Tommy

you are dead right Deb

Mark Mahoney, Corey Miller, Andrew Farnsley, Sapo, Merdock, Big Ed, Rob Dringenberg, Creeper, Pint, Antonio Mejia, Chuey Quintanar, Danny Romo, Small Paul Stottler, they can all do top notch single needle black n grey tattooing as well as those mentioned already.

Robert is one of the most genuine fellas I have met in tattooing. Mike too. It shows in their shop. Good creative atmosphere but still firmly rooted in tattooing. And Robert's rehearsal space is like an alternate universe to the Jersey shore. Also if anyone is ever going there, the pinball museum is also just down the street and is worth a look, it's a nice little town.

I reckon Rich Fie in Queens in New York deserves some recognition for keeping the old hard style New York tattooing alive. His shop is covered floor to ceiling, wall to wall in hand painted flash by either him or Rob Freund or Dave Mowers, anyone can walk in anytime and get a genuine east coast style tattoo anytime, no big deals. And he's a real genuine fella who gives back as much as he takes from tattooing. A gentleman.

If yer lucky you could get Bob and Ray on the same day, no one does Baby Ray style black n grey or talks Baby Ray style shit like Baby Ray. Ya could even get tattooed by Charlie, he has to be the youngest bona fide living legend.

It's called Permanent Mark and it's on that Spike tv website, spike.com, they have the full episodes [3] and you can just watch them straight away there. He goes to Borneo, Tokyo and Bangkok. It's not bad and he put a bit of effort into it, trying to show people some tattoo culture and keep it interesting without turning it into some kind of freak show or drama for voyeurs and emotional vampires.

Gia, hope yer well, my young fella tormented me for years, but never actually got the tattoo, 26 and he still has none, the middle one I told to wait till she was 18 cause she is a girl and I reckon girls should wait, haha, but she went and got 2 tattoos, so I ended up doing a nice 3/4 sleeve on her, it's nice, she had a baby with her fella, it's a boy and I'll drill him when he's 8 or 9[joke]. Anyway, the youngest girl, I told her if she really wanted I'd tattoo her anytime because of what happened with the middle one but she waited till she was 19, I think because I said I'd do it anytime, that way there was no rush. OK, peace out, hope life is good over there.

Permanent Mark's show was way better than this but hardly anyone was talking about that.

I just read all this. It's a wind up, isn't it? How to price a tattoo and deal with customers is stuff you learn before you even learn how to make a stencil. However if this is serious, decide what the work is worth to you and if the other person doesn't think it's worth the same, that's ok, don't take it personal, maybe they're naive, maybe they're ignorant, or maybe they just can't afford it. If thgere is a sign on the door saying open for business, people are entitled to come in and try to do business. Having a sign prominentley displayed stating the shop minimum and some examples of what you can expect for that minimum is a big help, for the customer and for the person who is selling the tattoos. I don't want to insult ya by going any farther on this because I know you have been around a while. Also, I'm not on here to tell anyone how to run a tattoo shop so they can open one up. Most of the talk on here is art criticism, or how to heal up tattoos, what's in, what's out, who's cool, etc...and some of it is very interesting stuff, seriously. I will say that a lot of the more artistic people are in the ha'penny place compared to the scratchers when it comes to hustle and street smarts. If one man's niche is doin $20 tattoos ina basement and anothers is doing $200 an hour bodysuits, thats fine by me. It means there's a tattoo out there for everybody, and everyone can have a tattoo if they want one. And before anyone forgets........Mike Roper tattooed in his bedroom for years, Filip Leu tattooed on the beach, Paulo Sulu'ape tattooed in a hut, Freddie Corbin tattooed in his apartment. And many of the tattooers the people on here look up to started out in their kitchens. And many of them tattooed cheap, or for free. Yea, freee, swallow that one whole. For many of them, their first introduction to tattooing was getting tattooed by friends in their basements. So, before we go demonising the "scratchers", getting tattooed on the cheap in a basement, kitchen or garage is just as valid as getting tattooed in a longhouse in Borneo. It probably costs about the same, has similar sterilisation, and the lines are probably equally shakey. Not to mention the spiritual/cultural/rite of passage significance of a ghetto kid getting a ghetto tattoo in a ghetto tattoo shop. At a ghetto price. None of this is intended as a defence for idiots doing shit tattoos cheap or for arteests doing average tattoos at extortionate prices. It's just me saying that much as I can hustle, tattooing isn't a business for me, it's a practice and if I can pay my bills living this way, then that's a privilege and an honour. And a blessing. I'm grateful that I have a bit of talent and a bit of hustle. I take pride in my profession and I don't sell it short, especially not for money. I hate to not tattoo someone, but sometimes the tattoo they want isn't the tattoo they can afford, and I don't mean only in monetary terms, sometimes the persons ego is a bit big and they think they deserve more than the are entitled to. The same goes for the tattooers. Anyway, I'm sick of typing, it's not my thing.

That is a great cover up

See ya soon in the real world, just saw Vinnie in LA, say hello to Sem