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Tag Archives: tattoo artist

(Not So) Weekly Tattoo Wrap-Up #18 (Part 1)

17 Saturday Nov 2018

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Holy shit, I’m behind on these supposed weekly tattoo wrap-ups, you guys!! Mostly, because reasons. And also, because less legitimate reasons. So I’m going to break this one up over a couple posts because there are just a fucklot of tattoos to share with you. So here’s the first installment, going all the way back to October:

Playing cards - Gio

For a guy who hasn’t found love yet, but really believes in it.

Lion - Jordan Thomas

Roar.

tribal - Tristan Miller

Recognize the pocket watch on the left? He came back for the tribal across his collar bone…

cross and banner - Tristan Miller

…and this cross and banner one. I swear, this guy sits so quietly I’ve decided he’s impervious to pain.

Flower chain - McKinnea Estridge

This girl came in with her parents to get this for her 18th birthday.

Aaron Walker - Hamburglar

One of my regulars is getting memorial tattoos for all of her dogs. They called one of her dogs The Hamburglar, so…

passport stamps - Nick Juers

I think getting passport stamps for the places you’ve been is such a cool idea. It was fun trying to get the tattoo to look like actual stamps.

ship and whale - Morgan Schore

No real story here, but it’s cool tattoo.

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Weekly Tattoo Wrap-up # 16

24 Monday Sep 2018

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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:

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.

Weekly Tattoo Wrap-up #14

11 Tuesday Sep 2018

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I’m late with this. I know. But I had reasons. Important reasons. All the reasons. One of which is hurricane preparedness. Because Aunt Flo – I mean, Hurricane Flo, is on her way and Raleigh has lost its damn mind. The store shelves were bare by yesterday afternoon. I think our house and tattoo studio are okay flood-wise, though I’m a little worried about trees coming down on the house. And I’ve lived through power outtages before, so I’ll make do,and reassure the cats that the world is not ending. But the haunt? The haunt will flood. Not a damn thing we can do about that except figure out how to charge the mosquitos for their new standing-water theme park.

But let’s talk about happier things, like tattoos. Here are a couple fun ones from last week:

Nautical half sleeve - Jenna Guerra

My favorite of the week. This customer had a rough relationship with someone in her family and decided to turn it into something positive by commemorating him with her favorite things about him. 

Xray Star Magnolia - Hannah Natour

An X-ray of a star magnolia.

Crows and moon

Don’t know why, but this one just struck my fancy.

treble clef anklet

This customer wanted an abstract treble clef/heart anklet so I came up with this.

That’s really it. Expect there to not be a tattoo wrap-up next week since we’re going to be closed several days this week for the impending weather doom. But I’ve been doing a little painting, so hopefully I’ll get my ass in gear and post my latest paintings instead. Hopefully. Don’t count on it. I’m lazy like that.

 

 

Weekly Tattoo Wrap-up #11

13 Monday Aug 2018

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It’s been sloooooooooooooow at the tattoo studio the last couple weeks. But I did get to do a couple fun ones. My one regret from this last week was not getting a photo of the guy that got “It’sMonkeyboyTM(c)” tattooed on his arm. I love that he was claiming both trademark and copyright protection on his tattoo, because It’sMonkeyboy is super likely to catch on (watch, now that I’ve been all snarkypants, it’s actually going to go viral and I’ll have to eat my words…although I just looked him up on Twitter and @ItsMonkeyboy is a white guy, and the customer was black, so apparently it’s already being used by someone else…).

And now, for the last 2 weeks in tattoos:

Bonnie's mermaid

I posted a watercolor painting of this image online and asked if anyone wanted it as a tattoo, and guess what? Several someones did, but the first to ask was the one who got it!

Alyssa Peckman watercolor

We had a number of first tattoos this week, including this one, which, apparently, is a symbol for friendship and family.

dog prints - Emily Durham

Another first tattoo, this time a memorial for her pup based on his actual paw prints.

Lupus butterfly - Samantha Chan

For a customer who was newly diagnosed with lupus.

mountains and waves - Emme Brunson

This is the second request I’ve had for mountains over a wave in the last week. Love how this one turned out in particular.

oni mask - Zelance

My first oni tattoo. He plans to eventually turn it into a whole Japanese-inspired sleeve.

plant in jar - Lauren Tapp

This customer designed the tattoo herself, and really wanted to be sure we had some thick and some thin lines. I think it’s an adorable first tattoo.

Bill the T-Rex - Maya Waller

And my favorite for the week: the customer came in for a touch up, and brought her 12 year old sister along. The little sister was joking that she wanted to design a tattoo for her, and the customer – gulp – said yes. This is the drawing she came up with. The T-Rex’s name is Bill and he likes apples. That kid has the best big sister ever.

Weekly Tattoo Wrap-up #10

30 Monday Jul 2018

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We’re at #10 you guys!! I have now been tattooing for about 5 months. But I haven’t felt like a real tattoo artist until this past weekend when I got a massage and the massage therapist laughed and told me I had “really well-developed forearms.” Woot woot! I’m gonna look like Popeye, y’all. And I’m gonna be damn proud of it. It was another pretty slow week at the tattoo studio. July in this area sucks for businesses (it was the same way at my last business, so I’m not panicking…yet). But I did have some fun tattoos to share, so here you go:

Aaron Walker - Cartman the dog

Meet Cartman. He is a dog. I looooooooove doing pet portraits!! Squeee!

arm band mandala -y

Just a pretty little mandal-y arm band.

compass

A compass. Obviously.

mechanical shark - Joe Bobbitt_compressed

I love this one. It’s from a video game, apparently. I know jack about that stuff, but I had a blast doing this.

owl - Adam Allegrini

For a customer who digs owls, and the a pancreatic cancer/Alzheimer’s ribbon for loved ones.

Brian Kirkpatrick - marvin robot with planet balloons

Marvin the robot, because 42. Excited to see this one once it has healed and the white no longer looks pink.

cupcake

Just in case you weren’t already craving carbs…

Weekly Tattoo Wrap-up #9

23 Monday Jul 2018

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You may or may not have noticed that I didn’t do a weekly tattoo wrap-up last week or the week before that. This is not because I don’t love you. It’s because the last couple weeks sucked all the sucky ways a suckfest can suck, and we had almost no business and the tattoos I did have were mostly uninspiring and I didn’t bother to take pics. But I’ll roll the couple fun ones I did into this week’s wrap-up instead, starting with:

daschund - Amanda Weber_compressed

My favorite from the last two weeks is this daschund…mostly because I got to say I tattooed a weiner.

Bear with Wings - Nicole Slater_compressed

A memorial tattoo for 3 different people, one of whom used to make these stuffed bears.

Cachea lily_compressed

A tattoo for this customer’s kids.

Thomasine Squire - hardest goodbye

Another memorial tattoo…obviously. This one choked me up just a little bit.

Thomasine Squire - infinity

Same customer as the last one. Didn’t get the specifics on why she wanted this one because I was too busy sniffling and wiping my eyes from the first one.

chess piece with halo - Amanda Cooper_compressed

Another memorial tattoo. She had the king piece on her left shoulder for her dad, and added this queen for her mom.

Mother daughter - Lisa Craycraft

Another sweet memorial tattoo.

Allison Shackleford

For a badass biker babe who wanted somethin’ kinda girly.

golfer

For a unicycler. Just kidding. Golfer. Obvi.

mother daughter plants

Mother and daughter came in to get tattoos together while they were on vacation. 

ouija planchette, runes, moon

For 3 friends who wanted to commemorate their reunion.

And some fun ones for Friday the 13th:

 

 

Weekly Tattoo Wrap-up #8

01 Sunday Jul 2018

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I’ve done eyebrows, eyebrows, and more eyebrows this week. And for a break, I did eyeliner. But interestingly, I also got to essentially do microblading on a woman’s face lift scars. I tattooed hairs over the scar to fill in where there isn’t any hair. Not sure how it’ll hold up over time, so we’ll have to see, but it looked damn good when we were done. I also got to tattoo a group of guys as the end of their bachelor party weekend, but I didn’t take pics. As for other tattooing, these are the most interesting ones I did this week:

stanley cup - Jon Lensch_compressed

For a Washington Capitals fan who finally realized his dream of winning the Stanley Cup.

bicyclist - Brian Kirkpatrick_compressed

For an avid cyclist (actually the same guy that I did the Kilimanjaro tattoo for).

cat and moon_compressed

I don’t know why, but I find this one charming.

flower

Just a pretty little flower.

Kilimanjaro - Brian Kirkpatrick_compressed

For a guy that climbed Kilimanjaro and has travelled the world.

Weekly Tattoo Wrap-up 3

13 Sunday May 2018

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I had several memorial tattoos this week, which was pretty cool. It’s a really special thing to be part of helping people heal by documenting a loved one’s special role in their life. I commemorated everything from grandparents, to parents, to pets this week, including one guy who wanted his dog’s tooth mark (from when it bit him) tattooed on to look like a mole. I also got to help people document the latest phase of their lives and remind themselves of who they want to be going forward. And in between, I got to watch several pairs of sisters come in, and it was a blast watching them crack each other up and support each other through the pain of getting a tattoo. Aside from a couple people who I realized part way through tattooing were actually drunk and/or highly unstable, all in all, it was a good week. So with all of that in mind, here’s this week’s tattoo wrap-up:

butterfly on finger

crowns - Katie and Buckly

St Brigid cross - Mary Lumpkinmandala anklet - Mayawisdome circle - Nicole Finley b&w

be brave arrow - Kelli WilsonBonnie's turtles_compressedKim Bella ankle compilationliz-wilsons-sweet-pea.jpg

Weekly Tattoo Wrap-up 2

04 Friday May 2018

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As promised, here’s my last week in tattoos. I’ve stopped snapping pics of every single tattoo. I mean, I ran a special in preparation for OutRaleigh’s festival this weekend and did a whole bunch of rainbow hearts, equality symbols, and an asexual flag, and they were all that unique or interesting, so I didn’t bother getting pictures of them. But I did want to tell you about them because it was a wonderful Saturday full of love and I’m totally going to do it again next year as a fundraiser for Raleigh’s LGBTQ center. I also didn’t snap pics of the several tiny little stars or treble clefs or triangles, etc, nor did I opt to photograph the pentagram and goat head I did yesterday (but I’ll be sure to post a pic of the cover-up of that one when he grows up and realizes his mistake and comes back in 5 years, lol).

So here are the ones I deemed worthy of a photo:

Ginko - Rachel Faison_compressed

For an environmental scientist

juggling - Kathy Carson_compressed

For a professional clown

owl - Katie Samuel_compressed

In honor of a grandparent

star trek - Gigi_compressed

Added the words to the existing star from the Star Trek badges.

And finally, the piece de resistance: a customer requested a full-figured pinup in Day of the Dead makeup with a line body that would “make [his] mother uncomfortable.” So I gave him this:

I Got a Job

03 Thursday May 2018

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I got a job. Yup. I did. A part-time job, but a job nonetheless, so I may have a little less blogging time for the forseeable future. I’m working as an office manager and business development specialist for an internal medicine physician who practices pulse diagnosis neurological acupunture and herbal medicine. How was that for a lot of fancy words in one sentence? Really, I’m a glorified receptionist who tosses out innovative ideas like, “Hey, we should make some videos for social media!”

As part of my compensation, I get weekly acupuncture and herbs, which is cool, but very weird since it involved disclosing my medical history to my boss on the very first day. “Hi, I’m a hot mess who shouldn’t even be able to get out of bed most days. Surprise! Aren’t you glad you hired me?!”

You all know how much I didn’t want to get a job and lose time in the art studio and tattoo studio, so I was hoping my job search might take awhile, but nope. I got the first job I applied for. Stupid competence ruins everything. Luckily, the hours aren’t bad and actually break my day up a bit, so I spend less time crankily sitting around waiting for walk-ins at the tattoo shop. And it seems that I’m getting more tattoo work now that I have less time to be tattooing, which I guess is a good thing. But I only get 1 day off a week now, which is a less than good thing. And my new bosses asked me if I could work on that one day this weekend, so now I have to practice setting my boundaries and actually say “no.” Laziness Work-life balance and all. I like the physician and his fiancee, though, and so far they like me, and I think working there could actually end up being fairly rewarding. You know, helping all the peoples feel all the good feelies.

I’ve been taking fewer pictures of the tattoos I do because I guess I’m not feeling the need to document each and every one anymore. I’ve finally lost count of how many I’ve done. Does that make me a veteran tattoo artist? Not sure 6 weeks of tattooing qualifies me as one, but I’m going to pretend it’s true. That being said, I’ll still take pics of the more interesting ones and at least do weekly tattoo wrap-ups for those of you who don’t already follow me on the InstaBooks and the Facegrams.