So: avoid disappointment and ORDER NOW!!!

(More content excerpts to follow asap.)

Technorati Tags: Tattoo Burst, Tattoo, Japanese Tattoo Magazine, London Tattoo Convention

Even she admitted that she should have avoided the studio where she got her tattoo done (I had given her some advice on what she should look out for before starting the tattoo): they did *not* cover even one bit of the chair where she was sitting, to rest her arms and hear head they gave her cushions that were also not covered in any protective plastic or anything, and had in fact just been used for the guy getting tattooed before her…

While the “tattoo artist” and the customer took a break to go outside and have a cigarette, he did *not* take off his gloves, but opened the door for the lady (with the gloves on!), had a smoke, and then continued after the break using the same gloves! And she was too shy to ask him to change them. Good heavens!!! I mean: please!!! That is outrageous!!!

When you get tattooed, there will be blood, there can possibly be viruses in the fluids coming from your body – and the way this “tattoo artist” deals with such situations simply screams contamination and cross-contamination!

Please: do use the bit of common sense that God gave you… Of course hundreds of people get tattooed under such terrible conditions all over the world, and a lot of them are lucky – but some are not. HIV is not the one to worry about (there is not a *single* reported case of HIV transmission through tattooing in the whole world), but the nasty one is Hepatitis C. Very difficult to cure, not much fun to go through the medication / hospital procedure – almost as bad as being HIV positive.

Technorati Tags: Tattoo Artists, Tattooists, Tattooing, Travel, Holiday, Tattooing Precautions, Tattooing Safety. Tattoo Artists Bangkok Thailand

Turned out she had an appointment a couple of hours later to get her very first tattoo from a local (Bangkok / Thailand) artist.

Within two minutes of chatting to her I knew that she knew nothing about tattooing, hygiene, transmission of viruses, etc. etc. etc.

I volunteered to go have a look at the studio and tell her whether the standard of their hygiene is up to Western standards. You might already know the answer… Of course it was not.

I strongly suggested to her to cancel the appointment, pay the guy some money for the work he had put into the design (about three hours), and then do further (= proper!) research when she arrives back in her own country. (She was from Switzerland, so she has the opportunity of getting work from the likes of Mick from Zurich, Filip Leu, Sabine Gaffron, Wido de Marval, etc. etc. etc.)

Of course I got an earful of “Oh, but they charge a lot more than this guy”, “This local guy is really nice and sweet”, blah blah blah.

Yeah, the likes of Filip Leu or Mick (in Switzerland) or Luke Atkinson (in Germany) do charge more than other tattooists in their respective countries, but: have you ever actually seen those guys work? They are so fast… Maybe you will find a guy who charges half the price of what they charge – but it is going to take him three times as long to finish the piece, so you will end up paying *more* and the quality of the work is not as great as what you could have had!

The other thing that bothered me about this beautiful girl: appointment to get tattooed today, off to the sunny beaches of Thailand for a holiday tomorrow… Fresh tattoo = no sunbathing, no swimming in the sea – and generally being careful and looking after the tattoo as well as possible.

As soon as I have more time, I will write a more in-depth article on the main site about this issue, since it really bothers me how little common sense so many people have when it comes to getting tattooed. The main site, btw is Tattoo-Source.com.

Technorati Tags: Tattoo Artists Tattooists Tattooing Travel Holiday Precautions Safety Bangkok Thailand

“Bangkok, December 20th 2005

Dear friends and artists,
we are really sorry to inform all of you that due to legal reasons, the 1st Thailand tattoo convention has been cancelled.
We do apologize for this sudden decision we had to made and for all the inconveniences this may bring to many of you, but serious problems sorted out and heavy pressures have been made to make our convention to be cancelled and so, independently by our will and efforts, we’ve been forced to give it up.
We kindly request all the artists that already made their payment for the booth, to send us their bank coordinates for the payback .
Thanks once again for your endless collaboration and for the great passion you put in this project, but sadly that wasn’t enough to see it realised.

Wish you all the bestMarco Leoni & Tattoothai staff”

Technorati Tags: Tattoo Artists Tattooists Tattooing Bangkok Thailand Tattoo Convention

Jimmy Wong’s Convention is still happening…

Many great artists not coming to Thailand…

Technorati Tags: Bangkok Thailand Tattoo Convention

I can confirm that the following artists will NOT be attending the Bangkok Tattoo Convention that is happening on 10, 11 & 12 February 2006 at BEC Tero Hall:

Horiyoshi III (Yoshihito Nakano), Yokohama
Shige, Yellow Blaze Studio / Yokohama

As far as I know, no-one claimed him and his crew would attend, but since quite a few people have asked me by email, I can also confirm that Filip Leu & The Leu Family’s Family Iron (Loretta Leu, Titine Leu, Rinzing & Wido de Marval) will NOT be in Bangkok for any of the conventions. Filip told me that they are planning to hardly attend conventions at all in 2006.

Keep Your Country Beautiful: Get Tattooed! Patrice / Tattoo-Source.com

Technorati Tags: Bangkok Thailand Tattoo Convention

Summary: a good issue of Tattoo Burst, but not one of their best.

Technorati Tags: Tattoo Burst Magazine Japan

I am currently in Bangkok and can confirm that there will be TWO THAILAND TATTOO CONVENTIONS (!!!) in the space of two weeks… both of them happening in February 2006.

The first one (organized by Jimmy & Joy Wong) is on the same weekend as the Milano Tattoo Convention (a bit unfortunate), the second one (organized by Marco Leoni) is taking place on the weekend of the 24th, 25th & 26th February 2006. More information can be found here: http://www.firstthailandtattooconvention.com . I have no choice, but to attend both ot them!

Keep your country beautiful: get tattooed!

Technorati Tags: Bangkok Thailand Tattoo Conventions

Tattoo-Source.com / Patrice

Yours truly (Patrice – Tattoo-Source.com) is a bit of a tech geek, so the blogging technology does appeal to me.

Makes it a lot easier for me to keep all interested parties updated re the latest tattoo books, contents of the latest Japanese tattoo magazines, plus other interesting stuff I come across.

Updating the website and/or sending out newsletters is a lot more time-consuming, so… a Tattoo-Source blog is the excuse I now have… or should that be: no more excuses for not keeping you posted…?!?! You decide…

You can still subscribe to the Tattoo-Source Newsletter (http://www.tattoo-source.com/pagesinfo/newsletter.html), but I highly recommend you also get the RSS Feed to this blog…

Keep your country beautiful: get tattooed!

Tattoo-Source.com / Patrice

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