Leaderboard

Jason Colehour, Lifetime Tattoo Denver Last Friday my girl and I drove down and got some walk ins, I got this fun filler, she got a panther. Fun times

I'm actually lucky enough to have an appointment with Scott Sylvia in march! Just wanted to actually give a quick thanks to all the members of LST because without all the conversations about tattoos I would have been stuck with a bunch of mediocre tattoos on my body. When I first joined I was only getting my second tattoo and didn't even really know what to look for in an artist. Since then (about a year) I have my forearm, a half sleeve, and now this upcoming appointment with Scott Sylvia. So thanks to all of you!

hey everyone. just wanted to share this new tattoo I got from Steve Boltz at Smith Street Tattoo in Brooklyn about 2 weeks ago: sorry for the crappy pic.

finally updated my blog. writing is hard. let me know you see any grahamar or speeling misteaks. The Back Piece: An Uncomfortable Journey: Session One: Kings Ave NYC

Those marker drawings stayed for almost a week because I was unable/unwilling to scrub them off.

Tattoos are permanent. That's the whole point. If you can't handle the commitment, the no-turning-back, maybe you should reassess why the hell you are getting tattoos. They aren't for everybody. While I applaud the scientific development of no-laser-pain-free removal, I worry about how a low cost easy-removal-remedy will trivialize and water down the tattoo culture and make tattoo even more accessible than I believe it should be. Kitchen tattoo party mistake? Sexy 90s lower back tattoo got you down? Tribal armband not so cool anymore? No worries! Rub the snake oil on and goodbye bad decision! Maybe this product will be a good thing though. Allow serious tattoo folks to delete some of those not-so-awesome tattoos and upgrade with nicer work. And then we can all have the perfect "collection" :/ I say learn from your mistakes, blast over and get more. I don't think I will be re-writing pages in my colouring book anytime soon. Even my scrappiest of tattoos I still love and actually love them more for the imperfections as they/I age. On the other hand, this PhDude is about to patent a goldmine. So go and get your tattooed lumberjack look and tea-cup tattoos, the future is now!

thanks : ) yeah i love the dog tattoo now, i'd feel weird without it. the solution was definitely to just get more tattoos haha

I'm gonna hit up smith street on Thursday and get something off the wall! will post.

@BrianH - cool - I am looking forward to your session progress reports. Being tattooed in a big room like this, you should have lots of good stories to tell, to complement all the gratuitous butt shots :) BTW - I love pictures where you can still see the marker drawings.

I'm loving big cats at the moment, this is awesome work. Keen to see it when its finished

Franz Stefanik, The Okey Doke, Toronto, Ontario

sneaky peak of the 'black'ground progress. lower back rocks and butt waves next week. yikes!

I love this contest. Have been to busy looking at amazing stuff, but now i figured it´s time to show something off. This is my backpiece by my favourite Norwegian tattooer, Marius Meyer.

Cross posting from the back piece thread, this is after session 2 with Marius Meyer yesterday. Yesterdays session was all the scales, all the shading in the skull and all the yellow. Looking to get the next session booked in for around the beginning of April, hopefully.

The winner of Tattoo of the month January 2015 is @graybones with this fantastic Seth Wood piece. Congratulations!! Please PM @steve1461686340 with your shirt info (size and male or female) along with your address. New contest will be up shortly!

Time for another contest folks! We thought it would be fair to let the t-shirt prize go the second runner up if the winner has already won a shirt in a previous contest. Sound good? Please don't let this discourage you from entering your new tattoo though! The rules: The tattoo picture that gets posted in this thread for February 2015 with the most 'likes' for the month wins! The contest starts on the first of the month and ends on the last day of the month. Your tattoo picture must be posted in this thread (both tattooers and tattoo customers can win) in order to qualify. Include with your photo/post...tattoo artist name & tattoo shop. You MUST be the one who has the tattoo or did the tattoo. You can 'like' as many tattoos as you want. It can be a finished or in progress tattoo. You cannot enter the same tattoo in more than one contest.

Yeah I agree with your comments about laser. Laser demands client commitment to follow through with many sessions, the pain, the healing. Tattooing isn't for everyone, as much as Instagram and internet want you to believe. There are no friggin short cuts in tattooing! - - - Updated - - - ok time to stop my ranting, i'm sounding like a snob ;) i am content with the best and worst of my works so really snake-oil cream doesn't really affect me either. although it will be sweet to be able to rock a mike tyson tattoo at the bar-crawl on the weekend, like pick up all the chicks bro, then cream that shit off on sunday afternoon so I can keep my office job :p

Agreed. One of the things I've always loved about tattoos is that they require commitment. Its not something one can just walk away from. Even with lasers being an option, they are still expensive and painful. I respect folks who've gone the laser and replace route. Its still a hard process that also demands commitment. If all it takes is a bit of creme and a few weeks, then it really opens the field up to anyone. Is that all bad? Probably not. It might mean a lot more work for tattooers, which would be good. That said, I can't help but think something is (potentially) being lost. From another angle - how does it affect me? I'm still thinking this through. I'll still be getting tattooed. I love the art, and I love the process. I enjoy the shops, the conversation, and the people Ive met along the way. So, I'll keep on doing what I do. Of course, maybe this is all bunk and it will never arrive on the shelves of Wallgreens (or Shoppers for my Canadian colleagues here).

Yeah man It is worrisome what these advances will do...so if tattoos aren't permanent anymore and the tattooer/client has a magic (and cost-effective) "undo" button I wonder how the trendline for workmanship and quality will be affected? Getting a dumb-dumb stick n poke or joke tattoo really isn't that big a deal anymore, in fact it's pretty common at the moment. I guess that's my issue - tattoos, to me, have always been permanent. That is the best part. They are forever. and if we keep making things easier and painless to undo it will really trivialize the whole experience. Kinda like marriage I guess. Just too easy these days to get married and divorce when you find something better or have a change of heart. I dunno. That being said, my tattooer was telling me about one of his pals. Had a bunch of coverage and so-so early work, lasered it off, got a new suit, lasered it off and is getting a new world-class suit from a master. Three bodysuits, insane! I would be interested to see what some of the tattooers around LST think about the development of these products. Maybe it's a good thing and has it's place. Everyone (well almost everyone) deserves an awesome tattoo and something like this may make that more of a reality for people who truly want some real-deal tattooing.

@bongsau You've managed to capture just about everything I was thinking about it too - right down to the goldmine this guy has (potentially) found. @eldolmago and I were driving around today talking about the implications of this "advance." We thought about whether or not we'd remove old tattoos, and decided we probably wouldn't. The whole prospect of what this treatment represents raises as many problems for me as solutions that it offers.

45 years ago today Black Sabbath released their eponymous debut album .

Plus, besides his fantastic tattoos, Scott is the reason this place exists! I've changed my mind about 9 times now, but I really think I'd like him to do my back. Being that I love really bold traditional work, you can't really go wrong there. /fangirl

Good stuff Brian. I'm feeling like I should do this for my chest piece. I know it's not as epic as a full back but I can see this leading to a full front torso project.

I agree. If a tattoo doesn't hurt, it ain't worth it

Amen to that...

Another vote for this, ridiculously nasty area.

Kidneys. No wait, Knees. No - sternum. No no no - waitaminute - it all hurts.

Definitely talk to a reputable and qualified artist about all this, but... I think the blast-over look could be pretty cool with a traditional Japanese theme. Something with a lot of black to obscure the old tattoo without completely erasing it, and then have a cohesive sleeve around/beyond it. And photos of the area in question would certainly help.

Awesome. I think I'm going to go for it, if I end up in the right place and the right time. I'm a long haul truck driver, so much concern is just using my stiff clutch while it's still tender. I have a big vacation coming up here soon, so I won't have more than one day off to do it. I guess if I can arrange my day off in a good spot with a good shop, it'll be time to nut up or shut up!

art, art, art, art and Tatters gonna Tat tat, tat, tat, tat - - - Updated - - - My book was from a tattooed person

Did you post what reads like a bad Yelp review on a takeout chicken forum afterward? Because that's what I would have done.

This reminds me of the time I ordered some chicken from a takeout place down the street. I called ahead with specific directions about how it should be seasoned (no sauce) and cooked (fried). When I got there to pick it up I was so hungry that I ignored the fact that it was covered in BBQ sauce and grilled. It tasted really good and I ate it all as soon as I got home but it wasn't what I specified so I returned a few days later to demand a refund.

Go see Dan Sinnes in Luxembourg. He's in your part of the world and he does some of the nicest script anywhere.

Managed to snag an appointment with Chris O'Donnell when he guests at Sang Blue this year. Not sure what the dates are yet but the tattoo itself is gonna be a big ass Fudo Myo-o on my right thigh. 2015 is going to be a terrible year for my wallet, but fuck it.

Participated in the Chinese New Year celebrations this past weekend in Edmonton. My buddy and I did a quick feature and demo on the local breakfast news TV broadcast. And then our school did a demo at the big ol West Edmonton Mall. Here are some action shots, En joy! Gung hay fat choy Our Shaolin kung fu demo team Here's an action shot of me doing a flying jump kick and shooting out a chain whip: The pride of our school, the kung fu DRAGON ! with a sneak peak of my backpiece progress thanks for looking, hope the lunar new year is good and full of colour for all the tattooed pals out there :cool:

Real talk - Things get rough when the artist takes that needle downtown. Oliver Peck needs to clarify his statements.

Here's my baby! Seven hours down, an estimated two to go to finish up. Done by the incredible Erick Holguin of Ink & Dagger in Roswell, GA. It got a little sore at the end, but he was so gentle/light handed that it was smooth sailing for the majority of it. It's in memory of my mother, who loved cardinals, and is even better than I ever imagined.

Bae = Danish word for poop. That's what I found when I had to look it up. lol I'm turning 40 this Sunday and I am an 80's/90's kid, if you consider an 18 year old, still a kid.

Thank you!! I'm honored and excited to wear my LST shirt! :D

ok ok - now I know this is the heavyweight division - the best of the best - major league back pieces - epic sleeves from legendary artists from around the globe - tattooing black belts - you get the picture - but I figure - you only live once - so here is my first ever entry into one of my favorite monthly threads.... Whatever...by Jamie Sawyer outta Immortal Ink in Clinton, NJ

Today I capped my other knee with a demon head by Franz Stefanik at The Okey Doke in Toronto. Its always a great experience with Franz. Interesting conversations with a great guy who also does amazing work. I'll have to update my legs in the Squidpants thread soon. I'm really looking to forward to getting some filler work around some of the larger pieces on my right leg now.

@exume I love that piece. It's absolutely bad ass!! Here is my contribution. Also by Chad. Finished about a year and a half ago. I went a bit smaller. One heck of an experience. Some very rough moments for sure!!! Chad is the best though! 2 sessions.

I vote big.

All healed up for now. 2 sessions in with Chad

The final result of my chest piece. Done by Robert Aalbers of Clean Solid Tattoos in Waalwijk, The Netherlands.

that tattoo is fucking awesome. you seem concerned with your "tough" image, but a "real" man would wear this with pride. you loved your dog, he died, you're honoring him. nothing to be ashamed of. real tough guys are tough enough to cry sometimes.

i agree with iwar, having a tattoo for only a few months is not long enough , i feel, to make such a drastic decision. my advice is to live with it for longer and to just enjoy getting tattooed. covering up such a nice tattoo, being so new, will make a mess of your arm and lasering it won't really work. the few people i have come across that seem to be in your situation end up being so focused on that one tattoo they dont like that it's all they can think of and really, the more tattoos you get the more you wil realise what a great design it is. personally i think it's really great with a nice sentiment behind it to boot.