I heart Philadelphia,
and all the people who made it such an awesome time this weekend.
My friends are really the best.
They drove and bused in from five states:
we tattooed our asses off,
celebrated Jaime turning 30,
ate tons of vegan food,
and got absolutely no sleep.
And running on 5 hours sleep
after tattooing for 12 hours
was certainly a lot easier
when I drank a 12 pack of Dr Pepper a day.
I shared a booth with Laura Usowski of CT's Lovecraft Tattoo,
and it went so very well.
(she ALSO did bird taxidermy for Yale's Peabody Museum,
so she's on board with loving dead birds and all that)
But she's pretty awesome at booth sharing,
and took good care of me and my poor packing skills.
I didn't really get any good photos of the tattoos I did.
So these two will have to be "teaser" shots
until better photos hopefully get emailed to me soon.
A birthday surprise vegan pride tattoo for Randon,
bought for him by his girlfriend MiMi.
No Milk, No Masters.
MiMi got her own tattoo, too.
An antlered pink flamingo named Kyle.
(named after my brother,
who bused up from University of Maryland for the weekend
to help me out and charm my friends.
he did a fantastic job in both accounts.
i mean, c'mon, he got a tattoo named after him)
On Sunday, the last day of the convention,
Northampton's Amy and Jaime joined Kyle and I on a pre-workday lighthouse hunt.
We found The Sedgeley Club,
which is a building some "lady's club" built around an 1887 lighthouse,
located on the Schuylkill River.
It's Philly's only lighthouse, of course,
and it was a beautiful morning to walk around.
SO many people came to get tattooed,
or just say hang out.
I appreciate everyone taking the time off of work,
spending money on gas and bus tickets,
hotels and convention wristbands.
Hope everyone had a good time.
Now I got to get back to Minneapolis,
cause an Albie Rock visit is only a couple days away.
Hopefully I can get everything unpacked,
straightened up, and ready to go in time.
We have some big plans for "Never Quiet, Never Soft".
Good thing I didn't lose my voice in Philly.
