"To the stars on the wings of a pig"

Strangely enough,
the client who got the flying pig tattoo has a brother
who also wanted a flying pig tattoo!
So today I got to do another one;
similar, but different.






















The original brother, Chris,
stopped in recently to show me the tattoo all healed up.
Which is awesome,
especially with black and grey tattoos.

I don't usually post healed photos,
but since it's a flying pig filled day, today,
here is that one, too:

It's a documentary! It's all really happening!

Bill Murray.
Portraits aren't my thing, I guess you could say.
I don't think I've done an actual person portrait
in the entire 4 years I've been at Identity Tattoo.
But this request for Bill Murray,
with fake flowers stuck to his beard,
and on one of the Johnson twins.....
well, sometimes you do what you feel you have to do.






















Riley wanted Mr Murray on her "almost butt",
and was coming into town for a week.
I didn't want to miss a chance to see her
and do a silly tattoo at the same time,
so I said "yes".
Plus, as far as actors go,
he's pretty much my favorite.
Thanks for the push, Riley.

Breakfast Time

The breakfast feet got finished on Friday.
(i posted an in-progress here)
















I don't even know what I'd get for a breakfast tattoo,
everything I eat in the morning is ugly.
Really.
Mayday Cafe's vegan scones?
Not exactly "tattooable".
Or their vegan pizza only available on Mondays?
Seward Cafe's tofu earth (earth-nest)?
Or cranberry walnut bread for toast from the Wedge?
And now, my new favorite brunch place,
Modern Times Cafe (not to be confused with Hard Times)
has some awesome eats, but I don't yet have a "usual".
But it won't be too long,
Meryl and I were just there this morning.

But yeah, I'm glad Ben's breakfast of choice wasn't as bloppy as most of the foods I eat.

TATTOOS BY FESTER JULY 22, 2011

Great flower, no doubt. Nice color, clean lines...

Fester is a champion...

Here's part of what went on today, the 22nd of July... Fester sitting on the other side of the room, was putting out some great sh*t. It's so private that sometimes, it seems that the only people that know what's going on on that side of the wall, are him, and God. Jesus Christ!! The things he does are so sinfully clean. Like this cross below. Perfect lines, Hell, only an antichrist like him could do stuff like this!!

Sometimes, people get all philosophical when getting tattooed... like "Everything happens for a reason".. same as "sh*t happens"... only "Everything happens for a reason" takes up most of the upper chest, "Sh*t happens" may only take up just the collar. Do you really think things happen for a reason? or is it more like there is a reason things happen? Or maybe it's the same...

Kids, flowers, flowers n kids. Kids should never put plastic wrap over their faces... unless they are a tattoo on someone's leg.. or maybe you just wanna put em to sleep for a while. Black n grey is so under rated... it's a real nice classy way to tattoo. Not too bold and way more depth and realism than the mediocre color pieces people do these days.

Can't believe July is almost over. Time flies when you do great work!!! Keep coming, this has been a great summer so far...

3001 Cambie St. @ 14th. 604-879-4114

Saving the Day.

I had a super rad windmill tattoo planned for today,
but they had to cancel due to serious spousal disapproval.
No kidding...
Maybe they were anti-sustainable energy,
or just dislike the Dutch, a lot.....
who knows?

But I then had a decent (and short-notice) time slot available,
and was hoping for something to fill the spot so that I didn't just sit around moping about how I wan't tattooing a windmill.
Thankfully, Austin stopped by and scooped it up.

This squirrel wraps around his arm quite a bit,
and then onto his shoulder blade,
so here is us trying to get as much of it into the photo as possible.
But since it mostly just looks like weird foreshortening,
I'll have to take new ones soon.
(edit: here's another angle added)











































It stopped being so unbearably hot, finally.
It looks like all of that mess headed east.
Thank goodness, though.
I was almost wishing for winter again.
So yeah, sorry Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire....
(kinda)
but those kind of temperatures are not welcome here.

Cover-alls

Rachel had a tattoo she didn't like,
and a desire for some big cherry blossom action,
so we did some cover up backpiece work.
Usually I leave most of the cover up "fun" to Mr. Ben Rettke,
but I never seem to turn down a tree or animal tattoo.
Plus, Rachel is the client who has the Gremlins foot,
so you have to hold onto those few sacred rad clients.

Today was the second session;
it was maybe 6 or 7 hours combined.
I'd say she sits like a rock,
but that'd be a terrible lie.
She somehow keeps her back still,
and wriggles the rest of her entire body.
Whatever works, I guess...

It's like a sweaty armpit outside.

Oh, Katie....
She and her friend Jill took up most of my Saturday.
I did matching goat tattoos on them,
with a banner reading "IN IT TO WIN IT!".
Some kind of stubborn Capricorn pride tattoo, I was told.
And then, because it was completely way too easy/painless/quick,
she also had me tattoo an ice cream cone in her armpit.
You know what's worse than getting your armpit tattooed?
Trying to heal an armpit tattoo when it's 93º out with 90% humidity.
I think just being outside at all today is against the "no swimming" rule.
It's so gross out.

A straight up birthday shoutout!

Maynard House's Miss Briggs got a little older today.
As far as people go, she's one of the best.
There haven't been too many people that I've met,
and immediately liked so much.
(and even fewer that liked me back!)
I hope she had an awesome day,
but knowing her girlfriend Jaime,
I'm sure it was dope.

I recently got some healed photos of her arm and chestpiece.
I have no idea why I didn't have these before,
but I have them now!
Happy Birthday Amy!
Thank you for your friendship, hospitality,
inspiration (and tax help).
xxoo.

Music Makers

I did this zebrawood-guitar-turning-into-a-cherry-blossom-branch tattoo today.























The guitar makes me want to give some music recommendations,
which I don't usually do on here,
but you'll like them if you're not sucky.
I promise.

Eddie Vedder released Ukelele Songs a little while ago,
and it's awesome.
Here's a video for Longing to Belong

William Elliot Whitmore's Field Songs came out Tuesday,
and it's being played pretty non-stop.
Everything Gets Gone

My dad happens to be in town for business,
and tomorrow we get to hang out.
So just a half day at work for me, kids.
I could use it,
I've been working my butt off lately.
But Saturday I have a truly awesome tattoo schedule.
My good friend Katie is coming in to get some terrible ideas tattooed,
and I can't wait.
We're the loudest laughing pair you've ever heard.
And she really makes me tattoo the worst places.
This time, it's an armpit.
Nice.

If a bare bottom is NSFW....

...you probably have a sucky job.

Anyone who's been in the shop since November has seen the statue stencil hanging up in my station.
I started the tattoo way back then,
and posted about it here.
We didn't work on it for a few months,
which only made me more anxious to work on it again,
but we hammered out a few sessions in a row recently to get it done.
And today Hannah and I met up to take some (almost completely) healed photos.




















































(the photos get bigger if you click on them, of course)

A big thank you goes out to Hannah,
she was so tough, and sat so well,
and made the whole process super fun and easy.

FUNHOUSE TATTOO SPONSORS MMA FIGHTER!

TONY NGUYEN SPONSORED BY FUNHOUSE TATTOOING.

Occupation: Filmmaker from Vancouver, B.C

Fighting style: Muay Thai/Karate

Tony is making his debut in battlefiled fight league. He is competing as an amateur mma bantamweight combatant on July, 16. 2011 at the Vancouver trade and convention center. He has been getting tattooed her at the shop for some time now. Most of his ongoing work is done by Mark Lankin.

Not only does Tony have plans for a successful fighting career, he has plans for a a lot of tattoo coverage!!!

The work Mark has been doing is asian inspired with the addition of a very illustrator style. The smooth black n grey is characteristic of Mark.

Backs...

Arms..

Chests.. you name it...

So, come out and support TONY NGUYEN at the Vancouver Convention center on July 16th!!!

Who cares if you don't like MMA! Support the shop that supports the shop's supporters and the shop's friend's supporters and their friends' friends who support them.

GO SEE THE FIGHT AND COME GET TATTOOED. WE'RE BETTER THAN ANY TV SHOW!

Pyrotechnics in Powderhorn

Man, it's been a minute since Painting Mondays were in effect.
But hopefully they are back on track, now,
after getting re-inspired out at Jeff Gogue's shop last week.
I started this one out there,
and finished(?) it this afternoon.
I used a photo that Meryl had texted me that morning as reference,
which you can see it on the "i love dead birds" blog here.
And if you're into that kind of thing,
check out Zadora's addition today.

Oil 8x8

















Some friends came over for a picnic style dinner tonight,
then we met up with our neighbors,
and walked across the street to the fireworks.
Powderhorn celebrates only the best holidays,
and Powderhorn Park is one of three spots to see fireworks in Minneapolis.
I love this neighborhood.

We brought a few blankets,
enough sparklers to share with everyone,
and had ourselves a time.
Meryl has a fancy new camera,
and snapped some shots of everything.


































I hope everyone had a super loud,
and bright bright bright 4th of July weekend.
Back to work tomorrow,
but it looks like a full week of fun on the books.
Some old awesome clients I haven't seen in a long time came out of hiding,
and new ones appeared out of nowhere.
(sounds so good to me)
I hope they're ready,
I just got filled up with lemonade and blackpowder.