joakim urma

Well I'm a snob about anything and everything that I care about and consider myself somewhat knowledgeable in. Tattoos are included. I however try to keep an open mind and not be too judgmental. In the end the one thing that is important is if the owner of the tattoo is happy with it, that should be everybody's main concern. I think, as someone pointed out earlier, that we "snobs" should try to be helpful and informative (without being besserwizzers and The Style Police) when people ask us about (their) tattoos. If one of my friends shows interest in tattoos I'd be happy to send him/her links and names and just hope that it will educational and further their taste. I have a younger brother who likes some of the things I enjoy and it has always been a struggle for me to not be too much of a teacher, at the same time I do think I am "right" in the things I like. Luckily he is turning more and more towards the kind of traditional tattoo style that I love. I don't have to push it as much haha.. I post a lot of tattoos on my tumblr-blog (uglyfreedom.tumblr.com) and that's just the very best of the things I see on a daily basis on blogs and instagram. Even from this selection I would only consider maybe 5% of the posted tattoos as something I could have on my own body. That's how much of a snob I am when it comes to tattoos. I sometimes play the "shoe game" with myself. If I find myself waiting for someone/something in a public space I look at the shoes of people passing by and count how many shoes I would want to wear. I usually see less then one pair of shoes per minute that I would even consider wearing. I'm just particular like that with most things, tattoos, shoes, clothes, music. If it's worth wasting your time/money/concern with it has to be really good. Otherwise, why bother?

Back of the knee was pretty hard for me. I had trouble walking stairs and it would itch badly. I eventually had to have the whole thing redone because it healed so uneven. I think it was partially due to my new jeans being to stiff and full of nasty chemicals, but also just from the spot being really difficult to heal.

I decided early on that I would only get black and gray work. I am a pale native swede so I am sure colors would fit my skin but I just think black and gray looks good. I am pretty anal about matching clothes, for a long time I would wear mostly black and I think if I would have colors in my tattoos they would have to match each other and I would have to match my clothing with the colors in my tattoos. That's just impossible to me! (I might come off as a bit weird here) I don't know, I'm just a black and white kind of guy, I'm a photographer and I shoot mostly monochrome film too. I can drool over the subtle gradients or the harsh contrast in black and white photos for a looong time. And with tattoos, it's just beautiful with the skin and the shades. Don't get me wrong though, I love a lot of the color tattoos I see every day and some of my favorite tattooers are very distinctly color artists. It's just not for me. Having said that, whatever I put on my body is going to match a bit easier than for those of you who get different colors too. When I first started getting tattoos I had no clue about it really but soon I settled into a more traditional taste. (The next sentenced I have tried to write 5 times all ready, struggling to not sound pretentious) Nowadays I try to find artists with a style of their own, something that will shine through even without the help of colors. I'm pretty sure that to people who aren't as nerdy about tattoos as me and you, LST:ers, most of my tattoos probably look like they could have been made by the same 2-3 artists. But they aren't and I for one appreciate the fact that I can look at my tattoos and see each artists own vision and way of doing things. So even if my scope is pretty narrow, disregarding any colors, I am letting different styles meet. For example I'd love to have something made by Hooper, I'm getting my second Deno-tattoo later this year, I have several ideas for tattoos to be made by Guy Le Tatooer and my next piece is going to be more neo-traditonal than anything I currently have. </black n gray nerd rant)

Next one two weeks from now. Rock of ages, with the cross up side down on the side of my thigh. By Peter Lagergren at Malmö Classic. Going to be a fun one and the last before summer. Hey, do you guys get tattoos in the summer time too? Being from sweden I can't really afford to miss out on the few months of sun bathing, swimming and outdoors skateboarding so I choose not to get anything new between late May and late August

Got my first lady head (classic Dietzel girl with the horned mask) this friday. I have two more planned all ready. I've got a idée fixe when it comes to tattoos: No more than 3 of any one kind. 3 skulls, 3 snakes, 3 hands, 3 lady heads. I intend to stick to this scheme. The exception is that on my left arm I am waiting for the 10:th wolf to be added. In my defense 8 of the wolves are part of a bigger piece and are bundled up together as silhouettes

I don't remember the reaction on the first one but.. now as I'm up to 20-something tattoos each new one gets less and less negative reactions. At first it was like "Why are you doing this? You are destroying your body! It is ugly" Now it's more like "Hmmpf.. another one.." I guess that's a good thing. It has been mainly my mother who has been negative about the whole thing and I kept telling her that she will have to accept it, that I will cover my most of my body and that's that.

Hehe I'll be back soon for sure. My X lives in gothenburg as well as other friends. Adding you as a friend here now. Let's eat kanellbullar and talk tattoos next time I'm in town!

Here's what I got this friday: From Cezilia Hjelt. The tiger head is from early 1900's flash that I came across on an exhibition early this year. At the same time I got this from Joel Albertson, classic Dietzel girl, I've loved this design since I first saw it a couple years ago so I am happy to sport it now. Both Cezilia and Joel work at Göteborg Classic Tattooing. If you're ever in Gothenburg, this is the place to hit up. Jonas Uggli Nyberg and Henrik Röstberg works there too, so it's a pretty awesome crew.

You can't really consider yourself #covered if you haven't got a anus tattoo, now can you?

As Graeme said above, everything that can be covered with a long sleeve shirt and jeans. Don't really see the point of genital/anus tattoos so I think I'll skip that too. I also really like hand tattoos but as I am viewing it now I won't get mine done. Would probably grow tired of seeing them all the time, no matter how good they are. As for now I am pretty happy about only being a tattooed person when I take of my shirt. I am contemplating leaving the "upside" of my forearms blank for the same reason/fear of growing tired of seeing them so often. (Or I'll just save them till everything else I want is done and get really awesome forearms tattoos when I'm like 40 and everyone who got theirs as 20 year olds will be envious)

Re-doing the lines of the tattoo in the back of my knee, with Knibbe Pallius Tiger from early 1900's flash sheet coming out of a flower, with Cezilia Hjelt The masked Dietzel girl, with Joel Albertsson All in the same day, the two later at the same time. Should be fun!

Yeah, of course you're right. But I could faintly remember Hooper writing something about not accepting new customers until he was done with his present ones. And I read that like two years ago, so I wanted to know what the deal was like nowadays. But yes.. I am writing him now.

Looking good, both of them! Is it possible to get on Thomas' list? He seems very famous and busy nowadays. I've always had a (very) soft spot for his stuff so it would be awesome to get something before my body is covered. Edit: as a reply to the picture-post by CercleRouge

Here's what Iain Mullen @ Imperial Tattoo in Stockholm created for me today. Side of thigh. Black n gray, red is from swelling.

I just decided to meet a friend in Paris around 10-15:th of June. Of course I thought I would try to get the chance to get a tattoo while I'm there. I really only know of Alix Gee and Tin Tin so any suggestions are very much welcome! As I am getting only black n gray work and mostly in the traditional style vein I am looking for someone who has an interesting and unique style. Think Deno or Rudy Fritsch. However I am open to things outside traditional, so just hit me up with interesting and awesome tattooers! All help is greatly appreciated!

Judas as a saint-tattoo on my thigh tomorrow, by Iain Mullen. Going to be fun!

I had 3 problems: 1. too much money 2. no planned tattoo untill May 3. was feeling low this friday Now I came up with one solution to this and got me booked in for a 4 hour session with Iain Mullen @ Imperial Tattoo in Stockholm in less than 2 weeks from now :) At first I wanted to talk to him about putting in a tiny filler pocket watch next to the elbow piece he did on me. It ended up with that and a hand holding a skull on my lower calf AND doing the lines for a major Judas-portrait (praying to god, wearing a devil mask, in a rain of gold coins and so on..) on the side of my tigh. Good times ahead, super stoked!

Glad you liked it! I'm sure you will get another chance, he has no home shop and seems to be traveling all over the place now. He was in Singapore not long ago, speaking of random places.

I think.. that my next tattoo will be my upsidedown rock of ages done by Peter Lagergren. But that's not until the begining of May. If Monga swings by Stockholm I might have to get something by him too. (edit: that is: the cross will be upsidedown, not the whole piece haha..)

I can also post this, just saw that Knibbe Pallius @ Never Die Tattoo in Gothenburg had posted it on instagram when it was done like 2-3 months ago. Shame we'll have to redo the lines, they aren't black due to bad healing. Back of the knee = pain.

I carry a notebook with me at all times and among of the things I keep in it are ideas for tattoos. Sometimes it's just a subject that I want to do something with, sometimes I get a spark of genius or see something I really like and that turns into a concept. I also write down where I want it, and often who I want to tattoo it. It can be tattooers from across seas so I'm not sure when the tattoo actually will be made. This list keeps getting rewritten, added to and crossed out from time to time as things and my taste evolves. Last time I changed notebook I had a pretty heavy editing process and about 5 ideas got trashed.

Got this one from Simon Erl the other day and I am really happy with it. He didn't draw it as I had envisioned but made it much better. If you are in Stockholm make sure to swing by Swahili Bobs, he'll be there for another month or so.

I was really nervous for both knee cap and elbow but those weren't hard for me. I hate toes and backside of knee though. Those are shit.

From Iain Mullen today. So happy with it! Had a great time and it wasn't as horrible as I had imagined going over the elbow.

@Mr. Smith: I'm glad you liked it! Yeah he put it on IG about a week after. I've seen a few black and gray of his but nothing this big before. The girl who had the appointment before me had him do a mandala-thing (here it is, found it) and I kind of like the idea of having a really good tattooer with a style of her/his own do something unordinary. Just don't pull them too far out of their comfort zone. I don't think you'll ever get a good answer to the SOOS question. I'll try with Joel tomorrow but I don't expect anything. I actually asked Jelle SOOS at Stockholm Inkbash, both him and Pedro was there. But he just basically said that "If I told everyone it wouldn't be as cool and mystical, right?" It's their tattoo gang, they started it way back when none of them was very good, more as a joke but then they turned professional. But the meaning? Your guess is as good as mine.