tak30204

I have a Santa Muerte candle in my set up that I bought at the taqueria because I'm a Breaking Bad fan. I was actually unaware of the figure before watching that show. Even with all the right bells and whistles most of the exoteric world will think its just a cool looking grim reaper.

I have drank more than my share of that black evil, lol. It's at the top of the list of things my friends have asked me to bring back. I was looking for an email address for Andy, didn't see one. I'd like to get on touch ahead of time if possible. Do you have a contact for him other than the shop phone?

Is that a street shop or what? I'm really just wanting some sort of pick and stick whateverness. I've been tattooing over a decade now and I'm still an awful customer, lol. I'm thinking some kind of souvenir tattoo. Get myself a picture of a puukko and some cloudberries, bottle of kosku, maybe a box of salmiaki? Something good and Finnish.

Sailor Andy, I recognize that name. He was on the old old RSTF

Helsinki, Hyvinkaa, Lahti I tend to lean towards traditional work for myself but whatever

Anyone in Finland, preferable the southern part, worth getting a tattoo from?

Episcopalian, when I make it to church. I had more of a comment to make but I just suffered massive brain fart.

Are you referring to the guy with the itty bitty portraits as being close minded or yourself?

I worked for about three months for a chain of tattoo shops. Worst period fiscally and artistically in my tattooing career. The owner looks like a stoner yard gnome, lol. We were employees so he withheld taxes but we still had to provide everything ourselves. The only thing he stocked the shop with was Pine-Sol. I was the only artist at the location I was stuck in, he has a dozen or so shops up and down the I-75 area of Georgia. Big billboards and everything. At the time I was fresh out of my apprenticeship and only left the place I started because it was closing down. We had to provide everything. In addition to the price of the tattoo we had to charge a $20 "needle fee". We didn't get that $20 or even a cut of that $20. He has an inhouse supply company that charges about 10 times what any normal supplier would, but will take that out of future pay checks. There was a big cabinet in each shop that stayed stocked with things like needles, inks, rubber bands, all the little doo dads you need. Even a couple of Chinese tatty gunz. Lots of guys wind up in a share cropper sort of place with him due to that. The one I was in was carpeted in the entire building except the "office" so that's where I chose to tattoo from. The shop was also a head shop. Pipes, scales, papers, etc... The shop sold sex toys. All sorts of silicone, latex, battery operated wonders. We got a 10% cut of anything we sold, but I did my best to avoid dealing with any of that crap. Seemed the only time anyone came in to buy something would be during my one tattoo of the week, so I usually ignored the tweaking sex fiends trying to buy a butt plug and a rose stem. Pretty much all the flash on the walls was bootleg. Much of it wasn't laminated. We had no line drawings. It was all stapled to the walls. I took to snatching the sheet I needed off the wall, then piling them all on top of a cabinet. I was the only person ever in there so my give a damn ran out pretty quickly. For a while there was another artist there, who lived in the back room of the shop. He went to jail for being a junky. When he got out the owner had seized and wouldn't return his supplies. It was shortly after this dude left that I felt the need to ask bossman for a raise. He bitched at me about not telling him about junky's drug use, etc... I told him that I'd mentioned junky coming in looking mighty shot out, it just made me not wanna play narc anymore when the same afternoon junky asked me why I told bossman he was looking mighty shot out. FWIW my give a damn regarding ratting him out left the first time I stepped on a used needle in the hall of the shop. Yeah. Loads of fun. Bossman had a "manager" who would come by and take the money, restock the cabinets, etc... once a week. He would also sift the the trash, in the dumpster even sometimes, just to see if he could find evidence of more tattoos being done that were on the books. I was working four days a week at that location in M. Two days a week at worked at the location in F. The location in F was physically even worse. Seriously. It did have a selection of knives in addition to the dildos and bongs though. And squirrels in the ceiling. F was closer to my home than M. Sometimes I'd be asked to work at F instead of M because someone couldn't come in, blah blah blah, whatever. I got in the habit of taking all my equipment home because of this. One day manager called me to bitch at me for taking my equipment home. I explained blah blah blah to him. He told me it was against company policy, WTF? I quit on the spot. Called bossman, told him I was quitting. He told me he would kick my ass. I informed him he could meet me at home, he had the address. Still ain't seen that little gnome lookin' bastard on my lawn, lol.

I'm going to be in Finland between 7/8 and 7/18, I'd love to do a guestspot while there. I'm not sure on what Finland's rules on such goings on are but I am technically a Finnish citizen, so that should simplify things. I know I'll be in either Helsinki or Hyvinkaa the bulk of my visit, but I have no real solid plans, this is just to visit family. This is probably the most up to date portfolio I have online, https://www.facebook.com/ThomasMakesTattoos . Thanks!

I have roses and a bread and butter fly. I get so frustrated with customers that think a flower, or a spot of pink, or whatever in their tattoo is going to make them look gay. And I have a tramp stamp, it's awful, but it's there.

I remember an old old Easyrider article, as in when I was a kid stealing them from my dad, that explained how to sand a tattoo off. Went into what grade paper to use, healing instructions, etc... Seemed like a lot of fun. Claimed to be relatively low scarring.

Savannah seems to be the most heavily tattooed place I've ever lived. That said I seldom have gotten much of a bad vibe from people about my tattoos, and I'm from a fairly backwater place. Last time anyone said anything to me negative was an older lady felt the need to bring up Leviticus on me. I ended the conversation really quick by asking her if she left town when she was on her period.

I had a customer ask about having blood tests done right after a tattoo. He wondered if it could mess with the test results. He was being really vague so I'm not sure what kind of tests he was having done, something the Army wanted. Best I could tell him was "I don't think so." I was having regular blood sugar, electrolyte level testing a while back and the doctor never said anything about being tattooed affecting them. Anyone have a solid answer on this one?

I've been thinking about this. I kind of feel it's some serious art fag douche baggery but at the same time I'm a jealous hater. If I could charge that much and stay booked up I'd do it.

Lol, no, I'm not quite ready to be that much of a social climber.

That holds true for most animals.

Honestly I just hate it when the customer doesn't know what they want. I'm a tattooer, not a shrink or a image consultant. Given my own choice I'd tattoo mostly skulls and naked chicks. Or skulls on naked chicks, lol. Its frstrating when customers bring in reference, want me to draw something based on it but with my own style or whatever, then aren't happy with my drawing because it doesn't look like the reference they brought in. I'm happy to trace your sticker, t-shirt, whatever and make a tattoo out of it, just ask for that. As far as flat out bad requests? Its usually wanting too much in too small a space, or just a bad space. I seldom allow my personal taste to come into the equation too much, unless asked outright. Not a customer request, but a common customer comment that does push my buttons.... After I've explained to someone that I'll be glad to take their money but a rainbow family tree with no black outlines and the name of every Jones that has ever lived on the east coast on the bottom of their foot is a bad idea their response is "oh, well I'll just find someone who can do it." Those are the folks I'm sometimes tempted to follow screaming into the parking lot.

My father had tattoos. I used to think that you HAD to get tattooed when you grew up. I figured you grew hair in funny places, started smoking, got tattooed. First time in a tattoo shop I was probably 8 or so. Wasn't allowed to stay inside, had to wait in the car with mom. Early memories a bit fuzzy but damn good chance it was the shop I now work at.

I don't have good pictures of any of them but I have a portrait of Johnny Cash on my leg, used to have a heart with a ring of fire around it on my arm (getting covered post-divorce), I have ROCK&ROLL done in goofy bubble letters as a tramp stamp, and I have "Dirty White Boy" tattooed right below my belt line.

I join forums, participate for a while, then get bored and go elsewhere. Been tattooing for about a decade now. Started under someone you've never heard of, have had the privilege of working alongside guys that if you haven't heard of 'em that's your loss. Now I'm in Savannah and I like it, except this goddamn mosquito that's found its way into my bedroom. I'm gonna wake up with itchies in unpleasant places.