Almost There

I've been working on this painting for the better part of 2 years. It seems a little excessive in hindsight but I feel it's coming along rather well. I have very little to go( the upper most right corner) and the finish line is in sight. I'm quite excited about it and felt the need to share even though it's a little premature.

Black Line

For many years I have enjoyed creating primarily line based work with only black ink. The work done in this manner serves no purpose other than my pleasure, a personnel project if you will. Here are a handful of such works. I have future plans for these pieces and others which are of the same vein. I look forward to sharing this upcoming project with you when everything is arranged and the time comes. As always thank you for looking and your interest in my work.

Yokai

Here's my most recent custom munny, a Yokai. I had a rough time getting a decent photo, so I apologize for the lack of quality and quantity.

I've always been fascinated with the enormous catalog of Japanese demons many of which fall under the category of Yokai. Yokai are a class of supernatural or otherworldly demons which can sometimes be malevolent while others bring prosperity and good fortune. These are creatures of folklore and there's a great deal of them, everything from possessed inanimate object such as lanterns and fabric to lumps of flesh that roam around graveyards and one of my personal favorites, the "filth licker" which is a creature that has an serpentine like tongue and and can be found loitering around public restrooms and other dirty locals.  This one here that I created is just your typical variety, a generalization of the subject matter and really isn't found in folklore, the closest would be the Kuchisake-onna, or Slit-Faced Woman.

Gives You Wings

Here's a handful of tattoos that are relatively recent and I've either forgot about them or was simply to lazy to post them and somehow all three images include subjects with wings.

Interior Decor Or Just Scribbling

Here's a recent commission that I've just completed. I don't have a damn thing else to say at the moment.

New Project

Seeing how vinyl casting is full of impracticalities for the individual mostly due to the huge financial burden and complexities involved, I've decided to do some projects and cast in resin. The first run and  prototype is my spin on the traditional Japanese Hanya mask. At the moment it's only sculpted and cured but I figured I'd post the stages and progress of this venture. There will be more to come when I have time and motivation to proceed.

The Bishop And The Angler

I noticed this space has been kinda lackin' in the way of tattoos lately, this hasn't been intentional. There's just been a lack of photo worthy tattoos coming my way at the shop recently or they've just been unfinished or it just slipped my mind to capture it digitally. Fear not, though unfinished here's a recent tattoo, a couple hours on the hand was a bit much for this fine lad, can't blame him though. It was my first run through with a Bishop rotary machine, works pretty sweet, but certainly has a learning curve. The machine's light as hell and runs super quiet yet real punchy at the same time. Just saw this tattoo a few days after I did and it's all most healed already so all in all the Bishop Rotary is pretty badass. Sorry for the shitty photo, it was taken with an iphone.

Rot Your Teeth With Sugar Skulls

For some reason everyone seems to love sugar skulls, day of the dead skulls or whatever the hell you want to call em. Currently available at my Etsy Shop, which of course can be viewed HERE (shameless advertising and product placement blog post warning) are two sets of skulls. I've made similar sets in the past and they sell quick, so stop reading this nonsense and consume my little capitalist friends and fellow Americans. There's and economic depression/ recession goin' on so get out there and buy shit you don't really need, well, buy my shit anyway. Do it.

The Barren Months of Winter

As it often does, the approaching winter has put the brakes on work over at the old tattoo shop. Still tattooing of course but nothing significant or bad ass enough to post here, just the same old song and dance. However I need to fill this space with some sort of snazzy images or shit like that, sooo...

Here's the most recent munny I've completed, my wandering samurai. Some of you may have already seen this guy on the Kidrobot forums. He's more of a prototype than anything. This was my first attempt at full clothing and it was a hassle to say the least. I'm already hard at work on another more refined version which includes some very badass authentic antique kimono fabric straight from The Land of the Rising Sun, which I hope to have completed real soon. 

Vinyl Abuse

The 7 inch zombie and 7 inch Salty Sailor are now for sale via my Etsy shop. Just go here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/HumanRelic

These guys are fully custom and one of a kind. At $100 dollars each they can be yours to enjoy.

The Zombie comes with my Infected Area print as complimentary bonus. The salty sailor doesn't come with anything, but he does have a very nifty woolen cap.

I also sell the Infected Area print on their own. They're a limited edition run (only 4 available) signed and numbered, $15 also available through Etsy. So Check it out.

New Poster

Here's a new poster I've been working on. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to use it for but it'll be pretty badass when I do. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a thank you gift for orders placed through my Etsy shop.

If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all

Living in New England has it's moments for sure, some good and some not so good.  Up here we have the changing of the seasons, good trout fishing, scenic hills and all sorts of stimulation for the senses. Now snow is a part of life here in the North East, we get dumped on quite a bit through out the winter and that goes without saying. However when we get shit on all over by 2 feet of snow in late October that is not normal. Due to all the damage to property and nearly the entire state loosing power and heat it became a state of emergency. I am writing this 9 days after the storm, I am stealing my wifi signal from  someone, somewhere (sshhh) and I just got power back on thanks to some wonderful good ol' boys from South Carolina who came all the way up here to assist the inept and incredibly poorly run CL&P.  Much of the state is still without electricity and heat, there is quite a bit of damage to homes and other property and a few people have indeed lost their lives.  My home still stands and and my friends and family are quite alive so it could be much worse. However my neighbors 300 foot oak tree lost the battle to snow and gravity and turned my Nissan into a scrap metal. When all was said and done it turned out to be a town tree and I appear to be shit out of luck. According to insurance law it's an act of god(it would appear that insurance companies can place blame on an invisible man in the sky) and no one's liable or responsible. In short I'm fucked and out a good deal of money. But I'm trying to take an enlightened approach to all this and stay positive. Tings always seem to work out in the long run but don't get me wrong this ones a bitch.

 

Undead Vinyl

My latest custom Dunny. The Dunny platform is rather unusual, by that I mean no matter what you do to it or how you execute your technique(with some exceptions) these little bastards still have a certain charm and cuteness to them. It's rather remarkable and unavoidable. He wants to consume your brains and other soft tissues yet undeniably cute.

Stop With The Script...I Beg Of You

I'm an artist, a tattooer, not a writer. I work in a tattoo shop not a god damn scriptorium. What in the name of fuck has taken a hold of  people and caused them to desire paragraphs of script etched into their flesh. How does the old saying go..."A picture is worth a thousand words". Text looks like shit on the body, nothing about it looks right. Everbody get's the same shit as well- "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger", "only god can judge me", "life is beautiful", an entire bible verse or prayer or even worse a verse from some foolish band that will fade into nothingness withing a few months . These damn people are walking around with some self help book tattooed upon them, a human fucking fortune cookie. Hey check this out: Confucius says you're an idiot.
That "Love Kills" tattoo is so profound, cheer up emo kid. Oh what's that? You want the Boondock Saints Veritas tattoo on your hand even though you clearly have no other tattoos and you live in the suburbs. You're a badass now. Women/girls appear to be the worst offenders, stop with the novels and essays being written on your ribs it looks utterly foolish. Nobody wants to read you.

Look even Bill Maher agrees-

Ol' Jack Lantern

Two posts in the same day and a new header image. God Damn, look at me go. Here's a pretty kick ass Jack O'lantern I did the other day on an equally kick ass client of mine. I would've thought I'd tattoo more jack o'lanterns through out the years but alas this was my first. It's quite different from my usual way of tattooing but I feel a change coming on as far as the way I execute tattoos in terms of style and technique. It has a lot more color and other "flashy" shit going on with it, in my opinion any how.  I am not responsible for the bull located above the old jack... just sayin'.

I had every intention to post the following tattoo yesterday on September 11th. It seems to me that 9/11 has become a far more patriotic day/anniversary than any other, perhaps equal or even more so than Independence Day. Despite the chaos, mass murder and unbelievable tragedy it's brought a kind of unity to the people of our country, a common thread that connects us all on a very powerful level no matter what coast or state you call home. I live only about 100 miles from New York City and I visit Manhattan frequently, I consider it a second home and truly cherish that city, yet people 4000 miles away in California feel just a passionate and where hit just as hard in regards to the events of September 11th 2001.

Enough of my banter and on to the tattoo- Join or Die, drawn by Benjamin Franklin in 1754, this image is about as Patriotic and American as it gets. After 257 years it still holds up and expresses the spirit of the citizens in the United States. I really feel every one needs to remember both within this country and especially abroad: the politicians and their often times crooked agendas DO NOT represent this country
and ARE NOT this country. The people, the citizens are, you and I make up this great land. (Sorry for more Banter)-

A Bird In Hand...

Keeping true to my inconsistent posting schedule.... A new post. Here's a pair of birds that I've inscribed into the flesh for a couple of delightful clients not too long back. I don't think they could possibly be any different from each other: one inspired by a Hokusai woodblock print and the other a piece of vintage Guinness Beer advertising. To my great delight a fine gentlemen came in one day with the toucan request. When I was a young lad there was an Irish bar/pizza restaurant my father would take me to where the walls of the establishment were covered with vintage Guinness posters and the toucan always stuck in my mind and have always wanted to tattoo the image, so in a way executing this tattoo was one of those serendipitous events.

weapons of war and vice

With the lovely weather the last month of so when not at the shop I've been spending far to much time on the lake fishing so I figured it's about time I posted something on these pages. I was a little concerned when asked to do the 2x4 with nails,  I had had apprehensions on whether a board could make a solid, interesting tattoo and just maybe the concept would be more dynamic than the image itself. However I have to admit it holds up quite well and I can't say I've ever seen a 2x4 with nails tattoo before.

Meditating in your flesh

Endless knots are great tattoos to execute due to the technical challenges and the concentration required. It's all very zen, in my opinion. This knot is a very ancient symbol and it's always a pleasure to be a very small part of it's history and existence. Etching it in skin makes the symbol permanent yet not infinite. After all the wearer shall pass at some point. There's an interesting duality at work there that's rather intriguing. Enough of the transcendental thought for now....

Grinnin' In Your Face-

There'll be tattoo related posts sometime in the next several days, in the meantime however I would rather go on a small tirade about contemporary music-

This stagnant, soulless whore machine which is referred to as contemporary music is heinous. We exist in a world where MTV is a product or style, where both online and printed correspondence believe that little transvestite Bieber's hair and music is newsworthy, so much so there's a movie about the boy/girl? The radio waves are choked with blonde after blonde pop tarts who sing songs which were written by someone else to music who was composed by someone else while sporting an image and persona developed for them by someone else. The term artist is thrown around so recklessly to the point where it has lost its gravitas. All you need is some glitter and prosthetic shoulder pads and your a ground breaking visionary.

However, there are true musicians among us still, you just have to dig through the shit. We still have Jack white making music with the Raconteurs and his numerous side projects. John Frusciante will always make brilliant independent solo albums, his album Curtains is great and always stands out in my mind. We are quite fortunate that Mumford and Sons came out of obscurity to save us from ourselves.  I have strayed from my intentions.

The point of this post is to share this...  Son House performing Grinnin' in your face...

Soul my friends, soul. Everything great and pure about music and no fucking instruments, yet everything is conveyed. All the fancy bullshit, the smoke and mirrors, back up dancers, designer clothes, and eyeliner. All gone and stripped bare to reveal only the elements which matter.

spider skull and watercolors

Here's a quick and simple spider-skull I did on an ever so loyal client of mine, nice tattoo on a helluva nice guy.  I've been tattooing a great deal of skulls lately.  Not that I'm complaining they're always a great bold image and there's nearly an infinite number of ways to execute them.

And a pair of recently completed watercolors. Please forgive the quality of the images, my scanner won't accommodate the 11 x 14 inch format so digital photos were my only option and the quality is less the ideal.