Looking forward to attending the Hawaii Tattoo Expo in Honolulu, HI this August -- as well as a guest spot in Austin TX this September.
If you're interested in making an appointment with me, please email me at art@eightco.in to set up a phone consultation. After we speak over the phone, you will need to make a $100 deposit via my website -- HERE. Looking forward to doing all sorts of rad work while I'm out there! Hit me up with your ideas!
I will be traveling to portland to do a guest spot with my friends at Hidden Rose Tattoo in Portland Oregon this May. Dates are Wed-Fri May 10-12. I am currently booked for Thursday and Friday but I still have availability on Wednesday. Shoot me an email if you're interested in getting tattooed!
I'll be out in Eugene Oregon this spring, May 6-8, doing a guest spot with my buddies over at Northwest Tattoo!
If you're interested in making an appointment with me, please email me at art@eightco.in to set up a phone consultation. After we speak over the phone, you will need to make a $100 deposit via my website -- HERE. Looking forward to doing all sorts of rad work while I'm out there! Hit me up with your ideas!
I'm currently booking appointments for the Salt Lake City Tattoo Convention - March 10-12. Tickets to the expo are available through their website.
I'll be headed over with my husband, some friends from out of town, and the homie, Ian Caroppoli. We will be doing tattoos by appointment (and by walk-up if possible) at the Blaque Owl Tattoo booth!
If you're interested in making an appointment with me, please email me at art@eightco.in to set up a phone consultation. After we speak over the phone, you will need to make a $100 deposit via my website -- HERE.
SO looking forward to a week of skiing, tattooing, and getting tattooed in Salt Lake! While I'm out there I am planning to be tattooed by one of my all time favorite tattooers, Ashley Love! Should be a super fun week!
Good god, there have been so many rad tattoos over the past couple weeks. It was not easy to narrow it down to a few faves! That said, I decided to focus on "Lady Head Tattoos" for this post, because, how could ya not love a good lady head tattoo? These three tattoos caught my eye for their crispy clean lines, smart design work, and .... clearly.... for their rosey red cheeks :)
As always, if you don't want to be featured on my blog just hit me up and I'll take you down.
Enjoy!
This was, hands down, one of my absolute favorites from my instagram feed lately. That brown line around her face is genius, and the whole thing is so clean it makes me giddy. Awesome work.
What's not to love about this lady! She's a fucking babe and she's also.... a fucking badass! I immediately fell in love with this tattoo when I saw it posted on Tattoo Snob. I gave Miss Quartz a follow ta boot, and there's been nothing but quality flying out of that instagram feed since! Such a talented tattooer. Majorly inspirational.
Firstly, I absolutely LOVE Claudia De Sabe's work. She is a huge inspiration to me! That girl can draw and paint like no other. Plus, female tattooers who have been in the game for a long time just demand respect. I thought this little side of the knee piece was an awesome example of her work. I just love the gold beads and pretty eyes on her. Beautiful work as always.
This is the first post of the "tattooing gainz" series. In this series, I am just blabbing about the things I have been working on improving in my tattoo game, and the progress that I am seeing as I work through my apprenticeship. A "dear diary" if you will.
Something I've been struggling with since Day 1 of tattooing, is my linework. Well, perhaps "struggling" isn't the right word, but, it's been a major challenge for me. To be fair to myself, I don't really think my linework has ever been worse than any other apprentice with only a few months experience. But, I have a very clear idea of where I want it to be, and it just isn't there yet.
Recent tattoo, which I feel pretty proud of my linework progress on.
Over the past month however, I feel I've made some HUGE strides in cleaning up my lines. I attribute it to a couple very important factors
Watching my good friend Ian Caroppoli tattoo my arm was an eye opening experience for me. He is pretty rough as a tattoer, but his lines are INSANELY clean. Seeing how much energy he puts into stretching the skin, was really enlightening for me. I had a big "aha!" moment, as he worked on my inner arm -- realizing that no matter how steady your hand is, if the skin is wobbling around and moving under the needle, the line won't be straight.
Being bold enough to literally get on top of my client in order to stretch their skin wasn't something that came easy. It took some guts, and the ability to be unapologetically awkward with complete strangers. But, getting in there and pushing through the awkward moment of "oh hey, sorry, I just need to climb over your face to pull this line across your chest" has really helped a lot.
Tattooing is a physical job, and it is really important for me to remember that as I try to daintily doodle on people.
I have heard my coworkers talk about "breathing through lines" many times at the shop, but I didn't really get what they meant for a long time. Similarly, my mentor Schaf has spoke about "visualizing his lines" before he pulls them. This all sounded very wacky and kind of out-there to me at first.
I started practicing these concepts in my own way, just to see if I saw any changes. Sure enough, much of the breathing and core stabilization work I have trained for, in weightlifting, has started to feel applicable to tattooing! Steady breathing and a clear plan as to exactly how I am going to push my needle across the skin, has definitely helped me stay on path, and see cleaner lines. Imagine the line, visualize your path, take a breath, and pull your line as you slowly breath out. Super interesting, kind of meditative, and effective.
This could easily be number 1 on the list, but why not save the best for last? I recently got sponsored by my boss/mentor, Schaf, who is the owner of Flying Irons Tattoo Machines. I got a couple of new machines in the process and immediately saw an improvement in my linework. I had build my old machines on my own (under the guidance of Schaf). I build my own frame, wrapped my own coils, and bent my own springs. My coils were wrapped pretty insanely, and I assume this had something to do with the inconsistent power I was feeling with my old machines. Clearly, I don't have 20 years of building experience like Schaf does -- Apparently, that stuff matters.
One of Schaf's rad machines!
The machines that Schaf build me run super consistently and smoothly. I couldn't be happier with them! As soon as I started using them I could feel how to adjust my hand speed to the speed and power of the machine. No more, sputtering power, no more - "why isn't the ink going in like I want it to!?".... shit was just .... working! This felt awesome.
Along with tattoos, and perhaps, maybe even a little more than tattoos, I LOVE FLASH! Here are my favorite flash paintings of the week :) Thanks for reading!
I am ridiculously into any sort of Himalayan or Tibetan design lately (it's really all I want to draw or look at) so this flash sheet totally caught my eye. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the green in the hand!
This is a split sheet between @hollyhadeashbytattoo and @ellierichmond check them out!
There is not much in the world I love more than weird psychedelic shit. Cut off limbs, all seeing eyes, strange esoteric imagery. Feed me more!! Mix it up with some super solid blacks and high contrast drama... perfect.
Again.... super weird shit. I love it all :) I especially am loving the black and red sheet. The hands and the lady face are just genius! Excellent work. Super inspiring!
My favorite tattoos of the week!
If you don't want to be featured here, please let me know and I will take you down.
Enjoy!
Sometimes, I want to cry when I look at toothtaker's tattoos. How the FUCK is everything so god damned clean!?
...amazing
This dotwork is so rad. Also, I just love the design here. Super sharp, smart, and clean work.
I am all about the way this dude mixes tibetan ornamentation and traditional tattooing. Some may say, I am in love.
I never get tired of seeing bastienjean's work. The muted colors and heavy linework make my heart flutter every time <3 <3 <3
So bright, so bold, so BEAUTIFUL! I will never get sick of seeing hands and flowers in my news feed. This is an absolutely stunning design including both!
For no particular reason, I decided that I wanted to start blogging again. After a year and a half of drawing every day, some part of me misses writing. I thought this would be a nice way to put the musings of my ever-rambling mind into a more organized and understandable format.
With this blog, I'd like to: solidify my thoughts, help develop conceptual backgrounds for the artistic styles that I am currently exploring, and give credit to the artists, writers, tattooers, and craftsmen that are currently fueling my fire. There is a huge amount of information/inspiration that I pull from when developing my artwork, so I thought it would be nice to show some respect to those sources.
Hense, a blog is born.
I just got back from the Portland Tattoo Expo, which I attended with Ian, Britt, and Bridget (fellow tattooers from Blaque Owl Tattoo). I've been to a bunch of tattoo expos in the past, but this was the first expo that I've ever tattooed at! It was suuuuper fucking fun and I met a lot of awesome people. Also, I did a couple of rad tattoos -- So no complaints there!
Tibetan Hand & Bell that I got to tattoo
I got a kick ass tattoo from Andy Ryan Felty of Death or Glory Tattoo in Dallas, TX. It is weird as shit, but I really do love it. Andy was a stand-up dude and a pleasure to be tattooed by.
Tattoo by Andy Ryan Felty
Also!! Ian and I won 2nd place for "best sleeve"... so, FUCK YES to that! Thanks SO much for the amazing work Ian, I am beyond proud to wear this work for the rest of my life!!
Our plaque and my sleeve
All in all, an awesome time. Can't wait for next year!
