maybe happiness is worth the chance of a bitter end..

been working on some cool tattoos this week, in pair with the great aaaaaaalmost fall weather it's put me in a fairly decent mood :)

nothing to eventfull but i suppose id rather it be a good mood non-event then a bad one.

anyhow...

heres an example of why i love living were i do. the sunsets are completly different every night, but almost always spectacular. different shapes, colors, rays. but always i nice sight driving home



this particular night i came home to some rice and yuckani <- no idea if thats spelt correctly. its an eastern dish that is one of many passed down threw my moms side of the family. im thinking this is basicly tomato, beef, green beans and spice more or less. tastey either way :)



and turns out its preety hard to make on a grill so here it is being made in a epicly cheep electric skillet thing. until $500 apear its going to be a grilling, microwave...electric skillet kind of kitchen.

add some bread and..



* see how i used a knife and did not remove any fingers sarah? take note *

walla :) tasty




i didnt eat it but sean and kelsey got a new kitty, they named her frenchy.



now for some tattoo stuff, i like taking progress photos so theres a bunch of that going on below this.



this is the 'prep' for a tattoo i started last night on brandon our shops piercing apprentance. its not finished yet so this is all you get. all i can say is armpits are alot easyer to tattoo then id expected. thankfully.



im preety awefull and taking 'before' shots of cover ups so i went all out on this one yesterday.











turns out jason reeder isnt the only one who gets to do fun tattoos on occasion ;)

and this morning i kept the ball rolling and started this big rib koi





her only other tattoo is a teeny little foot tattoo, and she sat like a champ!



now just counting down to my 'weekend' and some painting progress, and hopefully colder weather :)

just keeping my head up

totaly inspired in seattle, totaly burnt out in one week back in sioux city :P
man, what a drag.

any how, trying to keep my head up. ive got like 35 days till im done working here in sxc and still have yet to cement another job. im not to worried about it. just keeping busy with other things and not thinking about it. its so much hurry up and wait it could kill a guy. but if thats how it is, thats how it is.

any how heres some of what ive been up to.



a quick rose with grand daughters initials in a banner for a barber who works just down the street.



some tastey chicken and avacado kasadilla and vegi taco action from juanitas :)

and of some KFC, no need to church it up with that KGC non sense. our stove/ over is out of service. so until we figure out how to effectivly make fried chicken on a grill this is going to have to work.



evidently the kfc bowls are the most unhealthy thing in fast food that you can order. it is how ever one of the yummy-ist things you can order :)



at work sean did a corset tempt project on this kids head. a mohawk that truely is metal :O here he is cleaning up before lacing it up.



and karma paid him back when right afterward i tattooed the inside of his knuckles :O

we had talked about how you subliminaly read your tattoos all day every day, so having something positive or calming in a highly visable-- to you-- area. would in effect be broadcasting that message to your brain all day.

we'll see how that works haha. either way it was fun :)

my moms had this print long enough that its this fadded



so i took 20 minutes and painted it bright again. i tried to do it with a less opaque pigment in effect using the old painting as an underpainting. it was hard to get shots of at night in my studio but i think you can see the difference :)



later on mike and i went on a mini road trip to omaha and stoped off to see my girlfriend, whos hands happend to be featured in the tattoo im doing on his arm :)



mikes band , For Today, plays tomorrow night in sioux city so im excited for tons of people to see his new work onstage.

on my day off i started on this painting, its the last big piece i need to get my count high enough for me to feel good about a solo show. its been a goal for the last few months. i might be 3 or 4 months late in the completion but whatever. itll happen :)



and a little further



on the note of painting, Jeff Gogue ~ gogueart.com ~ just put out a new extremly limited edition book full of his skulls. its super high quality and an artist definantly worth supporting. also some preety rad t-shirts :)



and to end the post a tattoo i did today, yes that is an ex husbands name void stamped out.



needs one more pass to skulpt a few lines out but good enough for a blog ;)

man lifes busy.

shops a little slow today so i thought id try and catch up for the last few days. Its been a bit of a blur so im hoping by sorting threw the photos itll come more into focus for me. that was part of having this blog right? to remember things? haha

thankfully i take alot of random photos.

fresh back from my seattle trip ( see previous 3 posts ) i was realy looking forward to having my tuesday/wednesday off to paint and make some progress on some projects and as well as see some friends. youd think with them living a block or so away you would see a person more then once every few weeks. but we are in fact people with shit to do turns out.



after cutting up some new panels i took advantage and sprayed painted a few 'almost finishing' touches on a piece ive been playing with here and there. i still need to tweak some things and then its golden :)



while that was drying i threw in the green on my layering project.



and started on another study for the viking tattoo, the last idea didnt realy fit well. not wanting to compromise at all i decided to do a quick study using some things i picked up in the Gogue seminar from the previous weekend.

the start..



almost finished..



while i was waiting for the much to dry and finish it later on charles and i went fishing...
...ok he went fishing and i took pictures of him fishing while i enjoyed the wonderfull weather.







see, i told you i was there.





at some point durring that day i got this rad giant double cheese burger from the grocery store deli, WITH fries for something ridiculous like $3 haha :)



it was totaly worth that $3

..anyhow after fishing i finished the skull/viking/study of which i will post photos of later and threw another color on this girl.



wednesday i wasn't to terribly productive. i put a thick glaze on an older piece trying to see how glossy it would realy be and went into omaha to talk to a shop owner in my journey of finding a new place.

but today was fairly productive. a client stopped in to schedule there third appointment on this rad two headed eagle fighting a snake tattoo. the tattoo is in an odd position to see much of it at one time. but when its finished ill post some sort of wrap around shot. but for now check out this healed tattoo progress.



also, today my friend mike came in to have his sleeve worked on. most of the time he's on tour with his band 'For Today' all over the world, so we usualy try to get him in for a sitting or two when he's around. i think we are about 10 hours in on this arm so far. im happy with it so far, i dont do a lot of large black and grey so its a real treat to have this one going so well.



and yes that is an evil flaming cash spewing atm monster robot crushing a city on his ribs in progress. haha

alright, caught up?

catch you later :)

last day...s

one more day of photos, ill probably follow up with an over view of the trip and be all wordy in the next day or so as i get all unpacked and re-situated.

but until then... pix :)

walking out the door from my hotel this is more or less the view down towards the market



all sorts of venders overflowing the area.





all kinds of brighter then i thought possible flowers for sale along with the super fresh sea food and produce



lots!



and priced so you can actualy buy them haha



tons of rad neon





giant shoe museum!







i usualy go a bit earlyer or later then i did this day, exactly for this reason. soooo many ppl



you cant actualy walk into this booth of produce, thsoe ppl are workers scurring around grabing up goods for people.









super tastey falafel



some sort of tier of moving water and sea food



this wall is covered in new awesome graffiti every year i come back.





army surplus stores like this are why i dont have any credeit cards lol





random chinese dragon parade threw a founders day celebration i stumbled across





cops on beach cruisers?



awesome vender i walked past on the street



random window



more graf





saw a porche cayman <3

also saw a ferrari, an ason martin, a delorean, a few massaratie's ...



and another one of these, but in red! it was driving down the street and sounded sooo good... drool



i was suprised how similar the funky back end is after all these years as i stumbled across this newer volvo two door wagon.



i also had the pleasure to meet up with jason before i left town.
here he is looking metal for the photo



and of course his lovely wife tasha was in tow. its always great to see these two.
you can follow tasha @ http://www.flourmayhem.com/ and jason at http://www.jasonreedertattoos.blogspot.com/



after meeting up we headed to Dicks for some breakfast/lunch with seth ciferri and his lady http://sethciferri.com/



before he drilled jason in the face! ~ these two pix stolen from tash





got home safe and found this burrito/ taco smiley face waiting for me



and this spread of our shop in the november Savage!



i think the spread looks kidna shitty and the photos printed like shit, but then again i am complaining about having my name and tattoos featured so i think ill shush up and enjoy it for a minute :)