jimmyirish

I should have realised that someone would have stumbled upon this at the time and posted it up, good to have a read though, thanks. I completely agree that you gotta just sort the wheat from the chaff, I have a subscription to The New York Times online and some of it bores/irritates the hell out of me. But for the most part it's an excellent paper with some real good investigative journalists, much like The Guardian over here. I just occasionally feel that with the online opinion blogs there is a massive dip in quality, and that it shouldn't lend it's name to some of that shit. Then again you guys are probly right that its sometimes deliberately inflammatory to get people reading. Either way it certainly got my blood up on the bus journey home!

2nd tattoo? Damn, such good taste!

I was reading the Guardian website the other day on my phone on the way home from work. I was in a pretty good mood at having got through the week and looking forward to getting lunch with my girlfriend the next day. And then I saw this article! I don't think I have ever read anything so hysterically crazy from a parent about her kid getting a tattoo. It's made worse by it appearing in a well respected newspaper that usually is pretty liberal and fair minded about personal freedom. Thought I'd post it up here and see what you guys made of it. The lady equates her sons small tattoo to him losing a limb. It's an insult to parents whose kids have suffered real loss and problems. The worst type of English class snobbery. My son's tattoo hurt me deeply | Life and style | The Guardian

Beautiful colours! @SeeSea

Congratulations @TrixieFaux, again, such a beautiful sleeve!

Whilst I understand where you are coming from, I can't help but feel that there are more similarities than you'd think. I am a bartender, I'm not a college kid working in a bar for some extra cash or someone who can't find any other form of employment. This is the profession that will feed my family someday, and I take my work seriously. When you go into a bar and order an Old Fashioned, your not just buying a drink, your buying a memory and an experience- you should be treated with attention, care and respect. Tipping is a recognition that you have received that respect, if your bartender doesn't do this then you shouldn't tip him. He needs to learn. I don't think it really matters if you run food or make beautiful tattoos for a living, you tip because you appreciate the service you've received. I always tip my tattooer and I'm super pleased to learn that some of that tip will make its way to the front desk, because a good tattoo shop, like a good bar is a rare and wonderful thing and i can imagine it takes a hell of a lot of work to get right.

Nice man, turned out great...told you it would!

Man that is absolutely perfect! Love the placement, the body of the panther creates a perfect flow to your upper arm. Makes me really wanna get a panther!

This is damn beautiful @TrixieFaux, all the individual tattoos look great and form such a stunning, coherent whole. I bet this looks even better alongside your other arm, congratulations on keeping it so classy!

Great tattoo! Congrats

I would check out Into You (one of the oldest and best respected shops in the city) The Family Business (Very good shop with a huge choice of artists to suit all tastes) then just outside of London there is New Skool Tattoo (worth going to just to see Ian flowers portfolio, some of the very best Japanese inspired work in the country) Summertime in London is amazing...have a great trip!

I think his work looks really solid man! I think you made the right call, you were excited by this guys enthusiasm and you went with it- judging by his IG your gonna come out of it with a great tattoo. Congrats on getting sober, I know from family experience its a hell of a thing...and good luck with the tattoo! Make sure you put some pictures up when its done. All the best

Haha cheers man! Cannot recommend getting tattooed by Valerie enough, her and Stuart are great company. Just very intelligent, down to earth people.

Its been a busy month for me, got my 3/4 sleeve finished and was incredibly lucky to get a cancellation eagle with Valerie Vargas. So here is the first one... Valerie Vargas, Frith Street Tattoo, London.

Yeh I do get where you are coming from man, I think its the artists responsibility to guide their client in helping them to make the right choice. But equally, I'd imagine in some street shops if you turned away every client with a bad idea you wouldn't be able to keep the lights on long. The final decision is on you. On a side note, that octopus of yours looks absolutely beautiful!

Yeh I do understand what you are saying man, I didn't mean to say that 'personal' tattoos were necessarily. or even likely to be terrible. But I do think that a lot of so called 'bad' tattoos are not just the fault of incompetent tattooists (although of course this is the case too) but on the insistence upon personal meaning and so called originality, over and above the design. Many paintings look wonderful on a canvas but do not work when copied onto someones forearm because they are not readable and don't flow with the contours of the body. Similarly with the knives and forks down the arm example its not that that idea couldn't be incorporated into a really solid tattoo, but that it needs to be grounded in something, solid lines, framing, background etc which has its roots in the traditions of tattooing. I guess you could say that is the job of the tattooer, but I think sometimes people don't make it easy. I really hope I don't come over like i'm judging people, as I say I've done exactly the same myself, and if someone is pleased with their tattoos and it gets them through the night then who the hell am I to judge! But to follow your music analogy, I'm not saying that because I like 1970's rock music someone else is dumb for listening to hip hop. But if I've only ever listened to Donny Osmond (the musical equivilent of my own early tattoo choices!) and the guy down the street is blasting out 'Exile on Main St.' its obvious to me that only one of us is interested in art.

What Graeme says gets to the heart of the issue for me, the undeniable correlation between 'meaningful' and just plain bad. I think many people (myself included) when they first decide to get tattooed feel that they have to get something 'meaningful' or 'original' in order to justify to themselves getting tattooed in the first place. The classic and beautiful iconography of Japanese and Western tattooing does not appeal to them because they cannot see how its personal to them. So instead they want a bunch of knives and forks down their arm to represent the fact that they're a chef, or the silhouette of a Matisse painting that they remember from their childhood. I fell completely into this trap myself and its an understandable attempt to reconcile the permanent with the personal. But its a recipe for terrible tattoos the world over.

Congratulations, looks great!

Thanks so much for posting this man, absolutely fucking amazing!

Well he's only working from pre drawn designs at the convention, but he says he'll have a few eagles for me to choose from. I'm hoping to get an eagle on a branch with a red sun behind, but obviously its dependent on what he's drawn up, i'm sure he would do a mean job of a classic eagle with wings expanded as well! Something along these lines is what I'm talking about https://www.pinterest.com/pin/254523816414252720/

Just got confirmation of my appointment with Steve Byrne at the London Tattoo Convention. Getting a great big eagle...roll on September!

that would make my month!

Thanks a lot for the information Rikhall, fifteen pieces, thats crazy! Are you an Austin local?