The gift that makes the other gift stop giving.

Justin's birthday is October 31rst,
which is pretty awesome.
A little less awesome, however,
is the pumpkin tattoo he got on his birthday a few years back.
Ouch.
Justin's mom wanted to help make the pumpkin go away,
so this year for his birthday,
she bought him a big cover up tattoo.
(what? i know! such a nice mom)

You'll have to click on the photo to see it in a not itty-bitty size.
It's the 3 stages of making a pumpkin disappear.
Stencil/maker stage, then session one, then second/final sit.
I believe it was about 6 hours total.

Arm Owls on Almost-Off Hours

I didn't take the holiday today.
I celebrated Independence Day by rocking it solo at Identity Tattoo.
By the time I figured out it was a shop day off,
I had already booked it up.

Luckily, Kelsey and Jenna brought the pre-fireworks fun.
I knew they would.
I got to do this owl tattoo on Kelsey, and some fancy script on Jenna.


After the not-too-normal shop day, we had Ryan and Rebecca over for firework viewing in Powderhorn Park.

There's been a few big black and grey pieces happening lately,
and I've been really into them.
I have some animal cubby-hole sketches that I'm looking to do and might get posted soon.
Let me know if you're looking for something big-ish and slightly absurd.
It might be a good match.

Also, I'll be gone a decent chunk of August.
Meryl and I will be visiting Maryland and Connecticut,
seeing family and friends, meeting brand new babies and tattoo artists, doing poker night, China Pan, and seeing the ocean.
As awesome as all of that is, it means I won't be at Identity Tattoo for two weeks.
Please plan your tattoo getting accordingly.

The Wingnut Dishwashers Union posters arrived, and I'll have some at the shop. Let me know if you want one.

A First-Class Relic here in MPLS.

It's time to pack up and take a pilgrimage out to Identity Tattoo.
You can get a tattoo while you're here,
but the real reason would be to see the Holy Preserved Under-Chest Skin of Saint Camden of Minneapolis.
It's done, mounted, and displayed in this shadow box in my tattoo station.


Thanks to Camden for not only donating it for all to admire, but for being the best sport ever.
And thanks to M.A.R.T. for their collective advice on preserving it.

Empty Nesters (for now)

An entire (busy!) week with no blog post?!?

There's too much to share, so I'll stick with the few things I have photos of.

First, Meryl and I are feeling kind of alone in this house tonight.
Casey packed up (some of her stuff) and left for her bicycle trip Saturday.
She'll be gone for at least 4 months.
Adam from Queens was in town and staying with us over the weekend, but he left early this morning.
So now it's just me, Meryl, and Shamira.
Later this month it'll be an overlapping, overbooked visitor extravaganza, but we'll have some quiet time to prepare.

So I picked up the frozen tattooed skin Wednesday night.
I started the Krowtann 2000 process today, and here's a gross photo of all that:


Speaking of boob tattoos, Caitlin's painting that she gave me arrived from Taiwan on Thursday!
It's super textured, really big, and looks even better in person.
Dead birds are sexy.
Thanks Caitlin!!


Adam was here the weekend Casey arrived, so he thought he'd help send her off as well.
He also decided to get ANOTHER aircraft safety tattoo.



Ryan and Rebecca spent a bunch of time with all of us this week as well.

We collected 100 year old chimney bricks from a gutted house in their neighborhood and put them in my front yard.
You can see some of them used for edging already to the left of the pile.

We got to play on their teeter-totter that Ryan made.

And Adam took this (very) candid shot of us hanging out in their living room.
That's me on the left sitting behind Meryl.

Following the Mississippi South of Here

It was a jam-packed week.

Meryl and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary on Wednesday,
we did dinner out and had a nice walk around the mill ruins.

I did tons of tattooing even though I had two sleeve cancellations.
I filled the time with mostly little things.
Flowers and words were the big players this week.




Today, Ryan and Rebecca picked us up, and we headed down to Red Wing,
an historic town famous for shoes and stoneware.
We did some MANtiquing, of course.
We also did some dangerous archaeological digging (Meryl got injured) in this area where the rejected pottery ended up. We found ceramic pieces, antique bricks, a crazy red layered rock, and deer teeth.
Later on, while hiking, we traded a discarded bubble maker to some kid for the scoop on this really long cave.
Ryan and I have decided that we need some caving gear, or at least flashlights, on us at all times from now on. It's hard to be professional explorers when we use cell phones and cameras to light the way.

Ryan picking up garbage and making pretty bubbles


The cave kept going and going.


My silhouette from inside the cave, no flash


A different (man-made) cave entrance on a different mountain, but we didn't enter this one.


After all that, we came home, grilled up some tofu, mushrooms, and corn, had a fire, and enjoyed the late May evening.


This week is going to be at least as busy, if not more so.

I pick up the surgically removed tattooed skin on Wednesday.
I bought Krowtann 2000 for the ordeal, and will obviously post photos of the entire process.
Meryl bought me a shadow box (as an anniversary gift, how dope is that?!) for it to be displayed in.

Adam from Queens arrives Thursday. He's been to MN 4 times (or more) so far in 2009 alone, so anyone else competing for "Most Visits" will have to aim for a Silver Medal.
He's also winning for "Most Postcards", and the slightly less sought after "Shamira's Favorite Person Award".

Casey has a going away party Friday night at Java J's, and then leaves MPLS on Saturday for CT before her train ride to LA. Come by and wish her luck on her bike trip.

Art-a-Whirl

Here's a preview of the stuff I did for the Art-a-Whirl that's taking over Minneapolis this weekend.


I'll be in the Northrup King Building, Studio number 451 (the Tulle and Dye studio).
I'll be there tonight from 8ish-10.
Saturday all day, and the later parts of Sunday.

All your favorite local artists and musicians will be out at different venues.
I'm sharing a space with Rebecca, who has screenprinted these awesome neckties.
Get one and join us for a Not Casual Friday at Identity Tattoo soon.
Also, friend Megan Moore is in studio #423 in the same building, so go check her out as well.

Dark Dark Dark is playing Kitty Kat Club tonight, they think they'll be going on around 10pm.
Tomorrow, Marshall LaCount from DDD is doing a live mural on the side of the 331 Club with Tynan Kerr.
It's planned to be up for the whole year, so you'll have lots of time to check it out.

I got tattooed by Tim Biedron, yesterday, and it was an awesome experience.
When you see me next, ask to check out my leg.

Have an action packed weekend!

more like WHINE-flu.

There's nothing I heart more than the bird flu.
Except MAYBE this whole avian/swine flu mix that's going around.
Pigs and birds, mutating influenza viruses?
Pig farmers crying about people eating less pigs, Minnesota being sold out of those paper masks, everyone blaming Mexico.
That's my flavor of absurdity.

I've done a bunch of drawings now in this theme,
and had a couple hanging up in my station.
This one got claimed last week, and today was my first availability.



Tomorrow I won't be at the shop, since I'll be getting tattooed by Tim Biedron all day long.
I won't tell you where, so you won't stop in and see the tears flowing.

It's also the last day I have to work on the final touches of the Art-a-Whirl stuff.
Lots of pictures of that coming tomorrow.

Book Roofs and Bike Spokes

Well, no Naked Monday this week.
I mean, there was one, but I didn't attend.

I was at the shop printing shirts with Casey for her big summer adventure.
Her and a couple friends are riding their bikes across the country.
And I don't mean those dumb ones with engines - she's pedaling.

They've set up a blog documenting the planning process, you can check it out at
Join the Cycle
I'm sure she'll be putting up pictures and info on how to buy a shirt to support their ride.
Usually good causes have ugly shirts, and are only fun to buy 10 years later at the Salvation Army.
But these are pretty dope.
(I had zero to do with the design, so I'm not bragging)




In other news....
I'm making progress on my ideas for this year's Art-a-Whirl.
It's a giant open gallery and studio space weekend May 15-17th in most of NE Minneapolis.
So I spent a bunch of the weekend putting together the beginnings of an installation.
Book-topped birdhouses are being assembled.
Real ones this time.
I even bought some power tools.
I have one month.

1700 miles and 4 days later.

Damn.
I left Thursday for Ohio and arrived home Sunday night.
That's a 29 hour round trip road-trip.

Not much sleeping happened, but I did do some tattooing.
Thanks to JR, Mandi, Dustin, FX Tattoos and the entire Ashtabula posse for the warm welcome, the never ending supply of Dr Pepper, the paintings, flash, the ball busting and the fun.



Tanner said he was up for anything.
Jeremy answered the call for an animal with "Buffalo!", so that's what we did.



Dustin had wanted this 'Ode to Being 15' covered up with a big crow.
I sketched on his arm for a little while, ran through a few ideas, and we settled on this.
He said it was his longest tattoo sit ever.
It was certainly the most amount of ink caps he's ever seen used.
I even made him come in early to get it done.
Cockcrow in Ohio.





Here's Mr. JR Tubbs under his trophy from the once finished, now in limbo dreaded Antler Crutch War of 2008ish.
He's building an army out there, smoking cigarettes and armed with watercolors and dremel tools.
Right on.
(except for the smoking)



It's good to change up the scenery every so often.
Go to a different state, time zone and climate.
A different way of doing things, talking with clients, drawing, and doing art.
29 hours on the road is a lot of time to think.


It'll be a busy week.
The dudes shirts are being made.
More stickers.
Tattoos, mail art, painting, sending out the orders for the girls shirts and more.
And very little driving.