LA Ink

[AJane]

causingchaos - I love my tats and also choose to remain pasty rather than ruin them. I figure suntanning gives you cancer anyway, so I don't go out the sun without heavy-duty sunscreen, period.

Now, I never had any issues with healing, but a friend of mine actually had a couple layers of skin peel off in spots on his full-sleeve piece. He looked like he had leprosy. His sleeve is a tribal design and has big solid black lines. I never had any bleeding or scabbing, just a bit of flaking and a couple days of murderous itch. My husband bled and found the experience painful. I figure healing issues must be a combination of the ink (the heavy black) and skin type, and perhaps where the piece is placed. But it would be interesting if at least one of these shows explored those kind of details.

[causingchaos]

Of all the shows that should have addressed sun issues it should have been Miami ink. They get blasted down and then out to the beach they go.

I honestly can say I only had a scabbing issue with lines have to be retapped on the top of my foot but honestly I am not surprised by that as it's not the easiest site to heal out. I expected way more problems with my back pieces as I couldn't reach back there to take care of them as I would have if they were elsewhere like the ones on my arms.

Other than it's just the itchy flakies. I love how these shows don't say you're tattoo is going to look like it's flaking off for a couple days while you want to scratch but can't. They always forget to mention that too.

After the first day I'm usually not in pain anymore and certainly after the first couple hours any bleeding stops. Another interesting issue they don't tackle on this show is why one should not get tattooed while intoxicated (bleeding out all over while they are trying to get the ink in).

But none of these shows even mention that fun stuff. They also don't get into the pricing of stuff or the reality that in many shops price depends on your attitude and relationship with the artist.

[swissmiss150]

Yes, it's very convenient that price never seems to be mentioned on the tattoo shows. For people with back pieces, are they happy even though it's difficult for them to see it? Why not just have a drawing made of whatever you want and hang it on the wall? It would be easier to look at it every day. I'm not trying to be rude, but getting a back piece is such a commitment of time and money that I wonder why people get one. I can understand getting a tattoo where you can easily view it yourself like on your arm.

[causingchaos]

I got my back done because one it's a large area of skin to play with. Two I had some specific things I wanted on my back. I might not see them all the time but I do when I look at it in the mirror and it's very meaningful to me. And the only people that really see my back are the people I let see it so they're kind of more private too.

I don't look at my arm pieces every day and for much of the winter I hardly notice my foot and ankle pieces because of socks. I don't get them because I want to look at them every day. I get them because they mean something to me and when I do look at them I get to be reminded of what they mean.

But by far my back stuff is my favorite and most personal even if I don't see it daily.

I'm not the biggest fan of these celebrity shops on TV. For me this is a sub-culture I love dearly. I get tattoos not because the person giving them is popular but because it is a part of who I am. Yeah, once in awhile I'll fantasize about Paul Booth or someone putting something on my body but I wake up and realize I don't want Paul Booth on my body. I want me on my body. I'm glad these folks have found some success in their careers but it's not my thing. I just get a great deal of entertainment comparing celeb artists to all the little dudes out there.

[karna68]

Is anyone watching the new season? OMG, it's so obviously edited it's not even funny, when the people talk it's so choppy you can tell it's pieced together. Makes me not want to watch but I do like to see the tattoos.

[fluff]

I've been watching

I really don't like the drama. Now Corey has gone they're trying to inject some drama at American Electric with the Amy/Ruthless fued.
I like Amy, but I was not impressed with her attitude when she breezed back into the shop and had a go at Craig for not telling her he'd hired Ruthless.
Amy gave Craig no notice she was leaving and didn't contact him while she was away. I think she has quite a nerve to take him to task for not informing her that he'd hired someone else.
It's not as though Ruthless is replacing her even, Craig said she could have her job back.

I'd like Corey to work at American Electric, but I don't think he'll take Craig up on that offer.

Kat's hair looks dreadful this season. That red mess on her head has to be a wig. It's so thick and matted and looks very plastic.
Rooftop's kind an odd character, but it did amuse me when he was making cracks about Nikki's age and when he put a plastic fork in his wristband/watch and said he had the same tattoo and the woman from Barbados getting the broken trident.

[AZChristian]

I've been watching
. . . snip . . .

Kat's hair looks dreadful this season. That red mess on her head has to be a wig. It's so thick and matted and looks very plastic.
Rooftop's kind an odd character, but it did amuse me when he was making cracks about Nikki's age and when he put a plastic fork in his wristband/watch and said he had the same tattoo and the woman from Barbados getting the broken trident.

I watch, too . . . but not enjoying it as much as past seasons.

RE: Kat's hair - I think between the hair and the botox in the lips, she's trying to look like Ariel from The Little Mermaid movie.

Rooftop cracked me up with the fork in his wristband. Very cute.

[swissmiss150]

I wondered if I was the only person watching this show. I'm interested in the tattoos - they can drop the drama, but I'm sure they won't.

That red wig of her - wow.

[bahurupiya]

...I really don't like the drama...

...not enjoying it as much as past seasons...

...they can drop the drama...

I wondered what people here would think of the last couple of seasons.

I'm the odd viewer out, I confess that we have been enjoying, and enjoying it as much for how epicly badly they are doing it as for the "novela" itself - from day one of that painfully contrived Aubrey arc!

Kat is a tattoo genius, but the world's worst actress, but Craig seems to have some real comic potential, and he is obviously having the time of his life!

On the subject of Kat's red - whatever that is on her head though - I do agree with the consensus: not her best look.

When will we realize that no matter how light we can get our skin if we use enough sunblock, if Mother Nature put black hair on our head and black eyes in it, we are just not going to look right with colory hair!

This world we live in is in urgent need of some serious undertones education.

Nor do I think she needed any lip enhancements - and isn't that a new nose?

Oh, please don't be a new nose!

She had such a beautiful face, but this season she has that "stylized" look, as if all that beauty had been wiped off like so much unwanted chin hair, and rendered her indistinguishable from the 9 squillion other girls who have done all the same things with the goal of looking - like that.

At least botox, fishlip injections and crimes against hair are temporary.

Whatever she got "did," I wish she hadn't, and I hope it's not permanent.

[J.D.]

I don't think I'd mind the scripted drama and such if the show had been advertised that way. But it's not. I's supposed to be a reality show about a tattoo shop. I'd much rather watch artists working on their craft than artsy types complaining about the umpteen shop managers. How many "managers" does that particular shop need, anyway?

These people such amazing artists - I'd love to see more of their work.