JackJukatt

Well, they aren't exactly recent (first album 2001), but Cannibal Ox definitely does not get enough recognition. These guys know how to spit and the sampling is freaking amazing, like some sort of planet-destroying hip-hop monolith. Everything off Cold Vein is gold. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuwthdHxBJI"

Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout is a winter delight! Seriously delicious, its like chocolate cake in a glass (and not that weird fake-coco taste of so many other beers). A good runner up is Samuel Smith Chocolate Stout that just got released.

I find that the kind of people who get offended/confused about tattoos are usually the people who don't like me as a person anyway, so I figure how much can covering myself in tattoos matter? If they want an excuse I'll surely oblige.

"The Eyes of a Dumbass" sounds like the title to a John Steinbeck novel or something.

This is only tangentially related, but it may provide you some food for thought if you're spiritually inclined. The hand gestures of the Buddha (called mudras) in sculptures and paintings have very specific meanings, and it might be something that fertilizes your imagination: I don't pretend to know anything about Japanese tattoos, and obviously Buddhist symbolism is not only relegated to the Japanese, but religion definitely shapes a culture. Shinto (one of the earliest Japanese religions) is also is something you might be interested to read up on since its less of a religion in our western understanding of the term and more of a conglomerate of the mythologies, legends, and history of Japan. It might be a good place to look for some of the insights Stewart mentioned.

Does it bother any of you when clients bring in their own designs/sketches? I can imagine people are less likely to accommodate the changes that need to be made to make a drawing tattooable when its their own work, rather than something they found somewhere. I ask because for my first tattoo I have some specific ideas that I want, but don't want to come off like I think I know better than the artist, I just want to have some part in it. I'm paranoid it will somehow be insulting/tiresome to the artist.

Hey, something I sort of know about! I can make my first post for you, get out the velvet ropes and holy water! I know you say you don't want to have to keep looking at flash, but that seems like a sure way to grow an understanding of how it works. Redrawing someone's art isn't just about replicating, it's about observing more closely than you would by simply looking at something. If you copy a lot of flash art (or any style) and then compare it to your own attempts you'll eventually start to understand why certain things work and others don't (a lot of things like that aren't so easy to articulate, which is why there's no substitute for drawing tons to get better). Wood-cuts and blockprints and stuff like that are other forms you might benefit from copying too, since they use minimal shapes to indicate an image as well. Of course, I'm not a tattoo artists or anything I just like to draw, but I'm willing to bet that most of the tattoo artists here started out trying to draw tons of tattoos in the style that captivated them.

Hey, my name's Jack. I'm a 20-something living (read: drawing and video games) in upstate New York. Stumbled upon LST while poking around looking at tattoos. Seems like a cool community. Most of my skillpoints have been put into lurking, so I'll be doing that for a while until I level up a bit. Figure I'd let you know that I'm there in the shadows...watching....watching and waiting with narrowed, suspicious eyes.