tattoo or even quality of color. Thanks.

In the vast ocean of shit online, I think it's safe to say that Last Sparrow is one of, if not the friendliest place on the internet. At least from what I've encountered. The level of civility here is second to none, and our strong community is build up by members who are truly passionate about keeping LST what it was meant to be from launch. A friendly place for enthusiasts to talk about, share, educate and promote good tattoos. Our community is in fact so strong that the site in most cases moderate itself before any of us has to step in. We're all pretty much on the same page here, and that's rare by internet standards. Sentimental shit aside, I think I'm just trying to say that having this place online to hang out with likeminded people is a reward within itself. I will however say that @steve1461686340 is much more deserving of this than I am. He has kept this site running and improving since the beginning, but since he's kind of a "behind the curtains guy" he rarely gets any credit for it. The hours he's put into building this awesome place deserves to be recognized, so if it's cool with you @ironchef I'd like him to receive the print you're giving away instead of me. Donations to Last Sparrow is also a really nice way to give something back. That way Steve won't have to dig into his own pockets when the server needs replacing or the domain bill shows up in his mailbox. Thanks for being a part of our community @ironchef! It's contributions from members like yourself that makes this site great!

Temple is about a 45 second walk eastward from the 19th Street BART station in downtown Oakland, and you can take a bus that goes along Van Ness in SF that will drop you off roughly 5 or 6 blocks from Spider Murphy's. Incidentally, Diamond Club is on the aforementioned Van Ness and you will absolutely get quality work there. Blackheart is roughly four blocks from the 16th & Mission BART station in SF and everything else is easily accessible by almost any MUNI line. I miss the City, sometimes. :(

You paid how much????? I had my baby in a friend's kitchen for $20!

I read an article in I cant remember what magazine many years ago that pointed out that almost every question we get asked about our tattoos can also be directed towards a new teen mother example: "did that hurt?" "what do your parents think about that?" " you know you're stuck with that for ever, right?" "i cant believe you'd do that to your body?" "why would you do something so irresponsible?" etc., etc.

I still have a hard time wrapping my head around how people can let dumb shit like that fly out of their mouth.

You should've asked her what her blouse means.

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

Pretty much sums it up for me. Opposite side of the coin. I don't collect shit... I don't owe anybody anything (well, except for that 1 student loan, and it'll be paid off next year). I DO own: 1 old VW Beetle. 1 old Murray bicycle. Some nice music gear. Most of my torso and a good portion of my legs covered in art work done by only one or two local tattoo artists. Artwork that can't be duplicated because it's a reflection of me at this point. Oh, and some books and CD's that I can't seem to part with.

So as I said, my rib piece turned into a chest tattoo. I'm 3 weeks out, and I'm pretty pleased overall. Sitting was 4 1/2 hours...relatively easy.