Tatts

[teck]

In this topic we talk about tatts.

I'm a huge fan of American traditional style. I love the look, the lines, the history.

[can-]

I wanna get a discrete tattoo of the game of life person

[schiaparelli]

ben, do you actually mean "discrete"? or "discreet"? come on, man

i want an ampersand tattoo. or two. one geometric/angular and one scripty? or one sans and one serif?

[hooplah]

[teck]

i like small shitty tatts. on friday the 13th two weeks ago i stood in line for about two hours to get a shitty $13 tatt. alas i wasn't able to. i sometimes cringe at really artsy/designed tatts because for me tatts should be rough and gritty.

[charybdis]

I really like Love Aesthetic's boyfriend's tat



If I were to get one, I would get something like this.

[thomaspaine]

[RycePooding]

Is it dumb that I'm worried about potential future employers//eventually not wanting the thing on me anymore? I'm 22 and fickle...

[hmwut]

most tats can be covered up with a long sleeved shirt. and you can just sleep on it awhile if youre concerned

i'm getting a tattoo in a year or so. people based in/around nyc, who are your favorite tattoo artists?

[charybdis]

t-paine, you should posts pics of your tat. It's awesome.

[starfox64]

Ryce just use this chart if you are worried about it.

I briefly dated a girl with a neck tattoo. I think she has a pretty good job at google now. probably a better job than me. maybe this means i need a tattoo on my neck.

[thomaspaine]

. I keep meaning to get around to taking better pictures someday.

I want this but don't know where to get it

[starfox64]

[thomaspaine]

I'm from Ohio and got it when I moved to california. xxx is a straight edge thing.

Neck tat and kind of crazy? I'm down.

[teck]

[RycePooding]

I want to be a teacher... I'm guessing I'll keep them to easily hideable places.

How do you go about finding a good artist?

[teck]

You can look some up in forums or magazines. Scope out shops and dig through the artists' books. You'll eventually find an artist whose style you like.

after that its a lot of trust. you have to trust the artist to take your idea and make it work. often times this will mean totally re-doing whatever you had in mind. but if he's a good artist you'll like wat he does anyways because it will be well executed.

[UnwashedMolasses]

teck How much of a place (if any) do you think authenticity has in tatooing? Tribal on white folk, anchors on non-sailors, etc. I know it's been debated to death as far as clothing goes but I'm interested in your thoughts here. Should the value of a tattoo be solely in the eye of the owner?

[UnwashedMolasses]

Always been a fan of some of Spider Jerusalem's tattoos from the comic Transmetropolitan.

[teck]

[UnwashedMolasses]

Yeah, that makes sense. I try and stay aware of it because as an middle-upper class white male I've got a whole lot of racial/cultural insensitivity going one way from me. Which is also unfortunate because my favorite tattoo styles (and most likely the ones I'll end up getting) are similar to the ones I just posted, basically geometric/modern riffings on tribal.

[YoungCanoeist]

i love geometric linework like this:







working on drawing one for myself. similar in repeating geometric stuff but with more curved lines than straight, incorporating sun and flower petals somehow too. we'll see how it goes!

[teck]

im prob in the minority but i dont like geometric work. its very fine and i cant imagine it will age well. plus, unless it nods towards an older tradition, i feel it will be subject to the whims of graphic design. just my two cents

[hooplah]

[UnwashedMolasses]

That's my worry about it too. I like the look of fine linework but wouldn't get it on myself, more likely just large blocks of black. It's hard for me to get an nonobjective perspective on whether geometric tattoos are an emerging genre of tattooing unto itself or if they're just another fad.

[thomaspaine]

Agree that the geometric and so called "minimalist" tattoos of linework or colorblocking strike me as a little fadish, like barbed wire and tribals. At the same time I feel like who cares, someone somewhere is going to think your tattoos look dumb, you should just go into it assuming most other people will think they're dumb.

[UnwashedMolasses]

Speaking of shitty tats, I really want this duck somewhere. I don't know where or how.

[odradek]

[anonomous]

I've been wanting to get a tattoo for a while but i don't know where to place it and what exactly to get. Being very careful in choosing what i like as tattoos stay forever.. Or is putting ink on you something you do in impulse?? I was thinking of starting small. What were your first tattoos?

I quite like mandalas and americana tattoos. I'd also like a half sleeve sometime in the future.

Here are some tattoos that i really like.
Thearm's tattoo is one of my favourite tatts

[starfox64]

the-arm's case is interesting because i think it's sort of a tribal tattoo (?) but he is from New Zealand so obviously things have a different connotation for him than they would for me or even you (directed at Anon but I don't think anyone here is actually Pacific Islander).

Regardless, if you are somewhat unsure about your design, I think something like AJ's tattoo (the bottom one) is probably the best. He got a tattoo from a well-known artist, and I have no idea how much input he had with it, but I'm guessing not a ton. I think finding a good artist and getting something "cool", for lack of a better term, is generally better than trying to come up with the concept yourself.