Stewart Robson

If you have time, the 'thumb through the fly/zipper to look like a penis' trick is a good one. Or make the sex gesture with forefinger entering thumb/forefinger deal. That or just flip them the bird. Imagine how cool their family album will look with a tattooed dude dropping some sneaky sex gestures.

There are many people who will give you and awesome Japanese style tattoo but if you're after the 'real deal' in the US, try: Shinji (Horizakura) in NYC. Horiken and Horitomo in San Jose. I'm not 100% sure if the guys in San Jose tattoo by hand regularly, but I know Shinji outlines with machine and shades/colours by hand. There may be more, but those guys are awesome and immediately spring to mind.

Hiya, I think you asked me bout books the last time I tattooed you, but I was thinking about tattoos, not books. Maybe I mentioned Ed Hardy. Start with some of the books from Hardy Marks publishing. Like gougetheeyes said, Mike McCabe books and the Deitzel 'These Old Blue Arms' are cool. There's a cool book by Phill Sparrow/Sam Steward called 'Bad Boys & Tough Tattoos' that's more oral-history type stuff. 'Memoirs of a Tattooist' by George Burchett is great, but usually expensive if you can find it. 'Stoney Knows How' is great. The Sailor Jerry book 'American Tattoo Master' is cool. There's a cool little book called 'MOKO' that's basically Captain Cook's natural history illustrator's account of what the saw in New Zealand. There's some cool coffee-table style books on Tahitian tattoos, full of muscular naked dudes. I think even 'Modern Primitives' has a bit of interesting tattoo info among the other stuff. 'A History of Japanese Body Suit Tattooing' has some cool historical info. Taki's 'Bushido' and 'Tattoos of the floating world' are cool. 'Russian Prison Tattoos' by Alix Lambert. That's all I can remember for now. Mostly just check out the Hardy Marks and Schiffer publishing catalogues and work your way through them. Then use your research skills and the bibliographies to empty your wallet and fill your shelves. Remember to leave some money for tattoos.... That's pretty much all I can say without giving away the titles of my secret reference/source books. Enjoy.

Awesome. Thanks for the heads up. I didn't know this documentary existed.

Sigh, This discussion never really goes anywhere when it's over-analysed but I can't resist adding my 2p. With regards to tattooing, it's more of a moral issue -something you feel is right or wrong. From my point of view copyright exists and is useful purely from a financial point of view. To protect or safeguard earnings. Intellectual copyright does the same thing, it just doesn't need as much paperwork. I shudder at the thought of copy written tattoo designs. Actually, most of the better designs/ideas/compositions are folk art, like nursery rhymes or bedtime stories. The best ones are archetypes and you can't copyright them. If you understand the mechanics of logic and use it's arguments to your advantages, you can 'prove' that black is white. I see many theoretical discussions (such as this) in the same manner. It doesn't matter how much you talk about it and offer examples, the true result doesn't change, regardless how the argument turns out. Tattooing doesn't need copyright. We stole it all anyway. The more honest of us will pass it on to someone else.

You've seen the Mark of Cain documentary about Russian prisons right? I'm not sure if there's a UK/PAL version available. But there's region 1 versions on amazon. But the ones you posted are a cut above.

Thanks, but I wasn't talking about the language. I say 'cool' and other americanised phrases although I'm very English. I thought Marcus made a great narrator/guide and his mannerisms fit the style very well. I was more thinking about Dan's record/antique/coffee shop and hanging about drawing in a coffee shop. It's a very cool thing to do. I don't mean that in an insulting or negative way. If I wanted to be insulting i would have said 'hipster' but that's not what I wanted to mean. it's the kind of artsy hangout vibe that many people love and it fitted the style and approach Marcus has chosen to take, but it's the only small thing I didn't think was awesome because I'm kinda dorky and socially awkward. But that's tattooing in general for me, I'm just waiting for the tough guys to sniff me out, realise I'm an dork and give me a wedgie. You're right about Thomas' opinion on the power of tribal tattooing. I would extend the same thing to traditional Japanese tattooing too. Thomas knows his shit when it comes to the mechanics of powerful tattooing outside of the American style. I feel spoiled with all these cool documentaries and shows but even more spoiled because I've been fortunate enough to have had the same conversations with some of these guys face-to-face and often more in-depth. I feel like a kid being allowed to stay up past my bedtime and hang with the adults. I think that's really a more concise version of what I was trying to say to be honest. Marcus is a fucking cool ass tough guy.

Mine only said that for a day or so. Now the icon is a cropped version of the masthead, with the sparrow. I particularly like how it works with only highlighting threads I haven't looked at, it's cool that once I'm logged in I only see new posts and threads regardless of what device or machine I viewed them on.

For anyone who asks "can you tattoo that?" I always mention Lucky from New Zealand. Google 'Lucky Diamond Rich'. The answer is 'yes you can' but the catch is 'will it look the way you expect?'

I think arrogance and tattoos have been working pretty well together since the emergence of youth culture in the 1950's, probably earlier. I think it's fine to poke light hearted fun at laziness and trolls. As long as constructive suggestions and criticism are also offered. I don't think anyone here made fun of him because of the tribal. It was because of his laziness, the terrible design of the photoshopped reference and the troll-potential. The good advice was for the benefit of anyone else who may check out this thread and on the off-chance Craftybigdog isn't a troll. The difference (for me) between LST and other forums, apart from the fact it was started by people I respect, is that a hell of a lot of people here know what they are talking about and can offer rock-solid advice. The tribal thread had some amazing tattooers suggested, with links to galeries and info on getting in touch with some of those guys. For me, suffering fools and tattoos are like chalk and cheese. Of course it's photoshop. He's not standing in front of anything. He's been terribly masked or cut out. SOmeone tried to add some depth-of-field by blurring one of his arms and shoulder. The design has been laid over with a transparency effect. Someone did put some effort into designing the shapes and where they would be placed, but they didn't know shit about tribal tattoos and the way muscles move. Some of the things that make it obvious that the dude in front of the camera had blank skin are, among others: the curve nearest his neck would crease and wrinkle when his head was turned that way and the the same is true of the tiny point peaking out from his armpit.

This is pretty much the only foum i check regularly. I've been using Forum Runner for a few weeks now on iPhone and iPad. Like Alanna, at first it felt a little clunky, like maybe I was going to miss out on something, but once I got used to the way it looks and feels, it's actually easier to see new posts than with a web browser. Direct messages work great too. The main thing lacking is a 'like' feature. I still prefer the browser version for over-long, tense, snooty and sarcastic rambling posts though.

oops, double post.

That gives you about half as much space for tattoos as the rest of us. I hear this quite a lot though. After a couple of sleeves, chest and legs, the blank space on the back starts to look like an empty space between tattoos instead of clean skin.

I dont think Milton Zeis owns anything these days. Those machines look awesome! Perfect for traveling, tattooing the aristocracy and calling yourself 'professor'. That silk-lined case is amazing. Even cooler than the prison-style clockwork razor contraptions.

It will cost somewhere between the price of a large sandwich and the price of a house. But seriously, listen to David. also, that's one of the 10 pictures we see multiple times every day from customers, along with celebrity tattoos and the wonky outline-only tiny swallows. Let me guess, you don't want it as high up toward your neck, or as low down your arm and a little bit less across the stomach? I wished all the guys who used to bring this to me would bring Tom of Finland drawings instead. Usually the same motivation but much better designed, drawn and a hell of a lot more fun to tattoo and wear. The best advice would be to check out guys who specialise in large black tattoos and get them to design something that actually fits your body and works with it instead of this squiggly, ugly crap. - There's a tribal/blackwork thread here on LST somewhere. I know you're not going to read it.

I liked this 'show'. While I prefer the stripped down no frills technique of Scott's interviews here and the simple monologue/face-to-face chat of Tattoo Age. I think it's great that Marcus has brought a different, more flamboyant element to tattoo media without it turning out like an egotistical vanity project. I like the way marcus is more like a narrator/guide than the 'star' of the show. It feels insightful and respectful and spiritual, regardless of the subjects and setting. If I have a criticism (however small) it would be that it is almost a little too cool sometimes, maybe because I'm a dork and Marcus is tough, handsome and charismatic! I'm looking forward to the rest and I'm stoked that someone with opinions, knowledge and balls is making tattoo media with high production values. I'm sorry to single this quote out as I don't disagree with you per say but I feel that shows like this are probably not and certainly shouldn't be a 'reaction' to bottom-of-the-barrel mainstream coverage of tattooing. Maybe the initial spark comes from frustration at tattooing being mis-represented but I always feel it's best to produce something as pure and high quality as you can - for it's own sake. If you define yourself by what you are not, when you succeed in conquering what you were fighting, nothing defines you at all. If we work to create beauty and strive for quality, the effort is it's own reward. The resulting creation exists to enrich others.

So if we don't care about being constructive and we're not holding back... I'm sorry, but I don't buy into the who Stuart Mears bashing crap. I think that was a way for Tattoo Revolution magazine to find it's niche as a supposed 'ethical publication' based on 'my enemy's enemy is my friend'. Yeah, he is a shitty publisher. He keeps asking me to work his conventions. I've had a conversation face to face with him about what I thought of his magazines, conventions and ethics. I smiled and shook his hand. I was polite, he was polite. He likes what he does - being a publisher. He's a nice guy, face-to-face but he doesn't have a clue about tattooing. I would say the same for Neil Dalleywater. Except he doesn't have the balls to deal with complaints personally. He put me through to his receptionist when I had a problem with him. At least Stuart had the salt to speak to me about my concerns and has been in touch since. But aside from that, Skin Deep was shit anyway. The editor was shit and it was full of spelling errors and freaky goth chicks, 'modern primitives' and shitty tattooers (for the most part). The editorial slant was mostly towards freakishness and "I hate it when people don't accept me for who I am" or tattoos-that-don't-look-like-tattoos bullshit. I have only had short dealings with Alex via email - at least he can spell. It did take at least a year and a HUGE popularity backlash for anyone to 'walk out' of Jazz Publishing. When I wrote the 'shit list' Skin Deep came to mind. Tattoo Revolution isn't much better, if at all. Tattoo Master was, and is, a joke. A UK attempt at being Tattoo Artist Magazine, but without tattooers writing or doing interviews. Which made it more of a misguided apprentice bible than anything useful. There is more to a magazine than it's publisher. What about the writers, editor, photographers and other contributors? At a cursory glance the only thing I could ever like in Skin Deep was Al Overdrive's articles. So that leaves Tattoo Life/Energy, Total Tattoo and Tattoo Artist Magazine who aren't snakes in the grass. Oh Yeah, Tattoo Burst from Japan is great. I guess that doesn't help the whole 'who to work for/with' thing. I'm sure you'll find your way. (Sorry to anyone outside of the UK who has no clue what the hell we're talking about.)

Parody, viral marketing, irony, the double bluff of ironic pastiche are all successful modern marketing techniques. - See the new UK Coors/Van Damme ad if you don't believe me. Radiophonicus is right. You're just strengthening the TLC/Tattoo School brand. I don't have a solution. I just know that videos like this really don't help, they are just amusing for a few minutes.

Bull's-Eyes & Black Eyes is a great book. Maybe Keith Underwood has some of his flash? I don't know if it's still being reproduced. I wouldn't call them the ultimate in traditional American designs but they are super awesome. Efficient to line and shade, straight off the sheet. He solved a shit load of design and layout problems and made them tattoo-able. (Much like Scott does too, in my opinion)

I meant the pads of my fingers. I once watched a friend do a tattoo from centre of a palm, up the inside of the thumb, to within a hair's width of the thumbnail bed. I have no desire to feel that. I think he almost saw God. or cursed him. It healed pretty good eventually though.

The London show isn't invite-only anymore I don't think. It used to be, but for the last couple of years I think shops/tattooers who worked it before get first dibs on a booth. Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong. If people we don't know and aren't getting tattooed come inside our booth, we ask them to step out. Space is pretty tight as it is. Conventions are full of Jackasses (and tourists these days). It doesn't mean we are cool with having your camera flash in our face, but it's not like we can do anything about it. At the shop is a totally different matter. And yes, we can hear what you are saying about us from outside the booth ;) Some tattooers work so that you can see what they are doing, others work so that there aren't idiots leaning over their shoulder. It's the same as anything really, manners go a hell of a long way. Try not to get ass hurt when someone says 'no thanks'. As a side note, I've noticed a new attitude in conventions over the last few years. People visit them as a kind of 'live' reality TV. Like we are there for their entertainment. They don't want to get tattooed or take part in any way. They are literally tourists snapping photos of everything. They often bring their young kids. They usually ask "Does it hurt?".

This and Failblog.org are some of the only things on the internet that make me cry with laughter.

I'd like to say that my comments here are regarding larger work i.e. pretty solid, usually japanese or tribal style tattooing. My lower legs heal MUCH slower than the rest of me. Sometimes twice as slow. a 2 week heal turns into a month! This gets slower and worse as sessions go on. Especially of you have to stand most of the day. Generally, like Valerie said, Drinking lots of water helps. Also, having a poor sleep pattern slows large healing for me too. To me it sounds pretty normal for weekly sessions to give you so much trouble. I think one of the most unpleasant parts is when you shift from laying down or sitting into a standing position. That whooooosh! feeling when it seems like all of the blood in your body rushes to your lower leg and the skin feels super tight is horrible. Good luck.

Nice one cfgsteak. (about the cable, not the football) I don't care about cable/satellite TV anyway, but I do like to pay my UK TV licence. That's where all the good shit comes from. David Attenborough/BBC wildlife and arts programmes are the best in the world. John Peel wouldn't have been able to have a job on the radio if the BBC didn't exist or wasn't publicly funded. I don't mind paying £145 per year for that.

MsRad, I don't think it's feasible for tattooers to sign a contract when we submit work to magazines. Yeah if we are working with corporate clients (and that's part of the main problem at the moment in my opinion - but that's another story) then some legal paperwork is a must. But the cost of legal paperwork just to send photos to a magazine is going to mean it never happens. Actually, what happens is more like the terms of service when you sign up to a website, email provider etc. By submitting unsolicited work, we agree to have that work used by that publication, however they see fit. That's the deal - it's based on trust, as are most things in tattooing. So tattooers who care about quality and respect and trust and all of that old fashioned stuff are selective about which magazines they send work to. We only send photos to magazines who we trust will work in our best interests while still trying to sell copies. Tattoo Life was one of those magazines. I feel that the last thing tattooing needs is more lawyers involved. That only works out good for the lawyers in the long run. The best thing to do is for conscientious tattooers to opt-out and not be involved in things we feel are not in out best interests. This ties in to the TLC thing too. I don't feel the need to say more because Nick Colella has said it all perfectly on his twitter account.