Cherry on a Spoon.

Cody and I have been working steadily on his MN leg sleeve,
and I look forward to unveiling it in the not-too-distant future.
We skip around a lot to avoid healing areas,
and today we worked on the bottom part;
Minneapolis' 'Spoonbridge and Cherry' art piece from the
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
We even did a little reflection of it in the pond below,
and I thought that was kinda cute,
so I snapped a little phone photo to end my lack of blogging as of late.






















You know what else I did today?
Bought my plane tickets for Portland, Oregon.
I'll be tattooing at Optic Nerve November 13-16th.
If you want to book some time with me while I'm out there,
let me know asap.
Four days fill up fast!

Land of 11,842 lakes.

Yeah, someone counted.

A start to a MN pride leg sleeve.
Big love for the sota, none of that mini shit.
And it's his first tattoo.
Ankle to upper thigh.
No kidding.
AND he's been to almost 30 states, so he can pick favorites.






















You know what drives me nuts?
The dudes who come in to get a little state outline,
and tell me how dope Minnesota is,
and how it's the best state,
and all of that.
Dudes, you don't have to convince me,
I moved here.
From some other state.
You were born here and have visited only South Dakota and Wisconsin.
(Duluth doesn't count as a separate state)

I'm enacting a new policy, right now.
You have to have been to at least ten states
in order to get a "MN Pride Tattoo".
(and I'm leaning toward only counting the Dakotas as one)
Even if (especially if?) it's only a little state outline.
And 15 states if you want it behind your ear.
Trust me, it's for your own good.
Some day, you'll visit Chicago,
(or somewhere REALLY crazy, like New York)
and your whole world will be blown.

Anyway, Cody's leg sleeve has it all,
except for Prince.
I thought he'd fit in perfectly riding the wolf,
especially if we were doing it in color,
and could use lots of 80's purple.
But black and grey is is,
so Prince was out.
Oh well.
I'm still having fun.

Got Places to Be

Here's a picture Big Dean took of me while I tattooed him at Off the Map.
Maybe it's because it was the last day I was there and I was tired, but I look so sweet and peaceful.
In every picture of me, you can do a "Where's Waldo" type hunt for the Dr Pepper can.
(Even in tattooed portraits of me.)
The story of that tragedy just made it to some new website called TattooBlog.
They sent over 10 average questions, but I sent them back a little creative nonfiction instead.
You can read the short version of the Great Antler and Crutch War of '08 all over again here.

I'll be visiting the winner of said war, JR Tubbs, his beautiful family and FX Tattoos in OHIO late January for a 3 day adventure. I made up an arrival announcement card.

Get ready, Ashtabula.
Lock up your pop. (soda)
JR's gonna be vegan the whole weekend, Sophie's turning 5, and I will try and top the Philly Convention in pure absurdity and volume.
Really.
January 30th, 31rst, and Feb 1rst.

While I'm discussing travel days:

I'll be headed East for the Holidays December 23rd - January 2nd.


That means I'll be at Identity Tattoo till December 20th. (the 21rst and 22nd are a Sunday and Monday, so the shop is closed).
I'll be back in the shop January 3rd.

(then there's a Dark, Dark, Dark show January 4th. Meryl and I just bumped into them at Seward while they were home visiting, and are so excited for the show. They are on tour, so check the link to see if you're lucky enough to be near one of the tour stops.)

There's a lot going on before I take another trip East. Email me, call, or stop by the shop if you're wanting to get tattooed while it's still 2008.