End of August

 Walkin at No Ka Oi two weeks ago... Very difficult, sweat my ass off the entire time.... damn circles!!!




 This one was from a DVD that a friend of a friend brought in. I met this guy at a company part a week or two before tattooing him. Hes a local actor with a good sense of humor... who wanted his first tattoo. It was an image he really liked so we modified it so the wings would fit his arm better. The original design had the wings spread out on either side, which would have made this look more like an arm band... not really the best idea.


This was a walkin in NJ... it's been sort of slow over there.. and the weather hasn't been too great either. I guess you could say it has been a strange two weeks. I'll comment more on this on another post. Small symbol, getting more confident in doing the tiny stuff... took long enough!


 This was a walkin yesterday at No Ka Oi. I was stoked to get to work yesterday considering I was already off Thurs and Fri... THEN the hurricane came and messed up the weekend so most of us didn't work at all, THEN I was schedule off Mon and today... so thankfully a friend let me take her shift so I can regroup and get back to work. I feel at home at the shops and although I love my house, I'd rather be tattooing... all the time.
 
The tattoo was his first.. a young guy who was an English major and this was from his favorite author.




Another walkin yesterday,

Popular design... done in brown instead of black. Although I warned her about the aging process for color tattoos... she still wanted it. I actually like these kinds of tattoos... the idea that it will fade and look old and worn over time is kind of a cool concept to me. Anyway I was happy with this one and I asked her to come back when it's healed so I can get a picture of how it looks aged for that henna-inspired look.




 This one was a really cool walkin. this is a poem, written exactly like this. She let me do my thing for the left however the lettering had to be done a certain way. Had alot of fun with shading and texture and just sort of experimented alot with it. I was really happy with how pleased she was and I want to see the leaf healed... I went a little on the lighter side for this, I want to play more with non-outlines with black and grey.


 This was the first walkin of the day, and by the first I mean literally she was outside ready to get tattooed. This is being of top of things! When people call our shop asking about walkins, we always tell them "we always take walkins, but on a first-come, first-serve basis, so its best to come early" good thing she did because right after she came in and we had about a half hour to chill, it was busy from then on!

This chick was really cool, she had some reference with her, wanted an all black stem the went across her foot. Other than that she let me do my thing.


 Took my time with this one... I think I would like to do different dro pshadows the next time I get to do something like this, but overall I was happy with it and so was she. I actually enjoy tattooing feet. Especially stuff like this that sort of flows with the area.

I want to write more... will later. Food time

Hi everybody!








I'm still stuck on an old school phase and painting some flash sheets in that vein... but I guess that everything I do ends up looking kinda girly, what do you think??




























Maybe this panther is the less girly thing I've ever painted... so I gave it as a gift to my boyfriend, a real man with wooden carved hands and thick facial hair who eats lag bolts and square nuts every morning for breakfast... hoho, not!
















This lady swan is a gift for Ashley Love...




















Eustache is one singular classy fellow... sure, not the most virile dude you will meet but one hell of a refined and sophisticated gentleman who will make them all fall for him with his Baudelaire quotes and unique necklaces...











Old School business cards, so glad I got them before the Paris Tattoo Convention! Want one? Come see me there! :)











Tape framing, a newfound passion!! ;)














Otherwise, I've been quite busy tattooing... ladies around here love butterflies and flowery anchors, me too! Thanx to everybody who's been asking me stuff!!  :)





























A nice week-end to everyone... see ya soon!!

Rainy day in NJ

Things are shaping up today... got three walkins! Despite this crappy crap weather, go figure! I had two sisters come in for the word "Love" on their wrists... forgot to take pics though :(

However I did get a pic of this one... had fun with this one, loving these greywashes. It still needs to be a bit smoother... but I told him to come back when it's healed so I can get a good look at it.

Lets go! Need a few more walkins then it'll be time to go home :)


Until next time....

New bird sketches

These are the sketches I've been working on... very rough stages right now, but will be developing them some more today.



 getting inspired by Ravens and crows lately... looking at alot of artwork lately and want to do some sheets of flash and large paintings.

I've almost got my studio area ready in my house, so stay tuned for painting studies soon....

holdin it down in NJ

 So it's still a bit slow over here in NJ, however I was able to get two walkins this week.

This girl was super nice and she let me play around with blues and greens. Got to try out one of Bobby's new olive green... really great color!



I mainly just had some fun with this one. Even though most people hate stars, i'm starting to like them! go figure...


This was another walkin.... I tattooed her son a few weeks ago, she got her husbands signature with a heart for their 25th anniversary. Sweet woman and this was her first tattoo.

As for sketches, I've started drawing alot of bugs and birds... getting ready to start some paintings soon... more to come!

DAS BOOT

 So August has been a slow month, and although it should stress me out, it's not. Any tattoo that comes in I try to take if its not on an area that I can't do yet... anything helps. I still need to print out more images for my portfolio so I aim to get that done this week. I'm not so much stressing about work because I love what I do, but moreso about money. I'm in the process of looking for part-time work freelancing and stuff so that I can take care of my bills and catch up, but it seems that no matter how hard I work I can't seem to get ahead. Hopefully soon.

Anyway I worked at No Ka Oi the other night, got this walkin and some lettering. This was done at the end of the night, He was wearing these boots too! He was a fun dude and this was his first one. It was a good opportunity for me to practice shading and realism a bit... Still needs to be smoothed out a bit in some spots, but I had alot of fun with it.


The next one was this lettering on the wrist. this was also her first.



















This was the first walkin of the day at No Ka Oi. It was a little sketch this girl drew. The lettering means "meow" in Japanese. Super cute considering how much I love cats.










This came in last week while I was on 4th street. He had the outline, it needed to be cleaned up a bit and wanted it colored in. He wanted only yellow and green so I did a play on those...

BEFORE








AFTER - we made the sketch deck more visible in the bomb and fixed up the wings a bit.



















 So earlier that day this girl came in with a storybook and wanted a scene from the book on her upper arm... really fun image and she wanted it in back and grey. I am stoked to work on this one. I worked on her for 3-3.5 hrs taking my time and starting this. I still need to smooth out some things, but overall I'm happy with it so far. The background is going to be very dark, so once that's in there the house will stand out more, since the house is very light. I'm excited to have this one in my portfolio when its all finished. She was really receptive to my story and the fact that I'm still new. I hope to see her back in a few weeks. Heres what I did so far....






The background still needs to be put in, as well as shading in the house itself.... really can't wait to see it with the evil creature and the moon with shadows.


MORE TO COME!

Hi, wassup everybody ?!? :)


Wow, it's been a long time without updating this blog... I've been terribly (but happily) busy these last weeks, painting a lot and tattooing too... yeah, finally! :)


I've been getting into (more) old school (stuff) lately... I've been painting some flash sets inspired by what classic masters use to do, with some girly-cutesy touches, I guess. 
Here the flash sets, for anyone interested in getting some prints of them, they are available on my etsy shop ! 























This flash set is based on butterflies drawings by Sailor Jerry, the painting is by me... 







I've been tattooing too!! :)  So happy!  :)
I quit the shop where I was an apprentice... more info very soon concerning my new whereabouts! 


A little butterfly I did on my french friend Cécile Pagès... she is a tattoo artist from Paris who was guest spotting in Geneva these days... we exchanged tattoos (check the Hello Kitty ballerina I got from her below :) 







Another cutesy lepidopteran I did on some lady's nape... Thanx so much Sarah!





A flowery teapot on my great friend Sammy !!! 





My kitty ballerina performing an elegant grand jeté over a bleeding molar... please ask the artist about the hidden meaning of it all! ;)







Cécile inking me my kick-ass ballet dancer... merci chère amie, ce fut un plaisir! ;) 





A great sunday and week to everyone, see ya soon !!!
ps : I will be at the Paris Tattoo Convention in September if you wanna drop by at the Brooklyn's 1228 tattoo booth and say hi! 

circles for DAYS

 Quiet day today at the Portside studio. Not too much walkin traffic, so i figured i'd update this. It's been slow all over the place.... BUT its always best to stay positive!

This was my first (and only) tattoo today so far. Concentric circles upon more circles! This was definitely a real challenge, however I took my time and although there are tiny flaws in it, I'm happy with how it came out and so was she! This was her first tattoo as well.


 I finally got to outline Simon's tiger yesterday. Since both of us had plans for the evening we just did the linework for now. The photo is a bit bright, but you can still see it ok. I'm really happy with this one and can't wait to color it in!

I will post more when we work on this again.





 Done in NJ this past week. Really stoked on doing another cross.. I haven't done too many so every little bit of experience helps. This was also his first tattoo.


 Another walkin in NJ.... he brought this in. I had some trouble stretching this area... still need some work with that.












The phoenix was another walkin on 4th street. This chick was really sweet and really open to ideas. She originally came in wanting a portrait of her cat, however the image she had wasn't of the greatest quality, so we went through her list of other tattoos she wanted and came up with this. She was really great to talk to and I had a good time tattooing her! Such a good experience when your client/customer has a good attitude!



Walkin at the end of the night. She chose this lettering from our book.

Until next time.......