JBHoren

If you're a man who wears shorts, then -- hands-down -- the most difficult places to heal are the front and inside of your shins. Why? 'cuz when you pee -- toilet or urinal -- it splashes up onto those areas and ends-up causing infection. Ask the man who owns one.

#1 Myth: Tattoos will get you laid.

<grin> It's a joke: OTOH means "on the other hand"

Beautiful. OTOH?

"Washed-out"... doesn't "water brushed", by definition, appear washed-out? I would've thought the original artist got it spot-on! PS: I don't see any "smiley face" (crooked, or otherwise) anywhere in the tattoo.

Lots of "tattoo ego" on the line -- artists and customers, alike. If you get an "original" piece (at least, you hope it is), then you have the satisfaction of being the first to have it (like being the "index case" in a disease); if you get a copy of that piece, well, it's a copy (like that Ben Shahn print, or Annie Liebowitz photo hanging on your wall) -- you like it, it wasn't free, and you don't/can't claim it's the original. So, what's the problem? Don't we say "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"? And maybe -- just maybe -- successive iterations of the design will [gasp!] be better than the original, introduce changes in it, or adapt it for customer differences (color preference, skin color, etc.). I prefer to save any ire for remakes of Hollywood movies or TV shows (where the remake is rarely as good as the original). YMMV.

When I lived in Israel, I shopped for fruit and vegetables in the shuk (open-air market) on Friday mornings. It never failed -- there was always one guy who, in Hebrew, asked me, "But tell me, you don't regret?" [getting the tattoos] Sure, it could be annoying, but wasn't unexpected, and I blew them off politely. Somewhat different was riding on the bus: I made a point to get up and offer my seat to an elderly person (and Israel is full of them), who would smile, say "Thank you," and sit down. It wouldn't be longer than a minute, before s/he poked me; I'd look down, and s/he would pull up their sleeve to show me the number tattooed on their forearm -- with not an angry, but quizzical expression. I always nodded, and with a serious tone of voice replied, "This is what happens when you don't receive a Jewish education." Rudeness can easily become a two-way street.

Colorful, traditional American tattoos -- some would call them "Old School" -- with a very reluctant, but wholly-satisfied, nod to black-and-gray.

When I began getting inked, I had only two weeks before separated from the US Army (honorable discharge) after five years service in the Infantry. My last duty station had been Coleman Barracks, just outside of Mannheim, West Germany. It sucked, and the (albeit, shortened) tour ate it. So, "how do you react to stares, JB?" Nowadays, just fine; 37 years ago? Like you wouldn't believe. I'd give people "hard eyes" and a "get super-aggressive real fast" attitude. Back then, ink had a secondary (primary?) role of non-verbally "giving someone the bird". For some reason, that was important to me. Thankfully, times have changed; people, too; and so have I. Since coming back to the US, summer of 2004, I've had nothing but pleasant, polite interest from people in my tattoos, if they respond to them at all. Maybe it's that the tattoos, themselves, have always been classic, traditional American designs -- with the exception of a few places, all my work is "sewn-together" flash, designs from sheets on the wall. Nothing anybody gets angry about. I especially like the stares -- and the conversations that follow -- from age-appropriate women of a certain type.

"Tattoo Ted" Nelson -- 1972 Louie Lombi -- 1976, 2001, 2004-2005 Jack Armstrong -- 1977

Artists, too... 'specially older ones :p

Sure, same as on other forums. But I'm not certain if people are aware that at lots of shops where a tattoo artist is employed, and not the shop owner (or a partner), s/he receives a percentage of the price -- 50% is traditional and frequent -- rather than all of it. So, might be that of the $120 someone's paying for that cute 'lil skunk, only $60 is headed for the artist's wallet. Is anyone tattooing for an hourly wage? :confused:

Sucks. The double-standard of training/employing people to kill (or to support those who do), but rule-and-regulating how they can decorate their bodies, is part of the American schizophrenia. Glad my service (USArmy, Infantry) was Vietnam-era.

There's "stippling" (which I've only seen in online photographs, and then, only in "neo-tribal" designs), and then there's the traditional "dots 'n stars" (which -- dammit! -- I still need to get done to complete my chest/shoulders). I like the stippling-as-shading, but I wonder how -- in the long-run -- it'll hold up; specifically, will closely-spaced dots run together, like closely-spaced lines often do? And, would that, necessarily, be a "Bad Thing"? Makes me think of the moderating effect that Time has on gray-scale work. Dunno. I do like the stippling as "background" for some women's filigree tattoos -- call me sexist... whatever... but a bracelet like the one the OP linked-to (on a woman) is definitely eye-catching. :o

In November 1979, Louie Lombi tattooed a large koi on my right upper arm. Large? it stretched from the top of my shoulder to below the elbow, and wrapped around from mid-biceps to mid-triceps. That was before ink-transfer stencils, and it was an acetate stencil he'd made, by hand. Anyway, the outline and shading took 12 hours, and the coloring (a month later) took 13 hours. Now that I think about it, yeah, that included breaks... lol. Now? When "Painless Jimmy" Hankins did my back piece in 2005/6, the longest I could go was three hours (the outline) -- talk about painful!

I don't think there should be an age limit. Some are born with birthmarks that inconvenience them because of size, shape, location, color, or what-have-you; others become scarred, burned, or otherwise marked. What bothers me is the "protection racket" mentality -- sure, tattoos are long-lasting (Louie Lombi used to say his work was guaranteed for "Life plus six" [months]), but tats don't harm us like long-term tobacco, alcohol, or other drug use. What I do think is that a tattoo artist ought to be a good judge of whom to tattoo, and whom to not. For example, would you work on someone who was drunk, or really drugged? (Louie Lombi made a point of not tattooing either, and used to say they'd "Either throw-up on you, or fall asleep on you" -- who needs that?) As someone else used to say, "Think before you ink!" I also think that whatever the minimum age might be, if getting a tattoo requires parental consent the parent should not be allowed to be present while the work is being done -- who needs a "helicopter" parent hovering over their shoulder, annoying everyone involved, interrupting the process, and negatively affecting the outcome? Don't forget: the kid's gonna carry that tat for the rest of his/her life! If a "teen" has the dough, is doughty enough to handle it, and it "feels right" to the artist, then WTF. Just my 2-cents. YMMV. PS: Being a heavily-inked guy, my kids (daughters) asked questions from an early age; I answered truthfully, and always tried to dissuade them from getting inked, themselves. Wouldn't ya know it, but the day my older one turned 18, she says to me, "Daddy, I wanna get a tattoo." What was I gonna say... no? So, I had to first find a shop, then check-out the artists and their work... was not easy or enjoyable, this being in Tel-Aviv, Israel. :cool: She ended-up getting the "White Rock" ginger-ale fairy on her right shoulder...

Yup... but I only got "mildly" infected.

I got my first tattoo on my 21st birthday -- late-January 1972 -- while on leave after finishing USArmy AIT, before reporting to my first duty station: Fort Richardson, AK. I didn't get any more ink until I'd finished my military service and drifted back to the Ft. Benning, GA area, where I met Louie Lombi, who'd recently opened a branch of his mentor's shop -- "Big Joe" Kaplan, from Mount Vernon, NY. Louie began sleeving me between July 1976 and December 1979; then I emigrated to Israel (!) and fell out of contact with him. We got back in touch in 2001, when I was in South Florida for a computer course (sent from Israel), and found that Louie had relocated to Greenacres/Lake Worth, FL, where my mother lived, and opened a shop of his own: Louie Lombi's Tattoo Paradise. Small world. I finally left Israel summer of 2004, and returned to South Florida. Louie finished my sleeves, and another artist in his employ, "Painless Jimmy" Hankins. Jimmy eventually did my chest, shoulders and "sleeved" my lower legs, ankles-to-knees. I need a new photo -- this one's missing the bluebirds (PS: the women's heads were done in Columbus, GA by the late Jack Armstrong, in 1977... sponge-in-a-jar) My shins and calves (missing the wrap-around sides) (Statue of Liberty outline done on July 4th, 2006, and all work on both legs was finished in late 2008) And feet... (summer of 2009)

Yes, I can imagine that... in fact, I have this very one! I found the original design (of course, doh!) on the Internet. Turns-out that the person running the website had apprenticed with Tattoo Ted Nelson (who gave me my first tattoo on my 21st birthday, back in late-January 1972, in Fairfield, IA), and Ted had apprenticed with Bert Grimm. Small world. Anyway, this piece was inked on me by "Painless Jimmy" Hankins (yet another "old timer"), at Louie Lombi's Tattoo Paradise, in 2005/6. I'm pleased with it. Jimmy's still slingin' ink here in South Florida, but Louie Lombi retired and gave the shop to his long-time apprentice and worker, Clark O'Dell... it's now called Tattoo Paradise of West Palm Beach.