breaking sticks
FORGED STEEL REDEMPTION
http://www.cafepress.com/resonanteye
help us out, pony needs a new set of shoes
corn valley days
- In clients, female tattoo artist, geek, hobo, pictures, tat zap wizard, Tattoo, tattooing, travel,
I’m working at our Corvallis shop for the duration of our back to school sale. I love being around these kids.
It’s especially nice, after the difficulties and the hard road lately.
(Our sale continues to the end of the month, so if you want to get a piece of that action now’s the time.)
working together with friends
Jazzy’s backpiece, finally complete. This was a collaboration done by me and Splat.
SO. MUCH. FUN.
The angler fish at the base are a bit washed out in this image. But you can get a good idea of the overall scope of the piece.
Collaboration is enjoyable like no other way of working. It’s motiavting to have someone to hang out with while working. It’s great to be able to ask someone what shade of brown they think you should use (even if you don’t follow their advice!) It’s great to have another set of eyes right there, and you can play off the other artist’s strengths and weaknesses, which makes each piece much better I think, in the end.
I am glad I work with people with whom collaborating is fun and challenging and helpful. Teamwork at the shop is such a valuable thing, maybe the best thing about a place.
Being helpful friends to co-artists is a good feeling.
I love my job
Seriously, I do.
mustache tattoos
I did a fun mustache joke tattoo on my friend Fedora last year, and she’s got a few shots of it up on her page. Since it’s in a … an intimate area? I’ll just let you click on her name and scroll down to find it.
She has been making underwear that match her mustache tattoo, too, which I think is great! I got a complimentary pair but if you think the cunnilingus mustache is great, you should definitely pick up a shirt or some undies from her page.
Red tattoos and flash photography
- In clients, pictures, tat zap wizard, Tattoo,
The red bull, from the movie The Last Unicorn.
Maybe it’s when I was born, my age. I was 9 when this movie hit the theaters. I was just the right age to be obsessed with horses, unicorns, and other ridable creatures. This movie, Dark Crystal, Legend, Labrynth. They all informed my childhood and warped my adult sensibilities.
Consider the story in this movie. A unicorn, the last one on land. She’s alone, magical, lives alone and pleased with her life in the forest. She does her magic and the forest survives, she has this very important work to do. Then, she starts to realize she’s alone. So she hunts for other unicorns but they’re all gone. She is turned into a human, and a prince falls in love with her. A giant red bull tries to chase her into the ocean.
Instead of the prince killing the bull and saving her and them getting married and all that typical shit, instead… SHE kills the bull, turns back into her REAL self, and goes off back to her WORK and lives her life free from entanglements, and happy that she’s no longer the only unicorn left around.
I like this storyline much better. So anyway it’s one of my favorite movies, still. And getting to do a sleeve based on it is already so much fun, even just after one sitting. I can’t wait for the next section!
owly
- In art, female tattoo artist, learning, motivation, pictures, tat zap wizard, Tattoo, tattooing, tech, travel,
I 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.
mornings in the world of skin
I’ve worked a few opening shifts in my time, not for the last few years but I’ve done it before. The first few hours at the tattoo shop are pretty quiet, usually. It’s always only that slow trickle, starting out with people who have early appointments, a few random guys trying to sell something, maybe someone coming in to look at the books.
It’s nothing like closing shifts at the tattoo shop. I prefer the night crowd. People in packs, flipping through the flash racks. Some guy showing me a pile of scribbles he got in his cousin’s basement and asking to get it fixed. A couple arguing while they ask about getting their names tattooed on each other. People rambling, weirdos coming in and asking to use the phone, and always the last minute rush of people right before closing time asking to get party dots, tiny tattoos, something that “will only take a minute”.
Photos from Vancouver, WA Ink Traveler’s tattoo convention, 2009
"I'm here with Bob, but I love my wife"
burning it at both ends
What a great weekend! Lots of awesome art, prank wars getting started, screwdrivers and paintings. I had a wonderful time, and I also had one of the best valentine’s days ever. The Vancouver show is really fun. I’ve worked it a bunch of years in a row now. Felicia is super sweet and she’s in charge, and Scott does the announcing and contests.
,This year they had a pirate theme, personally I think that should be the theme every damn year, since the hotel is pretty much built for it. The hotel bar has the shittiest music loud ever, every damn night, the worst service, the weakest drinks…but the whole thing is built to look like you are drinking on the deck of a tall pirate ship…so who fuckin cares??? Plus there’s a slew of great artists every year.
Vancouver itself is a gritty little industrial ghost town. I took some time to wander it this year and discovered a wealth of weird industry and strange buildings, pawn shops selling giant 1930’s machine guns (sadly, non functional) and a few odd spots around town. It’s not exactly a haven of beauty but it is a weird little town and fully deserving of the few hours it took me to roam and take some pictures.
It’s the unofficial tradition that everyone goes to the crab shack on sunday after the show ends, and has a bucket of crabs and some beers. This alone make sthe show worth going to, since the raucous atmosphere of a cheeseball crab restaurant after hours cannot be explained- especially when you roll in to a crowd of starving tattooing artists all sitting around fucking with each other. The service in that place, by the way, is excellent.
more after the jump
