Work and more work...

Few new tattoos from Mr. Steven Turner. Thanks for looking! Come down and get tattooed!
Thanks Lyle!
Finally done! Thanks Rob!
In progress... Thanks Karl.
Fun one shot tattoo. Thanks Jesse!

Absolutely almost no absolutes

Not a week goes by that we don't hear, either via walk-in or phone call, the following statement (or a variant)

"Hey, yeah, so I've gone to X studio(s) and they told me they won't do Z. Will you guys do it?"

In this case:
"X" = the number of different studios the person has gone to or contacted, usually between 2 and 12
and
"Z" = hand tattoos, face tattoos, script tattoos, 'offensive' tattoos, etc.

Rarely, if ever, will we refuse these tattoos that so many other studios or artists flat-out will not do.

This hard-line refusal is confusing to us for the most part.
Our job is not to be the final arbiter of an individuals life decisions.
We facilitate your experience, that's all.

Want a hand tattoo? Get one. Our only rule here is that we won't do this as a starter tattoo- we will insist the person prove to themselves that they're ready to brand themselves an outsider to societal norms. This is also true of face and neck tattoos. Nothing visible until you're already tattooed.

However, there are countless studios (usually the 'cool kid' studios) that won't do these tattoos at all- at least not until you're part of their elitist cliques. Then its game on- sleeve up that neck, Jimmy Hipster!

Another example we've heard of is studios refusing to tattoo the word 'fuck' on someone.
Errr... Why not?

This notion of placing ones own moral or ethical standards as higher than the clients is totally confusing to us.

Now, don't get me wrong here, it's not as if we're exploitative bastards, looking to capitalize on ignorance. You come in asking for say, your name on your forehead backwards so you can read it in a mirror, we'll do it- but only after you get an hour long lecture on every possible facet of how that tattoo will bite you in the ass repeatedly.

Same with getting your girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/husbands name... We'll do it, but only after you hear a repetitious tirade about how each and every time couples do this, it kills the relationship. (My personal record is less than 24 hours after a name tattoo, the couple had broken up.)

To sum up- you want to get something, we'll do it. You'll get an education, whether you wanted it or not, but in the end its your decision.

We'll even toss in how much the inevitable cover-up will cost you too.

Honor Thy Father

A good start to a half sleeve in honor of his late father.

The Culinary Kid

Misunderstood

This client took the previous 'artists' word for it instead of checking his portfolio for herself - and she ended up with a tattoo she was so ashamed of that she hasn't been to a swimming pool yet this Summer (rib piece). She's happy now. :)

Riverfest Cometh! (and bloweth... hard)

Finally, someone has taken the time to share the horribleness of riverfest with the rest of the world. Peopleofriverfest.com provides you with a true insight as to what the riverfest is all about... a bunch of fat, sunburned, poorly dressed idiots wandering around downtown Wichita. Most businesses of the downtown area would agree - this is truly an embarrassment. (at least it's funny)
Get some!


S.F.T.S.

A couple of days ago, a last-minute walk-in client came in, he wanted a tattoo of the letters 'SFTS'.

At first he seemed somewhat embarrassed about it, in a self-deprecating sort of way. I think he's used to people not getting -at all- what SFTS means.

Sheepishly, he told us that it stands for "Search For The Stoke". When we pressed him for more details, he warmed up to it and revealed to us that its his (and his close circle of friends) personal philosophy.

Search for the stoke.

The stoke.
What the fuck is the stoke?

Only you can answer that question.

The stoke can be anything.
A surreal mushroom trip, a deeply meaningful tattoo, a superb spread of Sushi, gaggingly cute videos of kittens on YouTube, a mindblowing (haw) blowjob... Anything.

The STOKE.

The more we talked about this concept, the warmer I got to it all- Fuck yes. Search for the stoke.

It's not about -finding- the stoke.... It's all about the search for it.

It's worth thinking about at length- perhaps we could all use a little more stoke-searching in our lives.

One can't help but pick up a little wisdom along the way too. An incidental perk associated with the search for the stoke.

Go forth, good ladies and sirs...

Search.

Stone Tribal Add-On

Added some stone tribal down to the wrist, also brought some of the red tribal down throughout to integrate it all.

Hunter's Tribal

Let's be level-headed here...

There is a tendency amongst those in the tattoo industry who've convinced themselves that what they do is more important than it really is. Sometimes this is a conscious philosophy, often its not- more of a pervasive attitude thats been allowed to seep into their behavior.
These 'artists' think they're doing something life-altering, that what they do has some form of world-defining weight.

This line of thought and action leads to a smug arrogance, and elitism. It's epidemic. All of you who've walked into a studio full of artists who behave this way have felt that condescension, that sense of "what makes you think you're good enough to get a tattoo from us?"

You can practically hear their internal monologue- "Move aside mere drop of water, let the Ocean pass."

What is most amusing about this is that the vast majority of these people are all doing the same thing. ALL of them, it's the same old-same old.... "old-school-with-a-twist", yet somehow they're convinced that what they're doing is somehow new, unique, and NOT just completely self-congratulatory onanism.

They're all scamming their drawings from each other as voraciously as possible, but standing on a soap-box about how much better they are than studios (like PennyBlack) that exist for the people, as well as the art... As though giving clients exactly what they want is a bad thing, but cloning each other is the be-all/end-all of existence.

So whats the point to all this? Simply this- We draw on people. That's it.

We don't save lives, we don't make a lasting global difference.

We draw pictures. On skin.

I am proud to be anti Art-Elite.

I know my place in the world, and I will never think that just because I'm allowed to place my art on other peoples skin that makes all others inferior to me.

Anti. Art. Elite.