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Not to mention, some of us work out and stop partying and find ourselves in better shape in our forties than we were in our twenties...imagine that?!

Yes!! I had to do a thing that scared me earlier this summer... I was totally freaked out about it... nearly chickened out and didn't do it at all. And then I changed clothes into something that showed "Steve" (my knee tiger). Steve is so tough, he makes me feel 10x tougher when I can see him. I skated through my scary thing no problem... Reading this, I think it sounds weird, and people will probably think I'm a nut... whatever. Rawr!!! Me and Steve. We've got game ;)

@chrisnoluck that's rad! love the feets :P this is a pencil drawing I did for a show last week. graphite is a pain in the ass, haha

Phil Holt (and this was this guys first tattoo): - - - Updated - - - Also Phil Holt and this guy is actually the brother of the guy in the last photo:

So only women's bodies decline after the age of 35ish? Hmmm. Guess I should stop getting tattooed, worry about what my body looks like, and leave it to the men to get all the sweet tats. Sorry, had to go there.

Here's the best picture I could find of myself not just singled out on a single tattoo.

here's some balance:

That's me! Pre-Flatmo sleeve last summer!

I'm leaving my academic teaching gig to take a job as a scientific illustrator for an excavation in Brazil next year. I get to do art for a living for a little while, and I am so fucking stoked. I'm also taking a printmaking class this semester, and it's the most fun I've had in any class, ever. Not sure why I love this really hard, really time-consuming process, but it turns out I think lithography is the shit.

EXACTLY. Probably less time at the gym and more time drinking beer too.

My wife likes to name mine. The dragon I have is named Rufus, and the hawk is named Shaniqua....

On the subject of women and aging and tattoos and all of that: My tattoos make me so much hotter. There, I said it. Not ONLY that - I never felt comfortable in my own skin growing up. There was always something wrong every time I looked in the mirror. Part of that was adolescence, part body image weirdness handed down via television and magazines, and part jerky people around me. Anyway - I feel more comfortable in my adorned skin. This, in turn, helps me project confidence, which is helpful in so many different aspects of life. I will feel like a bad ass (70/80/90) year old when I am covered in tattoos! Also, I look better and better as I get older, soooo...I'm stoked. Tattoos on older women are hoooottt and awesome and badass. :D

I'm there!!

So stoked on this!

Do get a grip dear.

painted this one yesterday.

Beer gut glamor shots

Have a friend who happens to take pictures for a living and when you are staying with him when you're visiting his city for a wedding/tattoo appointments, have him suggest taking pictures of your tattoos and then have him set up an entire photo setup with backdrop and lighting in his living room on a Sunday morning and get good ones that way? Because that's what I did, though I haven't posted them up here because I feel kind of self-conscious about posting those kind of pictures on here. I did instagram some of them though.

Jeff Srsic:

after some months of lurking, i finally registered. really love this forum and how you guys gave me so much more insight into tattooing. i'm 27 years old from hamburg, germany. although i've been around heavily tattooed people since my late teens, i only happen to have one shitty small piece on my left inner bicep so far that i plan to get slowly covered by other tattoos. i'm glad i holded up on it though, because i feel now i have a much better sense of what suits me aesthetically. i dig traditional western and japanese tattoos as well as the dotwork/tribals of artists like thomas hooper. i also keep coming back to redrawing old school flash every few years because it's fun and challenging. i don't plan on becoming a tattoo artist though, i feel like if you have nothing fresh to give back creatively, you shouldn't take part in it(same reason i quit graffiti back in the day, ha). i'm looking to get at least one piece done until the end of the year if i can handle my current money issues. i'd like to go to chriss dettmer for a skull and a dagger of some sorts and i'm planning a trip to london next year to maybe get tattooed at into-you and/or frith street, also depending on the monetary situation(not trying to be cheap, just want to make sure i will also be able to tip accordingly) besides my increasingly growing interest in what makes really good tattoos, i've been a skateboarder for more than 15 years now and i enjoy playing the guitar, drawing stuff, some woodworking... my current work is printing artwork on skateboards, which sounds cooler than it actually is. i'd like to say thanks to you girls and guys for all the helpful advice i already got from here and i hope to become a useful and tastefully tattooed forum member as time goes by. cheers!

Rubendall is going to do a Hannya & snake on my thigh, and O´Donnell (in 2014) a matching samurai/warrior/or ornamental tibetan skull & snake on the other thigh.

Uhhh, so... Did anyone else notice the Hatchet Man tattoo on Kyle's bicep?

Mike Rubendall and Ichibay at the London Convention in the end of the month. Next autumn: Timothy Hoyer and Chris O´donnell in New York, and hopefully Brian Bruno

Thanks every one (@HettyKet @Graeme @Pugilist @taaarro) for the likes and support. I was worried I was being too much of a bitch, but that shit hit a nerve.

New Flash set i done did!

Here's mine, done by Chad Koeplinger at the 2013 Montreal tattoo convention.

You can't learn to swim by reading a book. To expand on that again, tattooing is best experienced first-hand. Many times, here on this forum, in the shop I work at and conventions etc, someone has mentioned that they wish there was a book that had all the information they were looking for about a particular subject at that moment. It usually doesn't exist. You have to find it yourself. With regards to tattooing and "tattoo culture" We're living in a folk art culture. We should embrace the folk art tradition of oral storytelling and first hand knowledge and be relieved that we not (yet) shackled by the literary bounds of other art movements, cultures and historical societies. But to be more on topic, in a general sort of way... I'd stick my neck out and say that any style of tattooing (until maybe around 2000-2010) is influenced by the popular culture surrounding the people who get those styles. Sailor Jerry cribbed movie posters and other advertisements for many of his designs between the 40's - 70s. Mike Malone used objects and paintings he found in Chinatown as reference for many of his popular designs. It stands to reason that Charlie Wagner would have used Edwardian style filigree ornamentation (from a variety of sources, jewellery included) in his designs. The dotwork thing is slightly separate. During the first decade of the 21st century tattooing entered a more post-modern, referential phase where most styles of tattooing referenced or were influenced by earlier styles of tattooing. Except dotwork. I consider the work of Thomas Hooper, Xed Le Head, Jondix (I'd extend that to Duncan X) to be the only "new" style of tattooing since biomech in the 90's - but that didn't seem to catch on outside of tattoo culture the way their work did. That's why I still bother to get involved when someone refers to dotwork as a "fad". While it is imitated ad nauseam, we've alive to witness the birth of a new tattoo style that was influenced by disparate artforms outside of tattooing to the point where it works and it's possible to have a coherent bodysuit of that style. Pretty exciting stuff.

Peter Lagergren:

I hope this link works . . . Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From the Catacombs Of Rome | Photos - ABC News

Graeme making duck faces in the bathroom mirror ftw.

I've been meaning to tell you that your shirtless glamour shots reminded me of this guy: http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/initiation/3512-newbie.html but with significantly better tattoos of course.

Why would you find it awkward? You know, not everybody has it lucky and can end up with awesome tattoos. I have a couple I am not super proud of, but we live and learn. You might have an opportunity to change a persons life by referring them to a good artist. One good tattoo can overshadow all of those bad ones in an instant. Be cool to people who are just trying to be cool to you. Take compliments in stride, as long as they aren't being weirdos or freaking you out.

I just thank them and tell them. I don't see any reason to be rude to people just cause they have poorly done tattoos.

Shaniqua don't live here no more!

I will never cease to be amazed that people this awesome exist.

Hahahaha One of our favourite reviews is for a local street shop (the one next door to where we grabbed beers during the convention), where the person complained that the tatooers would not let them try on stencils of all the various designs they were interested in before deciding what to get.

What's Rubendall going to do on you? And O'Donnell? Damn man...

as long as we don't end up at spider murphys super late on the 19th i will be there, i will also be bringing my girlfriend with me as we are both getting tattooed and all.

Alrighty gang - I just confirmed our reservation as follows: Next Thursday, 9/19/13 @ 7:30pm OTD (Out The Door) 2232 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA 94115 Tel: 415-923-9575 Here's who's on the guest list - let me know if one of you can't make it so we can adjust the reservation: @hogg @a1steaks @cltattooing @ian @dcostello @Reyeslv @MadeIndelible +1 @chrisnoluck @tammy @steve1461686340 @Iwar @dari @Scott Sylvia Looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting some new faces!

If you want to be able to hide a tattoo putting it on your head is one of the worst places you can choose.

I don't drink but every time Oliver says "jack" or "jacked" @DJDeepFried and I take an imaginary drink. We are pretty well fake sloshed by the end of most episodes. On Project Runway we take a fake shot every time someone mispronounces "aesthetic" which is like 50 times per episode.

There was a thread about "dotwork" a while ago and I got fairly involved and possibly upset a few people. Check it out, I think I already answered the question posed by your thread title. Also, the word "fad" is inherently insulting in modern usage - but you knew that already. While researching tattoos, tattooing, tattoo styles, tattoo history and tattooers is interesting and probably fun. It's still kinda like researching swimming. Most of it's value comes from being involved, taking part, doing it, getting it done and having it be part of your life. Then again... On a long enough time scale, ALL tattooing since Ed Hardy opened the first appointment-only studio is a fad. Sailors going to war, getting tattooed in Honolulu was a fad. High-Society Europeans shipping esteemed Japanese irezumi artists over to tattoo dragons on them in the 1800's was a fad. Internet forums will be seen to be a fad. Finally, tattoo customers stressing about being period-correct like vintage clothing aficionados will be seen to be a fad of the early 21st century.

I guess the funniest part about it is going to be when someone brings in a design they paid 100 bucks for and the tattooer just trashes it and starts over.

Getting good tattoos is a current fad, but I'm buying into it for the long haul.

@Iwar. homie!!! 7 days until we'll be pulling into SF!!!! Your cell phone is on the way, you're all dialed in! -The Wolf

The City, SF, San Francisco. That's it! - - - Updated - - - When you say vintage, I immediately think of Paul Dobleman, Stu Cripwell, Theo Mindell at Spider Murphy's. Heath Preheim at Temple would be your guy too. Juan Puente at Blackheart can do anything and everything. Jason Phillips at FTW in Oakland, too. Shit, too many options! This is why I don't really want to travel for a tattoo anymore (with the exceptions of Regino, Santoro, Boltz, etc.) Jason McAfee at Temple kills it with the California tattoos. I would like to get one myself from him.

All stolen from Dana Helmuth's IG.

Broken skate deck I painted for an art show recently... no one bought it, so I guess it's going on my wall now.

Ed Hardy on Richard Stell.... I begged for a picture. Worth it.