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Finished these ones yesterday. @Scott Sylvia did the skull on the right, Freddy Corbin on the left. These were done over a week and a half. It was a fuckin honor to be tattooed by both. Fuck sorry about the size.

That ship is awesome; @Graeme! I managed to snag a cancellation with Grez yesterday to do a Panther Rose Morph. I'm pretty friggin stoked!

Ron Wells finished this one on me yesterday. It's so beautiful and I couldn't be happier with it:

As I am want to do on my days off, I found myself outside The Pearl. Today Tim Pausinger did a couple pieces of Higgs flash for me. He did a druid and this creepy clown.

Thank you so much Tron!!!

I kind of feel like I ruined this month by posting my back piece, no one else wants to enter so I'll post some more :) - - - Updated - - - Done By Tim Hendricks at Frith Street Tattoo

Thanks @Iwar I also got this Panther off Matt Arriola at Frith Street the day after

I'll go ahead and get this month started - edit: almost!. All months should really have a panther tattoo, shouldn't they? I'd love to see Aaron Coleman three-peat.

Ok I'll go First done by the totally awesome Valerie Vargas at Frith Street Tattoo, around 40 hours work, finished a couple of weeks ago.

Convinced I'm getting too old for this shit, but pretty proud of sitting through the outline on my belly last night.. though I did feel like a crazy person when we finished. All I could think was, "There's no way I can start my back.. there's no way I can start my back.." The worst part is the shitty sleep, though. I sleep on my front, so I basically spent last night dozing off and then having to get comfortable on my side again. Waaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh

Next week is looking good. Getting a Fudo filler from Glenn Flesjaa on tuesday, and coloring my wolf chest by Marius Meyer on friday.

Long way to go, but I Totally love it. It's impossible to selfie it, but here it is (sorry, couldn't get my phone to upload the picture) http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/gallery/member/16281-first-session-on-winged-unicorn-sleeve.html&imageuser=35536

People who freak out over choosing their first tattoo forget the most important thing: Picking your first artist. Make that decision well and the first tattoo will be the best for you

Drew Flores from State of Grace just posted these (added to a Paco Excel sleeve): To me, they're perfect. Very simple, but just right.

Got this from Scott Sylvia over the weekend, very happy with it (stole the pic from blackhearts IG). Gonna go back to Blackheart for their walk in day in a couple weeks too.

I couldn't find many examples either for kitsune ideas when I was looking around, but I just asked Seth Wood if he wanted to draw one for my back - fortunately he was interested. I think you just have to find someone you trust and go for it!

Jen Lee, Tattoo City bad month to enter because of that ridiculous vargas back piece….fuck it

February 2015 appointment. Waiting since June 2013.

This is exactly it. I inquired at a shop I frequent about booking with an artist and was surprised when they jumped all over it and told me to use their name when contacting the artist and to include them on the email, etc. and I would get right in, no problem. And that all came because I don't bullshit them and sit well, show up on time, and so on... It may be the long route getting in with an artist that's tough to book, but if you show people you're serious about collecting tattoos for the long run, those hard-to-reach artists are suddenly really accessible.

Wow I'm so glad I've never had to do any of this kind of stuff. I've never emailed an artist, and the only time I've had to set up an appt besides in person or a quick call was with actual real mail, and only because we were not previously friends but still within 1 very close degree of separation. Granted, he doesn't even have an email address, and neither did I at that time. But the point that I'm getting to is that getting a hand written (not a printed one in my opinion) letter gives a more personal touch and adds an air of serious intent. I'd suggest that if there is a shop address it's probably worth doing. Real letters via real mail; It's way cooler than email and prob a good chance it's gonna get you noticed and possibly put you closer to the top of the stack.

We've all been there and done that in regards to the e-mailing; myself included. I had e-mailed a very well respected artist about starting my other arm and doing a half sleeve and chest plate whenever he guest spotted in the city. I got a response back fairly quickly instructing me he'd have to look at his schedule to see if he could fit me in for that years guest spots and to send pictures of the area I'd like tattooed. I promptly wrote back showing pictures but it was crickets after that. Then two months later I had sent another e-mail saying that I had a change of heart in regards to doing the half sleeve and chest plate because I didn't want something to be in progress for so long and would rather do a possible one shot on the ribs. Needless to say I never heard back and in all honestly I never e-mailed again after that. I'm not going to jump through hoops and e-mail you to death in hopes of hearing back that you will tattoo me. There are just too many world class artists out there that will have no problem tattooing you to get hung up over the one that didn't e-mail you back. Just my thoughts on it.

Yeah saw that on IG as well; I officially have tattoo envy. Good one homie @Graeme

'Bout time Kai! ;) Can't wait to see that thing finished!

So, the wonderful Olivia Chell has made a start on my "tropical winged unicorn sleeve in a Japanese style" Still need to add some flowers, colour and a lot more shading but I love it to bits. Impossible to take a selfie of. I'll try to get a better one once it's healed.

So as a momentary aside, the last few posts made me curious. At what point do you or should you give up reaching out? When does it get to the point that you are just badgering the person? I remember in the past, before I ultimately decided to go completely traditional Japanese and stick with 1 artist, I reached out and tried emailing or phoning other shops but had no response. These were all highly regarded artists. After months of waiting with periodic calls to the shops or emails through their web sites (I couldn’t stop by the shops as they were international or across the country) I ultimately decided I didn’t really need tattoos from them. The artists tattoos were cool, but didn’t blow my mind enough that I couldn’t go to another awesome artist that specialized in the same style that I liked equally. Where as in the beginning, the Artist who I go to, the opposite happened. I hounded her till I was able to get a hold of her and schedule a consult, then appointment, and nothing was going to stop me from getting that appointment. I’m sure I annoyed my way into having her take me on, after a bit I was starting to feel bad. ;-) You could say some artists may even make it difficult to contact them so as to weed out those who don’t really want tattoos by them bad enough, which actually works because as I mentioned earlier, I did exactly that by walking away from people who didn’t respond to me. I can also assume some artists don’t respond because they are not interested, others though are simply busy and will get back to you in time. So when do you cross the proper etiquette line?

All pieces i drool over on instagram happen to be on people who are on LST. Congrats on that piece, its awesome!

@Graeme saw that one on IG yesterday and couldn't stop staring at it. You must be so stoked.

That's a problem I'm having. I contacted an artist who is known to have a 8 - 10mo wait list for new clients. He responded to my email, seemed like he was interested in my idea, but then communication stopped and I didn't know if I was on the wait list or not. Tried calling the shop a few times, no luck. Decided to give it a rest before I got annoying. Seven months later I tried to follow up again (I live across the country for this shop so I wanted to be prepared to make travel arrangements), no response. Not sure if he just wasn't into my idea or if my emails just got lost in the pile. Can't tell how to walk the line between showing how committed I am and not being irritating. In the meantime I'm just going to keep getting tattooed by other people and hope the opportunity to get tattooed by this artist comes up in the future.

Girl head from Valerie in just over a week!

Calle Corson from King Carlos. One of his recent ones and one of his best, I think!

Really love this simple Fox and Crane piece Am I right in thinking there are two types of Kitsune in Japanese stories? The benevolent kind and malevolent kind, anyone have any more specific info on this?

@Duffa all my work has been done by Diego Azaldegui, working from Argentina and Leeds UK.

Just got finished watching and it just solidifies the spot on my bucket list to go and get tattooed at Frith Street. There are just so many amazing people with a wealth of talent and heart that work there. Awesome interviews and already anxiously awaiting the second part. Amazing job Stewart!

Little Oni I picked up from Chad Koeplinger today. Super stoked on it. Done in one hour flat. Such a beassssst.

What does refund mean?

I would definitely be there if I wasn't in a wedding. I was looking forward to seeing you and other LST members there. Next time we meet up I will have a lot of progress to show you due to the fact that I have had two appointments with Jill and two with Horitomo over the last 5 weeks and another with Horitomo this weekend. I am not posting any of it until either Jill or Horitomo post it first or it is completely finished. Have a great time at the opening and I can't wait to see your monmon cats in person.

Had 3 hours on my stomach/sort of groin area, and a bit here and there... Why do I do this to myself.

The elbow area of my right arm by Chris O'Donnell, the skull and peony were done a few months ago and the leaves and background were added about 2 weeks ago:

I'm getting tattooed by Chad Kopelinger this month. Super stoked. I'm still not 100% sure what I want from him; there's so many things that he does well, it's a tough choice.

Sorry for the delay folks! The winner of Tattoo of the Month January 2014 is @embers with yet another amazing Bryan Burk tattoo! Congrats dude!!! Please PM @steve1461686340 with your shirt info (size and male or female) along with your address. Thanks to everyone for your submissions! New contest will be up later today.

Guess who's opening a tattoo shop: Bieber

FOUR words…fresh tattoo, bacon spatter:eek:

bryan burk dark horse, los angeles

For your consideration. Just got this yesterday from Beau Brady while he was at Invisible NYC this week and a few forum members suggested I put it up in here. Thanks!

new ones...

There's a lot of great advice here from David Bruehl about nutrition and tattoos that is well worth considering: Nibble and Sip Revisited: Tattoo Nutrition « Occult Vibrations Also be well-rested. This, in my experience, is the most important factor in managing the pain. It probably won't be the greatest five hours of your life but at the end of it you're going to end up with a great tattoo. Plus you'll have tough guy bragging rights here for doing a five hour session on your ribs.

All I know is if I had gotten every single tattoo I wanted when I was fifteen, I would have a shitload of garbage on me that I would probably be super bummed on. Right now I'm covering up pretty much a full sleeve of tattoos of stuff like Shaggy from Scooby Doo and bongs and shit that a guy got when he was 15. It's not the moral and societal issues that worry me, it's the subject matter that a 15 year old might think is bad-ass that might not seem so so badass to a more mature young adult/adult...