Wednesday, September 29, 2010



    Here is the second set of illustrations I made for the conference of l'Université de Neuchâtel... 
    The chosen tale and fable were "The Willow-wren" (Grimm) and  "The Cock and the pearl" (Jean de la Fontaine).

    Doing this was a lot of fun... a BIG THANK YOU to Marion from the UNINE for contacting me and asking me to do it!!  :) 


REMEMBER THIS? Guinness Prime Time 1996


    This was an episode of Guinness Prime Time on which I appeared. It has been shown world wide since we appeared on it in about 1996. Julia's facial tattoos are way brighter then than they are now. She has been undergoing laser treatments to lighten and remove some of the work so that she can re do and re design her facial tattoos.

    This show went world wide. A few years after the show aired in the U.S. and North America, I received a letter (not even an email, a paper letter!) from a friend in South Africa who said he saw it! Another in Australia... it had been translated into several languages and shown world wide!

    Wanna say thanks to Daniel for forwarding me the link to this show!!


Monday, September 27, 2010

walkins

    I know that I was supposed to post pictures of Noah on Wednesday, unfortunately he wasn't feeling well so he couldn't come in. I'll be seeing him this Wednesday though so no worries...


    So last night everyone else was booked so I was able to take a few small walkins. I had these two sisters from Australia come in and they wanted matching heart outlines on their feet. I never understood why people want only outlines, but who am I to tell them what to get. If they want an outline, that's what they get. Here's a shot of one of them... I was happy with the linework, it really wasn't too complicated, just took my time.

    After these two, another woman came in for her first tattoo and wanted her daughter's names... Anna drew the lettering for her and she liked what she drew, she just wanted a bit more filligree stuff around it. After modifying the drawing a bit we ended up with this....

    I was also happy with how this turned out, I wish that I could have approached the swirls a little differently. This was the most challenging so far. I really love to draw lettering, now its time to get really good at tattooing it. There are some things about this tattoo that I wish I could have done differently.... but I definitely learned alot from this one and the next time I do some lettering I'll apply that. This woman was super sweet and the two lovely daughters we with her to see it :)

    Meeting really sweet people really made it all the better. It's a bummer when you have people that walk in that are just complete and utter jerks.

    I'm not tattooing again until Wednesday... Noah is supposed to come in again. I also have Josh this week to work on his tribal fixer-upper.

    More to come.....
    Aloha

Friday, September 24, 2010




    Some while ago I was contacted by people from the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) who wanted some illustrations for an upcoming conference on european fables and tales.

    They wanted me to chose some Jean de la Fontaine and Grimm brothers fables and tales and try to illustrate them. 
    I chose four fables and tales. One of them was "Le renard et l'écureuil" (Jean de la Fontaine), "The fox and the squirrel" (sorry, but I didn't find an online english version), another one was "The Owl" (Grimm). 




Wednesday, September 22, 2010

catch up

    So I forgot to get on here yesterday to post my tattoos.

    Monday I tattooed two walkins, a small heart on the wrist and small hibiscus on the wrist. Here they are. I was having a really stressful day on top of it.... need to keep my mind focused. Ever have those days when everything you do and say is just off somehow? That was one of those days for me.

    This heart didn't stress me out as much as the hibiscus. There are alot of ways that I know to do it better next time. Still need to work on making my lines deliberate, and work on how I'm going to color before I start. Top to bottom.


    I struggled a little bit with the swirly lines, but after I chatted with Bill about better stretching, things went just fine. I know for next time now.




    This was the tattoo I put on Ashley yesterday.... this went by alot smoother I think and I know she was happy to get it. I think next time I'll use a smaller liner on the flowers, but overall i like the design she picked out, and I got to try out making the brush stroke look.

    I get to tattoo Noah again tonight. More pictures to come.

    Aloha!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

ARON MCKENZIE IS BACK AT FUNHOUSE


    Aron McKenzie is back at Funhouse Tattoo after some time away tattooing all over Canada, he's back in Vancouver! Aron and Mark used to work together years ago in London Ontario. Though their styles are different, their dedication to the perfection of their art is the same.


    Aron has over 15 years tattooing, he has experience in every style.... black and grey, traditional...portraits... freehand... you name it. Even if you have purple skin, he can make the lightest colors show up!!! If you want a kitten chasing a ball of yarn, he's your guy... if you know any deers who need to be put out of their misery... he's your guy... if you need any advice on natural cures or remedies... maybe ask some one else!



    He has tattooed coast to coast and has some of the best stories around... no f*cking joke. Come down and get tattooed by Aron!


    Please call the shop to make an appointment. 604-879-4114

Monday, September 20, 2010



    Timmy waited months and months for the red full moon until it finally rose in sky and tinted the night with a crimson shadow. 
    Then, he penetrated the dense pitch-black forest in quest of the crowned eagle's nest. Once he found it, perched on the tallest tree of the woodland, he flew to the shelter with the golden acorn in his beak and planted it in his heart. 
    This way, he would grow as strong as the most solid oak tree and as valiant as the most intrepid bird of prey to have ever lived in that forest.    

Day 2 with Noah

    I got to work on Noah for 2 more hours last night. He sat great! This was the first time that I was left alone the entire time. I have to say that I wasn't so nervous this time around. Since I was going to be alone Bill asked me to stay away from relining the tribal, instead just color in what I could and leave the linework for when him or Anna is around... which I can understand totally. The last thing I want to do is mess up what he has... I'm no where near being confident in my linework yet. Soon enough with more practice I'll be ok....

    Here are some more pics.

    Heres a close up of the area on his shoulder... used one of the 7's I made to fill it in. there's a light spot at the end of the curve which I could have filled in more with the mag... but to be honest I was too scared to get too close to that point with the mag and risk going out of the lines. After this heals i'll go back in with the liner and clean up the outline and fill in the points. Next time, fill in the points first dummy!


    I didn't take a picture of the other side, but after 4 days his other shoulder is already peeling! That's a good sign! No holes. It's still too early to tell if there's light spots or not, but he'll be in again this Wednesday so we'll see then and I'll take some pics.

     Tonight I don't have anything going on, I work the floor with Anna after 5 so we'll see what walks in. The evenings at the shop have been weird lately, either its busy or it's dead... no inbetween.

    On another note, saw a huge rainbow yesterday from the condo! figured this would be a good note to end on.

    If I get to do anything tonight i'll post pics tmrw.

    Aloha!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

more tribal

    So here is the dude I was telling you about yesterday. he came in and sat for me for about 3.5 hrs. I got alot done! Here are some before and after pics....

    here is a close-up of the linework that he had already there....

    So here you can see how Anna and I drew some guidelines to straighten out the not so straight linework that didn't really match up right.

    After this I lined what I drew and started filling in what I could before he had to leave. Here are some more pics.

    here you can see what I started filling in. cleaned up the lines a bit and tried not to overwork the skin. So far no holes! sweet!


    it was so sweet working the floor tonight with Scotty and Anna even squeezed one in!

    Tomorrow I tattoo Noah's other shoulder again. More pics to come!

    Aloha!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

recap of thursday

    I got to do two tattoos on Thursday and i totally forgot to log it.

    These two are some cool people that Noah brought in for me. Miss Liz wanted the word "forever" with some pink diamonds, and the dude Royce wanted some kanjis down his back.

    I was super excited about these... I think that I could have done better on the lettering, but for my first script on skin i definitely learned alot and applied that to the application of the kanjis. totally weird tattooing her thigh too. gotta work on my stretching. my biggest thing with the lettering was that i was too damn scared to go too deep and scar her. i asked her to come back when its healed for a touch-up and let me go over what i need to work on. She was a super cool chick, really sat well and already wants me to do something else very small on her. it made me happy to know that she has some faith in me and doesn't know me at all.

    my letter consistency needs to be dialed some more so that all the lines look perfect. i've seen ALOT worse in my experience working in a shop, but i sure as hell don't want to give anyone anything less than perfect. this is my first attempt and i intend to improve...

    The next one was some kanjis and they came out great! i took what i learned from the lettering and my linework came out alot better and wasn't so afraid of making my lines as much.



    This guy was really nice as well. it didn't take me as long to do these either. what really put me in the zone is that Bill left me alone for about an hr after i did the linework to these... this is going to sound stupid but i was totally at peace or something. it was like nothing else was going on.


    here's a close up of the kanjis.


    I'm excited for this evening! a young guy in the military walked in for a spider on his leg later that night. so i hooked him up with one of our artists at the shop to do that for him, and then i noticed that his entire left arm is outlined only in tribal. soooo of course it wasn't hard to convince him to let me redo the outlines and finish his arm.


    i'll post pics of my progress on that this evening after work. then on sunday... noah again! i'm gonna start fixing up his other side! so awesome!


    Until next time...

    ALOHA

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

First Tattoo in Hawaii!

    So I just finished up tattooing Noah for about 3 hrs. He has some old tribal from about 11 years ago that needs to be refreshed.

    Here are some pics from my day. So stoked! Learned alot today! I outlined three large areas and was able to fill in two of them before he had to get going.


    I started re doing the outline obviously, then worked up to filling it in.













    It was really weird tattoong this area! So stoked on it!  Noah was a really good sport the whole time. Bill sat with me the entire time too. Enjoy the pictures! More to come tomorrow....

    I booked some diamonds on the thigh and some lettering!

    Aloha,
    Tina

Saturday, September 11, 2010



    Julie liked the Gustav owl matryoshka and wanted a personalized version to get it tattooed... thanx so much to her!

    A great weekend to everyone!

Friday, September 10, 2010

First few days

    Aloha! It's official! I am here....

    Of course the weather is gorgeous, I've just been hanging out with my friend Lorna alot. After about 14 hrs of flying, we went out with some friends to a few local bars, had some good food and had all the fruity Hawaiian drinks we could! HA!

    This is what got us through the 14 hr flight.... a sweet layover in Houston :)

    A few of these and two Tylenol PMs later, we're here!

    I start work tonight just doing sales until Wednesday which will be my first day tattooing on the floor! So stoked! I believe I'm tattooing Noah, a super awesome local guy with some large tribal work on him that needs to be recolored.

    I will (of course) keep you posted on that.

    Of course we made a few stops to the beach bars and whatnot since we've been here. :)


    I'm gonna head down to the beach now.... going to relax a bit and stretch out my super-sore legs after a 45 min run this morning (which I am NOT accustomed to).... I'm going to try my best to run or jog every morning, eat a good breakfast and eat healthy. So far, I've ran 2 days in a row and my legs feel like they're going to fall off!

    Here's to a nice, SLOW walk to the beach.

    Aloha!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010


    learning. practicing. or something like that.








The first step

    So today I got to tattoo my Mentor! Bill sat for me while Anna worked with me the entire time. Super stoked! Here are some pics. I didn't do much, just re-colored a flower on his arm that was about 15 yrs old. You can't really see the final product but once I get more pics I'll post those.

    These are mostly for my fam and friends that have waited so long for me to get started! I leave for Hawaii tonight around 3am and should be there by 1pm tomorrow Hawaii time. I'm so excited I can't believe the time has finally come. I intend to post as often as I can to keep everyone in the loop with my progress.



    hahahah! So much fun! I was sorta freaking out while this was going on, but the biggest thing I have to keep telling myself is to slow the hell down, and take it one step at a time. My biggest problem in general is the fact that I want to get things done quick and efficiently... which can be a good thing when you're sure what you're doing. In this case, I have to take a deep breath and relax. One thing at a time. This is not a race. Once I learn the technical part everything will fall into place.




    Thanks to Bill and Anna for bearing with me for the whole hour it took me to fill in the damn thing! One color at a time!


    Once I get some better photos of the tattoo close up I'll post those.

    By this time tomorrow I will be in Hawaii!

    Aloha!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

TATTOO MACHINES & THEIR SECRETS - 2ND EDITION



    Probably the most important industry text book any professional tattoo artist should own.
    The cover art was done by Mark Lankin of Funhouse Tattooing in Vancouver and was written by Art & Steve Godoy.

    The function of the tattoo machine is everything. It controls the force at which the needles penetrate the skin. Understanding this function, in detail, will enable any artist of any skill level to reach artistic goals which weren't possible with an un tuned machine.

    These days, the tattoo industry is making money. The silly t.v. shows have glamorized the industry so much that everybody and their brother wants to become a tattoo artist. Elevating their status from fry cook to "tattoo artist" has created the backyard scribbler. Now he has "star status"... he can get his "sleeves", meet chicks... be recognized anywhere and work in his unregulated and unsterile environment! Though through the decades, there have always been backyard scribblers, there are more now than ever before! Some suppliers, without ethics, sell to anybody... why? because they are motivated by money.

    The tattoo industry is making money, suppliers are making the most money. They are buying cheap and selling high. Most of the machines they sell are manufactured in China and sold for as little as $20.00 a machine. It's really become a throw away world! And why not?? the price is right... if your machine runs like sh*t, throw it away and get another $20.00 machine. Maybe the supplier may even have a sale... you can get it for $15.00!

    A good artist should be able to diagnose problems, repair and tune his/her machines. That artist should understand the function of that machine in association with artistic technique. This is the difference between real professionals and amateurs. The difference between gliding through a 1 hour tattoo as opposed to suffering for 2 or 3 hours using a machine which it not tuned.

    The machine can't be bought (usually) and expected to perform, right out of the box. Unless it was built by artists/builders who UNDERSTAND what that machine needs, in order to achieve certain results.

    This book is the only definitive industry text book of it's kind. This book provides a complete dissection of the electomagnetic tattoo machine, the function of each and every component and it's role in a fully funcitoning well ltuned tool. It will be available by September 30. $140 dollars is nothing to pay for 25+ years of tattooing experience. It is a soft cover with full color images, machine gallery, artist gallery and information you will find only in this book. Educate yourselves and you won't have to feel taken advantage of... see why it has been the most downloaded bootlegged book in the industry...

    If you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail.

Friday, September 3, 2010

4 days left....

    Last few days!

    i'm trying my hardest to not stress out.... just had to drop $427 on my damn car this morning for a routine inspection, which turned out to me needing some tires, hoses, whatever. On top of that trying to come up with rent, which was due 3 days ago. i'm so sick and tired of being broke.

    anyway, been doing some exercises involving making the "perfect" stencil from a shitty drawing or photocopy and working on shading. basically i've been taking my mentor's stencils and shading them in myself on paper, seeing how i would lay out the black and gray. nothing too fun but its good practice.

    i haven't worked on my fake skin in a few days.... been too busy working sales every day and trying to hustle that money to take care of some bills before i leave town.

    i'll post some sketches soon.
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