Mr. Smith

I spent my Saturday afternoon with Jeff Zuck, finishing up the black in my backpiece. It was a fantastic experience as always. Jeff is one of the nicest, raddest dudes I've had the pleasure of meeting in or out of the tattoo world. With the exception of a few spots, shading the butt wasn't as bad as I had psyched myself up for. A close friend of mine got a really awesome fox/owl totem from Jen Munford at the same time (it's up on her IG @threejenbirdmun). Needless to say, my (very pregnant) fiancee spent the afternoon being real jealous.

Oh, man...a few days after the second session on my back, I got out of bed and it looked like someone had dumped a handful of fruity pebbles on my sheets.

Does anyone know if they have any plans to release these on a DVD at all? I realize that the cost of something like that for such a niche market is probably pretty great, and I'm sure that their budget is tight as it is, but I can't imagine that I'm the only one that would jump at the chance to own a physical copy, regardless of how low-budget the packaging. I was super stoked when the first episode of the Gypsy Gentleman was available on DVD (it was also pretty awesome that it came with a print from Thomas Hooper), and have been hoping that physical copies of the newer episodes of that or episodes of Tattoo Age might be made available ever since. There's a certain satisfaction of being able to pull a DVD off a shelf to watch on the TV that a video on my laptop just can't quite match.

Nope. The whole "tattoo acceptance in the workplace" movement (or whatever it is) rubs me the wrong way. Sure, I'd prefer someone judge my work performance on its own merit and not pass me over for a promotion because they know I have tattoos, but i certainly don't expect them to cater to me. Want me to keep my arms covered at work? Cool, you got it. Don't want to hire someone with a throat tattoo? Cool, I'll keep that in mind and weigh how much I want a position with Company X vs. how much I want to tattoo my throat. And when people call it discrimination and compare it to being denied a job due to race or gender or orientation, it REALLY pisses me off. To me tattoos are supposed to be tough and somewhat unaccepted, and every special snowflake expecting to be catered to drives me nuts. It's awesome if you have a job that is cool with your tattoos...my current one happens to be, but if my boss ever asked me to keep my sleeves rolled down, it wouldn't be an issue. Also, it seems that most of the people clamoring for "tattoo acceptance" have absolute shit tattoos and most people with quality work don't mind covering up when needed.

My fiance and I have been talking a lot about getting a tattoo for our daughter...one of our favorite ideas was kewpie dolls. Although I really don't think you can go wrong with roses and/or swallows and/or hearts with banners. Ultimately, I think I've settled on a piece of Jerry mermaid flash I found that I've never seen tattooed for mine...my only problem is that I really have my heart set on having Bailey Robinson do it, and he's a lot of money away. See if you can find some books of flash and look through those until you find something that really grabs you. Your local shop probably has at least one of the Jerry books, and you'd be surprised what you can find at Barnes and Noble. Failing that, there's BookMistress or Amazon.

Oh, man! Thanks so much for sharing your trip and pictures. It was really fun to read and get to live vicariously through you for a few minutes. I'm all sorts of jealous...that trip sounds amazing and you got tattoos from the exact people I would have on a trip to NY. I look forward to seeing that Ron Wells tattoo all finished!

I'm a big fan of foot tattoos that match to some degree, but that can be as loose as just both being vaguely traditional tattoos (I don't think traditional American tattoos and one-shot Japanese tattoos clash at all). Basically what @ThaliaCamille said. I'm planning on getting some matching tribal designs on mine...I really want to get tattooed by Leo Zulueta, and my feet are the only place I can think of to do that without it being impeded by/clashing with the tattoos I have everywhere else.

Right? Seeing as how my fiance and I are both suckers for terrible reality television and I really enjoy Oliver Peck, we'll definitely be watching the second season of this shitshow. I was genuinely hoping that there would be more traditional tattooers this season though. I think my favorite piece from the bios was "Though he may ink others for a living, Jamie himself has only one tattoo, a black light piece located on the side of his neck." They managed to pack so many things I hate into just one sentence.

I'm just gonna go ahead and leave this here... Ink Master Season 2 – Contestant Biographies « Spike Press

Oh, man. So much this. Mostly irrelevant story: A year or so ago, I had an appointment booked with him when he was guesting in DC. Then I found out he was doing a guest spot up in Toronto around the same time I was planning a trip up there, so in order to cut WAY down on travelling costs, I cancelled my first appointment and made one for his guest spot in Toronto. Which ended up getting cancelled. And that's how I ended up not getting tattooed by Deno last year.

SO JEALOUS!!! That's really awesome, man!

I have an appointment with Jeff Zuck to work on my back scheduled for the last Saturday in September. I'm really, really stoked...I haven't been tattooed since March, and with a wedding scheduled for October and my first daughter due in December, it'll probably be a while after that before I can afford to get tattooed again. I normally like to do short 2 hourish sessions (because I'm a wimp), but I think I'm gonna try and stick it out for 3 or 4. I'll make sure to post pictures.

EEeeesssh. The only thing that makes me squirm more than the thought of getting a blacked out nipple is the thought of getting a blacked out belly button.

Yup. I'd say he did a pretty fine job of it too. Again...yup. I'm not really a regular poster (mostly because if I don't have anything that I feel is of value to add, I just don't say anything...something you could probably learn a lot from), but I've lurked this board on a daily basis for years, and I'll take 100 "what should I add as filler?" threads over this kind of pseudo-intellectual, argument-baiting dogshit any day. Like Dan S said, we have very diverse political and social views, which we can argue about in 10000 different places on the internet. We come here to talk about tattoos. You've been a dick to people who have a lot of respect on this forum, and for that matter in this community completely unnecessarily. Please go back to commenting on youtube videos and just stay the fuck away.

I'd be willing to take a stand for fewer threads like this one clogging things up.

Holy shit @graybones! That Ron Wells tattoo is beautiful...probably my favorite tattoo I've seen in quite a while! What a fantastic start!

I mentioned this in another thread, but I'm scared as shit of syringes/getting shots/having blood drawn/needles in general and have no problem at all with tattoo needles. You'll do just fine. Kore Flatmo does killer tattoos...what are you getting?

I wouldn't listen to his whining. Tell him to either suck it up or shut the fuck up and deal with having a half finished tattoo. Shit hurts, but not THAT bad. If he can't deal with it even with numbing gel, he doesn't deserve to have the tattoo.

Never underestimate shame as a motivator. Seriously though, if it's just a forearm tattoo, one application of Dr. Numb (or whatever magic soap your artist prefers) should be enough to finish it. Xanax or something like that can be really helpful too (from what I'm told)...it doesn't ease the pain, but makes it easier to deal with. And like CG said, if it's an anxiety thing that might help with that.

Definitely the first.

I haven't been getting tattooed for long enough to really comment on the ebb and flow of trends, but I will anyways. I have to wonder if a lot of the "trending" back towards traditional tattoos is a result of seeing how some of the other "trendy" tattoos have aged over the years. As far as the smaller trends within "our community" or whatever--like say forcefields or ladies with animal heads on them or pocketwatches--go, I don't really think there's usually any intentional trend-hopping or whatever, I think that it's just a matter of seeing something cool and saying, "Oh shit, that looks rad. I want one of those," or "That looks cool, I want to try doing that." Particularly in 2012, where it's incredibly easy for the whole tattoo community to see something that someone does within a few hours of it being posted to Instagram. Like @Pugilist, I also kind of think that getting tattoos to "be an individual" is a bit of a farce. At least for people who are really into tattoos. I get tattooed because I like tattoos. If all of a sudden everyone had full back tattoos and full sleeves, I would still get tattooed. If no one did, I would still get tattooed.

That's AWESOME! I have a few really awesome paintings from Adrian...one in particular is by far my favorite thing hanging in my apartment (which says quite a bit). Both he and Lizzie are two of the raddest, nicest people I've ever met. And they both make fantastic tattoos. I made the trip to Toronto to get tattooed by them around a year ago and it was probably the best tattoo experience I've ever had. I seriously can't say enough great things about them or the shop. I'm really bummed that it's probably gonna be quite some time before I get the opportunity to make it back.

@AlannaCA Those are both fucking awesome! I really love the one that Adrian did! Tell him and Lizzie that Nick Smith says "Hi!" next time you see them!

That's awesome, @semele! I saw that on IG back when he first posted it. Ron is on the short list of people I am dying to get tattooed by. I especially love his owls (duh.), clowns, and roses. Plus he does a ton of rad Twin Peaksy shit. I'm both jealous and glad to hear you had a great time!

@Oscby Those are both fantastic!