thecatatafish

I don't think you're entirely right. You don't know me yet you judge me about rushing into a tattoo because I want to be part of the community. I don't know where you are pulling that from. There are other things to factor in that you have conveniently left out due to your own perspective. It's cool you saved up for a year to get a couple roses from an artist you think is the best. I personally plan big pieces, the last tattoo I got was a half sleeve that took 13 hours, two and a half years ago in the UK. Since then I have also been saving. I fully intend to to travel to get work from artists I like, like later on in the year when I travel to the uk, so I think it's unfair of you to make these assumptions about me. Also if you think every tattoo on your body is completely unique and the tattoo artists that did them never referenced another tattooer in his or her career, I think you must be kidding yourself just a bit. Convenience also seems to factor into your decision making since you 'waited' for Scott Sylvia to come to your town. There really is no need to be so high and mighty. I think I shall go back to just lurking from now on. So long folks.

No offense taken to any of yours or other people's posts. You have one of the nicest collections of tattoos I've seen and I'm pretty envious. Your back in progress is turning out to be one of my favourites ever. I envy those who have the time and money to travel to world class people for their tattoos. I unfortunately am not currently in the position to do so myself. I can understand how you feel, I would be pretty bummed if someone copied a tattoo that was on me. But I see it slightly differently. HK doesnt have any artists that do the neo traditional style, and I could see from his tattoos that he had got the technique down, so I gave him some goldfish reference from a book of Chinese goldfish paintings. If you are talking about the water, I don't see how it's any different from the scores of people that emulated filip leu style water, shige included in his early years. I think Gen just saw who he thought was number 1 and is trying to get on that level, also much like how shiges early stuff looks like filips or jack mosher stuff. Just spending a couple weeks around Gen, I did notice how hard working he is, he finished a 5 hr session on me, and sat down and did 3 paintings immediately after he broke down his station. I don't agree with copying people's custom tattoos, but I do think he's spent a lot of time figuring a lot of the technical stuff out by himself, that I couldn't deny that he's a solid tattooer. That being said, I did go to Gen because he could do 'shige style', but I don't see how it's any different than going to get a tattoo from Capilli coz he can do Bailey Hunter Robinson or Stuart Cripwell kinda style?

I know some people on this forum don't really dig this guy, but Gen did a guest spot here in Hong Kong and I got my lower leg done. That ditch is something else eh? Taken from his instagram coz I couldn't get any decent shots.

you have the best tattoos. i cry every time you post an update from how good this effing thing is! kidding! but not really...i am so jealous.

not part of the tattoo age series, but still done by vice..pretty awesome video about horiyoshi III(turn subtitles on at the bottom):

thanks for the welcome, guys! love your blog! @hogg i live on the island side, North Point but i'm always over on the kowloon side. How long were you here for?

Hi guys, i signed up a while ago but usually tend to shy away from introduction threads on forums preferring just to lurk.. Anyway, my name is Mike, i'm from Hong Kong. Tattoo enthusiast, i currently have a half sleeve from beijing artist Yang Zhuo (yztattoo). looking to start my lower leg when money and time allows. My good friends Rich Phipson and Ross Turpin own and operate Star Crossed Tattoo here in Hong Kong, and they're kind enough to have me always hanging around drawing and shooting the shit. please check out their stuff at ARTISTS | Star Crossed Tattoo and come hang out and say hi if you're ever in town! My friend Dust Wu (Horitsuki) just opened a studio, Galaxy Tattoo III, he specializes in Japanese stuff and has been giving me pointers on my drawings. super cool guy. please check out his stuff at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.123308957806683.22523.121245921346320&type=3 Electric Pick is also working out of Hong Kong, but you guys are probably already familiar with his stuff. Hong Kong doesn't really have much of a tattoo culture and is still at least 10 years behind the rest of the world, the most popular stuff still being stars, tribal and lettering, but my friends are trying their best every day to push it and put out quality work and hopefully one day it can get to a level like that in the US, UK and Aus. Anyway, that's a little bit about me and Hong Kong, see you guys around!

yes? did somebody call?

wow. i thought you had linked to the wrong website for a second. i'm not trying to be mean, but is he going through some sort of mid-life crisis?? i had some lasering done at woodys over a two year span, my last session being about a year and a half ago now..and he is completely unrecognizable to how he was just a couple years ago. used to have a pretty short clean cut hairstyle, glasses..looked kind of like a dork but when i spoke to him he didn't seem to have an ego, and everyone else at the shop was super friendly. seems like both him and his wife have updated their profiles on that website to include some absolutely ridiculous photos now. this is so fucking weird. also..no face tattoo..i cant actually see what it is..but it looks terrible.

i bet you're stoked. i'm sure ching is gonna do an awesome job. have you seen the pics east tattoo just uploaded to facebook of the front piece he's currently working on? it looks amazing.

hello my fellow redditor.

hmm i'm in two minds about this. on one hand, i think that tattoo looks awesome and hearing you say that you wanna "put in it's place an eagle or something, anything really" makes me a little sad inside. the "anything really" kinda thought process when it comes to covering up something you're already not happy with just spells disaster to me. on the other hand, i understand being totally unhappy with a tattoo. and a first tattoo. 3 years ago i got an outline of a half sleeve done by someone with a good reputation and who i had researched thoroughly(looked through portfolios for close to 2 years). though i accept full responsibility, since i had the final say, i think he was a bit pushy and told me to just "bite the bullet" when i asked if any alterations could be made to the design. i wanted peonies and a chinese lion(foo dog), but he said peonies wouldn't work and decided to replace them with cherry blossoms, which i wasn't a fan of. the lion looked goofy, and he didn't feel like redrawing it in a different posture. i was told by a friend to be prepared for "the artist to change your ideas" so that, coupled with not knowing the proper etiquette(stupid, i know) if i wasn't 100% sold on the design, i ended up going with it. over the next few weeks i began to hate it, so i cancelled my remaining appointments, started getting laser, and after a couple more years am the owner of a half sleeve that i am so stoked about. lasering my first tattoo and getting it covered up was an expensive lesson, but the decision to do so was one i am completely happy with.

unfortunately, i think there are only a couple decent tattooists in hong kong right now, and no one i could wholeheartedly recommend that does good traditional work. your best bet is one of the new owners of star crossed tattoo @ Star Crossed Entrance for the style you're after. my favourite artist tattooing in hong kong right now has got to be Electric Pick, ELECTRIC PLOG . Leon @ leon is doing some pretty interesting things too, but both of those guys are doing styles completely different to what you've asked for.