Morning Bell mentioned in the ’Breakup’ thread that Bert should get a tattoo. That reminded me of the craziness I witnessed this weekend.



I always wanted a tattoo when I was young. Now tattoos suck. Not too many people used to have them, and the people who did have them were pretty crazy cats. Nowadays, everyone has a tattoo, and that’s deterred me even more from wanting to stain my flesh with something that may be obsolete to me in three years. All of my old bandmates from my first band are tattooed with ’Pigsty’ somewhere on their body. How stupid is that? My roomate had intentions of doing a whole back piece, but it’s been unfinished for the last two years because he can’t handle the pain. Now my sister of all people got a tattoo.



Growing up in my house it was understood that tattoos were no go. Threats from both mom and dad. ’If you get one of those, we won’t put a roof over your head, pay for your education, etc.’ Well, I come home Saturday to do my laundry and my sister just got a tattoo that is from shoulder to shoulder and halfway down her back. It’s total german / white pride too. It’s got some coat of arms thing, and it says ’Victory Forever, Defeat Never.’ Wild. My mom knows about it and she’s covering my sister’s ass by not letting my dad know. How nice. I know she’ll slip and my pops will see it. The shit’s gonna hit the fan.



How many of you guys got ink?

No ink. My sister has one, but nothing as insane as your sister. She's got a sun on her hip or something like that. For some reason I want one on my forearm, but I'll never get that. I don't think it would fly if I want to move up in the world.

Real small Japanese that reads "Naughty" on back of my left arm. Monoab you got a sister? Is she hot? ;)

Brent met her... ask him.

No, but my GF has a little cat sillouhette thingy on the small of her back.

I can understand tattoos more than piercings. I have my nose done (not septum) and a few in my ears, nothing stretched. Tattoos really took off with this whole "tribal" thing. The first tattoo I got was when I was 17, we found some guy that would do it without asking our age and so Pam, Danielle, Suzanne, Nhu and I got some. I got a moon on my ankle (typical girly thing). I loved the way it felt, that burning buzzing tearing my flesh and my little secret from my parents, I reveled in it. I slathered it with bacitracin everyday and hid it so well when I was at home. My dad finally saw it two years later when he woke me up for work that's about the time I decided I needed another one. Craving that stinging ink, I found my way back to the original shop and that same guy who devirginized my skin. After 2 days of mulling over flash and location I was branded with my second tattoo of a japanese looking sun, all black with some crazy swirly clouds below, my most beautiful piece on the front left hip, I swore I was never going to have children. Now that it has been streched by the 10 lb Jake I gave birth to it looks like there is shading around the sun but not ultimately ruined, I could get a touch up and all will be good. I still laugh about the whole me not ever having children (Jake is too perfect to have another one anyway). This last one I got with my husband when we were back home visiting my mom at the Jersey Shore just a year ago. This guy I went to high school with took apprentiship under his dad and they opened up a father-son tattoo business. With all the drunken Irish and skungili Italian degos visiting the island, this guy makes a killing. We decided to see him, we got matching stars on our wrists. Do I see a theme here? Well I'm about to break that. There is this artist in southern IL, her name is [x=Michele Vortman]http://www.hyperspacestudios.com/mtatgallery/index.htm[/x] and I have been coresponding with her for about 2 weeks now. She is amazing the kind of artist you can point out and say "that's a Michele Vortman" I have seen her work in magazines and thought that it was just a style but no, it's just hers. So my husband who is all up for road trips said we need to go see her, "we can leave on friday and be back sunday afternoon!" I have sent her scraps and thumbnails, a picture of my arm and she is going to see what she can put together.

My tattoos are not obsolete to me and I don't think they will ever be especially the one Michele and I are working on (which has to do with my son). I've seen some pretty shitty tats and wondered what these people were thinking but it really isn't my place to say you shouldn't do certain things to your body, like I don't get why people get tattos of thier own name. My co-worker has her name and some crappy tribal on the small of her back so I asked her if she got it so that her husband would know what to scream out while he was railing her from behind. To get someone's name or a word on your skin to me is hoakey. In my husband's case he has his mothers initials (in this crazy writing) on his inner forearm, she died when he was 14 so I see it totally justified.

So I guess I like the ink for now. I want this piece and I'm not afraid it's going to prevent me from doing anything I want to do in my life. I'm not going to have a career that will be bias as to what I like to put on my body so I guess I'm fortunate for that I guess.

The most important thing about getting tattoos in my opinion is to make absolutely sure you are not getting something because of a trend. I grimace every time I see someone with a barbed wire tat around their bicep. Every time I see a girl with something on the small of her back the words "whore brand" pop into my head.

Probably the coolest one I have seen is a bicep tattoo of a young girl who looks a lot like Anne Frank. I think I asked the chick who had it and she said it was her grandmother as a young girl.

Mutt - You know how Brent's sister is attractive enough but if you look at her long enough you start seeing Brent? Same thing with Dan's sister. Except you start seeing Dan.

The problem with getting a tattoo for me is that I think I would treat it a lot like a haircut. Not really communicating exactly what I want because I'm not sure how to describe what I want, and then ending up with something closely resembling Chewbacca's left buttock.

Is there an "Asian asshole" version of a tatoo?

\ /
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I was thinking about topping my sister's tattoo by either getting a line drawing of a schooner on my chest, or an anchor on my chest. But I'm not a sailor. That's also why I hate the nautical star tattoo. It's the tribal band of today type tattoo. Ever since Stars and Straps were the cool new look to go after, all kinds of people went out and got nautical stars. What does punk rock have to do with cartography anyways? There's these two guys that live in the apartment across from mine that both have nautical stars. One has them on each shoulder on the front, and the other has them in the back on each shoulder. It's pretty bad.

that would be michele WORTMAN not vortman, I pronounce it vortman

Assuming I get married, I'm thinking of getting her name done under the wedding band... gives it a nice permanence. Other than that I wouldn't mind a dove on my shoulder... if the artist could avoid making it look too Christian. Don't wanna look like a member of P.O.D.

I have a barcode,best before.......

Or Creed.

Funny. I was perusing this thread, because I remember some cats here mentioning that they had work done. Morning Bell... what happened to her, she was cool.

Well since I posted this, a bit over a year ago, my outlook has changed completely. I now have a decent collection of them. Here's how it went down:

August 2004: Anchor with the words 'San Pedro' below it on my left inner bicep. I got the design from a Minutemen logo. They're my musical heroes and hell, I'm from 'Pedro.

November 2004: Irish flag on my left pectoral. It's the harp with 'Erin Go Bragh' below it. I wanted a harp like the Bass logo, but didn't want a logo from a beer company on me. Got it in S.F. when I was with my sister the day after thanksgiving.

February 2005: Eye H8 Hate on my left leg above the knee. It's an eyeball with h8 then hate below it, so it reads 'I hate hate.' It was a rebuttal to my sister's tattoo that I mentioned in the beginning of this thread. It was done by Jed in 'Pedro.

February 2005: Chuck Taylor All-Star logos on the insides of both my ankles. I wanted to have a permanent pair of Chucks. Pretty silly ones.

March 2005: Celtic knotwork piece on my left side that runs the whole length of my ribcage. I got that in Maine when I was visiting my sister. She had gotten a celtic thing on her ribs, so I got one too, but bigger. 5 hours of straight tattooing. I almost passed out after that one.

August 2005: Charles Bukowski on the back of my right arm. My friend had done this cool stencil design of him and I decided I wanted that. It's pretty big, and that one was no picnic to get. The part that sucks about that one is people keep thinking it's Abraham Lincoln.

September 2005 to present: I'm getting a scene from the 'Book of 100 Demons' on my whole left leg. It's a big one and it's taking some time. Well, my artist is taking his sweet time, but he's a friend of mine so it's cool. The imagery of this one is really cool. I don't feel like writing about it now.

This just shows that in a little over a year I went from not wanting a tattoo, to being closer and closer to a tatooed freak. All I can say is once you get one, it's hard not to get the bug.

Yeah, I'm a dork.

I like the chucks, that's pretty rad.

Crikey,that celtic cross must have burned.

Yeah, that was a tough one.

Abdul makes me think Id quite like a palm tatto, right hand
but what?
a fish would be nice except for those christians.

that's why you put feet on it and write darwin in the middle.

a cool palm tattoo is one with a dollar sign that reads 'pay up sucker'

Abdul compels you.

any new graffiti?
I just got sliced on the shredder and have oil in it ,but its not made the face of jesus so far.

summer is HARD ,there is too much green veg.

I've got some new stuff put on me. The shots are old, but you can see where it's going...

OH MAN
AMAZING.

how long did they take and where did you have them done

the balck sock effect is kinda samey
black
splutter,evil comes to sarcasm.

Well, the leg is still in progress, but I'd say it's been about 20-30 hours total so far. It's more complete now than in those pictures. I've now got a lotus on my knee cap and we're adding more stuff in between the characters, atmosphere, water, junk like that. My artist said once the whole thing is done, we're going to go over the whole thing again.

A friend of mine is doing the work out of his house. He used to work in shops, but got tired of it. He's really thinking of opening his own shop. We're taking our time on this though. It's been a few months since I last got any work done.

The 'black sock effect' is actually a black sock. I think I took these before heading over to my parents, and my pops hasn't seen it yet, so I was hiding it. My mom doesn't really care though. Dad would be bummed. Good thing my parents don't have a swimming pool anymore.

This isn't new, but just thought I'd put it up... Charles Bukowski.

so now you can say that you walk the mean streets with Buk on your arm.

can old people still be cool ?

looks kinda like abe lincoln in the picture

i was going to say hemingway

wonder what it would be like in negative ,try the other arm .
you are SO brave .
cant think of all that pain.

I've gotten Abe Lincoln too many times. There's only been one occasion when a random person got it right, and he ended up being one of the camera operators for the Bukowski documentary. Funny.

I'm going to add to it with my visual interpretation of his poem 'Bluebird.'

I particularly enjoyed this one below... Found it here.

My Father (from "Septuagenarian Stew" 1994)

was a truly amazing man
he pretended to be
rich
even though we lived on beans and mush and weenies
when we sat down to eat, he said,
"not everybody can eat like this."

and because he wanted to be rich or because he actually
thought he was rich
he always voted Republican
and he voted for Hoover against Roosevelt
and he lost
and then he voted for Alf Landon against Roosevelt
and he lost again
saying, "I don't know what this world is coming to,
now we've got that god damned Red in there again
and the Russians will be in our backyard next!"

I think it was my father who made me decide to
become a bum.
I decided that if a man like that wants to be rich
then I want to be poor.

and I became a bum.
I lived on nickles and dimes and in cheap rooms and
on park benches.
I thought maybe the bums knew something.

but I found out that most of the bums wanted to be
rich too.
they had just failed at that.

so caught between my father and the bums
I had no place to go
and I went there fast and slow.
never voted Republican
never voted.

buried him
like an oddity of the earth
like a hundred thousand oddities
like millions of other oddities,
wasted.

sad,no ones' parents ever get it right.