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Just got home from packing the back of my neck. Fuck me is all I can say. Absolutely drilled the fuck out of me. Not easy going for Ol mate either, belting into that weathered, rubbery skin. Was a solid drilling to pack this area out. Regardless, it's done. We never have to visit this site again. Now, for post tattoo recovery. Hot shower/ cold cider hand in hand.

Got my first leg tattoo yesterday, at the London convention. By Eli Quinters.

Finished up detail on the sea snake, squirrel fish and eel, and the corals in the background.

I went up a few days early to get tattooed by Bert Krak at Frith Street the 'MUM' rose, attached. And went to the 'Miniature Ink' exhibition at Atomica Gallery that evening, where I bought the small works on sale by Curly and Alex Binnie. The day after I went to the 'Time' exhibition at Somerset House, I definitely recommend it. The first day of the convention I didn't do too much, went to meet Ed Hardy first thing pretty much. I bought the 'Nurse Mercy' lithograph, and he signed my copy of Tattooing the Invisible Man, relatedly - I was walking around later, and to my surprise - I saw Bill Salmon, so I also asked Bill to sign it. Second day - got a sacred heart from Freddy Corbin, whilst my friend next to me had a very long sitting (6 hours?) with Mike the Athens. Today I only went to pick up the lithograph and went home! I saw a few LST'ers, but didn't want to bother anyone.

I Had 3 hours of FUN today !! Previous sitting ! This was the first sitting, now I had 3, all about 3 hours at a time.

Had some more done on my front and started some on the side moob :)

You mean like these? Horimitsu Mike Rubendall Henning Jorgensen

There will be no witnesses and I will tip the artist extra to lie about how tough I am.

Thank you - I love my guy - smiling with teeth. Swoons! So, you DO know you can rent some of that stale canned air and get the fins wet...although it's a tad cold up your way! Where did you dive? Thanks. This one put my head in a good place. I'm gonna knock out another 2 sessions in the next 3 weeks. I *really* want this done by early next year.

Not a tattoo shop but this has to be the most insane yelp review:

I'm so sorry Mark. I was going to bitch about my "worst week ever" at work (I didn't get fired, but everything upon everything was going wrong, I was late to everything, and had migraine and post-migraine symptoms for the entire week which definitely affected my work-performance.) I'll chalk it up to a bad week and hope that this upcoming week will be better, can't win 'em all...

No photos from the convention unfortunately as my phone is being something of a bastard at the moment :/ Managed to get a walk up from Forrest from Cobra Custom, filled in a spot on my elbow that i've had open for far too long. Really nice dude (as were all the spider murphy's guys, Jeremy in particular was hilarious) and obviously a solid tattooer. I'll throw a pic on as soon as i figure out how the hell you take a good pic of a tattoo on your own elbow! So if any of you guys saw the dude getting his elbow tattooed around 1 o'clock onwards on Saturday, that would be me. Got to meet Freddy Corbin briefly while i was being tattooed, spoke to Ed Hardy, again briefly as he was very much in demand. Other than that i kinda kept myself to myself this year and took it all in, had a great time just shuffling around from place to place looking at all the incredible work on display. - - - Updated - - - I wish i could remember the name of the american tattoo flash book Forrest brought with him, it was utterly ridiculous. He told me it was a book you could flip open to any page and find something brilliant, and he was absolutely right. All i recall is it mentioned something about American tattoo flash up to the 50s or so and had a kinda beige hard back cover (vague i know, sorry.)

Couple more thoughts about London:- One of the people I saw at the London Con that I really thought "got to get tattooed by that guy" was Mike The Athens, incidentally... Been looking at his stuff since I came home. His black and grey japanese stuff in particular, and the little script and brushwork tattoos.

666! We made it! Cheers! hahaha

one more on the ribs...thx Scott :)

So @CABS that means you need to come to Virginia. Hang out. And let me drive you up there. Settled. Hahaha.

@CABS In no particular order my top five NYC shops would be: Kings Ave, NY Adorned, Greenpoint, Invisible, and (even though it is not in New York) Electric in Jersey. I would also include Saved, Funcity, Flyrite, Northstar, and Three Kings in the mix. As I write this I'm not sure that Smith Street even makes my top ten.

@Lance, @OutOfIdeas - oh you guys.... you are so bad. SO bad! Yeah, I swore only a backpiece, and here I am on Horitomo's wait list. :rolleyes: At the very least, I've gotta do a major refill on the tattoo jar. This back piece cost a TAD bit more than I expected. Ooof.

Hey, We're 5050 Ink And we just opened up in Princeton just outside of Dallas and decided we wanted to be more out in the open with the community of tattoo artists and enthusiasts. Our Artists are Josh Koshiol who is also the shop owner and creator, Jonathan Woolsey who is our only other artist we trust to put out solid work from our shop and Our Piercer (Me) is Dean Woodman, Ill be the one posting and responding and overall controlling our account. Feel Free to Check us out anytime or ask us some questions as we'll be an avid user of LST!

@ironchef - EXACTLY!!! Great shots!

@sophistre - as long as the commentary is related to tattoos, it's all good! So @Mick Weder makes the shark talk all completely acceptable at least for the next couple days :-)

@SeeSea: Cozumel is just beautiful. I haven't been in years...I bet that all happened after the last time I was there (though I didn't know the reefs well enough to remember their names, so I'm not sure). Dad is landlocked and retired in Colorado these days, but I should definitely look into the Tuneup. NJ might be a little far to travel, though I appreciate the invitation. :cool: I also did my first (and only) shark dive on the Fiji/Tahiti trip. My memory is that it was mostly black tip reef sharks. And speaking of sharks, grats, @Mick Weder! (And now I will stop derailing tattoo thread with dive talk. :o)

Let's see that Freddy tattoo, @abees!

Empire Tattoo in Asheville

Sorry to hear that @Mark Bee. 2008 whacked me along with so many others. It can be so demoralizing - keep your head up.

@Mick Weder - excellent! I love the flames - the background really makes the shark jump. Nice topping to an awesome back piece. Enjoy the cider - I might raise a few later myself.

Hands down, one of the best backsides I've ever seen. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@sophistre - awesome! I've been to Cozumel many times - we honeymooned there. It's not the same anymore since they blew out San Fransisco reef (I think that's the one) for the international cruise ship pier and the town started taking US dollars. We did an insanely awesome bull shark dive in Fiji. 7 species of sharks on one dive. I'd love to see huge octopuses! If you have a certification, you can still dive. However, you should probably do a Scuba Tuneup. Get Dad to do it. Or come to NJ and I'll do it for you! You can dive locally - very cool - that makes it pretty inexpensive.

Very intriguing. I love me a good road trip.

It's 0530 here, just woken and I find myself coming here to LST to help me get in the frame for the day. The usual routine begins. 0630 extra sweet coffee. 0700 long warm shower. 0745 pack a cooler bag with 6X stubbies of Coopers Pale Ale & Mercury Cider. 0800 hit McDonalds for an English breakfast wrap meal/ small orange juice. 0830 hit the road churning out some Tattooed Mother Fuckers on the stereo. 0915 arrive at destination, tattooer and I close the door to the private room and begin the morning by filling the room with smoke, exchange a few laughs and sharing a couple of stubbies. 1030 in the zone for today's neck slam. Today, should be done by 1300, home by 1400, hot shower/ cider post tattoo aftercare. Happy days. Filling the shark with background today, smoke, flames and lightning.

@CABS I think he is also one of those tattooers that if you show you're serious, committed, and not going to waste his time, he will do his best to accommodate you. At least that is what I was told. The guys at Kings Ave had offered to help me get appointments with him and vouch for my ability to keep appointments, sit well, be an all around good customer, etc., but alas now that I've moved away from NYC that wont happen for some time now.

@CABS You will never know if you don't try. He does his own scheduling via e-mail so keep that in mind while waiting to hear back. If you have an idea of what you want and when you'll be in the city I'd email him because you just never know. Also, what @Graeme said is true. He is going to start working at Kings Ave more and wants to finish in progress clients and bang out some fun one session tattoos.

@CABS where there is a will there is a way. My experience and probably also with @Hospitelli and @BrianH is that he is more accessible than one might think. But I probably shouldn't say that. Because I want all the appointments.

by Nora Townsend, I'm getting a small peony like these next Friday from her!! I'll be sure to post pics, but I loooove her peonies.

Favorite NYC tattooers at the moment (in no particular order): Bart Bingham, Mina Aoki, Regino, Santoro, Boltz, Krak, Eli, Albrigo, Virginia, GREZ

Wow, great day today... I think this year's line-up lives up to the hype. Saw Ed Hardy just chilling but I didn't want to bother him. Freddy Corbin was floating around and tattooing, cool to see him in the flesh after loving the Vice episode on him. I got tattooed until evening by Tomo and made a bit more progress on my front. Next year will see it finished (kind of sad about that, the Yellow Blaze experience is kind of sweet, sad to call it a day in some ways). Most importantly I met @jade1955 and @Jade1959 ... Nice to shake hands and say 'hi'. And now I'm drinking a nice Brewdog 5AM Saint...

my latest tattoo is this one from luke jinks on my shin, but its still about six months ago haha just thought i could post anything as i spent very much time in this thread looking at all those great tattoos !

a neighbor behind my house got evicted and then the property owner got foreclosed on,and the asshole renter abandoned their dog in the back yard,we had been trying to give it food & water, I called the county animal control,and they came out and rescued the dog within 4 hours of me calling ! awesome service from them,the dog is better now and should be up for adoption soon.

I'll let you all know how my rib experience goes next month. Excited and nervous about it! Also for the first time i have that "what the hell am I doing feeling"

You can always extend it down your legs. Then from a back piece to a bodysuit. Just think about it and let it settle into your head for a moment. Let's inject that idea and let it marinate. :-)

The ribby edges of my back was the only time I've ever felt irrationally and violently angry at a tattooer ha ha.

@9Years. I was the opposite. I found the ribs, and both solid panels to heal extremely fast, no discomfort at all and all just flake heal within the week. They healed so fast and easy we were trying to work out as to why. We just put it down to blood flow/ organs etc. Nothing to back that theory up of course, just a drinking edumacated guess. The application though, there was areas that were real tough for me, drilling into the floating rib area, carving between the ribs, man oh fkn man...it took everything I had to maintain composure. They fucked me out both physically and mentally. Ya just won't know mate until your lying under that machine, on the day. But as @9Years mentioned, prepare yourself for it mentally, that's the key. I've made the mistake in the past walking into sessions thinking ...walk in the park. I've learned to always treat every session with the respect they deserve.

Hey! Finished my back piece by the great Marius Meyer last week. Take a look on this thread by @Iwar: http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/5940-i-made-little-video.html#post102519 Enjoi! I will post healed pictures in a couple of weeks I think..

I'm with @Graeme on this one. Lots of great shops in New York to get tattooed at. Add Three Kings, Fun City, and New York Adorned to the list. I know everyone thinks of Smith Street as the New York shop, but it doesn't even make my top five shops in that city.

Gah @Mark Bee Academia can be a cold cold beast. :(

"Pre-offended" -- that's a good one. Phony internet outrage is our new national pastime. (Sorry, baseball.)

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 .

well i can understand. its a bit shocking to think that what you got tattooed is now on you forever. On your body forever. More people should realize this before they go and get a tattoo they never really wanted