Abellve

Side note here: I recently did a Sriracha-rooster/phoenix hybrid. We like it hot.

That's the thing. Those occupations are all respected, professional...we're just a bunch of degenerates having fun for money. Hasn't TV taught you anything?

Yeah shop friends are great, self dubbed VIPs I can do without. If an artist or shop wants to bend a little because they know the person well enough that they won't take advantage of a situation -- whether a drink or two, a phone-in when you only book in person -- whatever, that's a bonus but when the clients think they call the shots, not cool. We run our shop in a way that makes it function best, that works for the artists and the greatest number of clients. No amount of familiarity should make a customer think it has to beworked to suit them alone...but damn if people don't still walk through the world thinking it's a set built just for them.

It seems clear -- the experience level they're looking for. How many threads have to be derailed by people who haven't read the rules of the forum, then can't read the original post in a thread? Shouldn't all replies to this thread have been about this one Chicago shop's need for an artist? If people can't read or just can't be bothered to...fine but enough already...start a phone group. Call each other up and have conference calls about how you really respect the art and wanna be pros and can't make ink stick and everything else. When a shop says call or come down if you're a good fit, call or go down there...if you're a good fit...they didn't ask for people who aren't what they need to sit on their asses and post on the Internet.

And what a party it is...as off as a lot of these threads have gotten, that's the most on-topic thing this board has seen in a while.

@Dan S: Good find and it'll serve someone very well on the forums but as @JAllen pointed out the op is having trouble getting people to "take" the ink in the first place -- which is generally the end result of the inability of the person doing the tattoo to understand the variables of tattooing, control the ones he can and navigate through the ones he can't.

Is that the one with all the trolls or are you the only one? Seriously, when is it enough? You kick up a bunch of dust, make all kinds of noise about sticking to your views and then when you've derailed a perfectly viable thread, you say, "Ok, it's cool. I don't care anymore". Why act like you care at all? Just skip it or at least take it elsewhere. Here's a tip. Don't worry about Tom Gabel's gender unless you're dating him and don't worry about what we call our equipment unless you're spending any time at either end of the machine. These are our words for our things. They have nothing to do with you. Even if it started with a misstep, this thread could've been a good example of what not to ask here and why...instead it became another episode of the Hunter Morrow Show...but I guess I'm just feeding the trolls now. --end rant.

Wow. 2 days, 3 pages and 23 posts since someone (ok, I) suggested you post up. I thought you might be eager to show everyone that this one rare problem was all you were up against. I guess you're just too busy at the shop though. If there's only two of you at the shop and between you this can't be answered, I have to wonder what else may be lacking there and what kind of stuff you're so busy sending out the door. On a completely unrelated note, anyone listen to Brother Ali? "Every culture has a right to passage, you wanna bypass it and sell me your practice?"

Every area's different but ours is flooded with hacks with unprofessional standards and practices. We don't keep a friendly working relationship with people who have a negative impact on our trade.

I can't help but read this as "I'm too busy making money to properly learn the craft." Maybe I'm missing it but I don't see what shop you work at and your gallery appears to be empty. Maybe you can shut us all up with the quality of your work. You came for advice and got it and I know for a fact plenty of the people offering the advice you're not willing to accept are coming from a place of experience and offering their clients work of marked quality. If not them, who are you willing to learn from? I may be a hardass about this stuff but it's older than all of us. I count myself blessed to be a part of it and have seen far too many people walk fresh faced into it demanding that it change to suit them. This thing wasn't designed to suit the overly eager and unbending. It was designed to weed them out.

Thanks @MadeIndelible, I tattooed that on a friend a couple weeks ago.

Sorry, not "company"... but Lochlan.

Just the same...this isn't the place and isn't likely to point you to the place. Question the logic all you want but not the rules. We're all guests here. Scott Sylvia and company are nice enough to have us and keep up with the place, the least we can do is read the rules and follow them.

Ha. My wife and I watched them all + the movies in 4 weeks, got to the end and started over...at a more relaxed pace. It's just good go-to tv. I was interviewed by the local paper while tattooing. The subject was something like "what are your hopes for 2012?" She was pissed that I didn't say X-Files 2012"...I said complete annihilation -- the apocolypse. They didn't print it though.

I would venture to guess that people short on hard earned knowledge run into these ink-proof clients a lot. If you don't trust the information your "mentor" gave you, don't use it -- and that goes for the whole damn thing -- it's all suspect. If your next and future clients aren't worth starting over -- the seeking and the re-education...pack it in.

If there is an Internet correspondence course...this isn't it...and you wouldn't want to be tattooed by someone who took it. What I'm saying is -- you don't tattoo on the Internet so don't try to learn on the internet. The "site" you go to is the worksite and if the one you're at isn't providing knowledge or has failed to, suck it up, take the loss and find another or rethink things and decide if a person seeking this information online has the dedication to even use it well. There's a framework of sacred and earned information and an approach to the myriad variables of tattooing that you just can't google. I wonder how many people are on dentistry forums asking for help with the very basics of the job?

The first thing I did when we got Netflix...all 9 seasons of the X Files in four weeks. I've been watching more shows on there than movies. Mitchell and Webb's Peep Show is crazy funny, so is Gavin and Stacey. For movies, man, so many. They just added Bartleby. House of Yes, Mary and Max, Oldboy, I'm a Cyborg but That's OK, The Host, Mother, White Lightnin' are some of my top picks...oh and Word Wars.

I have a client who recently got his whole head tattooed...at 75...there's always time. For me, I wouldn't get my whole face tattoed, I'd feel like it was a mask. Not my genitals either or any bullshit areas that are prone to healing poorly. I have chains around my wrist and it's such a clean line I hesitate to do my hands though my knuckles are done.

A little Corday based something.

Reminds me of the time the pub near the shop got a new bartender. I worked til 1am and went over for a drink or two. The new girl didn't know a double didn't come in a pint glass so she poured a pint of Jameson on the rocks. Back up to the bar for a second at 1:30...and that's how you make up for working four hours late.

I have moths tattooed on my throat, flying in toward a candle. Their antennae aren't fuzzy so I guess I really have butterflies, huh? Whatever. As for unicorns, I always found it strange somehow that a big, powerful animal like a horse that can kick your brains out gets a long, sharp horn suitable for goring and all of the sudden it's sissy stuff for an 8 year old girl's sticker collection.

Ha! I missed that the first time around.

A few of my favorites: Frontier(s)...a brilliantly hopeless French horror film that I just watched (again) tonight I'm a Cyborg but That's Ok Oldboy Little Otik Welcome to the Dollhouse...I can't tell you how much I was like Dawn Weiner growing up. Mary and Max...and all the shorts from Adam Elliot.

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@Dan S: Cool, no problems from me. Just when you asked which shop is better...it almost begged an answer. I see where you're coming from. I also don't want to come off like, "a customer should know his place". The wearers of these tattoos we do are what it's all about. You'll see prior posts from me stating just that. It's not about tattooers' names and egos but what they're sending out the door and what it does for the wearer. We're all invested in this thing, just from different ends. I just think there are a few too many opinions about tattooing from outside of the industry and not enough tattooers protecting our trade from the inside, if you will...but I'm just a crabby tattooer who's heard a long line of customers chiming in on how the business should run. This is an open forum and I'm not trying to police it. Some of the best stuff comes up just from the back and forth of it all. Sure, some people need to be put in their place and it's hard to tell who's who but I wasn't putting that on you. It was just a general statement. You'd know better than I if it applies to you. Alright, I'm off to look for a bitchin $20 tattoo.