David Flores

Going to be in the bay area Sept 4-8th. So far I know I am getting tattooed at Tattoo 13 by Dan Gilsdorf, and hopefully someone else but am still waiting to hear back from a couple shops. I have only stayed in SF and just walked or took bus everywhere I needed to go, but since I will have my son with me, and also have a lot of things going on in Oakland, and would like to tour a couple breweries, possibly Russian River or Lagunitas so I am getting a car. Does anyone have any input on a smart area to get lodging (should I stay in Oakland or SF or is there someplace else nearby that works out better). Also would love to have dinner with any LST members in the area who can make, mind you it is a little far ahead in the future and their is time to iron out those details.

First thing I would do is fine someone who you vibe with more to do the rest of your arm. I think you might have a better idea what good filler would be once you know what else the roses will be next to. The use of space in this tattoo certainly leaves something to be desired, so I can see what you are saying. Hopefully whoever you pick can figure out something cool to tie the whole arm together.

I think two tattoos would be the answer, one for her brother and one for her sister, find some object that reminds her of them and leave enough room for a banner or just write birth date below it if she is set on the ideas of having dates in the tattoo. I know I have heard of tattoos that are more hipster than a barcode with birth dates, but I can't recall when.

How do you put your style into a bar code? Isn't the idea in theory that it has to be done in a way that you could scan it? Yeah I can't speak for Smith Street, but I think if someone came in to the shop, we would do it, but it would be expensive and not guaranteed to scan and yeah I would do everything I could to talk them out of it. But if that's what she really wants then more power to her.

My goal is to find a tattoo shop where they are shooting porn in the lobby now.

I have had one substantial conversation in my life with Nick and we talked a little bit about that kind of stuff, it was really cool to hear his take on the subject. Who did your piece?

Not out of context in the slightest? I guess I just think you can cater to a lot of types of customers and still be the quintessential street shop. People come back because they get a good tattoo and they don't have to deal with other shops that think they are better than their customers. They might be willing to deal with loud music and a grumpy shop owner who is actually excited to tattoo them, even if it's a tribal arm band instead of being blown off by the gallery shop serving espresso down the street. Porn was the subject of this thread and while I still wouldn't put it in my shop, I can understand on any given day how a hustler or some other hardcore magazine might show up in the lobby. But for me this thread has evolved into a discussion on how people should run their shop. I would consider Chicago Tattoo a shop that still operates on "old school" principles for the most part but still caters to the masses and doesn't take any bull shit.

This makes me want to put a bunch of porn out in the lobby. I can understand your point, but the whole world is filled is with people who want to tell you what's best for your tattoo shop or sell you their service or magic tattoo goo and it gets kind of old. There is a reason why their is no customer suggestion box. Furthermore I would say that some things are actually done by design. If you have a bunch of porn out in the lobby, it's probably a good way to weed out the uptight, pain in the ass customers or demographic as some people put put it. Still not my thing, but what the hell it's a tattoo shop, not Macy's, it's supposed to be a little rebellious I suppose. I mean we don't have porn in the lobby, but we have loud music playing and some of the guys tend to cuss like sailors and explore topics of conversation that involve pornography to some degree and Soccer Mom's are still lining up to get tattooed, if anything they just know not to bring their kid along next time.

I think this should be the appropriate tune.

Depends on if you like it or not.

Honestly I grew up catholic, where going to church was more of a gesture than anything. The pope would chime in with his stance from time to time, but that usually didn't change people's stance one way or another. I consider myself an atheist, and other would classify me as a militant atheist, but I do know that there truly are some people who believe in both civil rights for all people and god, it's not necessarily an either or choice. Those who make it that are just using it as an excuse to justify prejudice. I can't really wrap my head around it either sometimes, but I think part of evolving as a society is evaluating people on a personal level, not a broad generalization.

Relgion and Politics, I have grown to hate both of them, in fact the only thing I hate more is discussing them at this point. All I really know is that all dogs go to heaven. Regardless of one's religious belief or opinion on another person's sexual orientation, teaching you child to speak in that manner lacks class and is a direct reflection of that particular organization and their moral values.

I will admit my wife was a little crazy while she was pregnant and she hated the whole experience. In the end I got the tattoo I wanted, and who knows what she was really mad about at the time. I don't think I have ever heard her bring up the issue of money in regards to tattoos, we have always had separate accounts for spending money so what we do with money we earn is none of each others concerns for the most part. If she did ever bring it up, I don't think it would last long after I added up all the money she spends on MAC makeup and shoes my tattoos would pail in comparision.

For sure, I have a couple new canned IPA's I would like you to try as well. I am not sure if I still have your address, so if you could PM me i could get this exchange started sooner than later.

funny, I have a skull on the inside of my shoulder, a sexy senorita on one side of my chest and a reaper with tits on the other side of my chest and another skull on my sternum. Never really thought about her having to look at that stuff.

My wife got totally weird about me getting other ladies tattooed on me once she got pregnant. At first it bothered me, but I realize when we first got together she was the type of girl who would drag me to a strip club even when I didn't particularly want to go. At some point she must have decided she actually likes me and doesn't want to share me, I know it's a little weird and it bugs me at times, but on the other side of the coin, she is really patient of my long hours at the shop and impromptu tattoo appointments. In fact last night I went down to Atlas to chat with Dan Gilsdorf while he was in town to see if he could squeeze me the next time he comes back to portland for a couple of days. We figured it out, but he shared with me the fact that he was only this busy in Portland and if I came down to Oakland he could tattoo me this week. I wish I could be that spontaneous, but I need a little more time to plan. But anyway just mentioned how crazy the idea would be and not only wasn't she mad, she was looking up air fare. She knows I have been putting off my bay area trip to get tattooed to buy this house, so that is appreciated. I can't say she has never flicked me shit about a tattoo, but I think she has learned to pick her battles as well.

Since Oregon has made it law than anyone who wants to obtain a license that has not had one in another state or been a practicing tattooer in a state where there is no licensing has to attend a school and pass an exam to do so, there has been plenty of that hustle going around. Basically you pay 6-8k to a school run by hacks that will feed you the answer to your test as long as you can get 50 victims to come in and pay $20 to get tattooed by you. My friend Derek had already apprenticed for 2 years under my boss, but since the law changed in the middle of his apprenticeship, he had to go to one of the schools, so he went to the cheapest one and I was his victim a couple of times. Peter Pan and the lost boys was the best way I could describe it. But anyhow there is a reputable shop in town that has gotten certified to be a school, the tuition is $20k is to get in (my guess is the higher price is to deter people and not have to teach anyone) and they pick and choose the students and they don't advertise it or put school in their name. Basically he wanted to apprenctice one guy so he played the states game to do so.

He is the only guy here in Portland you have better shot getting tattooed by out of town at a convention. His supply company sponsored the convention I talked about in the other thread and he didn't show up the whole weekend, but honestly didn't really expect him too. I don't think he really has to tattoo, I am sure he does alright with his machines.

Doesn't seem like a small question to me. If people are leaving your "shop" with shitty tattoos and you won't even take a day off to try to figure out why, that seems like a big concern. Learning in a shitty shop, hardly seems like an excuse. I would say most people had to start at a bad shop or learn from someone that wasn't that good. Those that got better did so by seeking out people who could make them better and looking for opportunities to be in better shops around better tattooers. Sometimes that not only meant taking the weekend off to go visit another shop and not make money but relocating thousands of miles and a couple days notice. Being a scratcher in my opinion has more to do with the quality of tattoos someone is putting on. A lot of people are putting on bad tattoos out of their house so yes they are scratchers, but if they put the same tattoo on in a shop is it any better or is that tattooer any nobler in their profession? Some might give them a little credit for actually setting up a shop and incurring the expenses like a professional ,but the tattoo is the tattoo.

$40 bucks doesn't sound that bad when you consider all that is going on. I mean last year didn't the Buzzcocks and The Sonics play along with like 20 other bands, this year the lineup is not that stacked but still Suicidal Tendencies, Face to Face and a pretty decent lineup of psychobilly bands. I haven't been, but sounds like a good time to me.

Seeing how Taki puts on a convention and then having to deal with some circus sideshow, with the star attraction getting your picture taken by wee man is a tough pill to swallow (Oregon Ink Convention). On the other side of that coin, got a chance to hang out and karaoke/drink way too much with a lot of great tattooers that either are too busy to hang out or are located outside of Portland (convention was 2 hrs south of Portland in Eugene). Also met a really cool collector who made a special point to stop by our booth, because she had some designs tattooed off the shops flash set we sold at State of Grace a few years back. Usually no big deal, but she had just gotten back from SF where she got a huge tiger head on her Stomach by Tim Lehi and was flying out the next week to Phoenix to get some work by Aaron Coleman. It was stuff like that that made you forget you were at a shit show and why I am still checking out conventions to attend.

I have always been taught if you want to learn something from a tattooer, ask them while they are tattooing you. It may not work but it's your best shot. The answer you are looking for is not going to be covered in a couple of sentences in a forum post and really can't be surmised from the two sentences you have shared about your problem. You deal with customers you know how much easier it is to deal with people in person vs. on the phone or email.

I don't think you are trying to be cool or name drop that was a completely different situation. my point is it becomes weird talking about people that work in the same city as you, as many of the people who responded have.

This kind of reminds of me of a guy who walked into the shop awhile back. Basically he just wanted to talk about Lewis Hess from Atlas Tattoo and how good he was and how he was the only one who could pull off the tattoos he would want. That statement I thought was a little much, but I like Lewis' work so I went with it and let him rant a little bit. He showed me his tattoo, yes he only had one, and it wasn't from Lewis. Then out of nowhere he told me how he never cared for the traditional style that came out of a certain shop that my owner just happened to work at for about 10 years before opening this one. I kind of went off on the guy and told him everything I was thinking and I felt bad, because I think he just wanted to feel cool in the tattoo shop and drop some names. Now I know this thread isn't exactly like my situation, but looking for someone to tell you whether Regino is the best or not is not going to happen, it's just not that cut and dry and if there were any issues people had with his style, it would kind of be in bad taste to do in this thread. Go to Invisible and see what he is all about, and look at his stuff if you still aren't sure, but if your gut tells you he is the guy for you then he probably is.

SEKRETCITY INTERNATIONAL Some of the art he has been doing whilst not tattooing. His dad was a pretty well know actor as well. Luke Askew - IMDb