phoenix visit

vonnegutcactiiArizona was hot, dusty, dry. I got to spend some time with my good friends Dana and Michelle and JD, Mary, Derek and Richard, and Paul, and Kat.

Several nights it rained, lightning in the desert is amazing, hot fat drops pounding us. Michelle and I danced in the downpour and JD and I tried to catch lightning in our cameras (and failed). I saw a javelina. A lot of elk. A coyote. Some jackrabbits. Lizards everywhere!

I had a rough time getting back but all in all it was a great trip.

corn valley days

roads go ever ever onI’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.)

a cover up

dahlia tattooLot sof people have that weird godsmack sun on them someplace. Many of them got it when they were young and foolish, thinking it was cool looking. I have covered up more of these things than names, which is saying I have covered up a TON of them. This is a coverup of one, on my friend Jo’s leg. Dahlias are pretty.

Jo has a lot of tomboy and dark and scary tattoos, this is one of the first girly-swirlies she’s gotten; I do a lot of dark twisted stuff but once in a while it’s very nice to come up for air and just make something damn pretty for somebody.

The leaves aren’t finished yet.

Flowers are pretty fun to draw and tattoo.

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.

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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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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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.

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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help the local animals!!!

I will be working at our corvallis studio on saturday. If you come in to get tattooed, I will donate 20% of the cost of your tattoo to the animals! So if you’ve been putting off your tattoo, waiting for a good time, saturday at corvallis is IT.

Be brave and help the animals!

(in other words, if you get tattooed by me on saturday, 20% of what you paid me gets donated to the save the pets charity. It’s not a discount, it’s a donation.)

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