Lochlan

Random you should ask..... A friend of mine who years ago I used for my old record label and other bands posters, cd's, shirts, etc just emailed me a few days ago saying he is looking to hook up with some tattooers to do their printing. I can only speak on his work from a record label and producer who had him do work in that arena of printing that I love his work! The quality and passion he puts into each one is something above par that I would recommend in a world with so many people printing these days. For what it is worth he recently finished grad school studying printing so he has many years experience beyond the world of music and hands on experience. He has done printing "internships" in and out of school just for a desire to learn all he can at several places plus paid work. I could continue to go on but won't unless you want me to. Like I said he has not done printing for tattooers but has a desire to so if you're interested let me know. He is currently in the New York area.

I wasn't going to weigh in on this one as I'm not a tattooer nor a tattoo machine builder, however, I have changed my mind to try to add some perspective if I may in my humble opinion.... I have had the opportunity to be around a few tattoo machine builders and assisted some, actually wrapping coils today. Yesterday had a drill bit break off building some coils and stick in my finger plus the other wounds in the few years I've helped out and I am only doing this when they need help so can only imagine their stories. I have so much respect for what these guys do I could nor would I ever share the secrets they have shown me. Money could not compare, it is truly priceless!! That is not to be a privy prick but I have that much respect for it, them, and the history. Plus how much goes into just one machine. I see Scott and Juan constantly working their asses off on their days off putting time and energy into each machine. As well as bloody knuckles/hands/fingers, burns, etc.. I have been by Dan Dringenberg's machine shop and witnessed what they put into each machine. I was the extra laborer hands on Karl and Scott's collaborative machine.... and beyond the above labor they put in I saw/see the passion, friendship, and love they have for it. Watching Scott and Karl was a great experience for me and they will probably make fun of me for this but fuc'em....from an outsider watching the respect they have for one another as well as love was something I have seen few professionals share on a project. This is where I get my respect for it! This is where I even sometimes get my inspiration in my trade of psychology when feeling beat. On that note....you may find someone to show you. I know Dringenberg sometimes does seminars at tattoo conventions so maybe you will have the opportunity to attend one. But LST is not a place to learn about tattoo machines but it is a place to try to be a positive person in the world/trade of tattooing because we have that much respect for it. Lets try to do something different and new to/with tattooing, tattoos, and the internet for better tattoos......

Welcome to LST Clay.

thanks for signing up and introducing yourself....see you around the site....

Good morning Steve and welcome. Constructive criticism can be an amazing gift someone can give to another in any profession.

Thanks for deciding to join us Mask......see you on the forums.....

Welcome to the forum Ben.......

To think a PR person got paid to write this then it was approved.... If I was Spike TV &/or the production company I would fire this person and the chain of command who approved it in two seconds flat for representing a show so unprofessional let alone lack of research on the audience you're trying to attract..... Plus do your research...all they had to do was look around this site some and see LSTers have clearly laid out what would be a good tattoo show. Or do some research with tattooers that are respected and what their take is on all this tattoo/tv/media tornado and if they, tattooers, have suggestions on what a real and good show may entail. They spammed the site elsewhere also but our spam blockers blocked it. Yes I may get backlash from the above but those are my thoughts and keep yours coming....... The above doesn't sound like what I could find online regarding what this series is supposed to be about. From what I could locate it is supposed to be a bunch of tattooers competing for best tattoo whatever that means as well as what ever it is worth. As mentioned in the above OG post from them it doesn't seem to show the other write ups on the series. I wonder if this was the show Scott was recently asked to be on........

Is your tattooer stage name Squid Pants?

Shawn, thanks for sharing the airing information via your blog, no doubt one of the regular blogs I visit. Valerie, just saw your blog post, thanks for the kind words towards LST.

Just saw this tattoo video of Henk Schiffmacher and figured others on here would enjoy it.....

Welcome to LST

Did anyone see this list? I know there was some talk recently around Bob Baxter and his list here at LST so how about Corey's List for Complex.com? I can't copy and paste so check the link above to read it but here is just the list ( I took the liberty to fix their spelling as far as I know): 25. Filip Leu 24. Suzanne Fauser 23. Jack Rudy 22. Dave Shore 21. Jose Lopez 20. Carlos Torres 19. Henry Powell 18. Guy Aitchison 17. Hannah Aitchison 16. Kim Saigh 15. Juan Puente 14. Clae Welch 13. Grime 12. Horiyoshi III 11. Tim Hendricks 10. Tattoo Mick from Zurich 9. Goodtime Charlie Cartwright 8. Leo Zulueta 7. Greg Irons 6. Bob Roberts 5. Kore Flatmo 4. Bob Tyrrell 3. Chris Garver 2. Freddy Negrete 1. Sailor Jerry I see some LSTers on here plus some of the tattooers have been interviewed by LST, did you watch them yet? Plus I see one person on the list who did an interview with us that we'll be being posted soon....can you guess who it is? Does anyone dare try to make their own top twenty-five tattoo artist in their humble opinion?

When are you coming out this way? Seafood- Anchor in the Castro Japanese- I second Tammy's suggestions especially Sushi Ran if you make it to Sausalito Mexican- tons of places but can't think of names right now so get back to you on that

Sorry for the wait...... The winners are: Dringenberg & Co. Aahzz andreas coenen didar hawk Ms. Mikki the professor Tim Hendricks Valerie Vargas Alanna Congratulations and thanks to all who participated! Private message me your shirt size, if you want a female or male cut, and your mailing address......

Stewart, once again thanks for being vocal as it is helping us look at options. Everyone can never be happy especially in an online community as you mentioned but we can listen to people and see how we can make the site better. Also I like pickles to eat and psychologically, it keeps me on my toes working to problem solve creatively and efficiently. So if no one knows this, ALL SITES on the internet can have their images dragged off and/or right clicked if you run pc UNLESS the security settings on the site have been changed. We are in the process of changing our settings so people can not do either.

Welcome Ursula, I think you will find some familiar faces here....

Damn when I first heard someone say "an editor at Thrasher shot himself in front of the police station" I thought it was a different one. But it turns out to be Eric Swenson which is still a hit to Thrasher. I remember when working there he was the silent owner who would show up sporadically and mostly sit in Ed or Fausto's offices just watching. The influence he had on skateboarding as a whole and beyond Thrasher was/is enormous! Here's an article:

Stewart and other tattooers to the question: Here's my humble attempt at exploring and answering it, A large chunk of users on LST are tattooers then when looking at who is using the gallery an even larger chunk of those in this area are tattooers who upload their tattoo pictures to it plus view them. Only so many of the tattoo customers on LST upload their tattoo pictures. A lot of the feedback we got on the old system came from tattooers looking for easier navigation, sorting, etc.. Scott was rather amusing when we were discussing what is out there and looking at/on other sites then designing what our, LST, tattoo gallery and categories would be. And to build off of this with one of the new features is the rating system for LSTers to use a star rating system to pick the tattoos they like most. It is like a user based tattoo magazine editorial board. It has been discussed recently the quality of tattoo magazines are not all that and there are not really any tattoo ezines which tattooers think that highly of. WELL...this new user friendly system is a platform for tattooers to be active in their craft and what is good if they please to. I don't remember Scott's exact words but when he and I were first thinking about starting this site one of the turning points for him was around the line, "you can't complain if you don't vote". He randomly said it one day and it has stuck with me and him as well I believe. We have more in the works for the site as a whole too but the gallery system was one of the jumping off points we decided to do first to work to provide a better tattoo website not only for the tattoo customer but the tattooers. Scott used this line in our press release which I think is fitting here, '“My goal is to provide a source for people to see and meet good reputable tattooers [tattoo artists] from around the world, just like the magazines used to do. I'm hoping that Last Sparrow Tattoo can help protect the art of tattooing while respecting its roots and growing the community,” he said. He is not as much interested in this month’s new hit sensation; but rather in celebrating the longevity of the art form." There are many many new features and the above is just one. We are working on some security stuff which will hopefully help with some of the other concerns. Before you couldn't sort your pictures, so for example, when posting before and after pictures of a cover-up the order could be off which this new feature fixes. We often discuss tattoo designs and some upload pictures straight to the thread which is awesome and easy reference. Then there are those who opt just to use words which is also awesome which the new gallery should help the user see some of that specific image executed by various tattooers if they desire. Plus tattooers can see the variations some have used, like a recipe for them to add their own spice on classic tattoos. Lastly on this point it also allows a potential customer not knowing what say a homeward bound tattoo is and looks like by putting an image to a word. There are tons of other tattoo sites out there and I think a large chunk of us on here can agree the quality is not all that and LST is trying to put quality out there to the current and potential customers & tattooers so they can be better educated. Better educated not in what equipment a tattooer is using but ability to spot a not so good tattooer and a good tattooer. Exposing the gap and requesting better tattoos, better tattooers, and better tattoo shops! I hope this helps......

As has been said go big! I never thought about just how big of a piece of flesh it is until Scott Sylvia started my leg. He fit a huge reaper on the outside and some skeletons on the inside. he is still working on tattooing my leg but here are some old pictures of the tattoo in progress. Pictures one and three of my leg tattoos

As Steve said, thanks for speaking up with comments and suggestions. We, team LST, were wondering why no one really said anything when we announced the upcoming changes in April. We, team LST, discussed it amongst ourselves for awhile before we came up with a game plan for a new gallery that seemed like the most user friendly one which as mentioned we had to custom build cause we didn't think very highly of the other ones we saw. I want to echo what Steve said: We were getting feedback from users as well that the navigation around the gallery could be better so that's all we are aiming to do, make the best possible tattoo site we can for tattooers and tattoo customers. Stewart and others I hope this answers your comments and suggestions. If not, please let us know.

Thanks Iwar and Valerie for speaking up, I am going to let Steve have at the Gallery questions regarding navigation. Valerie, you should be able to override any move/categorizing that has occurred to your images but if not please let us know.... LSTers, we are slowly moving through the pictures and trying to categorize them AND would love if the user did it rather than us! Iwar, for the naming of pictures you should be able to not only add a name to a picture but also a description if you want. LSTers, we would prefer you adding tattoo names/style/object/etc rather than numbers or what-have-yous as it can also make for an easier navigation tool for other LSTers. If you add the tattooers or shops name in the description this could allow another search feature

Welcome. Where are you getting tattooed? Pictures after? If you've done your research as mentioned above on the tattoo shop and tattooer you should be good to go. I would imagine during the research you've seen their tattoos and heard good feedback from others on them? Have fun tonight!