tribal tattoos kill my suspension of disbelief in movie villians
- In complaints, ethics, journal, Tattoo, tattooing,
some big projects in the works.
new things
busy busy busy
art crushes
Here’s my list of the artists I currently have art crushes on. Only some of them are people I know. They’re all over the place both in location and artistically, but they all grab my attention. The newer ones I may think have great potential, the older guys may be extra helpful or talented…it depends. But for some reason I have the mad art crush on them all lately.
Art crushes are good for me. I get all excited about what people are doing and how, I try to figure out how come they are so much better than I am…I pick attheir work the way I’d pick at my own. I learn from it. It makes me happy. I call it an art crush because I don’t even have to know who the tattoo artist IS- it’s the art I get all giddy about…I always want to tell everyone about this awesome artist I saw, and wish I was that good.
So here they are, the first art crush list. All tattoo artists, all people whose work I’ve been staring at recently with butterflies in my stomach.
Note: links may lead to myspace, shop sites, inkedn*tion, tattoodles, livejournal….wherever I have seen a good sample of their work is where the link will take you. Sorry if they lead to a site where you can’t see the work or you aren’t a member. I did the best I could.
MAJOR ART CRUSH (when I see new stuff from them I get weak in the knees)
Derek Noble in Seattle/
Markus Lenhard, Holland.
Will Bodnar, Seattle./
Jimmy Israel, Kansas.
Shige, Japan./
Jonas Nyburg, Sweden.
MINOR ART CRUSH (I’m keeping my eye on their stuff and think it’s awesome)
Darcy Nutt, Idaho.
Craig Driscoll, CA.
Sara Purr , NYstate.
Sean, Portland, Or.
Ron Decosta, Georgia.
Mike Adams, in PA/
Jackson, Sacto CA.
Mike Watson, PA.
Ang Sanders, Maryland.
why yes, I Do take walkins.
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.
logger dogger, and the octopii
I have had a great couple of days. I worked on several really fun tattoos- I started a big thigh/hip/side piece on Edie, the woman with the koi fishes on her calf. It’s an amazing octopus, and we got just about done sculpting out all the linework. Pictures soon.
I also did a woodcut-inspired octopus on a much smaller scale, on Vanessa here. This was very very fun to do- It was a good day. I also did a few walk-ins, smaller things, and forgot my camera for a day. Splat took some pictures for me, of a cover up I did the same day as the wee octopus, we covered up a bad old iron cross with a lily. Pictures soon!
I also FINALLY tattooed Logger dogger. We did a totally Cascadian piece on him- he was born in Walla Walla, and is a native NW type, so I figured an Umbrella would be good. It’s raining blood, of course, and there’s some coffee at the bottom. We’ll be doing some background stuff in a few weeks, and a dagger going through a book on the backside of his arm too.
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the everett steel and skin tattoo convention
I have been very busy since I last posted. I went to Everett, and worked at the Steel and Skin convention. I also hung out in Seattle for a day or two, and got to seee Jim Mister, Will Bodnar, and Caine and Nanichan- it was fun, but tiring, because I started work again the day I got back and haven’t had a day off since!
I am enjoying work this week, though, even though I have had a few late nights sessions. Click “read more” below to see pictures. I had fun at the convention, I got to see Gil Montie again, he is always super friendly to me. I ended up working almost the entire time we were there. I felt like I was doing public service work, because most of what I did was fixing or covering up old or bad tattoos for guys. We were right across from the banditos booth, and they had spaghetti one of the days and it smelled great. I couldnt’ figure out where the smell was coming from, though, it was very confusing (and mouth-watering)
On Sunday Reed won a trophy for tattoo of the day. I made money and he made headlines, hahaha. Al made the front page of the local section of the paper there. Then it was off to Seattle.
Everett pictures:
Al suspending in front of a stunned crowd
This car had an awesome antique machine gun in its back seat!
Tony hanging out after a hard day at work
Gil and me, looking sharp
The burned out tire, after the burnout contest
The smoking ruin of a tire after said burnout
Smoke. Burning out the crowd.
Reed relaxes after a hard day of glory.
the convention floor. (our booth is to the left)
Giant motorcycle that we were next to at the convention
“have a happy go jiggy day”, plus one of my old cards from when I worked at Laughing Buddha…this is at a chinese restaurant in Seattle. It’s up at 73 and greenwood, they have great food.
yes, i was late, so now what?
- In clients, complaints, ethics, Tattoo, tattooing,
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.
