An all around photo of JP's sleeve. I actually forgot to get a photo about 2 weeks ago when I was out tattooing him at the Blue Lake Tattoo Expo. We go into the elbow and into some of the rocks and water. This session we lined the rest of the cherry blossom tree and lined and started shading the clouds up top. Now, before some of you with acute eyes start going "well what is going on with the clouds? there lighter below on darker up top!". Well first I would say "good Eye!" and second I would tell you that I am going for the 'layering" of the tattoo image itself. I.E the dragon and the lower half is the immediate foreground while the clouds start to part and the rocks and waterfall are then exposed along with the phoenix and cherry blossom tree. Anyhow, in a few weeks we will continue onto the inside 'ditch' area and along the water and finish up some of the rocks. Hopefully his elbow is healed by then (in case you were wondering what was going on there as well)

A little photo of what we got into today.

Added some more to my buddy Matt tattoo the other night. I am really enjoying tattooing this tattoo (as I do with all of you that I tattoo!) But this tattoo just seems to go so smooth every session. I don't know if it the music or that I get to tattoo a rad subject(s) or that I'm tattoo a good buddy to some good jams, maybe it is all those factors and every time I tattoo him they just seem to fall into place-okay enough with the weird. I'm having fun with this piece is the point and he is to. On to the next session Matt.

Lined this out I believe last week or so? (the weeks have seemed to move by so fast and are molding all together anymore I have a hard time remembering when I have tattooed certain tattoos) Anyways, this young lady wanted the progression of a water lily on her from her back shoulder to her chest. The progression being from growth on her shoulder to full bloom on her chest. I think it came out rather nice and she wears it well. We'll be shading the water next session and it should go nice and smooth.

This one is not quite finished (background to go) but I wanted to share. It is my first attempt at a spit shaded portrait and I pick my favorite Tattooed model/art curator/ gallery owner Jesse Lee Denning of New York. I have never actually meet here, but her modelling is some of the most beautiful and tasteful I have ever seen. Along with this she is a strong, intelligent, and positive women out there (or so she seems to be in my opinion). I hope I did her justice.

Bowen's back to add on to his sleeve. Did this Chinese god on him the other day. Good times, thanks again Bowen.

Sailor's always come up some of the coolest sayings and quotes! Thanks again Mike, this was fun!

A going away gift for my friend Alex. I'll miss you good buddy. "May the wind always be at your back and the sun shine brightly on your face" Until we meet again!

Did this one for the boss man, Carl Hanes. Had a lot of fun painting this for him. We started a collaboration sheet so I'll be posting the progress of that soon enough. This is a rather big sheet at 18x24.

JP's back in the rotation and we're off and running up the arm. It's obvious that were doing a bit of covering up, but I think its going to work out. Decided to go with a phoenix up top with rock work coming out of the clouds (I know this seems backwards, but think cliffs emerging from the mist, or the other way around?) We also decided to add a cherry blossom tree and some water falls. These were thought up on the fly as I thought it would make sense to have the source of where the blossoms were coming from and well the water was thought up because well things can't grow without water right? This should all tie in nicely and I'm stoked to continue on to this piece. Good times JP!

next session we'll be continuing up the arm with more blossoms and the tree is to be finished along with more clouds and wind bars.

Drinking whiskey and painting, good time in my book! Thank you Lora for the tip on whiskey, always appreciated!

Another fun little walk-in form last night. Not much to say about this one other than it was fun.

Did this one yesterday on a great young lady. And what a great tattoo for the season. I really enjoyed doing this tattoo. Everything from the line work to the the black and grey to the color blends, it went really smooth and, she sat like a champ and I just cruised. Cant ask for much else.

Got in another session in on Danny here. A nice smooth session to finish up the black in the water and on her hair. the water itself is going to be very bright (or at least that's the idea). Color on the bottom half next session. Thanks again Danny.

Alex's tattoo is all healed and back to normal skin. glad to see thing lightened up where they need to be and held that more stark and deep richness I was looking for. Thanks again Alex, on to the next one!

Did this on a young lady the other day and I have to say I don't think I have ever had the pleasure of tattooing someone on the ribs that sat as well as she did. Didn't move once! As a tattooer you cant ask for more than that. As usual, couldn't get a good photo, but you how I am with that and I am working on correcting that in the future.

Worked some more on Tahnee today and it was quite a productive day. Finished up all the water and even extended it a bit. I think it added a little more to her natural curves and she wears it well I think. Good times Tahnee!

On to color in the Lotus' next. Should be fun.

Did this on a young lady today and I have to say, she sat like a champ! The foot is no joke and for those of you that I have tattooed, you know I am fairly heavy handed. But other than a few twitches (do to her nerves simply doing what they do) she didn't move once and didn't complain, one word: Gangster! Thank you again, Jessica.

P.S this is a cover up.

Eddie's 7/10 sleeve is all but finished. Really very happy with how this turned out. I tried out a new camera to try and take a good photo and, well, no dice! I have promised myself this year that I am going to learn how to take a good photo even if it kills me! (well not so much to that extent, but you get the point) Anyways, I believe he will be gone for about a month for further training in his job and he will be back for what I hope will be better photos and then onto the other arm. I cant wait, he has some great ideas for that one! Thanks again Eddie, it's been fun!

Got a nice little session in on Danny the other day. Did some of the shading for the water all of about 3/4 of the way up. He sat great and I am really stating to see how this is going to be quite a fun sleeve to work on! Thanks again Danny.

Got more work in on Matt's the other day. I f eel it is really coming together. Decided to change things up a bit and do some weird dot fade thingy ma-jigs in the shark (who I was inspired to do so by a Mr. Mike Rubendall, who I had the honor of meeting a few years back before I was even tattooing at a convention. If you don't know who this man is, well you will be blown away to say the least. He is an incredible artist and blows many of us tattooers out of the water any day of the week. He current owns Kings Avenue Tattoo. Check him and the artist's there out-awesome!) Anyways, on to the tattoo at hand. I think we'll be on to the inside of the arm next session for another mellow one to dial in the ship with all it's little details and what not. Should be fun!

A little detail (sorta) picture for you viewing pleasure.

Painted this quick little jammer for the boss a few weeks ago, and thought I'd share.

A fun little walk-in from last Saturday. A Don Ed Hardy design and a fun one to boot! "Love Kills Slowly". Good Times!

JP's half sleeve is now all done. I really enjoyed tattooing this one, mostly because I pulled off from a Ed Hardy design and added some tweaks, but not too many as, well Hardy is honestly the shit! As well, I just really enjoy tattooing such a fun design, like a dragon. On to the upper arm in a few weeks, until then, thanks again JP it was fun!

Mike's Dame is now finished and what a fun tattoo to do! I really enjoyed everything about this tattoo, from the time I started drawing it to the line work, shading and then the color. I chose a more "Old School" color palette and think it worked out nicely. on a different note: I apologize for the washed out photo of these and am constantly working on learning how to take a better photo!

Did this one on Ricky last week. He's going for the hole western theme on his arm and wanted a cowgirl holding a pistol. I drew two up for him so he a had a bit of a decision to make. One was the dame you see before you and the other was a more traditional drawing. a view of the women's hole body (her in daisy dukes and a bandana covering her breast, as he is in the military). He decided on the up close view and I think all in all it will work a little more nicely into the sleeve we are now discussing. Thanks again Rick, it was a fun session, until next time!

Went with a Colt .45 on the pistol. I thought it would give it a bit of nice classic look. Although, I'm not going to lie it was a bit difficult to draw the underside with only a photo of the pistol laying on its side.

Got a little more done on Nick's sleeve a while back. We shaded in most of the flames and the wolf you see before you and I went ahead a colored it in. A nice mellow session on this rather wicked looking sleeve. Thanks again Nick, see ya in a few weeks!

Got Danny's arm all lined out Christmas Eve. It was a nice mellow session. More to come soon next month.

Jacob is all finished up on this one. Had a nice relaxing session finishing up the sky and I think it really brought out the blue in the water nicely and tied everything together in general pretty well. Now on down the arm I believe. Thanks again Jake, it was fun!

Sorry for the glare on this one.

Just a reminder of what she looked like before.

Finished this octopus up on a young lady the other day. Had a lot of fun working on this tattoo. We have a little strip on the other side to tie it all in and on to her chest for some lettering. All in all a very fun tattoo to do.

I really do appreciate a cool gift or tip from my clients. I think we have some of the best around. Nate came in and dropped this little nightlight off to me as Christmas gift just because, what a gent! Anyways, I do enjoy gift like these and bottle of good whiskey from time to time just for those of you that were wondering. Thanks again, Nate. Tattoo session coming soon!

Alex's tattoo is all but finished on the outside. I really want to see this when it is all healed up and back to normal skin. He has informed me that ha has rather sensitive skin, hence, the tender looking skin look. Anyways, in a few weeks we'll look at what we might have to touch up and on to the inside of the arm to finish. As always, good time tattooing ya Alex.

Got another session in on Tahnee today. The piece, I feel is coming along nicely. We have another appointment set up for about a month from now and it's on down to the hip next time and finishing the water. Should be fun. Thanks again Tahnee, Always a blast!

Started this on a young gent by the name of Joey the other day. A fun tattoo indeed! We have another session to go on it and do any tweaks or fine tuning needed next session. Hopefully it will heal nice and soft and come out nice and "powdery" looking.

Did this walk-in on none other than a Marine. A fun little (well its actually fairly big, the guys has some large arms). Anyways, did it a bit traditional and bit modern (I guess). Anyways, I enjoyed tattooing this because, well; military tattoos are just cool images to tattoo. And if I can help out our armed forces all the better! Thanks Jon, it was fun!

Jacob's back for another fun filled round on his half sleeve/ re-work. Had a nice mellow session finishing up the anchor and water as well as coloring in the women. Slowly starting to come together. Thanks again Jake.

Joe's arm is all but finished up. A session of a little touch up here and there and some tightening up of some loose ends and this cover-up, re-work sleeve is in the bag.

Got into the inside and finished that part up. one more session to really (hopefully cover up the tribal and dragon he had on the inside of his arm) and it's all done. Thank you again Joe

Got the outline and shading in on my buddy Matt the other day on the inside of his arm. Next session, we'll be going into the color and continue to plug along bit-by-bit. Always a good time Matt.

Did this on a gentlemen that just walked in the other day and wanted this fun little guy. I cannot remember the Deity's name right now, but from what I was told of him, he is the protector of the innocent and fends off bad spirits and ghost (hence, the wispy skulls). I will admit he brought in a picture of this as a tattoo and wanted it the exact same way (which normally, I'll be honest when it comes to Japanese/Chinese prints I prefer to work off of the original prints that they come from instead of a picture of a tattoo that someone else has already drawn and tattooed). However, this is not my job to tell people what they want and even though I would have enjoyed tattooing the print (as the old saying goes, if it's not broke, don't fix it) over this, it was still a pleasure to tattoo and he sat great.

A Gypsy for Mike. Mike is a frequent customer of the shop and a super cool guy. This is my first time tattooing him and boy was it a pleasure and a fun tattoo to do. Color next time on this gem. Good times, thanks for sitting like a champ Mike!

Got the shading in the wings and colored in the branch that the Valkyrie is sitting on. Did a little different color combination for the branch that I have used in some other tattoo's, to give it that more "mature" look. (think not so bright). One more session, maybe two, depending on the pain tolerance of Alex here and we should be done. Good times!

Nick is back for what is actually session #3. I forgot to take pictures of the last session. anyways, we carried on through with more line work on down the arm of a wolf and a goat head respectively. Still have quite a few session to go on this sleeve as it is a cover-up and a rather big on at that. Next session we will be adding more on down the arm, I'm thinking severed heads and chicken feet and flames to create the surrounding background. Should be a fun filled adventure.

Apologize for the glare, the shop is rather bright. Next session, I plan on working in white into the areas that are going to be colored to brighten up where I need them to be. Should be fun!

I think I am going to have a lot of fun with both the wolf head and Goat head. Thinking I might change up the way I normally shade and color and try something a bit different, We will see. Decisions, decisions!

Nothing to epic here, just wanted to show a fun little jammer I did on this gentlemen that is right under his sternum, which can be a interesting place to get tattooed.

Who say's sex doesn't sell? This was really fun tattoo was done on a gent that works and really enjoys his job at Pabst Blue Ribbon. We wanted to incorporate some flowers from a music video that the band Pink Floyd made, making this tattoo extra sexy. And the hops around her I think just add a little something extra to the meaning of this tattoo.

I had a cancellation today so I thought I'd paint something fun and BOLD! I'm really enjoying doing fast fun paintings like the one you see before you. And if you are interested in purchasing this or any of my paintings (if they aren't already gone or up in my station) let me know.

So I forgot to take a before picture (happens quite often these days, sorry) but, this gentlemen had the dragon head already there and wanted me to add on to it and make it into a bottom half sleeve. The first session was the body of the dragon (again forgot the picture) but this time I remembered and this is what we have so far. Most of the wind bars and clouds are done, just have a bit to go on them next session as well as color on the flames and cherry blossoms and a little tightening up of some color here and there. All in all, I am really enjoying how this is coming out and cannot wait to finish it up as there are some plans to go up the arm and make it into a full sleeve. Good times and mad crazy plans in the works! Thank you again JP, its always fun!

Sorry for the blurry photo, but ya can't win 'em all.

Did this fun lil' jammer on a fairly regular client, Noah. Noah usually just cruises in with an amount of money and say "what ya got drawn up?". I slammed this one out for him to add to his, what will be a half sleeve in the traditional style (think random images that are then filled in with dots and stars and the like). Always a good time Noah, cruise in soon for another!

I try and not stray away from tattooing to often and mix to much of my life into this here website, as I try to respect that, that is not why you look on my blog and to protect other person's personal privacy, but I just wanted to post a picture of myself and my oldest buddy and one of my favorite people (are other buddy couldn't make it down, from the Bay area). We grew up together and he still lives in the same house he grew up in, so going home I can always see and hang out with him and his beautiful wife and talk story. Truly one of the best men I know. Oh and if looks as though I was a little flustered, I just back from a surf, and I enjoyed a glass or two of wine with dinner.