Dr Benway

I'm not sure what people's favourite film of the year was (I imagine for many it is Drive) but for me it has to be the Australian 'based on a true story' feature Snowtown: Snowtown (2011) - IMDb It's gruesome and disturbing, in a way that Australian film is very good at (Ghosts of the Civil Dead, Romper Stomper, The Proposition, Animal Kingdom, The Road etc), but is shot beautifully and has a slow pace that really pulls you in. It will have you researching the real story of the Snowtown murders which is incredibly fucked-up.

Yeah, having had work done on me at last I can see why fine-line work is not such a great idea. I'm not an illustrator but would I be right in saying that Doré uses a lot of cross-hatching, and very, very fine work? I'm looking at my copy of Divine Comedy now (with Doré illustrations) and it does look like quite daunting. Holbein, on the other hand, uses thicker lines and I would say it lends itself better to a tattoo. Manilla too - his work is fucking great. Either way, Duncan would be yer man.

Thanks guys - a combination of intense research (this is where my diagnosed OCD becomes a positive) and really useful advice led me to being in a very priveleged position of having Valerie do my first tattoo. My aim was always to get my right-arm sleeve done my Thomas Hooper but that may change due to how much I know I will love this left-arm sleeve. I pretty much gave Valerie some ideas, plus notes on the many tattoos she has done that I love, and that was that. I would go in tomorrow to get this finished if I could, but the next session is not until February.

Well I'm hardly an authority on this subject having been tattooed for the first time this week, but my attitude to this (and healing generally) is to just allow my body to do what it does so well whenever I am cut, burnt or suffer any other trauma. Keep the area clean and dry, let air get onto it, drink plenty of water and eat well. The only issue I have is that central heating will probably dry mine out worse than regular summer weather. I have stopped with the Bep as of yesterday and now I will apply E45 only if it is obvious that the tattoo is too dry. I am firmly of the belief, having researched this for the best part of 3-years, that fucking about with a wound by applying various creams, tinctures and lotions is just getting in the way of nature, and could possibly exacerbate the problems of healing.

If I was going to get a faithful Doré or Holbein I would go for Duncan in a flash. His woodcut/print influenced work is fucking great, not to mention his skeletons (no doubt you've seen his baby skeletons?). Which Doré are you going for? Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, Don Quixote...or Poe? His work is a great deal more intricate I guess, and the detail may be too fine for a faithful tattoo?

Thanks Slayer - and it gives me a great shoe-in to ask if you actually have a Holbein tattoo? I've been meaning to put that to you for months...

I'm not sure if it's the done thing to post in this thread without an attached image, but fuck it I'm going too anyway because I can't find a more suitable thread. I got my first ever tattoo yesterday! It is the first part of a full, left-arm sleeve by Valerie Vargas and of course it is amazing. In general I did not find the pain too bad, although the forearm is probably low down on the list of painful places to get tattooed. But I also put it down to a childhood of almost constant summer sunburn, and the artist' deft hand. Also, I was distracted by the workings of the shop, and Dante's entertaining patter. The flush of endorphins in response to the pain was bizarre, and left me feeling pretty stoned. That started wearing off just at the point where Valerie decided to stop - mercifully. A three-hour train journey back to Wales involved me avoiding getting smashed into, and then it was home to wash the tattoo. What I wasn't prepared for was the fucking plasma dripping off my arm. I have seen my wife's tattoos fresh after being done but that was nothing compared to the snot my arm was exuding. It was Bill Murray in Ghostbusters levels of slime. I have to admit to being fascinated by how the body reacts to the trauma of tattooing. A day later and it is like a mild sunburn and looks fucking great. If Valerie is cool with it, I will put some images up after the next session.

This thread makes for very interesting reading, and it is refreshing that the consensus of opinon seems to be that people should do whatever they like in terms of using religious imagery in tattoos. I was brought up as a catholic, an altar boy, catholic school, sunday school...the full bible bashing, god bothering enchilada. As a child I assumed I would become a catholic priest. I was brought up under that 'regime' pretty much against my will - plus images of Christianity are so ubiquitous and ingrained in our culture (and not always in a good way) that I would be pissed off if someone assumed that you can only have Christian influenced tattoos if you are 'of faith'. The Stations of the Cross were the first paintings I ever really looked at and studied. That imagery is in my marrow. The problems of organised religion and the influence of monotheism should not extend to what people choose to do to their bodies. Plus, some of those Old Testament stories are excellent mythological material for tattoos.

It does seem that there is a sliding scale running from 'do whatever the hell you want' through to 'I want my snake to have 600 scales and make sure that the monocle is the right prescription', with everything inbetween. I'm a writer and whilst I do see things visually, I do not have an innate ability to create images. I know what I want in terms of concept and some content, but I'm more interested in picking the right artist and letting them run with it.

I was sat in The Family Business for a few hours in the summer and I saw Andrea Furci do a lovely piece. Fantastic studio, and friendly staff.

Are you going to get a complete cover-up on those back tattoos? It looks like that is the way you are going. Lovely piece - when are you coming back for the next session?

Jesus fucking christ. Who on earth would give up their prime tattoo real estate space for a stupid ironic tattoo?

Nice. I love the back fin.

Absolutely. My point was that after finding out how long the list was for a handful of tattooists, I opted for Valerie anyway. If I simply wanted some tattoos quickly for the sake of having tattoos I could have got a walk-in by any number of tattooists where I live.

I've been chomping at the bit to get a tattoo for the last 3 years. But that doesn't mean I'm going to go and get work by someone who has a short waiting list. When I signed up to this forum I thought I might get stick for not having any tattoos, and then I remembered that I could have a dozen tattoos by now, if I was prepared to go to bad artists. Instead, I am a month away from getting some work done by Valerie. I will never understand the desire for bad work because it is cheap. I'm not sure I can really blame the artist too much - nobody is holding a gun to the heads of the people who keep these tattooists in business. It's all about supply and demand, I guess.

@jade1955 - Thanks for the article link, very interesting indeed and reminded me about some things I had forgotten. My Dad was a shop steward in the British Airways union who supported the miners strike and the local anti-poll tax federation in West London. There's a couple of good books about the galvanising of support for the anti-poll tax movements - a truly unique moment in people not prepared to take Tory shit anymore. I wasn't involved with Class War for long - mainly because they were mainly arseholes, although there were some people involved in it who were genuinely interested in local activities, rather than just grandstanding and getting pissed in Brighton pubs all day. Their presence at the Poll Tax protests was one of the first times I had come into contact with them, and as a 16-year-old it was hard not to be caught up in the sense of humour and kicking against the pricks attitude. When the protest kicked off it was pretty scary, at least for me, and people were getting royally battered. But it was also invigorating to see people helping each other and being genuinely angry about a completely unfair Government policy. I agree with your last paragraph, but the anti-poll tax movement at least had a very clear law and set of people to oppose, which helped. The current movements are opposing the very system that creates something like the poll tax in the first place. yeah, it's probably too broad, but single issue politics only deals with symptoms, not the real problem. The net is being cast wide because it has to be, and involves so many people with differing political viewpoints that drawing together a communal manifesto is practically impossible. For me it is a huge step that the notion of capitalism as a flawed social system has become mainstream. When I was at school in the 80s, pointing out that the current financial markets do not work, and that the banks should be nationalised, and that pursuing a system of laissez-faire free-market capitalism is ultimately a form of destructive social Darwinism, was tantamount to treason.

Sounds like we have very similar backgrounds. My experiences were mixed - I preferred active, positive campaigns such as working in local areas, or prisoner support. Some of the activism was great and a useful experience, and some of it was just plain depressing, and in some cases involved a lot of trips to the hospital (or police station)! It would probably do us a lot of good to not talk about that side of things too much, but suffice to say that militant antifa in the UK has some of the most selfless and committed, lovely people I have ever met. But also loads of utter twats too. Sabbing is one of the least pleasurable things I have ever done with my time, but also one of the most rewarding.

Agreed Gregor - in fact it's almost impossible to be able to give a lot of time to protesting, which I guess is part of the problem. When I was protesting a lot I was also working part-time, or I would take leave from work when I was full-time. But it was a stretch, and took a lot of dedication and energy to make it work. Not all of them are on benefits, and some of them are people who have been made redundant because of the actions of the bankers. I guess for those people there is nothing left to do other than protest the current autocratic/plutocratc system. What kind of antifa by the way - ANL, AFA? The Poll Tax Protest/Riot in London was my first ever demo at the age of 16 - I have never been on anything like it since.

A lot of them are full-time protesters. I went that route in my 20s and it was by far the most stressful and difficult work I have ever done. It is far easier to get a job and play the game. Some of the others ARE taking time off work, whilst others are either unemployed or retired. Either way, that a lot of these people are sacrificing a comfortable life of earning money and getting expensive tattoos is incredibly humbling. Unless I am actively helping to end the current situation, then I don't feel I can find a good reason to snipe at them, or find ridiculous reasons to get pissed off with the whole movement just because of one person's set of demands.

I saw that on Twitter. Well snagged :-)

That is fucking hilarious!!!

I don't know why I thought they were all done by the same person, other than they all seemed to be black and red. I only saw them in passing, but they struck as particularly good.

I don't want to start a new thread for this, but I was wondering if I could get some information regarding a style of Japanese tattooing. I believe that some Japanese tattooing uses pages of text from plays in the work. I am trying to find out what the style is called, or any examples of this.

Yes, a tattooist recently showed me that their freckles show through their black tattoo, though it is very subtle. I wouldn't want to cover them, I'm just a little unsure if it affects certain ink colours. I have noticed that when I am sunburnt, my arm freckles go a weird green colour!

I can attest to that. My issue though, is all the freckles I have. Particularly on my arms. I have even considered starting a thread on the effect of freckles on tattoos.