Shadow

Aaron Bell: Horimatsu: Jeff Jibran:

Yay! Thanks everyone. I was amazed by all the great tattoos this month. I can't wait to see what people get in May.

I've never seen skin the the color of black paper or white paper on anyone.

It did seem a bit fishy from the start. I really don't get why someone would go to all the trouble though.

I have a love/hate relationship with the wait to be tattooed. Part of me wants the instant gratification of getting it done as soon as I get the idea in my head. I'm not always the most patient. On the other hand, waiting a couple of months just builds the anticipation and is part of the whole experience. Plus, waiting a bit slows me down. I'm not looking forward to running out of room!

@ShawnPorter Thanks for the article. It's a good read. I've never wanted a text tattoo, but I couldn't specifically elaborate on why. Johnny Thief sums it up nicely.

I agree! I've enjoyed each episode more and more. The Tiajuana one should be really interesting. I can't wait. I live within walking distance from George Campise's shop. I should go check it out sometime soon.

Dark Horse Tattoo, Unbreakable Tattoo, and Gold Rush Tattoo all put out some good work in the greater LA area. I'd definitely like to be tattooed by Bryan Burk at Dark Horse.

shadowalh

Steve Boltz

I also visited Smith Street during our trip to New York and got this from Steve Boltz.

Sarah Schor

That's awesome! She tattooed me at that convention last year and it was a fantastic experience. She was really nice and it's a great tattoo. I'd love to get another one by her this year, but after the two tattoos in New York I promised myself that I would slow down and only work on finishing my back for the rest of this year. We'll see if I can stick to that...

I'm actually amazed that you were ready to be tattooed more after the number of hours you put into your back this week. The longest session I've had on my back was 4.5 hours and that completely wiped me out. I can't imagine doing longer than that 3 days in a row!

Just spent a week in New York and got a couple of tattoos. Here is the one I got from Sarah Schor at Kings Avenue Tattoo.

I was at Smith Street Tuesday and Wednesday (with appointments), but I saw people get walk ins both days. You just have to be willing to hang out for a while. On Tuesday there was a guy who got there before 12:30 and it was around 2:00 before he got tattooed. I'm glad we had appointments, but I can see how it would be a cool experience to walk in and see who has time.

Chris O'Donnell updated his blog yesterday with photos of the collaboration back piece he is doing with Thomas Hooper. Damn, I can't wait to see that finished. It would be pretty awesome to get a collaboration piece like that by two great artists from one shop.

When I was really little my dad had a friend with a couple of old military tattoos. I can't remember what they were, but I remember thinking how much cooler he was than my dad and wishing my dad had been in the service so that he would have tattoos too.

I agree. The longest I've driven for a tattoo is about an hour and a half each way, but I'd drive much further to get a tattoo from a tattooer I admire. The inconvenience of a long drive is nothing compared with a lifetime with a better tattoo.

I know what you mean about just wanting to walk in and get something done. This will be our first trip to NY, so we made appointments to make sure we didn't miss out. I'm getting an eagle by Steve. My partner is getting a couple of smallish filler pieces on her arms by Bert...maybe a rose and a small eagle. Our appointments are on different days and I think we're both tempted to get more done if any of the tattooers there have time while we are waiting for each other to get tattooed.

I'll be in New York the first week in April too. My partner and I both booked appointments at Smith Street. I just booked last weekend and they had lots of options for appointments available.

While I agree that this is usually the case, there are exceptions. My partner has a large scar on her lower leg that she would eventually like to try tattooing over. Freddy Corbin did a couple of tattoos on her back and went over another, much smaller, scar. She talked to him about tattooing the larger scar on her leg and he wasn't comfortable doing it, but referred her to someone (at a different shop) who would. She found Freddy in the first place by being referred to him by a tattooer in San Diego after she told him she was moving to Oakland.

@RoryQ I'm very jealous of both you and your wife right now!

Congratulations! That's so exciting.