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.