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I stumbled across this article this morning, about a photojournalist documenting a dying tattoo tradition in Syria. The photos are beautiful and I love learning about traditional tattoo practices in different cultures (I had no idea that there was a Kurdish tattoo culture!). I thought some of you nerds might find it interesting too! The Last Tattooed Women of Kobane | PROOF

In the beginning.... I really thought that I would only receive tattoos from one person for the rest of my life. It was the early 90's. I wanted all my tattoos to be Korean. I was in TX. There weren't tons of local people doing that kind of thing back then. Chris Trevino (Perfection Austin) UNDERSTOOD the difference between Asian styles and the quality of his work blew me away. I felt very committed to him as my tattooer. I moved to CA. Years later I tried to "branch out" and get a little, traditional, floral tattoo and HAAATTEDDDD the placement of it. It was traumatizing. There was such a difference between Chris' sense of design/approach and, well...everyone else's. He had been the only person with whom I had worked. It was so easy and the end result was perfect. I probably learned more about tattoo and tattooers from those two experiences than anything ever since. After Chris started working with Horiyoshi and favoring Japanese traditional, I assumed that I was never going to get tattooed again (out of respect for my Korean family who wouldn't understand why I was covered in Japanese art. They were greatly affected by the Occupation). No tattoos for almost ten years (with absolutely no desire to get tattooed...weird, right? I felt fully, totally committed to Chris especially after the flower incident). The floral tattoo didn't age well. I was over it. I was going to have to get it re-worked and fill up almost my whole arm to balance it out. Hubbs had just started catching the tattoo bug and turned me onto the amazing world of tattooers on social media. THAT completely blew my mind. Things were soo different from when I had gotten my first one! There was creative and technical, tattoo INSANITY happening EVERYWHERE. The next couple of years I saw a lot of different people and went through a stage where traveling for tattoos was what I wanted to do. Then we settled down and started going to Spider Murphy's a lot. I love that shop and everyone in it. It's just a great crew. I've gotten tattooed by Theo, Paul, Bryan, Heather (pre-Blackheart, of course :o ) and I carry Laurant's first official paid-for-on-the-books-tattoo from his first official day on the shop floor. There is a definite tendency to "keep it in the family". More and more, I just book with Paul Dobleman. I love him. A session with him is like Christmas. I can see myself getting many, many more tattoos from just him and being really happy about it... ...except for that Stewart Robson character :mad: ...he is so NOT close but so good and I loove my tattoos from him...he's a real pea in my mattress that one. :mad: I guess, @metalmancpa, I could have just answered your question "Yes" but thanks for hanging in there if you have read this whole thing. :o

Like @daveborjes said, go to Fun City. Or Adorned. Or Bound For Glory. Or Saved. Or Kings Ave. Or Lotus. Or Red Rocket. Or Fine Line. Or R&D. Or Invisible. Or Flyrite. Or one of the many awesome shops. There are too many amazing shops in NYC for you to get a mediocre tattoo.

Got this lil lady from Shawn VanOven! Thanks for lookinh

Here's it is fresh. I'll post more after it heals up. I had a great time and came away with a bunch of new music to check out too. Can't imagine having a better first experience.

=== Hi Everyone! Started this in Late October 2014 and just got it Finished on Jan 03 2015 6 Session of 4 Hours Each - Traveling back and forth from Montreal to Toronto... Tattoo Artist is Tony Hu from Chronic Ink Tattoos. http://instagram.com/tonyhutattoo Completed and Done! 龍 - Dragon by davidcwong888, on Flickr

Welcome! Great Lakes Tattoo in Chicago is highly recommended also Tim Beck in Peoria Illinois and Aloha Monkey in Minnesota

One of the more pleasant surprises was how gentle Josh Arment is. I think I finally know what you all mean when you say someone's got a light hand...before I'd just assumed everyone on here was crazy.

Aww, this got me right in the heart. So sweet. Great read, @Pugilist.

@KBeee Once upon a time, many moons ago, I decided I wanted a back piece in the Japanese style. I found an artist who I thought I wanted to work with here in Seattle - he drew some beautiful stuff for me, but (in my opinion) dicked me around quite a bit, and I eventually felt so uncomfortable with this guy that I forfeited my considerable deposit and decided to start from scratch. One thing he said that stuck with me was that Japanese tattoos could be layered on piece by piece, and that I could start with just my arm and not a full body outline. I didn't understand how things were put together then - not that I claim to understand it now, but I have a better idea of what I'm looking at. I knew I wanted an orange peony on one of my flanks no matter what though. (why that was so clear i will never know lol) I was regularly visiting a friend in Oakland at the time, so I figured I'd just make my trips that much more fun by getting tattooed! And then I started learning about San Francisco tattoo culture and whoa. WHOA. All the reading and researching I'd done over the years sorta clicked and I recognized names and work and styles and it was awesome. Through all that, Diamond Club Tattoo kept showing up. Purely because the name kept blinking in my memory lights and showing up in my reading material, I decided to look at Diamond Club a little more closely. I liked what I was reading, and then I somehow found an article - I mean, I was digging DEEP through the internet, all sorts of sideways searches and whatnot, so I really am not sure how I got there - but I found an article in galley pages on the author's personal tumblr page about Diamond Club, and the content of the article basically sealed the deal. (It was for the Nov 2012 Skin and Ink mag I believe). (This was Sept! The mag wasn't even out yet!) In the article, Bill and Junii discuss their passion for the craft, how they are just beginning to build their legacy, how they like to stick to positive images and motifs, and how their shop is like a family. I really like this vibe, so this stuck out in particular to me. They discuss their history and how they met, and I was struck by this woman who had a full fucking bodysuit in Japan in the 80s!!! Who was brave enough to move to a new country! Who had so much passion for tattooing that she kept trying even after she was repeatedly told that women do not tattoo! I wanted to be tattooed by this badass. And THEN - in the years I had spent researching back pieces and saving images to an inspiration file, one in particular kept coming up. And in this article, there was the same picture! IT WAS JUNII!! When I found out that the image I had so long admired actually belonged on a living BADASS who could, in fact, also tattoo me, I sort of lost it. I called the next day and made an appointment to get a peony on my left flank. I hadn't been tattooed in too long, and I just wanted to get started, and this crazy thing had just happened (crazy for me anyway - it was like years of pieces of a puzzle finally falling into a sudden, jarring, crystal clear place) and so that's how I found Diamond Club. (IT JUST FELT RIGHT ;P.) I kept going back, and we kept adding pieces, and that's pretty much it! I found LST right after that, actually. So it sort of worked out in ALL ways for me :)))). Like you said, the more time spent seeing everyone's work and how lovely they are eventually sucks you in and ruins you for most anyone else! (MOST anyone, but certainly not everyone!). DC was just a super good fit for me. Right place, right time!

I can't back what @CultExciter is saying enough. No excuses for bad ones in the greater NYC area. I haven't been to the LI King's Avenue, but I obviously can't say enough good things about the Manhattan shop.

Get a mom heart and a Hollywood Panther.

I checked out his work,and some tattoos were okay,and some I didn't like.There's also not a lot of examples of his work on the site.If you like his style,another artist I would recommend that is better at that style is@ Tattoos by Dorothy Lyczek

When I think of "So it goes" the first thing I think of is Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and how he uses that short phrase to mark somebody dying throughout the book. So I'd say get a reaper.

Also look at Lotus Tattoo as well. Plus Kings Ave and DaVinci. Welcome and ask us any questions you like. If you have anything specific, also, let us know, we can guide you in the right direction. I love getting tattooed in Manhattan and Brooklyn when I am up there. Which will actually be for the opening @gougetheeyes, ooof, I really need to finish this painting.

This is a Video we took of the arm before starting the last Session... Video before the Last Session... https://flic.kr/p/pT29Ft It was a great experience overall... :) Photo from Sessions 1 to 3 Dragon Tattoo In Progress with Tony Hu @ Chronic Ink - Toronto Ontario Canada by davidcwong888, on Flickr

I think @AverageJer posted a picture of a Sailor Jerry fish he got a couple days ago? I hadn't been on here recently and wound up getting a similar tattoo on Saturday. It's from Rollo flash tweaked by Josh Arment at the Aloha Monkey. You guys, I can't begin to do justice to how cool everyone at this shop is. After some very, very embarrassing last-minute indecision I went back to the first thing that had caught my eye on the wall (and learned a lesson about not overthinking things). Sorry about the picture quality.

This is a nice interview with Basma Hameed about her experience being doused with hot oil as a 2 year old. We have some threads about tattoos and scars, but I don't think anything like this. --- http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/5489-our-imperfect-skin-scars-stretch-marks-more.html ---http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-advice/1098-tattooing-over-scars.html

Cool. Amazing what she did to her own face. Woman Uses Paramedical Tattooing To Hide Burns And Scars | SF Globe

Ribs.

I just had my second session done on my chest piece. 10 solid hours of actual tattoo time in two days. I wasn't exactly looking forward to it, since the first session (8hours in two days) turned out to be painful as hell. From minute one 'till the end. (a cursed like a madman when he went over my nipple) This time however, and for the first time, I really got 'in the zone'. I was laying in the chair, eyes closed and completely at ease while the tattoo artist drilled away for 5 hours straight. We only took two 15min breaks. What worked for me was telling myself the whole time: 'I am completely relaxed, I can't feel pain. If I could feel pain, I wouldn't be relaxed'. A bit of reversed psychology. After 45min I was in a sort of trance. I could accept the feeling of getting my skin punctured a zillion times as something that wasn't pain but something I wanted. It sounds stupid, but it worked like hell. On the really painful parts, like sternum and nipples it was all about breathing. Deep and slow breaths. Accepting the pain, not as 'pain' - with all the negative associations, but as a sensation I could control. Anyway, it did the trick for me.

@Mark Bee - this is a real niche market suggestion, but I will point out that this is happening right before Congress, so if either of you are planning on going to that, you could combine a QC/Ottawa road trip and live the dream, so to speak. :)

My principal and department supervisor have no issues with my tattoos in meetings and in services and stuff, but I never wear short sleeves in my classroom. Half of the reason is because I don't feel like fielding questions from twelve year olds every day. My students mostly know that I have tattoos as they see me at track and xc practice. It's funny though. For my first few years, I made a point of keeping covered. Whenever kids would see, it would be a big deal. However, as I've been there longer, and I have a lot more tattoos, they actually seem to care less.

Nothing against either of them, but Chris Trevino is the man in Austin for Japanese.

Yes.

Here's my lady done by Shawn VanOven

Really? I don't have any, yet, but I love tattoos with tattoos. When they're done well I think they look awesome, but I'm curious how the tiny blue tattoos hold up over time. Different strokes, and all that.

Vonnegut is rich with tattoo ideas, including his own illustrations. I got to see him speak, and spoke with him briefly after the presentation. It was awesome!

Also drinking a beer while getting tattooed.

The real trick is to just get tattooed a lot. You'll figure out eventually what works for you.

These videos changed my life. After I saw the Santoro episodes, I booked a plane ticket to Brooklyn. And this was before I saw the Freddy episodes. Had I seen the Freddy episodes first, I would have saved money on a plane ticket, haha. I hope to see more in the future. I cannot thank Chris Grosso and his crew enough.

Long Island's not a bad place to be! I think everyone will have the immediate reaction that @Hands On did. King's Ave and DaVinci.. can't go wrong.

Nice! I love the flow and the detail on the fins!

I love that, polliwog! A very colorful, perfectly placed dolphin. (At least, it looks like one of my submarine dolphins.) So clean!

I absolutely that fish, and I am jealous. I am still waiting to get one! (My first tattoo was originally scheduled to be a mermaid or a fish, and we've just never gotten back around to it.) What a fun one.

Handsome! @cibo - tag that to his instagram page - he does Monmon Monday and features cats doing stuff like this. Instagram

My strategy is to play dead, like I'm being mauled by a tiny bear. So far it's working.

Hello and welcome @guacamole! An eagle is a solid choice for a first tattoo. Your tattooer should have some good recommendations for the placement of whatever design he comes up with. Upper arms are always a good place to start. It's pretty easy to heal, not a super painful place to get tattooed, won't destroy any future employment options and you get to look at it. My first one was on my back. While I wouldn't trade it for anything: 1) It made it complicated to design a full backpiece which is something I am now interested in pursuing 2) I NEVER get to see it. When I got my second one (on my arm years after) it was like having a tattoo for the first time. It sounds silly but I highly recommend getting your first one someplace you can see it. It's just more fun to see it and obsess on how freaking cool it is! :D Also, for the sake of detail and having an impactful tattoo, don't be afraid to go a little larger than you think, maybe. Be sure to post some pics! Good luck, have fun and again, welcome!

I think everyone should have at least 2 dragons on them. And a dragon should be your first tattoo, period. - - - Updated - - - This is the one on my chest from 2010.

Honestly, I don't know why you would pay somebody here to draw something for you when this is a service that your tattooer already provides as part of the tattoo.

I'm really scared of tattooing my belly now. Did the hip a few weeks back and it was kind of coming on to the side of the stomach and it hurt like crazy. It was a different kind of pain though, not just the surface but from inside my body came this hurt that I was surprised to feel. It was like my body told me to not go forward with this idiotic "art" that I was exposing it to. Also about 10-15 minutes after he stopped in that area I still had this pain, pulsating from inside my entrails. Fuckkk… That day when I do start my belly piece is going to be one special (horrible) day

Got this lady head from Max Kuhn on Monday! Wraps a bit!

I don't mean to sound like a cranky old man. Honestly, I am sort of curious from a sociological standpoint. Has all the texting kinda done away with visual literacy or something? I'll admit I hardly ever do any texting so it's not something I ever got into. Or maybe people are afraid of criticism? I notice that they do seem to be afraid to have any opinions of their own and certainly putting a large image on yourself suggests you had a strong opinion about the art. I have no idea, but I really am curious about this.

Yep, also here's the flash I mentioned above: