6.30.11

Back at the studio today.  Easy day, tattooed for a couple hours and finished Shalyn's cover up.

6.29.11

Worked at the computer today... all... day... long...  Photoshop.... ugh...

But the good thing is that I'm almost done going through over 2 years of raw picture files and editing 4-5 pictures into one.  I need to take a few more healed photos of certain tattoos, and then I'll finally be ready to print a new portfolio and do a massive update to my website.   I'm setting myself a deadline for next week.

By next Wednesday, I want to have everything done and sent off to the printers.  It's such an easy trap to fall into;  saying to yourself "I'll just wait until I get photos of this tattoo, then I'll print a new book... I'll just wait until I get healed photos of THIS tattoo... and then I'll update the website..."  So no more waiting.  By next Wednesday, a new book will be in the works.

Here's one of many photos that will be included.  Neal's sleeve has been done for.... well... a long time now.... No reason not to have photos of it up.

6.28.11

I don't have any photos to post tonight... or videos... just this story.

Now that it's summer, I love going for walks around our neighborhood at night.  I went out on my own for about an hour or so last night.  Came across a lot of Monday night balcony parties, a full on heavy metal/hardcore show going on in a random house's garage, and a couple in their late 40's/early 50's sitting out front of their apartment smoking and enjoying some lowest common denominator beers.  The conversation I had with them was short as I was walking the whole time,  but a gem and is as follows-


Woman- Hey, why is do you have your hair up in a bun, it looks stupid.
 Me- ...ummmm...
 Woman- Guys with their hair tied up look stupid.
 Man- (giggles)
 Me- Okay
 Woman- Hey, you want to smoke this joint with us?
 Me- No thank-you, I'm good.
 Woman- What's your fackin' problem, you go to university or something?
 Me- No, I don't go to university
 Woman-... Yea... You look like you go to university...

(Man and woman both drunk laugh and high five.)

6.27.11

I'll admit... I spent the better part of my day off today looking at restored Lambretta's online...  I've wanted one of these beauties since I was about 16.... Vespa's are great... but I absolutely love Lambretta's...  The best part is these are all fully rebuilt and would run like a dream.... one day...

 

 

 

6.26.11

Another fun day for me, not so much for the client getting tattooed.  I started adding on to Morgan's robot leg, she was a trooper letting me outline on and behind her knee.  Here's a small sample of her robot's at a carnival.

6.25.11

I started this "space" sleeve maybe 3 years ago... coloured the inside of his arm today.

And Erin was in town for the weekend so I was finally able to get healed photos of her tattoo.  It started as a smaller rib piece, and ended up becoming quite a bit larger.  Since it wasn't drawn all at once, it surprised me a bit today when I saw how big the full thing ended up being, since I normally worked on it in sections.  Go big or go home.

6.24.11

This was a first for me today,  I've never tattooed both hands in one sitting.  And to add to firsts, I've never tattooed both hands, AND knuckles on the same day.  Sandy's tough, and now his hands are useless for the next week or so....

6.23.11

I'm back and survived my solo camping expedition.  I have a bunch of photos to go through and edit... just not tonight.  I'll get to editing them and put together a decent post about my first experience camping alone... Solo camping... pretty intense... super fun.

Back at work today, first appointment canceled which sucks because it was a touch up/photo appointment.  I really wanted to get healed photos of Peter's arm.

Second appointment was colouring a bit of grassy green background and some fun pink flowers on a 1/2 sleeve.  Fun stuff!  Pink flowers!

6.19.11

Another fun tattoo for me today, not so fun for the client.  Shauna came in today for her first tattoo... pretty impressive.  We easily got the outline done in about an hour, and felt good enough to go on with a bit of colour.  I hope I sit that well when get my ribs tattooed....

I'll be absent from the blog for the next 2 nights.  I'm heading out the the beautiful Rocky Mountains for a bit of solo camping.  There's no internet, cell phone signal, power, etc.... It will be a nice break from the digital world.  I'll be back Wednesday.  See you then!

6.18.11

Melissa drove down from Calgary to get tattooed today.  I'm extremely grateful anytime a client from out of town comes to get tattooed.  I travel to get tattooed, so I know the commitment involved.

Melissa and her husband had their wedding at a vineyard in Kelowna, so getting grapes tattooed on her foot seems extremely appropriate.  Like I've said, I absolutely love grapes, wine, and most things grape flavored.   Thank-you so much Melissa!  I really appreciate you driving down to get tattooed.

6.17.11

...just fell  asleep on the couch while watching Mythbusters... so fast blog post tonight...

Worked on Steve's arm today.  Birds, purple background, spruce trees and pine cones... awesome.

6.16.11

Back to work at the studio today.  First appointment was working on Lindsay's green tara.  Unfortunately the photos had way to much flash burn to post.  I actually knew this while I was taking the photos...  I tried multiple times on multiple settings, but couldn't get a clear photo...

Second appointment was working on Kalika's humming birds and flowers.  Finished up most of the blue background, thickened up a few lines, and started colouring the centers of the hibiscus.

6.15.11

Drawing day today.  Another awesome day, started at about 8:30am, and drew until about 3:15pm.  Made a line copy for my tattoo Sunday, and finished the drawing and this colour study for a foot/ankle tattoo on Saturday.  I can't wait to tattoo this.  I absolutely love grapes and almost anything grape flavored.

... today was also my Mom's Birthday.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

6.14.11

What's new today... Oh... I don't know... New Header for the blog!  ...More soon....

6.13.11

I've been putting it off for weeks... but today I finally spent the entire day cleaning up the office/ drawing room at home.  I wouldn't say I'm done by any means, but I am far more organized than I was 12 hours ago.

I cleaned up the top of the book shelf and bought a few new green Ikea boxes today for filing receipts for the year.

And the major overhaul was to my magnet board/ storage system for clients and drawings.  I've always had piles of paper everywhere... not anymore.  Today I decided to go with envelops for every client and project that I am currently working on.  If it needs to be drawn, it goes up on the magnet board.  Once it's been drawn and outlined, it goes into a file on the book shelf.   It makes so much more sense, and is a thousand times cleaner.  Oh... and I probably won't be misplacing tracings anymore...I really wish I had "before" pictures of the magnet board, but here's how it looks now-

"Water, fire, air and dirt Fucking magnets, how do they work? And I don’t wanna talk to a scientist Y’all motherfuckers lying, and getting me pissed."

...contrary to what ICP may think, it's fairly logical how magnets work.  I bought these rare earth magnets that will hold up to 3 pounds today.  Pretty sweet.

6.12.11

So I got to tattoo this fun owl with roses on Kayla today.  Tattooing went awesome...  which is good because there were a myriad of small accidents through out the day.

To start the day, I accidentally sprayed myself in the eye with 99% isopropyl alcohol,  THEN my stencil basically wiped off with in 2 seconds of starting,  THEN I accidentally spilled my wash cup all over my counter top and floor, and THEN my client spilled the better part of a large bottle of Grape Gatorade on herself....  just one of those days I guess...

...again, I'm so happy the tattoo turned out amazing after all of that non sense.  Ollie tattooed the rose above her elbow last year.

6.11.11

I forgot to take photos of what I did at the shop today.  But to sum it up, I did about 10 mins of touch ups for my morning appointment and worked on connecting Rodney's sleeve to his backpiece to his rib panel for my afternoon appointment.

Teagan took this photo after work.  Good old Instagram.  Yes... I have my cat's tattooed on my feet...

Cat on foot, foot on cat. 

6.10.11

Last night when I was making a line copy for today's appointment, I decided to take a big risk.  Whenever I have to outline something with scales, I leave them out and just outline the main structure.    I then struggle to get them back on perfect at a later date... not today.  SO many lines, but my stencil didn't wipe off, Morgan sat like a rock, and now the scales are done and I don't have to worry about them in future appointments.  

6.9.11

Back at the studio tattooing today.  I cleaned the hell out of the shop to start the day off.  It's always nice to start the work week in a nice, clean environment.  It takes me about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to clean the shop top to bottom.

First appointment was working on Amy's deer.  I shaded out the antlers and part of the neck/body.  It's nice to see this coming along quickly now.

Afternoon appointment was starting to cover up an old rose with tribal on Shalyn's leg.  Sore spot, sat like a champ.

6.8.11

First day on the new work schedule.  I'm now working 4 days a week at the studio tattooing, one day a week at home drawing, and 2 days off.

So today was drawing day at the home office.  I'd say it went fairly well... I started working on drawings around 8:30am and worked solid though to about 3:00pm.  I picked Teagan up from school and then came home and drew for about another hour.   The day felt longer than I expected it would....

I guess my expectations were a bit high as to how many drawings I thought I could get done in a day... but I still managed to get 3 done for this week and a fourth 80% done.  Not bad.... So it's looking like this week I won't have any late nights or early morning drawing sessions.

Teagan took this photo of me finishing up a line copy just before dinner. 

Instagram is awesome.  If you use said app, add me @  shawnoconnor

6.7.11

I worked on a bit of painting today for new shirts, stickers, prints, etc...

...and then bought some new pencils and pens this evening.

6.6.11

Day off today... I did absolutely nothing...  Therefor, I have nothing to post....

6.5.11

This morning I tattooed this fun one shot on Josie's inner arm.  She wasn't having to much fun until I introduced her to the wonderful world of Bactine.

Second appointment was finishing a sleeve, which was really shinny by the end of the session.  I didn't even bother attempting photos. 

6.4.11

I have to work on a few drawings tonight, so no time for chit chat.  Down to buisness-

Blake's underwater sleeve to start the day. Background blue all morning

 

Second appointment was colouring a couple of Cara's flowers.  These were super fun and Cara is super awesome.

6.3.11

I only worked a 1/2 day today because our plumbing problems continue.... Hopefully this time the leak is fixed.

So this afternoon, I worked on Brian's foo dog/ kerin sleeve.  I'd guess we probably started this 2 years ago.  We had an extremely slow start to the project, but Brian seems to be really serious about getting tattooed the last few months which is awesome.  I think he's also learned the lesson that if you put off getting tattooed for 2 years, when you go back to start working on it again, the new colours are quite a bit brighter than the colours that were tattooed 2 years ago... Unfortunately this means more touch ups than normal...  Oh well, it's nice to be making good progress on this sleeve.  I filled and touched up a bunch of background today.

6.2.11

Bad news today... we still have a plumbing leak at the house... BOOOOOOOOOO....

Good news today... all of my clients showed up for their appointments so I have tattoo photos for show and tell today.  YEAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Leanna came in for the first time in a while to have her fruit sleeve worked on today.  Haven't been tattooed in a while... well... let's do something that will feel crappy, like the orange on her elbow to get her back into it.

My second appointment today was my good friend Adam.  I started tattooing Adam... maybe 10... 11 years ago... definitely with in my first few years tattooing.  At that time, he got a half sleeve which was by far the biggest tattoo I'd ever done.  It's been quite a while and most of the color is faded so I'm doing what I can to fix it up and put the colour back into his arm.  We worked on this little King Kong today.  It's definitely an old drawing, but it was pretty fun to recolour after all of these years.

And today's bonus photo- My favorite client and now friend Josh stopped by to drop off and invite to a party she's having.  She was a bit pressed for time, but was awesome enough to make 2 minutes available so I could take a few quick photos of her healed boxer girl on her ribs.

 Super extra bonus photo... This guy arrived today and stopped by the shop to drop off his gear and get a bit set up for tattooing tomorrow.  Ollie came over after I was done work and put his bike together so he has transportation for the next week.  Super awesome seeing Ollie again.  It's going to be a fun week!

6.1.11

Happy June 1st everyone!

Kinda crappy start to the month for me today.  It doesn't happen often, but when it does... it sucks. 

I wish I had an awesome tattoo to show you today, but I don't... instead I guess I have to post this-

 

Hopefully that clears things up.  If you pull a no show for your appointment,  I keep the cash you gave me at the time of the consultation for sitting around with nothing to do all day.