Wnter's End (kinda).

Last day of Winter, kids.
Not that you'll notice any changes out here.
It's chilly and rainy and so completely Pacific Northwesty,
and that won't be different anytime soon.
(I post some damp looking nature photos on my tumblr sometimes)
Johnny visited us this weekend,
and we checked out the House of Mystery yesterday.
The biggest mystery was why we didn't bring coats to Oregon,
since it was pretty cold, and hailing.

I did that cicada drawing for my month-long one-a-day project, Rot and a Ribbon.
It's not easy doing a new piece every day,
especially when you're tattooing all day and have visitors, too.
Wednesday I drive up to Portland for my Scapegoat guestspot,
and I have no idea where I'll find the time up there.

Anyway, here's some of the pieces I've been doing lately.
Ashley got a raven and lantern on her shoulder blade.
Sat like a rock for the whole thing,
and brought in lots of homemade vegan treats.
She's also healing it perfectly, so I'll have a good photo soon.






















Johnny got an entire upper back and over the front Maiden Hair fern started.
Just to hit all the terrible spots.
Looking forward to working on this again soon.

















And then we finally finished Meryl's thigh piece.
This photo is during the healing process,
but I have no patience.
More photos soon.






















The guest spot out here is winding down.
I'm both bummed on leaving this amazing experience,
but also excited to get back to my house and shop in Minnesota,
and get started on a pile of fun, new projects.
I also plan on returning as much as I can without becoming unwelcome.
Happy Spring, everyone.

Stealing Shiny Shit

Liz got her magpie and pendant tattoo yesterday.

It looked all red and hurty when we were done,

so I asked her to stop back in today so I could grab another photo.

Unfortunately, the best one I took came out blurry.

Nice.

So, here's them both,

and you get the idea.

I also tattoo her brother-in-law on Saturday,

so I'll try for a third time, then,

if it's not too peely and gross.

One more week left at Identity Tattoo (for a while).

It doesn't quite feel real yet...

but I'm about to send out a big deposit for our "vacation home" rental,

and that is certainly helping it all seem less pretend.

We're a bunch of stressed out weirdies at Louderhorn Inn these days.

We've got multiple to-do lists,

but there's not enough coffee or hours in the day to get it all done.

It'll be less sleep and more yelling then normal.

My apologies to the last few people getting tattooed by me before I leave.

It's a Rocky Horror sing-a-long from here on out,

(no matter WHAT is playing on the stereo)

happy holidays.

Forever.

Tim (from SuchLuck and Parking Block Publishing)
visited MPLS this weekend,
and I gave him a little mail/mail-art inspired tattoo.
We tucked it around a few other tattoos on his wrist,
and I think that pretty much finished off that sleeve.
We've been internet friend for 6 years or so,
so it was cool to have brunch and hang out irl finally.






















Speaking of mail-art,
after 10 years of sending art through the mail,
Meryl and I finally committed to a name for what we do,
and even set up a little blog.
We'll only post after we assume that everyone has received it,
as to not spoil the surprise of getting mail in the first place.
Four-Letter Press.
(or, Four-Letter Qress if you're rushing)

Meryl's Mom and Jim are also in town this week,
and they brought with them raspberry bushes from the farm.
We planted a whole row of them in the backyard,
and look forward to them producing some fruit in the next year or so.

It's kind of Spring here now,
but it snowed on Friday,
and there's plans for more snow tonight and tomorrow.
Not my plans, of course,
but it's happening all the same.
So we're having a little fire in the backyard tonight,
(a la albie rock)
and hopefully that will deter the snow gods from spiting us again.
I mean, it's late April.
Enough already.

Bird Week at Identity Tattoo

I tattooed some birds this week.
Tuesday kicked it off with Adam's dead baby bird,
and then there was one bird-ish thing a day for the rest of the week.

Stephanie came by with her 85 year old mom again,
and they both got tattooed.
Stephanie got her owl/cat/mouse scene all filled in,
but I think we're doing other projects before we do a bunch of background.






















Pamala finished off my week yesterday with another knitting animal.
This time it was a knitting catbird,
on the opposite forearm of the knitting cat.
Mulberries are fun to tattoo (and so good to eat).
I loved doing these tattoos,
so it's a shame Pamala doesn't have any more tattoo plans for the future.
If anyone knows any rad knitting librarians that want fun tattoos,
send them my way, please.






















This peacock feather also got made sometime this week.
There was another one, too,
but apparently I forgot to snap a photo?
















Now it's the weekend,
and I'm painting, making clay antlers,
doing drawing, buying old books,
cutting cardboard, and writing press releases.
Having an art show is a lot of work, it seems.
Doesn't help that I'm apparently getting sick.
Hopefully lots of new stuff to show Tuesday.
Otherwise, I'm dead.

Your Turn - Round 2

Well, that didn't take too long, did it?

Kelly Doty posted the story on my facebook page January 28th,
and I just did this today (February 3rd).
I was going to do it yesterday,
but I was too busy celebrating Groundhog Day.
(did you see Albie's post? too funny)

Anyway, as you can see,
Mike G's chest is super pissed at me,
and not just because I shaved off all of the manliness.
I'll get a healed photo without all of that red hurtiness around it,
but for now, here's the tattoo commemorating the love shared between Hamish
and his not-gender-specific goose partner.
Bff's for life.






















A million thank you's to Mike G for sitting like a rock,
and for getting the whole damn thing in the first place.

And now it's back to Kelly's turn.
This is her new assignment:
a carjacked circus lion
One month.

Off to a good start.

I'm jealous every time someone gets a first tattoo that isn't an instant regret.























My first one was mantramp stamp-ish.
(hiding it from the parents)
The week I turned 18.
Terrible ideas.
Luckily, I got it covered.
(as best you can cover some scarred up solid blackness)

Anyway, point is,
this was her first tattoo.
And she did it all in one shot.
So it's either a start to a serious tattoo addiction,
or it scared her away from ever getting another one.
We'll see.

I love doing bird tattoos,
and ribbons/banners that don't have any words in them,
so this was a bunch of fun.
And as I always say,
I'm hoping to get photos of this healed.

Still Off the Map

Day two at my Off the Map Guest Spot was a good one.
I tattooed my two favorite kinds of clients,
librarians, and the colorblind.
(someday I'll meet a colorblind librarian,
and we'll be best friends)

This was Carolyn's first tattoo.
The photo is super dark,
I'm hoping to get a better one soon.























Next, Mr Bruton came up from CT to get a ram (goat?) skull tattoo,
and I used only subtle variations of earth tones that he can't even see.
And after I beat his arm into submission,
I went and did a touch up on his foot.
Nice.
(i bet that was a fun hour drive home)























Tomorrow switches gears from birds to squirrels.
Lots of drawing and tattooing going on,
and I'm hoping to get in a little painting, too.
I only have 6 days every 6 months or so out here,
so you have to pack in as much as possible.

Mapping it Out.

Maynard F'n House.

Back in it.

Warm vegan cookies when you walk in the door.

(starting the year off right)

Today was the first day of my Off the Map guest spot.

So good to see everyone again,

and to get to work after some holiday time off.

My two clients today were both badasses,

and both are celebrating birthdays this week!

Happy Birthday, kids!

Started the day with Mr Hart.

He got some hurricane side-stomach action,

and sat like a champ.

Here's a red and hurty looking photo:

Then Virginia drove up from the Bronx,

got this bird tattooed on her ribs,

and then drove all the way back home.

Day one down, five to go.

I have a few more bird tattoos to do,

a couple squirrels,

some ferns,

and a skull or two.

And that'll pretty much wrap it up.

If everyone sits like these two,

it'll be an awesome week.

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.

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.

Los faros y la comida vegan

Healed photos of tattoos is always the goal,
but sometimes freshly done tattoos are also posted.
Half healed/half fresh tattoo photos should be avoided at any cost,
unless, of course, you haven't posted anything in 12 days.
So, here's one of those halfies,
which I hope to get a healed photo of soon:



12 days?
I don't even know.
I certainly wasn't doing anything too awesome.
That starts this week.
Saturday night I leave for Peru.
A lot of people keep asking me what I'll be doing in Peru,
and the answer is: I have no idea.
If anyone's been to Lima,
and has all the city hotspots and secrets,
do let me know.
Otherwise I'll be super happy with some lighthouse visits
and some good vegan food.

The Deadest Bird of All

If Dead Birds Are Sexy,
(and we know they are)
extinct birds must be the sexiest.
There's not even taxidermied dodos hanging out any more.
Thanks to Jak from Mutiny Tattoo for coming out
to get this dodo bird tattoo from me.
Always a little bit odd tattooing tattoo artists, you know?




Seward Cafe is our every Sunday morning brunch place,
and this Sunday at brunchtime
I found one of my stickers had been vandalized.
A little razor blade rewording isn't going to stop
dead birds from being so darn sexy,
and I'm certainly not going to stop stickering.
But I applaud the effort.

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A little bit of Brooklyn.

Louderhorn Inn was full of food and laughing these last couple days.
Megan and Joan came out to Minneapolis to hang out, get tattooed, and overeat.
They were only here for 50ish hours,
so we just crammed it all in.
No kidding.
We hit Hard Times, Seward Cafe, Evergreen, Triple Rock, and Mayday.
And Meryl cooked an awesome meal somewhere in there as well.

No tour of Minneapolis is complete without a trip to Ryan and Rebecca's Garages of Oddities in NE,
where there's lots of taxidermy, bicycles, and craigslist scores.
Here's their latest find, a 1950's Exercycle.
It plugs in, and you have little control after that.
East coasters getting their laugh on:





Joan loves birds, but just didn't know she loved dead birds as well.
(now she's converted)
Here's her new (not dead) goldfinch.



Thanksgiving is right around the corner.
I'm certainly thankful that I know lots of awesome folks,
and that so many of them take the efforts to come visit us out here.
We're flattered that everyone has made Minnesota a destination
(especially in late November!)

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