Portland Tattoo Expo!

another few days at high priestess in eugene!

High Priestess downtown days!

I get so homesick. It’s been a great few days so far and there’s a few more on the way though!

Three projects at a time

black-eyed kids

I’m back east in Spokane for a few weeks. In the time I’m here, I have to:

• finish the illustrations for the Horrors expanded edition, and write the text, and get it to the publisher
• finish writing the handout material for the seminar I’m teaching at the Portland Tattoo Expo
• glaze and prep, and make from scratch as well, enough large-scale predatory animal paintings to fill the gallery I have a show at for October in Eugene
• and also, pack and get ready to tattoo in Eugene, at the convention, and then Phoenix.

I leave October 1st and I won’t get home until the 26. It’s going to be a long trip full of events and work!

Here are some photos- small images from the new book. A picture or two of the seminar prep work (kinda boring to look at but the seminar itself will be out of this goddamn world, you should go preregister for it, because it’ll cost a little more if you just show up on the day)- and pictures of the lifesized predators.

Now, I had some of this work done from before- the seminar text I had written already, but not the slideshow or the handouts. I had the illustrations sketched, but in pencil and messy, not inked or scanned. I had copious notes for the book text but nothing completed or proofread. I had the shark nearly finished and the grolar bear and wolf sketched out as underpaintings. But everything else? I’ve had to work every day I’ve been home, sometimes pulling ten hour days on these projects. Not to mention I have another show going on all this month at a gallery in Seattle! I spent last month’s days off prepping for that.

Once I leave, I have no days off until halfway through the month. And then I will spend those days driving.

It’s going to be a long and rough road until November, but I think I can do it all. Then I can relax for two weeks. Then I’ll be in Seattle at the shop there for two weeks…and then I will not be working in December. Like, at all. Maybe on personal little things but NO big projects like this. It’ll be a nice break and I think my brain will need it by then.

Hope to see you guys at one of my stops on this trip!
(I’m totally booked for the trip for tattoos- except for one day in Redding, and one day in Phoenix. If nobody wants in I’m gonna take those days off, though. !!!)

jersey devil

deerwoman

a short break

seminar stuff

running on fumes?

Seminar at Portland Tattoo Expo, sunday Oct 11!

I’ll be teaching a seminar at the PDX expo in October!

Click through here for more info and to sign up. Bring notepad, pen/pencil, phone or tablet, and questions when you show up for the class. Counts for two hours of continuing education!

Leveraging Social Media to Sell Art Online, for Tattooers

Learn to use social media properly — without compromising your copyright. We’ll cover print-on-demand services, pros and cons of social media use, networking as a strategy to find collectors, consolidating your media management, and getting more reach with your work online.

This class relates to the sale of secondary mediums beyond tattooing, and will go over the relationship between your existing client base and the collectors who will buy your work on paper rather than skin.

geometric tattooing, discussion question and thoughts.

let’s discuss.

Geometric tattoos and “mandalas”, while they’re in resurgence in every part of the globe right now among modern tattooers, are a very old way of marking the body.
Given new technologies, they’re different than traditional geometric work, but do they follow that same tradition? Is this really a trend within tattooing, or has it been there since the beginning? Do you think we will see more of this in the years to come, or will it peter out (like westernized tribal work has petered out a bit)?

These geometric designs aren’t limited to one region, race, or culture- from the far north of europe and the arctic circle all the way around the globe, equatorial and islands, jungles and deserts- straight down to the southern tips of Africa and the Americas, these sort of designs are found everywhere. Most modern interpretations draw on multiple sources, new and old, and don’t snag directly from any one tradition, don’t appropriate meaning the way some westernized tribal art did. (Although there are exceptions as always). Almost every person can look back to their own heritage and find base images to begin working from- or they can use modern maths to create something entirely new, that fits within this style.

I’ve been planning a few art brut tattoos lately, using this sort of layout for the body forms, and have done my share of geometry and radial symmetry tattoos as well. I’m wondering what everyone thinks of this little surge in demand for these.

Also here are some amazing images culled from various sources, of tattooing in this style. Feel free to add your own images or thoughts in the comments.

 

 

Miahwaska Tattoo Artist – Oakland, CA

Mianmar woman

ancient Pict

 

Traditional Croatian Catholic Tattoo

 

Roxx at 2Spirit Tattoo in San Francisco

Kalinga tribal tattoo artist Whang-Od. Photo via Lars Krutak.

 

by Nate Euvrard @ Secret Society

a martian octopus

the excitement is palpable

meeting niharika and luisa

On this visit I got to meet two incredible, creative women. One was Niharika, who does costume/dress for movies in India. She is so sweet, funny, and stylish. And she made me feel stylish too.

I worked overtime one night and stayed late, and when I came home she gave me the most perfect soft sweater ever…
Also she took some pictures of me which are kind of funny. We had cactus tacos together, and she got a really fun floral tattoo (with wasps in it! I’ve been dying to do some wasps.)

Here are picture she took and pictures I took.

 

Then I also got to meet Luisa, a glass worker from Mexico City. She’s Colombian, beautiful, and hilarious. We watched some episodes of the Strain together and talked about art, and she shared her coffee with me.
Here we are looking fantastic.

And here she is with some of her work, which was marvelous. I got a pair of green glass ear weights from her.

In this picture is her work in mirrored glass.

While all this was happening, the shop here got a new owner. She’s a really wonderful woman and incredible tattooer that I worked with ages ago- and I’m really glad to be working for her/with her again. Here’s a picture of all the women I work with right now, it’s so great to have a good mix of man and woman at work. I love working with other women.

There are men at the shop as well and they’re awesome too, but I had this photo of all of us ladies together so I figured I would post it.

Last but not least, I got my hair trimmed and fixed by Jordie, my favorite hair worker, I think she did an amazing job. I feel stylish. Between her, Jason, and Niharika I was a fashion queen this week.

I say Jason as well, because I got the most amazing glass ring that matches my eyes. He made it from matte glass and layers. You can see it in the photos up top that Niharika took of me, it looks like sunny side up eggs (just like my eyes)

tattoos from seattle in september! (and other things)