Newsies....

LOts of things keeping me busy the past few months. Between tattooing and painting for the "Here be Monsters" show, it's been keeping me from keeping up to date on here. So here are a few phots of what I have been up to lately.

Enter the Turkey....

So San Francisco has been strange this past month. The Giants won the world series, and throughout that process, the shop was a bit slower than usual. I only did one Halloween tattoo, but it was fun.

It was also the first Halloween that my son could actually understand and appreciate it, so it was nice to get to relive the excitement through him. It was always my favorite holiday.

My buddy JD moved back to The City, and we started this hairy lady on him. I think it turned out well, and got to mess around with a few new tricks, courtesy of Chris Conn's seminar I took a couple weeks ago at the State of Grace convention. Chris was at the shop the other day and so I was fortunate enough to be able to show him it in person to hear his opinion about it. Thanks JD. Always a pleasure.

.....and lastly, here is the sheet of flash I am sending in for the Read Street Flash Trade 2010. I hope whoever gets it likes it.

Sugar!

I tattooed this sugarskull over a really bad scar the other day. He was born and raised in Mexico, where apparently arm wrestling is a very big sport amonst teenagers. The scar came from getting his arm broke in one of those matches, where the bone popped straight out of it. Ouch!

I love tattooing sugarskulls, and really enjoyed doing this one.

Changes....

So, big changes, my friends.

Last month I was asked to join the crew over at Body Manipulations (3234 16th Street @ Dolores
San Francisco, CA 94103), so last week I made the move. I've only worked a few days so far, but I am enjoying it thoroughly. New neighborhood, new coworkers.... it's nice to change it up some.

I've spent the majority of the past 5 years in the Haight/Ashbury neighborhood, and as much as it helped me become who I am, the time had come. Cold Steel was great, I made lots of friends that are now family, and I thank Paul for giving me that opportunity years ago more than he will ever know.

Here are a few photos of some things I did the last month there.

Pizza Time!

So, thank you to San Francisco for being as good as it has been for me this week. I finshed up some flowers on a hip the other day. I can never say enough how much I love tattooing flowers. Easily one of the best tattoo compositions to play with.

Also, I did Nefertiti on a thigh as well, this week. I did her on one of my favortite clients, ever. Patrisha is 72 years old and has live around the corner from the shop for the past 30 years. I did her first tattoo last summer, and she decided to get her next one, and I was all about doing it. It is about 5 inches tall, and she is a trooper. Not a single complaint through the whole thing. SHe says nothing is worse than getting dental work done without novacaine, which I am very glad to not be old enogh to have ever had that done.

And for the finally..............

So, Jake popped in today wanting to get something ridiculous tattooed. We talked for a few minutes about recent drawings I've done as I showed them to him, and he was really into it. Randomly, kind of like a blurting out, he said "how about a slice of pizza riding a surf board, with a shark about to attack it". Well, naturally, as being a child from the 80's, anytime someone even says the words SHARK ATTACK I think of the commercial for the game. Look it up on youtube. Best commercial song ever.

Well, as soon as he said those words, I obviously muttered "FUCK YEAH". So I sketched a rough up for him, and he loved it. So, this is what I came up with for him. We went the Jaws direction with it.

Life is looking up. I feel a storm a brewin'.

Monkeying around......

So today I had a very good day. I tattooed a monkey on the back of a calf, and it was easily one of the most fun tattoos I have done in a while. He works on haight street, so if you are up there walking around, keep you eyes peeled for it walking around. This is done on the back of the same leg I did the open mouthed goblin a couple months ago. I made a painting of this to give to a coworker last week, and he saw it and was stoked on it enough to want me to put it on him. I love it when things happen like that. Needless to say, I have been excited for today since then. So thank you Adam, for making my week. There's no business, like Monkey Business.

Savior of the universe!

So this week I painted two new sheets of flash. I'm having a ton of fun painting, and can"t even stop myself. If you like any of these, and are interested in getting one tattooed, please let me know. I create these to let people know the type of work I like to do.