Dan Martin

It's taken me forever to acquire a halfway decent machine collection ( still growing) but want to shift my attention to other equipment vital to my job. First being tubes. I've been using cam for about 4 or 5 years. The cost is ok and the quality is pretty good but not great. I'm looking to upgrade to better stuff. Does anyone anyone have a set of tubes they're fond of? And what makes them better. Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated

What are you asking for the Cain? You can email me if you'd like. Thanks [email protected]

Thanks BigJo and Slayer

I couldn't find a conventions page on here. Any know about a Montpellier France show June 2nd? Also any insight to other " over seas " conventions would be awesome. Thanks all

I believe the nerve endings on the torso are more sensitive as to protect your organs from being damaged or at least to let you realize the severity of an injury in that area. Boney areas feel more like road rash ( think skinned knee ), muscle areas aren't too bad but fatty areas can feel like they're being cut. Areas of your body that get banged up semi often (outside of you arms) are going to generally hurt less than the back of your knees or inside of your arms. And... A skilled artist will hurt less than an amateur.

I got my first 1/2 sleeve when I was 24 and 180lbs. I've gotten a lot fatter since then with 225 being my biggest. Happy to say down to 200 or so now and it looks about the same big or small. It's not my torso but then again not all that weight was just on my torso. I'd say if it's under a 50lb difference you'll probably be alright. I've also seen tattooed bellies pre and post pregnant and they were ok too

Thanks everyone for the great advice! I'll be getting both knocked out with in three weeks of each other! Wish me luck.

This is for tattooers that have hand tattoos. I'm getting my hand tattooed soon and was curious how the healing and swelling will affect my tattooing. I'm getting tattooed the first day of a show and thought I might try and put it off until after so I could work but wasn't sure. Will wearing gloves and sweating in them fuck it up pretty good? I'm assuming it would. Any answers would be much appreciated.

Keith, that's true. There is a fine line between bold and refined. I've had a few great tattoos drawn up on the spot too and they look amazing. I have noticed that I have over worked stuff before and it became rigid and stale so maybe I'm being hyper critical and it really doesn't matter. It's just hard to see the big picture when my Heros and influences range from clunky old school to fine art illustrations.

Months back I started a thread about tattoo time vs drawing time. The original post read : ...I was just curious as to how much time other tattooers spend drawing for tattoos outside the shop. On average for me, I can spend an hour or two doing research and/ or looking at reference before I actually start drawing. And an additional 2 to 4 hours ( depending on subject matter ) on drawing something about the size of a foot ball or say half sleeve... I'm Reopening this because I'm curious as to how much is two much. First because my time estimate was way too low (spending upward of 8 hrs many times) and then realizing just how often I struggle to get a piece to where I am happy with it. It seems i've set a certain standard for myself and although I'm always trying to push higher and above that standard, I try my damnedest not to drop below it. I realize as with everything the more you do the better you get but my question is, where do you draw the line. For me it's difficult because I'm not where I want to be, but I truly don't have the time to push harder (longer) Is this just a case of excepting my limitations? I'm pretty sure lots of other tattooers have experienced this so... What's your thoughts? how do you get better? How do you not kill yourself in the process?

All very good suggestions. It could be use and not them but i really don't believe that's the case. We are going to bump up their pay and see if that makes a difference.

Hey man, I know you spent hours drawing my tattoo up and it's stenciled and ready to go... But.... Could you sneak in my five kids initials? And maybe change the roses to Lillie's and the panther into a portrait of my pug?

I started a sleeve on a kid, all the outline and shading and started color. Later he got someone else to color more... Said he wanted to get worked on but couldn't wait. He then asked to book more appointments with me. I told him to get his "new" artist to finish it... And never looked back.

Forgot to mention, we were only allowed a 15 min break every 8 hours. Richard Stell also did my back in 13 hours. 9the first day and went back for 4 more hours the following day.

I tattooed 27 hours 27 mins. I was trying for Guinness, and actually made it but was beaten by some one else before it was confirmed. This was in 2000.

We had some jack hole approach us with a "great opportunity" via email. He said we could tattoo him and when his MAA career took off it would be great advertising for us. We replied "sorry but we are declining your offer, as we are seeking paying customers only" he wrote back " kinda rude but ok " wtf?

Ok, so my shop has been going through shop helpers like underwear. They're not apprentices, we pay them. BUT they're either incompetent ( from absolutely no social skills, to poor hygiene, to possible thievery!) or bail unannounced. My question is how can I attract a reliable, hard working person to this slightly mundane position? Craigslist has been questionable, but I'm also a little leery of posting something on our website. Customers becoming employees just seems a little strange to me. And please don't reply "I do it myself... Or you should do it yourself." that's really doesn't help me.

Stewart, I guess I jumped a little off the deep end with picaso. My point wasn't so much directed at him but the countless followers who never thought for themselves and let's face it a third generation pollack would just be a guy dribbling paint. Tattooing at the time ( at least for me ) seems to be following the same trend. And what's worst is these people are being praised. It's like the coverband headlining.

Btw, I said art fags not fags outright. Polical correctness goes way to far anyway. I understand smoozing in other industries but this is tattooing. We SHOULD be different. think if being a shogun or a navy seal was achieved by sucking up to the boss or sporting the same haircut he has. Or what if the sisteen chapel was painted with crap cuz some douche got the job by smoozing. Just cuz it happens doesn't mean it's right. We should cut it off as soon as it's recognized. Granted, It's hard because there is a certain look that most tattooers try and achieve especially in Japanese tattooing and were all using a similar visual language with tried and true images but we've gone over board! There's too too many fucks doing this job and they've been handed the golden key to the city and for what? Standing on the shoulders of giants. It's not right.

So I've been having conversations with friends and have noticed a new trend. Smoozing ( or as we like to call it ) sucking dick! I'm referring to all newbies that blow up because they bought their fame by being tattooed by the heros and traveling everywhere to soak it up and be in the scene. Where's the horror stories of sticking out a 12 hour shift tattooing dumb shit on dumb people when your buddies are out getting drunk on a friday night? There's no more blood sweat and tears in tattooing. Its all about who you know and where you are... Not about the hard work and I guarantee you, the badasses nuts your swinging from did ten fold the work you did by the same point in their career... Which brings me to my second point. Art used to have true "masters" that could paint their fucking asses off but they went extinct because the art fags of the world decided picasos crazy shit and pollacks paint splaters were more significant than Rubens? WTF? I remember reading about Robert Williams saying the same thing how folk art overthrew talent. It was a way for the "common man" to relate and opened the door for every Popsicle stick glueing soccer mom to call them selves artist. Now innovation is worthy of recognition, being the first is being the first and thats to be commended but rehashing is dribble. The same is true in tattooing. And you know exactly what I'm talking about... Clunky old school poorly drawn designs revered as the badess of the bad. good artist having to dumb down their shit to get the gold star? WTF? Wheres the pushing of the envelope, breaking the rules, falling and reinventing...I will say one thing, some are true masters of the hardcore oldschool look and the power can't be challenged. Its amazing, but 3/4 of the other shite isnt making the cut. And were all guilty of praising these fucks!!! Copy cats sitting in the same booth of masters invited into the brotherhood with open arms. Fuck that! I might never achieve the recognition of others to my degree of happiness but I can hold my head high because I'm not a smoozer sucking dick to look cool. Death to false tattooing!

Sometimes I really can't tell the difference anymore. Tattooing is SO over saturated that it feels like i work at hot topic most of the times. I mean when everybody has a fucking tattoo what's the difference anyway? I've seen tons of kids with tough traditional tattoos wearing hipster v necks and thick rimmed glasses. But what about tattooers? Dickies and flannel? I mean fuck! It's all been done and over done. None of us are original, we might have got there sooner but does it matter anymore? How about we all dress like it's the 30's? Oh wait that's done... How about ties and button downs... Fuck another cliche. Today tattooing not just about the tattoo it's about the total image of the client wearing it... And I think that's bullshit. When "alternative" is the mainstream, what's alternative? I don't have a clue... Side note: some of the above tattoos are really stupid!!!

Yes! Such a classic and with the back story too, you can't go wrong. Congrats!

The graphic design stuff looks like jersey shore t shirt designs, but the kid drawings and that heart thing! Wow!

Yeah... There's a tattoo and a tattooer for everyone. I'm just glad I don't have to tattoo that crap.

This shit is amazing. Your wife got played by some crappy " want a be " now you bitch when were not all boo hooing for her. There absolutely should be a tattoo artist only side to this forum because guess what... If there weren't the tattooers this would just be a forum. A forum about what? Exactly. Nothing. No tattoo, no tattoo appreciation. it's jackholes like you bubble that make tattooers not comment. You want us to not reply? You got it. Let's see how interesting this forum is with out us. Better yet go ahead and spread all you " know " with each other anyway you leech. Sorry to the rest but I do have to say I feel better getting that off my chest.