Too bad there's no ocean in Minneapolis....

Three day weekends?
Maybe for you guys.
I only had ONE day away from my home away from home.
Meryl and I went into the shop today to start her chestpiece.
And man, kids, she did awesome.
Even before Ryan and Rebecca showed up to cheer her on.
We didn't finish,
but after four hours,
we were (she was) done.

"some little language such as lovers use"
It's a Virginia Woolf quote,
taken from The Waves.

It'll be healed in time for our East Coast visit in June,
so we'll be able to swim in the ocean.
And we'll finish it as soon as we get back into town.



I finished a couple of drawings this weekend for some big projects.
I have a bunch more to do,
but not everyone gets three days off.
It's going to be two weeks of some late nights
before we head out east.

Man Hands

'Mr Coyote, what strange hands you have!'
'The better to do Cat's Cradle with, my dear.'


This guys is tucked between a face shooting laser beams from it's eyes,
and a bone lettered stomach rocker.
Yup, right smack on the ribs.
Marshall sat like a rock for it,
and put up with a million questions from me
about the world of music promotion and art collectives.



The shop was weirdly just ours,
since Todd and Ben aren't in the shop the rest of this week,
and part of next week, too.
Today's a Not-Casual-Friday,
so luckily Adam M will be at the shop helping me out,
and holding it down (with a tie on).

Things are about to get even busier.
The trip out east is only 3 weeks away,
and I have too much to do in that little bit of time.
We're hitting 5 states, doing a tattoo guest spot,
attending a wedding and a high school graduation.
We'll be there at the same time as Dark Dark Dark,
so getting to one of their shows in NYC seems like a necessity.

Have a good long weekend if you have one of those kind of jobs....

Summers are cuckoo.

Adam M is the new weekend front help at Identity Tattoo.
He tossed me a few ideas for a tattoo a couple weeks ago,
and I did up a few drawings.
I think, unfortunately, that I left out most of what he wanted,
and put in things he didn't ask for at all.
Actually, this had almost nothing to do with the original idea,
but he still liked it,
so we squeezed in this outline between appointments today.





Meryl and I turned 4 yesterday.
We were married that many years ago
next to a very sexy Connecticut lighthouse.
Meryl also just graduated from her MFA program last week,
and we have a bunch of art/home/garden projects and travel plans lined up for the summer.
It's already busy,
and it's about to get busier.

The new flower guys

Now that was a weekend.



Kicked it off with a dark dark dark show on Saturday night.

We did some seward cafe eating,
art-a-whirling,
dead sea scroll scoping,
st paul cathedral wedding witnessing,
polished nickel hardware shopping,
meryl completing her mfa celebrating,
gardening and yard working.


I ended my two perfect-weather days off
looking in all the florist dumpsters in Minneapolis.
There's a movie (or video?) happening this week,
and it requires a lot of (free) flowers.

I used to be quite the dumpster diver.
So much so that Meryl's mom mentioned it
in her toast at our wedding,
(exactly four years ago this thursday).
Actually, she called it 'dumpster dipping',
which is way cuter
(and far more accurate).

I've dipped in dumpsters
from Connecticut to Savannah to Seattle.
Back in those days,
it was multiple times a week.

Anyway, I still remembered how,
and we filled an old Volvo's trunk full
of not so fresh before your face flowers.
I hope the filming goes well.


Tomorrow is back to work,
with a full week of tattoos to do.
I got re-energized
by some great music,
good food,
and a throwback punk night out.

Stretched Stomachs, Tired Hands

My stomach didn't hurt at all today,
for the first time in nine days.
It was probably because I didn't eat three people's portions,
or send stabbing pains into my belly from laughing too hard.
Why not?
Albie Rock left us this morning,
after nine days of feasting and drawing.
So yeah, my guts don't hurt today,
but I certainly don't feel better.

I'm so bad at keeping secrets.
I want to show off all of the stuff we made
during his working vacation at Louderhorn Inn,
but it's being saved for a "grand revealing".
Never Quiet, Never Soft has never been this hard.
But not even a peak yet, kids.
We're timing it right,
for your faces.

So instead of all of that,
I'll show off a tattoo I did on Mr Rock his last day at Identity Tattoo.
I mean, it's no "daddy's house",
but it was an honor to tattoo him again.
Many, many years after I did my first tattoo ever,
but on the very same leg.



I spent the day settling back into some state of normalcy.
I returned some phone calls and emails that went overlooked
this past week while we were overeating.
It might be a little quieter around Louderhorn Inn for a minute,
but it won't be any slower.
Some finishing touches are needed before it's all done.

Eleven.

There's no mistaking that Albie Rock is in town.
I'm getting even less sleep than usual,
but everything else is more.
Laughing more, drawing more, eating more,
even finding more dead birds.

In between tattooing and hitting Minneapolis' vegan restaurants,
May Day parades and backyard barbecues,
we've been working on art for new everything.
We have a gifted trumpet and a borrowed tuba,
a few bags of goodies from Joann Fabrics,
bunches of drawings and lots of ideas.
Never Quiet, Never Soft, Never Enough Time.