The Best Tattooers From
All Around The World.
By.C-Artist
Article launched 2-26-08 12:00 P.M.
MST
It was 4 P.M. when our crew raided Kat-Von-D's Musink 1st Annual Tattoo & Music Festival at the Orange County Fair & Exposition Center in Costa Mesa Califas.
We discovered everyone who attended this great event had something in common; we all had a true passion for art.
We met tattoo artists from Southern and Nothern California, Nevada, Illionois, Arizona, Texas, New York and even Germany.
There was beer, live bands and art galleries. More than enough visual stimulation satisfied our eye's, so we hope these photos fullfill yours aswell.
Peace Out!
My piercer's the man
By Nicole
My piercer's the man
he does all he can
to suggest some new mods
and help me to plan
I like to think of parts
I wanna get done
so when I see my piercer
it is so much fun
i go into the room
lie back on the chair
he sticks the needle through
with the greatest of care
I look in the mirror
satisfied with what I see
cause my piercer's the man
the only artist for me!
This "trend" must end
By Jessica Wulf
Why are Mods becoming so common?
With this fact...I see a problem:
I try to be different, I try to be unique
some people at school say I'm a freak
Stretched lobes, tongue done, tattoos here and there
the critics all around are starting to stare
a couple years go by,
and I start to wonder why...
the critics get mods...the call it a "trend"
this, I think, has to end
hypocrites, hypocrites everywhere...
all the hypocrites stop their stares
An Idea To Art
By R.L. Danner
As I walked my path through life
My body being my temple of ideas
I wanted to express myself, my own way
Walking into the shop that day
I found my expression waiting for me
Custom drawn just for me in black line art
I made my way into the studio in the back
My nerves dancing in my skin and mind
As I sat down in the chair I knew this was it
Forever in my skin it would lay
As the artist prepared the machines
I watched in awe of his precision and care
The time had come and that buzz and click began
My flesh was prepared to receive its gift
As the razor slid down my back I closed my eyes
It was time to lay the idea into my skin
With artist vision the hands and steel became one
Flowing over my back in defined motion
A picture became a living portrait of life
As the minutes passed I felt the ink be laid
Into my skin like a humming bird kisses a rose
When all was said and done I stood once more
This time to see my idea frozen in time
As a portrait of vision in my skin
Laid in brilliant color for the first time
Now I understand the meaning of a Tattoo
Enduring Success
By Kat Nelson
I stand amongst the courageous,
who've rallied despite the rain.
Who've succeeded and prevailed,
ignoring all the pain.
Marking each of life's lessons in totem and ink.
Making souls soar, making minds think.
For it has not proved enough to survive, to bow down or demure...
So we mark ourselves and boast, our achievements...we've endured.
---------------
Rehab
Last Tattoo Lyrics
This will be my last tattoo
To cover the memory of someone I thought I'd always need
Cover her name with a smoking gun
Make it hurt as much as possible and make it bleed
Just can't take it no more feelin' numb
Woke up face on the floor I was dumb
Cut me all the way to the core morning comes
Time to get busy forgetting again
Tired of going out my mind
Looking for something I won't find
How could I have been so blind
This is a load of crap
It figures she would win
But I'll learn to feel again
Bear down hard when you fill it in
Give me the pain I'll grit my teeth in
[Hook:]
This will be my last tattoo
To cover the memory of someone I thought I'd always need
Cover her name with a smoking gun
Make it hurt as much as possible and make it bleed
You know when I woke up this morning she was long good gone
I thought she heard me say she was my vertebrae my back bone
But bone the dawn feels wrong, the night ain't right
The phone ain't on and she broke out last night
Left a note sayin' she won't hang on, she just can't fight
I know she's with Brock Scott, that jock with blonde locks
That blocks shots, guess I'm just not that hot
Mailbox for cocks
Let him bust your rear cuz you don't trust my rap career
But need I point out our bank account with a large amount
You left in the bank you skank, what you think
I'm a take this loot and buy some ink
You can take that shit you talkin' with you walkin' hooker
[Hook:]
This will be my last tattoo
To cover the memory of someone I thought I'd always need
Cover her name with a smoking gun
Make it hurt as much as possible and make it bleed
Her face is still in my brain kill her name
I'm still dealing with pain what a shame
Heart still wearing a stain I'm to blame
Little bitty guilty's crawling all over my soul
I can't believe this shit
Said I caused the things she did
Bear down hard when you fill it in
Give me the pain I'll grit my teeth in
[Hook:]
This will be my last tattoo
To cover the memory of someone I thought I'd always need
Cover her name with a smoking gun
Make it hurt as much as possible and make it bleed
---------------
Tattoo Quotes
Tattoos are like stories - they're symbolic of the important moments in your life. Sitting down, talking about where you got each tattoo and what it symbolizes, is really beautiful. Pamela Anderson
My body is a journal in a way. It's like what sailors used to do, where every tattoo meant something, a specific time in your life when you make a mark on yourself, whether you do it yourself with a knife or with a professional tattoo artist. Johnny Depp
"Every time I get a tattoo, it’s a little fuck-you to anyone who tells me not to. It’s weird to be part of Hollywood, which tries to control every aspect of people, from what they say to the color of their hair. And I like the way getting a tattoo feels. If I’m depressed, it’s nice to get one and deal with the pain. I have one all the way down to my ribs. It hurt, but it felt good–like twisting a loose tooth. I’m not kidding when I say that if I ever lose a role because of my tattoos, I’ll quit Hollywood and go to work at Costco." ~ Megan Fox
I think I have enough tattoos for now. If I get any others, I'll probably do my kids initials. Niki Taylor
I did what I could to move the muscles in my back so the tattoo could sort of stretch out. I always wished I had more muscles that could crinkle up.
Ralph Fiennes For the film, Red Dragon (2002) as Francis Dolarhyde
I have this huge lion tattoo embossed on my arm. I was a little worried as to how we would cover it up. But my makeup man covered the tattoo with makeup. It took close to two hours.
Sanjay Dutt
I got my first tattoo, a Playboy Bunny, because I was young, dumb and drunk... Anna Nicole Smith
I always look for a woman who has a tattoo. I see a woman with a tattoo, and I’m thinking, okay, here’s a gal who’s capable of making a decision she’ll regret in the future. -- Comedian Richard Jeni
Vince Vaughn in the hit film The Wedding Crashers - "Tattoo on the lower back. Might as well be a bulls-eye."
I wouldn't care if they tattoo Festus all over. He's been good to me.
Ken Curtis - American singer and actor best known for his role as "Festus Haggen" on CBS' long-running western drama, Gunsmoke, which he portrayed from 1964 to 1975.
"You put a tattoo on yourself with the knowledge that this body is yours to have and enjoy while you're here. You have fun with it, and nobody else can control (supposedly) what you do with it. That's why tattooing is such a big thing in prison: it's an expression of freedom—one of the only expressions of freedom there. They can lock you down, control everything, but 'I've got my mind, and I can tattoo my body—alter it my way as an act of personal will.' " DON ED HARDY
The only difference between a tattooed person and a person who isn't tattooed is that a tattooed person doesn't care if you're tattooed or not.
(Sign often seen in tattoo shops)
Beauty is skin deep. A tattoo goes all the way to the bone.
Vince Hemingson
There's something really the matter with most people who wear tattoos, he says. I know from experience there's something terribly flawed about people who are tattooed above the little something Johnny had done in the Navy, even though that's also a bad sign. (Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood, interviewed more than one hundred killers over a period of ten years and says eighty percent of them have one thing in common: Tattoos)
The Greek philosopher Bion of Borysthenes (circa 300 B.C.) described the brutally tattooed face of his father, a former slave, as "a narrative of his master's harshness."
Love lasts forever, but a tattoo lasts six months longer. (Anon)
Think before you Ink! (Sign often seen in tattoo shops)
"The human body is always treated as an image of society." ANTHROPOLOGIST MARY DOUGLAS
"A man without tattoos is invisible to the Gods." - Iban Proverb - Mingatt Anak Casa (Akai Basai), Iban Headman on the Sekerang River, Sarawak, Borneo - from The Vanishing Tattoo Documentary
"The woman must bear children and the man must be tattooed."
Polynesian Proverb
You may lose your most valuable property through misfortune in various ways. You may lose your house, your wife and other treasures. But of your moko, you cannot be deprived except by death. It will be your ornament and companion until your last day. -- Netana Whakaari of Te Waimana-Kākū, Tuhoe, 1921
"An everlasting gem that you will take into your grave."
Line from a traditional Polynesian song about tattooing
Richard Leakey - A quote from "Origins Reconsidered - In Search of What Makes Us Human".
"Each society weaves its own culture, a complex fabric of many elements, each element giving special meaning to the others. It is often difficult for someone from outside a particular culture to understand the fabric as an entity. Differences in language, in values, and in mythology create barriers to understanding. Pluck a single thread from the fabric, and the foreigner is even less likely to comprehend its significance. The painted, engraved, and carved images of prehistory are threads from past cultures, and we are the foreigners trying to interpret their meaning. Perhaps more than anything else, art can be fully understood only in the context of the culture that produced it."
In Galatians 6:17, Saint Paul says, "From this time onward let no one trouble me; for, as for me, I bear, branded on my body, the scars of Jesus as my Master."
"Tattoos aren't meant for everybody and they're too goddamn good for some people." Lyle Tuttle, tattoo artist, author, and lecturer.
"I'm the man who ruined everything." (Lyle Tuttle on the popularity of modern tattooing)
Sonny and another Hells Angel who was at the meeting thought they were beyond a little patch so they headed down to a local tattoo shop in Oakland and were the first to get the famous One Percent tattoos.
Chuck Zito - a member of the New York chapter of the Hells Angels, amateur boxer, martial artist, celebrity bodyguard, stuntman and actor.
Sometimes I bust out and do things so permanent. Like tattoos and marriage. Drew Barrymore
People have asked me, what about your tattoos when you're ninety? Why would it bother me then? I would still want to get tattooed even when I'm a grandmother. Nicole Miller, noted fashion designer
Everybody gets the tattoo they deserve. (actor David Duchovny, who has a tattoo of a compass on his ankle, [with N, S, E, West, his daughter's name] as Fox Mulder on the X-Files, a show Thomas Lockhart worked on in the famous Tattoo episode)
In the 19th century, Field Marshal Earl Roberts said that "every officer in the British army should be tattooed with his regimental crest. Not only does this encourage esprit de corps but also assists in the identification of casualties."
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