tattooing - resonanteye

Ink Traveler’s convention

19th of February 2008

In clients, conventions, pictures, tattooing, travel,

Just got back from the Vancouver, WA Ink Traveler’s tattoo convention. It was awesome! I got to see Todd, and Sean, and the crew at Imperial…I hung out with Cain and Will from spiderr Monkey a bit…and Pedro and Tim from Optic Nerve. I also got the opportunity to try out the neuma machines, thanks to my new friends at Sideshow Tattoos. I watched Desta from Adorn pound some jello shots, Erich won best flash, Splat won best tribal, it was an awesome weekend all round…then of course crab shack on sunday night…

On Friday I did a really fun tattoo on Levi, who is a really cool kid and awesome client. On sunday I used the nuemas to do a tiny piece on Sean. I sold some art.,..I didn’t work too much or make much money, but I had such a great time…I was being lazy haha

Here are some pictures, for you to enjoy…click read more to see them.

my client with his new tattoo.

a closeup.

sean asks nick if the turtle is leonardo or donatello?

tod at imperial.

rion from buddha trying to look suave

some guys watching some guy tattoo

cain from spider monkey, with the lovely nanichan

julie at the spider monkey booth waiting on will

using a neuma

really sweating over using a neuma

the friend tattoo I did with them, on sean

travis working on a kickass pinup girl tattoo

hangin with a friend

erich had lyle sign something for him

optic nerve uses a titlist, too

todd hiding behind crab nacho signs

tattoos, including apple

27th of January 2008

In art, pictures, tattooing,

I’ve been busy with artwork and stuff like that all week. I did a lot of tattoos, too. Also, I’m gearing up for the Vancouver WA convention. Here are a few pictures of…some of the tattoos I’ve been doing lately, and a picture I painted, and a dog sticking out his tongue.

^^^collab piece^^^the area closest to the camera is what I was working on

^^^apple’s arm. we did it a while ago, I finally got a decent picture

cocks and wings and feathers

7th of December 2007

In art, pictures, tattooing,

So yesterday, I had some one cancel. I was sitting down and waiting for a walk-in, and drew a dinosaur. I got interrupted, though, when

two women walked in asking for tattoos. They were awesome chicks, one wanted a “love” kanji with wings around it…and didn’t care much what I drew as long as it wasn’t too syrupy-girly. So I drew this for her:

and then her friend wanted something from the flash rack. cherry creek, #135. we all know it, haha. So I re-drew it a bit and tattooed it as clean and awesome as possible. I am actually really happy with it. The flowy knots were particularly fun. I also did a tan sort of backdrop for the dreamcatcher…the tattoo fit her well, really.

I also finished the outline of Morgan’s chest panel. I save the outlines for last when I do organic work- she has been walking around with just a greyline for a while now. It was ripe for the finishing.

then today, I had someone reschedule. This time of year people get really unreliable. But it’s fine with me- I just grab whoever is waiting or walking in, and tattoo away…I did this cock with a pierced head that hangs below the knee on derek today. It was soooo fun. Based on a small painting I did for a friend.

then I did a tiny re-work of some script. I forgot to take a picture, it was very late when I got done. Tomorrow I am doing a full day of pirate/ship stuff….a ghost ship, then a pirate skeleton hand in the sea….and touching up a pirate ship…it will be a great work day YAY for PIRACY

painting day!

5th of December 2007

In art, pictures, tattooing,

I spent my day off yesterday painting. Here are a few of the things I was working on-

the boxers are for a convention banner for the philly convention, I’m going this year with some of the chicks from the forum I run.

prints of some of these are here for sale.

that last one no longer has any script on it. I didn’t like it and it got smudged so I covered it with other background.

flash pile. ugh.

5th of December 2007

In learning, pictures, tattooing,

Yesterday we went through all the flash and got rid of a bunch, and put up some new stuff, and weeded out all the horrible things…old things…things that we not only never use for referrence, but never want to-

John loggerdogger bruki nicky me and travis; all of us….all freakin day. here we are hard at work

today I have the day off. I am painting- here’s in progress and done picture that I did first thing. Now it’s back to the drawing board, I have one or two other projects I wanna try to get finished today.

Oh and I almost forgot, I also started working on this big rework coverup thingies on feral night before last. we did some other stuff to the front of it before, so now I’ve started on the back.

punk rawk fables

18th of November 2007

In clients, learning, pictures, tattooing,

I actually went out twice this week! Amazing!

On thursday, I did a big, big, smooth-transition grey tattoo. It’s extremely challenging to get such a large area of gradient even and smooth…I haven’t felt so challenged in a long while. Click read more for some pictures.

I did this, but I only got about halfway through it. The empty spaces are where later, we will put some hawks. All in black and white.

then I worked on a piece for Matt. On his pigacorn, farting a rainbow. I love that fucking thing.

Then I went out- we went to the emo district, me and Al and Travis. Enigma had come by the shop ealier in the day, so we went to see what he was up to. He was performing- there was some tv stuff being filmed. His show was funny and awesome as always…and he scared Al first:

Then he scared me AND Al,

then he and Al scared some other people:

then travis came up and scared HIM!

Then last night, I worked on my day off for a few hours, to start this WWI inspired piece on Al’s chest. It matches up kinda with the piece Splat did on the other side of his chest. Eventually the stuff in the background will be poppies, and there will be a vulture on top of it. It was really fun.

Then I met up with Jemimah, and we all went to the Pistol Whipped Prophets show.

I had a great time. Today I finished Nicki’s arm, the raccoon. I’m happy with everything but his little hand. Wish it had more detail.

I also started moving my stuff into my new workspace. I’m pretty excited about the move- I’ve been in the same room for four years. That’s longer than I’ve even ever worked in a shop! wowza how time flies.This room is not done, obviously

Also, my flash is finished. Here’s a tiny picture.

satanic? no, for real?!/

15th of November 2007

In pictures, tattooing,

Today was a pretty good day. I woke up late, Kozmo was jumping around…I got my shit together and walked down to the shop.
I had an appointment, to finish a repair job on some big pink stars, that a woman had gotten at another shop a while back.

originally, when she first came to me, they were very shaky sketch lines, done in light pink. It was apparent that the other artist was new, perhaps, and didn’t know how to get the ink to stay in there solidly on such a stretchy area. It had taken us about two and a half hours to re-outline and color in the section on her lower back, and today I re-outlined a colored the part that went down onto her right thigh. We still have to do the left thigh. She has another appointment in 3 weeks. I really like using a range of pinks…It’s such a great color to work with.

Then I did two touchups. In the green nessie celtic, I added some more even lines around the segmented scales on her back. Just a subtle touch, but I felt like it really needed it. Later on we’ll put some water behind her. The other piece, the figure was done by another artist, just the outline. I colored everything in- and did the clouds and sky behind the angel. and the shading in the angel. I touched up just a few spots in the dark blue, and added some darker tones in the clouds (at first I had just done orange and whte/cream)…I think it made the clouds pop a little more, without competing for focus with the figure.

I spent the end of my night working on Shwa’s mum, doing a portrait of her parrot “baby boy” that had died. It was really fun, tons of textures and feathers…hells yeah. She was a trooper, too.

A regular of ours came in today to get some stuff done after he got baptised…He was telling me about it and asked if I wanted to sit in on his session (he was getting a cross, not by me) and I said, “Naw man, I’m satanic, I can’t sit in on that.” His eyes got wied “for real???” he said, stunned. “Yeah man.”, I said, and reached out to shake his hand. Giving him a good firm grip, and looking into his eyes, I said very seriously, “But congratulations on picking a side!”

I went up to him later and told him I actually hadn’t picked a side and was just an atheist- but that look in his eyes at first was just priceless.

the everett steel and skin tattoo convention

11th of November 2007

In conventions, events, pictures, Tattoo, tattooing, travel,

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.

on ambition

30th of October 2007

In complaints, ethics, motivation, tattooing,

I want to get more motivated. I want to be less lazy. I want to do better, work harder, grab the day each day and fucking DO SHIT RIGHT…I don’t wanna look back later on and wish I was more motivated and more driven and less lazy and afraid…I wanna conquer the world

I see my friends getting better all the time, my colleagues outpacing me, growing, doing things I wish I could do…working, doing amazing stuff

people growing all the time. the seattle convention made me wish I was way better than I am. I don’t know where to start except to sink my fingers in to the knuckles and grab hold, and ride

I’m gonna work way harder way more often, I gotta catch up to my people and pass them, I want to be as inspiring to them as they are to me

someone told me over the weekend that they were surprised that with my attitude and interests that my book had a lot of flowers and bright lightness in it and foofoo things. they are right. I don’t get to do the kind of images I really like, things I like, as often as I want to

skulls, blood, gore, zombies, satans, devil, naked chicks…the scary stuff…I need to put myself into my work more, my secret self, and not be afraid that I’ll go broke

I know there has to be people like me, who like that kind of stuff, out there,…I know I can do it

I just gotta work really hard, hope that everyone helps me out when I need it, gives me directions to the place I wanna be

yes, i was late, so now what?

4th of January 2007

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.