David Flores

That Tattoo Artist United, looks like amateur hour. Nobody likes a scratcher, but usually the people who form groups like this, do about the same quality of work and are competing for business with scratchers. Obviously most tattooers wouldn't recommend get tattooed out of someone's house, but most are too busy making a living to worry about what the kid tattooing out of his house is doing. Not to mention they understand it's not a problem that can be solved. It would be like a Michelin star restaurant starting a campaign against McDonalds. I am not saying that it's not a good idea to educate people about good tattoos, but I think forums like the one we are on do a much better job because they focus on good tattooing and try to minimize bad tattooing. It's really all about distancing yourself. Posting pictures of shitty work on facebook doesn't make the health department do their job any better What kind of group about quality tattooing can't even come up with a decent logo. This leads me to believe the group isn't even run by tattooers.

I was going to say Makers Mark is usually what I order when i'm out. But I'm more of a beer drinker. I also like Single barrel Jack Daniels or Blantons. I think the key is also how much do you want to spend, you could spend hundreds of dollars, but I kind of feel like 50-60 is the top of my budget when I am trying to get fancy. 25 is my normal budget. Some people have sounded off about their favorites in this thread. http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/random-crap/1075-whiskey-thread-page2.html

I asked my wife last night, if we had paid the mortgage yet, and her first repsonse was "Why? Is there someone you "need" to get tattooed by." I said "No because it's the end of the month, but I like where your head's at." I guess I am that predictable, but am trying to be good and save up money. Thinking about a trip to Chicago in Jan-Feb, do a Taylor street grab bag tattoo, and set something up with Erik Gillespie. A good friend is moving from Chicago to Boston and this will be the last time we can party and his chance to get one last piece from Erik.

I guess that's one way to put America back to work, careers in "advertising".

I said almost the exact same thing about this on someone's facebook page that posted it. In reality he only has to keep the tattoo till after the election, if it was a company they might actually make him keep it, but I am pretty sure win or lose no one is going to check if you got that thing removed or covered next year.

Discount eye surgery is my go to line, I haven't seen any in awhile, but when lasik first came out I remember always seeing the ads in the paper.

I felt the same way walking in having Tim Lehi, Juan Puente, Dan Gilsdorf, and Nick Rodin right there was pretty intense. Spider Murphy's was the same way with Matt Howse, Theo Mindell, Paul Dobleman and Stuart Cripwell. Honestly I am not a sports guy, but those kind of moments I get the appeal.

I have never seen solid black out work that looks good. I think all the wrinkles and imperfections in your skin stand out more with a solid black sleeve and even if it's solid it never really looks solid black it's kindy of patchy. There are so many cool things you can get tattooed on you, and so many people like myself that would kill for some blank space on our arms to tattoo.

That was totally the dude, tried to find the thread the other day, but gave up, just wanted to see that tattoo again. I remember it looking okay, but nothing special.

When someone emails you about how much they like someone's work at the shop, in this case Traditional and Japanese, and wants to get tattooed, but they want the tattoo to be super realistic, feminine and artistic (her term was she didn't want clip art). Luckily in this case she sent a reference that actually has black outline and some black shading, so what she wants and what she says she wants might be two different things. But in cases like this I hate having to feel like I am convincing someone to get something they don't want, even though they will have a better tattoo if they listen to me. Oh well, i guess I should be thankful people are willing to travel to get tattooed.

You know how many straight lines are in a flag? Easy my ass!

I got the joke.

Sellegren is or was in Iowa. I have seen some other good tattoos out of these states, just don't know who did them, also not sure that would give me enough of an example to claim Best in Midwest.

Chris Smith? Zach Dole? Matt Headley? Katie Sellegren (I know she is moving)? Andrew Stickler, Adam Shrewsbury, Jeff Whitehead? Also agree with pretty much all the rest posted.

It's kind of like beer logos. I started out thinking I was going to get a whole leg of beer logos tattooed on me, I ended up with 2 that made pretty good tattoos and after seeing how bad some others have turned out decided to fill up my leg with traditional stuff instead. Attached are the two tattoos I ended up getting, done by Ross Ferrie and Mike Volkakis respectfully. Check out the link some bad stuff going on.. CraftBeer.com | Vote for the Top Ten Tattoos of Craft Beer

Couple of sheets from the shop painted by Derek Ward. People have actually gotten quite a few off these sheets. I think he sells prints of these but it's a five sheet set combined with two halloween and one christmas sheet.

Good to see you here Doug, Welcome. - - - Updated - - - HaHa! Dexter and Lulu keep me amused as well at times.

I know a guy who got a body suit in one session. Tattoo courtesy of Ross Carlson Artwork Rebels, I think he had only been tattooing a couple years at most at the time.

I didn't mean to shit on your thread, just figured it might be relevant to why we don't have piercing threads here and I am sorry that you were offended, my only intent from my comments was to drum up some discussion on the topic and encourage feedback from others who have different perspective.

I think the only issue I would see with getting a piercing, (theoretically) is generally the tattoo shops that do piercings out here are places I wouldn't get tattooed and with having zero knowledge of piercing don't think I could trust their expertise on the matter. I know there used to be a few places that just did piercings but they have since expanded to start doing tattoos which kind of rubs people the wrong way because people feel that tattooing is just an afterthought and really its a money issue not a quality issue. There are top tattoo shops across the country, world whatever that do piercing (Chicago Tattoo and NY ADORNED, come to my mind first) but maybe it's just different on the west coast. I also am not trying to be a dick, and I often wonder about the dynamic of this relationship and how people feel, but just never really knew how to word it and still not sure if I can fully explain it or understand it myself. But I think people should do what they want whether it is piercing or tattoos,or whatever they think up next.

Got two little tattoos this weekend at the Portland Convention. A reaper head from Zach Nelligan of Triple Crown and Jelena Nikolic from Chicago Tattoo Company did a traditional butterfly on me.

Zach Nelligan put a reaper head on me at a convention this weekend that has been in my wallet just waiting to get tatttoed. Also was able to get a little tattoo by Jelena Nikolic, the newest member of Chicago Tattoo Company.

When you erase your internet activity because of the amount of forum post so your spouse doesn't know you wasted the whole day on the internet. When you have line drawings of filler tattoos in your wallet just in case you find yourself in a situation to get tattooed.

For the most part I am with you on that. I always felt that a tattoo appointment should not feel like making a dentist appointment. It should fun and somewhat spontaneous. But as I start to run out of real estate, I have wanted to get some tattoos by people who's work I admire before I have no room left. I am still on the fence about whether I will get tattooed by Conn as I have more people to worry about than myself and my money isn't just mine to blow and I can't just take off to LA for a weekend without some serious planning. But at some point i kind of have to decide who I really want to tattoo me, because their isn't room for everyone.

ACME TATTOO I started one recently, need to upload more pics, but trying to just keep it about recent tattoos the guys are doing.