David Flores

I have all the Russian River on my beer shelf right now as well as a bottle of Monk's Cafe. Cascade Brewing makes some good sours as well their Kriek and Sang Noir are excellent.

Rogue Dead Guy is a good beer. But you know what is better Double Dead Guy or Dead Guy aged in Whiskey Barrels. I take a trip to the Rogue Brewery at least once a year and they have three brew pubs in Portland. At their brewery (about two hours away)on the ocean they have two bedroom apartments with full kitchen and washer dryer you can rent out for the night for like $100 and I try to go at least once a year for two days.

Top of my shoulder was pretty easy. It was a nice surprise as I am running out of easy spots to get tattooed.

Just got this one done. Manee Friday from Imperial Tattoo in Downtown Portland.

Wow that is some tattoo. Yeah I would jump at the chance to get tattooed by her as well. You never know with a little effort it could happen. As far as your wifes mentor I don't see how he could be mad if she walked through the door with a tattoo of this caliber.

The name is Dave Flores. I am 31 years old, I work in a warehouse as a forklift driver and as a counter person at Acme Tattoo. a small street shop on the outskirts of Portland Oregon. I am married to my wife Karen and we have a eight month old named Rollo. In my spare time I like to cook, brew my own beer, and obviously get tattooed and learn about the craft and its history. Before Portland I lived in Phoenix Arizona and Colorado Springs Colorado. If you have any questions feel free to ask, but I warn you my life is pretty boring.

Did you watch the video?

I would love to get tattooed by Richie Clarke if I were able to go. I know there are a lot of good tattooers there but his stuff just always catches my eye.

Racer 5 was the first beer that got me into IPA's. I just found some Russian River Sour Beers at Trader Joe's the other day spendy but worth it. I really love everything Lagunitas puts out. Brown Shuggah is probably my favorite or maybe the Wilco Tango Foxtrot. For awhile they were making a beer about Frank Zappa every year. I am getting ready to try to make a beer similar to Brown Shuggah while my wife is out of town this weekend. I hope it turns out.

Stone stuff is great especially Arrogant Bastard but it is super malty super hoppy strong beer. You can't go wrong with any of those beers. Rogue is local and makes some good stuff Dead Guy is their most popular beer but I prefer their Brutal Bitter, Yellow Snow IPA,Juniper Pale ALe and American Amber. Their Mocha Porter and Hazelnut Brown is good too. They also distill spirits and have released a line of beers aged in whiskey, gin and rum barrels. I have only tried Flying Dog's Imperial IPA and it was good but the thing I most remember about it is the bottles have the art of Ralph Steadman and are named after Hunter S Thompson. Odell's i believe is a midwest beer, I don't know too much about them but most breweries in the midwest tend to shy away from really hoppy beers and mostly focus on Lagers and Belgian and other wheat beers I have found

My friend Ashley and his wife (also named Ashley) moved to Auckland so she could get her Masters degree in Epidemiology. She said because the government subsides education she gets a lot more for her money there and the opportunity of a lifetime to live in New Zealand. I know they don''t live in Wellington but they seem to have been enjoying themselves so far. The only complaints they had at the onset was that you had to get pay as you go internet and cell phones and beer is expensive at bars and for him the fact that he had no thermofax and couldn't get the pigments he usually uses but that probably doesn't apply. But for the most part they have nothing but good things to say and they really have enjoyed the experience, although they have plans to come back once she graduates.

Great pics of the exhibit. Big fan of Cris Cleen. I think you nailed it when you said victorian opulence. What a great city to visit.

I love Lagunitas so much I got one of their logos tattooed on me. The attached tattoo done by Mike V at Mr Tattoo Portland. Picture was from when it was freshly done.

Ross Carlson of Living Art Tattoo & Artwork Rebels Portland tattooed this on me a couple weeks ago while the family was out of town. Party time!

I'm not that worried. Like you said he will settle down at some point and Thomas seems to get along well with my boss so I have feeling I will see him at some point again.

I almost feel like if I didn't have a bunch of hair in my pits it would be cool to have a tattoo there, but probably not worth it for me.

I love his bold style traditional style, that tattoo looks great! Always regret not getting tattooed by Thomas but the time his shop was open here was really busy for me and as soon as things slowed down Thomas shut down shop and went on this world tour, but sounds like things are working out for you okay.

My favorite brewery is Lagunitas out of California. They specialize in mostly strong beers but have a Czech Pilsner, IPA, Imperial Stout and a Dogtown Pale that are their year round beers. I don't know what the chances of getting them in the UK but I know the US distrubition has recently expanded. Anderson Valley is another Brewery in that area that is great. They make a great Amber Ale, and their Summer Solstice is a great session beer. Their Oatmeal Stout was like top 5 on best beers in US at one time. On the other side of the country Dogfish Head and HeBrew brewing and Schmaltz make some good stuff.

Yeah I don't really know him that well either. My boss knows him from back in the day. I walked into tattoo city on a trip to San Francisco just to look around and it just so happened Doug has just got back from Aloha Monkey and was doing walk ins that day so I got tattooed and hung out with him for a little bit. But for the most part I know him on the internet like you and he seems damn funny and a good sport.

If you like Beer Wars, check out the movie American Beer, I watched it on Netflix not sure if its still available. A group of guys go to 38 breweries in 40 days across America. A lot of history and some great stories. Made me want to start home brewing.

I remember a post from a tattooer friend on facebook where he and his girlfriend were having dinner with Ed Hardy and she posted the picture and one of her friends commented something like "you mean the guy from the clothes" and Doug Hardy saw it and posted something like " I didn't think Ed Hardy was a real person, I thought he was a figurehead like Sara Lee". Maybe it was funnier to see it in person but I still smile about it today.

My throat, face and genitalia are definitely a no. I would consider getting my hands done but still on the fence about it and if it does happen it will be years down the road. I don't think palms or soles of feet would be very fun so I would say no as well.

Only had to deal with this a couple times. Guy came in asking about a job but said he had to give two weeks notice from shop he was at because technically he was the manager. Well the owner of the shop didn't want him booking any appointments at her shop to do at our shop so the next day I arrived at the shop and he had all his stuff in the back of the pick up truck. He was a nice guy but just didn't work out with us either. His clients almost all cancelled and got tattooed at his old shop and honestly he wasn't as good of a tattooer as we had thought. He bounced around but eventually found a job at another good shop and has been working on his craft and still stops in from time to time. Another guy didn't really quit, he just took a year and a half off to go to New Zealand. He gave plenty of notice and we had a party a couple weeks before he left. It sucked having him go but honestly he comes back in September and will have his old station back business as usual which I wasn't sure we'd actually see him again. He came back and tattooed for a week last year and we hung out even went to a Slayer concert. I can understand both schools of thought when parting ways. If you are shop that gets pretty booked out I can see wanting a fair amount of notice. In a walk in shop I can see tattooers not wanting to send work the way of a tattooer who is leaving in two weeks so might as well just leave today but I think it all depends on how much you like that person too.

Got this a few weeks ago in Chicago from Nick Colella.