recommended studios
Just a list of artists I highly recommend. Lots of times I get emails asking me whether I know of anyone good in a certain city or area, or someone who specializes in a certain style. This list is not by any means definitive; these are just the artists I know of that are really good.
By all means, if you want to tell me about someone rad, do so. I love seeing good work and hearing about new artists.
Regions:
Northwest US, CA and the Southwest,
The Northeast US, Midwest US, The South,
AK & HI, Europe, Canadia
This list is a work in progress. Feel free to comment and let me know about anyone great who is missing. I also have a bunch mroe to add; check back again if you don’t see people from your area, as I will probably be adding more pretty often. (and if you’re my friend and not on here yet it’s eithert I haven’t gotten to you yet, or you still suck, so be patient or be calm whatever the case may be)
The Northwest:
Seattle, WA
Artcore studios: Joby, Atom, Chris, Christy...all excellent artists.
Apocalypse: Benjamin does some of the greatest realistic and black and grey stuff ever.
Laughing Buddha: George Long, Dag. George does some kick-ass japanese work, Dag does nice clean old-school stuff.
Cicada: Will Bodnar is a fucking hero. The shop is awesome too…but Will does some of the nicest color work I’ve seen in a while.
Olympia, WA
Spider Monkey.Brian does amazing large-scale work. Plus he is a super nice guy. (If you’re one of those people that values personality in your artist, I highly recommend a visit to him for some work. Plus, his art is amazing.)
Moses Lake, WA
The Hive: all great guys, and good solid artists.
Boise, Idaho
Darcy Nutt. ’nuff said about Idaho.
Bend, Oregon
Black Rabbit: Amazing hand-style tattooing.
Portland, Oregon
Optic Nerve 
edro does aazing soft and black and grey work. Tim is a great artist too- check them out. Also previous home of James Kern.
Imperial: Sean does awesome graffiti/loose execution tattoos. And Todd does some truly wicked old timey work. They’re kind of hard to find on the web but the shop is great.
Tigerlily: Really nice work.
Scapegoat: these guys are really, really amazing. I love their work. Very interesting…plus they have some weird thing abotu being vegan…I guess the rest of us use pig blood in our inks or something 
Grant’s Pass, Oregon
Gogue does amazing soft, flowing work.
Vancouver, BC
Adam Sky does some amazing work. Good full-scale stuff with lots of flow.
California/the Southwest
San Francisco and East Bay, CA
Alex empty or Mike at Industrial Tattoo in Berkeley. Both good solid artists, they know how to do tattoos that will hold up over the years.
Sf: Primal Urge. Grime and Marcus Pacheco are frontrunners and excellent, excellent artists. It may take a while to get a date with them but it is SO worth the wait.
Lyle Tuttle’s: may be under a different name and ownership but this place is totally worth the visit. The artists here are also really friendly.
Sacramento, CA
Legacy, Jackson does very strong, bold traditional work.
San Jose, CA
ANALOG. Can’t even explain how great these guys are at what they do.
LA, San Diego, and environs
Outer Limits: this shop only hires good artists. Seriously.
Avalon: I don’t know who’s there right now but for some reason I’ve seen a lot of good work that was done here.
Austin, Texas
Perfection: Bob Morrow is a legend, and Trevino does great work.
South Side tattoo: really funny artists, with mad skills yo.
The South
Savannah, Georgia
Anonymous Tattoo. Ethical, clean, and really good artists. Ron is a younger artist with a great eye for old-timey goodness.
Atlanta, Georgia
All or Nothing. Duh.
New Orleans, LA
Larry at Electric Ladyland does some really nice work.
The Northeast
New York, NY
There are several excellent woman artists at New York Adorned. Really great work, including portraiture.
Fun City has some good old-school work going on.
Rochester, NY
Sara Purr at Ultimate is good with japanese work, and old school american art.
Philly, PA
Olde City Tattoo: every artists here ROCKS. Highly, highly recommended.
Tattooed Kingpin: also a great source for books.
Allentown, PA
The Quillian is the best of the lighter side; Hellbound is the best of the darker side. Both have great crews. Try Joel at hellbound or watson at the quillian.
Baltimore, Maryland
Angel Sanders (currently on the road.)
DC
britishink. Cyn is a very meticulous artist and I like her style a lot.
New Britian, Connecticut
Murray Sell at Flying Tiger is pretty rad.
The Midwest
Kansas City
Jimmy Isreal. Indubitably. Really good eye for color.
Somewhere Near Chicago
Guy Aitchison. The big daddy of cool new mindblowing organica and bio styles.
Pyrrhus Darwin Castello said
Hail!
resonanteye said
hahah hey there!
got any more folks I should add? let me know if so, I’m all ears
Rob said
This site is from a local shop to me, in York, PA. Built to last is one of the best shops around here. Wayne King, and the owner Sevil, are amazing artists.
Rob said
I’m not sure if the website went through, if not, it’s, http://www.abuilttolast.com
resonanteye said
sweet
Ian said
*preparing to unleash mass tattoo list*
Jason Bradbury-atomic art (portland)-http://www.atomicart.us
Yutaro Sakai, Henry Lewis, Lango and Grime, with the spices of Eli Quinters, Civ, Todd Noble, Bert Krak, Ichibay, Ms. Mikki, and Mike Rubendall-Skull and Sword (san francisco) http://www.theskullandsword.com/index.html (site is a bit outdated, since NORM and phil holt aren’t there anymore)
dana tyrrell-inky cells tattoo (santa rosa)-http://www.inkycells.com
jason tyler grace-idle hands (san francisco) http://www.idlehandsf.com
kevin quinn-home studio; (La Brea) http://www.kevinquinn.org
george campise or orly locquaio-seventh son tattoo (san francisco) http://www.seventhsontattoo.com/
lucky olelo or mandy garcia-soul signature tattoo or tattoo krew ink (honolulu) http://www.hisuerte.com/
jason phillips-ftw tattoo (oakland) http://www.ftwtattoo.com/
Wilson-steamroller dermagraphics (enola, pennsylvania) http://www.myspace.com/wilsontat2
jim howard or jonah levin-frisco tattooing (san francisco) http://www.friscotattoo.com/
Eric Doyle-jinx proof tattoo (washington D.C.) http://www.jinxprooftattoos.com/
mike sikes-eyespeak tattoo (faifax, va) http://www.eyespeak.us/
Mike Schweigert or Tom Yak-electric tattoo (New Jersey) http://electrictattoonj.com/home.html
Mary Joy Scott-tattoo city (San Francisco) http://www.tattoocitysf.com
Tim Lehi or Scott Sylvia-blackheart tattoo (san francisco) http://www.blackhearttattoosf.com/shop/index.aspx
Temple tattoo-derek snodgrass (oakland) http://www.templeoakland.com/
Diamond Club tattoo-Bill Salmon or Junii (san francisco) http://www.myspace.com/10117559
Lovecraft Tattoo-christina Dimenna or laura usowski-new haven, ct http://www.lovecrafttattoo.com/contact.html
thats it for now…until i jog my memory and see who(se) studios or artists that i have omitted due to a brain hemorrage (sp?)
resonanteye said
nice, great list, thanks for adding that!
Pyrrhus Darwin Castello said
Ok, crap. I should have posted the comment in here, but was stupid and didnt look down
Here is my old list http://www.tattooconnect.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25&page=3
resonanteye said
cool!
Ian said
Crud, I forgot that mandy garcia’s website…(because even though her and lucky olelo are dating, and work together @ soul sacrifice tattoo, is no reason for some goon to overlook her own personal site, since she’s her own person and tattoo artist as well)-http://www.mandygarcia.com/blog/ FORGIVENESS!!!!!! *contemplates comitting seppuku over this egregious error of errors, and the fact that it took da buggah who typed it up dis long to correct it??* [smacks head with brick]
resonanteye said
aw that’s ok! it’s here now, that’s what counts.
Fedora said
Christy is no longer at Art Core; she owns her own custom shop in Seattle called Damask. (http://www.damasktattoo.com)