Jumper.

Did this elephant hockey referee today on Clayton.

My last tattoo of November

(only one month left in MPLS, kids).

Then off to visit family for the holidays,

and out to Oregon for the next three months.

If you didn't book your appointment for before I leave,

you might be too late.

(though i hear that Handsome Adam might be taking bribes to fit you in)

I also tattooed Nona of Dark Dark Dark today.

She didn't sing any DDD for us,

but she did sing some Third Eye Blind as she filled out her paperwork.

no kidding.

I mean, it wasn't her fault,

Ben has it on the ipod for some reason,

and that shit is SO catchy.

(if you like her singing in DDD,

check out her side project with her choir)

Anyway, it's after 2am,

which means December is here,

and 2011 is almost over.

Hope your 11 months have been good so far.

If not, you've got 31 days to make it better.

Not Allowed in Hawaii

Oh man,

I forgot my memory [card] at work today,

so here's just a cellphone photo of the baby hedgehog tattoo I did.

It's probably better than any of the real camera shots I took, anyway.

{edit: nope, this real photo is WAY better, so i got rid of the cellphone one}

I did it on a day off because Rebecca leaves for Hawaii tomorrow.

But don't worry, she's planning on hanging out for a few months,

so I don't have to fret about her exposing it to the sand and sun while it heals.

She's moving out there to keep the Cucch company,

but we're all invited.

(except for your hedgehogs, they are illegal)

Meryl and I already have tickets (no kidding).

Christmas in Hawaii, kids.

Like pizza in Minnesota;

it exists, but it's weird and out of place.

I also got my foot tattoo finished,

so it's back to sexy gladiator sandals for the next few days.

(good thing it'll be a high of 34° tomorrow)

I have no idea what's on the books for tomorrow tattoo-wise,

but Handsome Adam is back at the shop,

so the day is starting with coffee,

and a grapefruit juice chaser.

Got to start the week off right....

A little bit of Portland.

After working/traveling/working 18 days in a row,

I was really looking forward to my first couple days off.

I was going to write this Portland blog post then,

but it was the worst weekend ever.

I should have just kept working.

No kidding, I even got into a minor car accident.

But don't worry,

I went back to work right away,

and pretended it didn't happen.

Anyway, Portland was awesome.

My people out there are the best.

I got to hang out with Elias and his housemates,

and it just so happened that everyone swung into town that week.

Optic Nerve Tattoo is a super great shop,

but almost everyone was on vacation or away while I was there.

(maybe they called my references)

A big thank you to them for hosting me.

Korel came down from Olympia to start her peahen/peacock tattoo.

We're sleeving her right arm,

and got the outline mostly taken care of the first day.

I had a few cancelations,
so when Summer came in Day 2 for her 41rst birthday tattoo,

I was happy to accommodate.

We drew on a big phoenix in sharpie,

changed the head,

and tattooed for a couple hours.

But, since I don't live nearby,

and a half-finished chest piece is hardly a way to celebrate,

Summer came back in the next day,

and we finished it up.

For reals, kids.

They don't make many this tough.

I did my best to incorporate all her other tattoos,

cleaned up parts, covered others.

Happy Birthday, Summer.

Portland is amazing,

once you see past some of the hipsterdom.

There's beautiful things and amazing people everywhere,

and a sign that says 'vegan' in every place you go.

I'm sure come January,

Meryl and I will be spending lots of time there,

and I know a little basement bedroom that's just perfect.

Thanks again to everyone that got tattooed,

showed me around,

gave me a ride,

and let me share their space.

Jellyfish, part duex

Man, 11 blog posts in a row,

and then nothing....

I flew to Portland the day after my big project,

and tattooed out there for four days.

I have some photos, and some stories,

and I hope to do that post asap.

But first, I did this jellyfish tattoo yesterday,

and thought I'd toss it up on the blog real quick.

Dani is the best.

She drove up from Kansas to work on this again,

and although it's not quite done,

it's certainly getting there.

You can check out the post from the first session here.

And she brought more food presents,

this time some loaves of homemade vegan bread.

so good.

(we'll be eating another tonight when Handsome Adam comes over for dinner)

We'll do a little more color and some background next time.

But who knows when that will be.

Here's the progress:

Louder than ten (number 11!)

aaaaaaaand.....DONE!

11 tattoos,

11 days straight.

Ending today, 11/11/11.

Each with a different animal (well, one ghost),

and a different light source.

Today I finished the project with Matt,

and he got this escaping goat with a flashlight.

He's such a trooper.

He sat for 7.5 hours,

though I think he had to put up with a little more f'n around than the other 10.

I even took a break to race Handsome Adam.

(i lost)

A big thanks to him for grabbing the final day,

and for putting up with me at my not-quite-best.

The project was a lot of fun,

and a lot of work,

but I think it was super successful.

and here's a little collage of them all together.

Thanks to everyone who got one of the 11s,

I'm honored to have so many willing participants

whenever I come up with these odd tattoo plans.

And I'm also happy everyone finished their piece in one session,

nobody tapped out early,

nobody called in sick.

Everyone turned it up to 11,

and I really appreciate it.

Here's the original post about the project.

MEXICO CITY TATTOO CONVENTION, OCT. 29 & 30, 2011

Mexico City Tattoo convention organizer Tony Serrano from Tatuajes Mexico, asked us to do a machine seminar. There were 16 artists in the class. We covered everything in our book and more. The goal is more than just to educate artists, for us, it's important to find people who are on the same page and want to be a part of the solution and NOT part of the problem. First you need to wake up and see that there is a problem and then tear it down bit by bit.

"HOW MANY OF YOU MAKE YOUR OWN NEEDLES?" Looks like 2 or so.. the rest?

The way to maintain quality control over every aspect of your tattooing is to understand every aspect of your tattooing. What you're actually doing when you step on the footswitch, when you put the needles in to the skin, the types of needles you are using, the quality of the pigment. Almost all tattoo supply companies don't care if you're doing good work with the products they sell. Almost all tattoo supply companies don't care if the products they sell are truly functional. Almost all tattoo supply companies don't understand what they are really selling. Almost all tattoo supply companies have never used the products they sell. Almost all artists trust these suppliers to supply them with quality functional products... these suppliers buy and sell products manufactured by people who do not tattoo, people who do not understand what functions are necessary in a tattoo machine. This is only a small part of the problem. Now, hopefully, these 16 students will not be taken by the hype in this unregulated business oriented supplier / artist relationship.

Art, Steve, Pablo Porno and Enrico Colombres.

While we were busy at the booth, selling machines, repairing machines and tattooing...

Juan "super" Arreguin was busy trying out his new prototype model machine, and having great results!

David "Scrappy Uno" Garcia was tattooing with his own model Scrappy Uno machine ...

Manuel "Master" Servin was tattooing also...

L to R: Pablo Porno, Scrappy Uno, and Master... All first place winners! Portrait, tattoo of the day, realism... the best of the best.

Congratulations to all 3 of these artists, we are proud to have them on Godoy Machines.

Meanwhile... Javier "Jade" Campos, was winning in Ecuador & Lima Peru with his own Javier Campos model machine!!!

The talent at this convention was incredible, the organization was perfect, the entertainment excellent.. thanks also to Tony Serrano for being a great host. And Enrico Colombres from Godoy Machines South America for being part of our crew.

Almost done! (number 10!)

Camden.

Man, I haven't seen him in a year,

and haven't tattooed him in two.

He lives in Denver these days,

but came to visit this weekend.

So Austin picked him up from the airport

and brought him right to Identity Tattoo.

We had joked that we were just going to blindfold him,

and tattoo whatever I wanted on him.

The only thing he was going to have a say in

was the color of his blindfold.

Well, I thought we were joking.

But Austin didn't.

(and Camden wasn't sure what to believe)

However.....

Oh man, Austin.

You are one sadistic friend.

We decided to be nice, though,

took the blindfold off,

and gave Camden a choice between two drawings,

ending up with this pincher beetle/lightning piece.

We did a little wash of "plum" in the bug,

so when the hurty red fades away in the rest of the background,

it'll stay purpleish-red just on the insect.

Just one more tattoo to go,

11 tattoos in 11 days,

ending 11/11/11.

Hopefully Matt is ready to rock tomorrow,

and help finish off this little project on a very Not-Casual Nigel Tufnel Day.

Turn it up, kids.

!!!

Number 9/11.

You can tattoo Katie till she she's swollen and sore,

but she doesn't get any less loud.

She did so good, kids.

Really.

7 hours.

We beat up her hip bone,

and pissed off some stretch marks,

but she sat so well the whole time.

The tattoo expanded, with the help of a Sharpie,

once we put the stencil on her thigh/hip.

But she asked for it,

and I delivered.

7 hours is the longest sit so far,

(even if just by a little)

but I still have two left to go.

Tomorrow is Camden, who moved to Denver,

and hasn't gotten beat up for a while.

And then Matt is on the 11th.

Only two left!

Crazy.

Number Eight of the 11s.

Austin came in and got number 8 of the 11s today,

a little demon/ghost starting fires with a Japanese paper lantern.

Those lanterns are so delicate,

just a little shake and it's on.

(aybe it was the wind,

maybe it was something else)

I really enjoyed tattooing such a non-specific subject.

Just some eyes, horns and hair.

The tattoo is on Austin's calf and shin,

but it went super easy,

and he didn't seem to mind at all.

Maybe 4 hours total.

(this is also the second tattoo we hid a little XI in...)

Seven of the Elevens.

Oh man.

What a weird little project I'm in the middle of.

Today was the hardest day to fill.

I don't know if the rat (above) wasn't much of a crowd pleaser,

but no one wanted Monday, either.

Marshall was all set to stay a couple days later than planned,

and grab the rat right before he moved to New Orleans,

but then plans changed back,

and the rat was a free agent again.

So it looked like Handsome Adam was going to get one against his will,

(just kidding, he was brave and willing)

but then last minute Alleeshia said she'd take it,

but wasn't into the rat.

Somehow it turned into a dead bunny,

and since it was upside-down,

the candle went right-side-up.

And then grape vines and grapes happened.

(I don't know)

I do know that I enjoyed doing another mostly black and grey tattoo

with certain parts in color.

(kind of like this one)

I loved working on this piece,

and Alleeshia sat so well for the first 4 hours.

The 5th hour was a little iffy,

and everything past that I feared for my safety.

No kidding.

But aside from the death threats,

she was awesome,

and she even wore her NQNS shirt to the appointment.

I worked through my weekend,

but tomorrow it's back to working with the rest of the crew.

And Austin is coming in for the Japanese ghost thing.

Awesome.

Number 6 (of the 11s)

Rachel was number 6 today,

which put me just over the halfway point.

Awesome.

We got a super early start,

I picked her up at 9am so that we could carpool to Maple Grove.

Good thing we got that extra added hour last night,

cause MayDay Cafe's line was extra f'n long this morning.

And speaking of MayDay,

you know what tomorrow is...

Vegan Pizza Day!

Here is the fox/lantern Rachel got.

She did great,

but after getting your stomach tattooed,

the back is pretty easy.

Almost Halfway! (number 5)

Mr Shoemaker finally got his turn today,

and he was ready.

He might have the most individual pieces from me of any client, ever,

so he knows the drill.

We threw the stencil on,

got a little tip from Ben to flip the frame horizontally,

(thanks, dude!)

and then pretty much just did it.

It fit his arm super successfully,

considering it was drawn without anyone

(or any body part) in mind.

The only real break we took was one to size up another one of the 11s on Austin's leg.

Austin also brought all the guys at the shop our own individual vegan banana bread loaves that he and David baked this morning.

So good!

But I guess I don't know how long this took.

A while.

And yeah, those hooves above it are from an avian swine flu tattoo I did a few years back.

Back when it was going to kill off the human race,

if I remember correctly.

It's been a crazy week,

5 of these done so far,

and I'm not even halfway there.

It's a good thing we get to turn the clocks back tonight,

because I sure could use the extra hour.

It's 2 am right now,

and I pick up tomorrow's 11-getter at 9am to carpool to Identity.

And then I come home to a dinner party I guess.

Tonight was an aa bondy show,

and yesterday was Meryl's art show opening at MCBA.

No kidding.

Super packed nights after very full days.

Oh man, I just saw the clock go from 1:59am back to 1:00am.

Time for bed.

Enjoy your extra hour.

Number 4 of the 11s.

The best part of today was when I was halfway through the outline,

Jason sees the drawing which I had taped up near-by and says,

"Dude, is that a mouse?"

Um...yup.

I don't know how he didn't notice it in the initial drawings,

or once we put the stencil on,

but I'm glad he was into it when he did notice.

Cause I'm pretty sure that's my favorite part.

The owl is in color,

but all the background is black and grey,

which is why it looks so red and hurty.

It was also 6+ hours of tattooing.

Day 3 of the 11s.

This turtle/firefly tattoo was number 3 of the series,

and I believe is the only one of the 11 taken by a brand new client.

It's also the only drawing with another animal as the light source.

Chandos sat like a rock for 6ish hours,

and I couldn't have asked for a smoother session.

We made very few changes from the posted sketch to the final product:

Day 2 of the 11s.

Ryan saw that I was doing a weird tattoo project,

had a spot to fill,

read it had something to do with animals,

and was all in.

He didn't know there had to be a light source involved, too,

but we figured it out today.

He got this Norwegian Fjord horse tattoo,

along with a magical viking amulet with glowing orifices as the light source.

That backwards mohawk mullet thing is really the hairstyle they rock,

I didn't make that part up.

(go check them out, they're crazy looking)

The amulet, however, is slightly fictional.

A big thanks to Ryan for hanging out all day,

and getting a 6+ hour tattoo on his shin.

the first of the 11s

Pat helped me kick off my 11s project today,

getting this hermit crab/lighthouse morph on his right arm elbow area.

He sat like a rock,

and was all about the 4 hour block of Black Keys we listened to.

(the rest of the night is all Honeyhoney,

which is awesome,

but they only have two albums.

It's been a HH sing-along since saturday night)

But anyway,

I'm happy to finally have this project under way.

One tattoo down, ten to go.