I went to phoenix for a few days. hit up the state fair. had to call animal control when I got home to report dogs ROAMING IN THE STREET AND GETTING MUSHED BY CARS AND GUYS THAT OWNED THEM ACTING LIKE IT WAS NO BIG DEAL. what the hell?!
gallery after the jump
several points to be remembered about blacklight inks:
yesterday ended up being busier than I’d thought it would be.
I worked on a few regulars, doing some lettering on the sides of their feet. Ouch! They both sat really well and weren’t at all stinky.
Then I did this really nice treasure map- she and her husband were married right there on the X. Tonight I’m doing a treasure map on him, on his back. I’ll post pictures of the two of them together afterward. I like using the aged paper colors, those soft browns and dull yellows. Creamy paper colors.
At the tail end of the night I did some more work on cory’s arm, we’re a session away from being done with his anatomical man. I can’t wait! It’s one of my favorite pieces I have in progress right now.
some big projects in the works.
Promotion comes easily to a lot of tattooers. When I first started tattooing, I was shy, a hermit. I disliked talking to people and pretty much felt uncomfortable in my own skin. I did not, and do not now, have great social skills and an outgoing personality. I also have always been a geek, nerd, dork. A skank. A weirdo. Not popular.
Promotion requires friendliness. You have to like people, to convince them that there is good reason for them to come to you for their visual needs. Yes, skill and talent and innate genius go a long way, but not all the way. You have to learn to shake hands and smile. To play nice.
I discovered, after tattooing for a few years, that I genuinely liked the people I was working on. Tattoo clientele vary regionally of course, but I found that even the “worst” client base were people that I naturally thought were pretty cool. They wanted to get a tattoo. Often they were witty, or silly, or just interesting. I decided I liked these people.
Usually I try to leave free time on saturdays, so that I can take walk-ins, and have a little spontaneity in my week. This saturday, however, had a few of my favorite spontaneous tattoos ever!
This woman wanted a devil girl, to cover up a tiny hand-poked heart. We adapted one of Coop’s awesome devil flash pieces into this hot, heart-breakin devil lady. She sat tough through the whole thing, too.
Then her pal got a ship outlined on his sternum. He kept asking “Are you sure you’ll have time to do something small on me after her?” and somehow this turned into outlining a whole sternum piece, and planning out a chest panel too. They were a really cool pair, awesome people.
I did some painting this week too, and set up my art show at the Indigo.
I still can’t get over how well the atmosphere in the place meshes with my work. It looks good on their walls. Hope everyone is ready for the opening next sunday!!!
Also I found a new big project to occupy my head with; writing an ethics seminar for next spring. whew.
tattoo artists having a bad day (more…)
I want to get more motivated. I want to be less lazy. I want to do better, work harder, grab the day each day and fucking DO SHIT RIGHT…I don’t wanna look back later on and wish I was more motivated and more driven and less lazy and afraid…I wanna conquer the world
I see my friends getting better all the time, my colleagues outpacing me, growing, doing things I wish I could do…working, doing amazing stuff
people growing all the time. the seattle convention made me wish I was way better than I am. I don’t know where to start except to sink my fingers in to the knuckles and grab hold, and ride
I’m gonna work way harder way more often, I gotta catch up to my people and pass them, I want to be as inspiring to them as they are to me
someone told me over the weekend that they were surprised that with my attitude and interests that my book had a lot of flowers and bright lightness in it and foofoo things. they are right. I don’t get to do the kind of images I really like, things I like, as often as I want to
skulls, blood, gore, zombies, satans, devil, naked chicks…the scary stuff…I need to put myself into my work more, my secret self, and not be afraid that I’ll go broke
I know there has to be people like me, who like that kind of stuff, out there,…I know I can do it
I just gotta work really hard, hope that everyone helps me out when I need it, gives me directions to the place I wanna be
Kurt Vonnegut died today.
I will never get to talk with him, or read something new he’swritten, or meet him in person, or hear another interview, or…anything!!!
I’m officially in mourning. Vonnegut was the best living writer during my lifetime. He was an amazing, kind, intelligent, and funny author and human being.
Even though I never knew him personally, I will miss him. I’m grieving for the loss of his humor and concern for humanity.
I once swore to my mother that I’d never write anything important because Kurt Vonnegut would say it for me. I suppose this means I have to start writing now.
Goodbye, Blue Monday, and
“God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, “Sit up!”
“see all I’ve made, “said God,”the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars.”
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around.
Lucky me, lucky mud!
I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
“Nice going, God!
Nobody but you could have done it, God! I certainly couldn’t have!
I feel very unimportant compared to you!
The only way I can feel the least bit importnt is to think of all the mud that didn’t even get to sit up and look around.
I got so much, and most mud got so little.
Thank you for the honor!”
Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.
What memories for mud to have!
What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!
I loved everything I saw!
Good night.”
Now, I am going to discuss something most artists hate to admit. Bad Days.
We all have them. Once in a while everyone wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, breaks a nail, has bad hair, steps in dog shit, car won’t start, etc, etc. Most people go to work, hang tight, and eventually the bad mood fades. Not so for tattoo artists.
Our work’s quality depends upon our ability to be friendly, be focused, and be creative. If your juices aren’t flowing it doesn’t really matter how much we might usually like you or your tattoo art…it just sucks to have to smile when you’re having a bad day.
I think most artists work throughout the bad days-they just stuff it in, try to forget it, bottle it up…I see a lot of work that isn’t as good as the artist’s usual work, and wonder…We all have bad days. For a tattoo artist that can mean that someone is wearing your second-best effort for the rest of their life.
My usual solution is to try to call in sick. Or something to the effect-I take extra time away from work, I reschedule people, I stay away from tattooing until the mood passes, and then I come into the shop with a fresh perspective. This is usually in my client’s best interest. More often than not I feel bad, or guilty about rescheduling people. This makes me try harder with the artwork. Makes me try harder to hurt them less. Makes me try to make up for them waiting so long. Also I’m no longer in a bad mood. I’m happy to be there, my creativity is more available to me. This makes my work better in so many ways-I’m willing to take a littl elonger to get it just right-to try something new that will improve the finished product. Also my drawings just seem to turn out better with less effort when I am in a good mood about being at work.
Some people get very angry about this shuffling. I mean, I understand. The day you’re supposed to get tattooed is a big deal! You took off work, you skipped a class, you cancelled plans…and there you are, happy, excited, nervous, ready to pay big money that took forever to save up…and the artist’s not ready? Or asks if it’s ok to change the day or time? I have been there too, on that side of it. I am a tattoo artist, but I am also a tattoo client. I have tons of work. I have been bumped, rescheduled, canceled on, all of it. And it sometimes upset me.
I guess I’m just talking, wasting time and space here by saying it, but try (like I try) to keep in mind that you definitely want your artist bright-eyed and eager to tattoo you. If that means waiting a few more days, it usually is better to go ahead and wait. If it means that you will get better quality work, then it is definitely worth the wait. The experience of the process of getting a tattoo only lasts a little while, but you’ll be looking at the art forever. . .
Also remember that your artists is, indeed, human. We get tired, burned out, have surgery, our girlfriends get sick, our dogs die, and our cars break down too. Just like your life we have things outside of work that we care about. Try to be aptient with us, because most of us are less grounded than most people. We’re artists, too, and that makes us weird. So please be patient with us…we’re trying! We do appreciate it a lot when people are willing to be patient, and when you are understanding…just like you would.
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