Mr. Smith

Basically that the soaps and such that they use don't contain animal products, that they've confirmed their inks are not made with any animal products, etc. Though I just saw that they recently found out their stencil paper has lanolin in it, so they're trying to find an alternative, and have suspended calling themselves a vegan shop until then.

Scapegoat Tattoo in Portland has some rad artists, and is a vegan shop.

If you're in the Toronto area, definitely check out Speakeasy Tattoo and Pearl Harbor Gift Shop. Definitely DON'T get tattooed by that first guy.

I agree, I'm REALLY into this season. Also, that scene last night with the horror maze house and dude in the viking helmet or whatever it was was (while a bit ridiculous) definitely the most terrifying scene of the series so far.

@ian beat me to it. Obviously Grime if that is a possibility. But barring that, it would definitely be Matt Shamah. Dude is incredible.

Yeah, the wolves are awesome. Though I think the ones with the kewpies are my favorites.

This.

I would also gladly pay $500/hr for a Chris Conn tattoo. The expense of a whole trip to California and the taking time off work thing is much more of a barrier than the price of the tattoo. The way I see it, when he started tattooing again he said that he was charging $500/hr. Whether he actually charges less than that isn't particularly relevant, as that's what he chose to announce and wants people to think. If at some point he chooses to clarify or change that, that's up to him. I can totally see the advantages in wanting people to think your rate is that high...he gets to tattoo only people who REALLY want a tattoo from him. Some people have said in this thread that they wouldn't be willing to pay that for a Chris Conn tattoo, while some have said they would. It seems to me, that if weeding out those who don't "want it that bad" or whatever was his intention, then it's working pretty well for him.

Yup. This pretty much sums up most of my feelings.

I apologize if anyone has posted about her on here before and all of that, but I just stumbled onto her art through an Instagram hole. She makes woodcuts based on tattoo imagery, and HOLY FUCK, I'm blown away. As soon as I have some extra cash, I definitely want one (really, all of them) for my collection. Bryn Perrott Edit: Son of a bitch. I misspelled her name in the thread title.

I've started using Pinterest quite a bit recently. For the longest time, I just didn't get it, but discovered that it's fucking brilliant for recipes. I do all of the cooking in our house and we're vegan (well, my fiancee eats cheese, but I'm vegan so all of the meals we eat together are), so I get really stoked when I find a tasty, easy recipe, and I spend a fair amount of time on recipe blogs/food porn sites. Pinterest makes it way easy to keep track of all of the shit I want to try making, and since I started using it, I haven't had to spend 20 minutes cursing while trying different combinations of words on google trying to find something I stumbled across a few days back. I still haven't really got into the social aspect of it though.

I'd be into a zine for sure.

It's fine. Not great, but fine. Talk to your tattooer, express your concerns, and let him/her do whatever they think is best. If you don't trust them enough to do that, find someone you do. Though honestly, if it were me, I wouldn't worry about it and would just make my next tattoo twice as rad.

Nice @mmikaoj! I think I saw that on his IG a while back. That's super rad, and I'm super jealous. I don't think I'd ever seen an all-black Deno tattoo before...that was neat. Anyone care to enlighten me on the meaning behind SOOS? Maybe I'm super ignorant, but trying to figure out what it means/stands for/whatever has been driving me nuts for a while.

I agree. Also, if I could afford (or when I can) to make it to California, booking an appointment with Chris Conn would be at the top of the agenda. To get back on the topic of pet peeves...for me, the only big one I've encountered from a customer's perspective is having to listen to stupid, offensive shit. I realize that a lot of people would consider me to be overly PC, which is fine (I disagree to a large extent with what most people consider to be "political correctness" and see it more as "not being an asshole", but whatever), but it definitely turns me off to hear racist or homophobic shit when I'm getting tattooed. On one trip to a pretty well-known shop, my buddy that I was staying with (who is gay) decided that he wanted a tattoo too and came with and got tattooed. He was super stoked on it and really liked the dude that we both got tattooed by, but during his tattoo a couple of the other tattooers hanging out made a few gay jokes (unrelated to my friend), and it was pretty awkward and uncomfortable for both of us for a minute. Consequently, I probably won't ever get tattooed by those dudes, despite them making rad tattoos. With a finite amount of skin and a Want list longer than I'll ever be able to get through, I want to enjoy my tattoo experience as much as possible, so I'm gonna go with the tattooer I don't worry about having to endure hearing go off on some "faggot" shit during my session.