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.

I think this is probably the wrong place to bitch about a tattooer being overpriced. Especially when that price is $100/hour. Maybe check out the thread on Chris Conn for a little bit of perspective?

Regardless of your opinion on the whole "can it/should it be reclaimed?" conversation, this is a pretty ignorant viewpoint to hold in the tattoo community. I can think of at least 3 tattooers that I know with swastika tattoos who are most definitely not white supremacists.

For Michigan: Dawn Cooke, Jon Larson, and Bill Falsetta at Depot Town Tattoo in Ypsilanti (Chris Fox is tattooing there now as well, not at Fish Ladder in Lansing). Leo Zulueta and Michael Aul at Spiral Tattoo in Ann Arbor. Dan Rick at Signature Tattoo in Ferndale. Mike Emmett and Timm Talcott at Front Street Tattoo in Traverse City.

Pretty much what @slayer9019 said. Tattoos change over time. I know that I have some tattoos that I've seen pictures of a year or two later and said "Oh shit, i forgot that that used to be THAT color." For me, certain yellows in particular become much less "vibrant." Although there are a number of other factors too that affect how my tattoos look on any given day such as how much sun I've gotten or how much/little water I've drank. I have one tattoo on my wrist that I can look at and tell if I'm a little dehydrated or not. And I have certain tattoos that just spit out ink and have sizable holes in them. Every little imperfection use to bother me, but I've gotten over that. They're made by hand. Also, everyone's skin is different and holds ink differently...mine happens to suck at it. That said, if you're unhappy with the way your tattoo looks now that its healed, go back to your dude and ask him if there's anything he can do to darken it up a bit and do some touch ups on the red that fell out. Just understand that your tattoos will never look the way they did on the day you got it. Fucking sandcastles and all of that shit. For me, the easiest way to stop obsessing about how a tattoo looks is to go get a new one. Maybe try someone different and see if you're happier with the way their shit heals up. There are so many great artist recommendations on here, I'm sure you can find a top-notch tattooer within a few hours drive of wherever you are.

I second what @David Flores said. Send him to Frith St.

I'm really surprised that Tomek Szumiec from Baltimore doesn't get mentioned more. He's a super nice dude and his tattoos are FLAWLESS. He does guest spots at name Brand Tattoo, and I got a really nice rose on my arm from him a while back. If you haven't heard of him, you should definitely check him out. Tattoos by Tomek web.stagram.com/n/tomek1906

I enjoy the relative peacefulness of this forum too much to weigh in too much. I'm a pretty avid political junkie too, although my lack of cable TV prevented me from catching last night's debate. If pressured to pick a label, I would consider myself a Social Democrat, so I was really hoping for Obama to pull out a strong win. From what I've read that didn't happen. The consensus from the sources that I've been reading this morning (who are certainly left-leaning) is that Romney won on style, while Obama won on substance, and that in all likelihood, neither did anything to sway the bases or make up the minds of any undecideds. - - - Updated - - - That said, I also wouldn't hate a "let's all avoid politics" policy. @gougetheeyes I've also had to unsubscribe from a few for similar reasons.

We just watched the season premier last night. I'm pretty excited to see where it goes. There really haven't been any seasons that I didn't like, though I thought 3 was the weakest and 4 the best. I personally really liked season 5, though that may have been somewhat influenced by my childhood crush on Julia Stiles. But after 6 seasons, something definitely needed to happen to shake shit up, and without giving out any spoilers for anyone who didn't see the end of last season, I'm really hoping that the new "discovery" will do just that.

Buying tattoo designs online is a scam. Do what everyone else here has said and find someone who makes Japanese tattoos that you really like and describe what you liked about that design to them. You'll end up with a way better tattoo than if you brought in a design that you're married to (which may not make a good tattoo at all) because you paid for it. Don't be afraid to make a long trip...I routinely drive 8+ hours round trip to get my back worked on, and have driven a lot more than that and crossed borders to get tattooed by people I dig. Tattoo road trips are a blast.

Thanks @gougetheeyes and @Our Endless Days! I'm really stoked on it. We've got somewhere between 10 and 12 hours into it so far. I'm a wimp so we usually only work on it for 2 hours or so at a time. Though the lining session was a bit more than that.