Romance & Worship

that first sarah schor tattoo lochlan posted above is one of my faves!!!

i too like a lady head to be real dark around the eyes with a good amount of color/make-up to contrast on the face and eyelids. i like 'em too look real old and even withered. more black in the hair the better. and if you want to through in some sort of exotic nose or something like that, i'm way down. with that being said, i also really like bailey hunter robinson's girls, especially when he puts a rose in there. cris cleen also does some very original girl heads that i think are very cool. i am a big fan of everybody at spider murphy's but i really like paul dobleman and stuart cripwell's lady heads, and i wear one by matt howse. grez and eric jones(goldrush) also do awesome lady heads! for something a lil' different i love bart bingham's girls.

to answer your question more directly, i will use anything for reference! wether it's taking pictures out in the world of things i would like to draw and paint, a thank you card someone got me that has a rose and petals, that use to reference the killer petals that adorn the card. kids books are always a personal favorite, tom & jerry cartoons, the flowers on my girlfriends shampoo bottles, a banner on a salsa bottle. anything! if the image strikes me and i want to use it or build of it somehow, i take it home and put it in my reference pile for later use, and if i can't take it with me, i will take a pic and store it on my computer in my electronic reference pile. basically, i always keep my eyes open for stuff like that, because it's everywhere, and i never know where i'm going to find that next awesome image.

i like to hunt through mom and pop book stores. places like that usually have a wide selection of books that they've had sitting around forever a lot of stores will create a discounted books section with these. i have found some of my favorite, most used reference books this way. always for under 5-10 bucks. birds, flowers, typography, anatomy, shit you name it. i've scored big using this method and it's a lot of fun, i always get super stoked when i come across "the find".

i'm a bartender at a music venue, so we get different types of people every night. if the jerry garcia band is playing for example, there is always some older, wealthy hippie lady that lives over in marin who just diiiigs my tattoos and my "vibe". they're the types that always want to get the meaning of the tattoo ,the whole backstory. so i end up talking to them a bit, and 9 times out of 10 they end up coming to me all night for drinks and conversation and always refer their friends to my well to see and talk about my tattoos. i get to build a good relationship with a group of folks through the night, and they always drop a good amount of cash on the bar as well, which is nice. this also happens a lot when we host private parties like business events where you get to see stuffy cubicle folk get loose, and there is always some dude who tips me big at the bar because we wants to show he's down with the tattooed bartender, because his "younger bro has tats". sometimes these interactions are pretty positive and even fun, sometimes it's just a pain in the ass. then, when there is a punk or metal show or anything else that attracts more of an "alternative" type of crowd. no one tips me bigger than usual except my friends, which is great, because then i don't have to b.s. with some over zealous customer all night, who inevitably is going to end up drinking too much. i can just kick back and watch the show.

as someone who is looking for a start in the tattoo arts, my favorite thing about LST is all the valuable information that engulfs your forum. there are a lot of questions i don't always ask while i am at shops or getting tattooed, for different reasons. but the professionals and enthusiasts that contribute to LST are constantly answering and asking the same questions that i find myself coming up with. The people here look at tattooing from every aspect with an open mind and make it easy for open communication. i have learned so much and felt much better about my own situation from watching all of the video interviews as well. i can't think of much else i would add, i look forward to see what's coming next on LST. There's A LOT of bullshit out there, and this is the real deal! thank you for taking the time and energy out of your lives to making this happen.

summer of '93. i was 12 or 13 years old, my buddy darren and i used to aimlessly ride our skateboards up and down pch all day long in laguna beach, only to stop by the local punk record store underdog, candy stealing missions at circle k, and we would occasionally try to sneak in the door at laguna tattoo and hide behind all the adults until someone noticed we were snooping around and kicked us out. the second time i ever stopped by, i actually walked in, instead of standing outside with my curious head noodled into the shop. laguna tattoo always got really busy in the summer, it probably still does, so there was a lot of interesting folks and plenty of cool stuff for me to look at. this particular time, darren and i stood in the back of the tiny lil' shop trying not to be noticed and totally dumb-founded by what we were seeing. there was a huge shirtless biker dude in the chair getting his head tattooed and reading a magazine. he didn't move or make a sound. we were completely awestruck! i think this was by far the coolest, toughest, scarriest thing i had ever seen in my life up to that point. it was then that a rather large, ringed hand appeared on my shoulder, as if to say; "you're in trouble kiddo." i looked up to see another shirtless biker-looking dude guiding me out the door. "stay outta here kid." he muttered. he grabbed darren, who at this point was boldly standing up front, hit him over the head with a rolled up magazine and sent him on his way out the door. it wasn't until a couple years later that i found out by hanging out at the record store that the tattooed man was gg allin who was getting the murder junkies logo tattooed on his head! i'm not quite old enough to have any more biker/tattoo stories. but that experience and other stories i heard growing up single handedly changed the way i saw tattoo shops, and it may be the reason still get that sinking feeling in my gut sometimes when i walk into a shop, an unexplained feeling of fear, like someones going to pull out a knife any second and kick me out. i guess i caught the tail end for that age of tattoo shops. i later returned to laguna tattoo 3 days after my eighteenth birthday for my first tattoo done by lindsey carmicheal. 5 years after gg allin, the shop seemed so different to me. it was so obvious, even to me as a youngster who didn't know anything about tattoo culture yet, that there was a huge shift in the demand for tattoos by popular culture. after some looking i discovered this.... enjoy!

i will try to make the meet up at lanesplitters, sounds fun, but i just brought a new baby home today! i'm not sure if he'll let me go, he's the boss now! i was also thinking the term neo-tribal would fit well, but you bring up a great point, being that the origins of tattooing do come from tribalism. i think i prefer neo- classical, it has a better ring and gives the art form a better level of respect i think. great to meet you too!

most definitely! and thanks!

those threads helped, i thought i was the only one who wasn't sure what to call it. it's great none the less! i've had so little time working full time and taking care of my lady, who's about to give birth any day. i've used my whole day off today to nerd out here and other places on the web and i'm not sure when i will be able to post some pics, but i am excited to do so as soon as i can. hopefully next week. until then, thanks!

i love any piece of art the stirs the emotions and evokes my true feelings of life. i find that a lot in realism, pop surrealism, and illustration. as far as tattoos go, i have a real passion for the design of american traditional and traditional japanese, which are also great emotional pieces that tell a story. recently i have been looking at indian art from the 16th and 17th centuries that blows my mind, they tell epic stories and use wonderful colors. i also really love the work of jondix, although i don't exactly know what type of art to refer that as. is there a proper term for that type of design that you know of, or is he taking things from other art forms like tribal, polynesian/spanish floral design, architectural, egyptian, etc.(if those are even right?) to create something spectacular? i'm still trying to figure that out...

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i met a girl at work yesterday that had a banana, a bushel of grapes, a pineapple and an orange tattooed on each of the 4 fingers of her left hand. she called a fruit punch! it blew my mind, and i also wonder of the blood in my mouth would taste good if she hit me in the face?

hey folks! my name's jeff. i am a 29 year old artist and tattoo enthusiast from oakland, ca. i have been following lst from the get-go, and i am stoked and grateful you dedicate your time to making it happen. as someone who is actively seeking any and all knowledge on becoming a purveyor of the craft of tattooing, i find the information and discussion here to be very useful and helpful. thanks guys!