Sorry, lifes been busy

yeah i know, thats no excuse. but honestly its just been nuts and when i do get a chance to sit down i want to do just that. sit down.

non the less i had a minute and thought id through up a new post for ya'll.

first off some tattoo stuff.



started this giant koi/ cover up project on tyson.



and did this flash based bulldog on a 65 year old that bench presses 450 lbs and has 3 purple hearts! would have liked to do some more line sculpting, but its still 65 year old skin no matter how strong he is. maybe later down the road...

on a process note, here is a tattoo i started the other day on my freind kate. i was trying to keep track of time spent on the prep for the tattoo as alot of great tattoo artist talk about having spent nearly as much prep time as tattooing time on some of their pieces.

this is a great example of that! all in all this tattoo took 3 1/2 hours to draw and the exact same amount of time to tattoo what we've gotten so far!



now this didnt take that whole amount of time. it did take a while though, i took the positioning of over the traps from shoulder blade to chest. along with the large amount of text as a challange so i did spend alot of time trying to find a way to have it look the best it could. in that photo you can see that the lettering actualy reads backwards and upside down for a portion.

my thinking was as it drapes over the person they are only going to be able to read one side at a time, and the back side they will have to walk around to read so when applied to the person it reads correctly front to back, as wall as from the proper angle.



a couple lettering style changes,change in images, and a change in position later we have hit out 3 1/2 hour mark with something we could both live with.



and 3 1/2 hours of tattooing this is what we have! im going to go back in and add some black and grey background later on i think. but overall we both liked the piece.



a long drive home in the dark i decided to grill some brats as the oven is still on our 'to be replaced with a working item' list. im a little new to grilling brats, and i did these in the dark to top it! but they turned out perfect! life goal met!



these fish tacos however made me super ill :P and not in a good way :(

after all of this was labor day weekend!



you know what that means!



watching fireworks while listening to neil diamond!



making grilled cheese with bacon and my mom!



with chipotle cheese!



and smoking bbq with my dad!



with fruit!



yumm, smoke



parade time!



with mom and sarah!



and firetrucks!

haha, was a good time :)

ive got some cool tattoos that ive been taking process photos for to post after a few more sittings, and a few fun painting projects as well. im just waiting to have more progress made before posting... well and some time :)

hope your last week or so have been rad as well :)



oh, and i totaly got a new job at a rad tattoo studio! ill post more about that in the next post as well! talk about a cliff hanger! haha

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 :)

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 :)