Hey Mr. Wonderful!

It is my day off and nothing is sweeter than sleeping in. Unfortunately, I have to go back to work tomorrow and it won't feel like enough time to recuperate. After I write this blog it is drawing time for the rest of the day! That will be fun. So sit back, take a load of, perhaps sip a warm beverage, and enjoy this update. Thanks for reading!

Both of the above pics are fresh pics. My client wanted sacrilegious feets that said "Destroy Everything" & "Worship Nothing"! The church took a little inspiration from Shen Schubert. He's a tattooer from East London and he is way way way way better than I am.

In this pic the tattoo on the left is healed. Right is fresh. I don't like how the text on the burning church tattoo healed so he's going to come in for a brief touch-up when I can scope out his healed Virgin Goat too. FEET! Ya gotta get'er in there like ya ain't scared, but not too much!


Someone saw the snake anklet I tattooed on another client and wanted a similar idea but in color, and bigger, and on a different part of their body, and using a different snake reference!! We ended up with the armband you see here.

I started this pretty big Superman themed half sleeve thing. I borrowed from all three major eras of Superman's history. Superman has so many eclectic symbols it was hard to choose just a few. Comic book themed imagery makes a lot of sense to me and I'm excited to continue working on this piece. The color scheme for the icey Fortress of Solitude will be really fun to do, and let me just say I am a huge huge huge fan of wispy smoke cutting through and creating negative space. That seems like enough for now. I really need to go draw!

Skull Cover-Up Session 2

Today I tattooed what I had hoped would be the last session on Chris's cover-up but the top skull will need another pass.  Here is a link to the first session.  The Kanji is 90% hid, but I want to hit it again.  There is some white packed in over some key areas and I'd like to see how that heals before I call it "complete."  Nonetheless, I'm happy about how this is coming along.

Gladiator Swordsman

Hey readers!  As of January 27th 2012 I've been tattooing a whole year!  It is hard to believe that it has only been 12 months since I touched needle to living skin.   The current year's focus is bringing in more custom work that I design myself.  The pieces my clients allow me to design for them tend to be my strongest and boldest.  It might have something to do with a year's worth of experience and some basic knowledge of what looks good on skin.   Here are a few of my recent tattoos in chronological order.

More like this shadowpuppet "Death to Fake Metal" piece please!  I have a dark heart.  More Virgin Mary, Demons, UFOs, sick & twisted monsters etc.  I'm going to start drawing more of this and posting it on here so if you see something you dig - get at me!

The very lovely Courtney shows off her finished Sugar Skull.  We took it slow and did this in three sessions because I wanted to learn some things while I worked on it.  This piece is an original design. 

And finally - an Ouroboros on the best Schooley.  I nailed the stencil on the first try despite stressing about getting it around her ankle all day.  Ankles - they are tender.

I've been using tight needle groupings for some of my smaller work but I'm going to make the jump and try larger tight needle groupings (aka. thicker lines) on some of this small work so my lines are smoother.  Controlling the power to my machine has been changing the way I'm tattooing. 

Thanks to all my clients, friends, and family for a great year!!  Onto the next!

The Year of Not Sucking.

Black Canary Inspired Piece.

I painted three small 5 x 7 watercolors this week in between tattooing and going to my part time job at Chicago Comics.  I must get good at them because water coloring is at the core of flash art for tattoos.  This recent focused productivity is stemming from a realized drive to not suck at life.  Usually I hate everything I make.  Some things I draw make me physically ill with fears that I'm going to die mediocre.  Just looking at mediocre drawings makes me sick to my stomach.  One of my worst fears is that someday I'll be the person people compare shitty crap to.  I will do anything to not be the Rob Liefield of tattooing.  Although, even when I finally totally rock at life I will probably still hate everything I do. At least I'll have put forth effort to do something about it!!

So it goes.  Anyway, watercolor!  HARD!  I'm using cold press paper because I had it already.  It is terrible.  When I run out I'm switching to a nice thick Arches hot press because it is just so much better and the blends are way smoother.  Nonetheless, even with crappy paper I am starting to get the hang of it.  Stress the word starting.  My goal is to make one 5 x 7" drawing a day - completely finished, but I'm taking it easy on myself while I build up skill.  I've been on this pattern:  Day 1: Idea and rough sketch.  Day 2: Linework and 75% of color.  Day 3:  Finished, scanned, and online. 

I'm learning and it is awesome.  I wish I could beam you into what it feels like to change my working practices.  First, I'm not getting bent out of shape over one idea and obsessing over it.  I'm trying to get stuff done, and done well, and then move on to the next piece.  If I draw something I don't think is perfect, I am ok with accepting that I can't go back and rework it forever.  Nothing will ever be "perfect."  I'll just do a new drawing and incorporate the things I've learned from experience.  It is very liberating.  It is why I got three watercolors done this week. Onto the next!

Thanks for reading.  See you next time!

Apollo 1

Happy 2012!! I hope everyone get's out in time! 

Two Tatties Update

Did this little number on a referral's wrist! Healed pic!

And I'm in the middle of this huge coverup of some kanji on the back of a client's arm.  We have another session to completely hide the blue parts and finish the top two skulls.

Just a quick update for today.

Sunflower & Sugar Skull

The sunflower is a cover-up of this tattoo.

The sunflower tattoo in the top photos I did about a month ago on a friend from Ohio.  It is a cover up.  She got married the day before I did this work.  Congratulations to the happy couple!  I will probably do one more short session on this to make sure the cover-up is completely hiding the original text tattoo. I thought we could get it done in one session but everything takes longer than I expect it to.  I'm either going to stop estimating time, or I have to do a much better job at it!

This sugar skull is a gift to a friend who let me tattoo her very early on in my tattooing career.  I finally felt comfortable tattooing this sugar skull on her.  It is an original design.  We have one, possibly two more sessions on this one for the black shading and the color.  Looking forward to it!