David Flores

We have the love and hate one up on the wall twice one right side, one upside down. IF you pick the love it's 20 dollars cheaper, but haven't had anyone notice it yet or get it for that matter. Have had a couple people come in recently with stuff like this, but I can't remember what the ones they wanted said. I think one was beloved and cursed.

One other thing I notice whoever started this site posted a bunch of "scratcher" tattoo photos and then a bunch of their own work, but they both come up under the same user name. I can tell the difference, but I would be worried others would not.

It looks like a relatively new thing, not that many members. I always look for names of people I know in the tattoo community and didn't see anyone in their members list. They could be totally legit, but so far haven't seen anything different than on any other site or random tattoo Facebook page.

Unfortunately for me everyone is getting tattooed, that is the problem for me. I have been trying get more work done on my back, but walk ins and appointments take precedence.

Now that is what I am talking about. I would make sure you find a guy who does good traditional work for those. I would suggest Rob @ flying panther or Chris @ Avalon II.

I didn't mean to make it sound like being old was a bad thing. We all get into this at different stages and I myself have had some downtime while in a relationship. I just mean if you are into tattooing and have people you want to get tattooed by that are good, you aren't gaining anything by waiting, in fact you could be missing out. I will always kind of be partial to the generation of tattooers from the time period i started getting tattooed, much like people are partial to the music of your childhood. I think becoming completely covered is a big commitment and a lot of people never make it that far. Most people that are covered I would imagine went through some phases of getting tattooed all the time.

http://www.facebook.com/jedhilltatttoo?sk=info I follow this guy on Facebook, he puts on a great tattoo and has been doing since the 70's I hear? This is the kind of tattooer I want to be tattooed by.

Honestly I kind of feel the same way, lately. Used to sit for 4 or 5 hours now I am done after about 2. I have two easy spots on my lower left leg, then it's my ribs, stomach, back of knee to ass all fun spots left so that has actually slowed me down a little.

Tattoos are something you should get when you are young and carefree. There will be a time when you don't have all this free time or extra money to spend on tattoos, so if you are fortunate enough to be able to get tattooed regularly do it. Dan Higgs, Chris Conn, Scott Harrison have "quit tattooing", Ed Hardy isn't taking appointments, Pinky Yun, Mike Malone, Eric Maaske, Mike Brown are not with us anymore. I kick myself for not getting tattooed by some of these people when I had the chance. (especially Malone as I got tattooed at his shop just a few short months after). Now I am not saying there isn't plenty of people left to get tattooed by, my point is you never know when it will be too late. Yeah you probably don't want to finish before 30, so yeah maybe take a break from booking out tattoos every month and maybe just travel, don't stop getting tattooed, just don't plan it for awhile. Take trips with no expectation of getting tattooed and if you stumble upon a good shop or opportunity to get tattooed by someone cool, then do it. I had a conversation with a couple of tattooers I really look up to yesterday and one of them pointed out it's hard to be the old grizzled guy with gnarly tattoos if you keep getting new tattoos and also will I really want to get tattooed by the 25 year old hot shot, when i am in my fifties, shoot I don't want to do that know for the most part (no offense 25 year old hot shots).

I tried it, but only bought one I think I paid $2.50 for it at a specialty beer store. I think it is definitely worth trying, but not something you would want more than one of at a time anyway. Even Arrogant Bastard I can't drink all night, I usually hit the "bastard wall" after about 3.

Not trying to be the last one to the party, but Champ's style seems to lean on the realistic side. From my experience a realistic tattoo usually takes longer than a japanese or traditonal tattoo. I would imagine the going rate for a tattoo in San Diego would be around 180-200/hr(top shops) and I could easily see a shoulder tattoo taking a couple hours hours especially a realistic one . Also keep in mind whatever you cover your tattoo with is going to need a lot of black wherever the old tattoo is, and in general a coverup is more labor intensive than tattooing a blank space. The rest Champ or whoever decides to tattoo you can fill in you in on what he charges and what they can do for you, but just thought I would put my 2 cents in and wish you good luck on your tattoo.

http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-101/1235-recommendation-traditional-style-tattooer-san-diego.html You will find all the recommendations that people have suggested and maybe a few more.

Funny thing is you can never prove that Mike Wilson is the best tattooer in the world. Of course you also can't prove that he is not.

That is some good stuff. I keep meaning to do another beer exchange. We just bought a house and waiting to get the keys, but maybe after the dust settles. This local brewery partly funded by lottery dollars just released a canned Imperial IPA. It's called Fort George Vortex Imperial IPA, it comes in a four pack of 16 oz cans (8.4%) and it is amazing.

My friend just got back from tattooing in NZ, he did the Auckland convention right before he came back to states. The shop he worked just had him and Merv O'Connor the oldest tattooer in Auckland. All the shops down the street would come up to the booth and pretend to Merv's ass and compliment my friends work and talk about how great it would be to get tattooed by Merv, but never seem to make that trek down the block to his shop to stop by say hi and maybe learn something.

Exactly, I try to reserve the term for when it applies. Most people are just regulars or I refer to them as the guy or gal with a bunch of tattoos from so and so.

Helps me cure the itch, without using up the last two spots on my lower legs. I was on the fence about filling it in but it really looks a lot better to me, starting to actually look heavily tattooed in the mirror if you know what i mean.

Or they buy the newest Ipad to show the tattoo guy all the cool custom tattoo ideas they stole off the internet. They make sure they go to every shop to find the absolute lowball price and the guy who will do it exactly how they want. Some people are just cheap when it comes to tattoos, they want them, but they don't need them so why spend money on them and traveling is completely out of the question. But ultimately all those lettering tattoos add up to the bills being paid at the end of the month and most of the time these people get a better tattoo than they deserve, so goes another day at the street shop.

I have used collector in conversation to compare and contrast different types of clients. It becomes douchey when you refer to yourself as a collector, like it's some sort of skill or job IMO.

Kids songs have to be some of the hardest stuff to get out of your head. I think the lyrics are so simple and pronounced they just stick with you.

There are plenty of versions of this song, I just happen to like the muppets the best.

Been getting some little tattoos and filler done by my buddy Ashley Howell. Drawing stuff on me and just going for it. He did some really cool purple smoke behind some black and grey stuff I have that really makes it pop. It's really hard to get a picture of some of the stuff he has done, but will try to post a few more.

Clearly they are the first company who has tried to use sex appeal to sell their product.

I have had these songs stuck in my head for awhile. It's the only CD my son wants to listen to in the car so I actually have the whole soundtrack stuck in my head.