Jake

I was suppossed to become a professional jazz musician, instead I ended up a professional engineer with a gear problem:
Guitars:
Ricky 360
Les Paul Studio
Fender 68 reissue, rewired w/ Burns TriSonics and series switching
custom sunburst Squire 51 w/ lipstick pickups
'76 Ibanez Rocket Roll flying V
Rebuilt/re-wired P-Bass
Amps
guitar...Fender Super Reverb is my jam w/ a glass of juicy Orange Or-50
bass...70's Peavey 400W superfestival running into a 2x15 ampeg fridge and a 4x12 peavey black widow. Also have a Peavey 400W power amp which I slave off the superfestival and run 2x 4x10 columns with...BASTARD LOUD, i feel sorry for the new neighbours that just moved in!
Organs !!!
Hammond B-200
Farfisa
Leslie 147
100 year old upright Piano
just about everything on this list has paid it's dues on the road. no touring anymore, happy to stay home and play/record with my old musician buddies for shits n giggles
here's a pic of the 68 Strat and Squier 51 that I rebuilt and rewired...see that engineering degree did come in handy after all

Shunga, Tsuba, Hammer, Scroll, Peach, Benzaiten etc, etc. But it's a good idea to know what it is you're getting rather than just designs you think are uncommon.
Popularity of designs changes. over the last year I've done less Koi than any other subject. Including shunga, foo dogs, snakes, cranes, ritual objects etc.
But really, you should get more Koi. Nothing goes better with Koi than more Koi. Better still, ask Hunter, I'm sure he knows what he's doing.
It's one of my many personal pet peeves when I see a Japanese style sleeve was designed as a collection of random objects, forced together with water or clouds, rather than a single coherent layout.
Even when a sleeve is composed of 'scattered' smaller elements like single flowers, masks, lucky charms etc, etc, it's still planned with consideration of the whole composition. A Japanese sleeve, even before it's fully completed will have less 'gaps' than you think it does.
The elegance and timeless look of Japanese (or any Oriental-influenced) tattoos comes from the coherence of the overall layout, (worked out over a couple of centuries). I would go as far to say the coherence of the whole of the wearer's body. That elegance and beauty doesn't come from stacking objects like tetris or lego.
Good luck.

So, this is a painting by Ralph Johnstone, done for Tatts Thomas way back when they were working on south State Street in Chicago. Nick Colella is putting it on my ribs tomorrow, (without the lettering) that should be fun. I'll post up the finished work as soon as possible.

more here

mmmm Sol Food. don't forget to dump the whole bottle of orange salsa on your plate

I haven't made an addition to this thread since page 30 something. My time has finally come!
Richard Stell, guest spotting at Smith Street Tattoo in NYC. It was an awesome experience. Richard is hilarious. He had my abs cramping up at one point from laughing to much... or it was the hypoglycemia setting in. Regardless it was a lot of fun.

@The Hyena cant wait for update!
ron henry wells http://laughinghyena.wordpress.com/

done:
Tattoo Advice | Last Sparrow Tattoo
We'll be migrating existing threads there over the next week or so.
Thanks for the great ideas guys.

This is the latest from Lindsey Carmichael of Goldrush tattoo. He's a solid guy and did a fantastic job!!!! My Brother-n-law was in town and we talked about what to do after lunch..... What better way to spend a saturday?!?!???

I saw this on her instagram yesterday and said, "FUUUUUUUUUUCK," is what I said. Sometimes, I see a tattoo so good that it almost makes me mad that it's on someone else. Almost. Really, though, I'm just happy that it exists. Enjoy it, because it's one of the best eagles I've ever seen.

Great time getting tattooed by Valerie yesterday. It really comes through how much she and Stewart care about what they're doing. Weird moment recognising the guy from Stewart's blog with the Saga/Reinke sleeves - those are some awesome looking tattoos (sorry if I'm being weird again and you're reading this, ha!).

Some people are just douche bags. Regardless of any friendship, your tattoo artist should be treated with respect and your appointment should be treated as a business transaction. Try showing up at your dentist, doctor, lawyer, mechanic's with no notice and ask them to drop everything to help you. A lot of professionals charge people who don't show up for appointments, and they should. When you bail on an appointment you are taking money out of the artists pocket and leaving him unemployed unless a walk-in happens to show up. That's not how you treat friends.

Latest by Sarah Schor. While she was guesting at Frith Street.

Tiger tattooed by @Stewart Robson , Frith Street Tattoos, London, UK


I love it!

Thanks everybody for these great suggestions!
I have implemented this one so that new users are now forced to check a box at the bottom of the (new) Forum Rules page to indicate that they have actually read them. (you won't see the checkbox unless you are new.)
Let me know if the rest of you are also being forced to read the rules - I think I have it set up correctly, but one never knows..
Keep the suggestions coming as always - they are much appreciated!

Got this torch from Eli at Smith St the other night. Looks so rad with the dagger he did on my other forearm. Way stoked right now!

I got so excited reading this.

mmmm Sol Food. don't forget to dump the whole bottle of orange salsa on your plate

Finally snagged a cancellation with Valerie Vargas for tomorrow, super super stoked. Getting an eagle on my arm (I had kind promised myself no more for a couple of months, but the twitter alert came through and I couldn't resist).

Yes. It's an enjoyable book. Hitchens is a bit snooty and condescending towards believers but it's still a good read.

Here's a picture of my back after my first session with Jeff Zuck at Name Brand in Ann Arbor. I've had a few more since then, but haven't gotten pictures after any of them. I'll try to get the lady to take a new one and post that up soon.

Atheist here. Both my parents are Atheists too.
Just finished "God, No!" by Penn Jillette and "the God delusion" by Dawkins actually. I'm contemplating picking up Hitchens' "God is not great" next. Anyone read it?

How bout Titine Leu's vision .