Thursday, December 10, 2009


    I'm back :)


    Yesss ! ! !
    I finally finished this Koi but this time in other color.
    Hope you like it!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

New painting started

    Every year at the tattoo shop, we all get together and draw names for secret santa and have a christmas party. Usually everyone will make paintings for one another. This year I have my boss, so I figured I would show them what I have learned and draw out my first backpiece. I was doing some reading and came across a female samurai warrior who slayed the king of dragons. This story attracted me so I thought I would do my own spin on it, using my boss at the samurai warrior(ess).

    So far I just have an acrylic and ink wash on there for an underpainting. I cannot decide if I want to incorporate color or not, so I'm going to put it away for the night and see how I feel about it tomorrow.

    sorry about the
    not so great quality, its taken from my blackberry.

    Will post updates in the next day or two.

Sunday, November 22, 2009



    !!! Boo !!! 




     too much LSD...?!?!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

New flash sheets!

    Just a sneak-peak at two new flash sheets. New set will be on sale before Christmas of this year. Hit me up via email to reserve a copy for your shop today!

    On top check out the new ghetto-fabulous sheet! Below is the filligree aka ornamental stuff in black and grey. More to come!!!

    Things at the shop have been getting better by the day. Still frustrated, but not so much. I'm finally taking my test to become licensed to tattoo in Hawaii in January. I'll be working at Skin Deep Tattoo in Waikiki from Dec 13 through Jan 22.

    Will post more later.

    Thanks for checking out my blog!


    Kokeshi dolls rule... more to come very soon!




    My collection of these dolls is constantly growing...
    Seeing them in the morning puts me in a good mood



Thursday, October 22, 2009

Gallery show!

    I have more news!!!  I will be showing my artwork at the Portside Parlor and Art Gallery located at 20 S. 2nd Street in Philadelphia. First Friday in November!! This is a group show with my fellow tattooed friends from Body Graphics and No Ka Oi Tiki Tattoo. So excited!!!!

    Here's more new art!

    Garuda Painting for sale: $200.00  prints will be available after Nov. 10th. Contact me to get one from me directly! The Pink skull from a previous post will alos be available.

    Another painting/print for sale. Watercolor on Paper. I will have prints of these made for cheap!


     IVA-CULA!!!!  Also for sale, acrylic on canvas


    Sneak peak at new ORCHIDS flash page! (Coming Christmas!)

    More to come!!!!


FRUIT TATTOOS

    I finally was able to come into the shop early enough to get some practice in.... grapefruits!


    I have been pretty frustrated lately, with the whole thing. It felt good to just sit down and listen to the machine for a little while before my mentor came in to watch. I know that I signed up an "old school" apprenticeship, and its very difficult to just be patient and take in all the information that you can. After watching 3 friends go from apprentice to "professional" tattooer in less than 2 yrs, I have a better appreciation for those that have really put in their time. I'm blessed to know that I am one in very few of my generation to receive a "real" apprenticeship, one that will actually count for something. I have been apprenticing for 2 yrs and 3 months, still have yet to tattoo a paying customer. My friends bug me to practice on them, and I feel like if I am made to wait any longer I will explode! I get alot of "what kind of tattoo apprenticeship doesn't have you actually tattooing?" Well, after I am done these 3-4 yrs, I will not only be able to put in a clean and solid tattoo, but I would have built the machine I tattooed with, built the needles I used, spun the coils on my machine, mixed the inks used to put in the tattoo, and fixed up the broken clip cord after it shorted out during that tattoo. How many "professional" tattooers can say that that are under the age of 30? Not many, but I will. The tradition behind tattooing really interested me from the beginning, and the MOST traditional thing about tattooing is the road which you take to actually learn how to do it. Just like when Leonardo apprenticed Raphael. I am so excited to start, and don't have much farther to go.

    So, to the grapefruits!! Practiced some vines hand drawn on a grapefruit as stencil doesn't go too well. My linework is not as shaky as before, but I need to get better at pulling long lines and picking up on started ones. That seems to be hardest part for me so far. "SLOW THE HELL DOWN!" I have to keep telling myself. I paint very fast, and therefore draw fast.... but tattooing is forever, no erasers people...

    That's all for now, will post some more artwork in a bit.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Art show coming up!

    Just posting that I will be showing at the Portside Parlor and Art Gallery, the new tattoo shop/ Art Gallery in Olde City, Philadelphia. Me, along with many other artists from our shops will be exhibiting at a group show on the First Friday in November. Most works will be for sale, so stop by and buy something to feed our broke asses!!

    Featuring previously posted Blue Skull and pink skull, along with the Garuda painting and a small painting of a Hula girl.

    Will post soon!

    Thanks and come check it out!

    -Tina

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Halloween painting so far

    Here is another painting which came along with the skull sketches. Talk about complimentary colors!

    I had my friend Iva pose for this one. It started out as a vampire drawing and sort of evolved into this raging medusa-like creature? Don't know if that's a good thing or not. Again, really bright colors, which I love but do not normally use.

    More to come.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

friday night

    I let this go for a week or two, so here is a few things that I have been working on.



    I painted this last week while working at the South Street Body Graphics with Mony... it was pretty dead so I found a skull cast and did some acrylic sketch/studies to pass the time. I got my one and only issue of Tattoo Artist magazine, reading up on Jeff Gogue and admiring the way he paints skulls. He uses oil mostly, so acrylic was the next best (and portable) thing. I did one with mostly blue and another with pink and green. I'm not sure why I all of a sudden have an urge to use complimentary colors, but I'm diggin the freedom of painting that I missed! It was very theraputic. I feel like I have lost that freedom and need to get it back. I need to work on SLOWING DOWN and not wanting to finish so quickly. It's weird how everyone makes comments about my ability to work so fast, but when I am painting, I get so lost in what I am doing that before I know it, I am "done". Looking at these now, they are far from finished, but figured that I would just leave them as sketches and move onto more.

    Need to upload another one to this, will post again very soon.



Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Money Panic

    I am off work today. Feels good until I went to go pay my bills. Only have about 1200-1400 per month in bills, and only making about 300 a week... this isn't good at ALL! I hope that when I start tattooing this will all change. I hate being broke. I feel stoked when I put cash in the bank, until it comes right out for bills. FUCK!

    I started another flash sheet yesterday at the shop... it was fairly dead again until after dinnertime a group came in for some "In Loving Memory" tattoo and some girly stuff - stars and butterfly. Wish it was busier, but I guess with the slow season approaching fast, looks like I need to get this flash set done and out there. I need to HUSTLE YO!

    Here is the flash sheet so far, just close ups.... talens ink on cold press watercolor paper 11 x 14. There is also a Mary in there but I forgot to take a pic of that!  Will post more tomorrow when I work on this again. Today is reserved for linework!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Labor Day

    It is officially Labor Day around 12:20am and I will be heading into the shop over in NJ around noon and pick up a fellow artist along the way. I worked at No Ka Oi today and started another sketch for a chest piece design. It was slow today so a good day to just sketch. i also Witnessed a "Naked Bikeride" down South Street. and yes... everyone was NAKED! On top of that, a wedding party taking photos in the graffitti-wridden alley across the street from the stop, and a bunch of Peonies. Keep in mind that I only drew one side of this. I hope to put a dent in some flash painting at the NJ shop since I will have space to work.

     Enjoy. More to come tomorrow following the long painting session at work.

New painting sketch

    The shop wasn't that busy yesterday. The school year begins the slow season... so I spent most of my 12 hour shift just working on this sketch for a painting and taking some reference photos for it. Pardon the non-contrast on the picture, it was taken with my camera phone and I am currently san photo-editor.

    Another thing I didn't get into was my bio picture. This one was taken at the National Tattoo Association Convention this past April of 2009. This year the convention was held in Concord, NC. This picture depicts the most fun night ever! Art Fusion! I had the opportunity to work next to some awesome tattoo artists and share paper with them for creating something fun and interesting, all for a benefit auction. The artists who I worked with were Nick Chaboya, Rodney Raines, Judy Parker and Rich Ives, not to mention many others that were drawing on the other side of the ballroom in black and grey. I hope to do it again next year! Here is that photo along with a few more!
     
      
      
    Sorry for all the images and stuff, most of the recent posts I will be putting up will be playing catch-up with this blog and getting everyone up to date with what I have been doing.

Saturday, September 5, 2009



    Some more artwork to post today...

    A pinup girl artist print, a Phoenix in progress, trees in progress, some water lotus blossoms I made as a gift and a Japanese painting in progress for a friend as well.

    Enjoy.

Hi again






    So it's been a while since my last post. I have been drawing like crazy trying to get another flash set together and work at the Tattoo shop. I have to say that this past week has been the most mentally exhausting week for me in this Apprenticeship. One more year to go... i just need to keep telling myself this.

    I've posted a caricature/cartoon of my friend Carla Hopkins, also an artist at the shop. i've also put up there a dragon in progress painting, and some clips of the second flash set.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

New paintings

    FROM THE TOP LEFT TO BOTTOM RIGHT:


    Dragon painting in progress as a gift for a good friend. I have been trying to get better at painting these. Very interesting creatures with loads of history and myth behind them.

    This is from the Philadelphia Flower Show as I painted the "David" statue. More paintings from this event coming soon!

    The two phoenix paintings are also in progress... acrylic toned cold press paper with P.H. Martins Radiant Watercolors. This set will be for sale at the National Tattoo Convention. These original drawings were a collaborative effort between myself and Carla Hopkins.

    The last image is a flash sheet almost finished- also will be for sale starting in April.







Monday, January 19, 2009




Monday, January 5, 2009




Saturday, January 3, 2009




      Buhos maricones  


Thursday, January 1, 2009


    I hope you are enjoying your vacation!

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