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Great Flying Spaghetti Monster, Jondix's stuff is out of control.

Just popping in to remind everyone not to feed the trolls. Rad was a bummer, but I think a lot of us knew that he was trolling. LST is a great place--let's keep it that way. Please don't sink to a troll's level of discourse.

I had the pleasure of meeting Matt Gone aka Checkerboard Man recently at the Edmonton Tattoo Show. He was super friendly, charming and with a nice dose of crazy...I mean who isn't crazy to go the lengths we all do to get the tattoos we want to express ourselves! I recall reading about Matt Gone in the early stages of my tattoo journey, I think it was an interview in Skin & Ink and he was on the cover (I was/am really into ska so I was stoked on anything checkered haha). That led to find out more about the checkered fellow and I found his stories, tattoos and motivation to extensively tattoo his body inspiring. It showed me what was possible with tattoos. It also echoe'd my sentiments about tattooing as a way to express myself, assert control over my body and love myself. I also liked how he wasn't simply a circus freak but a dude who was stoked on tattoos and committed to the process, working hard to reach his tattoo goals, no matter how insane they may appear to the average plainskin and tattooed individual alike. Here's a really cool article about Matt Gone where he talks about his tattooers...he's had some heavyweights do his tattoos like Stell (!), Roy Boy, Sailor Moses, Gil Monte...list goes on. https://www.bigtattooplanet.com/features/artist-profile/an-interview-with-matt-gone I really appreciated how candid Matt was about his tattoos and stories. As well as how encouraging he was to get people to strip down, not be shy to show off our tattoos. It was a tattoo convention after all! I connected with him on facebook this week. I guess one of the event organizers was there when I stripped down to a smile and got this photo taken with him. That exchange along with the spectacle we had at Matt's booth with my buddies with the Paul Jeffries works, had the organizers hire/invite Matt Gone to upcoming Alberta tattoo events. This was his first time in Canada and now has more visits planned for the future. more info (NSFW) MATTGONE.NET - - - Updated - - - still buzzing from the exchange I had with him, really fun

I could not disagree more with this. I was talking with one guy who tattooed me about this kind of thing and he said that he doesn't consider a fresh tattoo to even be a tattoo yet. It needs to heal and settle in before it is really a tattoo. I completely agree with him. I'd also say that a tattoo that doesn't look better settled in and with some life on it is a crappy tattoo.

Here's an update on my back piece from my last session with Fill Wood @ Black Crown Tattoo in Leeds. I'm getting close the end- maybe another 2 or 3 sessions to finish Hoichi's gown, the detail in the Biwa and a few other bits. Link- https://instagram.com/p/15lGppmzSi/

I completely disagree. A common misconception is a fresh tattoo, right after the machine gets set down, is when a tattoo looks it's best. Truly, a tattoo looks better as it has aged and the ink particles have settled into the skin and smoothed out. It is a big part of tattoo composition to understand how to design the lines, use negative space and contrast to make a tattoo readable for many years to come. If a tattoo image has deteriorated only after a couple of years, it was not designed or applied properly. My $0.02 - - - Updated - - - haha @Graeme beat me to the punch!

A busy tattoo week in my household. I got tattooed by Glennie at The Pearl, tomorrow @eldolmago and me are getting tattooed by Nikki Balls, and then on Sunday we head over to The Okey Doke to get tattoos by Franz Stefanik (me) and Alex Snelgrove (Erin). Hooray for weeks like this.

Started a new job a month and a half ago - I really like it, and am a little freaked out by how quiet it is compared to my other job in terms of output volume. I am not complaining, believe me, I needed this change. Had a mother/daughter day with my mom yesterday, was so very nice. We had lunch, went shopping, walked around, took a pedicab (quite the hilarious, if scary, experience) and enjoyed each others company. I love what time has done with our relationship. And... I started taijiquan classes a few weeks ago, wow do I love it. I'm never going to learn it all do do the form (Yang style, 112 long-form?) but that's okay. I really dig the martial arts aspect of it vs the typical overemphasis of the beauty of the form/movement. And! I have a tattoo consult next week for my once-a-year tattoo because I can't afford to go more often with all of these other interests diverting my money elsewhere. ;)

Agree with @Graeme and @bongsau - my tattoos have looked better as time has passed. With one of them, I was told, "this will look even better in ten years". If one year passing has given me a glimpse of what will happen over ten years' time, I am more than happy with this planning and transformation. For me, I don't really like the look of a brand new tattoo - I can't wait to see it after it has settled and meshed with the body.

you are in Norway so you are 100% obligated to get tattooed by Marius Meyer

What a fun time. I didn't get tattooed at the Edmonton convention...nothing really struck me + I wanted to stay focused on my upcoming back session. But I did have a really fun time being part of the spectacle and energy of the show. The Edmonton Convention is weird, the tattooer list is not on par and hardly any international artists that you would expect at a tattoo convention. It seems to be mostly local shops (and not the shops I would recommend to my friends/acquaintances). I thought there would be more flash ready to go and the drawings ready to go were nu skool, cupcake/donut, realistic. Not my thing. But nevertheless there were some cool tattooers around... Miles Kanne - got to say hi and catch up, show off one leg and arm sleeves he did on me in 2005 and 2007 when he first started. Stace aka Water Street Phantom - super friendly, really unique japanese style that I think he is approaching respectfully for a younger tattooer. He had this killer shunga print, but my wife was not into haha. The comp'd us some pina colada flamingo Steveston air freshners Cody Dewald - a young bold black traditional tattooer, got to chat and watch him work on a few people which was cool. Horiryu Family / Strictly Tattoo Vancouver - watched a huge hanya back get lined in. But the muscle dude getting it done was cringing and his calf muscles were tensing. He wasn't enjoying it haha Bart from Empire Tattoo, Victoria - had some wicked traditional flash ready to go. He was busy. He comes to Lucky Strike in town fairly often to visit. Lucas Ford - got to meet him, really nice dude. He was also a judge in the contests...more on that later haha I met Matt Gone the Checkerboard man. He was quite charming but batshit crazy. Actually it was funny, I went to get a photo with him and some security/handler guy was like "buddy, Danny Trejo isn't ready yet for fan photos"...and I'm like "huh? I'm here to see Matt Gone". I told Matt how when I first started my tattoos I saw him on the cover of Skin & Ink and have been following his bodysuit progress for several years. I asked if I could take a photo with my shirt off and next thing you know I'm in my socks and underwear with Checker board Man: Matt said to swing buy his booth and gave me a t-shirt and wanted to take more photos together with our bodysuits. It was hilarious. They are all up on his facebook page now lol. I got approached by a photographer asking for a picture for the newspaper (Edmonton Sun)...I said you want the full meal deal? No problemo...actually hold on, here come my buddies with Paul Jeffries tattoos. So the three of us ended up in the Sun's online photographs from event. So yeah we got our tattooed butts in the paper lol: Contests... Cam and Keith both entered their Paul Jeffries tattoos in the best sleeve category. They both didn't even place and lost to a ghostbusters, spiderman and zelda sleeves (wtf). We thought it was a joke that comic book tattoos could win over classic Paul Jeffries work. Like c'mon! But hey maybe that's tattooing in Alberta or tattooing in this era, the bros love the airbrush photorealistic look but don't know the name of the man who put Canada on the tattoo map. Later on, my wife arrives and we enter our matching Chris David eagle tattoos in the best traditional category. Maybe about a dozen entries, several of which had like 8 colours and NO BLACK (wait is this best traditional? wtf). Well no big deal. They called us both back onstage, the judges wanted another look as we were battling to place. So yeah, they couldn't decide so we BOTH won the 1st and 2nd place!! Ryan Gagne tattoo also won, so it was a clean sweep for Government Street Tattoo in the trad contest lmao. No cash prizes, although advertised. So it was fun. It was a spectacle. I thought there would be more shirtless folks, it is a tattoo convention after all. People seemed pretty timid. Well except for the 3 of us and Matt Gone! I'm happy I went. We had fun. Lots of laughs and good people watching. People getting tattooed. I lost track how many times I dropped trough! And then we went to the Keg to celebrate our victory

This was done by Charley at True Blue in ATX. This is absolutely the cleanest linework I have on myself and I am so stoked/humbled/honored by this tattoo. I apologize for the glare. Great Grandpa and Great Great Uncle were Azorean whalers that settled in New England shortly before the whaling bust. Great Grandpa turned to working in a rubber factory until he could start his own floral business in bristol RI, Great great uncle went from whaling to building fishing schooners and racing yachts with Hereshoff.

Couldn't agree more. And on that subject, less than 2 weeks til i'm back in Oslo for back piece session number 3 and a little one shot from Morten at Blue arms. Can't wait!

Hi guys and gals. I have been into tattoos for a while, and got my first one about 6-7 months ago. And now I can't stop thinking about my next one, sleeves, I am allways looking for artists and I think atleast 50% of the people I follow on Instagram are tattoo artists (I think the rest are miniature painters and bmxers, so I got a pretty weird mix). My favourite styles are Traditional and Japanes traditional, but I appreciate all forms of tattoos as long as they are well made. At the moment I am trying to figure out how traditional and japanese will look togheter, and I am also trying to figure out where to get my next piece. I am a 22 years old for those of you wondering and my name is Stian. I can't think of anymore to write at the moment, but I am allways open for questions. Regards Stian. Ps, sorry for any typos and weird sentences. English is not my native tongue. My first tattoo. - Imgur Here are my first tattoo, it was done by Mateusz Mazak when he was guesting where I live.

Mental toughness, maturity, and a sense of humor are required.

This thread is making me extremely not stoked to start my back.

Tony Hundahl just posted dates on his Instagram for the end of this month for when he's doing a guest spot at Invictus! Welcome to the forum!

Bongsau in the middle, yup my tattooed ass got published in the online newspaper. The tattoos on either side are Paul Jeffries works.

i've been drinking tequila and i'm here to tell you all a thing or two... too soon? ;)

I saw this on Instagram, it's on user tfjesse1046. Sailor Jerry put this on him in 1967. Readable and strong as fuck almost 50 years in.

Everybody's doing awesome stuff! Congrats to all you guys. I was just trucking along until a week ago. My job is basically a floater style position, but I heard a spot may open up at one of my favorite sites to work and that they had plans to put me in. It also pays way better than what I make currently, so that's a plus! My girlfriend also found a little guy in need of a new home, so last weekend we went out to meet him - a ten month old english bulldog/pitbull. As soon as he saw us he came wiggling up to give us some of those bulldog specialty kisses, and we knew he was coming home. Was rough with the established home dog until we started picking up toys and treats to avoid fights, but so far things have been better each day! On top of that, another appointment of calf sleeve work on Saturday with Nathan at Exile 2! Hopefully we will finish it out, but no guarantees. We still have about a quarter to shade and then all of the color to do. Fingers crossed!

leave it alone - clean and dry legs are a pain to heal

I have considered it, he does some solid work. I have also considered Nicholas at Bluearms or going to London or something.

I feel the same way, and my hobby is bmxing. So I tend to chicken out a lot more than I wish to.. Awesome thread, I skated a lot before I got my bike. I guess that I am still a better skater than a bmxer, I might just pull out my board this weekend.

I think I would just go with an owl head. Matt Jordan (NZ)

Try getting the inside of your crack tattooed at a convention. And also putting on a fundoshi in front of everyone at a convention. Man, what we go thru...

I was literally saying the same thing to myself and I just saw this. pretty damn good. Thanks for posting it up here.

Thank you! Here you go!

This is the one the dogs got closest to. He was not hurt, so he got tucked back in the nest that day.

Why do you want to know?

Oh! @Manu Manu That one was easy! The only part that hurt was the part that goes down onto my chest. - - - Updated - - - The line work is a simple layout schematic of a stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer. It took some convincing to get an artist to do that one, especially on someone who was relatively untattooed at the time, so the artist didn't know whether I would flinch or not. Mike Pain at Atomic took it on when no one on his staff would touch it and handled it like a boss.

For me the kind of realistic tattoo that appeals is black and grey stuff that doesn't go too far into the hyper-realism end of things (you know, that looks not just photographic but almost goes further, with the really crazy light effects). Jose Lopez, Chuey Quinatar... Some of the crazy Mexican bandits in front of trains, goddesses, human sacrifices, Virgin and Jesus etc. I like looking at the religious stuff in general, or big epic myths and legends pieces like you see some of the Eastern Europeans do. Think these are both Zsolt Sarkozi (Hungary). Love this stuff.

@xcom I think most of us understood that you were trying to contribute something positive, I wouldn't worry. Also @RoryQ have you checked out Jeff Crocci's work at 7th Son in SF?

I don't know if this counts but I'm day 4 on my arm and I have a little ooze crust in a few spots too. Mostly where a lot of shading and color went in and on a fairly moble part of the body near the elbow. So it keeps cracking or pulling against its self as I move. It happened to hubby to near his pit as well but healed beautifuly. I'm thinking it's just part of healing in more moble parts of the body.

It's not so bad! I can't really drink anymore at all. Never really liked hard liquor anyway, so it wasn't hard to give up, but getting older sucks. Alcohol makes my heart pound these days. Gross. I guess I should contribute something thread-relevant. Been doing tarot readings for friends for funsies. Haven't done this in years. (I'm not really into any of the mystical stuff that goes along with it, I just think it's a really neat tool for introspection, and the my deck is pretty, so I want to touch it. Haha.) If I can get through the queue I have, I should offer to do some for people here. Practice is always nice.

I'm just gonna toss this out there and then fuck off to eat crap hotel food and ogle my new Gilsdorf tattoo: I've seen plenty of people who don't like traditional best come here and express their opinions without getting everybody's hackles up. Nobody cares what other people like. People get riled up when someone starts making condescending remarks about how the thing they love is in some way inferior - especially since that's a completely subjective opinion that has zero to do with fact. Everybody gets that you think trad is 'inferior' and 'for posers' (the latter of which is weird to me, because wtf, American tattooing was born on one-shot military pieces, but okay). They just don't want to constantly hear about it. And it's kinda pass-agg to say things like 'true masters of tattooing,' insulting all of the other bitchin artists who are, yes, doing traditional work. Tl;dr: nobody cares that you don't hold traditional in the same esteem as other styles. Just stop being a dick about it! Then we can all go back to just appreciating the stuff we DO like.

Agreed.... as my post from earlier stated, I didn't want the same tattoos as my grandfather and uncles who served in the military...mostly because that stuff looked like grease stains on their arms, not cool traditional tattoos. I think tattooing, not matter the style or subject matter, has come a long way since those days. The basic concept or technique didn't change that much, just the appreciation of it as "an ART" and therefore how it's handled. my gramps would've socked someone in the kisser for telling him to stay out of the sun or put some "girly" lotion on to protect it. No matter what style/color/subject matter/line weight is put into the skin these days, the chances of the thought going into it and the energy spent protecting will keep them from looking like "grease stains" for a long, long while. ....and does't the tagline to this website say "get good tattoos"....not get such and such a style ONLY. pretty sure there's room for everyone's style and opinion here! - - - Updated - - - As soon as i can have someone in my family snap some pics of my work, I'll update my profile. I too have a full Eddy Deustche sleeve from 1990 and various work by Marcus Pacheco around the same age. Most of my tattoos are 18-20 plus years old and still look pretty great. Some of the finer detail has faded, depended how exposed to the sun the area was but, overall I still cherish every inch of that stuff.

Another Jeff Zuck piece from the Roc City Tattoo Expo. Rad guy, Great tattooer.

Here ya go @chrisnoluck Getting a cramp in my leg trying to stare at this thing

done by tony hundahl at the oklahoma tattoo convention one shot drawn on

Spend time with your mates, make sure you go out plenty...to the pub/bar, don't stay in on your own thats the worst thing you can do. The best thing to do is have lots of casual sex with random women, thats the cure for heartbreak if you ask me. Best way to get over a women is get another one (sorry not being sexist here, same for women) Or if you can afford it, come to Thailand and go crazy for a month ;) pm if thats an option hehe

The Inkbash is good, I've been there the past three times. Sometimes they have really great international artists comming. I remember Seth Wood being one of the names I recognized the first year I visited. I got tattooed by Deno that year, and next to him was Jondix who also regularly works the convention. It's also a nice way to learn about the best swedish artists (all though not all of them come..) since the places are limited I think the standard is pretty high. Yeah, check it out and write me if you decide to go and we might be able to hang out!

Because a panther will still look fuckin good in 30 years. The birds will look like polka dots.

About 10 hours in. By Tim Croke at Second Skin, Derby. Like to hear what everyone thinks of it!

I think the split looks weird, so fill that crack up! That's a good shot of where the thigh ends on this guy!

Here's a shot of inside of my left thigh. Purple is my underwear. Bottom is the backpiece and top is the front thigh piece. Hope that helps in getting a sense of how "deep" things can go:

Mine goes in deep enough so that when I am standing normal, no empty butt crack skin is visible. That seems to be how Dana does all his backs. Also upon close inspection of my butt, I made the comment here that my wind bars are appropriately scalloped in that area. I'd rather not put my special collection of tattoo pictures on the internet. Just kidding I don't have any like that, but they're on my computer. Regards to social comfort, it's very awkward, but if your guy just plays it professional, you'll both finish with dignity still intact. Regards to body comfort, for me there were a few tweak spots where you can't help but twitch. It hurts as much as you'd expect, but it ends. I wish this was a bigger picture. I don't actually have a nice one of the heal product, so I stole this from Dana Helmuth's website.

Hello friends. It's been a while since I've posted, as it had been a while since I've been tattooed. That ended today with the first sit on my back piece. Overall, I'd say it wasn't as awful as I expected, but certain areas were downright painful. Notably the bum. Next sit isn't for 9 weeks, so I've got time to mentally prepare myself for more pain. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'd like to add Andrea Giulimondi to the list. He works at The Family business in London. I love this girl in particular!

Honestly......I really don't see the huge deal with this "I won't do them" posts If the people know up front that they may need some maintenance then what is the big deal? Customer walks in....you tell them up front the deal....they still want it....make them sign something saying you told them.....do the tattoo! My thumbs....including the sides have held up perfectly fine for 3 years now....and I am not talking script...i am talking images..... If done by the right person then fingers can hold up....maybe not forever.....but just go get them touched up every year or two or three when they need it! If you work with your hands it is less likely to hold up....of course! But if you sit behind a keyboard and take care of your tattoos then they will hold up longer! There are ways of making them last longer......techniques that were shared with me before I even started tattooing to make tattoos hold longer! If you want it done and you know the possibility is there you'll have to pay to get it touched up in the future......(prob shop min)....then go get it done! Just my opinion of course! - - - Updated - - - Sorry.....this may be based on "science and society" but this is not in every case.....and I don't think it's all that constructive or helpful! It basically is trying to talk people out of getting tattooed in areas this artist doesn't want to tattoo anymore.....at least it reads that way to me! Tell people up front and let them make the decision! Now if you don't have the skill to put it in without blowing it out.....that's another story! Send them to someone with more experience! Sending them to someone who has the experience to do it shows the customer you truly care about their tattoo and not the money in their pocket! Society moves forward by those willing to push the boundaries......not falling in line with the rest of the sheeple! Yes.....inform the people what COULD happen to them.....and let them make their own minds! If this was written by someone with 30+ years in the craft.....I'd consider the advice! I was told 30 years ago the same thing.....society won't like it!!! guess what...they didn't....LOL......and I still have a better job than most of my friends who didn't get tattooed in 1984!