Graeme

I don't know what the UK/Irish editions of those books look like but the North American DAW covers are soulless photoshopped abominations. I hate that shit. More fantasy illustration please, like how it used to be.

@Rob I Your back is insane!

I went last year and it was a lot of fun. It's not a large convention but there were a lot of really great tattooers there and I thought that the crowd was pretty nice. A lot of people were there seemingly to get tattooed instead of just going to gawk. I don't think I'll go this year because I already have two out of town trips planned in May, but I'd otherwise think about it. I'm not sure that the website is up to date because there are some people on the website who have moved from the shops they're listed at, but there are a bunch of people there I'd really like to get tattooed by, like Jeff Zuck, Brian Bruno, Krooked Ken, Mike Rennie, Danny Reed...I'm actually going to stop there because I'd probably end up listing two dozen names. The point being that the convention has a really solid lineup.

What @daveborjes said. This guy is a psycho, there's no point in trying to reason with him. This thread should die.

@Victor Stop being a fucking clown. Is this the website for your shop? Why are you stealing, nearly word for word, the welcome statement on the LST website? LST: The Halifax Tattoo Machine: We want answers.

Nice start to your arm, welcome to LST.

I'll leave it up to you to decide how credible or experienced I am when it comes to tattoos, but in my opinion, if you went into a shop and asked for a "black and grey, illustrative, painterly, realistic" tattoo I would expect that you'd be met with a blank stare. This chart is a joke.

What is this, the high school guidance counsellor method of getting tattooed?

If you stop a half inch above your elbow you wouldn't be able to cover your tattoos with a short sleeve shirt anyway... If it helps you any, when I was trying to figure out how far down my arms I was willing to go, I was thinking pretty strongly of doing 3/4 sleeves because the thought of going all the way down to the wrist made me...I don't want to say I was nervous, because that wasn't quite it...but I did try to think through what it meant to be tattooed down to the wrist. I guess I was trying to weigh what I wanted against what I thought people might perceive of me. Writing this now makes it seem kind of silly to me, but that was more or less my thought process at the time. But then I was also thinking of how I could extend 3/4 sleeves if I decided on going that way. So I went down to the wrist, and I'm happy that I did.

I worked with a girl once who had "FUCKING HOSTILE" tattooed on her foot. The thing is, she was this total girly girl, not the type you would expect to have a Pantera tattoo at all. I made a comment about it once and she completely refused to talk about it. I think it's pretty funny.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Welcome!

Greg Christian.

Good thing that you got nice forearm tattoos that appreciated in value! Because I've spent all this money on tattoos and I can't sell them for shit.

If you refer to your tattoos in any way as an "investment" you're even worse with money than I am, and I'm bad at money.

I was trying to follow up on references given in the article but couldn't find much through a Google search other than other websites making reference to this lawsuit. This American Environmental Safety Institute doesn't seem to have a website anymore either. I did find reference, however, to another lawsuit the AESI brought against chocolate manufacturers--though the lawsuit was never tried before a court according to this article--about levels of lead occurring in chocolate. This letter from Environmental Health Perspectives criticises the science (the author contends the study contains "careless and misleading science") used in the AESI leaden chocolate study. Does it follow that the science used by AESI in the lawsuit against Huck Spaulding and Superior Tattoo Equipment is similarly flawed? It's impossible to say without critically assessing the studies themselves, but it does mean that I'm going to take that Scientific American article with a grain of salt, especially since I don't see heavily tattooed people suffering the symptoms of lead or other heavy metal poisoning.

No problem, and I'd also recommend watching the artist interview videos on this site, Vice's Tattoo Age series, and the Gypsy Gentleman videos because they'll give you insight into the people making tattoos, and there are some great tattoos and great stories in them.

I've been tattooed at PSC (Tony), Tattoomania (Bert who is maybe working in a private studio now?), and Tatouage Artistique (Danny) and I like all those shops. I travel a lot to get tattooed as well. Dave at PSC is starting my full back this summer. My wife has also been tattooed at Pol (Reb) and MTL Tattoo (Eilo) and she got really nice tattoos there. Imago does really nice work too. I've seen a couple of really nice sleeves over the past few months that were done by Nat who tattoos there. If you're on Instagram, a lot of those people have accounts and they're worth following to see what they're doing.

Welcome! I completely agree with @BrianH about showing patience and maturity. I don't think there's a legal minimum age to get tattooed in Montreal, but keep in mind that the good shops are probably not going to tattoo under 18s, and it's worth waiting to get tattooed by a good artist at a good place. As far as convincing your mother that people with tattoos aren't bad people, that completely depends on your mother, but the Art Tattoo Show Montreal at the start of September at the Gare Windsor might be worth checking out as there's a lot of excellent tattooing going on there and you can talk to tattooers and tattooed people and see that we're pretty much just regular people despite our outward appearances.

Welcome! I've seen pictures of your back before and it's stunning!

Beautiful tattoo and I'm glad it worked out for you!

Three Kings is a great choice. I haven't been tattooed there personally, but I have been tattooed a bunch by Ron Wells who is a frequent guest there, and I have friends who have been tattooed by Myles Karr and they have nothing but good things to say (and the tattoos are nice too). I'd love to get tattooed by Daniel Trocchio and Matt Bivetto so I'm sure that I'll get tattooed there on a future trip to NYC. You'll get a great tattoo from there, and if you're getting a good vibe from the shop, even better. Personally, in NYC I've been tattooed at Saved and Smith Street and I'll recommend those shops as well.

Who in his right mind gets his chest tattooed by Chad and knows how it feels then decides that he's then going to get his back done by him?!?! Hahaha

I work on my feet too (and have to wear high waterproof boots as well, which is an added complication) and I try to schedule the tattoos on my legs so that I have at least a day off between getting tattooed and going to work, so basically I'll get tattooed on a Friday or Saturday if I'm working again on Monday. Because I'm often travelling for tattoos the day of rest is kind of built into it...I'll get tattooed and stay overnight, drive back the next day, then go back to work the day after that. I did get a leg tattoo once and worked the next day, but it was a little fist-sized thing, and it was fine.

I think that usually it's best to get more tattoos rather than trying to add to existing tattoos. Are you familiar with Colin Dale? His tattoos are more along the lines of Viking tattoos, though there's obviously a crossover with Celtic art there, but I could see something like what he does appealing to you.