cltattooing

Arrrghhh this makes me so upset!! I truly believe that anyone who is in tattooing "for the money" should get their thumbs broken and be forced to wear a necklace of garlic for the rest of their lives cause fuck vampires. Like.. tattooers possess an incredible amount of power over people, and it really isn't something to be taken lightly. Facial tattoos change peoples' lives in a very significant way, and to me, the idea of being like "yeah I'll do that, never have to think about it again, walk away with $500 tonight" is pretty disgusting. Like, really.. can breaking thumbs be a thing again please?

Pretty much just throat and face, I'm not much opposed to anything else except for tattoos that are expressly meant as crotch pieces. No beef, just not for me.

Why does it bother you? I find it kind of endearing, as it usually means that said client gets tattooed by the same person consistently. We don't own our friends or our coworkers or our dentist, but we still say "my friend, my coworker, my dentist." I don't see much of a difference?

Man, all of that texture freaks me out. Laser removal is no joke, makes you appreciate getting good tattoos to begin with. Cool video, I definitely enjoyed watching this!

I didn't even think to look on the website, that smells even fishier

This may just be the coolest motherfucking tattoo I've ever seen. Holy beans.

One of my favorite pieces that I have. By Darl Gnau of Charmed Life Tattoo & Gallery in Baltimore.

So I was browsing through some catalogs in my friend's boutique and came across something very curious. A company called Cartel Ink, or Kid Cartel, has a tank design depicting a machine with baseball-style lettering that says "Dringenberg, (something illegible) Company" Now, those of you who have seen the LST interview with Dan Dringenberg would probably also find it a bit hard to believe that this guy would license his name off to a clothing company. I find it especially curious, because if he actually did license his name, there would most likely be more than one single shirt with his name on it. I mean the whole point of licensing is to build a brand name, right? Now I'm totally open to being wrong on this one, and I truthfully hope that I am, but I think that the tattoo community needs to look out for each other and squash the leeches. Sooo if anyone has any fact-based information on this situation, I would appreciate that knowledge before I go ahead and send Dan an email being like "look at this shit." pictures for your eyeballs: (contact info for the clothing company)

sleeping baby ostrich Mark Cross original found in children's underwear section at walmart halloween rules!! my boss

Just got this yesterday!!!!! 4 hours by George Campise.

Sat for a 4 hour session yesterday on the elbow. It was pretty easy considering the spot. When I go in for a longer session, it's basically a mix of great sleep, hydration, a big breakfast, and snacks/more water throughout.

Long live the tattoo nerds!! :D

Dunno if anyone has posted this one yet, but this is one of my favorite horrible hipster tattoos:

definitely don't do it if you have any actual scabs on there, as they will get waterlogged and the ink will fall out.

Hey, quick question. Is this an event that you can pre-order tickets to? The website says it's just 20 bucks a day, I know a lot of convention type events will raise the prices of tickets as the date draws nearer. It doesn't appear so, but I figured I'd ask some people who have already been.

What the fuck happened here, did they just tear up the skin and think it would heal red? o.o

eat a BIG FUCKING BREAKFAST and keep hydrated. I like to have lots of protein on hand when I get tattooed. Trail mix, fruit, and jerky are life savers! Any sort of high-calorie yet nutritious snack, really. edit: ah damn, you've already gotten tattooed by the time you've read this. Well.. for future reference! But to answer the initial question, my longest session sitting and tattooing was 7 hours on myself. Never again. The longest I've sat for someone else was 4 and I think the longest I've worked for was 6. The sense of accomplishment makes it worth it in my opinion.

I never knew scrimshaw was a term for it, that's rad. I've often admired this style of tattooing and not really known what to call it, other than "looks like an etching or lithograph." One of my favorite artists who works in this style (and I feel almost bad because I am constantly telling people about his work, I just really think it's so beautiful) is Max Buchi. He travels a lot, mostly between New York and London these days. some good stuff:

That Dietzel repaint is killer!!! His eagles are seriously the shit. Here's one of my interpretations of his work:

I think they're so cool!!! One of my favorite pieces of flash that I've ever seen was a gypsy-style bearded lady bust with her arms cut off, sprouting out of a boot. I can't remember who painted that, but goddamn, I would love to get that tattooed. My homie has a tater tot with these really sexy burlesque pinup legs, that one's pretty fucking funny.

Thank you for bringing this up! Reading that Robert Ryan interview in TCM really affirmed some personal superstitions about tattoos for me. I don't like to tattoo symbols of evil, as far as my own comfort zone goes. Simply speaking, a symbol is a distilled image intended to invoke a very specific idea/memory/feeling/desire. Because of this immediate association, symbols are very powerful visual tools. Brand logos are an accessible and modern example of how a symbol can instantaneously trigger a reaction in a person. Alphabets are also a good example. I think the reason why most clients have a hard time understanding this is because it is a very ideologically superstitious practice on my behalf, and also because the idea of a tattooed symbol of evil having real-life repercussions seems magical at best. If symbol X triggers reaction a, b, or c in nearly anyone who looks at it, and all of which are negative reactions/feelings, I don't want to be the means by which that negativity is brought into the world. That's really all that it comes down to I guess. (on a side note, I think that there is a huge difference between the power of symbols and the power of illustrations.)

This. Back of the calf is just fucking awful.