The long awaited wait for my shirts is over. With the help of great friends I have put together eight new designs that are available right now on my web-store at www.saltwatertattoosupply.com. I hope you enjoy these shirts as much as I enjoyed making them.
I watched this short video the other day, thanks to my friend Forrest for pointing it out, and was very happy to see Kiku in it. Kiku is a freind of mine and one of the many amazing tattooers down at Invisible NYC in the heart of the Lower East Side. If you haven’t taken a look at his work you really should, he’s incredible at what he does and a pretty bitchen guy to be in the company of. Check out his site at www.kikutattoo.com
There is a new addition to The Tattoo Pen® family, I am now offering a pen with a finer line, 1.0mm. The FINE LINE tattoo pen is still made with a large enough ball point to write on skin well, but small enough for specific jobs that require a smaller line. It comes in your choice of RED, PURPLE, BLUE, BLACK, or PINK. The original 1.6mm is still at the top of my list, it’s my favorite, but I recommend the 1.0 FINE LINE pen for smaller lettering jobs or detail in a face, any situations that requires that tight line here and there.
They are available now on my web store at www.saltwatertattoosupply.com
That’s right, I’ll be taking walk-ins at Wooster Street Social Club every day from May 1st through the 7th. Come and get tattooed, there will be no appointments made but if you show up we’ll make sure you get tattooed somehow. For all other inquiries email them at INFO@WOOSTERSOCIAL.COM. I’ll see you there.
NY skyline photo by Jake Smith
I found this photo tucked away in my iPhone folder somewhere, it was almost forgotten. I pulled it out and decided to post it, I can never tattoo enough gangster girls, I love ‘em!
There are certain things that stick out when you think of Southern California. When you watch movies about SoCal one thing that stands out is the attire, khakis with matching Pendletons, dark jeans with work-wear jackets and Dickies with creased white t-shirts. If this is your home and this is your style then Greenspan’s Original Clothing Store is the place for you. I little while back I did a design for them and I have to tell you it was an honor to create something for such an iconic Southern California landmark.
A while ago while I was visiting New Orleans, in a drunken night of debauchery, my co-workers and I dared a friend of ours to shave off all his dreadlocks. The bet was dreadlocks for tattoos, we told him(Steve) that we’d give him a free tattoo from each of us if he did it. Well he did, and even if it took 5 years for me to do it, I paid my debt. This is what he got.
Scott and I have been talking about making a machine together for a while now. Wednesday I flew up to Oakland for the day and we combined forces to create a new machine together. We settled on a design we named The Teardrop, for obvious reasons of course. I am super excited about this machine! Scott and I will be making a big lot of them together and each one will be signed and numbered by both of us. I will keep you all posted on more details to come…
The other day, while in New York, I was having a conversation with the exceptionally talented Stewart Robson about making a special lightweight shader. I flew home the next day and immediately started working on it. I trimmed all the fat of off my Split Frame design by grinding an exceptional amount of steel from off the bottom plate, drilling holes in the sideplate and lathing small amounts of brass from the binding posts. I also used three titanium bolts which really helped get this little bugger down to 6.5 ounces or 184 grams.
My friend Jason puts on a convention in Fresno every year, for the first place award he gives away a skateboard as the trophy. I love that idea, what a cool way to award hard work, it’s so much better than an ugly, cooky, colorful plaque that is usually given away. This year, even though I cannot attend for the first time, Jason asked me to design the graphic for the board. This is what I came up with, I hope you enjoy it. If you are in the Fresno area and want to attend this convention here is all the info http://centralvalleytattoo.com/
I don’t know about you but I just pre-ordered mine. I was always told that books and artwork would be the best investments I would make in my career as a tattooer. Enough said!
I always love to barter, I seem to have great experiences with this system. This last barter was an exceptional one, I traded a tattoo machines for a drawing. The drawing was made by Cally-Jo, a talented artist who is also a tattooer in training. I went crazy on the machine, hand made, hand stamped, antique and vintage everything, well you get the idea. I hung the drawing in my office next to a japanese print of some samurai fighting, it works nicely. If you would like to enjoy Cally-Jo’s work follow her on Instagram here @Cally_Jo_Art
It’s so funny how empathetic I am towards my clients after getting tattooed, it usually last about three days then I’m back to, “quit your whining”. Me and one of my best friends(Russell) went down to see Ben Grillo the other day and I got my foot tattooed. I plan to have him fill my whole foot/ankle area eventually but started with a rose to kick off the adventure. Ben also gave me a machine to retune that I made for him back in 2005, I went all out with it, it was like extreme machine makeover. I even took a photo, I posted it below.
