Post 14- The Return to Vancouver

so this last weekend, i made my way back to vancouver. it was pretty much a week short of a year since we moved. just a coincidence.

so i'm still really bad at taking photos of all the fun little things we did. i need to get in a better habit of that.

day one i tattooed my new friend tyler from super champion. he builds beautiful, solid bikes, i try my best to do beautiful, solid tattoos, so we made a trade. he was going to get both sides of his hips tattooed, however after finishing one we both realized there wasn't much chance he'd be laying on that fresh tattoo to get the other side done.

i tattooed a big espresso cup with a banner that said Double Espress "D" in it. tyler loves coffee, or so i'm told, however, he was told the night before by he wasn't able to drink coffee for two weeks. that must have been really hard, getting a tattoo expressing your love for coffee, with out being able to enjoy a cup before, during or after. my heart goes out to you on that one ty, i couldn't imagine getting a grape juice tattoo and not being able to enjoy a glass.

i don't have a picture of the tattoo. someone please email me one.

then i tattooed nic from super champion, who help build my bike. he sat like a rock. again, i don't have a photo of that tattoo, someone please email me one.

this is my bike. i painted the frame olive green, the super champion boys did everything else. there were a few complications in the build, so THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who helped out. duncan's nic for picking up the risers, nic and ty for working the chain and gearing... anyone and everyone who put this together, thank you. it's far beyond what i was looking for.



day two i tattooed my friend shanah. she'll be sewing for a living fairly soon i predict, so quite appropriate tattoos. buy her stuff.



then duncan and i got down to the heart of the trip, trying to do as much as possible on his sleeve. we pretty much finished the bottom half of his arm. it was awesome. i don't have a picture of that either.

day 3 duncan and i got right back to work at about 10 am. we did a bunch of short burst or about an hour or two at a time. then he'd take a break and ice his arm.

the second night i was there, we went for dinner at nirvana and i got to meet duncan's nic. at that time he asked me if i had time to tattoo him. it was duncan's nic, and i wanted to make it work for him, so i asked him what he wanted and he told me he wanted to get two lizard/dinos duncan had drawn. duncan then informed me that he would be freehanding them on nic's leg for me to tattoo.

at this point i should clarify, i love doing fun tattoos. i love doing fun, silly tattoos for friends. i take what i do quite seriously and work hard, however, it's always good to get light hearted. sometimes, you just need to get or do some silly, fun stuff for friends who share the same sense of humor.

so after about 2-3 hrs of tattooing duncan on day 3, nic arrived to get tattooed. duncan and i took a break. i cleaned and set up fresh for nic. i think none of us were too sure if duncan would actually be able to redraw what he had done on paper, with his arm that had now been tattooed for 5+ hrs. so he went to work...



here we can note that nic actually made various sized photocopies of the original drawing. i had stencil paper and we told duncan he could stencil it... there was no way that was going to happen once he got the sharpie in his hand.
no one could keep a straight face including nic.


final duncan drawing. it's EXACTLY the same as the copie he did on paper. are the 2 lizard/dinos duncan and nic.....

it can also be noted that the speech bubbles were left open. the original had "dude?" "dude!" in them i think... i believe "awesome" was tossed around at some point. in the end, it was decided that it would be WAY more fun for nic or who ever to just fill them in daily with pen.

finished tattoo. i'm sure the eye is bleeding because i was laughing so hard i couldn't take a steady photo the first few attempts.the artist and his work.... seriously, it took me forever to resize this photo in photoshop. i couldn't stop laughing and having my eyes tear up. he's so proud.

this is for sure one of my favorite moments in my tattoo career.
so then we went back to duncan watching CSI and me tattooing his sleeve. we worked for another 2 hrs or so, at which point duncan informed nic that he should start practicing drawing track bikes, because he was going to be drawing one on his wrist for me to tattoo.

total bro love.

i finished up what i was tattooing on duncan, nic did a few rough drafts on paper, and stepped up to the plate.

so by this point i'm sure there are a few of you thinking "so how drunk are these guys" and yes, in this photo duncan is drinking a beer. however, this was the only beer in the house, and duncan is only 2 sips into it after having his arm tattooed for over 8 hrs this weekend. nic has had nothing to drink, i have had nothing to drink.... well, lots of gatorade, but we are all stone sober.

in this photo you'll notice a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol i gave nic to use as an eraser for the sharpie just in case. i believe duncan's response was "you won't be using or needing that."
at some point, it was also decided to add "giver" under the bike. i had no part in that.

100% duncan.
nics final sharpie drawing.

(duncan had tried to hand poke a speech bubble on his other wrist, god knows when. he redrew his attempt for me to tattoo, after the bike. that's the story behind what's on his left hand in case you were wondering....)

oh yea, i almost forgot. after cleaning it up with blue sharpie, duncan noted that the "giver" was not at all centered with the bike.

of course the solution was not to erase and try again, but instead to add 2 exclamation points to balance things out.
the artist and his work. total bro love.
we bandaged up, i stared cleaning, while duncan and nic took apart and boxed my bike. then duncan and i went for vera's burgers, and off to the airport.

i had a blast this weekend. thank you again duncan, shanah, tyler, duncan's nic, nic heart, and everyone else i had the pleasure of meeting. it was an amazing 3 days. thank you.



.....so my cats LOVE these fleece mice you get at TISOL in vancouver. i picked them up a few, and they were ALL over my bag the second i opened it. the toys were still buried in my cloths, but they knew something was up. how could i not give them their birthday presents, even though it was 2 am by the time i got home from the airport. happy belated 4th birthday thomas and aku. 2am catnip madness...