Tattooists I Heart

The unfortunate truth of it is that besides Mr. Jean-Francois Palumbo:

...I do not have any of the other really awesome tattooists that I've taken a liking to over the years featured under the Art I Heart section.  This is mainly because I like to limit that down to art that has had a direct effect on my work, and since I'm no tattooist, well, you know.  But, I do totally keep a creeperly file of my favorites on my computer, so I decided to go ahead and share.  I've found most of these by hiding in the bookshelves at Hastings and poring over a giant stack of tattoo mags, imagining myself tattooing and thinking about how goddamned tragically that would probably end ("You warhammered a tattoo needle THROUGH my arm!!!")  So, for those of us that cannot do, I present to you, awesome tattoos to slobber over:

Lionel Fahy

Amanda Wachob

Cy Wilson

Ian McAllister

Ian McAllister again, because I couldn't decide which was more awesome.

Loic LaVenu

Mark Halbstark

Noon

Ondrash

Ran MacLurkin

Edit:  Just found this awesome artist!

Jukan6, from Deviantart

So, you can probably tell that I lean a bit towards the whimsical, abstract, painting, and graphic inspired.  Basically,something that doesn't look like a tattoo.  I also admire a lot of photo realist tattooing, for the skill and patience it requires, but much photo realism in painting, it just does not quite capture my imagination the ways that these do.

I really encourage you guys to click and take a closer look at the high res versions of these.  The detail!  Win.