I'll miss you, Philly.

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.

Getting Closer...

I finished my convention banner this morning, I think.
Here it is in an early morning/almost done stage.



Yeah, it's made entirely out of burlap.
I meant to call up Kingpin,
and ask if banners with imagery other than skulls were allowed.
No kidding.
Have you ever been to one of these things?
Skulls everywhere.
Oh, and tattoo machines.
Sometimes tattoo machine and skull morphs.
Or crossed tattoo machines with hot rod flames.
Yeah, yeah.
Or naked ladies riding tattoo machines.
Oh man, I feel like I'm there already.

I'll be sharing a booth with Connecticut's Laura Usowski,
co-owner of Lovecraft Tattoo,
and fellow dead bird lover.
I got some of my absolute favorites all coming to visit,
some of whom aren't even getting tattooed.
I'm pretty sure there's going to be a Sunday morning lighthouse visit,
before I do some more work on this piece.
Vegan brunch and a lighthouse group photo?
Oh man.


After shipping off the convention shirts this morning to the future me,
I got to spend some serious time in the garden.
What's more badass than burlap?
Compost piles, apparently.
Mine fought back when I attacked it with a shovel.
I kept wiping it off,
and it just kept bleeding.
I let it drip into a little baby Swiss Chard plant that
I'm hoping grows up to at least eat some
of the squirrels in the neighborhood.

Bringing Sexy back to Philadelphia

The shirts for the Philly Tattoo Convention are done,
thanks to some serious help from Ryan and Rebecca today.
They feature an upside-down owl on them,
with a banner reading (right side up):
"dead birds are sexy"

Here's a little sneak peek of Rebecca wearing one in this
VERY candid photo.
(the guys version is a darker brown shirt,
with mustard yellow ink)

I pack them up tonight,
and ship them off to the East Coast tomorrow.
I'm not sure if there will be any left after the show,
so if you want one, I hope you'll be there.

Opening Day of Spring.

The first day of Spring?
Finally.
Minnesota knows how to do Winter,
that's for sure.
But we're past that now.
We're over it, and moved on.

Springtime equals springbreak out this way.
I just finished up a jam packed week tattooing kids off from school,
all of whom needed to get their tattoo before they have to go back to Duluth,
or Wisconsin,
or North Dakota.
They had a week free of responsibilities,
and a check in the mail from Uncle Sam.

This weekend will mostly be spent finishing everything for the convention.
I leave for Philly on Thursday.
I no longer have any idea who's coming and who's not,
but I'll be there.


I did a tardigrade tattoo today.
These things are made tough.
(they are the only known animal that's able to survive the vacuum of space)
Too bad they got nicknamed "moss piglets".
Spencer and I geeked about fungi and dead birds and bunches of other things
while he braved this under arm tattoo.
You have to be a serious science nerd to really appreciate microscopic creatures,
but you know if it's an over-fed creepy animal,
I'm all over it.

Working Hard and Making Dirt

Weekend?
Not this week.
I tattooed Jen yesterday,
and then Meryl today.
Tomorrow starts the work week all over again,
but it's not exactly back to work,
since I never really left.

But finally finishing Meryl's black swan tattoo was a big accomplishment.
We started it sometime last summer.
So 8 months, and 25+ hours of tattooing later....



I'll get a healed photo of the entire thing soon.
After the tattoo session,
we went out to dinner to celebrate being done.
Then I headed over to Ryan's,
who was spending his evening putting together a compost tumbler for me.
I'll post photos once I paint the barrel.
Louderhorn Inn will be making some of the sexiest dirt in MPLS this year,
thanks to Ryan.

3.14

We didn't even have pie on the actual Pi Day,
so it's a good thing we celebrated earlier in the week.
I did have some perfectly circular pancakes at Seward Cafe today,
to at least keep the overall theme.

Jen drove out from Wisconsin yesterday,
and today we headed into Identity Tattoo for a big tattoo session.
Jen hasn't always been the toughest client ever,
but today she sat stiller than still for 4+ hours,
and then had to drive 5+ hours home.
I hope she is able to send a healed photo to me eventually,
but for now, here's her new cherry blossoms tattoo.



I've been blogging for over three years now,
and it hasn't changed much in shape or style.
But today I changed it to allow comments again.
I'm sure I'm asking for it.

I'll be out in Philly for the tattoo convention March 26-28th.
I get back to the shop on Tuesday the 30th,
and the very next day Albie Rock arrives in town for a week.
There's going to be a ton of tattooing,
shirt making, art doing, and more happening that week.
Want an appointment with him?
Let us know.
763.535.1313
or stop in to leave a deposit.

That's some back to back busyness.
Hope to see you here or there.

Queer for Homophones

Pi Day is coming up this Sunday, March 14th.
(get it? 3.14?)

But since Dark Dark Dark leaves for tour between now and then,
we celebrated a little early.
Consider it Pi Week, maybe.
Just look at this spread.
(and Meryl didn't even get them all in the photo)




Meryl spent a bunch of time making two different savory pies,
and they were so good.
So good.



So there's still plenty of snow around.
But Spring is here, kids.
Even in Minneapolis.



I know the blogging has been a bit slow lately,
but I assure you I'm still tattooing.
Tax returns are keeping me busy at the shop,
and all of my "time off" is spent putting some big projects together.
I'll have lots to show for it soon.