January 31, 20224 yr Okay, this adds another item to the agenda for the big IFI gathering at this year's Quad-State: we all get tattoos!
January 31, 20224 yr A friend of mine got an interesting tattoo. And every time he’d meet a pretty lady and ask her name he’d act surprised and say “I’ve got your name tattooed!” Then he’d proceed to show “YOUR NAME” tattooed in about the vicinity you’d get a penicillin shot. I’m not sure how many times he’d been slapped, but I’m pretty sure that’s why his eyes are permanently crossed. He’s apparently been slapped stupid because he keeps doing it.
January 31, 20224 yr "The pose would have her looking at my heart and watching my back." What a great tribute that would make.
February 2, 20224 yr I've seen a few blacksmith related tattoos, one or two were on confirmed blacksmiths too. It's not something I would do. As I've aged, I've come to see a lot of work that aged very poorly. Some because the work faded, but a lot of it ages badly because trendy stuff goes out of fashion. A lot of people probably thought they chose something "timeless" or "classic" without giving much consideration to whether or not the tattoo artist is adhering to what will eventually be a short-lived style. I've seen this take a tragic turn with a friend who decided late in life that she wanted fuller looking eyebrows. The "artist" gave her "Angry Bird" eyebrows like buddies might put on a sleeping friend with a sharpie as a practical joke. The ink has since faded to green, the whole thing is just sad because nobody can look her in the eye for fear of offending her. I'm certainly not a fashion expert, however I can say that I've seen fashion changes that ranged from non-existent brows, to stuff that would have made Groucho Marx blush. Tattoos can act as a timestamp, locking in more than just the image. Briefly in the 1990's it was considered deep and introspective to get a tattoo of barbed wire around your bicep. Today that tattoo is almost a punchline. Now I see young ladies with horror themed tableaus covering neck to nethers. Once the bloom of youth has passed, I wonder if they'll be happy with their decision.
February 2, 20224 yr On 1/31/2022 at 1:53 PM, SHC said: every time he’d meet a pretty lady and ask her name he’d act surprised and say “I’ve got your name tattooed!” I'm reminded of Norman Rockwell's painting "Only Skin Deep":
February 2, 20224 yr A real blacksmith ought to go for branding over ink, you can do all the work yourself! And take the shame or honor all for oneself.
February 2, 20224 yr On 1/31/2022 at 6:15 AM, ThomasPowers said: John, no, instead why don't you get tattoos for all of us? We'll get Billy's local artist to tattoo our likeness on John instead of just our names! You favor branding over ink Lee? Please video it when you do this! I'll bet you'll be famous, maybe start a trend. What you going to get, WHERE? Frosty The Lucky.
February 2, 20224 yr I have a sickle moon brand on the inside of my wrist where my watchband would cover it. I'd tell folks it was from a secret society and I couldn't tell them more! (Yup "the smith having a hot piece of pipe roll off the forge catching an edge on their wrist secret society."
February 3, 20224 yr Shhhhhhh, WAS secret! A perfect example of why blacksmithing and bull shooting have the same abbreviation. Frosty The Lucky.
February 3, 20224 yr On 1/31/2022 at 1:21 PM, SLAG said: Mr. SHC, Your amorous friend deserved it. SLAG. You won’t hear me argue the matter. I’d warned him many times that he was going to end up getting shot by an angry husband. It hasn’t happened yet though.
February 3, 20224 yr I wonder if anyone sells a line of blacksmith themed body piercing hardware and jewelery? (Not that I'm looking or anything!)
February 3, 20224 yr I had a commission a few years back for a pair of, shall we say, bracelets for consenting adults.
February 3, 20224 yr 2 hours ago, anvil said: Order of the Burn, third degree,,, Good one but wouldn't there be 4 degrees? I know I've had them all. There's something disquieting seeing a puff of flame shoot up off your hide and smell BBQ. Happily 4th degree isn't painful for long. Then again I've never had one much larger than the end of a pencil eraser. Frosty The Lucky.
February 3, 20224 yr 4th degree burns are continuous burning like Nukes or chemicals that keep burning you up after the initial contact
February 4, 20224 yr Nodebt, a Thor’s hammer pendant isn’t hard to make, can’t imagine a hammer in profile of your favorite smithing hammer would be too difficult. Can’t remember who did the steel carving thread I read (I’m gonna bookmark that when I see it again) but those skills would (I’d think) work just fine on softer metals such as brass and copper. I’ve got some brass and copper… and my gears are turning. Ugh, I need to look after my house and myself before I do anything else.
February 4, 20224 yr Normal jewlery might be fun to try forging. I used to pour it in brass when I was into casting, nothing fancy though. I always had some small crosses or things on stand-by to suck up the excess in the crucible when doing a bigger project.
February 6, 20224 yr I don’t have any tattoos, but there’s one I may get at some point- a tape measure on the bottom edge of my arm. Not even something artistic or stylized- just simple, discreet lines and numbers. Handy for when you forget the tape measure while fishing (or doing anything else).
February 6, 20224 yr Great when you’re talking a photo of something for inspiration/future reference.
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