Looking at forums

[Tat2guy]

For the last 5 years I have been looking and joining airbrush forums. Some I have just lurked in the back ground reading posts and thoughts of other airbrushers. And others I have posted on.

What I have found is that some forums are very open and celebrate there members and others have a very elite few who post and are not very friendly with new members or new tatist or people who use different equipment.

On yahoo group I have read a lot about people ordering products from ABA Au. Not being able to contact the company about there orders that were payed for and not received. These people have made post on there forum and complained and had not only there post deleted, but have been banned from there forum. On a recent visit to the forum all posts have been locked and no one is able to post on it. These people have emailed, made calls trying to find out where there stuff is with no help. Make you wonder whats happening at ABA!

Yahoo Group has some of the best airbrusher's in the industry. But tends to be just for the elitist airbrushers. There is always someone fighting on the post about equipment or ink and tends not to make new tatist feel welcome. I have read some vicious attacks on newbies. If you use a power palette I wouldn't recommend you join there forum. However if you are a multi-gun owner you would probably be safe. There is a lot of information on them and a lot of help fixing troubles that multi-gun owners have with there equipment.

EBA has a new forum about a year old. I have read every post on the site and have found it to be a nice little forum. Some of our members are on the site and have made some nice posts about there business. They don't seem to have a lot of sub-threads but I think it is a work in progress. I looked to see if they had a members list but couldn't find one. One of the post talked about not having enough members who use EBA products. I thought to myself thats because they are all over here using our forum. LOL! One of the things I found is that they don't spend a lot of time bashing other products or company's. I haven't posted there because it seems they only want people who use there products and I don't. But it is a nice read. So if you are a EBA user you should take a look at there forum and see if there is something you could post and help there forum and members out.

Tatstore as you know has a good, open forum. When Kirk first opened the forum it was for tatstore user's and was a pretty tight family of people who posted information for the newbies as well as the experienced. Over the years the forum has changed for better or worse. I think we have a pretty well rounded forum and gallery. This forum is not perfect and we do have our problems from time to time, but in the end we seem to work it out for the better of it's members and the forum.

I know that there will be some members of this and the other forums who will take this the wrong way or read what they want to out of this post. But it is just my opinion and what I have taken from the other forums that I belong to. I did not write this to make people mad or to offend them or to sway them away from there forum of choice.

I love to read forums good or bad. They all have something in common and that's people. Each of us bring something to the forums that we belong to and we defiantly have different opinions and thoughts about what we love or hate about them. But in the end we are the only ones who can change and make the forums better that we belong to.

[cookjar]

the TAT forum last Feb 28, I have not joined or visited any other forums. Haven't felt a need to at this stage. Everything I have learned or needed to know I got from you people here. Everything I have become in this business can be attributed to the many kind helpful willing advise (good or bad) gleaned at this forum. Maybe it's not perfect but it is as near as you can get.
If as a newbie, I was treated contemptously, you would not have me continually coming back day to day (As my 62 post to date attest). For this reason I feel the forum will continue to prosper and grow. With the help of the many gurus and gurettes I look forward to a promising fruitful year with lasting friendships. THANKS TO ALL!!

[sneakyd]

I can say that this is the best forum out there for airbrush tattooing. It helped me start out as a newbie 4yrs ago. One thing I can say is that there are very few people that stick around, not just this business either. I hope I can continue to contribute, teach, and learn for a long time to come. I just recently joined another forum and there isn't much going on over there, but I will continue to post info and experiences where I can to help people.

[jim81]

Look at the dates on most of the posts here. Do that for a week. Just a WAG, but I am frustrated with the absence of new and/or continuing posts. Maybe viewing this forum as a 'book' for reference and using it that way is the best bet.
This is the friendliest, nicest, most complete forum on airbrush tattooing, but it's hard to find something recent. Although there are some posts on here from 2009, they are still spot on.
I just want to go to the forum and read some recent experiences, problems, new solutions, etc. Can't complain about its helpfulness. Every question I have/had as a newbie, 'experienced tatist' ranking for me is an overstatement, has been fairly quickly responded to.
In contrast, I visit a metal detecting forum and there are literally hundreds of new posts every day. Tattoo airbrushing has probably a smaller contingent but would hope some dust can be brushed off this and have more folks active. jim

[Angelas Abstract 2]

I also have found this forum to be the best all around forum & the people I have met & spoken to are great. Recently another member worked with me on the phone for over an hour on cutting & inkscape issues. He didn't have to do that, but he cares about helping other members out. I know if i need help it is just a phone call away to another member & that is hard to find anywhere.
So in short I'm proud to be here.

[ajramos76]

I have looked at several forums and I agree that Tatstore is the best but EBA is right behind it. Tatstore is more user friendly and has alot more posts and users, but it has been slacking lately. EBA is interesting as they have tattoo of the month contest and the staff gets involved in the forum which tatstore lacks. All in all these 2 forums are both great for me and my business and am thankful for both of them.