A couple of tattoos and some news

Ok, so after London (still trying to catch up here!) Ryan Mason came to work with us.
His stay was a little hectic cause he got in later than planned, so he was super busy all week.
Which is great, of course, i just wish we'd had more time to hang out and show him around our city.
Maybe next time, if he decides to come back!

I didn't get pictures of all the tattoos he did cause i was a little preoccupied by my work in the darkroom (i've practically lived in there since we got back!) but luckily Ryan posted most of them on his blog, including the ones he did at the convention, so when you're done reading this, check his blog out.

But here are the two i did get pictures of; a large lower arm piece... and an even larger one!

Kasper's magpie

 

Rebecka's lower arm... she got pretty much all of it done in just one session!

I know this doesn't say much about the darkroom, but i wanted to post our progress anyway... those shelves were a bitch, but luckily Allan helped me out with the heavier table!

Just so this doesn't turn into a million posts in one day, i'm just gonna put this in here too: most people seem to already know this (people would even come up to us in London and offer their condolences!) but for those who don't; Eckel is leaving Denmark in December.
He's gonna travel around Asia for a couple of months, and while he doesn't know where he'll settle down after that, we already know it won't be Denmark.
However, don't despair, he'll still be coming back to do guest spots, much like that other guy, so your chance to get tattooed by him hasn't passed you by.
But he is booked for his last months here, so for those who didn't get in, you'll just have to wait till he comes back, probably in the spring sometime.
Keep an eye on the travel section of this blog, and on Eckel's personal blog too.

What his departure means for the shop, we still don't know.
But rest assured, Allan isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and neither am i!

We're obviously really going to miss Eckel, but we're finding it hard to put our feelings into words... so we'll leave that up to one mr. Axl Rose! Enjoy!

The London post

Arrrghh, i feel so terribly behind on posts right now!
I shouldn't be, it's just that a lot of stuff is happening right now, and it's hard to keep up.
Oh my god, i sound like Nick now...
But fear not, this is what staycations are for. I will catch up with myself!

First up; London!
I am trying to divide pictures between my two blogs, so they both get a piece of the convention action.
Not that i took a lot of pictures; i was generally too busy, tired, bored or stressed to do that, but i got a few.

Allan's flash project was a huge success. Or at least to us it was, but i'm hoping the people who got tattooed liked it as well.
We've tried the walk-up/line-drawing concept before, but this time, with the flash actually painted, people really seemed to respond to it, so that was great.
And Allan got to work more and do way more tattoos than usual (his goal, not mine!), so i think this is what's gonna happen next year too. I don't have a lot of finished tattoo pictures, but Allan already posted them all on his blog, so just go check them out there.
Maybe next year he'll start painting a little sooner than a week before?
Just a thought....

 Setting up on thursday... our banner came out a little (read: a lot) bigger than intended

BBMF (best booth-mate forever) Chriss Dettmer's half of the table

Awkward tattooing

SOLD

Allan and Kevin being all "grrr, metal"

Hand tattoo by Chriss Dettmer

Partying at the hotel means braiding Allan's hair!

Lies, straight from my instagram

Convention family having a tattoo party

Thanks to everyone who got tattooed, and to those who wanted to but didn't get in as well.
And thanks to our friends and clients for coming by the booth and hanging out when we didn't have time to come to them.
See you next year!

Julianne's Owl

I spotted Julianne on the 36th Street train platform in Brooklyn last month and struck up a conversation about her ink. She has eleven tattoos and offered up one of her more recent ones, this owl on her shin:

This was inked by Justin Stephan at A Stroke of Genius Tattoos in Boca Raton, Florida. I like the shop's website because not only was I able to find the tattoo in the artist's gallery, but Justin also commented on the piece a little, saying this was "a cool owl tattoo I did on a walk-in, she was a champ, sat like a rock, the tattoo is in the middle of her shin...".

Julianne likes owls and this is one of her favorite tattoos.

Thanks to Julianne for sharing her owl tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Lynn, Týr, and the Fenris Wolf

I met Lynn in my neighborhood over the summer as she was headed to Green Spa & Wellness Center, where she works as a massage therapist. She has a ton of ink, and shared the piece that dominates her right arm:

Lynn explained that this piece depicts the Norse god Týr and the Fenris wolf.

She elaborated:

"Týr got his hand bitten off by the Fenris wolf to prevent chaos from entering the world ... I kind of identify with that because I do massage therapy. I help people ... I injured myself helping people -  I'm right-handed ... it's not quite the same thing, but [it's] the whole idea of self-sacrifice. You know, the greater good."

Lynn credits Willie Paredes, co-owner of Brooklyn Tattoo, with creating this piece.

Thanks to Lynn for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

New Work by Matt Decker!

Memorial Piece

Finished Sleeve on John! 

Kyle's Industrial Sunflowers

Riding uptown on the 3 train, I see a sleeve half way across the car that just looks amazing. I can't make out the specifics, but the color and detail tell me it's a fantastic piece.

The problem is, it's a crowded express train during rush hour, and unless this guy gets off when I get off, I won't get a chance to talk to him.

As luck would have it, he does xit the train at the same stop, and as I am trying to catch up with him as he heads upstairs, and across Broadway, I recognize his left sleeve. His name is Kyle, I interviewed him in 2008 (using a borrowed camera, no less) and his post appeared here.

This is new ink, however, and when I finally catch Kyle on the north side of 72nd, it takes a moment, but he remembers me, and is happy to share his new work, which bears a similar theme to the tattoo I spotted last time our paths crossed:

It is by the same artist, Myles Karr, who had done the tattoo from the original post when he was at Saved Tattoo. Myles is now at Three Kings, also in Brooklyn.

Like the prior encounter, from over three years ago (May 2008), the right sleeve is a dichotomy. The left sleeve is a city vs country tension. This piece is dominated by a burst of sunflowers, which travel down the arm and circle the elbow.

On the flip side is another cityscape, this time more silhouetted, and he explains that his near-pastoral umbringing was punctuated by the sunflowers he and his mother harvested. This, juxtaposed by the industrial city, is the center of the tension between the two aspects of the tattoo.

As an afterthought, I snapped a shot of the murder of crows lining the inside of his arm. "I just love crows," he told me.

He also offered up this shin piece, also by Myles Karr:

He explained it is an old-time traditional circus strongman, as old circus and sideshow imagery being another style of designs that he likes.

It was great seeing Kyle again and appreciating the amazing work he had added since our paths last crossed three years ago. Thanks to Kyle for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

New Piece by Matt Decker

Matt Decker finished this mandala piece on Jules. So awesome!