With the events of the last couple days, I needed to let off some “steam”. For me, that sometimes means getting a little ink done.

I added another koi to my sleeve-in-progress.

click to supersize

click to supersize

I gave him a handlebar mustache because he needed it.

We will get to the color at some point in the future. I’m just glad to have gotten poked. Thank you Queen Bee. Love you!

Oh—and no, it didn’t hurt that much under the arm. But pain is relative.

I’ve refrained from posting any of the tattoo work I do on the blog for the most part, but I think I may start doing so from time to time.

Tonight I managed to wrangle the Husbear into getting his butt back onto the tattoo chair so I could work on him a little more. For such a beefy guy, he’s a real wuss most of the time when it comes to getting inked. I’m proud of him though—he actually sat well this time and was very well behaved.

I’m sure the Husbear will appreciate a picture with his shorts slightly pulled down…

I just had time tonight to do the outline. Hopefully next week I’ll manage to talk him into starting to work on filling it in.

Eventually the solid black tribal work will have flames around them, to counter the water colors around the negative tribal. Not that you can tell the blues are water colors. The Husbear spends a lot of time outside without any sunscreen on. Not good for ink. Or him.

Beautiful men with beautiful colors…

(click to biggie size)

I was going to post about my best buddy today, but something happened that I just had to write about. This was one of those “I just have to tell someone” stories. He will understand… and I’ll make it up to him later.

Here’s the story. I arrive at the tattoo shop this evening just as the “Queen Bee” started a tattoo on a customer. The “Queen Bee” is our primary tattoo artists. She has been tattooing for 16+ years and knows her stuff.

But this isn’t about her. It’s about the customer: it was a 16-year old BOY getting a tattoo.

I don’t really have a problem with the age thing. We attempt to talk most underage people out of a tattoo. I believe it would not be responsible to not attempt to do so. I typically won’t say “no” as they will just go elsewhere or have it done in an unprofessional/unclean environment. Anyone under 18 years of age must have a parent sign for them, and remain there during the procedure. His mom was there with him, as well as a friend-girl. (After a while I realized it was his “Guuurrl-friend”.)

But this isn’t about his age either. It’s about his tattoo choice.

He was getting a lower back tattoo. Also known as a “tramp stamp”.

I have issues with tramp stamps on both men and women. More so on men. I’m not sure why, and I should be the last one to be judgmental about someone’s tattoo choices. I just have issue with them. I’ll deal with that at some point, I’m sure.

BUT this was not just any tramp stamp. It wasn’t your typical flowery or tribal-type tramp stamp…

This tramp stamp was a word. And not just any word. It was HIS OWN NAME! Read that again. His. Own. Name.

WHY???

Why would anyone have their own name tattooed on themselves? And of all places to have it tattooed, why on this green earth would you have your own name tattooed DIRECTLY above your ass?

What the hell is going to happen when this kid has to take showers in gym glass? (Do they still do that these days?) Worse still, what if he ends up in prison? And what about when he is wearing swim trunks at the lake? How do you explain that? Or is it like a “Hello my name is” sticker so that when he is on the bottom of some orgy pile some daddy can look down and know who he’s fucking?

And what about his mom? Did she not think this was odd? I later found out his mom was the one who drew out his name. And worse, she helped him pick the location of the tattoo. WHAT THE HELL?

I think this one will stick with me for a while….

To make matters more… well… funny (to me): he had a “v” in his name that was centered directly above his ass-crack. It was like a directional pointer saying “Please fuck me here!”.

Alexander went through a horrible experience tattoo today, and I want to offer my apologies to him as a tattoo artist.

Anyone who is permanently altering someone’s appearance should ALWAYS ASK before making any changes or additions from the original, agreed-upon plan. Especially when it alters the original design. Even if it is something the artist will think makes the piece “better”, the client should always be asked before it is done. Always!

I’m sorry you had this happen to you Alexander.