There are a ton of top notch artists in California, I’d love to head out there to get some work done. I’m only 6 hours from Los Angeles.

I agree with you, however tattooist will only put their absolute best tattoos in their portfolio for others to see. I guess this would really be the only way to know if they do great work, but there’s always going to be that risk that they really aren’t all that great after all.

I like word of mouth and seeing really nice tattoos on people make me want to go get tattoos from them. That’s how I got my tattoos in the first place, I was directed to them and I saw the work they did on my friend. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always pan out.

I’m not going to this expo to get another crappy tattoo, I’m actually going to see what everyone has to offer and then hopefully it’ll help me make a better educated decision. Spending some time looking at what people are doing, looking through portfolios and talking with other like-minded people like myself, hopefully I’ll come out of this event with a better understanding of who I can go to in the future for good work and what to expect before deciding on what to have inked on my skin.

I have ideas of what I want, I have no clue how to put it into fruition… I leave that up to the artist to decide and hopefully I will have made a well thought out decision of who to have do my next work. I know there are tattooist out there who can take ideas and come up with genuine original works of art, if I didn’t want that kind of tattoo, then I’d be printing crap off the internet and make my job a little easier by saying I want This and This and This… the fact is, I don’t want this and that, I want something new, original and desinged just for me. But I expect the tattooist to be good at being able to put ideas into motion. I want masterpieces put on my skin, that’s what I pay them for. I’ll look for Roman and Kirk Alley as Buttwheat suggested, I’m excited that I might find someone who really is a kick ass tattoo artist, because that will be the person I want to do my next work and hopefully fix the crap I already have.

Ben did the two japanese symbols with the trinity symbol and WCC, the stars and butterfly were done by that dumb ass scratcher possing as a good tattoois from a supposedly good shop located in the richest area of Arizona (Scottsdale). I paid Ben 300 bucks for his work and the other dumbass 250 for the other shitty work.
For someone who’s never been tattoos until just recently, I’m starting to think I made a mistake in thinking I would get ink as good as what I see in the magazines and on tv… apparently I can’t find anyone here in Arizona who does good work. Everywhere I talk to someone, they always mention that they know someone who does great work, but who the hell am I suppose to believe?

It’s obvious that I’m not too conserned with money since I paid almost 600 bucks for mediocre tattoos, my problem is finding someone who can actually tattoo stuff that isn’t shit. I’d really love to spend my money with someone who knows what the fuck they’re doing. It’s the story of my life… I can’t find anything worth while even if I try. I was always told you get what you pay for, apparently that saying is bullshit because I paid good money for shitty tattoos by people who are apparently suppose to be really good.

I actually like Ben Corn, I’ve seen his work and people go to him from all over the World, so why did I just get a mediocre tattoo from someone who is suppose to be “the best”? I don’t get it…

I just messaged the owner of the tattoo shop where I got this done, apparently the douche who did this to me isn’t there anymore. The owner said he’d fix it himself for free this week, I’ll let you all know how it goes and post up some photos.

After looking through the guys portfolio, he seems to be pretty damn good. The question is… why couldn’t I have gotten it done in the first place by this guy or someone who “wasn’t new”?

Here are photos of the tattoos I got recently, paid 550 bucks for this. Look at how crappy the stars are, they’re uneven and the shading ins’t very good. I don’t know, maybe I got what it’s worth and I’m just super picky… perhaps you experienced people can let me know if this looks good and was worth what I spend? I’m not happy with it, I just expect to get something a little better than this from someone who’s suppose to be a good tattoo artist. I feel I got a mediocre tattoo at a premium price.