And....now back to Antler Creatures.

Did you miss them?
This one landed on Elias' underarm, matching the placement of Juanes'. They can make the antler creatures kiss in this horrible act of cross contamination. (I've seen it).
I would like to state for the record, there hasn't been a crutch or an antler to come out of OHIO in quite a while. JR promises more, but at this rate, I think he'd have to start a leg sleeve of crutches with antlers in order to catch up. He's like Hillary, and I'm Obama.

So, Casey came and left, and Michelle arrived. I doubt she was expecting the youth hostel we're running, but has managed to find a space in the living room to set up camp.

You Betcha!

Adam finally finished his Minnesota pride tattoo today. Two sits of three hours each. We have all the state things included: the common loon, the wall-eye, the lady slippers, even the state phrase. I wanted to add in Prince, but he wasn't feeling it. I was also hoping to do some dead cardinals (OHIO's state bird) being crushed by the awesomeness that is Minnesota, but he wasn't having that, either.
Oh well.

The wave of visitors.

It's a true story: I have single handedly boosted Minnesota tourism totals 10% in the year I've been here.
Elias (formally Fidget) and Juanes made it safely to MPLS yesterday, Casey comes Wednesday, Michelle comes Friday, and my dad's going to be at a convention here all next week. And, since my friends know what's important in life, Juanes added the latest victory to Minneapolis in the 'Great Antler and Crutch War' on this fitting holiday.
After you've put all your picnic foods in your mouth, please remember our friends in OHIO who are now officially losing, and will never again gain the upper hand.
I am debating bringing the tattoo equipment to CT in two weeks when I go for
Andy's wedding. If so, you can have whatever tattoo you want, as long as you want a weird animal with antlers.
If you want a tattoo in MPLS before I go out to CT for ten days, let me know asap.

Our own little castle.

So Meryl and I put an offer on a house today, and it got accepted (after some fierce negotiating on Meryl's part, while I was at work like a slacker). So, yeah.... I don't know how MPLS feels about moats filled with flesh eating bacteria, or the gun turret that Albie Rock will install on the roof for us. But those minor upgrades aside, it's so dope, and I am so excited. I've been spending tons of time on looking at houses, meeting with mortgage brokers, etc, so I'm happy to be moving forward, and moving in.

Today I tattooed some organicness on Rachel's shoulder/back. She believes in George Bush, and used her economic stimulus check at Identity Tattoo. Now, we may not be the biggest Bush supporters around, but we think letting him pay for your next tattoo is a great idea.

Right from my sketchbook.

Miss Bex has been collecting way too much fun tattoos for the past few months, and sat for these sexy legs last night. She did so well, no complaining at all, even though it's on her underarm, and almost to the armpit.
By the time we were done, it was pretty swollen/angry/raw, so I'll get a better picture soon, this is just a sneak peak.

Big things are happening. I hope to have the most awesome news tomorrow to share.

Art Games.

At Identity Tattoo, we're doing this painting exercise/contest thing where we each draw up a jackalope, then we have to paint not only our drawing, but the other two coworkers jackalopes as well. So we'll each have done three paintings, making nine total between us. It'll be fun to see how differently we each paint, and attack the very same outline.
These are due at the end of this month, but I finished painting my own jackalope, minus any finishing touches I throw in after it's dry.
Sorry about the glare on the the leg area. It's oil on 8x10 gesso board.

Time and Crutches

"We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch." John F. Kennedy

There's been a large focus on Time for me lately, and not only with me not having enough of it. In a month from now, I'll be in CT visiting and attending my good friend Andy's wedding. June 30th is our last day in this apartment, and we need to have bought a house before then to move into. May 20th is Meryl and my 2nd year anniversary, but in June will be our 10 year anniversary of "being together". Yeah, I know, it's crazy.

Anyway, today I worked a lot more on the "pile of skulls" sleeve. This time some black roses and thorns under the arm, but he sits like a champ, and lets me do my thing. We're going to add a little more blackness dripping from it after it heals.
Also, the war between myself and OHIO is still going on, and I would love to do this drawing as a tattoo. If this, or any other antler or crutch tattoo ideas call to you, let me know. And there will be a drawing to match the John F. Kennedy quote above posted tomorrow, which will need to immediately be turned into a tattoo as well.

Antlers AND Crutches!

With Dustin's help, MPLS was not only victorious in the latest battle, but is now on a winning streak of two. It will be hard for OHIO to now rise from this latest defeat, boost morale and rally the troops to keep up the fight. While they are in such a weakened state, I am also barraging them with mail of all kinds, but I never post my mail art on here, so you'll have to use your imagination. Here's two hints: there's a lot of it, and it's awesome.
Anyway, a frog with antlers climbing a crutch makes me pretty happy. I hope to get a better picture of it soon, one without outside redness and bloodspots, but this will give you the idea.

In other news, yesterday was both Mother's Day and Meryl's 27th birthday. We have her sister Casey visiting, and it was a really awesome day. We did the bootlegging/mushroom caves under St Paul, Seward Cafe (where they stuck a candle in her tofu-no joke), went to an art show, and then had some banging Indian food in some far away suburb. I had fraternized with the enemy, and asked JR's wife to make Meryl this awesome purse. Her name is Mandi, and has lots of hot stuff here.

The war between OHIO and MPLS

Right now, OHIO is winning. There's an art war on between JR of FX Tattoos and myself, involving painting, tattooing, mail, and other yet to be used mediums. We also narrowed down the imagery being used to antlers and crutches, really causing us to focus on that which truly matters: absurdity and competition
After seeing two dope pieces JR did this week, I was able to do this one on Ryan, and score one for MPLS. If anyone wants to help out my side in this fight, please let me know. I have a bunch of drawings all waiting for homes on your body.

Skeletal Pirates and more.

Unless you happen to have gotten to tattooer stardom, tattooing involves a lot of compromise.
You're working with customers on their ideas, aesthetics, size requirements, pain limitations, and budget.
Sometimes, people give you a lot more control, and real fun tattoos are able to be created. I was given the idea for this piece, and little other direction. I even ignored the spacial limitations and blasted the pirate hat over a really poorly done rose outline on the elbow. I enjoyed myself greatly, and I know he was real happy with the results.
Also, if anyone is looking for a tattoo involving antlers or crutches (or both), I am officially on it. I will have lots of drawing of said imagery on request by email or stopping in at Identity Tattoo.
I hope your Mayday was awesome, Meryl and I will be headed to the parade here in MPLS tomorrow.