hogg

Edited for truth.

Yeah, BEAUMONT, Texas, at that. Not a very awesome place (says the guy who grew up in an even less awesome place 20 miles from there).

Guilty as charged.

The 88 stands for "Heil Hitler," since H is the 8th letter of the alphabet. The 14 is for the 14 words in the white power creed (or some shit like that--I really don't wanna look it up and have google suggest Skrewdriver records to me).

Really, really hard to get a pic of this little FILIP LEU that was way up on the wall: Jason Kundell of Artwork Rebels: Andre Malcom, Analog Tattoo: Joey Armstrong, Seventh Son: An awesome event all around.

I have a few pics, but I'm only posting them in order to stem the tsunami-like tide of Duffa's hate. Apologies for the quality of the pics. It was really, really crowded in there (great art + free beer = lots of people), so it was tough to get good angles, but here's a taste. Julian Zeff (a really nice guy and great artist who works at Unbreakable in LA--we chatted for a while and compared collections): Troy Denning (really hard to photograph a mirror, so I figured I'd at least smile for my camera): Erik Rieth of Seventh Son ("Cloud Dragon"): Luke Stewart of Seventh Son (this thing was about 6 feet tall!): I think this was by Jeff P, and while technically not a dragon, it is technically awesome: Bryan Randolph of Spider Murphy's: Paul Anthony Dobleman of Spider Murphy's (the border on this thing is incredible!): Stuart Cripwell of Spider Murphy's (how badass is this?): Theo Mindell of Spider Murphy's (really hard to get a good shot of this, but for those that have met Theo, you'll appreciate his addition of a 70s wizard): Kevin Pulido of Diamond Club (hard to believe he's only been tattooing a few years--this thing was huge and so beautiful): Junii Salmon of Diamond Club (leave it to her to make a dragon look like a sweet kitty): Yokohama Horiken of State of Grace: Some guy named Mike Roper: Yutaro Sakai of Skull & Sword: Shad (Hori Tsuki Kage): Trevor McStay ( @Duffa: AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE!): Ladies and germs, The Grime: The One Horitomo, State of Grace: Tattoo Mick of Zurich! Kahlil Rintye of Tattoo City: Oops--I went over the limit of 20 images per post. Be right back!

Misery loves company?

Agree strongly!

Welcome! You have great taste in tattooers.

Very late notice, but I'm planning to stop by this tonight: It looks incredible! Any other Bay Area LSTers planning to stop by?

My favorite part is when Chris Nunez said, "That tail is too small to propel the koi's head." I love that critiques included details like hydro-propulsion theory.

Awesome planchette!

Love it, man! And for the record, I took a pic of the same rai-jin fu-jin building in Kyoto. So amazing.

Welcome! Your work's very nice.

Trevino told me another story when he tattooed me in 1993. A guy came in and said, "Do a Mickey Mouse on me, any way you want." So of course, Chris's eyes light up, and he says, "Any way I want?" Then he grinned at me and said, "Mickey was holding his cock, which was green and as big as he was. There was a big drop of purple cum drippin' off the end, and Mickey's tongue was out and his eyes were rollin' back." I just looked at him and said, "Really?!" "Yeah. He came back a few years later and I covered it up."

Dammit, @jade1955! When I saw Frith Street post about that, I just knew you'd be there, getting one. I am officially jealous. Congratulations.

Took the words right out of my keyboard!

"A few." Stop giving me the itch, @Hrubarb! Tell 'em the story about how Mike Wilson did that panther. :)

I got tattooed by Chris Trevino in 1997, right before I left Austin for SF. He said he had just done a guest spot in SF, so I asked him what the coolest tattoo he did on the trip was. Now, for those of you who are familiar with Pre-100% Japanese Style Chris Trevino, you know that "coolest tattoo" also meant "craziest tattoo." He went on to describe an insane armpit-to-waistline rib piece that involved, among other other things, a jackelope wearing a fez, a waterfall of blood, and a lady with a beehive hairdo making the devil horns with her ring and middle fingers tucked away in her special pocket. I couldn't really get my head around it, but that was the case with many of the tattoos Chris described to me. Fast forward to 1999, when I finally had enough money to get tattooed by Eddy Deutsche. I went to 222 on my lunch break and booked the appointment with some guy at the counter. We got to talking about my tattoos and I mentioned that I had work from Chris. He said, "Oh yeah, he did my ribs" and lifted up his shirt. It was that piece! And the guy was Jeff Rassier, who is in a league of his own when it comes to putting weird (and awesome) tattoos on people.

Ah, Mr. Stell! A great Texan. I should've known. He definitely does work quickly. And he was kind enough to actually apologize when he dipped behind my knee with a line or two.

That's killer, @cookietruck. Who did it? You should post it in the Monthly Contest Thread if you got it in January.

I got tattooed by Eric Doyle in Austin, oh, a million years ago. I think in 1993 and again in 1996. Good guy. I'll have to try to stop by and say hi.

Welcome! Looking forward to seeing some of your work.

My donation came out of my moderator's paycheck. I won't ask for a raise this year, either.

What's the matter, @Jake? Was Scott all out of big stencils? (I'd break your balls more, but I know what kinda pain you're in right now.) That looks tough as hell, dude. You really couldn't have done better. And I bet that took him an hour, tops. Have fun with that waistband for the next few days. :)