hogg

Freddy Corbin dropped some absolutely amazing roses in. Boom

The only big spots left on my front/torso are both ribs, a little bit under the belly button, and fill. Stoked!

My name is David Hernandez, but since I’m in the U.S. Navy, people have started calling me Navy Davy. I’m currently stationed in San Diego, CA. I have been actively seeking a proper tattoo apprenticeship, with no luck. It’s okay though, through introducing myself to the local tattoo community and getting tattooed, I’ve been meeting great artists and have gotten nothing but great and encouraging comments on my portfolio. The only issue I’m having is that I can’t devote 100% of the time, due to my Navy schedule being in the way, which I can understand. Also, the problem is that with so many hacks and posers asking for apprenticeships, no one is being taken serious anymore. So when I ask for an apprenticeship after the posers asked, the artists are in the negative mindset and they don’t even take the time to look at my portfolio. It sucks man!
Luckily, the few tattoo artists who take the time to look at my portfolio are genuinely impressed, but because of my Navy job being so unsure if I’m moving or staying in the area, they are hesitant to commit. I get it: “Give you my knowledge, and then you bounce,” makes sense why I’m not being considered for an apprenticeship. However, those same artists are cool enough to let me hang out at their shops and share some knowledge with me. I’ve been pretty frequent at some shops paint nights and I’m making great friends in the industry, so I can’t complain. I’m even selling and trading some of my flash!
I love tattoos. I love the history. I love the closeness of the tattoo community. I love where it’s going and I’d like to think that down the line, I could be part of a lineage that goes back to the early days of tattooing.
I want to take this time and forum to thank some people that have accepted me as an artist and not just another hack.
I’d like to thank:
- Fip Buchanan of Avalon II, for being the first person to deny me, but actually looking at my portfolio, then recommending I go see Mike Martin, which I did.
- Mike Martin of Flesh Skin Graphix and all their crew (Susan, La Green Eyes, Crow and Drew Linden) for all the painting knowledge he’s shared with me and for the great conversations we’ve had. His apprentice Drew Linden, who introduced me to Arches Watercolor paper and a certain website (wink wink).
- Luke Wessman at Lucky’s Tattoo, although he’s a busy ass person, he continues to squeeze me in for some chair time and tattoos me for unbelievable prices and his work alone continues to inspire me to pursue a career in tattoo.
- Dan O’Brien of Nite Owl Tattoo and his crew (Andre Servin and Nikki), First person to invite me to paint nights at his shop.
- Nemo of Midway Tattoo, who believes in me and is willing to vouch for me, only after seeing my flash for 15 minutes. It’s still hard to believe he actually said that, but he did!
- Last Sparrow Tattoo for allowing me to be a part of such an amazing forum specifically for the community and industry. Best site ever!
So many to thank!!! but I didn’t want to make this long, which I did. So I’ll end it now. Thanks for reading,….if you read this far that is….
-David "NavyDavy" Hernandez

is that something i need to look up on urban dictionary?

I lived in Austin from 1990 to 1997, so I've seen more than my share of Dave Lum tattoos. That video was a time machine for me! I was really happy to see Waldo in it at about the 8:00 mark. I met him when I was just getting my first tattoos, around 1992. He already had his hands done, which, 20 fucking years ago, was out-of-this-world insane. But every time I ran into him, which was often, we'd talk tattoos and he would just light up. Even though I was just a kid with 2 or 3 tattoos, he never condescended to me and was always cool as hell.
Here's are some then-and-now pics of him with Viktor the Viking:

I lived in Austin from 1990 to 1997, so I've seen more than my share of Dave Lum tattoos. That video was a time machine for me! I was really happy to see Waldo in it at about the 8:00 mark. I met him when I was just getting my first tattoos, around 1992. He already had his hands done, which, 20 fucking years ago, was out-of-this-world insane. But every time I ran into him, which was often, we'd talk tattoos and he would just light up. Even though I was just a kid with 2 or 3 tattoos, he never condescended to me and was always cool as hell.
Here's are some then-and-now pics of him with Viktor the Viking:

It was difficult to compress that video into 15mins; there's so much classic material in it so I tried to distill it into the "essence of Lum".
Between downloading it, converting it, editing it, rendering it, uploading it and waiting for youtub to process it.... the 15 mins video will represent about five hours of on task time.
This process isn't always fun but it's great to hear Dave talking about black panther dick.

here's the cover of the book.read it if you can.
his second book is about his experience as a sniper in cecenia war
the guy is also a tattooer and has an exibition in milan going on

Sometimes it's nice to get tattooed when you're not wearing pants.


The quality on this is TERRIBLE, but.... hell... thats the point of getting this stuff saved.

One down. LOTS to go!

Im importing some stuff now; Phil Sparrow talking about meeting Hardy. I'm not going to import full documentaries till I fully figure out the software, but I'll likely have something online tonight.

Petri, great topic with a lot to think about. That's a really good Cliff Raven quote, too! It's strange, too, because I've been thinking a little bit about blackwork tattooing lately as I've been reading up on plains Indians (this is a really fantastic book on the Blackfeet, by the way if anyone has any interest) and learning about some basic things, especially how artwork reflected their beliefs and what was important in their lives.. seeing some old photos of the men and women, and gathering little tidbits about the importance of tattoos across different groups. Which also ties in to the sun dance that the Blackfeet participated in, incorporating some serious piercing… Anyway.
I think this topic is pretty huge but I'll try keep it short. In my opinion, with tattoos, we're all struggling to apply ten million things to our bodies, most of which we’ll never fully understand. Aside from our struggle to reconcile our own mind and spirit with our physical world, we obviously latch on to art that we can identify with, be it music, tattoos, or the argument could even be made for clothing. And so much of it is ingrained in our culture and subconscious, it's tough to step outside those parameters, tattoo or otherwise. I do love blackwork tattoos and I do appreciate what those (growing) few have done and are doing by exploring different styles of the artwork. I do think it suits a lot of people but I think there's a certain... not problem, but maybe an uncertainty, when it comes to co-opting various styles and designs from other cultures. It's powerful and striking and instantly more "meaningful" or "exotic" than traditional western tattoos, but sometimes what happens is just a bunch of borrowing from other cultures. Now -- there's not necessarily anything wrong with it and, in fact, there's something very American -- and very human -- about that. We consume and incorporate and for the most part it's to understand and gain knowledge. And in that way, we create a new tattoo language, which is really exciting and maybe even necessary.
All of this is to say, I’ve had a real, growing interest in blackwork/native tattooing as I’ve gotten older. And I think it’s because I’ve made myself think about things a bit more, try to understand the whys of tattooing and expression; whys that probably won’t ever be fully answered. I think folks that exploded the possibilities for our modern times, like Leo Zulueta, and those that are building on that foundation, like Thomas Hooper, have the right idea. When I mentioned “co-opting” and “borrowing” I didn’t mean it in the negative, I think that’s just our nature because we’re all trying to understand something we can’t put our finger on. Who knows – maybe as I get older I’ll get really into black-only tattoos. I identify a lot with both Celtic and American Indian designs but maybe that’s my own subconscious connecting slivers of my ancestry to my geography to my own search for meaning. I’m glad for the renewed interest in tribal tattoos, I just keep my fingers crossed people will treat it with respect.

Huge sections of script on the ribs--in the shape of an owl!

Well, at least I'm not the first to say it. Good GOD, his tattoos were fugly, but I loved that magazine. Yes, I found his famewhoring annoying (he was almost like an early version of Kat in that way), but at the same time, those mags had several pieces in every single issue that made me stop and stare. The same cannot be said for many mags today, so yeah...begrudging props.

My grandmother was one of those stars, asshole! That's why it's super important that you put them on my ribs under the opening paragraph of my favorite Twilight novel.

Thanks for playing, everyone, but we have a winner.

My grandmother was one of those stars, asshole! That's why it's super important that you put them on my ribs under the opening paragraph of my favorite Twilight novel.

Huge sections of script on the ribs--in the shape of an owl!

My boss (Jack Witt) used to zap at a couple of different spots on the Pike (Lee Roy's, Long BeachTattoo) and has a killer scrapbook of vintage photos and business cards. I scanned all of them the other day. Being an ex-HA(apparently not an easy club to quit) and working on the Pike in the mid 70s, he has a boatload of great stories.
I can't give ALL of the gems away, but here's some decent ones I can post.

My grandmother was one of those stars, asshole! That's why it's super important that you put them on my ribs under the opening paragraph of my favorite Twilight novel.

Huge sections of script on the ribs--in the shape of an owl!

Huge sections of script on the ribs--in the shape of an owl!

Huge sections of script on the ribs--in the shape of an owl!

Anything archetypal that's stood the test of time. Imagery that properly conveys the tattoo aesthetic survives on its own.
When Malone tattooed me, he talked about "flags." When he did the Sacred Heart thing on my chest (brutal, I dry cried throughout) he made a cross in the air and said "A cross, now that's a good flag. Two lines." In my limited interactions with that guy I really paid attention to what he said. He knew what he was doing. His flash is pretty much perfect to me. Not that Jerry's isn't. And Joe Lieber's. I need to look at more of Jensen's crap.

Haha...I have a mini Battle Royale done by Rassier. It's a panther-headed eagle versus a Hot Stuff-headed snake: