RoryQ

Paul O'Rourke, AllStar Tattoo in Limerick... Little filler next Friday. Loving his recent colour stuff.

I read about the Osaka thing, pretty invasive stuff by any measuring stick!

@tattooedj I only read the article, and that's about as much as I know about this specific situation, so you could well be right that it's mainly about the older folks wanting to tackle the use of the beach for partying. Taking the article at face-value, though, it makes mention of a few rather Japan-centric social issues so perhaps you can understand my comment:- the Yakuza, problems with U.S base personnel and, overall, the social unease around 'scary' tattoos. If the incoming tattoo regulations are intended to discourage noisy youngsters in general the committment that people whose tattoos are fashion statements won't be affected only seems rather odd. That will excuse the vast majority of young Japanese (and the westerners!). I guess when the regulations around tattoos are finalised it will become apparent. The lack of a penalty for offenders and the promise of towels on hand to 'cover up' the problem tattoos made me smile. To me, you wouldn't get that in many other countries. I was once asked to wear a rash guard top and pants in a Tokyo hotel swimming pool to cover up my tattoos. They actually offered ones they had on hand to me (I didn't bother in the end, but I really hope they were new... Almost certainly, I guess).

Quotes from the article. Seems like there are a few things going on here. If there's legitimately a public order problem on the beach I wonder how much of this is aimed at anyone except the yakuza or drunken service personnel? It's a very Japanese situation.

Welcome!

@peterpoose Looks good. I really like the crown of thorns figure.

Ian, sorry to hear about your divorce- the best of luck... As far as the forum goes I am not really convinced we are that unfriendly or closed off as group, to be honest. How many people are banned or told off by moderators here? Practically none. This is still a very, very civil forum by online standard for the most part. There is the appearance of a 'clique' but actually there is a turnover of members here and I see new posters become regulars become 'old hands' in time... It's always possible to be 'even nicer', but my personal view is that a pretty good balance is struck on the forum in terms of being friendly but also being honest. I like the fact that there's a lively atmosphere with some home truths occasionally being told, and I would hate too see that go.... I have learned a lot from some of the tattooers' rants posted on here!

The one-shot tattoos I have by people like Chad Koeplinger, Steve Boltz and Oliver Peck were drawn up just before the appointment. That said, those guys can whip something up in twenty minutes probably because of years of twenty years plus overall experience tattooing. Usually some references in there somewhere too. If the artist is competent it wouldn't bother me (...for one shots anyway).

He's still around posting on other forums, if you miss him!

I feel like most of us put on a kind of 'public face' or 'professional face' when we work anyway, whether we have tattoos or not. We all know that some people seem completely different outside of the workplace. I do cover up my tattoos with a suit and tie, but sometimes that's a smaller act of concealment than the minding of P's and Q's that goes on, and the careful way people present themselves.

@sophistre First of all, am I jumping to conclusions or is the artist Henning Jorgensen? When I hear a Danish artist in NYC that's who I think of. If so, congrats...! Back to back sessions like the one you've booked in for are tough, there's no doubt about that. However, they're not uncommon in situations like you described. I did my whole back in more or less the way you're describing, and I'm in the middle of doing my front the same way. In Yellow Blaze in Yokohama they do double back to backs, where you do two days, take a few days break, and then do another two days. Now that's real murder. The tattoos still seem to turn out just fine. As you say, with a guest artist, or if you're the one travelling, it's the way to go to maximise the work you have time to do. Personally I would mail your artist if you're seriously considering going the route Matthew suggests and see what they have to say. You're right than if your appointments are 12-8 both days the odds are probably nearly nil that you will be tattooed for 16 hours. Even if everyone is on time you might be chatting, drawing on and setting up for the first hour or so... Then remember you're both going to need to eat... Maybe smoke breaks etc. "8 hours" might end up being 3.5 hours tattooing, break, 2.5 hours tattooing, break, 1 hour, done. I think that would still be really ambitious. Day one you will probably be fine with. Day two will be the hard one, especially if you didn't sleep great with the new tattooing. Even so... If you're rested, have eaten well and are intent on enjoying the experience you should be able to do it, don't let anyone panic you too much.

That's a really nice one. I love the rays of light...

They don't have the time to use the search function to look through old threads that have the answer to their question? Really? It's probably quicker than starting a new thread and coming back to check on it again and again. And it's also a lot easier on the rest of us. I agree that this is a great forum to come to. But part of the reason it's good is because the signal to noise ratio is low. I don't know whether you get this or not, but a surefire way to significantly reduce the overall quality of the forum is to end up with a scenario where it becomes the clogged up with endless threads are by people asking whether their tattoo is infected or whether they can get a koi half sleeve done for $300 or what have you. That's not hating on people, but let's be clear that without at least some moderation and structure the forum would be less enjoyable than it is. As for not answering someone's question if you don't like it: Let's be clear here. Graeme answered the OP's question pretty conclusively. It just might not be what he wanted or needed to hear. This thread is well and truly derailed, but it had nothing to do with his response.

There's an incredible amount of high quality discussion and information on this forum. The search function is a help, but really even if someone just read through some of the longer threads they'd learn a tremendous amount. I reject the idea that on top of that this forum should be a place for people to ask the kind of questions that have probably been dealt with before in one thread or another, and which they don't really seem to be serious enough about answering that they go into their local street shop or shoot an artist an e-mail. If you feel differently, and feel that no question is too dumb for us to have some responsibility to answer that's your perogative. But don't call people a 'cock sucker' (nice casual homophobia by the way) just because not everyone agree with you.

Somehow we manage to have dozens of threads per month where we discuss a lot of positive topics, share images of new tattoos and general shoot the shit. If the 'party line' on LST were that the only acceptable answer to any tattoo-related question is to 'ask your tattooer' then we wouldn't have the thriving discussion forum that we do. We'd have a bunch of really short threads which all culminated in people saying 'ask your tattooer'. Err.. Except we don't. A guideline here on LST is that we don't talk about money. I'm guessing this guy is looking for a ballpark figure of hours for his half-sleeve so that he can figure out how much he needs to save or whatever. Fine. No one is talking about hanging, drawing and quartering him, but let's be clear: He'd be better off going to his tattooer and being up front rather than asking a 'how long is a piece of string' question. Because Graeme was actually giving him very good advice when he said he is not going to learn anything useful here. All he'll learn is how quickly a specific tattooer worked on that tattoo. It won't even tell him whether that tattooer would be slower on a different client, doing a different tattoo, in a different frame of mind. Now, I do also detect a slightly testy tone to Graeme's post. But frankly he probably said what a lot of us were thinking. We've had a rash of posts on LST lately which are, frankly, lowest common denominator posts. It's stuff that people should be walking into their tattoo shop and asking about. I don't see a particular reason why any regulars on LST are obligated to worry if people get 'bad advice' when they are fobbed off and end up asking elsewhere. I don't feel any particular pressure to provide 'guesstimates' to anyone, for example... I mean... really? Finally, there's something more than a little ironic about the fact that you're pleading for Graeme to 'help out' and not be a 'fucking asshole' while at the same time you manage to squeeze into your post that he is a cock sucker, a dick and a fucking asshole, and to 'stfu'. For what it's worth, Graeme adds a hell of a lot more value to this forum with his posts that yours, so perhaps you're the one who should consider putting a sock in it.

I'd be curious to see a picture of it?

I think it's a given that regulars here are aficionados of good tattooing. So you're preaching to the choir, here on LST at least. If you've read around you probably noticed the calibre of work people are getting. I don't really have a view on whether tattooing is a profession or a craft, I'll leave that one to the tattooers.

I'm just waiting for the guy who shows up asking how he can tell which tattoo designer he should go with.

Not a super long wait, but I'm booked for another 2-3 days on my front piece this coming September.

Calle Corson from King Carlos. One of his recent ones and one of his best, I think!

Diego Azaldegui is also just a super nice dude, as well as a good tattooer.

Is it too early to post this...? I know it's seven months away but I've put it in my diary. It looks like I will be getting tattooed most of Friday, all going well (it's far enough out that I'm going to sit on that for the moment, I'm superstitious about jinxing it). The last 1-2 years in a row I've missed this convention but this time around I'm looking forward to it - and hopefully meeting some LSTers. Anyone fired off any e-mails or secured some super-early bookings?

@Bexter When you take off the wrap the first time you'll have a cleaning job on your hands, as you probably know. Whether you re-wrap or not before sleeping for the night chances are the tattoo may continue to ooze a little overnight. Hence you will sometimes see people recommend wearing an old shirt to try to avoid ruining nice sheets or whatever. On day two after you shower you might have more of this, but probably less and maybe none. You might get the odd small speck. Oddly I find my feet and legs seem to weep a little longer than places like my front or arms. In summary, you should be ok for your meeting if it's in the middle of day two. If you're in doubt that morning you could wear something dark so any small speckles aren't noticeable.

The Raid is amazing, really recommend it. A sequel is on the way. Just watched 'Elite Squad' ('Tropa de elite') again- also very good. It's about the Brazilian paramilitaries that police Rio's favelas. Slightly punisher-like.

That's a really nice tattoo, made me stop and admire it for a moment when I saw it. Saw it... Hur hur.