Royal families have a surprising history of tattoos starting all the way back in the 16th century through today. Because royal events and public appearances have strict dress codes we don’t often get to see royals sporting ink but it’s not uncommon for them to have at least one tattoo. As tattoos get more mainstream […]
Surgery, Scarring and Tattoos
Luckily when I broke my wrist early December and went through a surgery I didn’t have anything done that affected my tattoos but it’s certainly not unheard of. Lots of people go through things in life like a surgery where the tattoo may have become deformed but hope is not lost. Of course your options […]
Cover Ups
I already did a post on reworks, if you’d like specific info on reworks check out that post, but coverups are their own thing in a lot of ways. Cover ups (and reworks in this case) always require an in person consult, if a client lives out of town we can sometimes do video consults. We […]
Battle Royale
Battle royale tattoos are a specific American Traditional tattoo that generally depict an eagle fighting a snake and dragon. These tattoos have a heavy Japanese influence as well, the dragon is usually a traditional Japanese style dragon. Though these are the typical animals there are variations. There is always a predatory bird, representing the sun […]
Groo The Wanderer
“About 2 years ago, I got a line about getting a commission done by Sergio Aragones, the illustrator of the comic book Groo The Wanderer. It was a really long process but the artwork finally came in right before the Calgary convention. Through this I got to become pretty good email pen pals with his […]
Maori Tattoos
Tā moko or moko for short is tattooing that is exclusive to New Zealand indigenous peoples, called the Maori. It’s an important part of their culture, not just a tattoo style. In modern tattooing some people have gotten these types of tattoos just aesthetically, with none of the cultural significance; in this context these designs […]
Pigment to Ink: The History of Tattoo Ink
For this article I’m just going to focus on how tattoo ink has changed in the modern world. Indigenous tattooing, as well as cultures all over the world have been making inks to tattoo for thousands of years but the types of inks they created I tend to go over when I cover their cultural […]
Tattoo Clubs to Conventions: The Les Skuse Legacy
Before social media and the contemporary tattoo conventions that we all know and love, there were tattoo clubs. Tattoo clubs were how people shared their tattoos or just love of tattooing starting in the 1950’s. Clubs communicated through sending out newsletters to members and meet ups at pubs or a tattoo shop. The original tattoo […]
Why You Should Research Your Artist
This post just focuses on why it’s important to research your artist’s art style, if you’re interested in researching if a shop is safe checkout my other post: How to spot a reputable tattoo shop. This week I wanted to do training wheels on why it’s important to research your artist before choosing, I think […]
American Trad Part 4: Lyle Tuttle
I have been putting off publishing a post on Lyle Tuttle for a few weeks now. He is just such an involved person in the tattoo community that there is a lot to cover and I wanted to make sure I got all of it. Tuttle lived from 1931-2019 when he passed away at the […]