art opening

Had a great time at the Unfine Art’s 8th anniversary.

I had a piece hanging in the show—

I enjoyed Honey Vizer’s reading of the manifesto to Shawn’s awesome sax madness—

The Ninkasi and some of the food was delicious—

And I even had an attractive date to bring with me, who was willing to help re-build a bucky ball, and discuss the PNW-china connection with some strangers.

All in all a successful evening.

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rain on dark city streets

terrible dreadlockssmoking girlWhen I was much, much younger I lived in a second-floor apartment across from a gay bookstore in Philadelphia for a while. (Thanks to them for introducing me to Hothead Paisan at such an impressionable age, by the way.)  It was a decent apartment, with a nice fireplace. We had several cats, my girlfriend and I. I owned an ancient underwood typewriter, which I place on a board in the window, I drank a lot of coffee and smoked way too much. And on rainy spring nights I’d sit in the window watching the people go in and out of the bookstore, and I’d try to write…poetry. This was before tattooing, before the west coast, before the zine, before I squatted, before I dropped out of civilization for the wild years. This was the start of that. It was the BEFORE TIMES.

It was horrible, in retrospect. But at the time I felt like it was a way to recognize that inside me hides an angry intellectual snob, someone who could rise above living in shitsville, who’d worked in factories. Some kind of Henry Miller/Bukowski/Hemingway persona. Some kind of talent that made me better than what I’d come from. I hadn’t started working at art in earnest yet, collage and a few drawings or paintings were all I’d done, so writing seemed a natural outlet for me instead.

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owly

barn owl tattoobarn owl tattooI made a barn owl tonight. It was really, really fun. I love owls.

This took a few hours, not too long. Lots of white, pale violet, strong browns, black.

I love using a natural palette like this especially when I can throw a bit of bright behind it. It’s kind of backwards, usually the brighter colors pop forward but once in a while there’s an opprtunity to defy the laws of color theory and use the subtle hues and the foreground.I had a great time doing this tattoo…

My road trip continues tomorrow, when I get to go stalk the wild and mighty javelinas with my camera. After that a few more tattoos on the fine folks here in AZ, and then it’s off to see my sweet gentleman friend up in Seattle.

classy

sharpdsc_1049I was on the road once and stopped to visit Gil Montie. He’s a very helpful guy to younger artists; I really liked him once I spoke to him a few times. I stopped at his awesome shop (Tattoo Mania) in Texas, just to say hello, after seeing him and hanging out with him at a convention. He took a look at me- in road gear, dirty shirt, busted up cowboy hat, tired, bedraggled. and he told me that I had to make myself look better.

That I should respect the work I do enough to be professional about my appearance, and that I was better than that. That tattooers are important people, that we do useful work, and we should care about ourselves, each other, and the work we do. That what we do, who we are, means something. And that it should be taken seriously by us (if not by the world at large)

It kind of stunned me because I’d never thought of it before. I’d been a crusty like punker when I was younger and went through years of politically-charged poor hygiene…but now I was a professional.

He was right. Ever since then I’ve tried to maintain at least some semblance of good hygiene. I usually dress down for work but I wash my face before I go in. Anyone that’s worked with me will tell you that I have good days and bad days…I tend to the smelly side, always have, even when I’m clean. But some days I can manage to do it right. I’m not usually in a three piece suit, but it’s not unheard of. So here are some pictures from work yesterday…that sum it up well.

some things you can do
  1. take your old blankets and towels and any pet toys or things to the local no-kill shelter. If you have time, volunteer to walk the dogs, or play with the cats.
  2. take all your canned food that you didn’t eat or use down to food for lane county. especially if it’s good stuff.
  3. take all your books that you’ve already read, to the local literacy center. in eugene there’s one downtown that teaches people to read.
  4. take your old clothes, wash em, and give them to goodwill.
  5. volunteer to go to a nursing home and visit people who don’t have relatives that visit. You can offer to record memoirs (often single people without kids have led very interesting lives)
  6. let someone who looks more tired than you have your seat.

casflagbg Everyone can do something. Seriously.

I don’t have a lot of time but I do what I can, and my politics have nothing to do with it.

squid vs whale, collaboration

tattoos hurtspent the night at work doing a collaborative piece with splat, hanging out with jason, our new artist, and making erok cry. A good time was had by all.

I have been doing collaborative work for a while now. As long as both artists are really communicative about the plans for the piece, things work out really well. You can use all your own strengths and ride on theirs, to compensate for your weaknesses.

For this tattoo, we each drew a side and then tattooed there mostly. But I’m sure once we get into the color we’ll start jumping back and forth.

He sat for two hours. Not a bad sitting for having two mean artists drill on you at once. Of course, this happens to one of my coworkers, too, so he knew what he was in for.

The hardest thing in a collaborative tattoo is getting a decent grip, enough to hold em still when your collaborator moves, stretches, lets go. That can be a pain in the ass. Sometimes you can have  just one person do the outline on their own then both jump in for color, but with this tattoo we both worked the whole time.

More pictures after the jump.

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the oregon advisory council on permanent color technicians

l_75f20eb646e5a97491db8bb21ef67f3c3Today was quite an interesting experience. There are almost a thousand tattoo artists and facilities licensed in Oregon. There are about 150 electrologists. The board that oversees both consists of:

A legislator-type,three electrologists,one permanent cosmetics worker

there are no tattoo artists on this council, even though there are nearly ten times as many licenses issued, and revenue from us makes up the vast majority of funds brought in by that council.

Maybe we can change that at some point. Today I got a sense for how the council works, and what their responsibilties actually are. What they can and cannot accomplish. They seemed like nice enough people. Our inspection/regulations director here, Tim Molloy, was interesting to listen to. He seems to try very hard, but sadly his hands are tied with many things and there’s only so much they’re able to do. It was good to hear that we now have four inspectors rather than just the one.

At any rate, it was a very informative day. I’m exhausted now and I’m going to relax. I may edit up in here later to add more detail once I’ve had some time to digest it all and go back over my notes.

at five years of tattooing

I was:

neck sleeve

in a different crappy relationship

loud

artsy

working too many hours

goofy

going to conventions

crying a lot

drawing with prismacolor markers

painting a lot

taking fewer pictures

getting interviewed for a magazine

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my first year of tattooing

l_b1a990a7b1f448e2b5392e71bd0d0e3cI was:

quiet

shy

goofy

not very tattooed

afraid to offend a client

afraid to say no to one

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collaborative
tiger tattoo

tiger tattoo

I really, really enjoy doing collaborative work. I like the cameraderie, I like seeing how other people do stuff, I like having someone to ask about color choices, I like the way it makes everything go faster, and I like sharing the load. It’s fun to draw with someone else, see what comes out of their mind, it’s awesome.

that said, I hate it when their wiping disturbs my stretching. and vice versa. If only skin could wipe itself without moving, collaborative work would be the easiest thing ever.

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