CABS

Tattoo veterans that have been doing it for decades have so much experience, that it's safe to say they know how to make a tattoo. Which is why I seek out those tattooers. But the new generation tattooer need to get experience somehow too, so I like to seek out new tattooers as well. At the end of the day, it all depends on the bed-side manner/if they are an asshole or not. I collect predominantly traditional, so if there are ten tattooers doing very similar work, then the customer experience is what will make one tattooer stand out from the rest. Plus, I would much rather get several tattoos from lesser known folks, than one tattoo from a "name."

Calculating the number of dollars spent on tattoos is painful. It's all sunk costs to me. Clean as all hell. WOW.

I felt the same way when I started getting tattooed. They were all spread out and they looked weird all by their lonesome. So I had to start getting these "large gaps" filled. Love that Greg Christian piece! Yeah, I look at that Goldberg tribal totally differently nowadays. Same for that Rock bull and that HBK "S" and dagger. There's a really awesome ECW section of the Monday Night Wars documentary on the Network. What about the Sandman tattoo of his own face on his right inner bicep, upside down! Or the Taz on Taz...

I'm in.

Very intriguing. I love me a good road trip.

I think I just tell myself that O'Donnell is booked out for years, so I don't even bother trying. Same thing with Grime.

Favorite NYC tattooers at the moment (in no particular order): Bart Bingham, Mina Aoki, Regino, Santoro, Boltz, Krak, Eli, Albrigo, Virginia, GREZ

Curious, what are your top five in NYC? Totally! So many people I would love to get tattooed by that I haven't even had the chance to visit yet. Not to mention with the SFO convention coming up, so many tattooers there as well. Tough life. Hell yeah, bud. In other news, I'm getting tattooed by Carolyn at FTW. I have no idea how to do the "mention" on here. @cltattooing. Nevermind, it does it automatically.

Was flipping through this book at Carolyn's station. So damn cool. I could have stared at it all day, but FTW closes at 7pm so I had to go, haha.

I agree on the NY experience. Was thinking of getting both Boltz and Santoro on the same trip. But I highly doubt I'll buy a plane ticket. Like you said, prob just gonna spend that plane money on more tattoos. Lately it's been Bert and Eli at SOG for the past couple years. Boltz will make the Bay Area trip, but it's like on the super low low, and the moment I find out, it's too late. And if I fly out to NY, I would definitely want a Regino tattoo as well. And an Albrigo tattoo. Fuck.

HAHA, pretty much. When I was 18 I was really into Rob Van Dam, and he was really into flaming yin yang symbols. Not a good look. I probably would have gotten a Rage Against the Machine or KRS-1 tattoo if they were music tattoos. Great tattoos! I still need a Boltz tattoo. Might just bite the bullet and fly out there soon. Would love to see this sheet. Ryan Westfall is a tattooer out of Pittsburgh that has done some pretty sweet wrestling tattoos. Even Higgs drew an amazing Grand Wizard (old school wrestling manager) piece that I would love to get at some point. I don't think it was ever on a sheet of flash, but it looks super rad.

I can totally see the Grime influence. Shige sleeve? Man oh man she don't fuck around. I'm into it. Girl head with a peacock in the hair! Thanks man! Haha. That Shige sleeve! Wendy should just work at S&S and just crush everything. Crush all the things.

I'm really into Marie Sena. I believe she's based out of Dallas.

I think I'm more impressed with how long her hair is, haha.

SO COOL. Didn't even know she was in the States. I love that she's rocking a S&S shirt. If she worked in the Bay, I could totally see her working there. Nice one! Congrats on your first! I got my first tattoo when I was 30 years young. Better late than never. I could only imagine what tattoos I would have gotten as an 18 year old me.

Nice! I'm jealous. Did you contact him or the shop? I find it so difficult to get an appointment with him.

Yeah, so those Rassier ditches were supposed to be my last tattoos of 2014. How in the world do I have 3 appointments booked, with a potential 4th that may or may not go through, depending on whether or not Ben Grillo gets booked up for his Temple trip. And I want to do that Idle Hand GWYG on Saturday too. Fuck.

That Higgs club fits so good back there.

SO COOL.

Pretty gnarly. I'm kinda into it. I don't think I'll ever have to resort to that though. But I like the idea of it, and "blast overs" as well. As the kids say...

Blacked out arm? Or just surround the existing text with a bunch of cool tattoos.

This is pretty rad. I would have such a hard time finding more people that would be down to get back pieces with me. I have a hard time finding people that want to just get regular one shot bro tattoos, let alone full on back pieces.

Vybz Kartel did a really rad song with Missy Elliott and M.I.A.

That's kind of my goal with my collection too. I used to want to travel all over the world to collect tattoos. But nowadays, I know I'm lucky to be living in a part of the world where there are so many talented tattooers. My goal is to have a collection that represents the Bay Area. I realized this half way through collecting, so there will be some non-Bay Area tattoos in there. I also realized that I want to go black and grey from this point on, too. I hope you do get that Chris Brand backpiece though. Looking forward to it.

I'm not much help, but I totally want to get tattooed by that lady you are speaking of. She's a badass! Whang-Od The Last Kalinga Tattoo Artist of the Philippines | Lars Krutak