Graeme

I feel that unless I was a tattooer and was looking at buying the different products available, who cares, I'll take whatever the shop gives me. Lately it's been Saran Wrap and it's been fine. It isn't super comfortable, but I can't imagine that wrapping an arm in bandages would be any better.

Needles and Sins posted a link to this interview with Mike The Athens, and it's a great one, so I'm sharing it: Mike The Athens | heartbeatink.gr

Nice one! I'm getting zapped by him on Saturday. Not to speak for @Pugilist but she's getting tattooed by Mike Rubendall. A friend of ours is getting his first tattoo at the convention on Saturday, I'm trying to get him to come out after he's done. He will have earned a celebratory drink! It's going to be cool meeting you and your wife!

This is coming up in a little over two weeks, so who is going and is interested in an LST meetup? I'm going to suggest that we meet up for drinks at Le Cheval Blanc at around 9pm on Saturday. It's at 809 rue Ontario Est, a couple of blocks away from the Berri metro station, which is itself four stops away from the convention. It's a brewpub with solid beer, a nice selection of imported bottles, and great music and atmosphere. They have a limited food menu too, but if anybody is interested in getting something to eat beforehand we can do that too. Who is up for meeting? Me and @Pugilist will be at the convention both Friday and Saturday so if you see us (you can recognise us by our tattoos because I am sure I won't be the only hairy guy most likely wearing a black t-shirt there) say hello!

@Wilhell that is some winning at life stuff right there. Congratulations!

I don't want to be a dick about it, but if you think that Beppe's tattoos and that Mario's tattoos look more or less equivalent, you really need to learn about tattoos. There are plenty of resources here on the forum--I would start with this thread about what makes a good tattoo--watch the artist interviews, watch Vice's Tattoo Age series and the Gypsy Gentleman videos, read Guen Douglas's guide on how to examine a tattoo portfolio, and then come back here, because it's a waste of everybody's time to suggest other shops and artists to you if you don't even know how to look at tattoos in the most basic sense.

Beppe Strambini in Verona, Italy. Ink Addiction

This is a great idea, but I am also going to suggest going to Ron Henry Wells because his wolves are super amazing, especially if you want the weirder side of things:

Sending an email or calling the shop never hurts, but also pay attention to their instagrams because tattooers will often put their plans on there. Chad Koeplinger, for example, posted that he's doing walk ups only at the London convention so if you want to get tattooed by him you probably can if you show up early enough.

That is so awesome. I am so bummed that Mike Wilson isn't attending the Montreal convention this year.

I kind of feel that most traditional wolf tattoos are based on a handful of designs so that if you wanted a tattoo like that it might be easier to find someone in your area--or travel for it if you're inclined towards that--who does solid traditional and get them to tattoo it.

Great tattoo and welcome!

I've seen pictures of women Tony D'Annessa tattooed around then (see the article in TAM about him here), and I've seen pictures of Doc Forbes probably from around that same era...opposite coast though...of him tattooing women, so women were getting tattooed then. I need to reread Sam Steward's book Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos because he definitely talks about how he wouldn't tattoo (maybe unmarried?) women other than lesbians basically because it would "ruin" women for marriage or some such nonsense. Anyway, the point is that I think that tattoos were especially taboo for women so I'm not entirely surprised that Life Magazine would completely overlook them. I really need to get that New York City Tattoo book.

That sounds rad, and I'm excited to see it!

Any idea of what you'll continue the arm with or are you going to leave it more or less to her?

I don't have children so I'm only speculating here, but if I had a daughter and she was getting married, I'd like to think that I'd wear a shirt and pants to her wedding.

Nice Nietzsche reference there.

I think for a silhouette tattoo that artist looks like they do decent enough work. The lines look pretty good and the shading is smooth. I'm not crazy about the tattoos in terms of design though...I would steer away from this tattooer's Japanese tattoos, and the black and grey tattoos lack depth. That gun looks like a paper cut out instead of a three dimensional object. But for a silhouette of a tree I think you're fine. For size, you're almost always better off going bigger. Lines are going to thicken over time and the design will close up so the more room you can give it the better it will age. I would think this will be especially the case on the nape of your neck because it's going to get a lot of exposure to sunlight and is going to age quicker than tattoos on parts of your body that are normally covered by clothing. That said, and take this however you will, I don't like silhouette tattoos and I can't think of any silhouette tattoos that wouldn't look better if it was properly rendered. Compare the trees you posted above to this Paul Booth tattoo:

The tattoo looking shiny is a completely normal part of healing so just give it some time to settle in and you'll see then if it needs touching up. As far as aftercare goes, follow your artist's instructions, but as you get more tattoos you'll get a better sense of what works or doesn't work for you. There's a lot of information here about healing tattoos, but there's no real "best way" to heal one, and in any case, I'd talk about different aftercare methods with your artist before trying them.

I had my consult today and we are going to start in July of next year, or earlier if he has any cancellations. I'm super stoked, the tattoo is going to be amazing, and I just get such a good vibe from him and that shop.

Welcome Scott, my opinion is that mixing styles is pretty rad. - - - Updated - - - Here's one from Henning Jorgenson's instagram from a few months ago. The front was done by Grime, the rooster by Scott Sylvia, the eagle by Tim Lehi, and Henning tied it all together with background and did the armpits. I think that looks super rad.

I'll let you know tomorrow, I should have some dates then. I'm super excited for this. Dave's tattoos are really great, he seems like a super nice dude from my limited interactions with him so far, and PSC is a really cool shop. I hope I get some Tony stories...when I got tattooed by him there wasn't much talking, but I bet that guy has seen and heard it all.

I've been growing my hair for too many years to shave it all off now.

The evolution of the LST forum all in one thread.

Yeah probably. I think my point is basically that there are a lot of things that can be made into good tattoos as long as you go to a good artist and take his or her advice on the tattoo.