shaneenholm

Thanks for the input i will keep it in mind....not justifying..(well maybe a little)yeah well it was one of those typical..i do not want a cig holder..i want a butt....I want a fucked up Derby...I want a stink eye,not popping eyes...so i took the stink eye directly off Loikas,the whiskers were stolen from mike wilsons,etc....of course theirs hit the mark..mine is imitation I rarely do custom stuff....and I rarely have more than a few minutes to plan stuff as i have always been big on walk ins....I would lose my mind if i had to have appts. I always laugh when customers come in and ask how long of a wait do i have.....if they want it today..they will get it today..at least started...That was just the way i was taught the 3 questions...do you want it today...where do you want it and how much do you want to spend...that is becoming a lost art.....and besides if i redraw it it only gets worse and worse.... I do this shit for a livin...I have seen (lately ) so many guys feet up on their station..its noon...customer wants something...whatever they even bring the pattern and they say I have an appt. at 3:300 pm i cannot do it... I realize planning is huge..do not get me wrong.....I just think we have almost become a parodies of ourselves... I stay incredibly busy and here I get the go see Shane..he will do it today...crowd..anyway

cool thanks for sharing that....I always thought scott sterling was the first one doing that with jonesys...cutting the sidewing and hammering it back...he called those" magic markers" cool name...but I love Scott (he makes me laugh just thinking about him) so he can't really do wrong in my book anyway I always thought he was the 1st guy doing that..and that was kinda a longer throw liner than the rollomatics(i see more young tattooers using long throws than ever and the lining is so clean that you must be on to something....) But recently(last few years) a friend of mine got a jonesy Paul rogers had built in 83...(or 86..i will ask him)anyway it was smashedback.....so that throws a whole new twist on that.....Thanks for sharing

I was lookin at your lists in the blogs of who has tattooed you and I have two lists..ones from years ago,like bob shaw,etc and ones newer like mike wilson.... Any how the biggest regret i have is i had a chance to get tattooed by greg irons and....PASSED!!!!!!!!!!! thats right...PASSED!!!!!!!!( i may have told this story elsewhere) I was visiting SF I think it was 82...and we were up there on broadway and greg was working the night shift at deans and he was putting a dragon off the wall on a friend of mine and i was making time with this chick so we went for a walk to a park below broadway like kinda behind the mabuhay gardens and i started picking her locks and never made it back to the shop!!!!!!!!! Of course hindsight is 20 20....and you know....regrets...like trading some PR machines for a set of rare books in 85....losing a 57 goldtop les paul to a pawnshop for 100.00 that hangs in freedom guitar with a 10,000 dollar pricetag...all that was material things...but that tattoo...well that is the pinnacle of regrets for me....I would still have it today.... I cannot even remember the girls name.....

i meant to say hi earlier...you are one of my favorite tattooers....steve sent me a pic of a card you are painting for jacob that is unreal.... just stunning......(hope that is OK steve always sings your praises...rightfully so)

YEAH AND PIE SLICES ARE GETTING SMALLER ALL THE TIME....good points fellas...AND IN MY LONGWINDED OPINION AS YOU ALL POINTED OUT COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY...BUT REALLY EVEN THAT CANNOT HELP IN CASES OF MONEY LOST... AS SOMEONE I RESPECT TOLD ME ONCE UPON A TIME."...PEOPLE GET STUPID ONCE MONEY IS INVOLVED" but it depends on if you were broke in there or not too....I have rarely seen good splits from that...it is almost like the father and son (not gender biased ladies just an example)How many of you have seen that....I think in most cases it repairs itself overtime..sometimes a decade....but i think it is almost neccessary(unfortunately) In some cultures or disciplines..it is the son killing the father to be free kind of deal..not to get too esoteric...... Just in the" breaking in" cases mind you....but first off if you are gonna teach someone shouldn't they be better than you...or isn't that the idea...Well there is the EGO thing....when the student surpasses the master....I have seen it happen alot...But when the dust settles usually they become OK again(sometimes it takes years)....control....fear.....you know the teacher in some cases has the apprentice thinking if he fucks up he will be blackballed,skinned alive boiled in oil etc....and actually the guy is really talented but the teacher will not let him fly..so once he gets away from that person he really takes off....but sometimes those threats and 'fear of' are necessary to keep the nit wit apprentice in line..to a degree...but it becomes sometimes overdone...WAY OVERDONE...not in my case..i was tattooing within a few days....but I see it alot... or maybe they heard oltimers telling stories of the abuse they threw on apprentices and though it did not happen to them personally(the person listening)..feel it is neccessary to do the same when they get someone under them.... is that what creates that whole tattooer too cool shop treat customers badly thing...I know a guy i really like that was broke in by frank mills(i beleive at least at that shop) thought he was suppose to act that way until he got a decade under his belt and realized it was a perception...Not that Mills was the example but there are alot of funny stories about him and customers....Now the guy is super nice.... Then in shop settings you have complacency....especially when someone has been there awhile....then sense of entitlement....there is the never ending "war" for want of a better word...between shop owner and employees,PC,etc...you bring a new guy in and it starts shit with the people that have been there(if it was not their idea to bring em in)all this makes the split harder.... SOMETIMES ON THE OTHER HAND THE SHOP OWNER IS SO DEPENDENT ON THE PERSON GIVING NOTICE THAT THEY PANIC AND REACT BADLY RATHER THAN TAKE IT IN... AND IT IS HARD TO FORGIVE SOMEONE WHEN THEY REACT LIKE THAT BUT IT IS ALL ALOT OF FEAR....ARE THEY GOING TO RIVAL SHOP TWO DOORS DOWN....THEY HAVE SOME DIRT ON ME....I THOUGHT IT WAS FOREVER....ETC... HUMANS HAVE A HARDTIME DEALING WITH CHANGE..... and then the shop owner may let shit slide with a guy that stuffing the safe full of money ,like coming in late, and ride someone else that is not..so they start looking at others..what they have and do not have..etc...that starts shit.... I think with all the shops out there now....it is very different leaving.... Then as was pointed out where are they going when they leave.. are they gonna open up on me.....some people made us sign contracts saying we would not work within a certain distance....I remember col Todd it was 20 miles(and also verbal...other people 50 miles sometimes 500 miles....written mind you..but do people do that anymore???) HAVEN'T YOU GUYS OPENED SHOPS THAT ARE EQUAL PARTNERSHIPS....ISN'T THATLIKE BLACKHEART.....NOW THAT IS A GOOD IDEA..THEN YOU ARE ALL WORKING FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE SHOP RATHER THAN FOR THE BOSS.....OR AM I MISINFORMED.... i think it is easier to leave now with a good or bad split because there are soo many shops now....so so many...a guy or gal can earn a living almost anywhere.....i HAVE NEVER HAD A BAD SPLIT FROM A SHOP....but maybe thats cause i am affable... Scott,are animals affable??? PS recently(last 6 years) i saw a bad split from a young tattooer who I used to tell when he was unhappy that the great thing about this job is you can ride your machines anywhere...you can find work anywhere..if you know what you are doing....well he now is at a place he loves and that bad split blood is buried and our friendship is better for it....he is thousands of miles away....he mentioned that everything we told him was right...hindsight is 20 20 but i think there is a certain insight that only time and experience can give you....as in everything in life...he needed to experience it for himself....work in a few shitholes to figure it out... I think it is communicating throughout the whole time...people get resentments that fester..sometimes for years...so splits get really gnarly....we work in a highly stressful,highly creative enviroment,with some real characters,with some real egos...

thanks for saying that scott...Mike had sent me a an incredibly sick one...It would not matter if i copied it line for line...some of you guys are just extremely talented.....Mike has been so helpful to me...I would post his but it is not my place to do so...never anything but constuctive criticism...you guys are an example to follow....thanks for having me.... I really like this forum....we need more like this...

here is the one scott (sterling did on me)I am pretty sure the lone wolf thing was a tex avery thing..I am not sure when it became so common on tattoo flashbut i would say it is a world war 2 design...most of the cartoons were... some were earlier.... Like hot stuff (which is my favorite design) first appeared in the 1870s on underwood deviled ham. He too was a tex avery..at least the 1936 merrie melodie "dont look now" but the one we do as tattooers is the Harvey comics one. Well lone wolf is from basically the same place. those cartoons were shown to military personnel before newreels and movies and the wolf is this dapper guy...usually with a pencil moustache and then when he sees a chick he turns wild...going from walking on twoo legs to four ...tongue hanging out eyes bugging etc....so you know some navy or marin or army guys are out drinking stumble into a tattoo shop and describe this wolf they have seen how their buddies say the wolf is like them etc.......a tattooer investigates draws it and over time it spreads like a plague(beautiful plague) The difference today is i have a friend that has a shop outside a big base and when busloads of veterans come back he calls me and we work for 20 hours sometimes anyway...the big difference is none of them want a standard devil dog....or a eagle globe and anchor...they all want it customized....and that gets a little tedious when you have 20 guys waiting....they get meattags now and memorial tattoos..but not soldiers graves mind you.... I have some other ones around here..old ones( ones others have drawn that i would rather do) but i will have to dig them out for you guys to see.... I try tracing designs back...and alot of the cartoon ones go straight to Tex avery...however some( like hotstuff) go furthur.My first shop tattoo was a hotstuff done by Bob shaw...30 years ago.....So i now have quite a few on me. and do not worry about the critiques...If i have not learned by now that i am not the greatest tattooer and all that matters is the if the customer leaves happy and you feel like you did the best you could then i should quit. But thanks for saying that Lizzie if it were my choice i would use anyones but mine but they all want that custom touch....

( anyones name mentioned here..i do not want my work to reflect on them so know if it is fucked up..it is because i did so of my own free will...with that noted... Ok i thought i should post a tattoo or two since i been running my keyboard(mouth) on yer forum.....Anyway old friend of mine sang in Punk rock band from SF verbal abuse for a number of years..snotty Scotty...well we were kids together in early LA punk rock...Starwood etc.. Scott.he used to call hisself loner..so we have been slowly filling up his arm( for over 25 years mind you)....I did a bob shaw cobra girl and some of bob Roberts daggar snake thang etc.....well anyway he wanted a lone wolf...after i showed him a few and thought if anyone should have one he should now I have never been as good at drawing originals as robbing people for theirs...so i looked at Rollos and loikas,one of Aaron colemans too and Mike wilson recently texted me a beautiful one he had done.... Scott wants a derby...so the first one i drew i sent to Mike and he told me to do the hair thinner so it does not look like a dragon...like the one above....and to correct this and that...and also isn't it all about "why grandma what big ears(teeth,nose etc...) you have ...when one does a wolf one should keep that in mind..no???so note the different ear sizes from first drawing to next one.... anyway i redrew it to look like this as scott did not want the chicks leg(Mike wilson suggested that the leg was too small anyway and looked like an afterthought)I know scott likes girls as much as the next fella...(he is married to kelly Doyle who ran that cosmetic tattooing thing with patty in OC many moons ago....and is own of my wifes best friends....we have all known each other since early 80s...)goddamn i talk alot ANYWAY HE DID NOT WANT TO CONVEY PUSSY ON THE BRAIN SO WE THREW THE LEG OUT... again I really like not having to draw...stencil jockeying it....anyway so Scott comes up I show him mine(i have a brokedown one scott sterling did i me that rollo painted and we settled on kinda one inbetween...I tried to put a leather jacket collar on him(with LA germs capri blue edge but a Verbal abuse button)...this is a pic of it not healed and bloody.... You can click on the pics to see bigger..i posted them bigger but they were so big that there is no way i am gonna put them online that big..not my tattoos anyway PS I did not know if this is where it belonged(tattoo designs) i just wanted to show a small evolution and my ass to other tattooers....(which i guess could be a small evolution in itself..depending....

that rose on the left is a good example..take the center most forwaerd line out of it..and you have the tri petal center that i think was born out of misreading acetates...it was not uncommon for these guys to leave stuff off their acetates ...i guess they figured if you were all that you woulda just fixed it....ya follow?

here are a few lieber ones...I think jerry got alot of him...I have a letter from lieber to jerry or jerry to liber with a mermaid drawing around here somewhere...I do not know why they called him Brooklyn joe(probably born there) but most of what i know was he tattooed in the bay area.....He was teamed up with Pop eddy for aperiod of time..and Eddy died in 57.....I have a machine pop eddy built let me see if i can get a photo of it It is actually a Jensen special that was modified...Jonesy coils... Both pop eddand lievber built machines..they (i think ) had them cast togehtwer as liebers most known for kinda a Waters#6 model lookin thing and i had one that pop eddy stamped his name in too...anyway I always saw his influence on jerry....

there is a brooklyn joe Lieber book out...the guy who owned long beach tattoo with Capt. jim..it is pricey..but there are alot of pinups and full designs like +hot rocks" (the iwo jima marines tattoo) that were attributed to jerrty...I love they are publishing this shit now....I love what is available to us now...

I gotta go to work..so this is fast and maybe not the best examples...but here is the same designs..different artists....the corday book has the hula girl and then the same design either jense or minugh and the hula girl outlines...one is a don nolan and the other a brooklyn joe lieber...I am sure if i was not trying to eat oats get dressed and doing this to show you guys some of these i could do a whole lot better...but i am busy...it bes like that some times...

OK so bob is not going to Stae of grace(as of now) but i am still going with Young charlie...but i am not sure if I will have any originals or not there..i will keep youse guys posted....

Look as far as theft...well look at blues players..they take a 5 tone scale with a few passing tones and make it their own....How many solos i hear and I say that was a BB king lick...followed by a freddie king lick....wait there is an albert king lick.... I beg designs off anyone...ask mike wilson...or Bob roberts...recently i was doing a chest eagle and called bob and asked him a question about the way he did eagle legs(legs...and eagles..that sounds funny) and he told me just copy mine...and Mike recently sent me an envelope full of designs...I sent him pics..it aint gonna look like mikes anyway....so i always laugh when the kids at the shop buy those sketchbooks that say for inspiration only...look the whole reason we obtain flash is because"Jack rudy drew that skull so i would not have to" I mean the individuality will come from the application anyway....Show me originality that has not been influenced or copied from someone somewhere.....color portraits..."Kari barba" 25 years ago...etc...and probably burchett 100 years ago...so really i mean if it is a good design..or idea...well as bob says "and someone else mentioned above"imitation is the best form of flattery".....I paint with bob(or rather he has been kind enough to teach me to paint) so I gather up my stuff and go over to his house and paint like he does..." he will look at my stuff...say pinups and ask me why i shaded it that way and i willl tell him because you did" and he will say well i used to shade like that but recently changed to an EASIER way....do it like this..." and i will say "no i like it the other way" well he never says do not do that...thats MINE!!!! I have been painting the wall at the shop with flash...all like bobs....he never says "find yer own designs crabby...." he says Shane you are welcome to any designs I have...." and then i am flippiong thru some old book or some old stack of flash i have that bob shaw painted or whoever and there will be the design i thought was Bobs...he may have improved it...but still there it is.... these designs are universal..they are symbols....well he can say it better than i can..but basically what he says is a tattoo rose looks more like a rose than a real rose...and there are only so many ways to do that rose before we get cute and fuck it up trying to be original.... anyway..if you have some custom tattoo on you and you are worried about someone copy-ing it...fuck it...you gotr the tattoo...show it....the copy will never be your tattoo...never ever ever.... I was discussing this yesterday with a friend how cool handpoked tattoo were...and how our industry has become emasculated(is that the right word...what i am trying to say is BALLS HAVE BEEN CUT OFF!!!!)this person is an icon to our industry and is so sick of people wanting a consultation and a few drawings for a goddamn wrist flower...what happened to a tattoo reppresents that moment in time...not the endless...touch it up...change it etc.... lets just get tattooed and love it.....no matter what it is....even if it is misspelled....I love that shit....lets put the fun back in this shit...I have a fever....I am probably rambling so i am gonna go take some tylenol and rest my neck

12 years old...pine street..no 3rd street group home...I was the youngest kid in there...first night at the dinner table i saw aheart on Alvin romeros arm and was all' what is that??????!!!!!" first time i had ever saw one .... so they say of course "a tattoo"...and that night they showed me how to do it...handpick em.....so i did an aries symbol on my hand...and then went hogwild...i woke up the next morning and the grouphome parents were named Jan and jon...when they saw them i was afraid i would get in deep shit but jon just laughed and laughed and said'well shane...now you cannot be a spy...." and i was so young that i actually was bummed for a minute thinking..."shit he's right...now i cannot be a spy.... so much for that as a career...." there is a reason people should get some life experience under their belt before they get tattooed.... When Scott sterling worked at sailor moses shop in biloxi Miss. their was a father and son that used to come in there and moses would tattoo the dad and then do the same tattoo smaller on the kid..and the kid was 9 years old...9YEARS OLD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! scott worked there i figure from like 85 or 86 until 89ish....guessing....so that kid "all growed up" is about 30..i would love to see those tattoos now.....

I knew you were gonna say that........

Thanks for sharing that picture...I somehow always end up with things of owens...but i never tried to get them..someone dies and tells there family to give their stuff to me..or someone approaches me with something he owned etc.... i have dainty dotties memorium..like the little booklet that everyone signed at her funeral...I tattooed leeroys grandsons back for it...it is a bad marfar....Mckeever signed it...sutton, sailor west and on and on...I have some of owens stuff..his engraver ,his spring punch a few of his personal machines....I had that left handed wagner he is pictured tattooing(or acting like he was tattooing) on some guys chest..like sparrows...it is a pretty well known photo anyway i traded it for an nevr been used Paul rogers swiss cheese prefab..#8 in 1983 to my pal charlie parsons...he had never got up off one of his PRs before...anyway sometimes i regret trading it....but as Mike wilson says..."shane you actually went into a time machine and came out with a PR...." yeah for a while i was on ahuge mob book kick..bob was the only guy i know that has read as many as i have....Im think everything was run by the outfit at one time or another...the first ward...pat marcy....you guys had aldermans that were made...There is a book out now called 'a mob of his own about mad sam destefano....that guy was a real nut job... again thanks for sharing that picture.....

IT was originally on I5 x 20 you know crescent 100.3 cold press illustration board...but these are not on board...Scott had them printed on some paper.....so 15x20 is the answer...

Nick thanks for the reply...i have read sparrows book....but know little about Chicago...I hears the mob had a hold on that area at some point...Hey i read mob books..alot of them and the outfit is my favorite..Aiuppa, Accardo..bob roberts favorite too...anyway isn't there a film or a written interview about philadelphia eddie working in chicago and that the guys running the shop/arcade tried to hand him a gun like "here put this in a drawer..." but eddie opend the drawer rather than touch the gun??? I guess he thought it was a murder weapon and they could blackmail him...I guess they did it to alot of artists back then....I got a customer

This picture is not good enough...but dig her shins...dig george....with what little you can see...red gibbons tattooed her.....well its his wife and one would think he tattooed her unless you go with the theory that you do not want to tattoo yer wife because then you have to look at your mistakes everyday for the rest...well you get the idea right? no Artoria was tattooed by red gibbons...he was a monster tattooer....I have really good pics in my station at work but i will have to scan them for ya...which means take them out of the frame etc..... and though it may seem like i spend alot of time on here..i can type fast as i think...almost....

....here is his website for those interested...I always have them too..i will be at the spotlight booth at state of grace....but if you really want an experience..buy one from him.... his number is 757- 463-0249...also i have some out here west coast...you can contact me here...or at [email protected] I did not see his website link..i musta mucked that up..but here is his number....he makes these...now....also a shader but i will get a pic up of that too.....

Scott reprinted these and asked me to help him sell a few...he ain't computer savvy...savvy??? and i love him..he did these at sailor moses in 87..and they were all the rage...so he wants 25 bucks..plus 4 for shipping and if you paypal add one dollar to it too so 30.00...you can paypal me at [email protected] Now please know that like bobs paintings I am not adding a markup for me...for real..i just like helping them....you only keep what you give away anyway....(no that does not jive with scott or bob and thier art mind you....Scott only printed a few.....so get em while we got em

thanks for saying that you guys..i had about 40 minutes between tattoos and i was trying to post something outside "machines"...you know alot of this is in the book "tattoo" secrets of a strange art" albert parry...dover(one of my favorite publishers) republished it for 10.00...TEN BUCKS>>>YOU CAN BARELY BUY A DECK OF SQUARES FOR THAT...get it read it..enjoy it..... page 9..."in the summer of 1925 alone,Trixie richardson herself an intricate exhibit,practised on the beaches of new jersey and placed some 10,000 butterflies,forget me nots and what nots on her lady customers" Also I agree about the circus suits....though at bert grimms height they waned...now i would not be tattooing if it was not for bert grimm...you can tie me back to him,as alot of my frineds...and Bert grimm did alot ofr tattooing..gave his life for it...along with inventing the photo booth...no shit...now i know he told tall tales..tattooed bonnie and clyde,john Dillenger etc...but don't we all tell tall tales....however and the risk of disrespecting him..you can see a decline in work between grimshaw and grimm.....However grimms protege was a smokin tattooer....but that is a good example of how the work declined.....the tattooers at the turn of the century were artists...and tattooers....that changed to tattooers...which whatever.... now there are more artists tattooing than ever...and more nitwits too..I am afraid.... I AM JUST GRATEFUL TO BE APART OF IT...TO STILL BE ALIVE AND NOT DIGGING DITCHES OR RUNNING A JACKHAMMER(well if you saw my tattoos that point may have a double meaning) Also traditional...OK that has really come into its own...but what is traditional...now i know what traditional designs are...bold lines ,texas thirds,thrid black third color third skin...or the 20 20 rule..tell what it is at 20 feet or within 20 seconds...however...and i love the aesthetic...i (at times line with loose groupings etc....but lets look at that.... people back 100 or even 60 years ago mostly lined with 4s....now did that 4 put in that bold line or did time put in that bold line....four flats were also common...ok so these guys were doing body suits with the last supper,president portraits,pharoahs horses,the king the crown and the cross(remember that one?)quickly....I learned with flats...well single was the rage but I did not pick up a mag until i started again...Flats take longer but really put it in....these guys were not breaking out the 25 mags etc....that to me is amazing....the throw on their machines was the almost nickel dime thing...also they did not have liner shader custom machines per se' Oh i am sure each shop and area had its secrets....but if wagner had a liner and shader we woulda heard about it...maybe not thru him because he did not really have a catalog....he did have bill jones until he died though...aand that guy was a HAWG...4 real....but if he had that secret surely when percy waters went up and worked for him and got his Professor title....before their big falling out then wouldn't we see it in his numours catalogs....you know bill jones is the one who told percy about the machine shop in detroit he fled to...or went to...I am getting off track here...but my point to tattooers reading this is imagine doing body suits like those with four and fours...WOW!!!!! Dull ones too... what was it a needle breaks in about the fourth tattoo..come on....so with the advances in tattoo mechanics...well have we advanced.?????.i know those pics are black and white(i will try and post some of these bodysuits) but they look great...i mean really great....give or take a few....but remember the time frame when you are searching them out....... like there is a famous pic of captain elvy Fosdick (who was like the west coast or oregon wagner) did ...thosse roses are a trip...but the date is 43...not 1903... and i have not even begun to discuss how they patterned that shit....put that thought in your subconscience crack pipe and smoke it... they were doing those suits fast...i will find some reference of how fast and post it..i have it lying around here somewhere....(and berts early work was really nice so I am not badrapping him...I know he and bob shaw painted like 140 shhets of flash in a weekend....maybe 139..i have some of them..they are really really really nice....so if that gives you any idea... This era is diffrent than coleman or what era coleman is remebered for..I am not talking about the 50 sailors out the door....that is another favorite thing i talk to friends about...todays tattooers are really really good...but if you put them in a shop with 50 sailors could they clean up.... anyway i talk too much... I digress...read that book...i have a few others with a paragraph here or a page there... but generally that one has it all.....and is priced to buy...

You see I think it goes in cycles..i remembered when i first got tattooed the tattooer told me kings and queens and royalty getting tattooed....(little did I know HE was tattoo royalty)and then convicts...unfashionable.....and then it became fashionable ...again....this recent..last decade maybe just a little longer is the "in fashion" times...not diffrent than elephant bells.....or hip huggers...baggy verse tight...crimefighter underwear versus boxers...well thats pushing it there.... But if you look at the recently released Ben corday and amund dietzel books...those designs were the artistic forefather of ones that later became cruder...after someone did a rubbing...then copied it...to someone else not as articulate... that arm became less graceful...or a certain line was left out Ii will try and give you an example tonite(hopefully)there is a hula girl that Corday drew that you see in so many other peoples flash..some drew it very well..others missed the mark....and you can see it mutate... In fact the center of roses...changed...and i think it was a mistake...you see ones with the classic s and y shape...well the s in the center...I see guys do them now with the 3 petals..which was a posiitive mutation..they look good..but it came from a missing line in the stencil.... I think with the explosion of artists now it is really hard to tell where people learned from...the access to all the reference that was so protected...now its easy to see what a good dragon looks like etc.....so with popularity comes what...mud...in a sense... I digress....I think the genre that was born in the last 20 years of tattoo painting is amazing.....It still does not have a name..like impressionism or surrealism...Where a hundred years ago ..tattooers paInted to have designs...now they paint to paint... In fact there was a period where(at least in my experience) a young tattooer was not allowed to paint flash...if you did the guys that brought you in that painted all the flash in their shop would ask"why are you doing that..." painting? " ...you gonna open your own shop?"...use our flash....or you wanna know how to mix colors...why??? you gonna open your own shop??? use our colors...etc.... but of course that is all diffrent now...and no i am not bitching about the state of things...because to tell ya the truth..I stay busy..so what do i care about 20,000,000 tattooers now...as long as i have work......it really does not effect me...EXCEPT NOW ITS HARDER TO GET OLD MACHINES AND FLASH BECAUSE EVERYONE IS COLLECTING...that is my only gripe now i guess.... I DIGRESS AGAIN...what i was saying was at ome point in the mid 20th century not as many tattooers had the talent artisically as at the turn of the century..... That is why some of them shined so brightly....again it comes in circles..or little circles..no I mean cycles...

Well belive it or not it was...if you take the smaller world population into consideration.In fact what little documentation that exists,,notes and word of mouth it is pretty amazing... why is there not more evidence of this....well first you have to get rid of the computer, not only cell phone cameras but all personal cameras altogether,oh yeah and mass travel...that was not around....also add into that a flavor of pious religious beliefs (including shamed families) why tatooers changed their names... I got a good one..Bert grimm changed his name...well he was broke in by Grimshaw...wasn't Bob shaw broke in by grimm...grimshaw...grim...shaw...anyway i digress..yet again Ok Trixie richardson said she did 10,000 butterflies in the summer of 1926 at the jersey shore...that is alot of butterflies..is it not? Now there is documentation of uptown clothing companies coming down to the bowery to use patterns out of sample books...(like before portfolios a tattooer would have a smaple book..it was flash that he had painted,spparrows ,snakes flowers,whatever...)anyway they were making bathing suits out of those designs...they were all the rage...sound familiar??? So someone did a study in london in the early 20th century and they figured 15 percent of women had a tattoo on their lower body with in the city and 7 percent natiowide...that is pretty hefty....how accurate i am not sure and since i am not at home but on a borrowed computer i cannot give you a footnote to where i got the info..but i will dig it up for you guys.... So you figure fashion too...if all these women had tattoos well guys were popping bonors over seeing a chicks ankles who knows if your great great grandma was packing a pharoahs horese,or a butterfly.... Now i always thought the sailor jerry rage was overwhelming..and i spent a fair amount of time pointing out that there were lots of other tattooers with volumes of work/flash etc...but not many were lucky enough to have someone like Mike malone buy the shop and all its contents intact...you had either a landlord that hauled it all to the dump,or a family that was ashamed and did the same...pretty heavy when you think about it..... I also have a theory that the wall street crash really effected tattooing as a whole but i believe by 1929 it was on the downside anyway...Theys say wagner was rich until the crash..then he could be found outside his shop hustling work for his breakfast...I always found it interesting that percy waters did not aplly for his tattoo machine patent until 1929..wagners was 1904...perhaps Percy knew wagner did not have the $$$$$ to fight him in court by then..but 10 years before..well... anyway back to my theory..I think tattooers were extremely talented around the turn of the century...anyone ever seen Artoria Gibbons body suit, with portraits and all....Red gibbons did it...or Andy strutz body suit...they has smokin suits...I mean saaaamokin.....The books turning up now Dietzels, Cordays show that tattooers a hundred years ago were very talented and learned in art.... I think afterr the wall street crash it declined...especially after during the war....anyway my customer is here...more later