Graeme

I've always liked Sarah Carter's (Schorr) wolves:

Don't overthink it.

Some nice tattoos there, welcome!

I know there are far worse spots, but I hated getting my inner bicep tattooed. It swelled up so much and took a while to heal. I know that when I'm doing my ribs that I'm going to wish that I still had my inner biceps to do, but right now I am glad that I only have two of them and that I'm getting my other one done in the next few months. Getting my elbow tattooed wasn't as bad as I was expecting, healing it sucks.

Thanks! The tattoo was "done" until we were at Saved for @Pugilist to get some work done on her back and Seth saw the tattoo and said that he has it in his portfolio and he's been thinking about it and that the book needed something in it, and I'm really glad that he had the idea because it really pushes the tattoo that little bit further and I think brings it to that next level. I'm still kind of blown away by what he managed to do in such a small space. The tiny little Baphomet makes me so happy. Seth is awesome.

Me and @Pugilist had a Saison Dupont with dinner last night. It was nice. There's a huge Belgian influence in Quebec brewing and every brewpub has a saison available so it was nice to drink a bonafide example of what everywhere here is imitating.

There's nothing at all wrong in having to wait to get first-rate work. I don't see any point whatsoever in settling for a tattoo that is just "fine".

Yeah, I voted for both. I'd say that they both got really great tattoos...but they each got many really great tattoos.

Yeah I have been thinking that this season of Ink Master pretty much closes the tattooers with little to no tattoos debate, not that it was ever much of a debate to begin with. It doesn't say much about tattooers with tattoos either though...

I came across this about Professor Tom Riley in George Burchett's Memoirs of a Tattooist: "Tom, as I later came to know him, was a Yorkshireman who, like most tattooists, began his craft while he was still in the Forces. Having made a tidy sum by tattooing Army officers and men during his service, he bought himself out--a considerable feat for a ranker in those days--and went back to his home town, Leeds. There he took drawing lessons at the Mechanical Institute and later opened his first workroom in Liverpool's dockland. After a time he moved to Glasgow, whence his fame spread rapidly. He was offered an engagement as resident tattooist at the Royal Aquarium in London, where as a boy I had been a billiards-maker. Subsequently, he started his own surgery in the Strand. Now he was able to build up his clientele of society people and his own name became one to conjure with. Eventually he was employing his younger brother, also an admirable craftsman, as manager of the London interests while he, as the famous Professor Riley, travelled all over the world." @CultExciter A few pages after that Burchett talks about how Prof. Tom Riley was brought to America by P.T. Barnum (Barnum gave Riley the title 'Professor') so there is a direct UK-US link there, but I agree that the origins and exchange of tattoo imagery is fascinating and I'd love to learn more about it.

I wish the Grime interview in TAM #2 was online because he says a lot of great things about inspiration versus copying in it...he talks about this for five or so pages so I can't copy it out but here are a couple of excerpts. (admins, if it isn't okay to post this stuff, feel free to delete this) Let's talk about good ways to be influenced by other people's work and not copy it. Say you like a certain way somebody did something; we can just stick with the rose. Say you like the way they did a certain thing, a certain petal...so you analyze why you liked it and try to do something similar but not look at the thing and consciously try not to do that exact thing, but to figure out why you liked it, what set it apart... Sometimes it has to be as simple as just like biting a bullet and saying, "Well, I can't do that rose like that 'cause it's too close to the way so and so did it." I don't want to do what someone else is doing; it's like being second best...being a "Stunt Double", and I don't want to be that. I try not to do it. Grime on working with unfamiliar imagery: If it's something I don't think I'm going to do a good job on or I think when I'm finished it's going to be a mediocre tattoo, I don't want to do it cause I don't want to do those tattoos. I want to be excited and more than that, I want the client to be excited. If I'm approaching the tattoo like "this is so fucking stupid and blah blah blah" and being a crybaby and I can't figure it out then why am I tattooing them? They need to go to somebody that's going to give them better service; they need to go to somebody who's going to give them more than what I'm going to give them. If I can't give them some real effort then I have no business tattooing them...at least in this custom tattoo arena. Obviously not everything applies in the case of Ink Master... Also, before anybody jumps on me for this, I realise that not everybody is in Grime's position and can pick and choose the tattoos he does and still has a waiting list years long, and that it's unrealistic for a tattooer to be excited about every tattoo he/she does, but I still think he's saying something worthwhile about the art of tattooing.

Oh what the hell, probably crazy to enter a tattoo here given what's already posted, but whatever, I'm not here to make friends: Done by Seth Wood, Saved Tattoo. Mostly finished October 2011 so the thing is healed a year, but the illustrations in the book are fresh and were done a couple of weeks ago. Apologies for the giant pictures.

First one to say that you're not here to make friends gets my vote.

@Scott R that is such a great backpiece and it's even better having read how you went from thinking about blacking your back out to lasering it to that. Really superb stuff. @ian I likewise look forward to seeing how your back coverup goes as well, it should be spectacular.

Try also White House Custom Color: WHCC - White House Custom Colour A professional photographer friend recommended them as they're who he uses for printing cards etc and they've been great for when I've needed that sort of thing and I found their prices better than Vistaprint and the like.

So I guess this is the wrong month to submit my Chris "Big Dogz" Crinkle happy Jesus sleeve?

Welcome to LST! Always great to have people interested in tattoo history here, check out the old tattoo photos thread if you haven't already.

Highland Park is a fine whisky, great choice.

I'm reading George Burchett's memoir right now and he talks about scratchers. Phil Sparrow, in his book, talks about them too. They've always existed, always will, and it's more useful to promote good tattooing than trying to stamp out the shitty stuff.

+1 to that. I'd love to try Arches but that stuff is super expensive, and at this point my many weaknesses in drawing and painting have to do with my lack of technique and experience, and using higher quality materials isn't going to help that. Here's some skulls I drew on Canson XL (ie the cheapest stuff) with Pigma pens and generic art store brand tube watercolour.

Also beer.

Thanks for doing these. Though I don't tattoo, I do work a physical job that isn't very good for my body and while the physical stresses of my job are different than those involved in tattooing, I feel like the observations here about general physical fitness and diet have given me a lot to consider so that I can adapt my work and routine to do less damage to my body.

I do suppose that somebody needs to fill Al Fliction's convention booth this year...

Also what was with that dipshit in the last episode talking about how to increase the pain of tattooing on annoying clients? Motherfucker, the only purpose of your being on that show is for self-promotion and you're too fucking stupid to even manage that. Same with that mohawk idiot talking shit about every tattoo he has to do.