Thanks Giving

I am sitting in Northampton by a roaring fire after a day of friends, family, and two massive vegan Thanksgiving plates, each one eaten in a different state.

I'm thankful to my most amazing hosts ever, who not only took care of me during my stay here, but also let me borrow a car to drive into Connecticut for a big family Thanksgiving dinner. It was nice to be on the farm, eat some amazing food prepared by Meryl and Casey, take a walk and play some cards.

I then drove back to MA, and arrived just in time for a second plate of food.

Thanks to Gabe and the wonderful people of Off the Map Tattoo for hosting me this week.

Thanks to everyone who drove up from Connecticut to get tattooed by me.

I don't have photoshop on this computer I'm borrowing, so these pictures will be resized and fixed when I return to MPLS.



and

My first day.

Today was the first of my seven day stay out here at Off the Map.
It was like the first day of school, having to meet lots new people, remember names, get accustomed to the different ways of how the shop runs, figuring out where to order vegan food, etc.
It's a great shop, with some rad people working there, so things went pretty smoothly.
Todd from Pedal Power kicked off my week with this bicycle mechanic pin up girl, AND two dead rubber duckies on his tummy.



The house I'm staying at while I'm here is awesome, and I'm being really well taken care of, and I have a really exciting week ahead of me.
It's good to be on the East Coast again.

Dead Birds Are Sexy (round II)

There's a super limited number of these girls shirts that just got dropped off to me today. I think I'm just being a jerk by posting them, though, since I'm sure they'll all be snatched up when I'm in Massachusets starting tomorrow.

I will post when I can. Have a great week.

T minus 3 days

So there was a bet between Ryan and Will on whether I would use the word "posse" or not if they came in a group of 5.
They did, and I said it within 5 minutes of their arrival.
Will got paid.
Ryan got his tattoo finished.
And we ALL made fun of Tony the entire time, who last week got a tattoo, then passed out in the bathroom. But before he hit the ground, he headbutted everything within reach, and wound up with a pretty nice little gash on his forehead, and a scrape on his nose.
He was fine, but his posse won't let him ever forget it.
If it were me, I'd find new friends.
Or at least never be in the same tattoo shop with them again.



Chef's Ruin.
Like Man's Ruin, but specialized.
Hot waitress', alcohol, money, fire, and time.
I guess that's the clean version, since Ryan's a good dude.
Normally, it'd be just the waitress', cocaine, and ego.
Right?

He has the black and grey chef skull and crossed knives on the same arm, and we're planning out the rest of his themed sleeve to be worked on soon. Should be rad.

Today's Thursday.
I leave Sunday for MA.
I have a ton of stuff to do before then.
I look forward to seeing everyone, and doing some serious tattooing out there.

Mini Seattle Reunion

So Johnny came out to MPLS yesterday from Pittsburgh, and Caitlin comes today from Canada/Wisconsin/Taiwan.
It's going to be an awesome and full house.
Johnny, who I haven't seen since I left Seattle in 2002, was brought out to Identity Tattoo by Camden yesterday, and we had a late tattoo night.
Camden got a moth tattoo in the collarbone ditch area, and didn't even blink.


I was also able to snap a few healed pictures of some of his other tattoos. The library half sleeve has been almost impossible for me to take not-sucky pictures of, but these came out ok.






Ben Rettke started working at Identity Tattoo yesterday as well. He's moved into the middle station, and we're excited to have him on board.

"Because the Universe is chaos, but chaos picks favorites."

It started snowing this morning, after hitting mid 70's earlier in the week.
Things have been so turbulent lately,
it seems only fitting.
But with Obama getting elected, it finally seems like we're headed towards a saner world.
(But honestly, wasn't Sarah just a riot?)



This kitten was hiding from Shamira (and the wet) in our not so boarded up basement window. Meryl was sure it was a skunk, but when I coaxed it out, and it was a cute, hungry and cold kitten instead, she brought it into our downstairs bathroom.
Which is awesome, since I'm allergic to cats, and Shamira will sit at the bathroom door drooling until Meryl decides what to do with it.





The Wingnut Dishwashers Union recently uploaded new music onto their website.
"Never Trust A Man Who Plays Guitar"
It's so good.
Pat used my drawing for the cover of it, which is flattering.
Meryl and I have been listening to him since he was 17, and had him play at that warehouse we ran years ago in Wallingford, CT.
Yesterday, while playing it too loud at Identity Tattoo, I sketched this.



I did some tattoos as well this week, but my computer had a meltdown, and I'm not sure what the fate of everything is yet.
Pictures, files, and major programs are missing, hiding, or digitally evaporated.
Good thing I keep making more.