Paper, Fabric, Skin

Monday night, after driving Adam to the airport, Casey and I met up with Ben and Kyle at the weekly model session.
3/4 of Identity Tattoo accounted for.
This week was much better, and I think everyone was productive.
Here's the last pose we stayed for.
20 minutes.



The shirts have been giving me a few problems along the way.
I coat the screens with emulsion in my home closet, then smuggle them wrapped in blankets to the shop.
I also have no patience.
This usually means success rarely happens on the first try.

But this morning I was able to burn the screen for the girls shirts, and blew through them in between appointments.
Most of them are black ink on slate grey American Apparrel shirts.
Sizes from Small to XL. (these sizes are more normal than my last run from AA)
$14
A birdhouse with antlers.
Acorns and oak leaves.
Click on it, it gets bigger.
I'll have one modeled soon.


Rachel got the first shirt, literally right off the press.
She arrived while I was finishing up the last few.
And she got a very similarly themed, autumnal love thigh piece.

Sharpie marker drawing time.


Finished, a few hours later.


It was a busy day at Identity, between tattooing and screen printing.
I'm trying to fit in a full week into two days, since Thursday I drive to Ohio.
Ashtabula.
Here I come.

Kissena

Casey arrived from the Pacific Northwest late Thursday night.
She claimed and moved into the guest room for the foreseeable future.
I am now outnumbered by DePasquales.

Meryl and I switched some things around and made a new guest room upstairs, which was good, because Adam arrived the very next day for a weekend visit.

It's been a busy couple days.



Adam got this memorial portrait for the sweetest dog I've ever met.
Here's a photo of me and Kissena from a bunch of years ago back in Cromwell, CT.
I'm really looking sharp, eh?



More to come.
We're only halfway through my weekend.

Photo Gallery-Website Update

I've starting putzing around with HTML on my website, shawnhebrank.com

Certain things like the merch section never really went anywhere.
So I'm adding a gallery of the stuff I've made and sold over the years instead,
and could use your help.
If you have photos of you wearing any of the shirts I've made, stickers stuck in fabulous places, or stuff like that, send them over.
Just got this one from Michelle today.
!!!



There's not really a theme.
Sexy, ugly, dead, bored, whatever.
This isn't to say I'll use ALL of them, but I'll take a bunch and throw them up there soon.

One Lone Birdhouse

While working on printing new shirts, I stumbled upon the unfinished birdhouses I had started sometime between Thanksgiving and New Years.
I had thought I would have a city of these things by now,
but there were just pieces of started ones.
So I powered up the nail gun and finished this one off.
It's headed to the Maynard House in Northampton, where I got the idea while chatting with Miss Amy B about her tattoo.
It may end up being the only one.
There's lot of things to do.

Today was a pretty awesome day.

Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.
The man had a way with words.
And he got some shit done.
America could have used him being around a lot longer, but we should be grateful here was even here at all.
Happy 80th, dude.

On a completely different note, but a whole 'nother reason to be thankful, today was Mr. George W. Bush's last day in office.
He was never my president, but tomorrow he won't be anyone's.
I'm guessing he knows he's lucky Obama won.
Everyone's so excited and hopeful, they aren't really paying attention to W sneaking out the back door.
Go, dude.
Run.
And don't look back.

Most of us at Identity Tattoo were going start attending a weekly live model art session in the Seward neighborhood. It's every Monday, 7-9:30, and only $5 a session? I'm there, every week I'm in town.
Well, I repped Identity Tattoo by myself tonight.
And, man, I was rusty.
By the time this 25 minute pose came along, I was doing a little better, but I think the first few weeks will be a rough reintroduction to life drawing.



Meryl and I met up with a few friends Saturday night at Ann's for an Ugly Sweater party.
Now, usually only vegans care about vegans.
Not Ann.
She made vegan cupcakes just for Meryl and I (the only vegans attending).
And EVERYTHING that was vegan being served at the party was labeled vegan.
That's some serious hosting skills.
But even though Unique Thrift had this ugly woman's xmas sweater in my exact size, I didn't win.
The photo is blurry because Rachel was so cold she couldn't hold the camera steady.
(shoulda worn a sweater!)



Tomorrow is back to work.
On the way to the shop, I'm getting the new girls shirts image printed onto a transparency.
I'll burn the screen tomorrow.
Expect some new threads posted soon.

The Mid-January Chill

It LOOKS so pretty, but don't be fooled.
It's so cold outside.
(It's so cold outside, it's cold inside.)
Today so far has hit a low of -21, and that's without any "windchill factor".
It feels like -39?
C'mon...



I have a busy day lined up.
3 tattoos, back to back.
(if all cars start)

Somewhere in my day I'll be inking the new (girls) shirt design I created yesterday.
Burning screens in the very near future.
Finished products coming soon....

Staying Busy, Staying Warm

Protect those EARS, kids.
Unless you thought the jelly doughnut I was rocking on the side of my head last month was hot.

Dangerous wind chills may approach -35F.
A high of -1.
That's the best we can hope for today.

I, however, am using the obscenely bad weather to get done all those things it's hard to find time for when people will leave their houses voluntarily.

New stickers are being made, and some are already on their way.
Five and a half inches of the Truth:



I have 75 blank shirts, both guys and girls, just waiting to be screenprinted.
Those will be getting done this week and traveling with me to Ohio when I go in two weeks.
As I was sorting through the screen printing stuff, I came across a box of Never Quiet, Never Soft shirts that Albie Rock and I put together when he was out here almost a year ago.
There's only 3 girls shirts left, and they are for the tiniest of females, sizes small and medium in American Apparel. But there's a few dudes shirts still hanging out.
I thought for months that I was out of all of these, so it was an exciting find.
I have a few sizes left.
$15 gets it sent to your door, along with a bunch of stickers.
If you wait, I'll be out of them for real.



New shirts, old shirts.
Just put them all on, cause it's cold out there.

Off the Map, revisited.

Who's got big tattoo plans for 2009?

Off the Map Tattoo will be hosting me yet again.
March 23rd through the 29th.

More importantly, the Maynard House is also hosting me that week.
They've kept my room open for me.
Those kids are the best.

So I'll be tattooing up a storm seven days straight. If you want a part of the action, my advice would be to email me before you finish reading this. Big Dean and a few other greedy folks have already booked some serious amounts of my time.
That leaves very little for the rest of you.

Here in Minnesota, it was a busy week.

Kyle got this brainwashing tattoo mostly completed. He still needs the patriotic blue background with stars, but he can't heal tattoos decently at all, so we need to do it in little baby stages.




It's going to be quite the weekend, of course.
I'll be telling you all about it shortly.

My weekends move in double-time

Meryl's sister Casey is moving in with us next month, which means we're already changing around the whole house. We went antiquing in Stillwater yesterday, got her a wardrobe and us a new (old) bed.

We then met up with Camden for the Dark, Dark, Dark show.
Not only do Marshall and Nona make beautiful music, but they make amazing art and rafts and boats that they sail down the Mississippi River and around New York City. Folk art, music, building, and community.
Plus, they are two of the nicest people I've ever met.



I had typed out a huge explanation on why I had to find a hole in my bathroom floor that few other full grown people could squeeze into and crawl around underneath my sink and toilet, but it was too bogged down with backstory.

Instead, here's a few facts to go along with the pictures.

1. It gets really cold in Minneapolis.
2. My house is really old, and doesn't always make sense.







This Spring, I will rehab the entire bathroom and rip up whole the floor, but this should solve the pipe freezing problem for now. Thanks tons to Ryan and Todd for always answering my questions, offering their help at all hours of the day, and helping me laugh about the ugly mess of owning a really old house.

2009 and a quick look back.

2008 was spent figuring out a lot of stuff.
I did my first tattoo convention, followed up with a quick second, and then did my first real guest spot.
I bought a house which was a blessing and a headache at the same time, and continues to be.
Meryl and I did a lot of traveling and hosted a bunch of visitors and guests.
I spent the year at Identity Tattoo doing exciting pieces, making friends, and throwing antlers on things.

For 2009, I'm looking to have stuff figured out a little in advance.
I'm using January to make plans for guest spots and traveling and everything for the entire year.
I'll have a LOT of information hitting this blog soon.
I just talked with a few key people, and things are falling into place already.


I hope everyone is planning big things for 2009.