My Boys

Daniel the Hubs, Daniel the Brother, and Dad.

Today Was a Good Day

It's been a long day, but it's been really nice. I woke up early, ran some errands, played with my dog, then opened the tattoo shop. I practiced tattoo lines on a grapefruit, watched several tattoos go down, went home to check my mail (waiting on tattoo supplies!) and got the early birthday present that I ordered for myself. Back at the shop we ordered Chinese take-out (nom nom nom) then I got a text from a friend that let me know she was offering her skin for practice.

I've been wanting to do a traditional Sailor Jerry tattoo so I showed her a swallow image that I liked. She was totally down and trusted me with whatever I wanted to do. I took my time and made sure I was happy with every single line. Having the freedom to do whatever I wanted helped make this the best tattoo I've ever done!

It's on the back of her shoulder and is probably about 4 inches wide. We're both happy with the way it turned out and I can't wait to see it healed. I definitely took my time with it. This little bird took about an hour and a half to do. A well-seasoned artist probably could've knocked it out in about thirty minutes.

Tonight I'm satisfied with my tattooing progress. Two thumbs up!

Also, I'm excited to flip through my early birthday present:

Ryan Adams, I love you!

Happy Valentine's Day

I do hope everyone's Valentine's Day was great! I just wanted to write a post about all the things I'm lovin' at the moment.

In no particular order: Dexter's latest "UP" trick (see above), tacos for dinner, buying flowers for myself (an orchid!) and Maz (a large yellow mum!), lots of painting for a play, snow days tacked on to winter break, getting stuff done & taking care of business, gossiping w/ friends, getting new perspectives, new magazines in the mail, buying myself a Nintendo DS!, fresh fruit, fruit juice, getting up and making breakfast for the family (& the hubs cleans up!), reading my first book of 2010 (hardly any time to read lately), long emails to the BFF, laughing and feeling nostalgic, lazy lazy lazy Sundays, Sharpie pens, Micron pens, Third Eye Blind's first cd, Tilly and the Wall, Whip It, Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Ryan Adams, my Pentax camera, undeveloped film (soon to be developed), getting my haircut, having a mission and completing it. And so on and so forth. Life is good, y'all!

Trying to Do My Best

This whole tattooing world is a whole 'nother galaxy for me. Last week my ego took a hit when I found out that it's much harder than it looks. Of course, it looks hard, it's just tons harder to learn. I worked on four more tattoos and I'm so thankful I had the best clients! They sat like champs while I sweated and worried about hurting them. I've also learned that tattoo artists have to be Artist-On-Demand, meaning when customers come in with an idea, they want that idea within minutes and they want to be in your chair within the hour. It's a crazy, crazy world, I'm telling you.

I don't have many pictures to share, but I do have one from my BlackBerry February:

It was nice to sit down and concentrate on drawing for a few hours. I'm going to have to work on many skulls to get the shading down right, and it kind of make me miss still life drawing in college.

I've scanned the final image and made it into my profile picture for my Apprentice MySpace Profile. I should be able to work on more tattoos this coming weekend and I hope to remember to bring my camera this time.

A Long Time Coming

If you've known me awhile, or even read my blog for a long period of time, then you've heard/read about my desire to become a tattoo artist.

When I was 19, I read a newspaper article about a new tattoo shop in my mom's town. The new owner mentioned how to become a tattoo artist, how it takes at least a year to learn everything, & how you'll have to work long hours without any pay, etc. Well, it totally bummed me out. I was living on my own and had bills out the wazoo so I couldn't even think about trying to work a money-making job while also trying to learn to tattoo. So that idea went to the back-burner. Then came along Mazzy and motherhood and wife-hood, etc. A few years ago I walked into a shop in town to ask about how to learn to tattoo and the guy there totally blew me off. Of course, in his defense I came in without a portfolio or any idea of what I was getting into.

I put off the tattoo dream for awhile and at the same time I bought almost every tattoo magazine I could find and scoped out any tattoos on strangers. Every tattoo I saw I thought: man, I wish I could learn to do that!

I had the idea to just buy a beginner's kit and work on fruit, but I never got around to it. Probably for the best.

This past summer I started asking friends and finally got a positive response from a local artist. Better yet, the artist was a lady! Someone who would understand that I had a family and cannot dedicate every spare second to wacky apprentice shenanigans.

At the beginning of this year, I started learning to tattoo! I'm so excited and stoked and happy and so on and so on. I enjoy the crew I work with and everything's going well. My head's getting crammed with so much information and I'm trying my best to remember everything. I'm completely obsessed with tattooing!

Last week I was surprised I was allowed to work on a real human. Someone made a joke about me tattooing them and next thing I know, she's down to be a guinea pig.

This was the very first time I've ever held a working tattoo machine and I was completely overwhelmed. My first lines were shakey but I recovered well. Sam, my teacher, helped out a lot with this flower and cleaned up little bits here and there. The tattoo owner was very pleased with the outcome and I was relieved!

This past week, I tattooed my friend in honor of her Grandpa who passed away last year.

I'm excited about this new artistic medium and learning as much as I can!