Tina's Tattoo Artblog

busy busy

2012-02-15T19:58:00.000-05:00

So these aren't in the right order, but I'll just go down the line as per usual.

This was a walkin at No Ka Oi a few days ago... Bad Religion!

I tattooed these in my last post... They just sent me a photo of them together! So cute!

This was a man who found me via interwebs and asked me to give him his first tattoo... a memorial for someone special he lost. This one wasn't too big and he was a good sport getting this done!

This is on one of my regulars... I've tattooed him every week or every other week since I got back in town from Hawaii... I think we have one more session left or two to do the stars and dots fill in and add a few small pieces in the empty spots.

I wish I had a before picture of this one... he came in with the logos already there, for the exception of the lower right roman numerals... needless to say everything was pretty faded and whatnot so I went ahead and freshened up the whole thing.

This is the half of a best friend tattoo that walked in on saturday in the city. I didn't attach the other picture but they got the same thing...obviously. gotta love cupcakes!

This was a walkin as well... she came in with this outlined already...

I know this photo is horrible and dark BUT we colored in the one flower... this was a difficult one, this was my first squirmer... go me!

Another fun walkin! Buddha! he brought in the image... hope to do more like this!

Another walkin at the end of the night saturday... Had fun with this one... and he was a cool dude. On a side note, lonestar is supposed to have 2 r's in his case :)

This was a walkin on sunday at the Portside studio... this was his first one also.

This is Heather's calf! She was the cherry blossom branch on the foot from a while back. Well she gave me some ideas to go from and I'm going to have so much fun with this piece! We only did the outline for now, but in a few weeks we will have it filled in.

Have some fun stuff lined up so I'll keep you all posted

moving on

2012-02-07T20:27:00.000-05:00

So I haven't had a chance to post anything since I got back to Philly.... Gonna make this quick.

Working at No Ka Oi today... had a newly engaged couple come get matching wishbones...kinda cute idea right?

So we finally finished the deer skull... One more mini session to go for small touchups however I'm stoked about how it came out. Had alot of fun with the antlers and got to experiment some more...

The 19 was pretty fun too. It was his first tattoo and he did really well. this image is from a Stephen King novel. I liked tattooing this and hope to see him back soon for a healed pic....

A walk in at the NJ shop.... star action!

Added onto Ken's arm the other day, we've been slowly adding designs to fill up his arm, we're almost there!! Farther down on this post there's a horse design that also is on his arm. Loving roses lately!

Just about done Steve's arm. My first poly.

Walkin at NJ the other day. Still getting better at this area... so far its my least favorite to tattoo!

An old friend from college came by last week and I got to tattoo this on her! Very stoked to finally tattoo someone that has sort of watched me grow from the beginning. Kudos to Nik for taking one for the team for me!!!! You rule!

Until next time....

Last few days in Hawaii

2012-01-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

So the last two weeks here have been awesome! I've had the great opportunity to meet some really sweet new people, made some new friends along the way.

These two designs were on Annie's man Thomas. (Annie had the lighthouse design) He wanted a fun spin on the phrases "Jinx Removing" and "Accident Prone". He gave me the design ideas and we did both designs in the same day. What a good sport, he sat for both in one session. Pardon the not so great photo here, they are even I swear! In this photo his one leg is in front of the other just slightly, so they look a bit lopsided, but theyre not :)

Close up of the one thigh.... kinda blurry photo :(

Here's the other one, much clearer pic this time. I had alot of fun with a limited color palette as well. Thanks so much to Thomas for being awesome!

This one was a walkin the other day on a Marine (obviously) He had an eagle design he brought with him that was an eagle with the flag colors in the wings... he chose an eagle from the flash we had here so we could work with his budget and we did the rest with color. He was a cool dude and hes one of those people that make the time fly by. This was a fun one... my first eagle!

This was a walkin as well... she had this already on her wrist and wanted to keep the kanji but get rid of the date.....a good challenge for me considering I haven't done an official coverup yet. I'd like to be able to do these well, and you gotta start somewhere. Here's what we came up with......

After... she didn't want to go too big for this one so this is what we decided on. Looking back at it I could have brought the blue closer to the kanji to frame it... will apply that the next time something like this comes in....

Had some fun with names the other day... I could tattoo swirls all day. Never gets old.

This one was a big challenge. She had the flower with the name already on her in black and grey.. it was old and faded. She brought in images of koi fish that she wanted and wanted to use water and flowers to tie it all together. I was stoked to try this out.... looking back I could have put better shading in the fish and wish that I had talked her into color in the flower she had. It still looks segmented to me. She was the first client I've had that moved the ENTIRE TIME! She moved and squirmed and moaned and everything. She was a good sport and sat for a while, but I suppose we learn how to deal with these situation as they arise right? I had a long chat with Bill about the execution of this tattoo and have a better idea of how to handle a design like this in the future.... it needed more. Another experience to be had everyday :)

This was a walkin, an homage to this man's pup that passed away :(

This was also a walkin.... he brought in the exact design that he wanted....pretty straight forward Nordic runes.

This one was a blast to do! Many thanks to Blair at Volcom next door for letting me do this HUGE fun Dia de los Muertos girl on her calf! She sat so good, lasted 5.5 hrs... I could have had one more hour with her to smooth out the shading some more at the bottom, however she did excellent and I'm really happy with how much we managed to finish. This was one of my first girl heads and she let me design it however I wanted.... so stoked on this one and learned alot from this one.

I'm at the shop today....pretty slow day, which is ok with me. I have two paintings for two different art shows on the same day so I need to get back to work. One sketch left to go then I can start painting! I'll be posting more upon my return to Philly......

Aloha!

Two weeks to go!

2012-01-09T17:33:00.000-05:00

So these pics are a bit out of order...so bear with me here. Things at Skin Deep have gotten busy! Even working on my days off on friends... Sorry for the delay in posting... the lack of internet where I'm staying and working alot I just haven't gotten around to it.

A celtic design from yesterday

Kind of dissappointed with how this photo came out, but hopefully you can makeout what it is. This woman got tattooed here at Skin Deep 14 yrs ago and came back to get another one. This design is from a pendant that she aquired in Italy that was blessed by the Pope. Obviously we had to leave out a few things because there was alot of detail in the pendant, but we worked with what we had. This one was a fun challenge considering the detail and shading and working in a stretchy area. Definitely have better ideas on how to approach this the next time around. She was really sweet and sat like a stone.

Closer view... still a light photo

Another tourist with her first tattoo... She was really sweet as well. It seems to me that most people if not all people I come across here are super nice and friendly and just so down to earth. Not that Philly doesn't have that, it's just a pleasant change.

This guy was really cool. He came in for two different tattoos in two days, this was the second. Simple and fun.. I like brush stroke designs like this.

Some hibiscus action on another visitor to the island... for some reason these flowers never get old. Played around with color combinations and tried to remember how Anna gets her flowers so damn smooth! Need to sit with her some more so I can get my flowers to look like hers.

This one was a fixer-upper. Dude came in with hideous lettering on the forearm, which was obviously done at a houseparty.... so we did what we could to fix up what he had and added some smoke/wind in it as well. The letters still aren't perfect, but we worked with what he had.

BEFORE

Another Rihanna tattoo....in the same location. This girl was really sweet and it was her first one. I really enjoy giving people their first tattoos...not really sure why. Maybe because I had such a crappy experience with my first tattoo, that I would want to give everyone a really good experience so they would want to get more tattoos....

Lettering on the chest... getting better at stretching in that area. Keeping it simple for now.

So this made my day... This guy was visiting from Denmark, and wanted a viking holding a beer! He brought this in with him and I was stoked to do it not only because it was a viking tattoo, but because the image is from a Judy Parker flash sheet.... really love her style of drawing...my first tattoo was a piece of her flash as well... We didn't deviate too much from Judy's original design, as it was awesome to begin with. Thanks to the giant Viking man and Judy for making that awesome day possible!

This photo is a little slanted, but I have to say that to date, this is my favorite tattoo. He was a military guy who saw the owl that I did on Keone in my portfolio and wanted me to put a horned owl on his arm. This was not only a blast to draw, but even more fun to tattoo. Got to experiment with textures and large needles that I hadn't used before... really a good time! He sat like a rock, had good conversation and let me do my thing. It's people like this that make my job worth while. There's nothing better than having someone come to you and let you do whatever you want...just give us an idea. I'm stoked that I'm able to get tattoos like these on awesome people more and more. It will come with time.... I need to do more tattoos like this one...

This was a late night walkin by another military guy. He came in with an outline already done on his arm of a squid. The linework was ok, not great but ok. He let me color this however I wanted so I had a ball with lots of crazy colors! After looking back at this I think I should have gone over every single line, however I'm hoping it will all blend well when it's healed. Another cool dude as well...he sat well for this although he was a hell of a bleeder... gotta tell myself always to slow the hell down and take my time..

BEFORE PIC

Sorry about the dark photo, another military guy for a small jammer.

I'm going to have Annie come in for a touchup session and better photos so pardon the glare... This one was fun as well, she wanted something to remember her home....

My second attempt at tattooing ribs. Keone's wife Ari was awesome enough to let me do this on her! Definitely a challenge, slowly getting a grip on how to properly stretch the skin in this area...all these years my fellow artist were telling me how this area is a nightmare to tattoo... and they weren't lyin!

Until next time....

ALOHA

Hawaii update

2011-12-23T20:44:00.000-05:00

So my trip started off pretty slow, it was practically dead after that one busy Sunday I had when I first got to town. Dead for almost two weeks. All comes with this profession...feast or famine. Especially in this town.

Anyway, these photos aren't exactly in order so I'm gonna wing it.

This little sunflower was a walkin from last night. Her first tattoo, with her kids' names and a bible verse.

This rose was done on a friend of a friend, let me do any kind of rose I wanted, and I wanted do something fun with color. The cover up underneath was done by someone else. This was alot of fun to do and got to experiment a bit.

Another first tattoo on a mother who wanted her daughter's name in Hawaiian.

Another stab at some polynesian! He was a surfer from Australia with some scarring on his arm. Haven't worked with scars too much as of yet so this was good practice for me. Had some fun with the design, he let me do my thing for the most part.

This was a fun day! Not much was going on and one of our regulars came in for some pain!!! He wanted these anchors on the soles of his feet! He's been tattooed a bunch already and knew that these would not last. So I got my friend Stolfi in on the fun, we tagged teamed tattooed him! Was my first bottom of the foot as well!

OUCH!

Lettering on inner bicep....another first tattoo for a young father.

Keone came in last week to get his owl all finished. Really stoked to get this one under my belt, and because of this one, I have now two more owls to work on before I leave town! Want to play around with textures with the next one. I'm happy with how he healed and the overall layout. Can't wait to do more big pieces like this!

Canadian dude in town for a few days... wanted this in stone on his back.

One of the very first hip tattoos... cute little shell on another first-timer.

Until next time....

ALOHA

Back in Paradise

2011-12-12T00:45:00.000-05:00

This walked into the shop the other day... his first tattoo. He wanted something for his wife and he brought in an image and this is what we came up with. He sat well for it and it was a good end to a very busy day here in Waikiki.

Some letters and a date on the chest for him and his new wife...

The day before I left town my client stopped in to start another design, this time with tribal and stone. When I get home we can get this done.

Another small walkin before I left town.

This was a fun one. She came into the shop at NKO before I left town and wanted a shield with symbols in it representing important things in her life. This is what we came up with.

only 3 days away

2011-11-28T20:23:00.000-05:00

This was my deer skull that I started yesterday. We went into the shading in the skull for the time being, and outlined the antlers. I had fun with this one, its my biggest tattoo I've done to date, and I can't wait to shade in the antlers. It'll be cool to see how this heals....

This was done last wednesday....on my bestest friend Lauren. She's been wanting this tattoo for years, she's been waiting for me to tattoo her since I started apprenticing years back at the other shop, however it was well worth the wait. Although the foot was pretty painful for her, she sat through the whole thing. Kudos to Lauren!!!!! xoxox

close up

Walkin done at No Ka Oi last week. She wanted just an outline at first but I think a little shading and the blue really brought it out.

Cool walkin from today at No Ka Oi. She was super nice, from out of town, and this was her first one. Again, she just wanted linework originally, but after some careful persuading we added some shading just to give it at least some depth. Tattoos that are just outline always look unfinished to me (there are exceptions to this of course) So after this was done she was super stoked on it, as was I. I hope to see her back in the future to possibly add more to it.

So the countdown begins. I leave Friday morning. I'm almost done packing, have to get my bike all packed up so I can ride around the island, and getting all my other stuff in order. I can't wait to get out of here for a little while. It'll be nice to be away from everything and come back refreshed. Its kind of funny....I had literally just mentioned going back to Hawaii to my boss a few weeks ago, and then I get the call to go out there. Funny how things pan out.

Until next time....

Hawaii bound!

2011-11-21T23:06:00.000-05:00

So it looks like I'm heading back out to Hawaii to guest spot at Skin Deep again. I leave Dec 2 and I come back to Philly sometime early Jan....very excited, yet very stressed out. Unfortunately we lost a very important man named Mike Brown, who has been tattooing for well over 30 years. Super nice guy, honest, funny and a pleasure to be around despite the fact that he can be cranky :) He let me tattoo him the last time I went out there, it was one of the first roses I ever did. He had an impact on me and I'll never forget him ...... here's to you Mike!

And now back to business..... since I'm leaving town in 2 weeks, I'm scrambling to get shit done and do as many tattoos as I can. Here's what I've been up to....

This was a sweet walkin that came in today... super nice guy that has a love for Sailor Jerry designs. He brought this one in, and we got it all done....after I get back we plan on doing more with his arm and adding all the stars and dots to go with it. Definitely fun one to do, my first Peacock!

Finally got to finish this one last week... Jon is letting me do some fun stuff on him lately! He let me design this lettering and do it however I wanted... so we finally finished it after the outline healed.... here's what we got so far...

The next one we started is a rose near his elbow... it's a crappy pic so when it's all done I'll be sure to post it.

Steve came back last week also to finish the poly segment that we started... we were finally able to get rid of that line that divided the spearheads... going to see how it heals up and hopefully I can get a nice touchup session in with him so I can get some good photos of this. I want to be able to put this in my book for Hawaii so I can get more experience with Poly designs.

The lovely Rose came back to NJ last week to get a few letters added to her IRS shield. After we were thinking about it, we should have just put the initials in the center of the shield, but at that time she was unsure about putting his name in there considering the shield was his....Anyway I got to see the tattoo up close and healed up, overall was happy with how the color healed, touched up a few tiny spots....the outline needed some work, I wasn't too stoked on how they seemed to blow out a little after it healed. I'm just being critical. Going to watch myself on that one.

A BIG kudos to Parker for letting me do this boxing cock on him!!! I got to play around with weird color combos and deal with working with really stretchy skin since he's lost so much weight over the years. This second session went way better, I got to see how his skin worked and had less trouble streching. I hope to see this healed great so I can get to the purple behind the head again... I want to blend it out more I think. Also it'll be good to see a pic without the blood :)

This was a walkin about a week and a half ago. A challenging design that definitely made me sweat a little, however it was a good challenge. I guess you could say it's good practice/warm-up for my upcoming trip to Hawaii...lots of tribal-type designs.

Well that's all for now, got a busy week coming up! I'll post more when time allows....

ALOHA

new stuff

2011-11-14T16:26:00.000-05:00

Even though it's been slow, I did get one walkin the other day in NJ... an older gentleman came in for this one. He brought in the patch and asked me to duplicate it. He was super nice and I hope to see him again.

So this one is just in the sketch phase right now... this is a client of mine from a few months back, I tattooed a bike gear on her calf. She came in a few days ago to discuss a deer skull on her upper back. Naturally I was stoked on this idea, and went right to the drawing board. She's going to stop in tonight to take a look at what I have so far, measure it up to fit her, and then get back to the drawing board again for a solid greyscale study and final line drawing. I'll keep you posted on this!

Until next time....

Progress

2011-11-09T15:46:00.000-05:00

So even though it's been a bit slow round these parts because of the time of year, I've managed to do a few things in the past two weeks.

This was a small walkin at No Ka Oi yesterday, small n simple. Her first one.

Another walkin the other day...the stencil line is still there but we only did the letters. Another first timer.

This was an awesome day.... I was scheduled at No Ka Oi on sunday, so in the morning before we opened up I had an old friend come in, Heather. She volunteered to be my first ribcage tattoo. Really stoked on this one. It was also cool to have both Bill and Anna there will be, I was beyond shitting my pants on this one... stretching wasn't as bad as I thought...although it's all because she was the perfect candidate. I took my time and made sure it was really nice. Now the mission is to get more awesome people like Heather to help my cause and give up some skin in the areas and I'm inexperienced in: ribs, lower back, chest, stomach, hip..... any takers??? Many kudos to Heather for this one!!!

This is on a client that walked into NJ a few weeks ago.. he came back for me to finish his big flag. This is one of my biggest thus far, and really excited to finish it. Another thing was that Bill gave me this really old Micky Sharpz that works wonderfully for greywash....so I got to use that and was really happy with the results... I still need some more work smoothing out the grey, but overall I'm happy with the tattoo and how it flows with his arm when he bends it. I hope to see him back soon for some good photos of this healed.

This was a walkin in NJ a week ago...name jawns for dayyssss

Many thanks to Amanda for giving up some skin for a small one dedicated to her Hub... classic!

Looks like that's it for now, I'll be posting more soon! Come in and get tattooed!

Winter approaches.....

2011-11-03T14:48:00.000-04:00

So winter season has come SO FAST! pretty scary... however I'm happy to announce that I'm going to tattoo my first ribcage on Sunday, i'll keep you all posted on that! Big things are coming, moving on up!

All that aside, here's a few things I've gotten to do over the past week... some lettering done at No Ka Oi...

This was a fun walk-in, he brought the image and considering how much I LOVE pinups this was a fun one for the portfolio...

Client brought this in too... I tattooed her and her friend, both with a brush stroke look to it. Her friend's tattoo pic came out blurry so i'm not going to post it, she got an infinity symbol smaller with a painterly feel to it.....

I also had an opportunity to work on Steve again for his polynesian 1/2 sleeve. This session was much shorter, traffic was bad so he came late and we didn't have time to finish the section. I was also having trouble with my shader so when I get to finish the section I'll be sure to post more.

This weeks update: Will be finishing the flag I started 2-3 weeks ago, as well as touching up a small part of the IRS badge I did a few weeks back as well. I'll post more soon.

Now off to the drawing board... off to look for more freelance work so I can afford to pay my bills this winter.

Rant n Rave

2011-10-26T16:44:00.000-04:00

So I know lately I've only been posting the tattoos Ive been doing, not so much going into detail like I did when I first started this blog. I've been in the mood to write lately, but when I go to do that I end up clamming up and just listed the tattoos I did and call it a day, until now.

I have to say that this year I have changed alot, both mentally and physically. More than I thought actually. I've been doing alot of thinking, and reflecting on the long road that I have been on for so many years. It took me the entire 5 YEARS total that I have been apprenticing (including the shop I worked at before coming to work with Body Graphics) to realize that putting in your time really pays off. This is the main reason behind why I chose to take this long road with a very long apprenticeship. The thing that really interested me in tattooing wasn't just the artwork, it was the tradition being passed on from one person to another. It's definitely inspiring to finally feel like I am a part of it. Not just a player in the game. History history! So much has been lost especially being younger and coming into the tattoo community this late in the game. Anyone can just pick up a machine and start, but actually learning a piece of history is way more rewarding.

This year has forced me to be more self-reliant than I have ever been, work harder, live my life for me and not for anyone else. I guess it takes a horrible break-up and living away from home for a few months for stuff to sink in. I have been feeling like myself again, but not the "self" that I was a year ago... if that makes any sense at all. I feel like an equal at work, not at the bottom of the totem pole anymore, which makes me even more stoked to go to work now. I have more motivation now than I think I ever did, energy and a love for life. I've been working out, lost 15 lbs, started sketching ALOT more...feeling confident and not stressing over money money money. I want to go out and do things now, meet new people and enjoy my life.... I feel like most of college up until now I have been spending alot of time working my ass off (which is who I am) and not really enjoying life to the fullest. I worry constantly and focus on the small things instead of the big picture. Sometimes people can't see past the end of their nose.. I guess that was me for a while. Now I am proud to say that all the worrying, stressing, and anger stops today. I think all that has contributed to the fact that I haven't painted anything since I was in Hawaii. Well, I've done two paintings, but nothing noteworthy. This the longest I have gone without painting anything, and that's not good. I've recently been drawing a ton... trying to find my niche in the tattoo world, find a style that I like but at the same time get to experiment and try new things and be able to put in a clean tattoo that will stand the test of time. Of course all of that will come with time.... I have been thinking about my future more as well. Where do I want to be in 5, 10 years? I'm 27, and just started tattooing a little over a year now... what will 30 bring? 40? Do I want to still be in Philly? Will I be able to support myself on my own, start paying my student loans?? It's such a shame that so many people my age still have to live at home or with roommates, including myself. Fucking money is the devil. Then there's the question do I want a family, or give that up to travel for a few years? All these questions seem to be coming to the forefront and I guess I'm finally "grown up" enough to deal with them, not necessarily answer them just yet. It's all about moving forward, and take the next step.

On a side note.....It's frustrating to see some people I know and have known just half-ass everything. Nothing you get in life is for free. Hard work = reward.....always. I guess I was just brought up that way. I think this is the reason why I have "lost" some friends over the years... whether it be to them moving on with their lives, starting families, moving away, etc.

I guess you can call this a rant, or bitching, or whatever.

So now, onto some tattoos....

My first attempt at a skin cut.. really stoked on doing this one considering Halloween is right around the corner. I think I'm going to do some studies with this concept, this guy brought in a photo of exactly what he wanted, but we added some more detail in it since it was bigger. This time last year I did the hatchet tattoo as a Halloween Special. I can't wait to see this one healed. I'll be seeing him again soon, while I was tattooing him his wife decided to get one as well and we scheduled an appointment.

Small walkin... nothing too small, always a challenge.

This is a client of both me and my coworker ... he hit me up to do some lettering on him, bigger than I usually work, but he agreed to let me do it in two sessions... I liked doing this, really getting into lettering however still need to clean up the lettering on life.... we're going to add some red in there too to go with the tattoo nearby that has the same color scheme.

This one was an awesome walkin! My coworker was booked up, so its either do it, or send him out the door. This is the biggest walkin I have done so far, and with some sketching and chatting with others to get their opinion I felt confident to start this one. Since he had limited time we did what we could and I'm going to see him in two weeks. Really stoked to color it as well, I want this in my portfolio as soon as possible!

small walkin, her first birthday tattoo.

Birthday girl's friend

I had the opportunity to tattoo an old friend's daughter... I did a children's book with this girl's Mother in 2005-2006 and it's awesome that she brought her daughter to me for the first tattoo. Definitely a good day.

FINALLY finished my roommate's sweet skullberries. I want to expand on this design, but I'm not sure if she wants to go bigger yet. She's a trooper for letting me do this on her!

Saw my pal Steve two weeks ago... added more to the polynesian! We added onto exsisting lines, so when hes all healed up I need to go back and smooth out some areas, and we're going to draw on a continuation onto the back of his arm... I'll post the progress. I'm really happy with how things are coming along... this is a learning process for me and I hope to get more work like this, it's alot of fun.

So far there's definitely a sharp line that divides the patterns I did before, and the new addition. Once he heals I'll make sure that line dissappears.

Walkin from NJ....

Another walkin... cute lil teddy bear awwwww

More to come.... Been sketching my ass off lately so I will post those soon enough...

Day before Vegas

2011-10-12T14:47:00.000-04:00

Even though it's been slow, I was able to get a few walkins before I left town... this one was done on South St, Kurt Vonnegut portrait...

lettering done on South St...

This was a walkin in NJ the night before, late night walkin... but who cares! I don't mind staying late for something cool. This was her first one, enjoyed this one.

This was a walkin in NJ as well... two best friends, each now going to two seperate colleges... they each got the same image on the same shoulder. I figured it was pointless to upload both, so here's one... it was from a print they brought in.

Had alot of fun with these girls... they each got their first tattoo that day, hope to see them back again!

ps.... had a blast in vegas! will post about my trip soon...

Until next time...

two days til Vegas!

2011-10-05T15:38:00.000-04:00

So some interesting tattoos have come in lately... which is a good thing! Very excited for this weekend... heading to Vegas for the very first time!

This one was a walkin done in NJ, this is a version of her husband's badge... who has since passed on. Definitely a challenge, lots of gold and blue. Got to experiment with color and another challenge was all that lettering, some of which is really small! Looking back of course there's a few things I would have changed/done differently, however she was very happy with it and I got to do a badge. I asked her to come in when it's healed so I can see how the blue turned out and put some more highlights in there. Really cool lady, hope to see her back soon.

This was a walkin from a month ago over in NJ... we did the outline the first time and he stopped in to get some color... really excited about this one, never tattooed a Koi before. I really enjoyed this tattoo, however I feel as though more shading is needed... I'm going to work on more sketches of koi and color studies to perfect this....

This was a fixup/ add on. She came in with the name already there (see below) and wanted some filligree stuff and a heart added, as well as clean up the exsisting tattoo...

I was working 4th street the other day when my friend/client Steve stopped in to get more added onto his poly 1/2 sleeve we started. Very excited about this tattoo.. I get to try my hand at more polynesian style and have some fun doing my thing! We added a section to it, start to finish. Here is the drawing before we got started.....

Finished product... had some fun with this one... can't wait to add more to cap off his shoulder and touch up the eyeball dude... definitely an interesting tattoo!

View from the back

A walkin in NJ the other day... this is a band logo and he wanted drumsticks behind it. The lettering could be more perfect, however he did give me some artistic license with the design a little bit so overall we were both happy with it. He plans on getting more work on this arm soon so I can get a good luck at those letters again....

Walkin in NJ as well... this is still my problem area when tattooing... can never get the best stretch! However I think after doing a bunch of these I've found a method that works best for me...

So this one is definitely an interesting design. I met this guy over at No Ka Oi about a week ago, we discussed the design he wanted, an infinity type symbol in blue with two happy faces inside the loops. He was very specfic about what he wanted, so after a week of emails and sketches and color studies this is what we came up with. I had some fun with this one because I love to draw faces, and fun ones at that! It gave me a chance to play around with the caricature-type style faces and put a bit of me into this design. I'm really happy with this one and so was he.

I'm down at the South Street shop today, not too busy of a day so far. A couple walked in wanting a word on their wrists, so Clay and I both did one, here's mine... Clay's awesome script skills at work :) Forgive the crappy photo, damn iphone 3G certainly doesn't live up to the standards these days......

I did this one yesterday while I NJ.... the expression "early bird gets the worm" certainly applied yesterday. I'm usually on time for work, or a bit late depending on how my morning goes... and I decided to get in a bit early yesterday because I have my trip coming up and hey, ya never know what could come in... good thing i did. He was waiting outside the minute I pulled up. Lucky me :)

More to come! I'll be posting more soon!

Kali's Skull

2011-09-28T20:04:00.000-04:00

So I know it's been a minute since I've updated, so here goes. Business has been slowing down (as per this season) so I've been doing what I can to get my friends in the shop to do some portfolio pieces, and working on artwork. For some reason I've been in some sort of block lately... haven't been inspired to paint until just recently.

On a good note, Kali came in yesterday to finish her skull! Very excited about this one. I still want to go back into the skull and smooth it out some more... still need to work on that. When I get a touchup session in with her I will also take really good pics... I want this one in my book! She's a trooper for letting me so done fun stuff on her... Kudos to Kali!

This was a cool walkin while I was working at No Ka Oi this past saturday... she got this image from a children's book cover, where there's a figure flying in the sky being followed by a canadian goose. We sort of hodge-podged this together, just added the goose and figure. Hope to see her back for more background and such....

Cross done in nj... again still need to work on my shading. Linework is getting easier by the day, however shading will take some time to master... Looks like I need to tune my machines as well!

Small bird

Lettering and zodiac symbol

Another walkin in NJ... he brought in this symbol that he wanted in the middle of the sun... After some revisions we found something that he was happy with, and here we are.

Back of the neck- always a challenge! this was a mother/daughter bonding tattoo, they each got the same thing, same place.

Until next time.... I will have more smooth shading! practice practice practice! I still can't believe a year has passed already!

End of the first year

2011-09-15T16:47:00.000-04:00

I just want to start off by saying that today is the one year anniversary of me starting to tattoo! I tattooed my first "client" out in Hawaii last year on this day. Kinda weird that it went by as fast as it did.... I'm very happy to be finally doing what I've worked so hard for, and I plan on doing this for the rest of my life.

So in honor of this, I figured the first image should be this cupcake I started last night on a friend. She just turned 21 (in case you can't read) haha so I gave her this as a bday gift. It went in her inner arm and we unfortunately didn't get to finish it, which is ok... I want to see how it heals up and make any adjustments to the color once it's healed, and add some more detail to the sprinkles. Tried my hand at some realism, hopefully i'll get more opportunities like this one. Kudos to Lauren! I'll post better pics once it's done.

This was an interesting one. She walked in, this was her first tattoo (if I remember correctly) She brought in this image which was pretty straight-forward. I set up for her and she also had a weird request... she wanted a little smiley face on her toe. I wasn't sure why until she took off her sock and there it was! two little toenails! kinda weird n all, but after seeing the nails like that, they make two little eyes and the smile completed the picture. Such a fun lil tattoo, even though it probably won't stay.

TOE SMILE!

Got to add onto the eyeball tattoo this week. He wanted to do some polynesian type stuff around it with some color. I haven't done much of this style, so I thought it would be a good time to try it out and start with two segments. I did some sketches, let him choose what he liked, then went to draw on him. This is the sketch phase.......

After finishing the linework and shading I'm overall happy with it, however after getting some feedback I think I would like to thicken up some of the lines in the upper portion, but we will see how it heals. I would like to sit down with my friends who are good at tattooing this type of stuff and get their opinion on how they would approach this when I go to add on.... will keep you posted on this.

The lettering walked into NJ... his first tattoo. Super nice guy. Hope to see him back for more work.

This one made my slow Monday!!! My good friend Parker let me do this on him! Boxing cock! We didn't get to finish it as it's in a very sensitive area and it was getting late. Very fun tattoo and it was inspired by this Adam Shields flash we have here at the shop. I really like how he does his eagles/birds and so did Parker, so we used that for reference (mainly the face) and then redrew the rest. I will post more when we get to finish this! So excited! Thanks Parker!!!!

Until the next post...... don't let the rain get ya down!

busy week!

2011-09-04T17:30:00.000-04:00

The hurricane may have scared people away over the weekend, but they all seemed to come in this week... which is a good thing!

I got to see my friend Simon on Friday... got to work on the tiger I started about a month ago... the pics aren't the greatest but they're good for now until it's healed and I can get better pics. Took my time on this one... had alot of fun with the colors and shading and really stoked to get this one in my portfolio. Kudos to Simon!!!

After the Tiger this walked in! I hadn't done a hanya yet so what a perfect night to do one! got to play around more with these new red inks Bobby mixed... really pleased with them!

This came in earlier on in the day.... much easier tattooing this area second time around... the first time i tattooed this area was when I first got back from hawaii, and really struggled with it. after some time staying away from this area and working in other places, I felt more comfortable trying it again.

Cute lettering walk in earlier in the day.

This was another fun one! My roommate has been talking about strawberry/skullberries on her foot, so we decided to stay late one night and get it started! Can't wait to color this one in. Like I said before I really enjoy tattooing feet for some reason, and want to get better at them... not the greatest photos, but for now theyll do.

This koi walked into NJ earlier last week, he only wanted an outline for now since that was more in his budget for that day... He picked an awesome one from our Mosher reference file so I used that... I could have done the scales more perfect... the tail isn't the best.

This walked in the same day in NJ... he only wanted half of it colored which I thought was a little strange, however it's going on him so what he says goes.... I hope to see him again for the other half... got to work on my greywash and stone texture which was fun. I want to get more work like this....

Yesterday I worked at the portside shop and got two walkins... both tattoos went on the same guy! He came in earlier for the ambigram thing on his arm, then came back hours later for another one... score! Has some more fun with stone lettering on his leg and got to practice with the ambigram, never done one before.

Until next time.....

End of August

2011-08-30T22:49:00.000-04:00

Walkin at No Ka Oi two weeks ago... Very difficult, sweat my ass off the entire time.... damn circles!!!

This one was from a DVD that a friend of a friend brought in. I met this guy at a company part a week or two before tattooing him. Hes a local actor with a good sense of humor... who wanted his first tattoo. It was an image he really liked so we modified it so the wings would fit his arm better. The original design had the wings spread out on either side, which would have made this look more like an arm band... not really the best idea.

This was a walkin in NJ... it's been sort of slow over there.. and the weather hasn't been too great either. I guess you could say it has been a strange two weeks. I'll comment more on this on another post. Small symbol, getting more confident in doing the tiny stuff... took long enough!

This was a walkin yesterday at No Ka Oi. I was stoked to get to work yesterday considering I was already off Thurs and Fri... THEN the hurricane came and messed up the weekend so most of us didn't work at all, THEN I was schedule off Mon and today... so thankfully a friend let me take her shift so I can regroup and get back to work. I feel at home at the shops and although I love my house, I'd rather be tattooing... all the time.

The tattoo was his first.. a young guy who was an English major and this was from his favorite author.

Another walkin yesterday,

Popular design... done in brown instead of black. Although I warned her about the aging process for color tattoos... she still wanted it. I actually like these kinds of tattoos... the idea that it will fade and look old and worn over time is kind of a cool concept to me. Anyway I was happy with this one and I asked her to come back when it's healed so I can get a picture of how it looks aged for that henna-inspired look.

This one was a really cool walkin. this is a poem, written exactly like this. She let me do my thing for the left however the lettering had to be done a certain way. Had alot of fun with shading and texture and just sort of experimented alot with it. I was really happy with how pleased she was and I want to see the leaf healed... I went a little on the lighter side for this, I want to play more with non-outlines with black and grey.

This was the first walkin of the day, and by the first I mean literally she was outside ready to get tattooed. This is being of top of things! When people call our shop asking about walkins, we always tell them "we always take walkins, but on a first-come, first-serve basis, so its best to come early" good thing she did because right after she came in and we had about a half hour to chill, it was busy from then on!

This chick was really cool, she had some reference with her, wanted an all black stem the went across her foot. Other than that she let me do my thing.

Took my time with this one... I think I would like to do different dro pshadows the next time I get to do something like this, but overall I was happy with it and so was she. I actually enjoy tattooing feet. Especially stuff like this that sort of flows with the area.

I want to write more... will later. Food time

Rainy day in NJ

2011-08-19T19:53:00.000-04:00

Things are shaping up today... got three walkins! Despite this crappy crap weather, go figure! I had two sisters come in for the word "Love" on their wrists... forgot to take pics though :(

However I did get a pic of this one... had fun with this one, loving these greywashes. It still needs to be a bit smoother... but I told him to come back when it's healed so I can get a good look at it.

Lets go! Need a few more walkins then it'll be time to go home :)

Until next time....

New bird sketches

2011-08-19T13:51:00.000-04:00

These are the sketches I've been working on... very rough stages right now, but will be developing them some more today.

getting inspired by Ravens and crows lately... looking at alot of artwork lately and want to do some sheets of flash and large paintings.

I've almost got my studio area ready in my house, so stay tuned for painting studies soon....

holdin it down in NJ

2011-08-19T13:47:00.000-04:00

So it's still a bit slow over here in NJ, however I was able to get two walkins this week.

This girl was super nice and she let me play around with blues and greens. Got to try out one of Bobby's new olive green... really great color!

I mainly just had some fun with this one. Even though most people hate stars, i'm starting to like them! go figure...

This was another walkin.... I tattooed her son a few weeks ago, she got her husbands signature with a heart for their 25th anniversary. Sweet woman and this was her first tattoo.

As for sketches, I've started drawing alot of bugs and birds... getting ready to start some paintings soon... more to come!

DAS BOOT

2011-08-16T14:18:00.001-04:00

So August has been a slow month, and although it should stress me out, it's not. Any tattoo that comes in I try to take if its not on an area that I can't do yet... anything helps. I still need to print out more images for my portfolio so I aim to get that done this week. I'm not so much stressing about work because I love what I do, but moreso about money. I'm in the process of looking for part-time work freelancing and stuff so that I can take care of my bills and catch up, but it seems that no matter how hard I work I can't seem to get ahead. Hopefully soon.

Anyway I worked at No Ka Oi the other night, got this walkin and some lettering. This was done at the end of the night, He was wearing these boots too! He was a fun dude and this was his first one. It was a good opportunity for me to practice shading and realism a bit... Still needs to be smoothed out a bit in some spots, but I had alot of fun with it.

The next one was this lettering on the wrist. this was also her first.

This was the first walkin of the day at No Ka Oi. It was a little sketch this girl drew. The lettering means "meow" in Japanese. Super cute considering how much I love cats.

This came in last week while I was on 4th street. He had the outline, it needed to be cleaned up a bit and wanted it colored in. He wanted only yellow and green so I did a play on those...

BEFORE

AFTER - we made the sketch deck more visible in the bomb and fixed up the wings a bit.

So earlier that day this girl came in with a storybook and wanted a scene from the book on her upper arm... really fun image and she wanted it in back and grey. I am stoked to work on this one. I worked on her for 3-3.5 hrs taking my time and starting this. I still need to smooth out some things, but overall I'm happy with it so far. The background is going to be very dark, so once that's in there the house will stand out more, since the house is very light. I'm excited to have this one in my portfolio when its all finished. She was really receptive to my story and the fact that I'm still new. I hope to see her back in a few weeks. Heres what I did so far....

The background still needs to be put in, as well as shading in the house itself.... really can't wait to see it with the evil creature and the moon with shadows.

MORE TO COME!

circles for DAYS

2011-08-06T17:57:00.000-04:00

Quiet day today at the Portside studio. Not too much walkin traffic, so i figured i'd update this. It's been slow all over the place.... BUT its always best to stay positive!

This was my first (and only) tattoo today so far. Concentric circles upon more circles! This was definitely a real challenge, however I took my time and although there are tiny flaws in it, I'm happy with how it came out and so was she! This was her first tattoo as well.

I finally got to outline Simon's tiger yesterday. Since both of us had plans for the evening we just did the linework for now. The photo is a bit bright, but you can still see it ok. I'm really happy with this one and can't wait to color it in!

I will post more when we work on this again.

Done in NJ this past week. Really stoked on doing another cross.. I haven't done too many so every little bit of experience helps. This was also his first tattoo.

Another walkin in NJ.... he brought this in. I had some trouble stretching this area... still need some work with that.

The phoenix was another walkin on 4th street. This chick was really sweet and really open to ideas. She originally came in wanting a portrait of her cat, however the image she had wasn't of the greatest quality, so we went through her list of other tattoos she wanted and came up with this. She was really great to talk to and I had a good time tattooing her! Such a good experience when your client/customer has a good attitude!

Walkin at the end of the night. She chose this lettering from our book.

Until next time.......

First tiger head!!!

2011-08-01T14:06:00.000-04:00

What I forgot to mention in my last post is I'm finally doing my first tiger head... pretty stoked on it too! It's going on my friend Simon - I did the elephant on him a few posts back. Going on his leg somewhere. Here's the black and grey study so far. It will be in color but for the first visit well shoot for an outline and shading.

I'll post the tattoo when I do it on Friday afternoon.

More to come!

2011-08-01T13:49:00.000-04:00

So I've been thinking about what I've been posting on here, and I am contemplating omitting all the tiny stuff like this that I have been doing. Since it's a bit slow and I haven't been doing too much big stuff, I figure that in order for me to feel like I'm doing alot, maybe I should post everything still. Until then I guess I'll stick with the current program.

Kanji done on South St.

Same one on her husband

nautical star

This one was a fun one! A walk in while I was working at No Ka Oi this weekend. This was his first tattoo and wanted his birth date all fancy-like on his back. This is what we came up with. I worked on him for a while and am happy with this. Looking at it now I would change a few small things about the border around the letters, but overall I took my time and played around with the drippy-drips on the outside of the letters. I want to get more stuff like this to do!!!! Never a shortage of lettering requests walking through the door everyday.

Another first-timer at No Ka Oi. A portuguese phrase around his calf. This is the first portion of it.

The other side.

A cute one on a dance choreographer. Clever and I liked the font she chose.

Names for dayyyys

This was a walk-in while I was working at the NJ shop. Really nice guy, I ended up tattooing him and his wife, her tattoo is further towards the bottom. This was a spin off of his family crest with dates and other symbols in there that he wanted. I spend alot of time on this one as well, mainly focusing on getting the grey to look smooth... still need some work but this was a fun challenge.

Pilsbury doughboy bad ass!!! this is on a baker.

flash from the wall - walk in at the 4th Street shop

This was another walkin at 4th.... simple design she brought in.

The last one was another walkin, kinda cool idea with these numbers representing birthdays.. I liked the font she chose too. I've been pretty lucky that everyone I've tattooed lately has been awesome and fun to talk to while I work.

More to come

Great two week recap

2011-07-19T13:58:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in at least 2 weeks, so here's what I've been up to.

Had some friends come in from out of town this Sunday, two best friends got these matching tattoos. Pretty sweet considering I used to play this game when I was little with my brother growing up. This one was challenging since it's a perfect circle. I'm getting better at taking my time.... slow and steady. Need more practice with color blending but this helped me out alot. Thanks to James and Mike for these!

Saturday at 4th St

Another walk in

Walkin...hard to tattoo this area, really weird when you get by the tendon at the back of the ankle.

Kudos to Kali for letting me do this awesome design on her! Just an outline for now, planning out a color scheme for this. I'm stoked that I have friends that are willing to let me do bigger, fun things on them for practice.

Led Zeppelin action over at the NJ shop.

NJ shop appointment, she came in with her mother. this was her first tattoo and was excited about this one.... perfect straight lines.... true test in patience and to TAKE MY TIME.

Her mother got this one... sorry for the dark photo

More NJ walkins.... first negative stars, will do this differently next time, but it was fun to do and I hope to see this again to see how it healed.

No Ka Oi walkin.... big beatles fan, and so am I. Super cool chick, hope to tattoo her again!

Another walk in, signature on the ankle. Really fun to use a really big liner for this one. I haven't used anything too big since I started.

Bad photo, this was also a walkin at No Ka Oi

Refreshing an oldie but goodie...

AFTER

This is what it looked like BEFORE..............

I was in NJ one day like 2 weeks ago and my client with the Iron Maiden tattoo came in for this on his other arm... another super challenge and really happy with how it came out.

Another walk in, I would like to smooth this out a bit more... need to work on my black and grey shading. Slow, steady and smooth. I wish he had shaded the wings as well, but we left this as is.... he wanted it like the image he brought it. Maybe I'll see him again for a little greywash in the wings later on.

Image from a Sublime album booklet. Fun to do! Really into these not-perfect graphic images.

Walkin at NJ

This went on the lady with the rose that needed work. Sorry for the bad pic.. i'll try and find a better one.

My first celtic cross! Really a challenge, but glad I got to do it.

More to come.... hopefully this heat wave won't keep people away from getting tattooed!

one challenge at a time

2011-06-29T14:42:00.000-04:00

Remember this one? I did this in NJ a month ago and he stopped back in the other day to have a few lines added to it and to thicken up the swirls.

BEFORE

AFTER - really like this one now. really weird tattoo to do because of the area but happy with it.

I was working over on 4th street last week and this girl came in. I met her and her friend the day before when I was working sales at No Ka Oi. This was her first tattoo and she did so well! She brought this image to me and we basically kept it the same for the exception of the light in the lampost... we added a little bit of shading and white highlights to make it look like it was lit up. Her friend is going to come in to get the same thing sometime soon.

Just for fun... of course her friend had to snap a photo of it happening. They were really nice, hope to see them again.

Was working in NJ on Saturday and this was the only thing I did all weekend. It's been very slow at the shops lately. Probably with July 4th weekend upon us everyone is heading to the shore and away from the tattoo shops.

This was also the dude's first tattoo, it went smoothly for the bottom half of the letters, the top half I was really sweating it out over stretching the skin right in the armpit there. After this one I have a better idea of how to get up in that area.

Last week on South Street Tony came in for some more work on his thigh. Super excited about this one. We only got to the ship, but as big as it is I worked on it for about 2.5-3 hrs. Can't wait to get a healed photo of this and work on the background.

so I worked at No Ka Oi yesterday and this was the only walk in. This guy was really nice and this tattoo was really challenging. If I could redo this one I would have approached it differently. He wants to extend the bars up to his elbow the next time and add something else to it so when I get a good look at it all healed up we will take it from there.

More to come.

fun at No Ka Oi yesterday

2011-06-21T10:41:00.001-04:00

I figured I'd post a few more things I've done before heading into work today. It's looking rather cloudy today but hopefully the rain will hold off til I get there.

I worked the night shift at No Ka Oi last night, which was nice considering it's busier in there and i get to work with the people that I don't usually. I got a few cool walkins last night, this one being the biggest.

I had alot of fun with this one, and it was his first tattoo. I got to play around with drop shadows and thanks to some tips after this was finished I have more ideas as to how to deal with that for the next one. This is one of the things I would really like to get good at - lettering. My linework could be better here but I took my time and I hope he comes back in a month so I can see how it healed. I get really pumped over larger pieces so I can experiement and sort of push the limits a little bit since I'm restricted with what I can and cannot do right now.... so any chance to do something like this I'm jumping on it.

This was my first walkin for my shift. It was a father and son, super nice guys. This one in particular was put on the son, Trevor. He also is a very talented photographer and was kind enough to take some photos of me while I was working, including my new blog header! They each got this D on their wrists. I used this as an opportunity to use the drop shadow again and beveled the lettering a bit. Still need to perfect my linework....again.... but I figured I'd put one of them up so you can see. This whole not using an armrest thing is killing me. I feel like my lines could have come out much cleaner had I used one. I'm trying to stick with my guidelines that I have been given and not use it at all, but in some cases I use it anyway. This should have been one of those times. For most people I don't need the armrest at all, but for those with skin so damn stretchy like this wrist.... definitely could have used it.

I'm kinda bummed about the quality of this photo, but it's all I have for now until we get final photos of this finished. This is on my friend Tichina who is leaving town pretty soon. She had the idea to do a cartoon/caricature of a hipster kid with some traditional roses. Ideally I'd like to throw a frame around this one day, but for now this was SO much fun! I got to try out greywash on a face which I'd eventually like to get really good at. The best part about this is the face I drew it completely made up... no real error here when shading. I stuck with mostly lighter tones so I can darken them later, and when it heals we're going to add a bit of color to the roses and the cap. Kudos to Tichina for contributing to my cause! YOU RULE

I threw this one in there because I forgot to the last time I posted. I did this one in NJ on a world traveler from Ireland. Really nice guy, him and his wife were at the very beginning of a 3 month USA tour. Philly being the first stop. I'm not really sure why he got the cards, but the date was pretty self explanatory and he let me do whatever I wanted with the shading. I wanted to try and make them look old/faded/torn. Sorta got away with it but I know how to deal with it better for next time. The banner looks kinda dark, but I stuck with mid-tone greys so that should lighten up. Good luck to this guy on his travels, and thanks for stopping in for this!

TEENY TINY one. done in nj

Another done in NJ from a photo she brought in. She let me modify the original slightly, and sat great. I kinda like this style, heavy outline with soft shadows within. I need to get drawing and painting more. I've fallen off the wagon!

Until next time....

Everyday a new challenge

2011-06-13T13:41:00.000-04:00

So this is me playing super catch up, as well as filling you in on how things have been going with me. These past few weeks by far have been my most frustrating in the whole almost 4 years I have been apprenticing.

I don't know what my problem is, but for some reason I can't stop worrying and stressing out. I seem to always been frustrated about money and how I'm working my ass off and still can't seem to get ahead. I've become somewhat of a hermit and don't go out much at all anymore. Whatever happened to the social Tina? My good moods have gone out the window and I need to get it back and quick! It's starting to affect my morale at the shop and I'm moody all the time. I was working out in my garden a few mornings ago and I realized something..... why in the HELL am I so stressed all the time? I've spent the last almost 4 years of my life, well actually 5 if you count my previous apprenticeship, working towards this goal. What the hell do I have to complain about? I'm finally tattooing, the one thing that I've wanted to do for years. I love going to work and I love my coworkers and everyday is a new challenge both mentally and technically and physically. I had a super meltdown with my mentor the other day and I think that my way of unloading needs to change. I shouldn't freak out like I did, however it made me feel better to know that I can be vulnerable and not feel bad or worried about it. This method of unloading has leaked into my personal life as well.... something has to give.

Gardening has helped me with the stress, and am working harder to get out more and socialize and meet people, and to make more efforts in certain areas, and not expect other people to do things for me.

And now to the tattoos.....

I worked on South Street yesterday... kind of a slow day, but this walked in and was excited for the challenge. I rarely get to do something so technical and this tattoo in particular helped me SLOW down.

Done at No Ka Oi friday... My coworker has some people in town so they decided to get little liberty bells to remember their trip. They're relatively small and they each got it on the same spot on their ankle. They were in town for bike polo which seems pretty fun. Maybe next time i'll be able to catch a match!

This was done on a friend Simon who I was introduced to a few months ago, and then he came to me to do a version of a painting he had. I was really excited to do this one not only because it's kinda big, but I really want to put more traditional style stuff to build my portfolio and it was alot of fun to do. Kudos to Simon! I hope to do more on him soon!

Wednesday night I was working on South Street and after we closed up my friend/coworker Jason stopped in to finally get his cupcake! I drew this up months ago and we just haven't had the chance to do this. Overall I'm pretty happy with this one, however I'm not too happy with the shading in the cherry part, I'm hoping it heals lighter than that so I can go back into it with a little more color.

Lettering on an ankle done on South St

South St again... this one was a challenge too. All those tiny points all have to be perfect.

More done on South St. This was the day of lettering I think.

This came in NJ last week. Also a challenge. I still have to perfect my linework, especially in an area like this. The swirls aren't as perfect as they should be, but she will be back in so I can take a look at it and touch up a few spots. She's also getting another one on her other foot with lettering complementing the design of this one so it will look like a set.

Im interested to see how light the drop shadow heals.

This came in the same day as the foot over in NJ. This was also a challenge and had a fun time with the little feets. I should have gone a bit darker with these, but I hope to see them healed so I can get a better idea.

Name done in NJ

That same day in nj a group of three women came in, each of them got a version of this.

in NJ again... hard area to work but was a good challenge.

Done on South street a week or so ago, this girl came in with an image on her phone so we need a nicer version of that...

Mini cupcake done on 4th St... one of my lines wasn't super straight but it was a fun little tattoo to do and was a bit of a warm up for Jason's cupcake.

Done on 4th Street as well. I got to try out my friend Bobby's new bright pink he mixed up.... came out super bright and awesome I love it!

Name on the arm done on 4th St as well.

4th st again, she let me draw up her man's name all fancy like with color.

done on 4th St as well, fun little one to do

4th St.

playing some serious catch up

2011-05-22T13:47:00.000-04:00

on the shoulder, done in nj

lettering done in nj.... i like how this turned out however i wasn't too stoked on the design. i would have drawn it differently but it wasn't for me...

my very first nautical star.

done on the same guy. used a friend's new red he mixed and i love it!

on the wrist

done in nj... really scary area to tattoo still. i took it slow and it went ok, but still a very hard area to work for me

done at no ka oi, he came in with the design

done on friday the 13 on south street

Done on south street. my very first dripping cherries that happen to be on fire!

bling bling done on south street

touch up of the shamrock I did a month or so ago. He had a rough heal and it looked like some of the scabs may have been picked or ripped off.... so hopefully this time around it will heal better for him.

done at No Ka Oi. crappy photo though. it's really not lopsided... next time i'll have him stand up for the photo so it looks straight.

done at No Ka Oi

same day

same day also, used my handwriting which was kinda cool

last tattoo of the day at No ka Oi. Super nice woman and got the tattoo for her son.... the elephant was cute and fun to do as well. used my new rotary machine and really enjoying it so far.

Finally ordered business cards today. Haven't had my own cards since college. Baby steps!

Until next time!

visit from old friends

2011-05-13T14:17:00.000-04:00

What I forgot to mention....

During the week I got a visit from some very old friends that I haven't seen in maybe 4 years. Big thanks to Monica and Genna for stopping in and bringing me a new customer! He got a little vhs tape on his forearm which was a blast to do. Unfortunately the picture I took looks crappy so until I can aquire a better one from him I'll leave this up to your imagination. It's nice to run into old friends who have seen me from the very beginning, before I even made it to South Street working with everyone. I met them when I was still in NJ apprenticing.

Pics to follow......

South Street

2011-05-13T14:15:00.000-04:00

So it's been a bit slow around here for walkins this week, but the weekend is here and hopefully it will pick up. This one walked in yesterday. Although the design is simple i was having some machine trouble... both shaders decided to stop working while I was filling this in. In a way it was a good thing, it forced me to use my rotary for the first time and I have to say I really like it. It was a challenge to figure out the setup but once I got the hang of it I enjoyed it quite a bit. Sorry for the crappy photo... for some reason it looks more grey than black....

Another walkin, very small and simple name. As much as I hate tattooing the wrist it does get easier the more I do it. It's just one of those areas that I find it one of my weakest areas. Practice Practice Practice.

Until next time...

catching up

2011-05-08T14:52:00.000-04:00

So here's a recap of the past few weeks. Still doing stuff on the arms, legs, back and feet only... no torso as of yet. Hopefully soon I'll get an opportunity to work on those areas, as I am in the process of getting guinea pigs for those spots.

This woman found me through the shop website and got this small token for her dog....

Did this while working in NJ one day. Really nice dude and he brought the artwork in for me.

More lettering

Yet another upside down word :)

tiny screw on ankle... fun to do and did this while on 4th Street

This one walked in while on 4th Street... challenging working with all the variations of grey, but overall im pseudo happy with it. I need to work on smoothing out my grey better.

Another name in NJ

NJ again on same woman

Name in brown ink done in NJ

Another name.... need some more work on line consistency some more.

Young art school student needed this fixed up....

BEFORE

AFTER. hopefully she will let me add color to this one in the future.

Another word done on South Street.... again need to practice more with the wrist... by far my least favorite area to tattoo.

Treble clef on arm done on South Street

Paw prints done on South Street.... fun one to do

One of my favorites so far! This guy came into 4th Street one day and while his daughter was getting tattooed by one of the other artists we discussed this one. This ended up being much larger than originally planned, but Im pretty happy with how it came out, for the exception of the grey shading in the flag. He's going to come in when it's healed so I can touch up some areas and see how it all healed up. I hope he continues this all the way around.. such a fun one to do and it's always nice to be able to add a little bit of artistic license as well.

This woman came into South Street the other day... she had this name already and we added the care bear with stars and dust.

finished. I think I could have done more with the shading but it was a good experience to do a stencil and draw on the skin a bit. Finally getting the hang of full color work.

Another walkin on South Street.... this one was fun to do... Its not often that I get to do a nice size butterfly.

kanji

Just finished this outline about an hour or so ago on a friend of the shop, Lucien. He let me do whatever I wanted and have been obsessed with drawing rats again, so here we are, a spin off the sailor jerry flash with the rat sitting on the skull, done in my style. I always wanted to do a tattoo with a monacle in it, so it was alot of fun. I got to experience with different line weights again and took my time with the outline. Next time he comes back to town we'll add some shading and eventually color.

Until next time.....

Tony's thigh session 2

2011-04-24T17:29:00.000-04:00

So recently I got a chance to start shading in Tony's thigh... here's what we got so far.

I only took 4 photos so here's everything. It's a little hard to see because it's so red, but I have to say this is by far one of my favority pieces. I'm excited to work with larger fields of grey and do something big! I know I'm not to the point where I can do this stuff on paying customers yet, but it's people like Tony that are helping me get my start :)

I hope to work on the ship next week when I get back from my trip down south to visit family.

More to come.....

2011-04-18T15:45:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! More tattoos to post.....

This was done on my coworker, it's from a print of an elephant painting. If you want to see the video, go to YouTube and type in "elephant painting". Really awesome to watch! This was small and on her lower calf.

this was a walkin at No Ka Oi this weekend. It took me a while to do, but it was nice to do something a bit larger

This was also a walkin, he just wanted an outline with only the tips filled in. I wanted to do more with this one but he wouldn't budge. Hopefully I see him again and we can do more with it.

This one came in after that, a military kid obviously. The top of the bullet looks a bit distorted in the photo but I swear it's straight :) I'll find a better photo and post it soon.

Another walkin. He got it upside down but it was good practice with the wrist.

This came in the next day also at No Ka Oi. She had the kanji on her shoulder and wanted to add a lotus flower done in a brush-stroke style. I LOVED doing this one, it gave me some practice with the style and I even updated the kanji as well and used some light greys to bring the two together.

close up.

Another walkin, just simple lettering.

This was done on the lotus flower's sister.

Another small walkin.

This one came in yesterday to South Street. She had this old name on her shoulder and wanted to redo it and add another name on the other side.
BEFORE

After

This one went on her husband. Really weird working by the elbow....

Last walkin of the day... small fairy picked off the wall. I adjusted the colors and redrew it a bit. Then added the name. This was her first tattoo and I had some fun with this one as well. First fairy!

More to come....

Slow week on South Street

2011-04-06T16:18:00.000-04:00

So even though it's been a little slow, I've still been able to get a few walkins here and there, and managed to tattoo my friend Kali!

Here's the recap since my last post....

This was a walkin at No Ka Oi.... tricky to do these spiral-like designs.

Another walkin... this was ok to do... gotta work on my spirals and swirls some more.

This one walked into South Street about a week ago. A good challenge for me working with alot of color. Really had a nice time with this one and learned alot about working with greens.

This one was a walkin as well on South Street. I had some trouble with stretching the A but Im hoping everything heals up good.

The next two were matching tattoos for sisters. This one was also a challenge. Still need work on my swirls but I think it went over well and I hope to see them again.

small and simple walkin. Super nice girl too.

This girl came in with the Pi symbol girl. This is an outline of Oregon state with a bird silhouette.

This woman got these two kanjis, super simple to do and went well,. She also had this ribbon on her foot that needed to be gone over again. Here is the before and after...

BEFORE

AFTER. I really enjoy tattooing the feet!

This last one went on my friend Kali who works up the street from the shop. Super nice girl who is also finishing up an apprenticeship for piercing. I let her pierce me for practice, now she's giving me some skin in return! This one was VERY fun to do and she let me do whatever I wanted with color.

Until the next upload...

ALOHA

Walkins today on 4th Street

2011-03-22T16:38:00.000-04:00

So today I've done two so far. The first one with the lily and the name was an appointment for my coworker but he couldn't make it in today, so he passed one off to me and another to my other coworker who is here covering for him.

So Bill has been on me about doing a color or grey study of the tattoo I'm about to do before I tattoo it. This time I did just that and it really helped me out. It saved me from any guess work while I was working. I've done it before as well, but only after he mentioned something to me about it. I'm going to make sure I do that before any tattoo that I think needs it. I was really happy with this one and hope to get more flowers like this for practice.

This next one was a walkin, the guy picked it off the wall. Only thing we changed was adding color to the ribbon.

More to come.....

Sunday funday!

2011-03-20T20:53:00.000-04:00

At No Ka Oi yesterday two girls came in and wanted matching ribbons on their wrists. The stick is a drumstick....

Again another exercise in color and got to play around with pinks.

Next this chick came in... a regular customer at our shop. Just this week she got something else on her chest. She was super sweet and put this on the back of her thigh. Definitely a weird area to tattoo, but with all the stretching practice I'm getting without using an armrest it wasn't as bad as I thought.

The last of the day was this one. Just an outline of the NJ state with a banner and a tiny bit of shading on the banner. It was so weird tattooing him mainly because the skin puffed up so fast! I definitely have to get used to working with darker skin. This guy was super nice and it was also his first tattoo.

Then to today... this walked in first of the day. I was really happy about this one because I got more practice with working with solid color.

Next to walk in was this one.... an old name that needed reworking, and she wanted to add a simple design around the name so that it looked like a bracelet. This is what we came up with.... Sorry about the crappy photo... for some reason the pics came out lighter than the design actually is.

Obviously her skin got super puffed up maybe that's why the photo came out so light.... I hope to see her again so I can see how it healed.

Then the bracelet's boyfriend wanted a kanji design from off the wall. He got it on his forearm and we will add stars around it once hes all healed up.

Another walk in.... really simple kanjis. She didn't sit so well but overall I'm happy with how it came out.

The last walkin of the day so far was this on the wrist. She was really nice and we added some color in the bling stars.

I'm off tomorrow, but will post more when I have more to show you!

ALOHA

Tony's thigh

2011-03-20T19:59:00.000-04:00

So on Wednesday Tony and I met up at the South Street shop to outline his left thigh. He told me about a week before this that he wanted a hot mermaid with a clipper ship and water in the background. I was so excited that one of my fellow artists/friends would want me to do something so big on him! So this is what we came up with. This took me roughly 3 hours to outline and Bill was there too.

I'm about to upload the tattoos I did today here on 4th Street. Stay tuned!

More catch up

2011-03-20T19:54:00.000-04:00

Due to lack of internet at my house I'm resorting to uploading whenever I'm at work and not busy. So here's the weekend recap....

Im just going to post everything that I've done and then do my best to fill in with comments...

So I was working on 4th Street the other day and got a few walk ins.... this was the first. Also her first tattoo.

Then this one was sent over from No Ka Oi and this was her first tattoo.

Then that same week I was working on South Street with Carlos and a few things came in. This was the second of the day. He was super nice and despite the crappy photo Bill and I were happy with it.

Next these two girls walked in and each of them got a paw print. One of the girls got hers on the hip so we passed that one to Carlos and I did this one.

Next was a young woman who wanted a star bracelet. She was really nice and we went with just an outline for now. Maybe another time she will come back for color or shading.

Then on Friday I worked at No Ka Oi. This girl came in who wanted to let me practice on her! We gave her this which is her last name in Arabic, then she gave me some references for a pomogranate plant on her ribs. I'm going to talk it over with Bill and draw out a design so that we can work on that together. I'm noticing that the simple things are getting easier and easier the more I work.

Next this chick came in. This was a good exercise in color. Very fun to do and she is going to come back to get a matching one on her other ankle.

After that a couple came in and each of them got this on their inner arm.

More to come......!

Playing catch up

2011-03-20T13:15:00.000-04:00

So I haven't posted anything in a few days, so here is what I've been up to. The other night when I posted the holy on the foot, a 18 yr old kid came in with his parents wanting his first tattoo. He came in with a dream catcher design and a logo that he wanted in the middle. Although this design is a bit larger than what I'm working on at the moment, I went ahead and did it. Looking back I should have done a value study beforehand to figure out a game plan, but I just went for it. I talked to Bill about it afterwards and there are definitely things that I could have done differently like put more variation in the values. So today I did a value study so that for next time I know how to better approach feathers. All in all I was really excited about this tattoo and so was the client. Another thing is that he had a 10 yr old scar that he wanted covered, and this was my first time dealing with covering up anything.

I told him to come in once this heals so we can add some darker values to the feathers.

Saturday was my day off and my cousin Jimmy came in to get his first tattoo, his last name across his back. We only did the lettering that day, he's going to add shamrocks on either side of the letters the next time. This one went pretty smoothly, learned some lessons about stretching with Bill there and about proper shading. Next time I think I won't go so dark. Use more lighter values to make the transition smoother.

Yesterday I worked at No Ka Oi and it was fairly busy. The first one of the day was a woman getting her first tattoo, and wanted a ladybug flying off her arm. Bill helped me out with the design and adding the shading around the flight lines to make it look more like the bug was in flight. This was a good lesson in color and dealing with darker skin.

The next was another first tattoo for a young man in love. This one is self explanatory.

This one came in after, something really simple on a med student. He chose a font from our lettering book and went from there.

The last couple of the day were really sweet! They had read my blog and wanted to get something from me, way to take one for the team!!! This went on the one girl and the other got this next one on her wrist :)

This one was really funny and I had a good time tattooing these two ladies. I hope to see them again!

Now off to another day.....

Another day on 4th Street

2011-03-11T14:43:00.000-05:00

So I'm working today til midnight, and this one came in about an hour after we opened up. She wanted this on her foot (upside down of course) with the end of the word turning into a cross. She wrote it out herself then I redrew it and this is what we came up with.

Overall I'm ok with this one. I'm fairly comfortable tattooing feet, just not really excited about the design. Next time I do something like this I'll try and talk them into integrating the cross in another way.

Until next time....

Slow days on 4th street

2011-03-10T18:53:00.000-05:00

So yesterday and today i'm working at our 4th street Body Graphics. Yesterday I got to do one walk-in, a small little high heel. This chick was really nice and we did it small and simple with a little grey shading. The pic isn't the greatest but it'll do for now.

I felt confident doing this one since it was so small, and she liked it too.

Then today I had the lovely Kim from over at Infinite to come by for a small pin up girl so that I can get more practice. I didn't need as much black in this one because it's mostly skin tones but I did put some grey in the shadows and used a tiny bit of black. This tattoo was alot of fun to do. I took my time and didn't rush, and she let me do whatever I want with the shading.

Overall this tattoo went well... her skin was great so I didn't really have any trouble with the linework. As for the shading, I had a little bit of machine trouble and had to switch shaders. I have to get used to the fact that my machine bogs down when I use thick colors. I also got to try out this peach color that a coworker of mine mixed up. Other than the bleeding in the hair area I hope that the blonde in the hair stays, thats when I started having the troubles. After I was finished with this I messed with my shaders again and I think theyre running much better now.

BIG thanks to Kim for donating some skin for me, and I'll be sure to post healed pics as soon as I can.

Hopefully we get more walkins tonight.... we haven't had one all day... probably the rain :(

Back to Philly

2011-03-06T11:18:00.000-05:00

Heres an update on the stuff I've done since I left Hawaii. I got to work add onto this guy's dragon the day before I left the island. He walked in an hour before I was about to pack up. Talk about good timing! We added a tail and I got to touch up a few areas that were a little light. It's really interesting to see how it healed and what I should improve on.

Yesterday was my first day back in Philly... worked at No Ka Oi and it was super busy!! This was the first walk-in, a really nice woman who originally wanted this in color and then once we finished the outline decided to stick with that. I'm not entirely excited about this one, I felt like my lines could have been a little better and I have to admit that I was super nervous working on the floor there. So intimidating to finally be working with all these amazing artists. I felt like after I finished this one I calmed down a bit. Gotta work on my breathing so my anxiety doesn't get the best of me.

Thanks to my good friend (and our sales girl) Rachel - I was booked all night last night! This tattoo went MUCH better than that last back of the neck I did. Her skin was great and she sat good too.

This girl came in next. She got one on each wrist.

Later on in the night this group of three came in. One girl got this on her wrist.

The second kid wanted this wawa bird on his inner bicep. He also had great skin for this and I felt much more confident with my linework. We varied the line thickness too which he liked.

The last guy of the night and third from the group wanted a Sailor Jerry inspired mermaid sitting on a pot of gold. I drew this up for him and he let me do whatever I wanted.

Im going to meet with Bill today and talk about how I colored this. I should have put more color in the tail.

More to come!

Keone's owl part 3

2011-02-28T16:04:00.000-05:00

So I despite his healing issues with the background, I had Keone come in last night to get some work done on the body of the owl before I leave Hawaii for a while. We were able to finish the branch entirely, and start shading the rest of the body. I didn't finish the head, I want to see how the grey heals and add alot more texture next time. This one was so much fun and I got to play around with different types of shaders to get different results.

I'm glad we got some of the body done, that way hes not walking around with an empty owl for a year.

I leave for Philly in two days... SO ready to get back to Philly and get my life on track. New residence, new schedule. NO MORE SALES! So excited.

I have a plumeria coming in today and I'm doing huge polynesian letters across this guy's back, another friend that Noah recruited for me :) Will post more later.

ALOHA

Parrot tattoo

2011-02-26T15:49:00.000-05:00

So last night I got to finish Kris' parrot tattoo on his leg. We worked on him for about 2.5-3 hours. I got to experiment with some color blending and doing alot of color work. Overall I really like how it came out. I know hes going to have to get one more session on this in the future but it's done enough for now considering after I leave the island I won't be seeing him for a while.

New tattoos

2011-02-25T17:24:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I was called into work and ended up getting a few small ones. Here's the first. All those swirls really made me sweat!

It's sort of a treble clef and initials hidden in there. This woman came to Hawaii for a wedding and wanted something to remember her trip.

This was a mother-daughter combo that had appointments. Stolfi tattooed the daughter and I got the Mom. She was super nice and let me do what I wanted for the exception of the color combination. VERY specific. One flower for each child. I've decided that I really like tattooing feet. :)

So I bet you're wondering why I havent posted any updates on Keone's owl... Well he came in and had alot of trouble with the healing. So now he has to wait :(

Tonight I'm tattooing Kris's leg again... hopefully gonna finish that Parrot tattoo! So excited!

Until next time...
ALOHA

new tattoos

2011-02-23T20:13:00.000-05:00

So yesterday the handprint came in.... this was his first tattoo and he wanted his daughter's name with the print. The name was 14 letters long!!!! Hawaiian name obviously. We stuck with black and grey for this one.

This just walked in today, a young woman wanted her son's name on her shoulder. This is what we came up with.

Tonight at 5 I have Keone for the last session on his owl tattoo.

More to come!
ALOHA

some new stuff from the past week

2011-02-21T21:25:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been a week since my last post. I had strep throat and spent the last 5 days recovering.

So these last few tattoos were done in areas that I haven't really worked before (except one) and definitely was intimidated doing them. It was certainly a struggle, however I think that after these experiences I feel a little more confident in what I need to work on to make my linework better.

This woman came in late last week and Stolfi was about to do it then something else walked in that I'm not ready to do, so he did that one and gave this design to me. After redrawing it a bit the client (a young woman) and I came up with this. She wanted alot of color in an area that I've only tattooed once. This was a great experience in stretching.... and how to deal with a person that doesn't sit well at all! Looking back on this there are alot of things that I would have done differently. I'm not going to list all of them but it was so weird trying to blend all of these colors into an area that was so sensitive and she wouldn't stop moving it was very frustrating. After 2 hours she couldn't sit anymore so it knew she had it with me so we ended there. I wanted to blend white into the background but that didn't happen. Overall I would have done this differently, however the linework came out ok and I was relatively happy with the grey.

Anyway enough about that. yesterday was a good day. This girl came in and wanted her first tattoo which was a crown with gemini under it. Other than a few lines that were a bit wobbly this came out ok.

My biggest problem with this one is that she wanted it upside down. I think that if she put it the other way I would have noticed a few things.

After the crown a bit later a group of three guys came in, all wanting one of these captains wheels somewhere on their body. Stolfi did one of the guys on his hand, the other was in this guys ditch (right here), and the last one on his thigh. The ditch was weird, his skin puffed up so quickly and was all wrinkly.

This one on the thigh was fun too however his skin right there was so stretchy and awkward.

In summation this week was very challenging, but I think that after these couple of weird stretching areas I am stoked to learn something new.... everyday is a challenge but so worth the wait.

I have a handprint coming in tomorrow....

Will post pics
Aloha

Keone's owl

2011-02-11T23:03:00.000-05:00

So I got to work on Keone's owl the other night... we managed to finish the entire background and I am really excited that I think I am finally getting the hang of grey shading. He bled ALOT that night as well... kinda weird tattooing while they're bleeding so badly.

I will post more pics when I get a chance....

ALOHA

first sugar skull

2011-02-09T16:53:00.000-05:00

so last night this walked in... a woman who lives here wanted the islands on her back in color...

This one was alot of fun because she let me use my judgement to color. She was super nice and eventually wants to add a wave behind the design.

This walked in last night as well.... a young couple each wanting matching sugar skulls with different flowers. I did the smaller one on the girl and Stolfi tattooed the boyfriend. This one was such a challenge and she was a bleeder! I hope to get a better pic of this one day without the spade bleeding out like that. I learned alot from this one, mainly about inks and how to tell the difference between inks that go right into the skin, and inks that don't do so well.... like the blue in the spade. I must have tried packing in that blue at least 3 times before Bill had me change colors. The last blue flew right in... I hope that spot heals up ok... I haven't had too much experience working with alot of color yet so this was fun and a learning experience for me. Everything went well with the linework and the black shading... the color I need to work on.

Overall it was a really good day, and I know how I would like to do this next time.

I'm working on Keone's owl tonight coloring background... more pics to come!

Busy Busy

2011-02-07T21:28:00.000-05:00

So I got to tattoo my coworker/friend Kris the other day... He wanted a parrot with the banner and a rose, so he let me design it how I wanted. I'm really excited about this one, it's the second largest design I've done so far, and had alot of fun with different liners. It's really strange working around the achilles tendon... it was like tattooing a lizard skin or something. More to come on this after I start the shading. The plan is to make this in full color.

The next day a military kid came in and wanted some lettering on his inner arm. This one was great practice for fields of grey shading, and got to play around with more line weight and drop shadows. While I was working on this I noticed that my shading wasn't going in as smoothly as I had hoped. Good thing Bill walks in during this one and helped me out and told me to SLOW DOWN! I seem to want to do things fast.... gotta always tell myself to slow the hell down and of course as soon as I did, the shading smoothed out much better. Overall lining this one went ALOT better than the first inner bicep I tattooed, and got the thumbs up from Bill on the final outcome. Next time I think I'm going to omit the halo around the lettering, even though that's what the kid wanted. Bill had a good point about framing the design in the sense that if he wanted to add anything around this later on, it would be difficult to blend other designs into this one. Definitely storing that info for later.

This one came in last night. I was able to apply the shading techniques I learned from the lettering to this design. He chose a Hardy dragon from our reference and I changed it a bit. He wanted to change the claws... and overall I think I did an ok job except for the bottom claw. I think I could have done better with that one. I had alot of fun with this and it was the guy's first tattoo.

I don't tattoo again until tomorrow. Working sales tonight. I have an appointment tmrw night for a small hibiscus and plumeria on the ankle, and then Keone comes in for shading on his owl Wednesday.

Until next time....

ALOHA

woot woot

2011-02-01T18:45:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I was able to get a walk-in... small dragonfly on the shoulder. This woman picked this off the wall, but she let me improve on it.

It was fun to experiment with using grey lines for the wings to make them more transparent. I wish she would have let me put a drop shadow on it... it would have really made it pop.

So Keone came in last night to start his owl! This is my biggest piece so far...

This was the most fun I have ever had tattooing... Keone was nice enough to let me tattoo him again... for his second tattoo. It was nice to experiment with all different types of needles for this one, lining in grey and really figuring out a game plan for how I was this to come out. Bill sat with me the entire time and helped me along. After we finished the linework Keone had to go home so next Wednesday hes going to come back to start shading the background.

This is the sketch I did for him, so you can get an idea of how I want it to look when it's all finished. All black and grey. So excited about this tattoo! More to come when the linework heals.

Here's another view of the linework. Half the stencil was still on there so its a bit hard to see, especially in the face.

I'll post more of my thoughts on this tomorrow, I just wanted to get this uploaded so everyone can see.

ALOHA

My first polynesian

2011-01-31T17:53:00.000-05:00

So last night Noah came in and we're almost done reworking his tribal piece. All we have left are the two small triangles on his chest.

It was interesting to see how differently his skin reacted this time around. We were out late the night before drinking and I could notice the difference in how much he bled and how much harder it was to pack the black in solid. This is why we don't get wasted the night before you get tattooed!

Now everything lines up nicely and is sharp again. I'll post finished pics in a few weeks once this is all healed.

Dustin came in last night and showed me the tiki we did during my last trip. Mike Brown added the poly stuff onto his fingers and the stuff on the top of his hand he had already when we did the tiki. So last night's mission was to connect the two pieces with some polynesian designs, then we're going to fill up the inside of his forearm on a day when we have more time.

First he let me draw on him.

So this is what we came up with... they came in later on in the evening since Pro Bowl was going on and no one was coming in to get work done.

We continued the poly around his kids' name on the other side of the tiki, and we plan on continuing the patterns around his arm the next time.

This was challenging and fun at the same time. After doing this for the first time I definitely have a better game plan for the next time. Watching Anna and Mony work for the past 3.5 years helped me figure out how to line it. I am pseudo-happy with this tattoo. Looking at it after the fact there are a few things that I want to/need to do differently.

First off I definitely plan on using two different pens to sketch on the skin... one for the rough sketch and a darker color for the finalized lines. It's difficult to put a small line over a fat/sketchy line.

This was alot of fun and kudos to Dustin for giving me the chance to practice poly on him. In a week or two we're going to work on his inner forearm and give me another chance to draw on the skin.

I'm working on the floor today, hopefully some walk-ins come in. Keone (with the island tattoo) is coming in at 6 today after my shift to start a huge owl on his outter arm. So stoked! I'll be sure to post pics when I'm done or tmrw.

ALOHA

Last day in Philly, and back to Hawaii again

2011-01-27T00:57:00.000-05:00

This was done on my last day working the floor in Philly before I had to leave for Hawaii again.

Small diamond....

more small stuff....

The small number tattoos went on a couple... not sure what these numbers meant, but they were super cool people.

these next three went on one of our regular clients Benjamin... who collects work from alot of our artists at No Ka Oi. This went on his arm, the star on the opposite arm, and the greek letters on the same arm as the star. All really fun to do and the star/letters were a challenge!

This one went on an au pair from france. she was super sweet and got this outline behind her ear. I definitely need to work on my linework in this area, its SO tricky to tattoo. I asked her to come back when this heals so I can touch it up as i know some of these lines will heal super light.

Did this one on my coworker/friend Andrew. this was all his idea and we had joked about doing this for a few months, so i was happy to finally get to do it.

these should be words for everyone to live by....

First day on the floor in Hawaii - tiny plumeria on a tiny japanese girl...

yeaaaaah so this tattoo was on an older woman from california who came to Skin Deep maybe 15 years ago and had a Taz done on the opposite leg... so now she's back for a "bad ass Tweety". This is what we came up with....

These two are by-far my favorites so far. These were done on a mother/daughter from Australia and they were so awesome! Really open to me drawing everything up for them and were really happy with what we did so far...

This went on the daughter... we changed it up just slightly, added a second butterfly and put different shading in the flower. So stoked on this one. I think feet are my new favorite thing to tattoo!

I am working sales until friday, then off to Sailor Jerry's grave with Stolfi and Shanghai Kate. Will post more then. I also have a few things lined up for Sunday so I will keep you all posted on my progress.

ALOHA

Slowly as she goes....

2011-01-09T17:16:00.000-05:00

So its been a few weeks since I've been on here. I've only been tattooing once a week and since business is slow this time of year I'm working sales to make some money.

This little skull was done on my good friend Parker, we left the skull and teeth open so that we can decide that later. this was super fun to do and challenging as it was on the side of his knee/inner thigh area. SO weird stretching here.

This walked in a week or so ago, simple lettering. I want to get better at lettering, hook it up with shading and more fun stuff.

This one came in the same day at the lettering, its outlined in black and colored with a super dark blue that he picked out. It's kind of hard to tell the color difference with his skin tone. This was fun and I'm finally getting the hang of the wrist/arm area.

Super challenging here. This was the first back of the neck tattoo I have done, and I'm glad Bill was there to help me through it. Once I got the hang of stretching in this area it went by much easier.

Also a walkin on South Street on Christmas Eve. Of course since Rhianna has one like this, this girl had to have the same thing, because it's so original and everything. This was challenging as well, and difficult to stretch. I want to work here more so I can get better at it.

This was a walkin when I was working at No Ka Oi. This guy was super nice and it was a breeze to do. Sweet dollar sign yo!

This was done on my good friend/boss Sandy O, who I've worked for since college doing airbrush work. This was her first tattoo and we did it in a mendhi style with only brown ink. Usually we try and shy away from all color-lined work, but for her, i'll do anything she wants. I'll post healed pics of this as soon as I can. Here are a few views. We put her daughters' names in the heart as well.

This is all for now, I have some more pics to post but I can't seem to locate them. I leave for Hawaii in ten days, and hope to get many more tattoos under my belt before I come back to Philly in March.

More to come...

Back in Philly

2010-12-13T18:08:00.001-05:00

So I worked yesterday at our NJ shop and was able to score two walkins. This first one was a name in old english.

This one went pretty smooth and the client was a really nice guy.

After the name came in, this guy walked in and wanted some barbed wire looking thorns behind this lettering he already had. He was also a really nice guy and let me draw it up however I wanted.

I'm working at the NJ shop today and unfortunately it's super slow and nothing has come in. Hopefully we'll get something before the day is out, but if not, thats ok too.

More to come later....

Tina

Last few days

2010-12-06T19:23:00.000-05:00

So I got to work on my client with the palm tree on his leg, Dave the other night. I was able to work on the background and am happy with what Bill and I came up with for the color sceme. The sun up at the top is a bit scarred and he was hating me after our session, so when I get back in Jan we will recolor that in and rework the mermaid girl and smooth out the shading.

We used some grey and color reflections in the clouds and faded blues to oranges and pinks up towards the top.

I did this the other night as a last minute walk-in. I was happy with the outcome other than my outline... next time I'm going to use something finer so they aren't so bold. She loved the color and my friend Stolfi tattooed her mother and her sister as well with the same design. They flew out the next day happy so that's all that matters.... ya live and learn.

The sameday Dave came in Noah came in afterwards and we finished up another swirl on his other arm/shoulder. This took about 2 hrs and he did well.

I get to touch up Dustin's tiki today around 5 so I'll post pics of that tonight or tmrw. I'm so excited to go back home to Philly tomorrow night... I've been here for 3 months and am ready to get off the island and back home for a month and half. I'm NOT ready for the cold though.

More to come.... ALOHA

1.5 weeks left!

2010-11-30T21:54:00.000-05:00

So I've done a few more pieces in the past week and thought I would post them....

This woman was from Brasil and was her first tattoo... She was super sweet and gave me freedom with it aside from the board. It had to be positioned and colored VERY specific.

Overall I had fun with it, and experimented with a little grey in there... nothing too crazy.

This was so random and so simple and fun!!! I had to throw it in. She was a college student and we all let her know that this wasn't going to stay. It still looks awesome!

This wednesday I had another short session with Noah... finished two small stripes. His skin was irritated from hollyrot so we couldn't do too much.

This time it was especially fun because I got to tattoo with both hands! I haven't done too much with my left hand since I started tattooing, so whynot warm up my left hand to the machine since I already paint with it?

Now I need to master it!

This tattoo walked right in on Saturday! What a better tattoo than a hula girl while in Hawaii! He picked it right from the Sailor Jerry stencil book and he let me do my thing. It was so much fun and his skin took the ink sooo well! Had a little trouble stretching up in the armput area, but once I got the hang of it everything went well. This guy is going to let me do another one on his other arm next week!

I tattooed my coworker/friend Stolfi Saturday night! He let me do whatever I wanted, so we have this sad pigeon holding an umbrella sitting on a branch.. in the rain. We did the entire thing in black, grey and red. It looks kind of dark from the photo, but I stuck to mostly midtone greys so we can watch it heal and I can get more practice in smoothing out my greywash. He was super excited about the design and I got to experiment with lineweight, used two different liners with this one.

This woman walked in today a few hours ago and picked this one out of our linework reference file. She was super nice and let me have fun with the color. Another biscuit to add to the list!

So I leave town very soon, so I need to make every tattoo count before I leave. Not that I haven't before, but I need to make sure everything is perfect.

Until next time...

ALOHA

Turd polishing 101

2010-11-22T17:32:00.000-05:00

So Saturday I got to rework another old tattoo... this guy had an 8 yr old tribal wristband with a VERY small harley logo on the center. So I draw on him for a bit with Bill and came up with this.

You can see how small these letters in the logo were. The tribal was easy to figure out, we added a few extra spikes to it in the front to frame out the logo, and wanted to salvage what little spaces we could on the bracelet. The logo was the hardest thing for me... those letters were so damn small and to top it all off his skin was older and the logo underneath was a little scarred.

After he approved of this we got started. Everything went really smooth I though, but like I said that lettering wasn't the greatest. I need to work on tiny letters. This tattoo was a prime example of why people shouldn't do designs so tiny. After only 8 yrs you couldn't even read the logo anymore. At least the tribal was easily fixable.

I was able to add some white to the closed up spaces and open up the bracelet some more.

We were able to put a little bit of color back into the logo, but as for the lettering, the best we were able to do for him at this point was to put the lettering back in and re-outline what he had. The tribal was no problem and he really liked how the lines were sharp again.

I definitely learned alot from this one, and how you can salvage tattoos that you think are a lost cause.

Lesson learned: NEVER make a harley logo this small. EVER!

More stuff to come..
ALOHA!

more stuff

2010-11-19T19:07:00.000-05:00

So the shop is still a bit slow, but I was able to grab a name the other day and worked on the guy with the palm tree on his leg.

Here is the name...

I should have zoomed in more for this photo... so its not the greatest picture. I didn't do the hibiscus above it. I have definitely done better than this but I think I did the best I could at the time. She really liked how it turned out so that made me happy.

So I got another session in with Dave for his leg. This time I colored in the palm tree and added some cloud outlines in the background. He has alot of faded greenish blue background starting at his foot and goes all the way up. On his foot is an underwater scene, so we decided to make the area by the trees more sky-like. We were going to color in some of the background with a light blue but he was pretty sore after the tree. I'm not the fasted yet so I worked on him for about 2.5-3 hrs.

The next session we're going to fill in the background and the clouds, and then go from there. I enjoyed working on this and hope to finish it and make it new and clean looking. He has alot of random stuff there so we need to make sense of it.

Here's a closer view of the tree.

Back to work now... until next time...

ALOHA

Another day

2010-11-14T15:50:00.000-05:00

So even though I was supposed to work sales yesterday, and I did.... but Mike was awesome enough to throw me these two...

This couple walked in and wanted an outline of this stick figure dude in a canoe.... I think they drew it up or printed it out not really sure, but it was a cute idea and they each got the same thing. She got hers on her wrist much smaller and he got his on back of the calf. Super fun!

For some reason the wrist image won't upload so once I figure that out I'll post that too.

After these two, a small logo of an eagle walked in and I was able to do that too, but I totally forgot to take a picture! She will be back with her husband so I'll be sure to snap a pic next time!

Off work today heading to the print shop to print out the stuff I've done since they left town. They come back today so I would like to be prepared.

More to come...
ALOHA

A good friday!

2010-11-13T16:29:00.000-05:00

After a long week of doing sales and not tattooing, I was excited for Mike to throw me a few tattoos yesterday. This butterfly walked in a few days ago and her, along with her husband came back to get their tattoos. This woman was super nice and I enjoyed tattooing her. This was challenging because not only was the design super tight, but her skin was SUPER stretchy, and aged.... and THIN. Definitely a test in stretching skills! Overall I was happy with it and hope it heals well.

These next few pictures are a bracelet made of honus and plumeria on a woman's wrist. After I finished the butterfly she walked in and after 15 minutes of drawing we settled on this. I was really happy with this and she let me design it for her. We alerternated pink flowers with orange and yellow ones. She was really laid back and despite her conservative appearance, she had a gorgeous polynesian rib piece done on the island at a different studio. It's funny how some people surprise you.

She comes here alot for vacation so I hope to see this again, see how it heals.

Unfortunately I don't have any tattoos today, probably won't tattoo again until next week. Hopefully it will pick up a bit more...

Anyway, Bill and Anna come home tomorrow so I'm stoked to show them what I've done and do some more projects with them. I'll post a drawing I'm working on soon of a dragon that Bill and I are sketching together.

I can't believe that I have been here two months already! It went by so fast. Although I love it here, I'm ready to go home, take care of business, tattoo some friends and come back here with a clean slate. I feel like I'm living two lives, one in Hawaii and one in Philly. I miss Philly alot and get homesick here and there. Sounds lame but being away from everything you have been used to for the past 3 yrs can take a toll on you.

Blah blah blah Gotta get back to work now, Mike is tattooing a sweet backpiece of wings so I should get to cleaning.

Aloha!

Aloha Monday

2010-11-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

So I finally got to do another tattoo yesterday! It's been a little slow, and I've been working sales as well.

This woman was super nice and wanted a half arm-band thing with a turtle and plumeria flowers, all different colors.

Here is a close up of it... I really enjoyed doing this one!

I don't have any tattoos until thursday, I get to tattoo Noah again and work on his tribal stuff. Then a tribal butterfly on friday!

Nothing new to report as of yet, will post more later.

ALOHA!

Wow, it's November already!

2010-11-02T17:29:00.000-04:00

So yesterday I got to do two tattoos.

This one was on a really nice guy from New York, he had these three hearts on his forearm, and wanted to add another for his son.

Before...

He wanted to add one more with the name "Jeremy" in it with more chains.

I really liked how this turned out... very fun to do and the guy was really nice. He's going to come to visit Philly and let me redo the entire thing! He loved it! I think I could have done better with the lettering, the r was tricky for some reason....

Close up...

This one was the friend of the guy with the triangles on the wrist that I did about a week or two ago. He was also super nice, and a military boy that will definitely be back for more. This took me about 2.5 hours to do... talk about slow! The biggest thing for me to do is to go SLOW and take my time.

Some more views too...

I had a little trouble with this side of the wing.... tattooing a design all the way around an arm with such angles and straight lines was really challenging! I think I had much better lines with the other side, but once I filled it all in I was able to clean it up the best I could without overworking his skin.

More to come tomorrow hopefully...

ALOHA!

Halloween weekend!

2010-11-01T20:23:00.000-04:00

Even though the shop has been super slow, we did manage to get a bunch of people in the night before Halloween. We did a special on Halloween themed stuff, so I was able to do this cool hatchet on a guy's wrist.

Super fun and small.... He lives here so I asked him to come back so I can see how the grey heals up.

This girl was super sweet and also living here on the island, fun to do and she was cool to talk to. good practice for me

I have to say that this was the hardest of all the stuff I did that night. I had a little trouble with the shell part of the turtle, but I learned alot from this one. The woman was heading out of the town the next day and was super nice. She had stopped in before and was looking at the design but didn't want to commit to anything.

I have an appointment for a tribal dragon on the arm tonight... I'll post pics as soon as I'm done!

ALOHA!

It's been a few days

2010-10-30T00:59:00.000-04:00

So it's been a few days since I've been able to tattoo anything on anyone... business slowed down this week for some reason. I did, however have a great weekend! I got to scuba dive for the first time in my life with Anna which was amazing... I have video and pics but haven't loaded them onto my computer yet. I'll post them tmrw or the next day.

So today I had the rare opportunity of tattooing Mike Brown, an artist here who has been tattooing for well over 30 years. He let me redo two roses on his ankle that he did in the 70s sometime, along with a Mike Malone kanji below it that was old and faded. This was an epic opportunity!

Here is a pic of the old tattoo....

The upper rose was Mike's very first tattoo, which we left alone. The two below it and the kanji were my project for the day.

He and I drew in some guidelines to work from since the inner part of the roses were practically faded away...

Fresh new outline... He helped me along the entire time for this.

Finished! Took me about an hour and half bc i'm super slow, but I'm happy with how it turned out and am very excited to have tattooed Mike, which definitely was a once in a lifetime opportunity!

I'm throwing in some fun pics as well....

So excited!!! A HUGE EPIC thank you to Mike Brown!!!! Definitely a day I will never forget!

Until next time.... ALOHA!!!!!

perfect circle

2010-10-22T00:51:00.000-04:00

So last night I did my FIRST perfect circle... This one was on Noah's other friend Kama. Super nice local dude that brought in this image.

One one part of the circle there was an overlap with the wing so it made it look thicker that it really is. I was totally sweating over this one. Bill was with me the entire time and that helped keep me relaxed. It took about 2 hrs since I'm slow, but overall I like how it turned out and so did Kama!

I like this view alot with his arm flexed. It shows how we lined up the design.

Thanks to Kama for letting me do this on him! Great experience and it's going right in my portfolio.

I'm working sales tmrw so i probably won't post anything until Saturday or Sunday. I'm going to try diving for the first time Saturday morning, so wish me luck!

ALOHA!

ALOHA monday!

2010-10-20T01:57:00.000-04:00

Here's what I got to do yesterday...

This one was on a Japanese woman who was leaving town the next day...

This one was alot of fun... there was language barrier there but our sales girl helped me out in that department since she speaks Japanese.

This woman was so nice! She was from England and was leaving town the next day also. This was so fun to do! The foot is weird to tattoo but I think I'm getting used to it.

This guy came in knowing that I was still learning... and had a bunch of stuff on his leg that needed fixing... this one in particular. His entire leg is (sorta) finished, it just needs more solid color and linework. Last night's project: palm tree. So I drew up a newer one on top so he can see what I was planning to do.

This was the completed line work... this one looked more like a full palm tree like the one on the other side of his leg. This was fun to do!

We did a little bit of shading before we called it a night. Bill was right there with me helping me along. Really excited to work on this guy again! He's going to give me his entire calf as my project! SWEET!

Working sales tonight... tattooing Noah's friend tomorrow.

Aloha!

more tattoos!

2010-10-17T17:49:00.000-04:00

So here are a few things that I've worked on since my last post:

FIRST, a local guy who is friends with everyone at the shop came in and let me do my largest tattoo yet with black and grey. This was my second attempt at grey wash, and was left alone the entire time.

This tiki took me about 3.5-4 hours and really took my time. I'm certainly no expert at this, but I have to say that it was exciting to draw up the design for the client AND tattoo the entire thing by myself. Anna was with me for questions and stuff, but for the most part I was left alone. I stuck with mostly mid tones so that it would heal light, and then once it is healed I can go in again and smooth out what I didn't do right. It's better to stay light then go too dark right away.... expecially if you're inexperienced like myself.

Thanks to Dustin for letting me try out this tiki on him. He was super nice and definitely a team player!

This one was done on military guy who comes in regularly to get tattooed by just about everyone at the shop. He's super nice and wanted his nickname "Jukebox" on his back.
So here we go. Simple and black. He loved it drawn up this way so we left it.

This one came in last night.... The kids entire family came in and everyone got tattooed! This was on the son who was recently married and was here on military business with his new wife. Anna outlined this one for me since it has to be super perfect, then I filled it in.

After I tattooed the son, I tattooed the Mom too! She was super sweet and was really happy with her new tattoo. This was on her wrist and I did the whole thing myself.

I also forgot to post pics of Noah's last session with me.... we have been taking a few weeks off so he can enjoy the beach, so here's the photo....

We worked on this swirl for about 2 hours and then he went home.... this was after a long day of hiking too! It's almost healed up and then we will take some pictures. It's awesome that I can use him as a "guinea pig" to see how my tattoos are healing and get feedback from him on what I am doing differently and what feels better, etc.

Off to print out pictures for my NEW portfolio today! My first tattoo portfolio that is.

ALOHA!!!!!

Another turtle!

2010-10-14T00:59:00.000-04:00

Just finished this little turtle on a woman heading out of town tomorrow....

She was super duper tan so the pic is a bit orange.
This was fun to do and I was able to outline and fill in the entire thing!

Really having a great time tattooing here in Hawaii... can't wait to do more!

ALOHA!

Playing catch up

2010-10-13T21:53:00.000-04:00

So I have a bunch of stuff to show you all!

I'm going to try and remember the order of these so bear with me!

I did this on my friend/coworker Iona...

This was alot of fun and challenging... especially with the swirls. I'll take a picture once it's healed so we can see how I did.

I did this one on a super sweet Australian guy. Bill outlined it and I filled it in. Didn't take too long and I think I'm getting the hang of stretching the skin and getting the color solid.

Did this one on an Australian girl last night actually... It's the same thing only slightly modified. Anna outlined and I filled in as well. Freckly skin is so different to tattoo.

This came in late one night.... this guy just wanted some stars around his exsisting stuff. It was fun to do some stars finally!

This came in for Anna the other night... So she let me outline the entire thing and then she did all the color work around the sunset scene. I'm getting better at lettering and making those lines deliberate. Here's a picture of the background from Anna....

All finished with background..... Nice and colorful and he was really excited about it.

This one I was allowed to do from start to finish... took me like 2 hours BUT the guy knew that I'm no speed demon as of yet.... it was challenging but I'm happy with how it came out and the dude loved it! I'm getting better at my linework and just trying to relax and focus while I'm working.

This little one came in with the freckled girl on the hip. I didn't outline it but I filled it in and added the color. The hip area was weird tattooing, but not as bad as I thought. I liked coloring in the flower. She was super sweet and a team player for letting me tattoo her!

At the end of the night a newlywed couple from Italy came by. I was able to draw up the lettering and fill it in. Since I haven't worked on the inner arm before Anna did the outline. She and I did 4 tag-team tattoos together last night... talk about fun! Assembly line tattooing done by request haha!

I also tattooed his wife... Anna also outlined this and I filled it in. REALLY weird tattooing behind the ear.

So cute.... even though it was weird, I learned alot about the skin back there. Next time I'm hoping I'll be able to outline whatever they throw at me.

Keone stopped back in the other night to show me his island I did two weeks ago... it healed great! I may want to go a little darker in some areas... but I'm going to wait until after his wedding to do that. Not to mention he wants a half sleeve with a Hawaiian owl.... it's too big for me to do right away, but I'm going to draw it up mostly and then Bill/Anna will outline and I'll help fill in.

Thats all for now! Sorry for the delay and I will post more later!

ALOHA!

New tattoo

2010-10-04T21:25:00.000-04:00

So it looks like Josh won't be coming in for a little while. He was in an accident and hurt himself... so when he's all fixed up I will work on his arm some more.

Noah came in last night with his friend Keone, a really nice local dude who wanted a tattoo of the island of Oahu with a star over where he is from. He originally wanted just the outline of the island with a red star, but after some chatting with us for a bit, we convinced him that bigger was better, AND it gave me a challenge! This is the first time I have ever done greywash and I have to say it was so much fun! I got to work with both Bill and Anna this time, and learned a hell of a lot from this one. It's about the size of a hand and took about 1.5-2 hours with stopping for breaks and stuff.

This is the kind of stuff I love to do!

I can't wait to see this one healed! Thanks so much to Keone for trusting me to do this on him.

I will write more later, I'm at work now and we have some possible clients here...

ALOHA!

Noah part 3

2010-10-01T20:14:00.000-04:00

Wednesday night I tattooed Noah again... This was by far my best session with him. I got alot done and its solid. I also took a look at how the first session healed. I didn't take pics like I should have, but the first section I colored in I overworked some of the lines so its a little raised which is dissappointing. I'm hoping that those lines smooth out after a few weeks.

Here's the newest session:

Bill sat with me the entire time... I think I finally got the hang of color packing without overworking the skin.

Here's a close up of the front of him. The collarbone was challenging, but not as bad as I thought.

Here's the last one. I can't wait to see how this one heals.

Tomorrow night I have Josh with the tribal rework so I'm hoping that healed up good as well.

More to come...

Aloha!

walkins

2010-09-27T07:38:00.000-04:00

I know that I was supposed to post pictures of Noah on Wednesday, unfortunately he wasn't feeling well so he couldn't come in. I'll be seeing him this Wednesday though so no worries...

So last night everyone else was booked so I was able to take a few small walkins. I had these two sisters from Australia come in and they wanted matching heart outlines on their feet. I never understood why people want only outlines, but who am I to tell them what to get. If they want an outline, that's what they get. Here's a shot of one of them... I was happy with the linework, it really wasn't too complicated, just took my time.

After these two, another woman came in for her first tattoo and wanted her daughter's names... Anna drew the lettering for her and she liked what she drew, she just wanted a bit more filligree stuff around it. After modifying the drawing a bit we ended up with this....

I was also happy with how this turned out, I wish that I could have approached the swirls a little differently. This was the most challenging so far. I really love to draw lettering, now its time to get really good at tattooing it. There are some things about this tattoo that I wish I could have done differently.... but I definitely learned alot from this one and the next time I do some lettering I'll apply that. This woman was super sweet and the two lovely daughters we with her to see it :)

Meeting really sweet people really made it all the better. It's a bummer when you have people that walk in that are just complete and utter jerks.

I'm not tattooing again until Wednesday... Noah is supposed to come in again. I also have Josh this week to work on his tribal fixer-upper.

More to come.....
Aloha

catch up

2010-09-22T18:15:00.000-04:00

So I forgot to get on here yesterday to post my tattoos.

Monday I tattooed two walkins, a small heart on the wrist and small hibiscus on the wrist. Here they are. I was having a really stressful day on top of it.... need to keep my mind focused. Ever have those days when everything you do and say is just off somehow? That was one of those days for me.

This heart didn't stress me out as much as the hibiscus. There are alot of ways that I know to do it better next time. Still need to work on making my lines deliberate, and work on how I'm going to color before I start. Top to bottom.

I struggled a little bit with the swirly lines, but after I chatted with Bill about better stretching, things went just fine. I know for next time now.

This was the tattoo I put on Ashley yesterday.... this went by alot smoother I think and I know she was happy to get it. I think next time I'll use a smaller liner on the flowers, but overall i like the design she picked out, and I got to try out making the brush stroke look.

I get to tattoo Noah again tonight. More pictures to come.

Aloha!