Studio Space

Since making this room ready to work in has been occupying a lot of my attention as of late, I thought I'd share some pics of what I've been working on. To start with, let's get a rough "Before" established

Not so much to look at, I know! So, obviously the carpet was not going to work. When we pulled it up, we were excited to find a pretty decent wood floor, though desperately in need of re-finishing.

We've already painted the walls here, though the trim still needs a fresh coat of paint. Looks like someone dragged a body through it, doesn't it? Here's another angle:

The floor has been sanded since this picture, and I just spent a bunch of time today sweeping, vacuuming, and washing the sawdust off the floor. We'll be painting the trim and sealing the floor over the next few days (hopefully!) and I'll post some more pics.

Hiatus

I'm trying to keep positive, but I can't help but see this as a setback of sorts. Due to a herniated disc and several pinched nerves, I've had to take a break from everything. I tried just being careful, tried to not "over do it", but it just kept getting worse and worse, until finally I had to try complete rest for a little while, or consider surgical options. Despite my love of tattoos and piercings, surgery has always made me uncomfortable, so I tried taking a little time off, but my boss wouldn't hear of it, so I ended up just quitting all together.

Officially, it's been about 7 weeks. I've recovered around 80-85% of the way, and just started looking for a new job this week. Since we moved out of Ulster county, I can't go back to anywhere I've worked before. I've been working on my resume, since it seems unlikely I'll find work in a tattoo shop around here before spring. I'm going back to school in January, online. If nothing else, this hiatus has made me really examine where I am and where I want to be in terms of a career.

I've invested so much into tattooing, I can't give it up. But it really bothers me that I never finished my BA. So in the meantime, since winter is the slowest season for tattoos around here anyway, I'm going to find some menial job (in all likelihood). School starts in January, but it's all online, so between school and some job, I'm going to squeeze in as much sideline work out of my studio space at home as I can. It's a room completely separate from the rest of the apartment, and I can work off of disposable tubes, and I already have almost everything I need. Once I'm back up and running again, I'll post some pics of what I'm doing.

Mannequin Project

So the local Chamber of Commerce and a newer local art gallery/Artist Collective has invited local artists, including tattoo artists, to take part in a show of mannequin torsos. The torsos are to be decorated at the artists discretion, so I'm looking forward to it, despite not being sure about the direction I'm going in with them.

I was only slightly disappointed when I found that there was only one size female torso, I was hoping there might be some plus-sized forms to work on, but what do you really expect for free?

Finding Child-sized mannequins made up for the lack of plus-sizes


I've already applied the first coat of gesso to the adult form in this pic, I have to say it was a lot creepier painting gesso all over the crotch and buttocks of the child torso than I expected, can't wait to do the second coat tomorrow!

The show is going to open in Kingston, NY 9/21/09, I'll post specifics as the date gets closer. Supposedly there is an independent film to be made featuring all the contributors, which will be great exposure, and a good exercise in talking about my artwork, as I have a tendency to hide in the background and avoid talking about myself and my work. (Which is also another reason why I started this blog as well. )

Now I just need to get moving about putting together a new business card..

A New Tattoo!

Since it's been so rainy lately, business has been pretty slow. At least I ended up with an awesome new tattoo that I love. Jeremy did it for me, it's a Mitch O'Connell piece. This was the first time in a long time that I've let ANYONE tattoo me, the reason being other than the Hello Kitty Robot my friend Bryan (from the video) did for me, the last few pieces I've gotten have ended up disappointing at best, and just plain garbage (to me, at least) at worst.

So that's my Lucky Bunny. I'm somewhat obsessed with his little nub. The experience of being on the other side of the needle was needed; It's easy to forget just how it feels, transcending pain can be an uplifting and educational experience, helps to put things into perspective.

Sometimes, especially lately, I've been getting frustrated. Because business has been slower than usual for the time of year, I haven't been tattooing as much as I'd like, and I can feel the muscles in my hands getting weaker. I'm trying to compensate by working on paper, but it's just not the same. I know that I'm harder on myself than anyone else, but I don't want to devote my life to something and only be "okay" at it. I wish there was more time and less stress in the day, but until then, I'll just keep plugging along..

Video - Tag Team Tattoo

This video was shot sometime between the end of '07 and the beginning of '08. The other two artists are Casey Schwartz and Bryan Holland. Our brave subject, Jake, will be starting a full-leg sleeve themed "Zombie Apocalypse" in the near future, more about that soon...

Tag Team Tattoo

Portfolio!

I'm working on getting my own webpage up and running, but in the meantime I'm using DeviantArt to host my portfolio. Check it out!

My Portfolio!

Greetings!

Greetings to anyone who may stumble across this blog, I should have done this a long time ago, but I've never been good at "beginnings". I'll get into my origins at some point, but the basics are that I'm a tattoo artist in Upstate NY, I've been working professionally for 5+ years now, and this is meant to be a chronicle of my journey through tattooing.

I started working out of Express Yourself Tattoo in New Paltz, NY back in April 2004, and remained there until April 2009. It was time for me to move on in order to further my career. The next step came as a job working for Bruce Bart at The Woodstock Tattoo Company, in Woodstock, NY.

Woodstock seems like a nice enough place. Unfortunately, whether it's because the economy is presently in the shitter, or because the one artist that's been there for the last year more or less by himself has a less than congenial personality, either way business has been less than stellar at a studio that was making money hand over fist just a year or two ago. Apparently I was taken on in the hopes that my presence and personality could help bring clients in, not to mention they haven't had a piercer in house for the better part of a year.

At the moment, I'm working on a series of flyers featuring $20 coupons, promoting myself, the studio, and that once again the studio has a piercer on staff. Hopefully it will help, or else I'm going to end up having to get a real part time job soon, which as we all know, pretty much sucks.

Sometime in the next year or two I really want to relocate, but I have no direction where. As I lack the funds to get anywhere at the moment, I'm putting it out into the universe that if someone out there wants to help me relocate, I'll go pretty much anywhere for work! Not only do I have over 5 years professional tattoo experience, 7 years piercing, and 2 years managing a studio in a busy college town. I have references, and a portfolio available online, which I'll post a link to momentarily. Just putting it out there, universe...