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Had a nice little walk in not knowing what the fuck we were gonna do until after a couple of ales again. I'm enjoying these little pieces ATM. Keeping us interested before we get back to slamming fields of colour on my right thigh/ arse cheek. Anyway, eagles..skulls..daggers? fuck it, throw em all together mate! :)

About one session left to go...almost there. Have some more areas to hit & onto the touch ups. Mike

Needles and Sins pointed out this gem, a CBC television interview with Doc Forbes from 1964. CBC Digital Archives - Pastimes General - Doc Forbes, tattoo artist The interviewer talks with Forbes and his clients, we get some nice looks at his tattoos and his flash, but the coolest thing about the interview for me is near the end when Forbes is tattooing an 82 year old client who has really extensive work from George Burchett including a battle royale backpiece from 1906. I've posted this picture before, but I'm a bit of a nerd about tattoo history and when I was visiting my family in Vancouver last Christmas I made an appointment with Chris Hold at Sacred Heart Tattoo so that me and @Pugilist could get matching tattoos from some Forbes flash. What could be better as a souvenir tattoo in Vancouver than a design from Doc Forbes? Chris was amazing and super accommodating about fitting us in on short notice, and the tattoos are great, so simple, folky, and charming. Chris had also fairly recently visited Lyle Tuttle, who has a pretty huge collection of Forbes' flash, and we got to see scans Chris had made of it and there's a lot of really great designs in there. Lucky's Tattoo Museum also has scans of a bunch of his flash that you can view here.

Finished up session #4 got a solid 2:30 hours in today. I've crossed that line where my goal is to not move, sit still, and take 0 breaks that way he gets to make the most progress possible. I feel like 1 and a half more solid sessions and background is done. We discussed extending the piece officially to thighs and the consensus is finish this first. Honestly my excitement is far outweighing The pain

I'm a 35 year old collector that has been fortunate enough to acquire work from folks like Byrne, Hoyer, Rassier, Coleman, Quinters, Hundahl, Zuck, Bruno, Conner, Stuka, and some really great others. Am a Virginian, on the way to San Francsco (in 12 hours) to acquire another Rassier tattoo, and a Whitehead one on a visit to Portland. Would love to hear any suggestions you polite folks would have on things to do out in those cities. Cheers.

Cruised out for beers and food last night. Young lady serving from the bar asks, awesome tattoos. She extends her hand, I shake it like I would anyone else. We chat for 5 minutes about tattoos. She pulls up her own sleeve to show me her sleeve work. She thanks me for the time, I say.. No! Thank you as she served me a beer for free. A pleasant, genuine exchange with respect which should be consistent with every engagement...in my book.

Today a little bit of everything has been done (in just 2 hours), red in the arrow, the glove, the shoe, the nails of the fox, even more red in the man's face etc. Next time we have some small things to do (which we couldn't do today because it's in parts that were not fully healed from the previous session, and to tidy everything up. I talked to my artist about the 'blank' part in the fox, and aked if he was planning on keeping it this way (as i think it looks a bit 'unfinished') but he gave me a firm 'yes' so I guess that's how it will stay :)

Joining the ribcage tiger club with this little guy. Taken from Yoni Zilber's IG, and done yesterday while he's guesting in Asheville. Super nice and humble guy. Couldn't have asked for a better experience. Might be a new B&G enthusiast because of it. He has got some 20+ year old B&G tattoos that look no older than 5 - heavy and fine line stuff. Simply amazing. With that said, I will probably not get any more torso pieces for a long time haha. It was so worth the pain though.

Yozin Bunshin. I believe he is early 30's and does tebori! The man did one of my all time favourite suits.

Montreal is close to VT. At the very least you can spend some time losing yourself researching the options in Montreal.

Screw diets. I'm a restaurant employee; live fat, die young. Thanks for the advice. I'll eat a lot of street food. Gravy at 8:30 am, for sure. After that, it's open (Whitehead at 2:00.)

Thanks, sir. He and I are venturing to the other coast tomorrow. I hope to meet @rosshogg on IG. - - - Updated - - - As soon as I figure out how to do that, I'll be more than happy to oblige you. Whitehead on Tuesday, Rassier number two on Thursday :) Thanks for the comment, sir. Cheers.

This conversation about taste and whether 'traditional' American tattooing really can be described as timeless is so interesting. It also ties in a way to a conversation I was having with my grandfather a couple of weeks ago after I showed him my tattoos for the first time. He's 89 years old in November and got all of his 4 tattoos during the 2nd World War whilst stationed in Germany. He has a crawling panther, an anchor, a swallow and his favorite, an eagle on his bicep. He got all of his tattoos in 1944 and he still loves all of them to this day, he says that getting the eagle was one of the best decisions he ever made 'its given me so much joy over the years'. Interestingly though I asked him if he ever wished that he had got more and he said no, he got just the number he wanted and stopped there. Now this is a guy who has lived with his tattoos for 70 years now, tastes have changed, fashions have come and gone and through it all he's remained stoked with those four tattoos he got in the 1940's! This got me to thinking about my own approach to tattoos and how different it is to his, like most people on this forum I'm always planning who I'd like to get tattooed by and have pretty much mapped out my arms and torso in my mind. But its easy to forget that those images of heavily tattooed sailor from the 1940's actually made up a tiny minority, my grandad was considered pretty heavily tattooed at that time. I wonder with the whole traditional thing whether we are chasing something that didn't really exist in the way we think it did, and whether he might be onto something when he said to me that if you want to continue to love the tattoos you have through your life then sometimes less is more... That being said its not advice I'm going to take, I cannot imagine a time when I won't want to get tattooed. Sorry if that was a bit of a rant and off topic, I just thought it tied in with the flavor of the thread.

Got the dagger done by Tony Nilsson at Blue Arms Tattoo today! Heart is healed. Stole his instagram picture(The black square is another piece he posted that isn't mine! Blacked it out)

I had my first really open antagonistic stare this week while in Quebec City. I sat down for breakfast and was reading the paper when two unpleasant people made a show of staring at my arms, sneering and then giggling derisively at me. It was weird and I feel sorry for them that they have so little going on in their lives that they tried to make me feel badly about my tattoos. Its fortunate that I do not give a damn what they think of my tattoos, or me, for that matter. I thought about it for a minute, grabbed a second coffee, and relaxed and enjoyed the paper before having a lovely day exploring the walled city with my wife on our anniversary. I've had others stare and clearly not like what they see, but never quite like this. What sad people. I was embarrassed for them. Solution? Get more tattoos. By the way, this was not representative of the people I met in QC. Apart from them, everyone else was friendly and accomodating and I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Any friend of @CultExciter is a friend of mine. Welcome!

It took me 10 years to bite the bullet and breach the collar. I thought neck tattoos would be a big change in the way I am perceived...by my family, friends, clients, strangers...overall it has been very positive and has complimented my personality and confidence. I mean the majority of my body is tattooed and covered. Why? Because I love tattoos, the commitment, the experience getting them, the healing and the aging. So why should I be afraid to let that show and hide who I am - an illustrated person. We use our hands for so much in our daily lives. I think hand tattoos are a very expressive piece of real estate (as is the neck line) - as a lot of these hand tattoos in this thread demonstrate. I am not sure for myself at the moment however, I feel it would be distracting for me to wear...not ready for the big stuff yet haha and I think personally the wait to get hand-blasted will be all the more rewarding. I think the outside-in approach of the younger generation...well...I think it trivializes the overall experience of getting tattooed. But everybody has their own opinions and reasons for getting tattooed. My feelings toward tattooing my own hands will likely change in the years to come as my tattoos age, my coverage increases (real estate decreases!) and my life-situation develops. Patience and waiting is part of the tattoo experience for me, much in the same way that spontaneous tattoos have their place as well. And there will be something satisfying when my skull and hands (in that order lol) are made. I think I will likely drop my sleeve cuffs down onto my wrists first and then maybe consider a smaller standalone pieces on my hands (instead of a full mitt style). I work as an professional engineer. I work for a smaller consulting company and have a flexible job. I am happy I waited, I don't think breaching the shirt line earlier on in my career would have been a wise decision. I didn't have the life experience and leadership qualities to backup my eng work and overshadow a rogue appearance. Now I am older, more experienced and have the respect of my peers in the industry for the good work and professionalism I have demonstrated. It is only recently that my clients and work contacts have started noticing and I have not been shy in asking about my tattoos (but, god, why does everyone have to refer to them as 'taaaaattz'?!?, really dumbs it down yknow) There is a time and place however and that is where you say "yknow I'd love to discuss tattooing with you at a later time, but perhaps right now this project meeting is not the appropriate forum". You'd be surprised how much respect you get as a young tattooed person from normals when you take charge of poorly timed conversation like that. On the flip side, when I am on a construction site for an inspection, the trades people comment on the tattooed engineer and frankly make me feel more welcome than say the engineer dork in pleated dockers who is too proud to get his shirt dirty. Tattoos make you an interesting person "maaan I bet that cat has got some stories mhmmm" but generally that is because you were an interesting person already before the tattoos. /and now...back to the thread...post some more great pics of hand tattoos ! :cool: - - - Updated - - - Awesome! love the space and size around your tattoos. Nice placement, and the tattoos are grrreat

And this right here indicates the bad influence she will have on her children who were born with the capacity to become open minded individuals. Maybe they still will. Some kids can overcome the harshness of their parents.

Alright, luckily we got started late and could only do 5 hours. That was enough. I made the mistake of going in on Sunday for a deep tissue massage. That made everything extra tender and sensitive for Tuesday. Never get a massage before a tattoo. Just don't do it. This session covered hair, robes, wind bar/cloud touch-ups, adding orange to the fire. Also a healed butt shot. From Instagram danahelmuth; (Damn, looking at my butt up close, look at that scar tissue on the red in the snake! He beat me up.)

Well then. Session 1 complete of my back piece with Ian Flower at New Skool Tattoo in Surrey. Nowhere near as bad as I was expecting and my back is not feeling too bad all in all. Next session in 3 weeks.

I just got back from another fun-filled session. 3 hours of stabbing on and around my spine....fun fun fun :) This time a lot more black went in (coat and bow mostly), a bunch of purple in the coat and bow and some pink in the Kitsune's feet. I have another 2 sessions planned (in 2 weeks, and the last one in 4 weeks), and the piece should be done then! :cool:

I suppose I'll contribute to our collection of giant ass-flowers. Finished a few weeks ago by Grez!

Dear admins, if this is too basic a question for a thread, or if it has been covered elsewhere please delete it. Until very recently, I appreciated Japanese style tattoos, but was totally uninterested in getting them. It probably had lot to do with growing up in Tokyo and living here again now. Ever since a tattooer friend recommended (or implanted the idea of) getting a thigh done tebori "for the experience," I've been semi-obsessing about it. Who are your favorite tebori artists and why? It seems the styles, from the width of the windbars and palette, to drawing styles, are so varied. Do you like the artists doing classic work or the younger artists making "innovative" work? Some younger Japanese tattooers seem to be heading in a SSTP direction of simplification, where ultimately, classic tattooing, whether Japanese or American, becomes almost the same (except in subject matter). Some others' works seem too anime-influenced for my tastes. Even among older artists of a similar region, there's also a lot of variety. For example, Horitoshi I's work looks completely different from Horikyo's works and they are both Tokyo-based. Just curious about all your opinions. Horikyo Horitoshi 1

Hi fellow LST billies, I just joined because I wanted to post a new thread regarding a pretty cool tattoo collectible that I have available for sale, and as per the rules of forum posting I'm here for a proper intro- my name is Earl, I've been collecting tattoos since 1999 when I started getting work from Scott Sylvia and Juan Puente at 222, after that shop closed I started visiting Temple in Oakland where I was tattooed mostly by Scott Sylvia and Jason Mcafee, since Blackheart Tattoo opened in 2004 I've been getting most of my work there from Scott as well as Mary Joy and Jen Lee over at Tattoo City. I've also been provident enough to have the opportunity get tattooed overseas in Japan, last year a buddy and I visited Three Tides Tattoo in Osaka, Japan where we got work from Hiroshi Hirakawa and Mutsuo Nakabayashi. Hello and regards everyone :D

Really sorry @SeeSee, we had to call time on our first dog Samson and it's a horrible surreal experience . Having healthy pets really reinforces to us how anything should live and as hard as it was we / you did the right thing . Anyway here's a couple of pics of our lads firstly on holiday in Blue Anchor beach and secondly blue steel Butch looking G.Q. smooth .

Yeah, like who farted? My wife was the first one to point out that when we were out together, people got out of my way quickly. Then I started noticing it too. - - - Updated - - - I was out at a local bar last week and ran into a couple from town. Me and the husband work out at the same gym, so he sees me all the time. His wife really hasn't seen me in a while, so she says "holy shit, I didn't know you were so tattooed". She pulls up my sleeves for a look. We had a good laugh and she shows me a new one on the back of her neck. She's a total looker so I had no problem with her checking me out. Everyone some stranger does that, I just ask, may I help you?

Welcome, and I as well can't wait to see pics of all of this stuff. Have a great trip.

Welcome to LST, now you cant just be throwing those names out and not show us a photo or two ;)

I've been playing Antischism, Conflict, Subhumans and Flux of Pink Indians a lot lately. Catching up on the classics I guess.

@hogg - I think that pretty much represents my parents' views of tattoos actually, except they don't think it is goofy... @jimmyirish - I appreciate your grandfather's sentiments with his tattoos. I only want three more tattoos, then I'll be done.

Grabbing and touching without consent are not cool. I'm an unattractive male and it's happened to me plenty. I've been sitting at dinner with my wife and felt my shirt sleeve being pulled up by a stranger so they could appease their curiosity ...and I don't think we should be telling girls that if a man invades their space and ownership of their own body they should find it charming or flattering. No one else should have control over what they see of you, least of all men over women given the track record and the culture we've created.

That reminds me of a quote from the late great Rollo Banks: "...the basic premise of tattooing is pretty goofy. It's like, here you have this human body, like a beautiful piece of sculpture...like somebody owns Michelangelo's David and goes 'I just bought this and I want to get some fire and devils and things on it.'"

I haven't posted in a while but here's one I did a few months ago.

I also especially love smiling and being really friendly to those who have obviously made a snap judgement on my appearance! My boyfriend is a muscly, skin head with very vibrant traditional tattoos of a reaper, a devil and all sorts of dark things. But he is the biggest, kindest and cuddliest bear ever when you speak to him! So polite and thoughtful, a real gentleman. It still cracks me up when he holds the door for a little old lady and they look terrified of his kindness!! haha EDIT: I am not so sure my BF would be so pleased that is how I described him come to think of it! Ruin his manly image ;)

@TrixieFaux - thank you for the reminder that stares are not always hostile. I find this so tough, because it's hard to know if people are admiring or being creeps. I usually say that I never get comments or stares about my tattoos because we live in a very tattooed neighbourhood (that's also really gay, so I am pretty uninteresting to most, haha), but for some reason this past week I have been getting constant comments. Earlier, when I was walking the dog, a man stopped me to say, "you have beautiful legs" (I am wearing a dress that's short-ish so you can see a lot of my thigh tattoos). And like, I had no idea if he was saying it in an admiring or sleazy way... I mean that is kind of a weird thing to say to a stranger, even if you mean well! I don't want to be ungenerous when folks say stuff like that, but when it's ambiguous I also tend to opt for protecting myself and not engaging, which is kind of a shame if people mean well. (That said, why is it that many of the comments I've gotten recently have been of the ambiguous nature above, and not like, "I love your tattoos", but instead commenting on the body part itself? I guess the comments sound ambiguous because they probably ARE, like these dudes are admiring my tattoos while assessing my body at the same time. I dunno.) Of course, he could have been talking to my dog, who does indeed have a sweet set of gams.

Not sure if I should be bothered by this more than the fact that people are "liking" it. You got me. Ha ok, maybe just a banana hammock if you're more comfortable in that.

@Dumpleton I've loved watching your progression over the last year, your paintings are so kick arse.

Holy shit!! This is INCREDIBLE!!!

I love this!

Been a while, My latest paints. Really like this one.

been having a lot of fun with layering this past week

I can see the end, possibly one sitting left. As you may see in the dragons belly, my body doesn´t like the the powder blue pigment Marius used in it, so his going to blast over with the same blue color that he used in the sword.

I saw them in a tiny little club in Lafayette Indiana. I was there to open the club for them when they showed up. The funk that came out of that van when they opened the door is something I will likely never forget until the day I die. fucking awesome show though, He kept jumping around between songs saying "We just want to be your friends!!!!"

Just cause problem #2 is more messed up than problem #1, does not mean that problem #1 is not messed up...

Horishin Syodai

Horimasa Tosui from the Horitoshi Family is my favourite. In my opinion his doing some of the best Tebori oneshots (and big work) in the business. It´s very easy to recognize that his master is Horitoshi 1; These are 12 years old. Look how bright they still are; I got this one from him earlier this year: I also love alot of other Tebori-artists, some of them are mentioned over here. Horizakura, Horitomo..

This in-progress bodysuit is pretty breathtaking: By Horimatsu

I stole this off the wife.One of our wedding photos, my hannya from Grime with some slick snake action.

This is a creepy one from the Grime on my leg, snake lady with double titays and gimpy arms...sweeet!!