My books are now open for appointments through the end of July! FINALLY. Go to THIS link to get in. I’ll be reopening books again near the end of July to fill up August and September. If you’ve been waiting, it’s time! Let’s go. Portfolio HERE.
my current interest/deal.
the crew . i love these fine people.
i have the spice.
seattle tattoo convention.
with some of my heroes.
devil shin is nine years old, well healed and settled in.
i also saw the eclipse and retreated to the forest.
the world is on fire.
working with landscape in tattooing, getting a natural look to a landscape
also some extra things that have happened recently
Eugene, Seattle, and Auburn WA.
I’ll be tattooing at high priestess in Eugene, May 3-9. If you want time with me in Oregon, let me know soon.
I will be back at the end of June/beginning of July. I’ll possibly be in Vegas the first few days of May.
To book time in Oregon, use this form. (Vegas too)
I’ll be in Seattle the second week of May. To book time with me, contact the shop at 206-329-8274.
To see some of my work, look here! xox
I will be at the Laughlin Tattoo Convention in late april.
I will be in Eugene at High Priestess – Downtown from May 2-8.
I will be back in Seattle at Laughing Buddha Tattoo and Body Piercing from May 11-16.
my books are open now and I’m already starting to schedule. Go HERE to get a time in the schedule!
I really like foot tattoos. I think they can look great, and it’s a good place to get a smaller tattoo done. That said, there’s a few things you should think about when you decide to get tattooed on your feet. First of all, there’s not a whole lot of room, so you’ll have to pick one idea, and keep it pretty simple. Any more than that and the inevitable spreading and wear-and-tear on the ink will make it indecipherable very quickly.
So next, make sure the image has a good amount of contrast. Edges! Soft stuff won’t hold up as well in the long run, and while you can get away with that in other areas, the feet aren’t the place to gamble with.
The next thing to think about is healing. When you get your feet tattooed, you’ll have to go without socks, and wear only shoes that do not directly rub against the tattoo while it heals. So if that means you can’t work, wait until you have at least ten days off in a row, to allow for the skin to settle down. Also, feet can swell a lot, so be prepared to elevate your foot the next day, and maybe even ice it.
Placement is super important too. It’s pretty obvious where the skin changes from regular skin to that wrinkled, shiny kind of skin that you find on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. The areas that are very shiny or wrinkled won’t hold ink very well at all, at all. So plan to get the tattoo on the top of your foot, not out onto the sides very far. While you CAN tattoo back near the achilles tendon or off to the side a bit, it simply won’t hold as well as the normal skin on top of the foot does.
To keep your foot tattoo looking good for a long while, after it’s healed (according to the aftercare your artist gives you) then be sure, in summer, to use plenty of sunscreen or wear closed/covered shoes over it. Feet get a lot of sun and you might not even think about it! Sun is the biggest destroyer of tattoos. So cover them up or give them a good layer of screening to protect them.
I know that the real wise advice I could give you would be; “Get it where you want to see it.” Because after all, the pain is temporary, right? The tattoo is what lasts. But I get asked this question a lot, so I’ll give you my honest, true answer.
actually, inner forearms are cool too. For all the same reasons. They’re just harder to hide when you visit grandma.
Get it on your outside calf, shin, or on the front or outside of the thigh.
These are the easiest areas to get tattooed. They hurt the least, look the best, and last the longest with clarity to the original. Even if you gain and lose weight, these areas won’t change much. Even when you get ancient, the wrinkles on the rest of you won’t really effect these areas so much.
If you have to hide tattoos for work, high socks or knee-length skirts will cover one or the other of these. The areas are capable of being used in either a very soft, flowing and feminine way, or a blocked, solid masculine manner- so either way, the space can be used how YOU want it to turn out. It can emphasize the curves or obscure them. It can accent muscle or smooth it.
A design with a strong s-curve looks great in either place.
The skin structure is good and will be more solid and consistent than ANYWHERE AT ALL ON THE TORSO. Your torso twists, bends, and the skin changes all over it with every pound gained or lost, every gym day or potato chip, every pregnancy, every time you reach for a thing your torso skin gets stretched a tiny bit. Every wrinkle and sag is concentrated on your ribs, waist, and chest. It’s the worst possible area for a tattoo really.
Going back to the start of this whole thing- calves and thighs hurt less than any torso tattoo as well. AND they will last longer. It’s win-win.
So, if you want my real advice, and not just the thing I am supposed to say, then listen to me and get your calf or thigh tattooed. It’ll look amazing there. Promise. Big or small, get it there.
Small tattoos look great just above the ankle bone, or just below the hipbone on the thigh. Big tattoos look great all over the leg.
The only “bad” leg areas are the knee, the foot, and the groin. All of these areas have odd skin and won’t last as long or hurt as little as the calf and thigh. Plus the nice, flat areas of the calf and thigh make the design less likely to get distorted with movement, making them a good place for geometric work, or images with faces or human figures in them.
Get your legs tattooed. It’s awesome.
the show at TrueLove Gallery in Seattle comes down at the end of the month, as does the show at Cowfish in Eugene. If you wanted to see my paintings of women, or of life-sized predatory animals, get there while it lasts!
The last tattoo times I have open in 2015 are at Laughing Buddha in Seattle, nov 7-17. If you want in, or we have a continuing tattoo, please call the shop asap to book time with me. I may not be back until February!
I’ll be updating the event page shortly with all the winter plans.
Also, the expanded/full edition of the Horrors adult coloring book will be out very soon! 61 creatures. SIXTY ONE. If that’s not scary, I don’t know what is.
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