signed and dined

Here is the latest addition to our little family... this was a load of fun.....

The magic of Sundays

Tattooing holds a pretty odd and serendipitous flow of design frequency which will sometimes manifest itself in hilarious ways... or, people have a tendency to get a lot of the same designs all at one time, any tattooer can tell you about the two weeks of birds, or names, or roses that they may have done (anyone remember paying their rent with those big 3's after Dale Earnheart died?). While it is kind of rare, without promotion, to do any thematic tattooing on holidays (mom hearts on mother's day, etc...) people f--kin' LOVE god, and they love gettin' their god tattoos on sunday, god bless'em!

This was a walk-in done this last sunday, on a really great cat from back east, he had to get it done before his bus left town, easily the most fun of the other churchy tattoos that got done that day (Erin put on a couple crosses, too)....

ART SHOW!!!

Come out to Santa Cruz the evening of July 1st for the 8's and Aces All Americana Art Show, this mutha's gonna be a doozy! Thanks to 8's and Aces Tattoo for the sweet poster, hand-screened by Kent!!

olde timey lady

i really will never tire of the turn of the century aesthetic, especially the illustrated women! here's an homage to them by way of an ad idea...

i noticed that you're dead

R.I.P. Seth Putnam....

full story here

tale of the verdant dermis

this project has been a real hoot. we started a half sleeve on this man with the venus fly trap and mantis and he decided he liked the tattooing so much he wanted to extend it down to the 3/4 mark, adding some orchids and a frog. here's the pix... you'll prolly want to enlarge them, cause there's kind of a lot going on...

giant tako

here is a color study for a tattoo that i'm starting in a couple weeks.... the fella it's going on had the loose idea of a warrior battling an octopus, we decided to add pine/cypress crests to his regalia cause he calls the monterey coast home.... really looking forward to starting this!

theft and marriage

so, i've got some good news and some bad news and both news tidbits are related to signs...
obviously you'll want to get the bad news out of the way so that you can walk away with a sweet taste on your palate...

this sign, which hung out on the sidewalk by our shop, was stolen yesterday. it always sucks to get things stolen but more so when the thing in question was painted with love and also served a great purpose (of letting people know where our little tattoo shop is) anyhow, this is what she looked like... if you hear anything about this sign, please let me know.... if you stole it, there aren't enough hells for your dire corpse.

now onto the GOOD news... two very good friends of mine have decided to make their relationship 'official' after ten years of 'casual' dating (<---- a nearly direct quote from the bride's dad's toast, hahaha) my love and congrats to Melissa and Ted!!! Your wedding was beautiful and a real hoot! may this always welcome you to your happiest place...

kind of a weird angle, but i couldn't overcome glare without it. also, give my lovely assistant, Zeus, a hand!!!