Red Region Inferno

Note: This post is …
Part Rocky Horror Picture Show – Part Tattoo Price Talk – Part Tattoo Client / Artist Rant.

“Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me - I wanna be dirty”
That was my favorite song and my favorite scene from the 1975 surprise hit and now cult classic film
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I first saw it around 1980.
I was still just a kid and I thought… That chick Janet is F#@$ing sexy.
Count me as a Susan Sarandon fan to this very day.

The movie has had a huge impact on some people.
I can say this from my own experience because I would guess hundreds of thousands of people sport Rocky Horror Show tattoos.
Especially the lips.
I have done a good 200 plus in my career alone.
Example…

Kiss My Ass - The Rocky Horror Picture Show Lips Tattoo on the bottom side.

My most recent set of Rocky lips.
Location – Right ass cheek.
This is the most usual place for a Rocky lips tattoo.

A nice fancy set of lips like this takes about 2 hours to do and at my rates cost about $300.
I less fancy version can be had for about $200, but anything with less time than that put into them just looks like crud and I refuse to do them.
If they don’t have all the shine and highlight stuff put in they just look like crap.
It is the shine that takes the time.

 I have never understood why some people want a budget version tattoo.
It is going to be on you for life.
Next time you walk into a tattoo studio with your $80. jeans, $30. T-shirt, $150. jacket, $100. shoes, $10. socks, $15. undies, $200. watch (none of these things you will own 10 years later) just think about whay you are trying to save fifty bucks on a tattoo you will have forever.

Grrrr.

Reason I brought that little price rant up is that for some reason people want to go very low end when getting lips tattoos.
They want them “just plain red lipstick” type simple.
Can’t be done and look good folks.
Google lips tattoos, or even rocky lips tattoos and you will see the results.
Budget style lips tattoos look like crud… It’s that simple.
Get them nice or don’t get them.

Take time in finding your tattooist.
Most (yes I said most) tattooists suck big time.
Research, look around, see examples, get recommendations, and don’t expect to be able to walk in and get it on the same day.
Not many tattooists who are even close to mid level in skill can do walk in tattoos. Expect them to be booked in advance. If they are not in demand there is usually a reason.

So… Back to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
For those who have not seen it…
It is a spoof film about a newly engaged couple who get lost and then get a flat tire in the sticks.
They go to find a phone in the pooring rain and end up a a strange castle filled with odd folks.
It is a musical… it is filled with transvestites, perversion, some fun sci-fi and a bit of a mystery.
Besides that, I can’t say because you should just watch it so you know what the heck it is about.
Why should you know?
Because everybody else on the planet has seen it.
You are outta the loop.

Maybe you will like it, maybe you won’t.
Maybe you will want to go see it in a theater and get all dressed up and become a Rocky addict and end up getting lips tattooed on your ass after seeing it.

Whatever you do… see it at least once.

I actually woke up early today.
Thought  ’cool, coffee and a breakfast bagel this morning’
Jumped in my car and headed down the main road…
Out of an alley – turning left – going fast – into my lane (the wrong way) Bam!

Not cool.
I had a Big Lebowski moment.
My first thought was “Bummer man.”

Turned out the guy was a client of mine.
He had worked a double shift and hadn’t slept.
He looked like he was going to cry.

The cop didn’t take to long with his report.

The stupid insurance people still haven’t called me though…
and I am car-less.

My poor car got a fat lip

Decided it was a good time to start biking again.
I have been planning on it anyway.
Maybe this was fate.

The huge bummer part is that my car has been paid off forever and I just got new brakes, tires, and an alternator.
$1400 bucks for that and the insurance people wont give one bit of a care about that.
They will give me the least they can I am sure and I will not be able to replace the car with what the pay.
So… I see car payments in my future.
Mega Bummer!

I have never understood the nurse fetish thing.
Sure… sexy nurse outfits like the one shown can be fun and a bit of role play starting with an examination is nothing a person should pass up if the nurse is a cute thing like this gal…. but what is with the nurse fetish?

As far as fetishes go... I guess being into pretty girls in nurse outfits isn't very odd when one considers the various strange things some people are into. At least it certainly seems a fine choice when looking at this pretty girl all dolled up in a shiny nurse costume.

In my attempts to understand I did a quick google search and got   3,300,000 results.
Yep, that is a lot.
It was pretty much all porn.
People love this nurse thing and they masturbate to it.

So… since looking at girls dressed as nurses performing sex acts on others via a porn site wasn’t teaching me anything about the reasons behind it I decided to hit up wikipedia.

I ended up reading up on Medical fetishism and it did tell me that “Intimate examinations are eroticized by some people as part of medical fetishism, and as such are a common service offered by professional dominants.”

Now I really am not so sure that everybody into the nurse thing is all about domination and certainly they are not all into being rectal exams and prostatic massage.
I was thinking it was just a fantasy of having a super hot babe take care of you while you were feeling a bit down. I was thinking it was the “kiss me here” so I feel better type of thing… but after reading a bit from wikipedia and looking many pages deep while sifting through the 3,300,000 google results I have come to realize I was naive.

Most people that are into the nurse thing are really into some kinky stuff!

I am betting a lot of folks just go with my little fantasy idea of the hottie who will take care of you… but most people who are stuck on nurses want the kink.

Now I know.

So… back to the mundane life of me.
I took this photo as part of a series for my rarely updated costume blog a few months ago.
Very cute girl who is also very photogenic.
The costume is an off the shelf type thing… nothing special but it looks sexy as hell on the girl modeling it.

I really wish I had more time to devote to my costume photography.
It is one of the few things I do (work-wise) that I really enjoy.

Upward to tranquility…
is obviously a painting inspired by the yoga pose Upward Facing Dog.
“urdhva mukha svanasana”

Upward To Tranquility

This pose stretches the chest, lungs, abdomen, and back.
It will free you to breathe… thus the tittle of the painting.

High up, free from bothersome demands where the air is clean and fresh we open ourselves and allow ourselves to truly breathe.

I have actually done this pose high up on a mountain a few times, but in general I practice it on a mat in my living room.
If my mind can become clear enough I still am able to find that tranquil place I long for.

Upward facing dog is not only good for the chest, lungs, abdomen, and back.
It also stimulates your internal organs and offers relief from depression.
Many  yoga practitioners claim that this pose offers relief from asthma also… and they very well may be right.
Personally however I think that if it does help with asthma it is simply because when in this pose and breathing correctly it expands the lungs and chest so much that it may actually clean out the lungs a bit – ‘so to speak’.

So… I hope you enjoy my painting and it inspires you to not only get into this very beneficial pose, but also to seek your own tranquility.

Prints of my ‘Upward to tranquility’ painting are available through ImageKind.

I love foot tattoos.
I like seeing them (If they are done well)
I like tattooing them (unless they want something super small and stupid)
I like showing off my work on them.

So…. A Koi on a foot.

Footsie Koi

Nothing fancy to it….
Just a semi traditional Japanese themed koi in water  on a foot, but I dig it.
The foot is such a great canvas for tattoos.

Just think how cool this one would look while in the water at the beach!