David Flores

I wouldn't advocate this or make it a habit cause chlorine is nasty, but I have swam in chlorinated pools twice in the last year a couple days after getting a tattoo and they both healed fine. Keep in mind both were palm sized one shot tattoos, and I could tell right away I wasn't going to have much issue. I made sure to put some aquaphor to create a barrier and wrapped with saran then put a head band over saran to keep in place. In hindsight that was complete overkill and unneccesary. In fact the spider tattoo on the IG feed was healed in less than a week. Like said before if you are a mess of scabs, best to stay out of the pool, but I have always found the sun to be more of an enemy than the water. That being said, everyone heals different and every tattoo heals different, but once you have a few tattoos, you get to know at what point your tattoo is done being vulnerable to the elements, there is nothing magic that happends two weeks after your tattoo.

Totally Graeme, I hang it on Alberta St where all the hipsters have Dan Gilsdorf and Cheyenne Sawyer tattoos and drink craft beer. I think everyone in Portland is a hipster in some persons eyes.

I think Hipsters are the ones getting all the lettering and seem to require all their tattoos to be meaninful and quirky. I have a four word rule. My tattoos should have no more than four words ex Love Thy Neighbor, Sink or Swim, Heads I Win, Hardcore Roadwhore and you should be able to describe your tattoo in less than four words ex Panther, Rock of Ages, Kewpie, Rose, Skull and Dagger otherwise you put too much thought in to it.

The way I got better tattoos was continually seeking out people that have more knowledge than me about tattoos, listen to what they say, pay attention to what they do and visit the people and the shops they talk about. People get bad tattoos because they don't do these things and they think they have it all figured out before they walk into a shop right down to how much the tattoo should cost. You don't have to be artistic or cool or even special to get a good tattoo, and having a good tattoo doesn't make you speical either (despite what your mom told you) you just have to be smart and humble enough to let the people who know what they are doing do their thing and be open to their ideas.

This whole thread has become redundant to some degree, but I would like to point out that if someone wants to come in and get a nice tattoo, let's say a lady head, panther, or maybe a skull and dagger, and another person comes in and wants a paragraph of lettering on them, I guarantee you the person who wants the lettering is going to end up paying more for their tattoo. Maybe we are the only shop like that, but Ashley is happy to draw as much fancy custom script as you want while you wait, but he charges accordingly.

The Letter of the Law: Laws for Lettering and Tattoos | Occult Vibrations Not judging, just some useful information.

I am not trying to be mean, but the way I look at it good Music is creative, tattooing lyrics to a song on you verbatim is not very creative, I would say it's the antithesis of creative. Any good song should inspire strong imagery. There is so much tattoo imagery inspired by music, and vise versa. Look at the Social D Skeleton, Misfits Crimson Ghost, Tron and her Morrissey, Bikini Kill, Jawbreaker flash, etc. I remember the first time I talked someone out of getting a bunch of lyrics tattooed on them. They wanted all the lyrics to pink floyd wish you were here. I simply said why not get two fish in a bowl and the words "Wish you were Here" above it, it was the simplest idea and the first that came to mind, but never occurred to the client and blew her mind when I suggested it. Someone liking their tattoo is the most important part, but ultimately the point of this forum I feel is to open people up to ideas they never thought of, and help people get better tattoos.

I don't know if I have told this story before, but I finished getting tattooed and was waiting for my friends to get theirs finish at Taylor Street Tattoo on Name Day ($20 names up to 7 letters, $5 per letter after that)None of us were getting names though. Some obvious 19 year old suburban college student walks up to counter and says she wants "The lion loves the lamb" tattooed on her. The vocal latino gal behind her blurted out "That's so lame" loud enough for everyone around to hear it. Everytime someone comes in with a lame tattoo idea, I can't help but think "that's so lame". - - - Updated - - - Retard Narcissism my new favorite term

http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2013/05/oregon_public_house_combines_b.html Like they had to specify this was happening in Portland. Have to check it out later, stumbling distance from my house.

Someone stab this thread repeatedly so it dies a slow death.

It all depends on the event, how busy it is and the people involved. But for the most part when people say no changes, they mean no changes. Making something orange, instead of red seems like an easy request, but once you start that, you have to start entertaining everyone's color requests and I know from experience if you allow people any input they want all the input. That being said, it may not be no big deal for the person doing it, but you just never know and remember you are getting what you pay for in these scenarios. Edit BTW i think the coolest one of these special tattoo days I can remember was done about 8 years ago here in portland for Halloween. You basically stuck your arm or leg into a curtain, you didn't know who was tattooing you or what you were getting until the tattoo was done, but you did get to look at the sheet, you just had to be cool with getting anything on there. I didn't get tattooed, but it seemed like a fun idea.

Kind of weird and creepy and most importantly LAME that the owner of this company has no tattoos but is encouraging all his employees to get some dumb company logo. But on the flip side, you would be an idiot not to get the logo tattooed on you if you worked there. You could be missing out on 10's of thousands of dollars of income, which could equate to a down payment on property, vehicle purchase, or a shit ton of tattoos from top tattooers if you want to go that route. I would hate myself for doing it, but I would do it, besides it doesn't look any stupider than the tattoos most people are getting these days.

Funny slighltly unrelated but I questioned a young girl at the Italian Bakery about who did her tattoo, because I didn't recognize anyone in town that tattooed like that and sure enough she went across the river into washington to get it done. It wasn;t that the tattoo was that unique it was pinup girl on a phonograph, just the color palate, the amount of black in it, the general approach to it, didn't ring North Portland (Atlas or AWR, Infinity), the only thing I could think of was Scapegoat, but there was something about it that told me she didn't get it there. It wasn't traditional enough to be done at most shops, but too traditional to be done at the others. This has to be some sort of LST X-men type trait.

Like a boss, can't wait to see this. I am a little bummed, I am missing Atlas Tattoo's 15th aniversary party today, they are doing legit tattoos for $15 for 15 hours as a customer appreciation thing (they have no problem staying busy). I hope to at least be able to stop by later, but have a lot to do at home and the little guy has swim class tonight, so got to take care of business.

I think tattoos have not only changed my life, but they have swallowed my life whole. It's weird but I don't hold any special meanings for my tattoos, but the more I think about that it suits me to a tee. I am not a sentimental guy, I don't keep pictures, I throw most of my shit away when I move, and only collect two things, one is tattoos and the other is beer which is consumable. I don't think I changed that much with tattoos, i just found a way of getting tattooed that suited me and in turn has given me something to focus on.

It's all in Fun, does it really matters who wins, not that the idea isn't cool, but other than being a pseudo celebrity on the board, it's really just a t shirt at stake. The goal is just to show off our tattoos, and see the work people are getting around the world. I like tattoos that I think should win or that i would want to wear.

I don't think I know anyone who has over let's say 20 tattoos that kind of wish they could cover up or remove at least one of them. I don't think any of these people regret getting heavily tattooed, just either they made a bad design choice or got tattooed someone who didn't know what they were doing. Saying people regret their tattoo kind of infers that they don't want to have a tattoo. I have a tattoo I want removed, but will probably never do it, but still would rather have it gone and put something else there, but at this point what is the point, they all blend together anyways.

Im always impressed at the amount of tattoos people on this forum get. I get more tattoos than any of my close friends here in town, but this forum always puts me to shame. That being said I got a small spider above my kneecap yesterday. I was looking through the partially finished sheets in the back and spotted a spider I had never seen. It didn't quite fit so he had to redraw a couple of the legs on me, but turned out pretty cool. Ross Ferrie brought me into the tattoo world and it was nice to sit down and get a tattoo from him, like we used to do. Also right after he finished a friend of his from when he first started tattooing came in and got to relive some stories of Chris Conn, Robert Klem and Mav Mess's early days of tattooing.

That things is pretty weird, but cool and fun at the same time. Usually the problem I have with weird tattoo is people do em all wonky and new school, this seems to be a pretty solid tattoo. But also I would like to add that Dave Lum has being doing weird, but technically perfect tattoos since before most of us even thought of getting a tattoo. Edit Also Jeff Rassier, just pointing out weird is not really a trend and most tattoos are weird, and the idea of getting a tattoo is pretty weird. Imagine if no one had tattoos and someone suggested the idea of letting someone stab you repeatedly with a needle and ink to create a permanent design?

Exactly - - - Updated - - - I would get used to telling people that, or better yet get a t shirt that says " I'm a hipster not a racist" that being said it kind of made me laugh when I first saw it.

I usually think of kids as children below high school age. I usually say is it safe to bring one extra person along with you, but leave the entourage at home, but again there are times when Mom and Dad and Uncle, and Grandma, all stroll in with someone on their 18th birthday video camera in tow, and we don't kick them out, we just make fun of them later after they leave.

What is a watercolor tattoo?

Tell the tattooer a couple of your favorite ideas and see which one they are into the most. Some of the best tattooer are done spur of the moment, sometimes the key is not having time to overthink them.

There is always oppurtunities in that field. It seems that people are constantly switching breweries and or starting up their own leaving positions open I imagine. I always wonder when or if there can be such a thing as too many breweries, but doesn't seem to happen yet. One of the most famous brewers in town, is actually opening his doors on a startup brewery about a mile away from Atlas.

Portland Atlas Tattoo You can pretty much just keeping walking down Albina until it turns into Mississippi, and you will find every food place under the sun. I would reccomend the Missisppi Food Cart pod, as they have a lot of varitety of good food and is located next to Probst a german beer Garden. Other Standouts are Mississippi Pizza, Amnesia Brewing, Bar Bar, and Gravy. A couple blocks over is N. Williams where you can find a little smally plate Joint called Tasty and Sons, along with Lompoc Brewing Fifth Quadrant, and Hopworks Bike Bar, also Las Pampas has pretty good Peruvian food and always great desert specials along with house made sangria. All places have good vegan and vegitarian options If you have a car, you aren't that far from the Alberta District, which has some pretty good places in it's own right. Pine St Biscuits is a favorite, next door is a startup brewery called the Mash Tun, not a big fan of their food, but if you are into strong beer made in house this could be a place to check out. Also if you want some Ice Cream or Milkshake Salt N Straw always delivers some unique flavors. If you are a Vegan check out the Bye and Bye, my wife swears by their Meatless Meatball Sub or Vita Cafe, which has a wonderful Vegan Chicken Fried Steak. Their is s Thai restaurant just south of Alberta on 15th called Pok Pok Noi, which is the second location of what is probably the best Thai place in town. The only downside is there really isn't any place that convenient to stay other than Bed and Breakfast, except maybe Kennedy School, which is a former school converted into a brewery restaurant Hotel. The company Mcmenainmins has done this with a lot of historic buildings in the city. Their is some run down motels on Interstate Ave that have some good vintage signage, but not neccesarily some place you would want to stay. If you stay downtown or near the convention center you can take train and only have about a mile walk to Atlas. I will do AWR in a little bit.