Post 48

Well... today should have been my first day back at the studio after having a mini vacation last week. My client sent me a text message last night at 7:30pm to confirm her appointment was today at 11am, and then decided to sleep through her alarm and miss her appointment. Awesome. So no tattoo photos today because there was no tattooing today....

Instead here's the first 1/2 of photos from our mini vacation. Teagan's brother was getting married so we made the trip out to Vancouver and decided to take a few extra day to drive home via Penticton.

Teagan flew out early to visit and decorate cupcakes for the wedding. I drove down by myself a few days later.

I used to drive to Vancouver all the time, but as fast as possible, and in the middle of the night to avoid traffic. Now when I do the drive, I take my time, and travel during daylight hours as much as possible. Sure it adds a few hours to the trip, but what an amazing drive.Steve, I took this photo for you-Teagan getting ready for her brother's wedding......setting up her cupcake tree......and blowing bubbles in the wind.Teagan and JoshAfter the wedding we headed to the Beatty compound (Kathy's parent's acreage) for dinner and many, many plastic red glasses full of Grandville Island Lager from the keg. I don't have many photos because it was starting to get dark and only had an iPhone for a camera. I was also fairly intoxicated by this point....

There was a HUGE cooler full of fresh oysters, fresh from Cortes Island.They started by being cooked over and open fire, and then all of a sudden it quickly became quite the event to just slam them back raw. I've never seen anything quite like it. Teagan and Josh were herding people to the table as if they were lining up shots at a bar- "Who's going to do one?" "You in or what?" "Let's do this" etc.Brother and sister, slamming oysters
As you can probably see, I really do enjoy the randomness of the Toy Camera app for iPhone.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed out to Penticton for the day to relax and replenish our wine supply.... Pics of that tomorrow...

Post 47

I've worked a whole bunch over the last week, mainly to make up for the few days I'll be out of town coming up

Here's a recap-

Wednesday the 16th of June I worked on Matt's chest. He was having a good day and finished up all the colour.My second apt that day was to add a tree frog to Vanessa's 3/4 Sleeve-
Thursday the 17th I worked on Mikes sleeve. We coloured the inside and back of his upper arm. This was his third sitting-
Friday the 18th, yes indeed.... Mike again. We coloured clouds, and his elbow....As well as one of th roses on his forearm
Second appointment that day, I coloured a bit of background on Olga's bird sleeve. Inside of her arm... I don't think she liked me much that day...
Saturday the 19th, I did a small David Choe whale on Noel's leg-
... and then had the rest of the day off. It was beautiful outside that day, so I really didn't mind

Sunday the 20th, I tattooed the whole day, but didn't get good pictures... oh well...

Monday the 21st, worked on Darryl's sleeve. Again, no photos.

The afternoon, I worked on Tylers Lancaster a bit more. It's insane how fast he's getting this done considering the placement of the tattoo-Tuesday the 22nd I had the day off. I took the car in to get tuned up and cleaned for the upcoming road trip.

And finally today, Wednesday the 23rd.... Again... Mike. We coloured his ditch and another forearm rose. If anyone's keeping track, Mike started his sleeve Thursday the 10th, that's 12 days ago. That's 5 sittings in 12 days. Crazy.... Unfortunately we're both out of town next week, so we'll finish it up the second week of July. Amazing.

Post 46

...Going back a few days....

Last Thursday I had to start a new sleeve of roses and skulls. Mike want's to have this sleeve done asap, so you'll see this happen pretty damn quick with him booking 2 days in a row, once a week.

Here's my drawing area Wednesday night.
Drew Wednesday night, cleaned up Thursday morning...I had sketch and a line copy ready to go...
We stared Thursday around 11am. The stencil and drawing on went to skin extremely fast for a client who I had never met. A few hours later, we had it all outlined...
Friday he was back the same time, 11am, and we coloured for about 3 hrs.Super fun tattoo, AMAZING client. Mike was overseas when he emailed me about getting tattooed, so with the exception of the few emails we had exchanged, we had never actually met until the morning of his appointment. I had no tracing for size, he didn't even ask to see the drawing. He showed up 15 mins early both days, only took breaks when I needed to refill pigment or paper towels, and sat still like a rock. He was the perfect client, no distractions, no interference at anytime, full cooperation at all times.

Thanks Mike.

Post 45

I worked on 2 really fun tattoos yesterday, got out my camera to take photos, and realized quickly that I left the memory card at home plugged into the computer...

I fixed that problem for today's apt.We FINALLY finished Neal's sleeve today (with the exception of touch ups and a few small odds and ends). We'll touch it up next month and hopefully get good photos a few weeks later. Super excited.

We worked on the sky, trees, and the boat today-And now after working 12 days in a row....I FINALLY have a day off tomorrow.

I keep saying I'm super excited to sit around and do absolutely nothing, all day long... but that damn thing know as a conscience will probably get the best of me, and I already know I'll end up spending the better part of the day answering the amazingly large number of emails haunting my inbox...

Post 44

Here's yesterdays tattoos, a day late considering I fell asleep just before 10pm last night. I'm exhausted.

Today was day 10 of working with out a day off.... 2 more days to go... If you're math skills are as good as mine, which are quite poor, I'll help you out. On Monday, that will makes 12 days of tattooing in a row....I worked on Katina's 1/2 sleeve to start the day yesterday. I only expected to work on it for a few hrs, but she had other plans. We finished it, with the exception of touch ups and a bit of background to even things off. The healed areas vs the fresh areas are fairly obvious.Then I worked on Nicole's 1/2 sleeve. We coloured the frog, sun, and a bit of the background before I hit the wall. Today I started my day with a small 9:30am apt for a friend. Kevin had his first patent approved, and wanted to mark his achievement with a new tattoo. Super Sailor Jerry traditional fun. Yup, that's the inside of his knee...
I also worked on my friend Rodney's backpiece today, but was too tired by the end of the session to take photos.

Last apt of the day was a last minute cancellation. Normally that frustrates the hell out of me, especially since I went to work early to fit a friend in and could have tattooed Kevin at 3pm instead of 9:30am if my client had given me more notice, but I was able to go home a bit early, and rest up for tomorrow.

I have nothing else to say... I'm tired and going to sleep now...

Post 43

I'm slowly starting to edit some of the backlog of photos I've taken over the last few months...

I tattooed this on my friend Steve a few months ago.
Funny, I tattooed a new piece on Brad a few days ago but didn't get a good photo of it. I know he's coming in to get more work done soon, so I'll get a better picture of it then. For now, we probably tattooed this on his inner arm a few months ago as well. Today, I put another 3 hrs into Tyler's tattoo. Tyler must be some kind of cyborg or something... He doesn't move, he doesn't wince, he only takes breaks when I need to refill ink caps or change the music... Oh yea, and this is his first tattoo. Unreal....
Here's a better close up of some of the healed work on his Lancaster.
Tomorrow will be a really fun day at the studio. 2 super fun tattoos to work on. Let's hope I get good photos...

Post 42

It's always fun getting mail!!! Teagan gave me an amazing dock for my iPhone for Christmas this year. After using and falling in love with it, I had her ask the gentleman who made it if he could make a me a business card holder similar to the dock. Yesterday it showed up via good ol' USPS, and today it made it's way to the studio. Love it.
That's one nice piece of cedar!
I tattooed this on my friend Trent a few weeks a go. It's a fresh photo so there's a bunch of glare... I need a few healed photos...
I've hardly started playing around with Photoshop CS5, but I already know it's amazing. Especially considering I was using a broken version of CS1 previously....

Post 41

I'll try to keep this as short as possible...

Months ago, Teagan and I bought a new iMac. I was sick of editing photos on a laptop while sitting on the couch, which was in no way helping my extremely poor posture.

My rule for the new computer was NO applications downloaded via torrents. If I wanted an application, I was going to actually buy it. Unfortunately.... that meant months of no Photoshop.... thus... months of taking photos, and having them sit on a memory card.

As of today, that changes-
So lets get back at it as of right now.
Today we started to add colour to Matt's chest. His first tattoo, and he sits like a champ. Nice work Matt.
More tomorrow.