Big Holiday Weekend Action

Oh man.
Sometimes work isn't much fun,
unpleasant clients with terrible requests.
But yesterday....
one of the best days ever.
Three of my favorite pieces,
all brought to completion.

First I reworked the strawberries on Liz's thigh piece,
and it's finally done-done.
And I mean it this time.

Then Jenny came in for another Mastodon session,
and we finished that up, too.
I only got a few terrible photos of it,
but I didn't want to leave it out.
So here's a bad photo of a hurty and swollen tattoo.
The feather is actually in color, reds and purples,
you just can't tell here.
Jenny's the toughest.
She just studied the diseases of spleens while I tattooed her,
and doesn't even seem to notice I'm even there.
Amazing.

And then, I got work on and finish up this Japanese fan chest piece on Katelyn.
Again, here's a photo from immediately after tattooing,
so it's super red and angry looking,
but I'm terrible at waiting.
I'll get a healed photo soon,
for all three of these.

How do you finish off a day of super fun tattoo action?

A honeyhoney show, of course.
And although joshua james went on right before them,
and did his best to ruin the night,
honeyhoney stepped it up,
took it over,
and rocked it out.
So f'n good.
And lots of our people knew what was up.
Identity sans Mr Lambright were there
(and Suzanne gave the shop a shout out!)
Liz and her posse and her finished tattoo showed up en masse.
Tiffany and friends were there.
Handsome Adam's friends were there.
OTHER clients that I didn't even know were going to be there were there.
It was a night, kids,
and it was such a good day, too.

If you want the what's up for tonight,
get yourself to Hidden Falls Park for some super sexy Halloween costume and puppet fun.
And then we're headed to Cult Status
for the annual God's and Monsters art show.
And it's mischief night,
even though the midwest doesn't know what that is
any more than they know what a "tag sale" is.
I'm happy to teach.

Happy Halloween Weekend.
Better not miss out.

Not even a real berry.

I started this nest in a strawberry plant a while ago,

but wanted to wait till I had healed photos to show it off.

Unfortunately, all of it is not quite healed yet in this photo,

and I still need to touch up the strawberries some,

but I couldn't wait any longer.

It's one of my favorites,

because of subject matter, style, and the way it fits on her leg.

I also had a lot of freedom with it,

which was super nice.

When it's 100% done and healed,

I'll get some detail shots, too,

like of the little slug on one of the leaves.

OshKosh B'gosh

Vicki wanted a memorial tattoo for her father,

but I was all out of crosses with wings,

so she settled for this squirrel.

Oh!

Kidding.

Vicki will most likely think that's funny.

(i hope)

She's one of my favorites,

and it's not because she heals her tattoos really well.

It's been a minute since I've done an anthropomorphic tattoo,

I miss doing them.

Lately I've been doing some big, realistic animals,

and I forget about these fun one session pieces.

But yeah.

Thanks Vicki.

NSFW (if you got a sucky job)

Jill is a champ.

She took a last minute opening on Thursday

(announced on my Facebook page)

and got this pelvic snail and mushroom scene started.

And then, the VERY NEXT DAY,

I had another cancelation,

and she came back in for some coloring.

I think that's awesome.

I don't think I'd ever do it,

but I applaud her badassery.

For real.

(but then again,

I know some of her friends,

so I'm not that surprised)

I can't wait to finish it,

I almost hope I get no-showed tomorrow.

The mushroom on the left is a scarred star cover-up,

as well as incorporating a birthmark

Somewhere in between snail sessions,

I did this skull and flowers tattoo on a forearm.

After work, I've been heading to MCBA

(Minnesota Center for Book Arts)

to help Meryl with her big art book project.

(Molly has been documenting some of it here and here)

Long days, kids.

It's 2:30am right now,

and we just finished making a plaster cast of her shoulder.

I have to go to work tomorrow,

then back to MCBA.

Do you believe in ghosts?

Sometime after 1am yesterday,

while we were the only people in the building,

we scared ourselves silly.

(tonight all I saw was an ugly little mouse)

But really.

Haunted basements?

The Soapfactory has nothing on MCBA.

If you want to get your Halloween on,

I know Meryl could use some night helpers.

Like the end of something wonderful sometimes

Well, I guess I lied.

But it wasn't my fault.

You KNOW I got the vegan pizza,

and this photo is Walt of DarkDarkDark and

Why are we building such a big ship?

rocking it solo,

so you know I was at the show.

But Mr Sweet was sick today,

so my foot tattoo was postponed.

That's fine.

I hate getting tattooed anyway.

That shit hurts.

But the show was pretty dope.

Walt rocked the house.

Drums, trumpet, and accordion all at once?

So sexy.

And Nona Marie and the Choir were wonderful, too.

All cover songs, except for the last one,

when a few people joined them for "It's a secret".

It was a tape release show,

and I brought a couple home.

Yeah, cassette tapes.

Luckily I still have the ability to play those things at my house.

Masochistic Mastodon

Started this mastodon thigh/butt piece this week.

Jenny cracks me up,

I think she only got this as a stress release from school.

I mean, I think she also wanted a mastodon tattoo,

but I'm not 100% sure.

She also read her physics text book the entire time,

and didn't seem to mind the pain at all.

Awesome.

I hope it helped,

she has some big tests coming up this week.

Not sure how much longer we have to go,

but I can't wait to work on it again.

I've started a pile of big, new projects lately,

and I'm hoping to have most of them wrapped up

before I go to Oregon for three months.

Unless you'd all like to come visit Grants Pass?

I'll be there mid-January to mid-April.

I'll be in Portland Oregon even sooner,

November 13-16th,

and I still have a few spots available.

I ALSO have a few of the November 11s drawings still up for grabs.

I should go through the other post and mark the taken ones for anyone not following the progress on Facebook.

Tomorrow is going to be pretty awesome.

Monday is always Vegan Pizza Day at Mayday Cafe.

Then I get my foot tattooed by Jon Sweet.

And then, as long as I'm not being a huge baby,

I'm going to the Nona Marie and the choir show at Bryant Lake Bowl.

You should go, I'll be the dude in the front row

not wearing a shoe on my right foot.

Midwest Jellyfish

You know what hurts?

Ass tattoos.

No kidding.

Dani did so awesome, though.

Not only did she drive up from Kansas

to get a serious start on a big all-over jellyfish,

but she brought me super awesome vegan cupcakes.

From Kansas.

I didn't even know they HAD vegans in Kansas.

I tattoo Dani's boyfriend, Will, today.

Working on a half sleeve that I started exactly 3 years ago next week.

No rush, kids.

ha.

Hope your Saturday is rad,

I'll be tattooing and eating too much sugar.

National Coming Out Day.

How did you celebrate?

Katie threw a big gay three way matching tattoo party in my station,

and everyone got similar popcorn pieces.

Plain, cheddar, and caramel,

color coded according to ethnicity.

(no kidding)

That's Katie in the center,

posing lewdly for Handsome Adam and his camera.

(but mostly just for him)

Jay and Billy were lots of fun,

and I'm glad the holiday was observed appropriately.

November Days

It's the eleventh,
so here's the rough drawings for next month.
Eleven pieces,
one for each of the first 11 days of November.
I'm working 11 days straight,
so that the last tattoo will end on 11-11-11.
Get it?
Choose a drawing,
choose a day,
and then we do this.
Color or black and grey, your pick.
$400 each.
I expect them to take 4-7 hours each,
depending on everything these things depend on.
The only catch is that you need to get it done all in one shot.
No two session pieces.
If you don't think you can sit for the whole thing at once,
maybe sit this one out.

Light and Darkness.
11x.
(there's ten here,
the 11th one will be up at a future date)

Foot Time.

I did this little cuckoo clock on Bria's foot today,
as a tribute to her grandmother.
Super fun, and she sat so well.
(she also took the above photo,
which i stole from her facebook page)






















I'm getting MY foot tattooed next week.
Mr Jon Sweet of Uptown Tattoo will be doing something for me.
My right foot, believe it or not,
is completely empty right now.
I'm not exactly sure why I'm getting it,
everyone knows those things never leave their boots.
But it'll be one of the best never-seen tattoos ever, I'm sure.

Cherry on a Spoon.

Cody and I have been working steadily on his MN leg sleeve,
and I look forward to unveiling it in the not-too-distant future.
We skip around a lot to avoid healing areas,
and today we worked on the bottom part;
Minneapolis' 'Spoonbridge and Cherry' art piece from the
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
We even did a little reflection of it in the pond below,
and I thought that was kinda cute,
so I snapped a little phone photo to end my lack of blogging as of late.






















You know what else I did today?
Bought my plane tickets for Portland, Oregon.
I'll be tattooing at Optic Nerve November 13-16th.
If you want to book some time with me while I'm out there,
let me know asap.
Four days fill up fast!