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Here's what I got on my NYC trip a few weeks ago. Eli Quinters Steve Boltz (didn't get a very good photo) Dan Nelson Got an appointment with Jeff Zuck at the Rochester convention tomorrow! Can't wait.

Why American Traditional tattoos are so liked here and mostly everywhere. I had a long conversation with my tattoo artist while I was getting some work done. He is a collector himself and we talked about different artist that we both would like to collect from. Than we started talking about the different styles and preferences... Holly crap I had no clue a traditional tattoo was so complicated in sense of boldness, expression, and technic. There is allot more to it than I thought. While still not my style I have learned to appreciate them even more.

Picked up this snake from Emiliano at Frith Street a few weeks ago. Just need a panther now so I can call myself a real LST member!

Traditional and Japanese are hands down my favorite styles of tattooing. A really interesting thing is happening in the development of traditional tattoos right now, where artists are keeping in tradition with the technique and tools of prior generations but really branching out in subject matter, concept, and style. For instance, look at the work of James McKenna, Aidan Monahan, or Slawomir Nietschke. All of whom keep with the bold line, heavy black, saturated color, negative space ratios, and dynamic designs, while exploring very interesting and wacky themes. Or even the less weird but still very advanced and finessed work of artists like Herb Aeurbach, Paul Dobleman, or Gordon Combs. It's a super cool and exciting thing to be happening within a particular school of thought and is what makes the style most interesting to me. It seems to me that the general populace prefers realism or new school tattoos, or even the more painterly stuff. If that's your preference, I don't really care, but I do attribute it largely to ignorance and a magpie effect.

Asking for relationship advice on a tattoo forum...of course the answer will be GET A NEW TATTOO ! If you are hopeful that it is truly "a break" - then hang on bro but watch out because the heart bruises easily. I would be cautious, because what may happen is you wait around and put your life on hold only to find out she's already moved on. So just like a tattoo, make a decision to what YOU want and commit to it. On a side note, best advice I received from my buds...go bang some other people :p But be true to yourself and spirit, stay pure good luck

I'll throw my hat in again this month with this piece, all healed and new :)

Done by Bradley Tompkins at Frith St. Great guy and great shop (borrowed his IG pic)

Continued....(I promise this will be the last installment) So the wife is obviously feeling pressure from her social and career circles to be something she isn't. Like I mentioned earlier, I've been flying the middle finger at "normal" society for so long, it's almost cliché. Her and I have a pretty long history together at this point so I may not get a pat on the back and the "I'm proud you have so MANY tattoos", but I at least still feel, she's got my back. My kids are shaken by it but they have so many other friends in and outside of school, the sting only last temporarily. Just from the sheer osmosis of seeing their parents be proud to be who they are ( I assume), they quickly adopt the "I don't have time for people that don't like me " credo. I'm proud they're our kids and think this will pass and give them good fundamentals about real life. My wife seems to get over it too, but in a more therapeutic, cry with your friends type of way. We talk about it and she agrees that "some people just suck" regardless of the reason they chose to take it out on you..... Even though we come to an agreement that tattoos weren't the root cause of all this dumb school crap, I tell her that I will be on my best "tattoo behavior" when the need arises, like her formal work events or anytime she thinks I should cover up. As I said earlier, the whole time we've been together, I haven't gotten tattooed or really expressed any burning desires to. There was casual mentions of eventually getting more work done, but nothing definite or planned. So out of nowhere I get the "have you ever thought of getting tattoos removed" question. In my mind, life has been going well and all the perceived craziness about tattoos causing social damage in my families life, is in the past. As I mentioned, I was pretty upset and hurt by the question. It wasn't like my tattoos were done by some lousy scratcher or in a Russian prison, my tattoos were well done, colorful, and with the exception of the "death before suck-ass" dagger, appropriate. My wife tried to explain all of the reasons that she thought it would be a good idea, most of which, had something to do with social situations. I always had an answer to her concerns... Q;What if there's a formal party? A: I'll wear a tuxedo and look more handsome than I already am! (jokingly) Q:what if we have to go to a summer party with my important clients? A: I'll wear white pants and a blazer (like Thurston Howell) Q: what if it's a swim party? A: I won't swim (tell them I can't), just stand back and watch. You get the idea...... I told my wife in no uncertain terms, I'm more likely to cut off my legs than get the tattoos removed. She didn't like the answer but knew she couldn't reasonably go any farther with it. She said she was sorry she felt this way, but truly loved me. I said "if you truly love me, you wouldn't feel this way and ask me something so absurd". I was really bummed that the women I had been through so much with, was acting like one of "them"!! I think she had a bit of a crisis over the whole thing, because I think she planned the outcome to end differently and I would just happily agree to remove solid, beautiful tattooing, on a large portion of my body. Thankfully, she talked/cried/drank it out with a group of her close friends that rationally told her she was insane for asking of me what she did. Even people in her own family talked her away from these unrealistic notions and told her how lucky she was to a not be married to a "social automaton" (her aunt said that). She told me " I came to my sense and realized I was way out of line" and thanked me for being a great husband and father, tattoos or not. I was still a little hurt but relieved I didn't have to chop off my legs or get a divorce. This brings us up to 8 months ago.... I decided that the time was right to get more work done. I was sparked by seeing a local artists hand painted flash (included in an art show) in the newspaper. I was nervous, but cautiously approached my wife with the idea. Her reaction was a stern "NO" followed by a short lecture about "haven't we already been through this?". I reminded her that I hadn't been tattooed in well over 18 years and we never specifically discussed this, just causal mentions. I reasoned with her that any tattoo I was going get would not really change anyone's perception of how covered I already was. My left wrist has a Seth Ciferri piece and left forearm is covered by a Dan Higgs piece. other than those, I really wanted to "finish my arm" I told my wife. I also told her this was a good opportunity to get the kids names tattooed on me, something I always wanted to do since they were born. She reluctantly agreed with the stern warning "no hands/face/feet". A week later I was getting tattooed again...... But, I've since expanded our agreement to get "just my arm" to include my chest/pecs and some minor fill-in stuff on my legs.... Ain't life grand:):):):):):):):):) - - - Updated - - - Thanks.. As I said "required" situations like school...jeezus, I would never willing put myself in close proximity with those jackals if it wasn't for the kids. Most of those awful parents have just resurrected their high school clique hierarchy (or lack of) to prove how important they really are. It seems to be quite prevalent in elementary where teachers ask for volunteers and parents spend every non-working moment helicoptering around their kids. luckily middle school teachers want none of this crap (my daughter is already there) an the closest you have to come to any of these stepford mothers, is in the drop off lane... don't get me started on kids sports! Glad to hear there are some "good ones" holding down rationality on this crazy world of elementary schools :) - - - Updated - - - thanks...damn straight, but I've known this all my life. It's just taken my wife a little longer to realize. I hope she doesn't have a change of heart because I gotten and plan on getting some pretty kick-ass work done. Didn't a women chop her husbands penis off as he slept....?

I am a 35 year old moderately tattooed woman and I could not care less if my partner is or is not tattooed. I have been in relationships with men who were heavily tattooed, moderately tattooed like me, and I am now engaged to a man that has no tattoos at all. I equate it with sharing a hobby with someone, while it may be ideal to have the same hobby as someone, it's not a deal breaker for me by any means. My fiancee is really in to volleyball - I don't play, nor do I really have any interest in playing - but I'll cheer him on at tournaments. Being tattooed and getting tattooed is not the biggest priority in my life. It doesn't define who I am.

I don't think traditional tattoos necessarily inspire a 'fuck yeah, that's awesome' reaction in most people straight off the bat. A segment immediately - absolutely - and maybe more since they really came to fore as a genre in the past few years, but I think it's fair to say that most people (and a lot of collectors) are more readily able to recognise good tattooing when it comes in the form of accomplished japanese style, black and grey etc. It probably took me at least five years of collecting and looking at tattoos a lot before I started to "get" traditional (maybe I was a slow learner). Even then, it was even longer before I understood what was going on with some of the more folksy approaches to it. To me the thing about traditional tattoos is that although you could say that there is a flash lexicon there ready to use, the devil is in the subtle details. A Bert Krak crawling panther will be a very different beast, excuse the pun, to an Uncle Allen take on the same starting point. I love that aspect of it. Looking at stuff from particular artists and seeing where they've gone with it. You get the really whimsical and fun, like Jesse Gordon Jnr, you get the real traditionalists, like Tommy T. here in Dublin and people who are doing a really distinct personal folk style like Mario Desa (or at least, that's what I see there, apologies if I'm wrong :P ).

That is terrible advice!!

Wait, so the sensor is made of green LEDs and photodiode sensors which image capture blood flow on the wrist and have a hard time seeing through dark pigmented skin. I have to ask, does that mean that it doesn't work on black people too? The fuck, Apple??

a tattoo: no software updates, no battery charger and silly accessory cords, no applecare protection plan, will not broadcast your exact GPS location to NSA, and most importantly will not require a genius nerd in a blue shirt to assist you after the damn thing is a year old. the choice is obvious! tattoos > apple watch

An interesting read from The Atlantic -- just offering it up for perusal: The Identity Crisis Under the Ink - The Atlantic Excerpt: In 1998, Velliquette and colleagues conducted an interview-based study that found people use tattoos as a way to cement aspects of their current selves. “We were hoping to look at the postmodern identity, and really what we found is that we were in this modern era where people did know who they were,” she said. “They had a sense of their core self.” Eight years later, the team revisited the idea. The second study, like the first, found that people used tattoos as a means to express their past and present selves. But the people interviewed in the second group also seemed to need proof that their identities existed at all. They relied on tattoos as a way to establish some understanding of who they actually were. “We continue to be struck by rapid and unpredictable change,” study co-author Jeff Murray said at the time. “The result is a loss of personal anchors needed for identity. We found that tattoos provide this anchor. Their popularity reflects a need for stability, predictability, permanence.”

Was wandering around Bath today and got a walk in with Jimmie Tatts, filled in an awkward gap on the inside of my elbow. The shop is a 20 minute drive from my house but i've never been there before today. Makes a change from all the travelling i've been doing for tattoos!

@UglyButProud You're never going to win over those assholes at your kids' school so don't even try (not that I think you plan to). Even if you did what your wife has asked, you're always going to be on the outside to those dicks. I suspect attempting to fit in would just make them despise you even more. I think if you talked about that with your wife, she might reluctantly have to agree. As far as her career is concerned, you can agree to cover up when interacting with her colleagues and clients. That's not too much to ask. By far the biggest concern is the schism between you and your wife. The fact that she's not prepared to stand by you is a real concern. Clearly you're gonna have to talk to her but make it clear that while there are things you're prepared to do, removal is absolutely not on the cards.

Oy, the parents, @UglyButProud! Kids won't be in school forever, this is a stage that will pass. I see some parents get SO caught up in "school life"--volunteering, always there, gossiping...I sometimes wonder what they will do when their kids aren't in elementary school any more. Will they be like that at the middle school and high school? How about when their kids graduate? Not that there's anything wrong with volunteering...but volunteering and thinking they own the school & passing judgment on other parents...that's just lame. At some point they will have to move on and take up other interests. I feel bad for your kids, they are the innocent ones with closed minded people not allowing their kids to be their friends, teaching their kids to be closed minded, too. All you can do is what you are doing, ignore the naysayers because you are better off without them anyway. But, you really need a few more clarifying conversations with your wife. Maybe you can show her what you wrote here so she knows exactly how you are taking this... I teach elementary school in Los Angeles. There are so many tattooed parents here, I don't think the haters can keep up :D.

Hey Folks. This is my first flash sheet I just completed as an apprentice. I had 40 prints made (11x14"). And am selling them for $10 or $15 shipped each (USA). I'm also interested in trading for your prints. Thanks![ATTACH]12513[/ATTACH]

Hm...to be honest...all these people passing judgement so easily, I would not want to be on good terms with them anyway. What you are experiencing imho only filters the good people from the judgemental shallow assholes. So you don't need to waste your energy on them. More time for the good people. As far as a job goes, we all need money to survive, but how much do we really need to be happy? I used to work in a well paid job in Manhattan, but that wasn't my world and instead of selling my soul I now work a simpler job. Less money, more peace and happiness. Even without that many tattoos I have been sort of a loner all of my life. I guess I come across as a weirdo to people naturally...I really don't know. But my experience is the mainstream usually avoids me but if I do make friends in the right places (Goths, Metalheads, Medieval Reenactment), people absolutely love me. Quality friends over everyone liking you and the image you have.

Hello All, My name is Rob, I've been tattooing since 2002. I just came across this site while I was searching the internet for some vintage tattooing signs, and I decided to sign up. Glad to be here.

traditional meets weird meets loose = awesomeness def where my interests are headed

Absolutely love traditional. My snake and family crest tattoos are both reminiscent of traditional style, and looking at my tattooer's arms just evokes an immense amount of nostalgia...he looks like a walking road trip, pin up girls, neon signs, panthers, stars and dots filler, etc. It looks like classic Americana ripped right from a fifties ad. When I'm ready to do my forearms, I think I'll do traditional pieces, just so I can have a lot of little one shots to tie together.

World Naked Gardening Day is just a day away us tattooed people are going to look great doing it ! . World Naked Gardening Day is just a day away | GlobalPost

Best advice. Block her from social media, delete her number. Not to be nasty, so you can get to the point of not having her on your mind, driving you crazy 24/7. Work on that emotional strength....and one day, you'll find yourself at a time not thinking about her when you normally would. That's when you know you're progressing... then it just gets easier. When a woman needs space, for whatever is driving it, whether we like it or not, we just gotta take a breath and give it to them. And if all that fails?, follow @ Rad Kelham's advice. Pearler! :)

Already posted these on the gram but here are some larger views, hopefully you can get more of the soul of these paintings in this format

Daaaammnn son, you did pretty good on that trip to NY, didn't you?! Looks great!

Beer. Drugs. Hookers.

ok then...Session #7 on my back just got locked in for Monday! Starting colour and pattern details hooray

This is some good info to know, I haven't tattooed anyone yet with fibro but it's good to know that people are still having cool results. Me personally, I have friggin Lichen Planus so I can't even get tattooed anymore!! It sucks for real....I need to my fat ass in shape again and hopefully my body will get back into wack...crazy how I didn't have these issues while I was cooling out and in some type of shape Best of luck to you though bruh!

Matt Dinovo- Black Squirrel Tattoo, Omaha, Nebraska - - - Updated - - - I can't seem to post the right picture of this tattoo. The full picture is in my profile. Thanks for looking.

Derek Noble t-rex. Dark Age Tattoo. Couple more sessions to go. Neither traditional nor Japanese so nobody is going to like it -apologies.

Man.... I could write for hours about my relationship/family and tattoos I met my wife when I was 29. We were both in the throes of early-life (as opposed to mid-life) career crisis and met in college. I had already lived a hard, but fun life and she was well traveled, but somewhat sheltered in, ahem, alternative lifestyles. I had already been travelling, getting tattooed for 11 years and had 1 full sleeve and both legs from hip to ankle completely covered. We met in winter and I was fully clothed and not really advertising any ink. She saw the tattoos on my knuckles and peeking out from under my shirt cuffs, but wasn't deterred from getting to know me. Once we started actually dating (and therefore getting nekkid) she told me "as soon as I saw tattoos on your knuckles, I knew you had A LOT of tattoos". To me, that was like receiving her approval, no matter how off handed. I started to notice quickly just how different we were in terms of of our background, and the way we had gotten to this point in our lives. She was Pavorotti, I was a punk...She spoke French, I knew drug-speak...She had friends at the country club , I used a club on some ex-friends....you get the idea. Culinary school and our shared love for cooking was our common denominator. We laughed and loved and became the best of friends and through all of that, tattoos were never an issue. Both of our careers took off wildly and for what little "me" time I had, I wasn't having any desire to get tattooed. Mind you, not "never again". just not at the new, exciting and extremely busy time in my life. At this point the relationship is going well and I find myself accepting of EVERYTHING that I had told myself I would never, ever do....namely, getting married and having kids! It felt good to be settling into, what my parents would call "a normal adult". Normal is a relative term for me, and even though I was getting married and planning a family, I never wanted to give up all the things I held dear. My future bride seemed to be on board too, saying "I would never ask you to give up the things you love (music/tattoos etc.)". We even had many discussions about tattoos and the fact that, even though they weren't for her, she didn't really care what I did. good to know........ Fast forward about 18 years: My wife and I are still in love and have 2 pretty great kids. We've both since changed careers and things are going pretty well. I had always kept a distant eye on tattooing and what was going on with it. I always had in the back of my mind that the itch would come back and I would ride out my "later years" with some new ink. This was all in the back of my mind though and I never really talked about tattoos with my wife. I suspected that she had some growing concerns about the tattoos as my kids reached school age and I started to volunteer there. I was asked, by her, to "not wear shorts" when I volunteered or "can you put a band aid over the bad word" (I have a big Sailor Jerry dagger with the words "death before suck-ass" down my left shin). I understood but never had any idea of what was about to come. One day my wife came to me and said " would you ever consider getting any of your tattoos removed?" I was floored and I asked "which one(s)?" She said "well, from your knees down to your ankles on both legs", and she was serious. I didn't know how to respond except to say "Never!!!" She tried to explain that she thought that my tattoos where somehow hurting our (read:her) status in her job and in the community. I was flabbergasted...the women i had spent 18 years with was now, in my mind, against me and what i believed in. The conversation ended with me angrily saying " I'd rather cut my fucking legs off" to be continued..........

The winner of Tattoo of the month April 2015 is @heathenist with this killer piece by Matt Arriola! Congrats!! Please PM @steve1461686340 with your shirt info (size and male or female) along with your address.

they play every year here in jersey

My husband has zero piercings or tattoos, and I have both. He's into Jimmy Buffett and I'm into the Dead Kennedys. He accompanies me to punk shows (what's left of them these days) and to the tattoo parlor, and supports whatever I'm into. Our next anniversary will be 25 years! Opposites attract sometimes... P.S. I took him to a Buffett concert last year for his birthday and had to walk out to the parking lot. Could. Not. Take. It. He's a much better spouse than I!

hey guys - this thread is no longer productive - weigh in on some other topics and get some more fun and interesting talk going - we dont all have to agree here :cool:

i hope this thread is wrapping up - threads like this...well...always go like this - xcom is a good contributor to the forums and i think he meant no harm here at all - these are sensitive areas and though it might seem like an ok idea to ask such questions here - it often isnt - anyway...

last jar folks! by jamie sawyer @ immortal ink in clinton nj

@hogg @dcostello @Scott R and everyone else getting killer work.. Well done! I've had to hoard money like a crazy person for this move.. can't wait to get to start getting tattooed again, going a little nuts.

DOne by Tony Hundahl at Oklahoma tattoo convention. Had a blast all weekend drawn on one shot

Got this ass sucking Kappa when I was out working the Vancouver Tattoo Show from Chad Woodley. Healed beautifully. Great tattooer.

So as soon as I finish healing from one, I went back in for work on my sleeve, and now I feel like someone has burned the inside of my arm. Sleeping was fun last night since we did color on the inside of my arm, and outlines on the outside of my arm, so finding a way to sleep so that nothing new was in contact with the sheets was damn near impossible. Oh well. Looks awesome.

Done yesterday by Mr. Chad Kopelinger at Rock of Ages... In 1.5 hours... Someone needs to do a study on how he can tattoo so god damn fast. Really awesome experience all around. - - - Updated - - - Such a good tattoo. We both had a nice painful day yesterday.

things happen to tattoos as they age - hey - we age too lol - as does our skin you know though - i like that its why - imo - you need a bit of sense of humor if you start getting tattooed alot because things happen i see alot of anxiety on this board with regards to topics like this dont get me wrong - totally fine topic what i mean is that people have expectations about their tattoos that arent realistic its art on skin that really never stops changing from the moment its on you its like you gotta embrace the imperfection of it all if you're ever gonna really enjoy it - ya know? anyway - love that tatt - but leave it alone - and get more tatts!

Yeah, it was totally a "I'm actually conquering this" feeling. WANT MORE.

Well that was a brutal last session but damn the result is worth it:

My girlfriend is pretty great about my tattoos. She's not tattooed, nor will she ever be, and I feel as though I can say that with the utmost certainty, though things can always change. She gets genuinely excited for me and encourages me, which is really nice. I think it's been a bit of a transformation for her, because she's never had any kind of interest in tattoos before me. It's great to be able to show her awesome tattoos on LST and instagram, and hear her appreciation for them (even if she sometimes doesn't particularly like them). Her family loves me, but I know that they aren't fans of tattoos. Her parents have intimated before that they'd be pissed if she got one, so it does cross my mind that the more I get covered, they might have negative opinions. Unfortunate, but not the end of the world.

@polliwog - I agree with you that "A lot of the most fervent defining seems to be done by people looking at the tattoos, rather than the actual tattooed person." The article is a thoughtful read, but it also needs to be understood in the context of what the vast majority of tattoos are, i.e. those tiny infinity symbols and whatever. The kind of work folks on this board get is not the norm, and so our reasons and attachment to tattoos is probably not going to conform to that data super well either. I do often get tattooed to mark particular moments in my life or transitions. I have many tattoos that to me did feel like alternative rites of passage where there were no "mainstream" ones (getting a tattoo to mark finishing my PhD, for example), so I can relate to some of what the article is saying. But I have two principal issues with it nonetheless. First of all, I hate these strange studies of "identity" because they make it seem like this rigid, easily defined concept. I mean, I feel like I have a strong sense of who I am and am searching for who I am at the very same time, and I imagine that is true for most people. I find their discussion of that stuff very over-simplified. Second, I am fucking sick of all these millenials articles, and I am not even a millenial! But like seriously, the desire to cast each new generation as a bunch of iconoclasts with no connection to the past is insane. Millenials are not a fundamentally different kind of person than the rest of us, and writing like they are some kind of alien culture that must be studied makes me crazy. Like we live in a weird world where we are increasingly less and less attached to communities that traditionally defined us. So yeah, we're all searching, and maybe tattoos help us with some of that searching and maybe they don't. We invest a huge amount of time and money (and blood!) into them, so obviously they mean a lot to us and impact our identities. DUH; I would have a hard time disputing any of that. But trying to turn it into some kind of "definition of a generation" psychobabble is a bit much.

I've used Tegaderm for four of my more recent tattoos .... and I have a pretty dramatic love/hate relationship with it. I love that I can feel like I don't have a giant open wound on my body, and that I am not leaking ink all over my sheets at night... but I hate that it never seems to stick properly on areas of increased movement (neck, wrists, elbow ditch). The only truly successful Tegaderm experience I have had was on my thigh, where the tattoo had a lot of space around it and the Tegaderm could get a solid seal around the edges. All other locations, it started to peal up at the edges after it was on for a couple days -OR- my skin would start to get irritated from having it pull my skin around as my body moved (ditch). Both times, I ended up just taking it off and doing a traditional lotion/washing healing method after a couple days. Honestly, even though I rarely stuck through a whole week of healing with Tegaderm, it was kind of nice to use for even just a few days. I liked having it on when the tattoo was the most sensitive and awkward in my clothes.

done yesterday for my lady friend. She loves moomins.