"For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing."
Simon Wiesenthal

Lately I have felt some kind of extreme social responsibility, and although this quote is overly-epic, and on the brink of cheese, I think it is spot on. Sometimes I have to really ask myself if what I'm doing has an impact, and what kind, positive or negative. I suppose all I can do to make a positive mark in my occupation is to treat people kindly and fairly, and to do my best work on every tattoo.
I thank God for this job everyday, and don't take it for granted, there's nothing I'd rather be doing. The only way to "repay" Him in the slightest is to make the most of it.

That's all.

The Old Man and the Sea.

This is somewhat of a dream project for me to land, everything about it is great; a cool concept, a simple idea that can be carried out without too much going on in the tattoo, a good area to work on, great subject matter. These are drawings for what will be Josh's forearm piece, based on, of course "the old man and the sea" by Hemmingway. I know this guys reads a lot and has a lot of respect for classic literature, so I feel a great duty to do this thing justice. I went through a lot of research and preliminary drawings, the ones that made the cut can be seen here, as well as the final drawing. Totally unrelated, I added a sketch for a tattoo I get to do down the road, which I'm really stoked about. I haven't gotten to do a shark yet.

On a different note, I had something really unfortunate happpen the other day, I dropped my portable hard drive and sent all my tattoo photos and drawings i had scanned to oblivion, not to mention my family and friend photos. On top of that, I can't scan without it(long story), so therefore I have to take photos of drawings instead. The quality therefore suffers, but I dont feel too bad, considering the amount of "followers" on the blog. I know theres a bunch of other crap i wanted to say but, as usual, I have forgotten it.

Downtime and the holidays

It seems the last two months have been pretty bleak as far as walk-ins and new clients go. This is always a slow time of year, as people don't really think of getting new work in the winter as much as the summer, and they are spending any extra cash on gifts for others, traveling, and holiday party expenses. Because of this,many a morning have been spent at LFS trudging through facebook and my favorite GIJOE forum, or (if my level of motivation is high enough)drawing, trying to pass the time in any way possible. Every once in a while, during busy season, it's nice to have a little down time like this in order to catch your breath, but I'd have to say , it's getting old. Furthermore, I feel as if I am constantly gaining insight in tattooing technique and that my skill set has improved a lot since I started. I told Joel that "I feel like I'm doing my best work, but no one is around to get it.", to which he agreed and said he knows exactly how I feel. To add to this, I have been sick for about a month, and last week I dropped my portable hard drive, and lost every photo of any tattoo that I've ever been proud of, not to mention my wife's photos of us and friends and family. Woe, woe is me lol. I just realized that this post is becoming a bit of a pity-party , so i will say, despite all this, I have gotten to tattoo some really cool stuff, and have more down the pipe. I just really need something to get out of this slump, though. I'll be doing another session on my Dawn's side piece, which we're both excited about, and duder Pat will be getting a start on a horse head tattoo from me, so hopefully that'll give me a little kick-start for the new year. On with the pics, i suppose. . .

Robert wanted " a sugar skull with red waves(like blood) and a black rose" And I was extremely happy to oblige. So here's the two sketches for that, as well as the finished product, though it's a horrible photo.

Also started this project on Alex. He wanted a David and Goliath, as depicted in the bible. Yes, David did behead Goliath after he was defeated. Many people don't realize that's part of the story, i'm not just doing it so there can be a ton of fun gore thrown in haha. It was tough to fit all this in on a relatively small spot, but after simplifying it, it think it worked well enough. The second session should tighten up the piece nicely. I included alternate sketches for this tattoo as well.

still on it

I'm kind of proud that I'm actually still making posts on this blog. I think this one will make 35 so far. So, for some reason or another, I've been drawing a lot of owls, and I've gotten to tattoo a couple, which i have no complaints about. A friend of a friend named Mike was interested in getting a huge owl/tree forearm piece. So i drew a couple of things up for him, that can be seen below. He wanted skulls within the branch, so i did it kind of biomechish and threw some skulls/half skulls in there. I have also posted a three-eyed owl tatatatt that i did the other day. I'm still working on getting my tattoos to have that clean look, it's been a long hard road. I have to tell you that it's not as easy as it may sometimes look. It's definitely the hardest medium I have ever worked in.

Owls and Pylons Don't Mix

I don't really know why Chad wanted a street pylon with a face on it, but that's rad by me. He just asked me to do whatever I wanted. That never happens. It had to be quick, and since it was meant mainly to fill a spot, I used a Sharpie(Beau Guenin only uses Sharpie brand sharpie markers folks) to freehand it on the skin. This thing was a lot of fun to do, I reverted back to the usual shading scheme of warm with a cool lowlight. It worked out pretty well, not my worst tattoo, not my best but a lot of fun.

A couple weeks ago I posted on facebook that I really wanted to do an owl tattoo, and I got a couple of positive responses. After Ashley and I agreed on which sketch we were going to tattoo, she came in and got this on her inner arm. Also fun. You can't beat animals wearing people clothes. Just try it. You can't. It may be a while before post something new, what with the holidays and all. So merry christmas dudes.

The hand of God.

And now what may be my mostest best tattoo yet. My friend Amanda had the idea for this tattoo probably 2 years ago, and I had drawn it up for her, but she wasnt too crazy about it. It's a good thing, though, because when i look back now, that initial design really sucked compared to the one she got tattooed. So last year she had me redraw it and we kept talking about getting her in, and it finally happened last month sometime. I say it might be my best tattoo because a few of my peers( that I have a great amount of respect for) told me it was. It may or may not be, but either way, Amanda and I were both really happy with the way it turned out, I really want to do more stuff like this but I rarely get the opportunity to do so.

Egyptian Magician

I don't know why i put that as the title. I was listening to some old Jerky Boys this week and it's still funny. To me, at least. Wow. this last few weeks have been super slow, yet, i feel like i have made some improvements in my tattooing and in my art. I started using thicker liners and I feel like it has made my tattoos look a little more bold and solid, which I like. I have been studying Tim Biedron's tattoos quite a bit, and he does quite a bit of fine-lining for contours within the subject, and it gives his pieces such a great look. Therefore, I'm definitely keeping my tight 5 handy for that type of stuff. This all just thinking to myself, I suppose, on with the pictures! I finished this mermaid- and I got to tattoo a drawing of a wolf that I had done just for fun. Both on the same person, I might add. Thanks Robert.