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Tattoo Wrap-up #21

10 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by emilypageart in art, tattooing, Uncategorized

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Absalom tattoo, alphabet blocks tattoo, butterfly tattoo, calico tattoo, commemorative tattoo, corgi tattoo, Emily Page, Emily Page tattoo, gecko tattoo, harry potter coat of arms, harry potter tattoo, lady tattooers, lizard tattoo, memorial tattoo, moth tattoo, nc tattooers, poppy tattoo, Ratatat Tats, salamander tattoo, sea horse tattoo, seahorse tattoo, sploof, tattoo, tattoo artist, tattooing

I don’t actually know if it’s been a week, or two weeks, or what. Life is a blur. Not because I’ve been doing anything particularly exciting. Mostly just because I must have traded brains with a goldfish at some point in a drunken stupor. Bourbon. It’ll get you every time, amiright? Anyway, here are some more tattoos I’ve done in the last several days:

0103191717a

Let Your Light Shine…for her grandfather, who she called Poppy.

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The sploof!! With a heart tail!

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I love that the customer requested a snaggle tooth when I was designing this sea horse for him.

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Memorial tattoo for her little sister.

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A tattoo to commemorate her trip to Barcelona.

0110191717a

For a true Harry Pitter fan. She’s a Slitherin, by the way, so don’t mess with her.

photogrid_1545968563813

I didn’t get a great, clear shot of this one, but here is Absalom, dropping some wisdom on yo’ ass.

photogrid_1546468876462

I felt so bad for this customer. Look at the one on the left. A local tattoo shop owner did that one. The wings don’t even match each other. I was able to even them up a bit and make it more dynamic, but there wasn’t anything I could do about the fuzzy antennae.

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Engine #25

03 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by emilypageart in art, death, dementia, family, painting, Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

acrylic painting, art, dad, death, dementia, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, grief, painting, painting of train, train buff, train painting, what to give a train lover

I started 2019 off the correct way: in the art studio. And it felt so good. I’ve been so busy and exhausted that I haven’t been painting much lately. But I took Tuesday off and just painted what I wanted to paint. And it was a good thing. And it was a bad thing. Because what I chose to paint was this:

engine #25_compressed

Engine #25 acrylic on canvas 24″ x 30″ $750  *links for purchasing the original and for prints and such at the end of the post

You know, ’cause my dad was a train freak. Next month will be the third anniversary of my dad’s death, and between that knowledge and the holidays, I’ve been missing him something fierce. About a month ago, S poppped in some of my old home movies, and I got to watch my dad in his 30’s – younger than I am now. And, for the first time since he was diagnosed with dementia, it made me actually feel happy to watch. I really enjoyed it. And then I started having nightmares about him again. WTF is that? I wasn’t sad watching those videos, so why did they spark a new round of “Dadmares?”

And now I’m struggling again. Every time I feel like I’m getting back to normal, thinking about him a little less and with less pain, I get thrown back in. And what I’m thrown into, more than anything, is those final, horrible days with him, when he was hurting so much and my mom and I couldn’t make it better for him. It just fucking haunts me. I worked so hard to make sure that I had as few regrets as possible as we cared for him following his diagnosis. I’ve dealt with enough death to know that regret that can’t ever be remedied is not something I want to deal with again. So I set out to do things right with my dad. And I did. I’m proud of how fiercely I worked to love him and advocate for him. But there wasn’t anything we could do at the end.

It’s not so much regret, I suppose, as just grief that I was so helpless to make his pain stop. Watching someone you love suffer for that long…it just stays with you. And most of the time, when I think of him, that’s what I think of. I flashback to sitting in the hallway outside of his room after about 48 hours of watching him writhe and moan, and just losing my shit while a CNA watched helplessly. I flashback to lying on his bed and whispering soothing things in his ear to try to distract him from the pain. I flashback to feeling so tired it made me queasy, and ignoring the death rattle for close to an hour because I just couldn’t make myself open my eyes and get out of the recliner one more time to check on him.

Here I am, three years later, still desperate to make his pain stop, even though he’s already long gone. I don’t know how to let it go. So for now, I’m just painting something that made him happy in the hopes that it’ll make me happy.

*Original available here. Prints and stickers and phone cases and t-shirts and such available here, here, and here.

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Tattoo Wrap-Up #20

02 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by emilypageart in art, tattooing, Uncategorized

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butterfly tattoo, catdog tattoo, Emily Page, Emily Page tattoo, greyhound tattoo, lady tattooer, Maine tattoo, nc tattooer, owl tattoo, Ratatat Tats, raven tattoo, starfish tattoo, tattoo, tattoo artist, tattoo love, tiger tattoo, trash polka tattoo, tree tattoo, yin yang tattoo

Notice that I’ve totally ditched the word “weekly” in the title. It’s 2019. Time for more realistic expectations, and realistically, based on past history, I’m not going to manage weekly tattoo wrap-ups. So here are the tattoos that I closed out the year with:

bull - Colin Trumbull

Aaahhh, bull. Looking forward to seeing this one healed so that the lighter grays are easier to distinguish.

 

butterfly - Jamie Stewart

Fairly self-explanatory.

catdog - Robert & Stephanie Freeman

I actually did 2 of these for a brother/sister duo.

compass rose - Ujjwal

Follow your arrow wherever it points.

de-livered - Steve Harris

I love this one. The customer had part of his liver removed, so he’s been “de-livered.”

dog ears - Marisa McKay

This one and the one below were to memorialize their rescued greyhound.

greyhound - Connor McKay

The numbers were tattooed in the ears of the actual dog.

heart - Kiran Chitla

As a surprise for his wife.

raven, timepiece trashpolka - Foster Nethercott_compressed

This customer is going for a good vs. evil theme. The other shoulder has a dove and a rose and a beautiful time piece. For this side, we’re going more trash polka.

starfish - Ray Merritt

This is to remind himself of the story of the little boy walking on the beach and throwing starfish back into the ocean. If you don’t know it, look it up.

tiger - Carl Cook_compressed

I’m so glad the customer decided not to add color to this one. His original plan was to include color in the tiger, but I love it as a black and gray tattoo.

tree with Maine in roots - Austin Merando

The space in the roots is Maine.

yin yang - Carol Engrahm

Just a lovely little watercolor yin yang.

Krista Prince - tree

No story here, just a nice tattoo.

owl - Veronica Lauvray

Cute little own.

And that’s it for 2018!! It’s been a long, crazy year, but I’ve learned so much – mostly that I love calf and forearm skin. So good for tattooing.

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HOLIDAY SALES – They’re a Thing Around These Here Parts

27 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, painting, Uncategorized

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art, artist, artwork for sale, coupon, discount, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, Emily Page artist, holiday sales, painting, painting for sale, sales

That’s right. You may not have heard, but holiday sales are a thing, apparently. And guess what? They’re a thing on my website. I’ve got more paintings than I know what to do with, and you’ve got friends and family that need art to brighten up their homes and offices. Sounds like a perfect match. Come to think of it, your home and office could really use some brightening, too. No judgment, but you should really fix that.

Now until December 31st, I’m offering 25% off all orders over $100. Use Coupon Code HOLIDAY2018 when you check out. And note that I’m running the sale until the end of the year, so, if you want, you can sit down with the person you’re buying for and let them choose what painting they’re getting. Because I’m nice like that. And because I’m desperate like that.

So go to https://shop.emilypageart.com and order your artwork now! If you’re more interested in prints of my art or merchandise with my artwork on it, you can find those here, here, here, and here.

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Weekly Tattoo Wrap-Up #17

09 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, tattooing, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cary tattoo, chain tattoo, commemorative tattoo, cover-up tattoo, cystic fibrosis, cystic fibrosis tattoo, Emily Page, Emily Page tattoo, morning glory tattoo, oni mask, oni mask tattoo, raleigh tattoo, Ratatat Tats, sixty-five roses, snake tattoo, stopwatch, stopwatch tattoo, sunflower tattoo, tattoo, x-ray flower tattoo

I’m a day late and eleventy-twelve dollars short on the weekly tattoo wrap-up. Sorry. It’s been a really good couple weeks. I mean, not if you’re woman, or a person of color, or really, anyone who’s not a conservative white male. But tattoo-wise, it’s been a good couple weeks – especially for women. It was a week of empowerment for several of my female friends/customers. So, we’ll start with those, then tack on a couple tattoos I did for guys just for funsies.

First up, the cover-ups. I keep forgetting to take pics before I’ve drawn on them or stenciled on what I’ll be covering with, but here you go:

cover-up X-ray flower - Stephanie Watson

For a customer who turned 45 and said she was too old for “boob cherries” and that it was time for a grown-up tattoo.

 

cover up star - Hannah

For a friend who had outgrown her old tattoo.

Sunflower cover-up - Italia

For a customer who needed to get rid of her ex’s initials.

morning glories - Lisa Latu

For one of my favorite customers (who happens to have MS) who wanted to commemorate her family. I really love this one. It wraps all the way around and there are song lyrics and an MS ribbon on the inside of her wrist. And one of the morning glory vines says “Bomba” which is what her grandfather called her.

Love Mom - Sarah Dewan

For a friend who lost her mom to breast cancer a few years ago. She’d been looking for her mom’s handwriting everywhere and couldn’t find it. Then she suddenly stumbled across it and she’d signed it with this. Not gonna lie, we both teared up when we put this on her.

Sixty-five roses - AJ Darling

This one was really special to me: a girl I’ve known since she was 9 years old drove from VA to get a tattoo from me to celebrate having reached her 35th year. This is a big deal, because she’s got cystic fibrosis, and not too long ago, kids with CF really didn’t live beyond their early 20’s at best because their lungs gave up. She got “just breathe” on her rib cage when she turned 30. When they teach kids about cystic fibrosis, they often teach them to call it “sixty-five roses,” because it’s easier to remember, so we went with that theme for this tattoo. I’m so honored to be able to help my friend commemorate having made it this far. Looking forward to giving her the next tattoo when she hits 40.

I also had a customer who got 6 small tattoos to help her leave her divorce behind and move forward into the next phase of her life, but I didn’t snap photos because it would have required me to take my gloves off 6 times to use my phone, and that was a royal pain. But take my word for it, they were lovely.

I also-also got a message from a friend who I’ve tattooed several times who thanked me for helping her start to love parts of her body that she’s always been ashamed of. Having something beautiful on her body makes her accept and love it more. Best message I’ve gotten in a long time.

And now for the guys:

chains-alashuan-hunter.jpg

Not entirely clear what the story was here. He said it had something to do with anime and there being links on the chain of life.

stopwatch - Tristan Miller

Not sure this one requires much of an explanation. But damn, y’all, tattooing circles is haaaaaard. Why are stopwatches round?!!

And finally, I had a young man come in who sat for two 5-hour sessions and it was his very first tattoo. He had a pain tolerance like you wouldn’t believe, but he was also a Crohn’s sufferer, so maybe he’s used to pain? Also, he lost his dad to the same disease as my dad when he was only 9 years old. Made me super grateful that I had my dad for as long as I did:

Oni mask half sleeve - Sean Doherty_compressed

Not the greatest picture, but it’s an oni mask and snake. I’ll try to get a better one once it has healed. You can see a video of the whole thing on my instagram feed (@emilypageart).

And that’s it for the week. See? Some good things for some good people. So even though America is going to hell in supreme court justice robe, we still have individual wins to celebrate. Hang in there, friends.

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Pin-Up Roses

06 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, tattooing, Uncategorized

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art, artist, black and white portrait, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, harley quinn makeup, oil on canvas, oil painting, pin-up, pin-up girl, Raleigh artist, roses

My fellow tattoo artist at Ratatat Tats, Julio, loves drawings and paintings of women with Harley Quinn clown makeup. He had a bare wall in his studio room, so as a suprise, I made him two paintings. I took the pin-up girl style, added the clown makeup, and then, because he frequently suggests filling in space around tattoos with “some filigree and some roses,” I included each in these sister paintings as a little insider joke. I posted the filigree one yesterday, so here is the roses one. Both are available as prints, shirts, dresses, pillows, mugs, and other fun swag. Links below the image.

Pinup clown roses_compressed

Pin-Up Roses 20″ x 16″ oil on canvas

Merchandise available here and here.

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Pin-Up Filigree

05 Friday Oct 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, painting, tattooing, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

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art, artist, black and white portrait, Emily Page, Emily Page artist, filigree, harley quinn makeup, oil on canvas, oil painting, painting, pin-up girl, Raleigh artist, tattoo studio

My fellow tattoo artist at Ratatat Tats, Julio, loves drawings and paintings of women with Harley Quinn clown makeup. He had a bare wall in his studio room, so as a suprise, I made him two paintings. I took the pin-up girl style, added the clown makeup, and then, because he frequently suggests filling in space around tattoos with “some filigree and some roses,” I included each in these sister paintings as a little insider joke. I’ll post one painting today (the one with the filigree) and one tomorrow. Both are available as prints, shirts, dresses, pillows, mugs, and other fun swag. Links below the image.

Pinup clown filigree_compressed

Pin-Up Filigree 20″ x 16″ oil on canvas

Merchandise available here and here.

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At Least We Still Have Tomatoes

28 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, painting, Uncategorized

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basil painting, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, Emily Page artist, garlic painting, kitchen art, kitchen painting, photorealism, produce painting, realism, realist art, realist painting, still life, still life painting, tomato painting, vegetable painting, vegetable still life, veggie still life

I finally set up one of the spare rooms at the tattoo studio so that I could do some painting on my down time. I had started this painting almost 2 years ago, but after doing several veggie paintings, I sort of burned out on them for a little while. I finally decided to sit down and finish this little guy, and now I love it!

I finished it while listening to the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing, which was upsetting me for various reasons. I feel like our world is shifting in a very scary direction. That’s why I named the painting, “At Least We Still Have Tomatoes.” Silver lining, right?

At Least We Still Have Tomatoes_compressed

At Least We Still Have Tomatoes 8″x 10″ oil on board $250

Original available here. Prints and other merchandise available here, here, and here.

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Weekly Tattoo Wrap-up # 16

24 Monday Sep 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, tattooing, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

broken heart tattoo, cary tattoo, Emily Page, Emily Page tattoo, goodbyes, ladybug tattoo, lavender tattoo, lighthouse tattoo, mandala tattoo, nautical tattoo, raleigh tattoo, Ratatat Tats, tattoo, tattoo artist, tattooing, yoga tattoo

After a lousy week due to the hurricane, this week was a lot more interesting. I turned 41, for one thing, which wasn’t my favorite thing. It was one thing to have to say I was 40. It’s a whole other thing having to say that I’m “in my 40’s.” Le sigh. But I got to do a few fun tattoos and I wasn’t bored out of my skull while stuck at home waiting for the storm to kill me. First up was this trio of tattoos a yoga practitioner requested:

Andrea Shipman - breathe
Andrea Shipman - rise
Andrea Shipman - root
Fox mandala - Lindsay Easley

The customer wanted 2 foxes coming out of a tunnel that was also a mandala, so…

lavender - Kash Nizami

I wish I had taken a photo from farther away because this was on the customer’s sternum, and it just looked so damn good there!

ladybugs

For sisters whose mom calls them ladybugs.

broken heart - Zach Peltonen

Didn’t get the story behind why he wanted a broken heart, especially when he came in with his girlfriend, but this is his first tattoo.

Bonnie's lighthouse

The 7th tattoo I’ve given my friend Bonnie. She’s got a nautical theme going on both of her thighs. Looking forward to seeing this once it has healed.

Chandler Davis

Rib cages are a pain in the ass to tattoo, just FYI, but this turned out pretty well, considering.

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Zooey

20 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, painting, Uncategorized

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Emily Page, Emily Page Art, equestrian, equine, horse, oil painting, photorealism, pony, realism, realist painting, white horse, white pony

There’s this super cute pony, Zooey, at the stable where my mom boards her horse, and all the little kids learn to ride on her. For a pony, she’s pretty darn sweet, and, obviously, adorable. So I decided to do a little painting of her:

Zooey_compressed

Zooey 10″ x 8″ oil on board $250

Original for sale here. Prints and other fun merchandise available here, here, and here.

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Emily Page

Emily Page

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