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Got this today from Nick Colella at Great Lakes Tattoo I can't say enough nice things about him!! And I'm beyond stoked on my dragon! Completely smitten with the thing! :) (slurped from Nick's instagram) Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

Love myself some awesome tattoos. Stoked about what is happening in the world of tattoo these days...amazing refinements of already awesome traditions and a lot of next level evolutions in technique and subject matter. Can appreciate all forms and styles. Prefer to wear more western traditionally styled work with a bit of Asian/Asian-influenced stuff thrown into the mix. BUT I still have A LOT of spaaaaaace and we all know how that goes :) ...anything could happen! I am both blessed and doomed to live in the Bay area of Northern California with tooooo much access to some of the most talented folks out there. Am definitely not above traveling overseas or who-knows-where to get work from someone who has caught my fancy. Celebrating (being in) my 10th year of marriage to my Hubbs with a tattoo odyssey that we have both been enjoying since January of 2013. First two tattoos from Chris Trevino (Perfection Tattoo - Austin) at the tender ages of 20 and 26 (late 90's). Getting tattooed right out the gate by someone who has put so much into their craft taught me more about tattoo than I think anything else could have and for this I am thankful. I love having tattoos. It has been such a great experience. I love hearing about other peoples tattoos. I want to be surrounded by tattooed people and their tattoo stories :o . Upcoming appointments are Horitomo in January, Theo Mindell (Feb-March), Stewart and Valerie (late April-May). Will take pictures of existing work and upload soon. I am pretty darned stoked and glad to be here. So thanks in advance, everyone, for that! :D

Another session down with Dana, picture stolen from his IG of course.. Next session is color! The fundoshi massacre.

Second best thing ;)

There's this new one on the market called keeping it out of the sun. - - - Updated - - - Sorry, that was snarky. But seriously, the best way to keep your tattoos looking good and bright is to keep them out of the sun as much as possible. Probably the best way to do that is to cover it with clothing, otherwise wear sunblock when you're out in the sun. - - - Updated - - - Sorry, that was snarky. But seriously, the best way to keep your tattoos looking good and bright is to keep them out of the sun as much as possible. The best way to do that is to cover it with clothing, otherwise wear sunblock when you're out in the sun.

Thanks guys!! The whole experience was fantastic :) Nick was great, the shop was great, the dragon is blowing my mind every time I look at it. One thing for certain, this thigh tattoo is *way* easier on the day after than calves or knees have been. I can just stand up and walk! ;) No throbbing at all! It's great because I'm planning to get out and about in Chicago today, it's my first time here and I can't wait to get out and see some of it Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

here is my tebori experience and you dont want to see the embarrassing fundoshi pics my wife took...

Been 2 sessions since my last update on my back piece. Saturday was my last for 2013 and going to start back up in January. All work being done by Rodrigo Melo at Northstar Tattoo NYC. Mike

HAHA, you'd have to pay me to do the whole thing, but the discussion around 16:00 about successors is pretty interesting. He says that until three years ago, he had a successor (Horitoshi II) lined up, but that the successor did not abide the rules of the family and was expelled. Then, he had a Horitoshi III lined up, but that this potential successor had no intention of leading the family. So, he has decided that they will elect a Horitoshi III democratically between him and his three oldest "sons." The ideal successor, he says, has to be good at tattooing, but also a man of character. He has to be mild-mannered because he (Horitoshi I/the family) has various domestic and international relations to maintain, and dedicated to the family. In another really interesting bit of the interview, at around 24:00, he says his "family" differs from other families in that his relationship with his "family" members is really one between father and son rather than master and apprentice. The apprentices start as such, but after spending some time apprenticing and being deemed worthy based on character, they become his sons. That is why they call him "Oyaji" (Pops) rather than "sensei." Despite this, in the most unfortunate case, he says, an apprentice/son left the family after six years. Finally, towards the end, Horitoshi expresses his devotion to the preservation of tebori as a Japanese tradition. He says that ultimately, he is teaching his apprentices to maintain tradition. The Horitoshi Family, in Japan, he says, is the family most dedicated to tattooing as a Japanese tradition. Machines could be used for lining, but shading has to be done by hand to preserve tattooing as a Japanese art. He doesn't think tattooing will be accepted in Japan anytime soon, but maybe in fifty years, Japanese people will have a more "casual" attitude toward it.

Oneshot from Marius Meyer. Pretty happy about this one.

This is a not very good picture of what I've been sporadically working on for the past couple of months. When it's finished I'll try to get better pictures: This is my first attempt at working with oils, other than a little bit of dabbling with it when I took art classes as a kid, but I don't really count that. I'm pretty happy with some things with this painting, but beyond my obvious technical limitations, it has quite a few significant flaws that have largely to do with me being too excited to start painting that I didn't properly work out a sketch beforehand and figure out composition, perspective, light sources, use reference, etc. My next one will be better.

This is what I've had done so far. Four sessions; the rose and yet more black went in last Friday. By Grez at Kings Avenue.

Go see Joel D. Long in Boulder

Definitely needs more black on the inner thigh and butt, same on the other side. Dana just says he likes to skip "the final black session" and get started on color to keep us both enthused and excited to keep up this progress. Next appointment is Dec 9th.

@Cork Horitoshi I gave it to the man with the donburi suit as a "gift" when he finished his suit. It's a traditional Japanese motif that's supposed to bring good luck, but in this case, it's something Horitoshi puts only on people he really likes and he feels really understand his work. There are about 30 people in the world who have it. Both men in the video have it, and it makes them "like brothers" in a sense.

Bonji are the Japanese reference for Sanskrit characters from esoteric Buddhism. I'm sure if you Google the elements, you should be able to find it. Also if you find yourself a good artist well-versed in Japanese tattoos, chances are they can help you locate the bonji characters you'd want in a style that you will like.

Attempt at this one, not sure of the original artist but this was the reference I used. And my effort.

Thanks! Actually, what I originally thought I was getting was a full scale fight between the two animals, but the morning of Phil called me up and asked if it was cool if we did a close up because he thought it would be better to capture the details in the expressions on the faces. And while it made me a little nervous to change it up like that, it definitely paid off and I super glad I took his advice. So let that be a lesson: LISTEN TO THE ARTIST!

Latest session. Two more to go!

With all the recent Pharaoh's Horses talk I thought I'd share mine. Done by Grez at the Bay Area Tattoo Convention.

That looks amazing. It's stuff like this that made me think tattoos were awesome in the first place.

Thank you gentlemen and all the others who liked it. I guess this would be my 6th session.

Thanks, everyone! SoCal, Quebec and Norway..how awesome is the internet?! Really looking forward to corresponding with you all. :)

yeah but how nice is that dragon?

The feeling of the needle haha, it really does sound like a drug addiction when you put it that way. But no you are not just weird...then again my sig reads "I may be weird." So maybe. But yes, it is definitely a rush. I love the sound of the buzzing, everything about it. I especially love it when there are other people getting tattooed at the same time so there's the sound of multiple machines buzzing. Woo hoo! Can't wait for Saturday!

Hardy's talk on the black panther tattoo at 2013 Bay Area Tattoo Convention. Kudos to the production team that made this.

I'm getting zapped by Ron Wells when he's guesting at Tattoomania around the middle of December. I'm getting a ship and I am super stoked because Ron does some of my favorite ships and he's just a straight-up awesome guy.

I'll throw my hat in the ring too this month :cool: Bob Roberts, Spotlight Tattoo. That El Monga piece is SICK @9Years

Holy shit I just came up with a great Halloween costume. If you do have full sleeves, you could just put sheer stockings over them and pretend to have the fake sleeve things on.

First session done! By Stewart Robson @ Frith Street Tattoo

What the hell, I'll throw my hat into the ring. By El Monga guesting at Spider Murphy's in August. Healed shot.

latest from Eli Quinters

[/img] Finally figured out how to post correctly.. Apologizes !! Tattoo by Chris Garver , Invisible NYC

I guess this is probably a bad month to enter given how great the tattoos posted so far are. But I see that as a good thing, it just means more people are out getting great tattoos. Anyways, I've already posted this in he latest tattoo lowdown, but here it is: Phil Hatchet Yau at Tahiti Felix's Master Tattoo, 4 hours, one-shot:

Really? I tried doing that but the only subtitle option I saw was Japanese.

I used to be a shop manager in a shop, and I kept one. A lot of people would mention when they booked their appointment, that they had a lot of time off and would love to get in earlier, so I'd write them up. But yeah, quite often people couldn't make it because of a variety of reasons. We had a blacklist as well, no-shows ended up there pretty quickly if we didn't hear from them etc. We had a no-tolerance policy, any sign of being under the influence and you were out. I ended up being 30mins late for an appointment once, being on the other side of the globe, my phone didn't work, I had no idea where I was going and ended up in the wrong city... Haha, I've never been so scared to walk into a shop before. Thank god the artists understood that little blonde girls on the wrong side of the globe get lost... Where I worked, if a client didn't show up on time, they lost their appointment within 15mins if they didn't call.

Welcome to LST and we're stoked to have you here! I can't wait to see pictures either!

Yeah give a try!! Like I said get it from Ebay. It's a lot cheaper then the 3M website. I like the 4x4 size. Haha take your time!! I need to slow down a bit...

Haha Thanks @ironchef! Tegaderm was introduced to me by Tim Hendricks when I got tattooed by him on my ribs. I've tried all the different aftercare techniques ... After getting tattooed I wait until I get home and clean my tattoo. I rewrap until the next morning and then I put on the tegaderm. The reason is if you put it on right after you get tattooed there will be too much plasma and parts of the tegaderm will not stick. This may sound crazy but... keep it on for 3 days. The product is crazy because you can take a shower and get it wet also it's made from a breathable material. From my experience what happens is the tegaderm slows down your initial healing which may sound negative but... It's good because when you heal slower there are fewer chances of getting scabs. The peelings are a lot softer too. Reminds me of when you peel from a sunburn. So basically it heals your tattoo slower but heals smoother with no scabs. Negatives?? I really can't think of any.. Garver used it too on his last tattoo he got and he also said how awesome it was. The best place to buy it is on ebay !!!!! - - - Updated - - - I will post a pic on my instagram account @Killercook76 . I got my tattoo 11 days ago and it's almost healed... If you have any other questions please ask and I'll do my best to answer you from my experiences.

Now that the secret is out that you understand Japanese, you're going to have to translate the whole thing for us. Consider it your LST due diligence.

ratos de porao is awesome live. uncle acid plays my town next week so that could be interresting!

@Lance Thanks for posting that. Really cool stuff! Now that there's a bit of time passed since the convention I feel like I've processed it enough to have an opinion. This was the first convention that I've attended and I've gotta say, I'm not sure it's my thing. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time, spent too much money on prints/art etc (including a relatively spontaneous tattoo with Greg Christian that is totally awesome), watched my wife get two excellent tattoos from Stewart Robson, was totally blown away by a lot of the tattooing I saw happening, met some of you guys, etc etc etc. But the whole thing was pretty overwhelming for me. I guess it really solidified a few things about what I enjoy about tattoo experience: going to a shop, seeing the culture that has been cultivated and created there, talking with the tattooers, making bad jokes...soaking it all up, y'know? As inspiring as the whole thing was, I think I can only handle small doses of the convention environment!

New here, but I'll throw in my new skool piece just for fun :) Some amazing ink on this one! Done by Ryan Eternal at Into The Woods Gallery in Dania Beach, Florida.

got this hot momma a few weeks ago from eli quinters

New one done today by Stevie Edge

I guess I will throw my in progress piece done by shige this monday at diamond club tattoo into the mix

I don't understand how I embed videos on here:confused:, this is the only one I got for now! Love it :o YES! I did it! :D

that is a rad tattoo. i don't think there is anything wrong with a dog tattoo either. i think just about every tattoo i have gotten it took me awhile before it became part of me. it's just weird a tattoo changes the perception of your body. and until it completely healed its just sort of annoying. i would live it with for at least a year before doing anything. my second tattoo was a butterfly and i'm a dude. talk about not tough. idgaf i still love that tattoo. you just need more tattoos.

Don't mention the cancellation list. Make it for those dozen or so who are really committed! Also, when I saw the title of this post I thought it was about blacklisting names.. which I think is also a good idea. If you're a no-show more than a couple times, extra flaky or obviously having drug time in the bathroom, you get blacklisted. Like at Hop Sing's.