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Tag Archives: tattooing

Tattoo Wrap-up #21

10 Thursday Jan 2019

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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:

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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.

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

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

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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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(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.

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 #15

17 Monday Sep 2018

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Well, what do you know?! We didn’t get destroyed by the hurricane after all. Other areas weren’t nearly as lucky, so please, take a moment to donate to a charity working in the affected areas because there are a lot of people who lost everything. The only thing we really lost was about half a week of wages. Sucks, but it could have been SO much worse. And I actually did end up having enough tattoos to do my supposed-to-be-weekly post of tattoos:

Brayam and James lyrics

Had 2 customers get matching tattoo lyrics on their rib cages. Not sure what it really means, but I love the font they chose.

jellyfish - Rain Navarro_compressed

Probably my favorite from the week. A lovely little watercolor jellyfish.

roses - Brandy Rivera

This one came in last minute but I had just enough time to squeeze her in before we closed for the hurricane.

Sanskrit - Everything happens for a reason - Vickie Horner

“Everything happens for a reason” in sanskrit.

Jasmine Sipe cover up

A cover-up. Forgot to get a better pic of the before tattoo, so had to use the one the customer sent for her consultation.

 

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 #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 4

20 Sunday May 2018

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Had some fun tattoos this week. Got to do my first chest piece. The customer already had the wolf and moon, as well as the roman numerals, but he wanted to fill in the rest. So I added trees and clouds that blended into the clouds on his arm. I also added shading on the lower part of his pecs to give the illusion that he has a bigger and more chiseled chest. His comment: “I look like I’ve been going to the gym!”

Isaac - chest piece

Another new customer has very little open skin left to tattoo, but has “the itch” again, so we found a spot for this little gem. Get it? Little gem?

crystals - Amanda Bretz

The next one tugged on my heart strings and made me feel the feels. Of course.

daddy's little girl - Brittney Thompson

And my favorite of the week was a walk-in who wanted a bear, an octopus, or something Star Wars-y. So I showed him some of my watercolors and he opted to go with the octopus and add a watercolor background. I have to admit, I’m proud of this one. I really love doing this style, so I hope I get more requests for stuff like this.

Octopus - Matt Onley

 

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: