Mike Panic

I agree, I've worked the counter at a bunch of shops through the years and have watched artists tell people no. It's a case by case basis, neither of us know anything more than some "news" agency is reporting. I remember the mid-90's hardcore days when a bunch of Straight Edge kids started putting XXX on their necks, it was like WHOA!. Today, the kid at my local Wawa has his neck done. When I worked in NYC, it was almost expected that 1 in 3 people you interacted with would have tattoos on their hands... remember when forearm tattoos where taboo too?

And by has a thing for tattooing girls faces you mean, taking money to do his job? Read the actual article you linked to, This was a paying customer who walked into a tattoo shop and asked for a tattoo. It's black and white. She then lied. I'm not defending the guy here, but come on. She was afraid what her daddy would do, when, as an 18 year old woman she PAID for a mistake. The guy, for whatever reason, never used a consent form, which is just bad business practice, originally offered to pay for half the removal costs too, just so his client would be happy. He later withdrew the offer after his name was totally run through the mud. Furthermore, please tell me who is making £9,000 ($14,000 usd) from laser tattoo removal? I want their secret! Lastly, why hasn't any UK tattoo removal company stepped up to offer free or discounted removal? If the guy with the Romney "R" can get his removed for free, and he was paid to get it in the first place, clearly she can find someone who's willing to trade some publicity.

It's one of those things you should probably look up on your own =)..Photo by timmy_b13 • Instagram

Way late to this thread... Back in 1995, my neighborhood was rocked when two brothers killed their parents and younger brother, both were Neo-Nazi, one having Seig Heil and the other having Berzerker on their foreheads, http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/family/freeman_brothers/2.html - we don't see a lot of hate / gang crime around here. One of the firs things we looked into was offering gang tattoo removal when we put our business plan together last year, however there just isn't a lot of it in my area. An hour SW of me is Philly, but through all the research I couldn't find any private, local, state or national grant programs that offered us some reimbursement for doing it. We want to help the community, just can't donate 100% all the time. If anyone in Eastern PA or Western NJ knows anything about this, drop me a PM. We've also been actively reaching out to the armed forces and first responder recruiters, offering discounts for those trying to enlist but can't do to ink.

OK, fair enough @Graeme, totally see your point =) but most don't even bother to read the back story - the article also says it's already being mistaken for a gang tattoo.

Ha, true. Thing is, it's a well done tattoo, and sure, it will evoke a lot of stares and gasps and people will point their fingers. Nearly 18 years ago it was 1995 and I was 16, had all kinds of metal in my face, could stick my fingers through my ears and was on my way to a 2ga barbell in my tongue. I was also the second person in my high school that was tattooed and got drug into the guidance counselors office, was told to explain why I was mutilating my body. As it turns out, I was also making acrylic captive bead body jewelery and plugs and had spent more than my fair share of time in tattoo shops, so my reply was: Why are your ears pierced? The specialist that was called it told me her mother had them done to her when she was a child, so I went down the whole "wow your mom mutilated you when you couldn't even make up your own mind or say no" route with her, followed by the "oh it's OK because your mom did it to you and ear lobes are considered OK for women to pierce." Keep in mind, this is before it was common place to see guys with both lobes done. Things where very different back then. It's shocking, discomforting to look at, new, strange, different. Doesn't mean she needs it removed, should be called out or made fun of, it actually looks like a half decent tattoo and clearly she wants to make a statement. Sadly, most people out there don't even know what Timmy B has tattoo'd on his face, what it means or why it's so controversial Announcing the Timmy B Machine, a Full Sized Liner | Custom Tattoo Machines | - and people are doing these "smaller" face tattoos on a very regular basis.

I don't even have words for this level of commitment. Fair warning, there is one semi-NSFW image at the bottom of the article. Lesya and Rouslan | BME: Tattoo, Piercing and Body Modification News

Several obey prints: http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/paintings-prints/3607-fs-obey-prints-06-07-08-a.html

Purging collection. Add $15 for shipping to the lower 48 states, shipping International is on a per country basis. Lots of positive feedback on thegiant.org from over the years. Paypal or will process US credit cards over the phone, surcharge will apply. Not interested in trades, sorry. Need cash. All prints where originally bought by me through obey.com and have been stored in a smoke free home, in an archival portfolio flat. Street Weapons #139 / $375 Proud Parents #128 / $375 Peel #102 / $75 Chuck D 2007 #250 / $100 Peace Goddess #194 / $700 Hope for Darfur #105 / $100

@YOMONEY - treatments vary by person, mine personally don't really start to fade until around week 3-4, and fade well into week 6. I'm actually due this week for another treatment if my business partner has time for me. It will be 3rd on one tattoo and 2nd on two others. Some of my clients see fading in weeks 2-4, some come back at week 4. Because the vast majority of fading is carried out by your bodies immune system, there is one size fits all aftercare. If you waited 8-12 weeks between treatments there's a good chance you'll see more fading in those last few weeks, but everyone is different and no one wants to prolong this more than they have to.

No one on here will look at it hanging on your wall every day, you will. I have a portfolio filled with Kinsey and Shepard Fairey prints (and some other) that will never see my walls, I'm actually contemplating selling them as they've been sitting for 5+ years now, with only a few pieces being hung. Point is, if you want to look at it every day, buy it. No justification needed.

You sat for 45 minutes?!! You have earned my respect man, seriously. Longest I've personally sat is 16, longest I've had a client sit for is 19 before tapping. We've been having great success in combating blisters and swelling by having clients cover with aquaphor 60 minutes post treatment, then plastic wrap, then pre wrap: CVS Universal Sports Pre-Wrap Protects Skin - CVS pharmacy Of course, talk with your treatment place before deviating from their aftercare instructions.

I'm 2 hours from NYC, but like most things, location indicates pricing. The pricing in Manhattan will likely be 25-50% higher than on LI, but the options out there will also be far fewer. Also, you'll find that the "med-spas" will typically be slightly more expensive over specialists. Depending when you're planning on coming over, start watching groupon.com and livingsocial.com, both are losing steam but crazy deals can be had on multiple treatments that will save you a ton. Specifically talking about your tattoo, black / grey react the best, fade the fastest from treatments, so you're probably a really good candidate to totally remove them. Having worked in the city a year and a half ago, I still have a few connections up there, let me see if I can find some recommendations for you.

Euro size 54, translates to roughly an American jacket size 42. I've had this jacket for a while and sold my bike, so I won't be wearing it anytime soon. It does not have any internal padding / armor, it fits really well, Velcro closure at the bottom with a plastic buckle so it won't scratch your tank. Shows virtually no signs of wear, very comfortable. Has been stored in my closet, smoke free home since the last time I wore it. Was never down, does not have holes, rash, etc. Always got compliments when I wore it. $150 - I live in eastern PA (an hour NW of Philly) or shipping at your expense. I've been on here forever, eBay and paypal verified since 1999, will give eBay username if you really want to verify me.

That blows. Blisters happen for a variety of reasons, some could be blamed on the tech / Dr. who set the laser up, some may have to do with your immune system and some may have to do with what was used in the pigments you were tattooed with. The sad truth is, without FDA regulation, tattoo pigment is made of some kind of scary stuff. As it sits in your skin, it really doesn't do anything positive or negative, just like a birth mark. When you laser it though, those pigment particles fracture into much smaller pieces that the immune system can dispose of - that's where you start to run into issues with how your body processes those, and what those particles are actually made of.

Not entirely true, a q-switched yag is a super efficient machine. After spending a lot of time talking with what I think are about the only honest people left in the medical field, the field techs, I've had my eyes opened to some realities. The ruby laser is being pushed pretty hard, both to consumers and sales reps. Mostly, what's happening is many med-spa's are a child company or sister company to a plastic surgeons office, and thus they have no problems with cash flow. That said, once you buy a yag, you're pretty much setup for a few years, unless you need to buy another one due to volume, a problem I'd LOVE to have haha. Sales reps don't see return commissions, the units just last and last and run. The ruby operates at one specific wave length, and thus is very effective for specific tones. Otherwise, it's pretty much a one-trick pony. Sales reps started marketing it to med-spas with cash over-flow issues since it's a great end-of-year tax write-off, and the spa's can then in turn say to their clients, "well their client, we have two lasers, one that does most of the heavy lifting and this here special one that you NEED to have used because of that there color you have in your tattoo." It's working, because I hear it in person and on forums a lot. Ironically, those who are talking about it don't know the wavelength that typically is run for most all tattoo removal, or that of the ruby. That's proof enough people are buying into the marketing aspect of things.

You're half right. Red, along with black fades the fastest and usually has the best reaction to laser treatments. It's not that green (blue & yellow too) are more difficult to remove, they just might take more sessions. If your goal is to cover though, just getting the green light should do the trick. I'd say right now about 75-80% of my business is lightening tattoos for people to either get them covered, or to hide them inside a much larger piece because the original tattoo is now in "prime real estate". Perhaps where I differ from the other med-spa places out there is that I actually encourage you to keep an open dialect going with your tattoo artist through the whole process. I'll tell you to stop in 3-4 weeks after a treatment with your artist and discuss your future tattoo, and he or she will tell you if it would be helpful to get 1, 2 or 5 more treatments based on the level of fading you currently have. I work with a ton of shops in my area because of this mutual respect. For my clients who are getting cover-ups, my goal is for them to get the best possible tattoo that THEY want, not the tattoo that will best cover or hide the original piece. Far too often people end up with large dark-belly owls, roses, lotus and sunflowers because it's easy to hide old tattoos inside, sadly that's usually not what the person wants.

Had a blast last year helping a friend set up his booth (tattoo machine builder) and doing some photography. This year the line-up already looks great with Timmy B, Billy Tohler, Alexis Kovacs, Joy Less Posh and a lot more. I'll be there all 3 days this year, working a booth for my company with my business partner, but hopefully can break away to walk around and enjoy the show a bit. There's something like 80+ artists already confirmed this year. Official website: Skindustry Tattoo Expo Facebook: Skindustry Expo | Facebook Photos I took at last year's convention: Skindustry Tattoo Expo 2012 | Keith B Machineworks

One of the more common reasons people come to me is because they have a very dark outline of an unfinished tattoo, or a very old tattoo in "prime real estate" where they want a much bigger piece. Anyone will tell you a cover up is really a "hide" and your options for cover ups will vary on how much skin around the area you're willing to give up (size matters! especially for hiding older tattoos) and what you want your "new" tattoo to be of. If you're cool hiding your old tattoo in the chest of a giant owl, sunflower, rose or other common cover up subject matter, great! The reason they are used so often is because of all the line work and dark areas, it's a lot easier. If however you're after something smaller or similar in size to what you have, or want lighter colored inks, going through a few treatments to lighten and fade the old piece will make a far superior final product. I've already started treating a client who has essentially a black box on his upper arm, it's 4-5 cover-ups that all went wrong and finally all black was the only answer. Now we're working to lighten it all up.

I remember that. Those where a little extreme, and that show is now a few years old and technology and technique has improved. Blistering can happen, but it's few and far between now and has to do more with the persons body, skin and immune system.

I don't really celebrate, but at a secret santa exchange with some friends I ended up with a Grindcore House travel mug, coffee mug and a $20 starbucks gift card - of all the gifts given / received, I couldn't have been happier, as I'm known amongst my friends as the coffee nazi. Unexpectedly, a friend also got me a bag of Black Cat coffee beans. Yes, I'm serious about this stuff... Monday Morning Espresso | Crispy Hundos

@bhess246 - I tell people it feels like the last 10 minutes of the longest tattoo session you've ever sat through, on fire. The reality is that most sessions are completed in under 7 minutes, small tattoos can be done in 90 seconds! The pain / discomfort stops almost as soon as the laser stops running on you, or within 20 minutes.

Thanks @bhess236 - I'm hoping to get another treatment in around the end of the first week in January and will keep updating this thread.

Oh you're absolutely right @NorthernBrother, most all of that footage was shot at 60fps and then edited and shown at 24fps to get the speed right - and some serious rigging, multiple cameras, great overall team effort. I can't imagine the hundreds and hundreds (if not thousands) of hours of footage the edit team had to sift through to make a 5 minute video. You also need to be real comfortable in a chair with Premier or Final Cut. I still think the GoPro has forever changed videography for the better. They are cheap, can be stuck anywhere, and it's not uncommon for reality / real world based TV shows to use hundreds of these to get otherwise impossible shots. The real skills are now being shown with editing though.

@YOMONEY The before / after on my leg was about 9 after. I do find that my tattoos get darker the first 2 weeks then fade, which makes sense with how the whole procedure happens. We tell (as do most people) that you need to wait 4-6 weeks between treatments, this is to facilitate the skin tissue to heal properly - the reality is you can see fading, granted it will be very slight and gradual, for up to 6 months between treatments if you stretched them out that long. Most people don't want to do 2 treatments a year though and wait 5-7 years for a removal. Today is two weeks past my 2nd treatment, and 1st on two other tattoos and I'll update my thread before the next treatments.