New Year!

Hey everybody! Welcome to 2013! 

Here is a batch of signs for my friends at Serendipity Farms. I'm approaching these shingles (actually old handwriting ruled cardboard or chipboard chalkboards) as sho cards for the farm's booth at farmers' markets. the whimsical lettering is a ton of fun and the black panels look really great against a background of freshly picked veggies! if you're in San Francisco on a Sunday, go check them out at the Fort Mason farmers market and the market at Divisadero and Grove!

Autumnal

the nights are getting longer and the wind is whispering a chill, halloween is tomorrow folks.

news flash

or just new flash! sneak peek from the new b&g set!!!

inspired by alchemical prints...

avril

loving my staycation!!! i'll be back in the shop on thursday, so come on down! my april is almost full...

sheet 2 in new black and grey flash, keep your eyeballs peeled...

boom chicka

while you were sleeping...

the romance of tragedy

tasty morsel made just for you...

the space must flow

i love sci-fi and i make tattoos...

get some.

you gonna eat that?

here's a little leftover morsel from the 4th of July art show we took part in at Eights and Aces Tattoo in Santa Cruz. the theme was independence...

also, just finished the Collected Essex County by Jeff Lemire (click here for solemn genius) which is a beautiful slice of life based in rural Canada. if you like comix, give this man your money.

flashy b-day

feo be gettin' older! it was great to see you man!

happynisms art show sneak peak

we got an email last month from a Belgian Urban Artist named Monk (click here for his facebook) who had a really fun premise for a collaborative art show... he would provide illustrations of people on watercolor paper and have tattooers from all over, well, put tattoos on'em! here's how mine turned out. check out Erin Honest's blog to see her offering as well!

afternoon delight

painted and hung this fella (and lady) recently. the American Traditional take on Japanese tattoo motifs is easily my favorite mode of tattoo art. its readability appeals to my troglodyte western mind, breaking intensely detailed designs down to simpler shapes and larger fields of black, effectively translating a whole backpiece of badass into a strong and dynamic one-point. cliff raven, paul rogers, heck, most old-timers had some really fantastic versions of these guys. check'em out!!!

but goodie

painted this for the art show we had last august! a friend came in from out of town this week and had to have her, so i got a couple snaps of her before she rode on down that lonesome highway....

if you're ever in Arizona, stop by Culture Shok Tattoo in Lake Havasu, say hi to PJ and see this mamajama up close!

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...

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!

mourning woman

this is a repaint/draw of a rare american traditional tattoo motif. much like a rock of ages or a sailors grave evoked (and continues to evoke) a certain emotional/aesthetic significance at just a moment's glance, this heart-wrenching image cuts right through you immediately... doubtless from an era in our history when mourning was part of our national consciousness, i had not encountered this particular motif until working for Mr. G and Madame Chinchilla at the Triangle Tattoo Museum. we were offered the enviable task of organizing and documenting a giant stack of very old acetate tattoo stencils. they ranged in age from ca. 1930 to 1970-80. this motif was among some of the older of the batch...

this is a scan of a photocopy of the original acetate... our guess as far age was sometime during the WW period, if you look at the window on the right side of the image, there is a sunbeam which i'm going to loosely associate with sunset over the ocean and a candle to light her lover's way home... if anyone knows what this motif is called, or has any other images of it, please lemme know.

 here's my repaint.

the simple things

just a little somethin' to make you smile. birds are just easily cute like that. especially when they sit on flowers in a very americana kind of way. i wonder what song they're singing...

whatdyou reckon it read?

son house. pure emotion from the blue, blue Mississippi delta.