Connecticut. Short and Sweet.

I haven't painted with acrylics in a long time,
but as my last post mentioned,
I had a little extra time in MD than planned,
and cheap paint from the craft store.
Jay and Tina had bought a new house this summer,
and had asked me to do a painting for them/it.
That was way back in July.
I knew I'd be headed over there for poker night this week
(and coming empty handed isn't cool).
It's a super nice house.






















We really didn't have much time in CT,
(only three nights),
and now we're headed to Providence for New Years.
While we were here,
Meryl's Mom took us out snowshoeing,
(my first time)
and we went to the farm, too.
It went fast, but it was really nice.
Thanks, Connecticut.
See you again, sometime.

Snowed Out.

It didn't snow much where my folks live in Maryland.
However, it snowed like crazy everywhere else on the East Coast,
so Meryl and I got stuck here for a few extra days.
We do like it here,
but when you make travel plans like us,
there's not an hour to spare (let alone 2 extra days).
We got places to go,
but no way to get there.
Megabus canceled our trip,
the airports all shut down,
and Budget rental car in Baltimore was sold out.
So it's some extra lounging around the house time for us.
I didn't know how to relax this hard,
so I went to an art store and bought some paint and brushes.

Xmas.
My family does gift giving so well.
Better than me, usually.
Every time I try to step up my game,
the've already wrapped up some extra hottness.
I got some really unique gifts this year.
How about the hottest pillow ever?
Yeah, my sister had that made for me,
and was told it was the weirdest request ever.
Dead Birds Are Sexy.
Merry Christmas.

Anthropomorphism is the Cat's Meow.

A blue point siamese cat, knitting.
I'd never seen this breed before,
and it was pretty weird to try and get right.
And since it was the client's pet cat,
it was even more specific than just any blue point siamese.
Muted colors and animals wearing clothes?
It was my kind of Saturday.

Wrapping up the year.

Only 3 more work days before I head East,
and after a bunch of family visiting,
I'll end up at Off the Map Tattoo the first week of January.
I'm booked to do so many awesome tattoo ideas while I'm there,
and I couldn't be more excited.

I colored in Adam M's alligator tattoo yesterday,
and luckily the shop was closing right as we were wrapping that part up,
so I didn't have to figure out what to do with the background/waves yet.
(phew)
I mashed two photos together to show off the whole thing
(and it also helps look more like a thigh now)
since it wraps around quite a bit.

Juniper berries.

Nice and cute for some ribs.
Her first color tattoo, even,
after quite a lot of black and grey work.
I think I could do animal and plant tattoos exclusively,
and never want for anything else.

Too much to handle.

I had an extra day off yesterday,
and I didn't even want it.
I couldn't even get my car out of the back alleyway.
All the news headlines sounded like extreme adult film titles.
20 Inches of Madness

And that's not even the scary part.
The worst is that the fence that holds back
Powderhorn's most vicious dog is no longer there.
I mean, I'm sure it's there, somewhere,
but i haven't seen it.
Shamira is no longer fenced in,
and free to bite any passerbys she wants.
(the good news is that anyone passing by right now
has two layers of pants under their snow pants,
so they might not even feel it)






















I've never worked harder and been more tired on my weekend before.
But tomorrow we've got a personal tour of some gross science-y stuff.
Flesh eating beetles, and that kind of thing.
So tonight we'll probably just settle for a quiet evening,
maybe a movie.
(just not that kind)

Losing Track

I keep getting surprised by how late in the day/month/year it is.
My bedtime keeps getting pushed later and later,
but I keep waking up at the same time.
And it keeps getting colder.
6 degrees Fahrenheit right now.
It makes you want to not leave the house.
(tomorrow will be an exception,
since Dark Dark Dark is back in town to play a show)

The dead bird painting is finished, dry, and photographed.
I've been working on a few other dead bird paintings lately,
but more still-lifey,
and not just floating deadness.






















I had a ton of fun working on this tattoo today.
"A pickle in a wheelchair. Hot rod flames."
There wasn't any big story to go along with it,
other than the client is friends with Chef Ryan.
The pickle is it's own story, I guess.

Busy Birdhouse Building

Never Quiet Never Soft has an art show in the works.
(I think I've hinted at it before)
It's going to be big.
I'm hard at work on it right now,
and it's not even happening till March.
I went to Ryan's today,
where we got to work on some power sawing,
staple shooting, and gorilla glueing.
Sawdust was in the air, and we set off multiple fire alarms.

It would have been a manly scene for sure,
but I'm super jumpy little baby when using the pneumatic staple gun.
That, and we were there to make birdhouses.
Big thanks to Ryan for all his help
(as always),
and for letting NQNS take over his basement for the next couple months.
I'm not sure he knows that's the plan,
but it's cool, I didn't just spill the beans.
He doesn't have internet in his new place yet.

Saturday I tattooed my butt off,
and one of the things I worked on was finishing this owl tattoo.
It's one of those awkward half healed, half fresh tattoo photos,

but I'll do that 'hoping for a better shot later' while I post this version.

I'm not sure where my weekend went,

but it's back to work tomorrow.

Well, tattoo shop work.

(every weekend is going to be a working weekend for a while....)

Holidays are for Eating.

Louderhorn Inn hosted a smallish vegan thanksgiving this year,

and as always, Meryl made so much great food.

(that is one sexy vegan blueberry pie)

There was five of us sitting at the dining room table,

but enough mashed potatoes to feed 20.

(i made the potatoes)

The next day was back to work,

and we celebrated Black (Tie) Friday.

We didn't buy anything,

we just wore ties.

Adam M also has been wearing normal pants all week

(in lieu of his super tight sexy man jeans)

in order to help heal the first sit of his alligator tattoo we did on Tuesday.

Looking forward to working on this again soon.

(and yeah, that's a thigh. not a wrist, not a forearm. a thigh.
the tattoo is 11 inches tall.)

Winter Weather

There's rain, there's snow,

and then there is freezing rain,

that icky cold mess than makes you want to stay inside.

Meryl and I ventured out to the Seward Cafe, of course,

and then to Riverview Theatre for a $2 showing of Depicable Me

(the best $4 I ever spent)

and then stayed inside the rest of the day doing art,

cooking, eating, and staying warm.

Here's a cell phone camera shot of what I worked on

while Meryl was carving a linoleum block

for her letterpress class tomorrow.

Hyenas and hand puppets.

I finished the boar skull painting the other day,
and immediately started a few new ones.

There's going to be a big to do come March,

and I need to get a move on if I'm going to be ready in time.

Adam W is leaving tomorrow morning for a NYC trip,

and he wanted to get a new tattoo before he left.

I drew up this hyena head for him,

which he didn't see until he got to the shop tonight,

and once he saw the angry face,

he wanted it a little "toned down".

(like adding the teddy bear to ryan's elephant)

So we ran through a few ideas, and settled on hand puppets,

which I then markered on.

We didn't get too far, since we only got started at 8pm,

but I'm super excited about it,

and wanted to post the progress photos.

We'll work on it again some time after Thanksgiving.

New Orleans, Part 2 (ish)

I know, it's been a little bit since NOLA.
But when Meryl and I lost the camera,
we lost some of the photos from the trip as well.
Luckily this tattoo was on Erica Flannes,
a rad tattoo artist in New Orleans,
and she was kind enough to send me a photo.

I added another guest spot to the travel plans section.

I'll be headed West this time.

I'll be in Grant's Pass, Oregon from February 14-19th,

and am starting to book up now.

It's actually an amazing opportunity that fell into my lap-

thanks to Off the Map's Mary Bowen.

(in case you didn't know, she's the best ever)

Gogue Art and Tattoo, Jeff Gogue's studio,

has kindly offered to have me guest spot there for the week,

and I couldn't possibly be more excited.

(he's so dope)

6 hours South of Olympia, and 4.5 from Portland.

Delivered.

Mail art.
I don't ever talk about it on the internet.
It just doesn't really belong there, you know?
Except today.
11-11, kids.
Never Quiet Never Soft is printing, stamping and mailing for the holiday.
Just ask, and it's yours.
Both of them.
And for free.
Go get em.

not bad for a wednesday.

Here's Tony's new stormy lighthouse tattoo.

I woke up this morning and ran a couple miles with Meryl,
went to work and tattooed all day long,
and then came home and went to work on some NQNS stuff.
Thursday is, after all, 11-11.
It was a full day,
and now that it's past 2 am,
I am headed to bed.
I'm tired, my knees hurt, I even tattooed by own thumb.
(by accident, unfortunately)
But it was all pretty great.
(except the thumb part)
I also got halfway through a really fun owl tattoo,
but didn't finish before 8pm rolled around.
Another day....

No time for logic.

Adam M has been getting a bunch of work added to his cuckoo clock tattoo.
It now has a background,
but still doesn't make any sense.
Apparently this clock defies gravity.

The photo is pretty crappy,
since, thanks to DST, the sun now sets before 5pm,
so an outdoor shot was impossible.
But we're extending it all the way onto his foot,
so there's lots of opportunity for better shots later.
This is just a blog, after all, and not a portfolio,
which I have to remind myself all the time.

Tomorrow I'm doing a lighthouse tattoo for the first half of the day,
and then a baby owl tattoo till close.
Awesome.

Weekending.

This week's Painting Monday wasn't as productive as I was hoping.
I started painting this warthog skull as practice,
but I only got a couple hours into it before I was needing certain spots to dry
before I could go back into them.
I guess it's a lot like tattooing.
If you do a spot orange,
it's going to be a bitch to try and change it to white a couple minutes later.
So when I went to tighten up the mouth area,
I realized it'd have to wait till another day.
(of course, the skull is being painted from life,
since I Ryan keeps finding me the sickest skulls around,
and working off of google images is not dope at all)

I also had a bunch of drawings to do for this work week starting tomorrow.
As long as everything goes as planned,
it should be a full week of tattoo photos for the blog (portfolio?).
It's funny the waves that exciting tattoo projects come in.
Sometimes it's awesome all week long,
and sometimes it's......not.

The gift that makes the other gift stop giving.

Justin's birthday is October 31rst,
which is pretty awesome.
A little less awesome, however,
is the pumpkin tattoo he got on his birthday a few years back.
Ouch.
Justin's mom wanted to help make the pumpkin go away,
so this year for his birthday,
she bought him a big cover up tattoo.
(what? i know! such a nice mom)

You'll have to click on the photo to see it in a not itty-bitty size.
It's the 3 stages of making a pumpkin disappear.
Stencil/maker stage, then session one, then second/final sit.
I believe it was about 6 hours total.

Back at it.

Hannah came to me with a 10 line poem she wanted tattooed on her,
and wanted some images to go with it.
Somehow, we started an entire half-back-onto-butt piece,
and still didn't even put the words in there.
We're going to have to do it in a bunch of sittings,
but I'm really excited about it.
I wanted to show the beginnings,
and I'll post some progress shots along the way.
(it's a statue with morning glories climbing up it)




It's nice being back at Identity Tattoo,
with things like arm rests, and lights,
and a photocopier that has sizing options.
Conventions are fun and terrible at the same time.
I'll be in the shop all of November,
and have plenty of openings.
Just let me know.

New Orleans (part 1)

New Orleans.
Yeah.
I'm going to have to split it up into two parts,
mostly because Halloween in the Big Easy got so crazy
that we lost our camera,
and all of the holiday photos.
No kidding.
So if you were there,
send me your photos.
(or maybe our camera?)

I have some of the convention shots,
but the big action wasn't inside the hotel ballroom.
I've never seen a place get so into getting dressed up,
and I promise to bring the thunder to every Halloween to come.

Meryl was the biggest help ever,
and it was super nice to have her there.
Here's us dressed up.



I had a tail, too.
Which was forgotten about,
and since I sit down to pee,
it ended up in the toilet later on that night.
Luckily, I had another costume for when we hit the town.



I didn't have a light while tattooing,
which wasn't too bad,
but the photos came out weird in the dark.





A ton of thanks to Li for showing us around,
and bringing us to the center of all the chaos.

Thanks, also, to a bunch of super nice tattoo artists
(they do exist!)
for their hospitality and generosity.
A shout out to Eye Candy Tattoo, Mid City, and the Body Shop,
thanks for taking care of the out-of-towner without a car.

I'll hopefully have New Orleans part II up soon,
with more tattoo photos.

Delayed.

Our plane is landing right now in New Orleans.
Problem is, we're not on it.
Our flight from MPLS to Milwaukee got canceled this morning,
and we got stuck here.
It's 84º in NOLA today,
and only 41º here.
(with 40mph winds)

I had wanted an extra day in New Orleans
so that Meryl and I weren't just there for the convention,
and we'd be able to spend a little time in the city.
My "working vacation" just got whittled down to "working".
oh well.

I had a client who wanted a sexy grim reaper tattoo,
and although my first thought was this,
this is what we ended up with:



I hope everyone has a great Halloween weekend,
packed to the brim with treats.
If you're looking for something more on Saturday night,
Todd and I have some paintings at Cult Status Gallery,
and the opening night party goes till 1 am.
If you make it down there,
take a couple photos for me,
cause hopefully I'll be in New Orleans.

American Tattoo

American Tattoo

American Tattoo

American Tattoo Master

American Tattoo Master

American Tattoo Master

American Tattoo Master

On a Stick.

Oh man.
This weekend was non-stop.
After working the convention all day Friday,
I got home late,
went to bed later,
woke up early, ran the 5k with Meryl (and Ryan and Rebecca!),
and went back to the convention.
I wasn't tattooing Saturday,
but I helped out and stayed busy.

I gave out lots of stickers:



but didn't sell prints very well:



Ben Rettke took "Tattoo of the Day" Saturday,
for a super dope version of Alice in Wonderland's Mad Rabbit.

Sunday I worked the booth solo,
since Todd was home with his daughter,
and Ben went home sick.
I spent 6 hours on this gnome riding a turtle,
and it won "Tattoo of the Day" that night!
That means Identity Tattoo took it home all three nights.



I'm super flattered by those wins,
and grateful for all the help I had at the convention
(especially Meryl),
and for all my rad clients getting tattooed
and entering them in the competitions.

I'm also grateful that it's over now,
and going back to work tomorrow is going to be a relief.
I have some availability before Meryl and I head down to New Orleans,
so let me know if you need a new tattoo in October.

(and yes, the gnome has a panties on a stick)

dead birds ARE sexy

(and the judges agree)

Who's more tired than me?
I tattooed a full 9.5 hours today,
it's 1:30 am,
and I'm waking up super early to go run a 5k tomorrow.
I know, I'm an a-hole.
I can't help it.

First day of the Minneapolis Tattoo Convention down,
and other than being beat, I'm pretty excited.
I got to do two really fun pieces,
and Matt's dead swan took Tattoo of the Day.
Here's an unbelievably hurty looking photo Meryl got of it.



And a shot of the booth while Todd and I tattooed.



Thanks to Matt and Mr Shoemaker for being the two best clients ever,
and for both sticking around to enter their pieces in the contest.
(Matt actually left, and then came back)

I'm not tattooing tomorrow,
(but I'll be attending the convention all day)
and will be back to tattooing Sunday.

And now for a cat nap before I'm off to go run.

Pre-convention Preview

The Minneapolis Tattoo Convention starts tomorrow.

Identity Tattoo got some fancy banners printed up,

and is kicking off the show dressed for "Not Casual Friday", of course.

I'm doing two dead bird tattoos,

and a gnome riding a turtle.

It really doesn't get any more fun than that.

It'll be 84˚ out tomorrow,

so I won't blame you for not wanting to be inside a hotel convention hall.

But if you do go, stop by to say hello.

I'll have three prints for sale,

including the one shown above.

A dead swan, a dead peacock, and some dead crows.

Cause you know...

Dead Birds Are Sexy

Cut off.

Meryl and I did it up right yesterday.

We started with pancakes at Seward Cafe,

took a drive to the St Croix River,

walked on an old railroad tracks path along the river,

went to an apple orchard,

stopped and got some pumpkins,

and took the long way home through Wisconsin

to check out some super nice foliage changing.

What could possibly make the day any better?

How about finally doing the long awaited,

best tattoo idea anyone has ever approached me with?

And done on one of my favorite people ever.

Katie's got a laugh that beats mine in every way possible.

She also has a penis she's not particularly into.

No kidding.

Extra baggage, if you will.

Leftovers from the move.

Eventually, it'll be reconstructed into a whole new deal,

but that might be a little while.

So until then, Katie wanted to hint at what's to come.

Foreshadowing foreskin, kids.

NSFW

Chef's Choice

Saturdays book out pretty far in advance.
But sometimes we have last minute cancellations,
leaving us with a wide open day,
and a measly $60 deposit for us to dry our eyes with.

In order to cheer myself up last minute,

I put out a call for any brave soul willing to get a

"you get what you get" tattoo to fill the spot.

That's what this was.

6 hours.

It's going to have more added to the background,

and a few little details added,

and then I'll get a healed photo.

There's lots of exciting things on the horizon right now,

and I have a new fire in my belly.

Tomorrow kicks off the first of "Painting Mondays",

a weekly art session that I've carved out a space in my week for,

since otherwise painting rarely ever happens.

I hope to have lots to show for it soon.

400.

This is my four hundredth blog post.
Which sounds like a lot,
until I realized I've been writing since early 2007.
And then I just felt lazy.
Ha.

Casey had the big wedding this weekend,
and all the family came out from everywhere for it.
It was on a riverboat on the Mississippi,
and everything was really nice.
I found out that there's a kind of pretend lighthouse
hanging out on the shore of the river in MPLS.
I mean, it's real, and has a light,
but if you need it for navigational purposes,
you should probably not be driving. anything. (ever)

Here's Meryl looking all matron-of-honory,
and timed just right for the lighthouse.



Also, the next guest spot at Off the Map has been set!
January 2nd-7th, 2011
I'll be starting to take appointments this week,
but I'm booking it slightly differently this time.

If you want to get tattooed,
email me your idea with all relevant info:
size, black and grey or color, body area, etc.
Preference will be given to tattoos that best fit my style,
and I'd like to work in 4-6 hour blocks of time.
Once we set a date,
you'll have to call OTM and give them a deposit.

I just realized I didn't book my stay at Maynard House yet,

so I'm off to do that.

email me if you want in.

shawnhebrank@gmail.com

mid week, mid month

Meryl's sister Casey is having a big wedding party on a riverboat this week,
and all the family is coming to town.
Her dad and step mom came a few days early,
for some extra baby time and new tattoos.
Here's my father-in-law getting getting his first ever tattoo.



I came back from Peru to a few really fun projects.
Here's the first sitting of a big chest piece cover up.
You can see the old horned skull underneath the ram skull.




The world has been paying more attention to "body art" lately,
but is lumping it all together every time it's discussed.
Identity Tattoo doesn't do piercings or body modification,
and every day we have to explain our reasonings.
Meryl's been bumping into a lot of these discussions
in online literary communities,
and she wrote a blog post about it.
(that's my lady)

NQNS and DDD

Yesterday was September 11th.

And you know what that means, right?

Something sexy was put up on the NQNS website.

Every month,

on the eleventh,
that's what happens.



I keep things pretty busy.
Apparently, that's the way I like (need?) it.
This October, though, is going to top it all.
It'll be nice, then, to kick off the month with a Dark Dark Dark show.
A record release party, even.
And better yet,
they asked me to do up the flier for them....
I did a black and grey version
(for easy/cheap copying)
and this color version.
It's going to be so good,
you might be an a-hole if you miss it.

Solemente tres dias

I didn't have too many expectations for my 3 day visit to Peru.
I figured as long as I got to see some lighthouses and dead birds,
(and didn't completely starve)
it'd be a successful trip.
It was such a strange and short adventure.
Lima is a city dealing only in extremes.
A coastal city that's also a desert.
It is always grey and foggy,
but never rains.
Old building next to new ones,
with Incan ruins right in the middle of the city.
A business hub surrounded by excessive poverty.

Here's the Faro de la Marina Lighthouse in Miraflores,
only blocks from our hotel.

Lighthouse - check.

Miraflores (part of Lima) from the "beach".

We found dead everything down there,

including some birds.

Dead Peruvian birds - check

Adam and I aren't very proficient in Spanish,
but we got by.
And I found a fully vegetarian restaurant that catered to vegans,
so of course I went every day.
Not starving - check

The rest of it was just icing on the cake.

Lots of sexy old government buildings, churches,

museums and ruins.

We did a lot of tours,

by bicycle, van, taxi, walking, etc.

The best, by far, though,

was inside the Church of San Francisco.

There's catacombs under the church,

with the remains of over 25,000 people.

They didn't allow photos,

but here's a link to exactly what we saw.

So dope.

Most of the world resides in the Northern Hemisphere,

so it was exciting to cross the equator.

Thanks to Adam for figuring out the trip,

and inviting me to join him.

Now it's back to work tomorrow.