Dennis

I guess I'll pop this threads cherry :D
Done by Jeff Gogue, Off the Map Tattoo in Grants Pass, OR. Done at SFO Convention...

Done by Jondix of Barcelona, Spain at SFO COnvention...

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

Tom Renshaw:

took this picture yesterday 4th day of healing already peeled Scott sylvia blackheart tattoo SF
SF trip was better than i could have ever expected or deserved.
found LST(pic 1) got great advice (pic 2) listened to said advice !(pic 3)

Hearing this makes me even more excited for my appointment with him in February!

I'd say it's a great idea, but I love huge blackwork pieces and japanese. I personally don't have any blackwork, but I really appreciate it when it's well done!
I don't know your current tattoo collection on your arm, but even doing blackwork with some negative space patterns in it would be awesome too. Marc at Little Swastika does that kind of thing really well

thats some nice B&G

Absolutely! He is a very intelligent, well read man. We spent about an hour just talking about philosophy and the way we approach our lives before we started doing anything else. His apprentice Adrian was great, and Kim was a sweetheart.
I am so glad we decided to work with them. Every part of the experience was great. They treated us like we were old friends that they had known for years. They truly bent over backwards to make us comfortable and put us at ease. My wife loved working with Brenda, and she couldn't be happier with her tattoo.
After being treated so well and being so happy wit the results, I couldn't imagine working with anyone else. We will keep going back until they throw us out.

In my experience, that's not true, in fact that only accounts for about 1/3rd, maybe 1/2 of my business. Sadly, I lived through the early / mid 90's when anyone who had a visible tattoo, or a facial piercing was a vagrant, low life or non-employable punk, according to society. About 1/4 of the clients I'm seeing are removing tattoos not because they are awful, but because they got something small a decade or more ago in "prime real estate" and now want to do a sleeve or larger piece and it's in the way. Another 1/4 of clients have sub-par quality tattoo's from the early and mid 90's, and simply don't want them anymore.
The number of people who are having "regretful" tattoos removed is far lower than you might actually think.
The sub titles in that video explain the process, but it hurts. The vacuum like thing you see in that video blows cold air onto the skin, a about -30f, some people like it some don't. Most people will tell you that a treatment feels like a hot rubber band being snapped over and over. I'd say from my experience that feeling is pretty accurate. What many don't understand is that the time per treatment is a fraction of the tattoo time, which you see in that video. They go through about 1/4 of the back in 4 minutes, that tech is very experienced, some may take a little longer to cover the same area. Most (including myself) feel no pain within minutes of the treatment ending, and by the time the heat dissipates your skin (totally within about 20 minutes) you're left with virtually no pain at all. The most amazing thing to me was the shower the following morning, expecting the sunburn feeling from being tattooed, there is no shower pain. The skin is also not sensitive to the touch.
Answering the 2nd part of your question, if the client properly treats the treated area, within 4-6 weeks another treatment can be done. Most people are suitable to receive another tattoo 8-12 weeks following their last treatment (wither lightening or total removal). In my personal experience healing mine, the skin "looks" normal after about 3 weeks. The best thing I can do to further explain it is this: As a kid, I'm sure you had a scab. If you waited a few days to pick the scab, so it wouldn't again bleed when it came off, under it you'll see a shiny, almost silver-like skin. That appearance on my skin was totally gone within about 25 days.
Since tattoo removal relies almost entirely on how well your immune system disposes of the fractured ink partials, you'll continue to see fading of a treated area for up to 6 months in some clients.

One of my favorite big skulls from Kore Flatmo. In my opinion, he does the perfect skull. His stuff is so good, whether it is more realistic or more stylized...it doesn't matter.

Kind of posted about this in another thread, but I'll reiterate here. I'm currently in University, but I work in a hospital during the summers doing non-invasive cardiology testing (mostly pre-op), cardiac rehabilitation and knee/hip replacement surgery rehabilitation. Basically I'm always working with patients, physicians and other departments of the hospital. I always wear t-shirts and shorts and I've had nothing but positive reactions. I don't think I've ever had a negative reaction (save for my Dad's reaction to my first one). Usually the tattoos serve as an ice breaker with patients and initiates conversation. Lots of elderly patients have nice things to say about it, with the usual questions like "did that hurt?" and "what does it mean?"
I always enjoy having a conversation about tattooing though, so I look forward to random questions from curious people! :)

I hate seeing neck/hand tattoos when the person has no work on their arms, especially if they are younger. I think they focussed on how cool they felt they would look rather than the social implications of such a visible, hard to conceal tattoo.

The details that Seth added:

And the start of my sleeve, by Thomas Hooper:

Hahah, I didn't even notice the Dunham thing. I was too focussed on the large area that is blacked out! Either way, I really enjoy that style of tattooing, but I wouldn't get it myself. Same goes for biomech/colour realism. I love looking at it, would never get it!

In 2008, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco invited Horitaka of State of Grace to participate in their MATCHA series. Horitaka not only gave a lecture on Japanese tattooing--he also tattooed a client in the museum, as did Horitomo, Horiyuki (aka Jill Bonny), Colin Kenji and Shige (who was also accompanied by one of his clients). Horitomo put in a few hours on my arm, then worked on Khalil Rintye's ribs for a while.
It was a very odd experience. I've been tattooed at conventions, but this was very different. At conventions, most of the attendees are tattooed. At the museum, that was not the case; tons of people were coming up and asking me all kinds of questions. (If only I'd brought earbuds--plugged into nothing--I could've played it off like I couldn't hear them.) In the end, I was happy to participate.
Until last week, I never knew there was a video of the event. Check it out: at 3:40, you can see me and my buddy Clem comparing open spots on our legs. Clem's the guy with the huuuuuuge Jeff Zuck panther on his back (as well as lots of other awesome stuff).
But my favorite thing about this is that the top youtube comment says, "0:59 is that Ami James?" :D

Hahah, I didn't even notice the Dunham thing. I was too focussed on the large area that is blacked out! Either way, I really enjoy that style of tattooing, but I wouldn't get it myself. Same goes for biomech/colour realism. I love looking at it, would never get it!

Hahah, I didn't even notice the Dunham thing. I was too focussed on the large area that is blacked out! Either way, I really enjoy that style of tattooing, but I wouldn't get it myself. Same goes for biomech/colour realism. I love looking at it, would never get it!

By Shige.

I realize tat tattoos have become more "culturally acceptable" in the past decade or so, but it drives me insane when kids from the suburbs come in looking to get a neck/hand/face tattoo without having any other work... Seems like everyone wants the "warped tour" sleeves these days. Wrist to fingers. Drives me nuts.

Here's a snake piece from Kurt Wiscombe, from early 2000 I believe!

A few more...


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Short attention span and a pain-in-the-ass scanning setup. I'm gonna post the front and back cover, and about 20 pages, and see if y'all think it's worth doing. There are A LOT of pages in the mag, so it may be better if I scanned it into a PDF and gave it to an admin to set-up as a download?
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Here's a snake piece from Kurt Wiscombe, from early 2000 I believe!

I'm not a fan of having an unknown (to me) artist working on me at a convention or anywhwere. At a convention, there is no allegiance to the client like you have when working from a shop.
I don't know how widespread the problem is. Call me old school, but I still like a solid outline and the color filled in well. Any sizeable tattoo I've ever gotten has needed a touch up here and there. And nothin' looks better than a month-old healed tattoo, its all downhill from there. Your results may vary.
Rob