Sailor Sid Diller and Doug Malloy (Patreon)

In early 2020, an eBay seller began listing slides and negatives from Robin Ryan- a friend and personal photographer of tattoo legend Lyle Tuttle. Robin's photos documented a very special time in the development of modern Western tattoo culture, and like a lot of folks, I bid on every piece that I could.

The negatives and slides I won have been sitting in a box in my archives for over a year- but we've recently dusted them off for a special project, and they'll be popping up here on SD every now and then. (note: this image is courtesy of Matt Schlentz, scanned from the original 35mm negative from his collection. Thanks Matt!) 

This shot - more of an outtake - features Sailor Sid Diller and Doug Malloy attentively listening to Lyle Tuttle speak at a tattoo convention (I've seen photos from this series attributed to the 1978 Houston convention, but can't say for sure).