spending a whole day listening to a co-worker sing
two workers, one rock

two workers, one rock

her first tattoo, and she sat still and did great!

her first tattoo, and she sat still and did great!

I love collaborations. I spent one whole day last week working solely on collabs with splat. We worked some more on the tree/phoenix backpiece we started a while back, and also began working on a peacock/lily half sleeve.

It’s hard to sit for two artists at once and both of these women were great, strong people. I’ve had collaborative work done on me and it’s no picnic. I’m always hoping that the people who come in and sit so well for me and my co-workers know that they should be really proud of themselves because it’s very hard to do that, and they do it with such aplomb.

It makes you feel good about yourself to be able to handle something like this; I know for me, sitting for two artists at once gave me a whole new idea about how strong I could be and made me a lot less afraid of physical pain than I had been before.

Kudos to the collab clients, you guys are the best. A few more pictures after the jump.

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pictures

today.
coffee and tattoos

more after the jump

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mornings in the world of skin

skull and anchor tattootree tattooI’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”.

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Photos from Vancouver, WA Ink Traveler’s tattoo convention, 2009
"But I love my wife"

"I'm here with Bob, but I love my wife"

hourglass and candle tattoo

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

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Vancouver WA Ink Traveler’s Convention

neuma machine, tattoo conventionI’ll be working all day friday on one big piece, and then I’ll have some free time at the booth on sunday. If you want to slide in for some time on sunday let me know; the sooner the better.
Last year was a blast and I’m sure this year will be, too!

meta-resonanteye
lora is thinking about it

lora is thinking about it

Edit: side note, this pic of lora was featured on modblog, one of my favorite places to read about awesome weirdness. go check em out.

Just a little humor for people who like this kind of thing~

in the search results from the last week, things people were searching for that brought them here to my page, were included:

  • “chicken fucking”
  • “too young to wear holdups”
  • “craig driscoll”+”tattoo”+”jerk” (I actually like craig driscoll, so this one kind of made me sad)
  • “I like holidays”
  • “short person essays” (HEY! I resemble that remark!)
  • “finger mustache tattoo photos on guys”

Also, I did a cute little facial tattoo on a  client this week. And finished lovely Lora’s back! So it was a good week for me. I also had a very pleasant visit from a gentleman friend, and saw a hawk, perched on the wires, right by my house. More pictures after the jump.

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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.

Eugene/ written in May 2008

dsc_06881Eugene
For all the little things about this town that make it less-than-perfect, (patchouli smells, for one, hahah) I have to say that I have found that I love it here.

I work for decent people, who have been involved in body mod for decades. Guys who have good high standards. They’re not perfect- nobody is. But they are good people, and they try damn hard, and they care a hell of a lot about both us artists there and what we do, and what they do, for the clients.

I remember some places I’ve worked where the owners were just dicks…or they had it in for the artists…or they didn’t trust us or each other. Places that sucked, that sucked the life out of the artwork. I’m glad I am where I am. I try to do things so that all tattoo artists can be in a good place like this.

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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.

tattoo meetings

tattoo meetingscorporate politicsYes, it’s a professional thing. We have different meetings, though, than say an office would. We tend to have meat, drinks, poker, music, and loud talk at ours, along with cigars (courtesy of the well-organized splat) and beer (usually erok).

Our last meeting was great. We talked about deposits, paperwork, conventions, being organized. We played dice until splat started to win. The workers had a kick with some masks wigs and hats (my collection) and at some point the snwo started so the meeting was moved to the street, in order to make some snow angels.

If you haven’t worked in the industry you just can’t understand how wonderful business meetings really are. I think that other trades ould benefit from making their meetings enjoyable- imagine if you got called to the exec’s conference room at 9 am for a meeting, and there was always pizza, cake, and a zombie movie, and you could kick your feet up on the table and goof around with your coworkers. your morale would be high (like ours is) I think!

The people I work with now are the best crew ever. You really have to love your co-workers in tattooing. A bad crew makes everything difficult. If you can find ways to all get along and work shoulder-to-shoulder, suddenly work is a pleasure. Everything is easier. If you hire people you should leave it up to the people working for you to pick them. Make sure everyone will get along and work well together…man I sound like a commie but, in my experience, it’s the only way to get a group of nomadic eccentrics to act like one unti and work really damn hard.

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