Abellve

In the original Hymn, the "Rock of Ages, cleft for me" referred to a crevice cleft *into* a wall of rock that the hym's writer is said to have used as shelter from a storm. It's apparently unclear when it switched to a protruding rock in a stormy sea...or at least that's what I read in a tiny bound book on the history of the Rock of Ages. My boss/mentor collects RoA paintings. When I apprenticed, I would watch over his shoulder in a dim room with most of the light in the room centered on the tattoo, surrounded by antique RoA prints of all kinds.Some with one woman, some with two -- one helping the other and some, fewer, with one woman safe and the stiff hand of a drowned person reaching up from the water.

I appreciate the difference between an employee and someone working for an outside entity and I agree. The company should've laid out this info -- dress code, rules of conduct, etc -- beforehand for the charity to relay to its volunteers. It would've been better to tell her to cover up or opt out beforehand than to send her home. I'm not saying they went about it right, just that they get to make their rules and knowing the choices we make, we can only be so upset about it after the fact. Like I said, ideally they'd accept all kinds of people.

I think it's important for people to learn that they are going to be around all types of people and treat them with respect and (ideally) embrace their differences. Ideally. This is the real world and stores are just businesses. Just because they sold a generation or two on the idea that they're a happy, fuzzy part of our lives and families, we act like they're not businesses. They have one imperative -- make money. If a store feels like people working there, even for free, even for charity will put some customers off, they get to say so. Stores want to put forth the plain, beige, unnoffensive face of conformity. Little old ladies still think tattoos are for sailors and whores and some of us are cool with that, even embrace it -- and all of us should at least learn to deal with it. You don't get take part in this thing with a long history of putting us on the outside of mainstream social circles, then act surprised by it. You choose this for yourself and people's perceptions are known. If you want to give society the finger, don't get mad at them when they know what it means. Furthermore, the article that started all this shouldn't even be an article. It should be one girl's Facebook status update. Must have been a light week for news.

Great work on here, now I want to do a girl head on the hand...or two. Here's some I did years ago on an old punk rocker from the glory days. [/img] Sorry for the pic quality, had to snag it from a small pic online as our shop computer crashed.

The back's some prime real estate and the largest uninterrupted/undivided piece of space so it seems counterproductive to section it off it with competing tattoos. I think it's an awesome idea to do something collaborative. Like that battle royal or Ursula's idea to have one central image kind of framed out with others. In the end, both of these are cohesive. That's key to me. So I guess the short answer is that whether it is one artist or a collaborative effort it should be planned as such and each artist shoudl get that they're part of a process so they can make it work. It's cool to have them working on pieces of a puzzle but in my opinion it looks best when they're all working on the *same* puzzle.

I always marvel that people will come in wearing a pair of $150 sneakers and balk at a $50 minimum for a tattoo of all things or the price of a portrait of their late mother. Their values are all out of order I feel no obligation to cater to that. When people ask me why I charge what I do, I tell them, I charge what I'm worth. Sometimes i let them know that iif someone charges a lot less, you have to ask yourself what corners they're cutting and if they feel like they can get the same level of work cleanly for less elsewhere go for it. In fairness, I can be an unwavering bastard, largely because I don't like people telling me what my time and skill is worth. It's not like we have a pile of these tattoos cluttering the back room we have to clear out on the cheap.

He knows his stuff. "fine" for traditional does not have to mean "too fine" overall, there's room to spare. Look at the old George Burchette flash. Tight but not busy.

Never actually answered the two questions... 1.) I prefer to have some seedling of an idea and freedom to interpret it based on the idea that they came to me based on my expertise. If a client has a specific vision or aversion to something, it should be stated before they set it all in motion. I'd rather have someone fairly specific but still trusting in my abilities than someone who says "do your thing" and desn't really mean it. 2.) I think if someone says free reign, then the next input should be to refine the idea or green-light it, not start it over again by taking back the creative reigns.

I had a friend tell me he wanted a Japanese sleeve with flowers. I outlined everything but the inner bicep and all of the sudden he gets ideas ideas for what he wants to do in there -- every one of them too big for the space that's left. Usually though, friends and people very familiar with my work are willing to let me run with that much info. One guy wanted a particular severed robot girl head and handed over the entire remaining space of the arm. Bold move and it looks great. I usually don't Bellve people when they say "free reign" unless I know they're familiar with what I do.

Ha. Funny stuff. I got you now, failed to check my whisky/meth conversion chart.

Ha. No drugs here, just coffee to get through the day and whisky to get past it, got my kidneys and liver working in shifts.

Oh that's definitely going to happen. Thank you.

@gougetheeyes --have you looked into any whisky clubs? Most individuals won't go in for a $200+ bottle but some clubs kind of buy in as a gro up so you can have tastings without the commitment to a bottle. Just a thought, might not be your vibe, I don't know. I've been all about the Ardbeg 10, Lagavulin 16 and Laphroaig 10 (I find the 15 harsh and unbalanced.) lately. For a Speyside, the Glenfiddich 21, aged in a rum cask so it has a subtle rum finish. Yamazaki, I'll take the 12 over the 15 -- still has that distinctly Japanese character but doesn't taste as much like wet straw. Side note, the first time I drank whiskey, I was 14 or 15 and got served in a little bar in a small Pennsylvania coal town. If at 14/15, I got served and I've been drinking whisk(e)y ever since, you can imagine what a haggard bastard I am at 33. Ha.

Absolutely. Check out their website, the details on that place are pretty awesome. Their gin is great too...speaking of gin, i hear there's some good distilling happening right there in Brooklyn. I may have to ride in for a tattoo and a bottle or two.

Here's mine. When I was first pursuing an apprenticeship, I talked to one of the artist's at the best shop around. He invited me over to his place where we talked about it, mostly over his old Triumph. I drove him around for bits and pieces he needed to fix it up and by the end of the day, he had given me tips on presenting my portfolio of drawings and said he'd put in a good word for me...not schmoozing, just an organic conversation...then after all his wrenching and swearing, he kick started that bike. The look and sound had me hooked and hanging around at the shop after that when he'd pull up...I had to have an old Triumph. As it turned out, unbeknownst to me, he was moving. I was apprenticed to take his place. Having married young, there was never any money for extras (or three meals some days) but I worked hard for years, doing my best to be good to tattooing and it rewarded me. When I found this 68 at the right price, I jumped on it and when I see my bike in front of the shop, I feel like it came full circle.

I'm really into Finger Lakes Distilling's rye...which is saying something as I was never a fan of rye until I had theirs -- always scotch or good bourbon. Unfortunately they don't distribute much further than their immediate area -- nice little distillery though. Scroll down for a couple of pics. Here For more accessible stuff i'll have Booker's, Woodford, Bulleit and Basil Hayden.

Knuckles and sternum were bad. I remember right after I got mine done, I tattooed my buddy's fiancée's sternum and told her it was gonna suck...she put me to shame, sat like she was getting a haircut, talked the whole time. The worst for me was the throat. It felt like I was getting strangled and cut at the same time. My boss's wife had to walk away, she couldn't watch...said I looked stoic but she knew it was brutal. I have no shame, I may have sat still but my back hurt the whole next day from cringing.

Thanks for the welcome, guys and the comments on my bike. I look forward to contributing And just hanging around, and have already found that some of the great talent represented here has lit a fire. I'll build up a gallery as soon as the shop computer comes in. Right now I'm on an iPad, not very conducive to uploading.

I'm always amazed that people don't know what "deposit" means. What do they think, that if they back out and we're out the work hours it becomes a loan? The whole reason we take them is in the event you don't get tattooed..."it's not *my* fault I got drunk and forgot my tattoo. Gimme my money back." Aside from that, there's just too many of these things and so many run by outsiders and show promoters w no ties to the industry. Then they're run like ass, they're stepping on toes and don't care about the artist so they get hacks and everybody loses -- the industry guys who have to compete w outsiders in their own towns, the venue, the customers, whatever artists got suckered in (who cares if the scratchers lose) and our industry as a whole when potential venues and attendees think this is what to expect. All the best shows are put on by artists and enthusiast friends of the industry who have made this their family, self-police the event and actually care about the non-monetary benefits of the show.

Hello. I am a tattoo artist and (sometimes) painter. I've been tattooing for eleven years, having served a traditional apprenticeship under Buffalo Bill Tarr -- back when it still meant long hours, making my own needles (and his) and cleaning the shop, etc. I work in a busy, quality street shop while still being afforded the opportunity to do custom work. I do everything from stripped down, traditional tattoos to large scale, freehand Japanese-influenced work and portraits...and all the little bread-and-butter pieces that keep a street shop going. I was enamored with the craft and its history before I started and long before this recent resurgence and kind of feel like I got in right before it all changed. I'm not crazy about what tattooing has become to the majority but am still in love with what it means to the core group of us still connected to its roots. I try to contribute to it every day, largely by keeping my mouth shut and my hands busy. A. Bellve A. Bellve Totem Tattoo Studios | Facebook