Joe Stratford

This is a bit of a joint effort. The Dagger, Collar, Angel and Reaper (2-6 weeks old) are by Fergus Simms - Melbourne Tattoo Company, and the Eagle Snake fight (2.5 months old) is by Jess Swaffer - Chapel Tattoo.
Wanted to wait until the whole spot was done before i posted them up! Super happy with them, and two of the nicest tattoo experiences (bar the pain!) I've ever had.

This is a bit of a joint effort. The Dagger, Collar, Angel and Reaper (2-6 weeks old) are by Fergus Simms - Melbourne Tattoo Company, and the Eagle Snake fight (2.5 months old) is by Jess Swaffer - Chapel Tattoo.
Wanted to wait until the whole spot was done before i posted them up! Super happy with them, and two of the nicest tattoo experiences (bar the pain!) I've ever had.

This is a bit of a joint effort. The Dagger, Collar, Angel and Reaper (2-6 weeks old) are by Fergus Simms - Melbourne Tattoo Company, and the Eagle Snake fight (2.5 months old) is by Jess Swaffer - Chapel Tattoo.
Wanted to wait until the whole spot was done before i posted them up! Super happy with them, and two of the nicest tattoo experiences (bar the pain!) I've ever had.

This is a bit of a joint effort. The Dagger, Collar, Angel and Reaper (2-6 weeks old) are by Fergus Simms - Melbourne Tattoo Company, and the Eagle Snake fight (2.5 months old) is by Jess Swaffer - Chapel Tattoo.
Wanted to wait until the whole spot was done before i posted them up! Super happy with them, and two of the nicest tattoo experiences (bar the pain!) I've ever had.

This is a bit of a joint effort. The Dagger, Collar, Angel and Reaper (2-6 weeks old) are by Fergus Simms - Melbourne Tattoo Company, and the Eagle Snake fight (2.5 months old) is by Jess Swaffer - Chapel Tattoo.
Wanted to wait until the whole spot was done before i posted them up! Super happy with them, and two of the nicest tattoo experiences (bar the pain!) I've ever had.

This is a bit of a joint effort. The Dagger, Collar, Angel and Reaper (2-6 weeks old) are by Fergus Simms - Melbourne Tattoo Company, and the Eagle Snake fight (2.5 months old) is by Jess Swaffer - Chapel Tattoo.
Wanted to wait until the whole spot was done before i posted them up! Super happy with them, and two of the nicest tattoo experiences (bar the pain!) I've ever had.

This is a bit of a joint effort. The Dagger, Collar, Angel and Reaper (2-6 weeks old) are by Fergus Simms - Melbourne Tattoo Company, and the Eagle Snake fight (2.5 months old) is by Jess Swaffer - Chapel Tattoo.
Wanted to wait until the whole spot was done before i posted them up! Super happy with them, and two of the nicest tattoo experiences (bar the pain!) I've ever had.

This is a bit of a joint effort. The Dagger, Collar, Angel and Reaper (2-6 weeks old) are by Fergus Simms - Melbourne Tattoo Company, and the Eagle Snake fight (2.5 months old) is by Jess Swaffer - Chapel Tattoo.
Wanted to wait until the whole spot was done before i posted them up! Super happy with them, and two of the nicest tattoo experiences (bar the pain!) I've ever had.

This is a bit of a joint effort. The Dagger, Collar, Angel and Reaper (2-6 weeks old) are by Fergus Simms - Melbourne Tattoo Company, and the Eagle Snake fight (2.5 months old) is by Jess Swaffer - Chapel Tattoo.
Wanted to wait until the whole spot was done before i posted them up! Super happy with them, and two of the nicest tattoo experiences (bar the pain!) I've ever had.

Well I am hugely biased and would say mix it up! Im currently up to 13 different artists on my arms (still got space, yay!) At this stage it becomes a hugely enjoyable experience walking into a tattoo studio and artists having the opportunity to see other artists work, not even my best friends would be able to tell the difference in artists if I told them! It all adds to the experience, like others have said, it's not a race, plus you never know where life will take you. If someone said 18 months ago that I'd be living in Melbourne i would have laughed at them. But now i have the opportunity to be tattooed by some amazing guys out here, already knocked Jess Swaffer and Josh Sutterby off the list, up next is Fergus Simms, John Entwistle and Cindy Ray!!! It would suck limiting myself IMO

The Golden Age of Hong Kong Tattooing | VICE | United Kingdom
At work so I can't watch this at the moment.. but thought i'd put it here for those who can!

It seems to me the cross is an old tattoo, possibly have it re-worked (blasted over is the new term du jour, I believe!) if your happy to do so, make it look more in keeping with the rest of your trad stuff and maybe have something incorporated into or around that, possibly something like the attachment. I have a negative space around my Traditional tattoos and personally I feel it looks the best, it gives each individual piece definition, if you start filling with things like stars/smoke etc it can swamp up the whole arm IMO.

I watched this yesterday. Loved it, echoing the previous comments, it is a really well made video with obvious love and care put into it. I've pointed people in the direction of the Tattoo Age/Gypsy Gentlman videos in the past who perhaps know nothing/very little about tattooing to open their eyes up a bit (which has succeeded BTW) this will certainly be added to the list. Thanks!

I watched this yesterday. Loved it, echoing the previous comments, it is a really well made video with obvious love and care put into it. I've pointed people in the direction of the Tattoo Age/Gypsy Gentlman videos in the past who perhaps know nothing/very little about tattooing to open their eyes up a bit (which has succeeded BTW) this will certainly be added to the list. Thanks!

I watched this yesterday. Loved it, echoing the previous comments, it is a really well made video with obvious love and care put into it. I've pointed people in the direction of the Tattoo Age/Gypsy Gentlman videos in the past who perhaps know nothing/very little about tattooing to open their eyes up a bit (which has succeeded BTW) this will certainly be added to the list. Thanks!

The Golden Age of Hong Kong Tattooing | VICE | United Kingdom
At work so I can't watch this at the moment.. but thought i'd put it here for those who can!

The Golden Age of Hong Kong Tattooing | VICE | United Kingdom
At work so I can't watch this at the moment.. but thought i'd put it here for those who can!

The Golden Age of Hong Kong Tattooing | VICE | United Kingdom
At work so I can't watch this at the moment.. but thought i'd put it here for those who can!

The Golden Age of Hong Kong Tattooing | VICE | United Kingdom
At work so I can't watch this at the moment.. but thought i'd put it here for those who can!

The Golden Age of Hong Kong Tattooing | VICE | United Kingdom
At work so I can't watch this at the moment.. but thought i'd put it here for those who can!

The Golden Age of Hong Kong Tattooing | VICE | United Kingdom
At work so I can't watch this at the moment.. but thought i'd put it here for those who can!

The Golden Age of Hong Kong Tattooing | VICE | United Kingdom
At work so I can't watch this at the moment.. but thought i'd put it here for those who can!

That Cripwell suit is beautiful and so perfectly executed, but I find it a little too perfect for my tastes. Looking at those tattoos, I don't know if I get much of a sense of the person who has them. I guess aesthetically I prefer a more organic mish mash of tattoos where you get tattoos of different ages complimenting and clashing with each other and you get a whole that transcends any individual tattoo.

I've really enjoyed reading this thread so far.
I think a few things are happening here:
- If we're talking about people who take a collector's approach to getting tattooed (and I don't necessarily mean that in a negative way), maybe interest in big names could be seen as roughly similar to getting books or music that are fairly "correct" but express little about a person. I know I own a lot of music like this, but I don't regret having it because it's helped me seperate what I like from what I'm supposed to like (and may still appreciate somewhat, but that doesn't viscerally excite me like a favorite album or novel). I think this is a phase that many folks need to go through when they discover a new interest but haven't really begun to inhabit it yet.
-Most of us who aren't tattooers always need to spend money on this hobby (or whatever word you want to use). We're not trading art. Maybe there's an anxiety that this isn't any different from purchasing other things, even though it's a lot more intimate. Are my tattoos ultimately just an expensive suit? Am I just buying my way into something?
I think there's also a point at which "good taste" becomes suffocating.
I hope this makes sense and that it isn't just rambling. A lot of this is overthinking and I try not to worry about it and to just get what excites me. I can't control how it comes across to others, and you can tie yourself in knots thinking about your own motivations.

I want to get tattooed by people who do tattoos that I can feel in my gut, which is to say that when I see an artist's tattoos, or look through their portfolio or on their instagram or whatever (though more and more for me I want to see the tattoos, and not just pictures of them) I want to have a deeper reaction than just thinking that it's a good looking tattoo, and I want to have a good time getting those tattoos. I've been tattooed by some "big names" and I've travelled a fair bit to get tattooed, and to be honest, I feel a little self-conscious about it because--and maybe this is only in my head--I fear coming across as somebody who buys into that kind of almost celebrity culture that sometimes goes along with tattoo collecting that I think @Pugilist articulated very well. Because for me it's not about that and it was never about that. I just want to get rad tattoos.