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.)
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.
"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
I 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.
I went to phoenix for a few days. hit up the state fair. had to call animal control when I got home to report dogs ROAMING IN THE STREET AND GETTING MUSHED BY CARS AND GUYS THAT OWNED THEM ACTING LIKE IT WAS NO BIG DEAL. what the hell?!
gallery after the jump
I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
Gallery after the jump.
This weekend I will be working at the Redding Ink convention, in Redding, CA, with the womantattooartistforum and with HPP.
It should be a blast, if you are in CA and want some work done come on out and see me there, and be aware I will smell quite strongly of in-n-out burger the whole weekend.
I’ve worked a lot of conventions, and guest spots, and traveled for work in general. To all my past, present, and future boyfriends, girlfriends, houseboys, significant others, and just plain others:
I go to work.
That’s right. Guest spots are fun. Travel is a great time. Conventions? A big party. But I’m working. I work there. I’m not going to just “hang out” or “party time” or anything like that. I’m promoting myself, my shop, my work. I’m selling prints (sometimes with your help!) I’m tattooing. I’m entering contests. I’m working, the whole time. The afterparty? Just a way for me to find out how to re-attach a tube vise.
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
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.
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