Fire Department

My client has been in the fire department his entire life.

Mahalo.

Fishing Lure

I met a guy who wants to be a tattooer, I told him to lose all hope and start drawing and painting.  Then I gave him an impossible task to complete.  Really, it's pretty impossible unless he just does it every day all day.  I tell everyone the same thing; go draw this stuff this many times and bring it to me when you are done then we will talk about the possibility of maybe you becoming my apprentice.  I do not do that to be cruel, I do it to wean out the fucking lazy.  Working under me is hard, I'm not very social, and I have a hard time seeing ways that things can be done other than my own.  Mostly, it's just hard to be my apprentice because I want so much out of them before I even introduce a tattoo machine into the study.  

We shall see what happens, the last 5 that asked me for an apprenticeship have never come back.  Regardless I love this tattoo.  An American Traditional fishing lure.

Mahalo, and I hope this kid goes out and does the work I asked him to do.  I liked this one.

Guitar

This was a fun tattoo to make.  He had a special guitar that he owned and wanted an American Traditional version of it.  

Mahalo.

Beach in a Bottle

It’s always awesome to work on something traditional.  This beach in a bottle is a pretty common theme in American Traditional tattooing.  I dig my version.

Mahalo.

American Traditional Plumeria

I made this American Traditional Plumeria tattoo today.  The shop was crazy busy, and I couldn’t be happier.  This was my favorite tattoo of the day.

Mahalo.

Beach Flash Painting

I finished a new Hawaiian beach and flower flash painting.
I have already tattooed some of these.

Aloha.

Turtle Flash Painting

Finished this a few days ago.

Mahalo.

Traditional Hibiscus

I love American Traditional tattoos.  When I am asked to mimic a Sailor Jerry tattoo, I am all over it.  This hibiscus is straight from the Sailor Jerry flash.  It is always an honor to work with my families original tattoos.  If life after death was a thing, I bet Jerry’s pissed as hell that his work is copied so many times by so many people after his death.  He created modern tattooing in my opinion, everyone else was just there.

Mahalo Jerry, deal with it.

Snake Rifle

It’s January 1st and that is supposed to mean something.  But all it means to me at the moment is how fucking stressful things have been lately.  I do not see an end to this insanity until I am completely in charge of everything I do.  2017 was really the most stressful year I have had since I was hit by the car in 2009.  We all go through it, we all have joy and suffering.

I am really working hard on the study for my formal composition painting.  It is going to be a while before I start the actual painting itself.

This is my first tattoo of the year.

Mahalo.

Polynesian Turtle and a Rose

I like working on American Traditional tattoos, and I like tribal turtles.
Being able to do both at the same time was exactly what I want to do.

Mahalo.

Traditional Shark

Fun black and whip-shaded American Traditional shark tattoo.

Mahalo.

Rose Dagger

American Traditional tattooing is where my soul rides. 

Right on.

Flower Flash Paintings

I paintied a couple of traditional flash sheets.  I have already tattooed some of these, and I would really like to tattoo the rest.  I should be able to get a few clients to get these as tattoos.

Mahalo.

Two Rose Tattoos

I made a couple of American Traditional rose tattoos today.  Both clients were regulars and it is always nice when they come in for a tattoo.  Today was a fairly slow day, which was perfect for me.  I have started the compositional studies for a new series of paintings here on Maui.  I have a general idea of the way I want to start these paintings, albeit I will let the paint decide the finish.

Mahalo

Anchor Tattoo

Nothing like a bit of American Traditional tattooing.  

Mahalo

Trout

Fun tattoo, I like fish.

Mahalo.

Traditional Rose

I painted an American Traditional rose a few days ago, and the client loved the work so we tattooed it.

Aloha.

Eagle

This was fun.

Mahalo.

Memorial

I Like this tattoo.

Mahalo.

Adding Tattooing to this blog

I have been a professional artist since 1996.  So far my career has been mostly about painting.  I have worked on many different forms of painting before I decide to solely focus on compositional abstraction as expression.  I have sculpted wood, stone, metal, ceramic, and all or them were rewarding toward my career.  I have worked as a tattooer off and on for money my entire career, and now I have decided to focus solely on tattoo for a few years while I clean my mind and prepare for my next large painting "The Peloponnesian War."  

My series of works "BitTorrent" took everything out of me.  I need to clear my mind in order to be fully prepared for the stress of the The Peloponnesian War painting.  So Athena and I decided to move to Maui Hawaii to do just that.  I am going to tattoo and watercolor classically until I am ready for the coming oil painting.  It is going to be a few years, and more then likely it will be 5 or more years before I am ready.  

I know that 5 years is the longest time I have gone without touching my oil brushes in my entire life.  However, I am completely drained from my last series and the planned works will take everything out of me again.  To become what I need to become to make that painting is going to be difficult on every part of my life.  So Athena and I are gong to simply live and enjoy our work, each other, and see what happens.

We chose Maui simply because it is beautiful.  And I mean it is stunningly beautiful.  Perfect for us to prepare for the coming storm of my new work.

As to tattooing, well I am rusty as hell.  It is going to take some work to get back into the game.  We are at Sweet Trade Tattoo where my friend Trevor Kennedy has supported our move and our decisions.  Trevor opened this shop in 2009, and he has promised to sell the shop to me when I am ready.  I am not ready at the moment, and really it will be 2 years before I am.  

So now I am going to be adding tattooing to this blog.  This is going to be fun, and ridiculous, and the perfect way to clean my mind of the last personality I took on (personalities really, the last series was multi individual focused) and once again find the self or at the very least recreate the construct that I think is me.

Aloha, and here we go...