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Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.

Fortune teller by Marina Inoue There is also an image on her IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/BFpjEQFigYn/

upcoming tattoo show n tell i've been invited to do the Sunday Takeover for Lived In Tattoos. See y'all on the 'gram this weekend !

Finally (mostly) healed from last month's Houston Convention, done on the wifey and I by Sam Storey who was down from Edmunton = his and hers voodoo dolls:

I sit here, sore, swollen, in a daze... but I have to share my story. I am an apprentice tattooer and have been in my apprenticeship since September of 2014. I have always had a deep respect for tattooing, but it has now been solidified even deeper. Last year at the Lady Luck Tattoo Convention, my teacher was asked to receive a traditional Samoan tatau by Sulu'ape Si'i Liufau of A-Town Tattoo. My teacher has known Si'i for about 10 years through the convention circle. We were sharing a booth with A-Town, so I was preparing for a pretty close view of the event. As they were preparing, Si'i came to me and told me that he only had his apprentice, Genesis, available to stretch skin for the tatau and they would need my help. I have a previous post describing the experience, so I won't elaborate further on it here, but it became one of the biggest honors of my life to be involved in that tatau on my teacher. Fast forward to this past weekend: We were working the Lady Luck Convention again and had a pretty slow schedule of clients. My teacher intentionally did so, because he wanted to hopefully help stretch on a tatau. It is a huge honor to receive a tatau, but it is an equal honor to assist in one. Saturday night, we are all in the bar, relaxing and having a good time. It was a group of about 20 tattooers from all over the country. Talk of the process of tatau began and I took the opportunity to interject and publicly thank Si'i for asking me to assist on my teacher's tatau. I told him it was one of the biggest honors of my life and I would never forget it. He nodded to me and said, "What are you doing tomorrow?" I said, "No tattoos, just working our booth." He said, "I should give you tatau tomorrow." Without hesitation, I stuck my hand out and said yes. We shook on it and he went over to discuss it with his apprentice. They were making gestures around the lower thigh area and kinda laughing a little. I jokingly said, "You guys are laughing too much! You gonna fuck me up tomorrow?!" Si'i responded, "We're gonna try something new on you, Nate. You're not gonna like it... but you're gonna like it." The next morning, I went over to the A-Town booth and Si'i had me remove my shoes and put on a sarong. Without discussion, he started shaving my knee area, all the way around. He drew on a couple reference lines, where he then called over my teacher and told him he would be assisting his apprentice with stretching of the skin. I've already written a lot, so I will skip along. It took 3 hours of, by far, hands down, the most painful tattooing I've ever received. Almost my entire knee, and all the way around back, through the ditch. At the end, I was congratulated. I didn't move. I didn't squirm. I made no sounds. Inside my head, it felt as though they were cutting my leg off, but I knew I had to show my respect and gratitude by being silent. It was incredible. To be a part of my teacher's tatau and for him to be a part of mine has bonded us even closer. We are both so humbled and blown away by it all. As he did a final cleaning of my leg, I asked Sulu'ape Si'i what I needed to pay him for this (I was actually kind of worried, because I'm a broke apprentice). He said, "Meaalofa. It's a gift for you. You earned my respect when you sat for hours and stretched for your teacher last year." He also said, "Now Nate, this tatau has the ending placement of a traditional Pe'a, so when a Samoan sees it coming out of your shorts, they are going to question you. When they do, you tell them it was a gift from Sulu'ape and if they have any more questions, they can come talk to me." I'm still in awe. I look at my leg now and it is so much more than a tattoo. It is history. It is honor. It is respect. I just wanted to share my story. Thanks to all that read it. Here are some pictures of the whole thing. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

by Robert Ryan @ Electric Tattoo in Asbury Park NJ

Fuck yeah!!

Wow! It looks fantastic!

Update May 20.... Today was Session #2 with Scott Ellis at Triple Crown Tattoo. 5.25 hours in the chair with only a few short breaks. Some of these sections are pretty swollen, and I have one area behind my arm that is super red and angry... but other than that, it looks great. Gonna be a long weekend of feeling sunburnt and frequent washing, and hopefully it will heal as quickly as the line-work. Tomorrow I'm going to the movies, so no need to move it all day. Before: After:

@Gingerninja My old reggae band opened for The Slackers in 2002. We were young and inspired, the Slackers gave us some good praise and feedback and told us to keep going, don't quit. Well we gave it a good run, played with them a few other times around the country and then moved on with life. Still a big Slackers fan, they played in Edmonton a few years ago we ended up having an after party at my house and Vic Ruggiero came to hang, he's a real down to earth cat. He remembered who I was from 10 years previous and I fanboy'd out that here is a musical icon of mine thumbing through my reggae and ska record collection and talking to me like I was an old bud. He crashed on my couch, we tucked him in and my dog and cat snuggled him to sleep, we almost carbon monoxide poisoned him from the fireplace lol. And then I'm cooking him breakfast in the morning, we're talking about our different everyday lives and music. We now keep in touch, I send him pics of my pug dog every couple of months to say what's up and have a laugh. Didn't think I was going to make this house show last weekend some acquaintances had set up. But after working the weekend on 4 hours of sleep I roll into the house party. Vic and all my buds all smile at me, invited me onto the red wurli and the rest is magic memories. Vic and I played Mellow Mood by Bob Marley and then a bunch of the other musicians at the house show took turns jamming along and singing songs. Vic is one hell of singer/songwriter/musician and one of the most geniune human beings I've been blessed to meet.

Going to get started on the inside of my right arm to finish my half sleeve on Tuesday. Really looking forward to it!

Looks great!!!

healing legs sucks imo but who cares right nice tatts welcome

guys - this is the latest lowdown - somebody throw down an awesome tattoo and get this thread back on track please

Getting the sleeve shaded and scales added (perhaps colour too) next week - hopefully my spring sleeve project will be wrapping up before summer hits!

rejoining the fray - got a deposit in for an appointment with The Gus @ Olde City Tattoo in Philadelphia. Still need to set up the appt - really dig his stuff - just gonna go in and pick from some of his flash and have at it.

Just sorted out my appointment for the Quebec City convention and I'm going to be getting a golden eagle from Trevor McStay. I'm stoked. I'm getting tattooed by Ron Wells at his shop on Saturday. Also stoked.

Oh man! Why didn't I think of this!!!!!???? Oh. Yeah. I'm an adult.

Hi, First off - welcome. Glad you found this place. It's a great resource. Second - This isn't the thread for your post. Make a post in the Initiation section and introduce yourselves. Third - this is not a good idea. If you want something and can't afford it, find a way to earn money until you can. Get a job. Sell your extra possessions. Recycle aluminum cans. But don't start an e-panhandling page and join a forum for the express purpose of getting complete strangers to pay for your tattoo. This plan of yours makes so little sense it's hard for me to understand how you thought it would be a good idea. Delete your begging page and start reading. Again, welcome.

Finishing my ribs with Jason Phillips at FTW Tattoo next week! Excited/nervous!

Got this dragon head from Greg Christian when he was at Congress St tattoo! I have always wanted a dragon head from him and I absolutely LOVE this one. This was done on Saturday 4/30. The very next day Jason Scott finished up the background on my left arm. Super happy with the results of that as well and I will post those pics soon. It was super annoying to heal two arms at once, especially considering the Greg Christian piece is almost my whole inner forearm, and Jason Scott's work was from my elbow up to my armpit and shoulder. It was all worth it though in the end. Greg recommended using Tegaderm to heal the dragon head. Jason Scott had a roll of it, and between him, Greg, and Spencer Scott, they managed to get it on really well. I guess the stuff wasn't cooperating at first and it took a few tries (painful tries... put it on, take it off....) and a few different hands to get it on in the end. That stuff seemed to work like a charm. I've included a mostly healed pic as well. I say mostly healed because you can still see a few flakes of the second peel in that pic. I would definitely use it again. I healed Jason's stuff the normal way and that turned out really good as well. Very relieved and extremely happy as I find healing tattoos pretty stressful all around.

Got this one yesterday for Friday the 13th. I've always loved the number 13, and I thought it was a bit of fun.

Got my first just a little over a month ago - but at 61, retired Army officer and current college president I'm not in the usual group of folks most people think of getting a tattoo. Mine is not visible unless I'm wearing a sleeveless shirt. As people have learned about my first foray, they've been very positive. I get some of the "why would you do that?" One colleague asked if I was going to start drinking shots of whiskey again/ My response? I never stopped.

So went to the convention and got another 4.5 hours in, mainly worked on the bottom half of the tattoo. progress wasnt as quick as the 1st session, so its gonna take longer than expected to finish - retraced the dragon black lines, as they turned out a little too fine after it healed - filled out lotus flower with color (worked with purple, blue, white inks) - worked on the smoke cloud Left to do: - color in the orchids - finish the smoke - start and finish the dragon, probably in Black&Grey to contrast with the flowers but not 100% certain yet Pictured arent top quality (colors dont stand out well) and taken a couple of days after it was done so scabbed over in places.

UPDATE: Well, today was the day! What a long, but great day! It began a little before 11:00am. I was the first one in the shop with Scott (most of the day, there were 10-15 people there, and at one point six artists were tattooing simultaneously). He had been working on a few designs based on the sleeve length I wanted. Over the week between today and our consultation, I had decided to ask him to put the dragon's head somewhere on my arm instead of with the head in the more traditional chest area. I was a little worried to be asking for this, as Scott has a relatively new sleeve with the head in the center, and the last thing I wanted was for him to think I was trying to copy his own tattoo. Luckily, when I got there, he informed me that the last several dragons he had done had the head on the chest, and he was dying to do something new. Perfect! His sketches had just what I wanted. It was a really good sign. However, getting it right took some time. Using thin paint brushes, he created the design over four separate layers. The dragon's head had to be moved several times, and the unique swirl of the dragon we decided on what difficult to get right without looking like the head was plopped onto the center of the body... but Scott is a perfectionist, and after a lot of erasing and revising, and then relining, and revising, etc... we were finally done with a design ready to be inked at 2:40. With only a few short breaks, it took a lot longer than I expected. But the result is something that works specifically with my body as opposed to just slapping a template onto my arm. I love it. Here is a quick snap of Scott somewhere between layer 2 and 3 of sketching on me: I haven't had a tattoo in nearly 20 years, so I had no idea what to expect from the pain, especially over so many areas. Tattooing in the ditch was no treat, but not as bad as I had come to expect from reading. The outside of the elbow lived up to expectations. But the worst was around my collarbone, where any wincing or tightening of my face would risk pulling the skin under his needle. And there was one spot on my chest where I could clearly feel the vibration on my pec, but the pain was in my neck. I could have sworn at the time he was tattooing my upper-middle neck. Long story short (yeah, right), we finished up the linework a little after 5:00pm. I am absolutely thrilled with the result... and was getting tons of compliments on it by the many artists and clients in the shop throughout the day. Here is a front shot: It is a little difficult to see from this angle and with only linework, but the dragon's body actually goes out the back of the head and swirls up and around the shoulders through the clouds and comes out belly showing under his head before turning again towards the end of the sleeve. It makes a little more sense visually if you can see the back. I also have the dragon clutching a pearl with his talons on the back on the sleeve and will actually be filling the pearl with a significant flower logo in the next session. Overall, a fantastic day. I couldn't be happier that Scott got all the elements I wanted into the design, was able to keep it very traditional, but also with a great deal of uniqueness built just for me. If any readers are in Austin, Triple Crown Tattoo on Chicon Street (right around the corner from Franklin's BBQ!) is a must-visit.

I may have talked about this elsewhere but i thought some of you may be interested in this as my first post here Jaz Dringenberg turned me on to the site As most of you know the swinggate is a machine design that is usually attributed to bob shaw...as in the "bob shaw swinggate". I had always known it was a manifestation of THE PIKE but stumbled on some fascinating facts about it and its invention.... ('the pike' a small area of long beach california like coney island for want of a better description)a few streets cedar way,chestnut place,seaside and at various times lots of tattoo shops or a few...Bert grimms,Leeroys,Long beach tattoo(the 1st one) the rose,seven seas,and alot of others) nonetheless bob shaw has always been a hero of mine..he did my first tattoo when i was16....30.00 a hotstuff coverup(like hotstuff sitting on a cliff covering up my "led zep' handpoked" beaut".....i digress recently I acquired all of Lou lewis's machine building stuff..(recently last 5 years)Lou was partners at times with ernie sutton and they had a small tattoo supply company they ran out of their main street shop called LOS ANGELES TATTOO SUPPLY i have a flyer from 53( this is a new computer i will try to post it)....basically they were taking Jonesys and reworking them...cutting the top of the sidewing off or all of the sidewing and rewinding the coils with 26g. wire for a smoother ride replating them etc....In fact that flyer is the firstttime i saw "handmade"...anyway they made really nice machines I have a few of them...Lou was doing some real trick shit with springs..he was doubling up front ones...and i have one that he used a super floppy front spring that has a gap smaller than a dime but a 3 mile throw.... another that the abar hits the top of both coils square and alot of them were I think his search for a better machine pre capicitor(73 ish) as if you collect old machines as i do you know what the feel is but some of his really run good... but that is another story well i knew of lou lewis because leeroy always said he was the best tattooer on the pike.....so whenever i heard his name i would perk up and listen... sutton and lewis had a shop at 10 cedar way upstairs in the early 60s...fred thorton was partners with captain jim at the long beach tattoo..they called it "the other corner" lewis and suttons lease was up so fredthorton went to the landlord and'bought out" their lease...not an uncommon practice when tattooing was smaller....so Lou and ernie took all the plastic off the flash and house painted it filled the shitters with cement and left that to thorton... sutton moved back to downtown and Lewis went to work for Bert grimm.That is of big importance in the invention of the swinggate bert grimms was always the flagship of the pike....and there were usually pairs of tattooers...I know it was opened in 27 and i know people like Lawson and red gibbons and charlie barr etc worked there before bert bought it....regardless the 60s had Zeke and lou working the nightshift and bert and bob working the day shift. later(70s) it was nolan and hongkong tom etc.... In 1964 the health department came in and told them due to a hepatitis out break that the sponge and bucket days was over....at the time the setups were four machines outliner black shader ,red and green machine....they wanted them changing tubes and inks etc....and they wanted them to start doing it yesterday So lou who held various jobs everything from a customs agent and postal inspector to a machinist(thats the key) for the airplane companies during the war went home that night and came back with the swinggate design. I have a roundback jonesy that was one of the 1st from the collection of his i obtained which caused me to investigate this matter..i knew it was super early and real trick so.....) It is a simple enough design and easy to put on...you do not even need to remove the coils....so that was the birth of the swinggate...in fact the swinggate we know now Bob Shaws..well the first runs were waters frames waters #2...the iron ones...they would cut off the back dual binders and half the vice and rechrome them....I have seen some that were never completely built and you could see the indent left on the back upright from the dual binders and the PW or W stamped on the inside of the front upright...I am not sure if they took old machines and reworked them or if bob shaw had a connection for abunch of waters frames...I am pretty sure waters died in 51 in anniston alabama but there may have been alot of NOS left....hard to say Lou finished out his career at bert grimms...he died in 1969...so i figure with the relationship he had with shaw after his death it was natural that shaw kept the design.I also know alot of retired tattooers that tattooed on the pike that refer to tubevices simply as "gates"...so the impact is evident....There was a run of ASluminum jensens(jensen specials) that were swinggates....I do not know if there are 11 or 22 but jensen cast a tree of 22 with the specials...anyway those must have been made right after lewis died and jensen filled lewis chair before bert and him had a flling out and he finished his career at Leeroys....(the reason i mention this is jensen was a great machinist..he was Barbers machinsit that is why there is a Barber perfection machin pre jensen goping off on his own...different in design but same name..i think Baber was F. W. barber but i could be wrong, but obviously the swinggate was good enough for an old machinist like jensen to give it a whirl... as a side not i inherited some of jensens machines and his engraver and springpunch from Bill mokry...when bill died. why i mention this is jensen was not using a swinggate at the time of his death he was sawing them back at least the ones i got that were his...some of you that were around Maaske when he was friends with leeroy probably know more about that then me and i am curious if there were any jensen swinggates(not aluminum... in the stuff erik was getting from Leeroy...so i do not know if that small run of jensen aluminums with the swinggate were just his "team' enthusiasm when hewas at grimms or truly though they were a winning design. I also beleieve thats Zeke was the first guy making cutback liners...he was taking machines and hammering back the front and hammering forward the back and viola' instant cutback....I think lou lewis may have had a hand in that too..since they worked together at bert grimms.....but i will write about that later..when i have my photos hooked up here as examples If you want to see Los angeles tattoo supply company machines they are floating around..they will have the modified sidewing but will be rechromed so it looks like it was cast that way....Masters in sandiego had alot of them a few years ago (tahiti felix) I always had a hardtime with them as i am a jonesy freak and when i would come across one that was modified and rechromed i would have a hardtime believing they were jonesys....But through a little digging i found that Lou was buying them for 3 for 10.00(maybe cheaper if he was buying them unbuilt) and modifying them then reselling them for 10.00 and 12.00 bucks depending on the plating....also the other trick shit he was doing for that time period.... regardless I thought i would do this as my first post.