Red Region Inferno

Times have been tough lately in America.

Or maybe I should say “In the USA things have been a bit down.”

Yep, people are out of work, cost of living goes up while wages go down… umm, we are having a failure situation here I think folks.

I know as an artist it is tough.
It is the worst I have had it for the 25 years of my career, and I am one of the lucky established ones.
I really feel sorry for the new guys and gals out in the art world.

People don’t buy art when they are broke.
It is a luxury purchase.
You can do without that great painting you want so bad, but you can’t do without gasoline and food.
So we artists…. we suffer first.
My prints stopped selling in early 2009.
Did they become un-popular all of a sudden?
Don’t think so. People just can’t afford something they don’t have to have.

So my country.
The country with the most external debt in the world. (yep, that is a fact)
Will people lose all love of you my country?
Will we be the poorest of nations?
Will we recover?

Honestly, I have no idea how soon or to what extent we in the USA will recover.
I do know it will get a lot worse for many before it gets better, but eventually I think we will recover.

Will our self rightous pride dwindle to nothing before then?
I doubt it. We have been taught well how wonderful it is to live in the USA.
We have been taught well how we are the best.
The propaganda machine has done it’s job.

So…. we will always love our country and consider it the biggest, best, richest country on earth.
No matter what the facts say.

The tattoo you are looking at is one of my strange negative space color bomb creations.
(formerly know as reverse Image Color Bombs)
It is a small one… just under 4 inches wide, so you are looking at it pretty close to life size probably.
It was done on a gals bottom…..
and no puns were intended.
She is a lover of her country.
Proud to be of the USA.

No big story involved, she told me she wanted the USA and to do one of my abstract/negative space things. Make it cool, keep it small, and this is where I want it.

This is what I came up with.
Kinda nifty – If I do say so myself.
Well…. In that American, made in the USA sort of way.

On a serious note:
If you are live in the USA do yourself a favor.
Buy American made and manufactured products as much as you can until we do get out of our economic slump.
Not much can be done at the moment about how poorly our federal government has used our moneys, but we as a people can at least attempt to help ourselves by keeping some of the money here in the USA.
I am not saying buy lower quality products for higher prices just because they are American products, but if you have a choice between like products… by from your own country. It can do nothing except help.

It is super cool that I have an international clientele.
People come from all over the world to get tattoos from me and that makes me feel pretty darn good.
It especially makes me feel good because I am not always easy to find… so sometimes people need to really hunt.

On the other hand it causes me a problem.
I love to see the finished product.
A tattoo isn’t really finished until it reaches 6 months to a year in age.
It changes a lot during those months and I do my tattoos for that finished look.
When people travel from far away to get tattoos from me I very seldom see them again.
That means I rarely get to see my finished (healed and aged) tattoos.

I’d guess at least half o the work I do is from out of state and about 15% is from out of the country.
Cool… but it sucks I don’t get to see the finished tattoo and know the client is happy.

Sometimes though A client sends me a picture.

Super cool!

This picture was sent along with a thank you note from the client. It shows off her reverse image sailing tattoo I had done for her about a year previous.

I cropped the image to not show the faces… but still I am sure you can all get the idea of the picture.
The client was nice enough to think of me a year plus later when she saw the tattoo on her back and sent this picture along with a super nice note.

Images of my work in real life situations are my favorite.
Much better than just a close up of the tattoo to me.
It is one of he reasons I tattoo.
Unlike paintings…. Tattoos move.
They travel the globe and all different sorts get to view my art.

So…
about the tattoo.
The client travels and races sail boats. It is her hobby.
She was in Australia when she got hold of me to set up the work so I was actually confused when I found she was from DC.

Anyways… I can’t recall the type of sailboat, but she was very specific and sent me some pictures.
She also described how they turned.
I ended up watching some videos to really get a feel for it and then I went to work.
She was interested in my multi dimension reverse image color style stuff and wanted something centered on her back.
She didn’t care to much about how much I utilized the negative space as long as I used it and she wanted some bright colors.
Besides that she let me go with it.
The design was done with no rough work. It came together very easy.
She loved it.
The actual tattoo took about 6 hours.

I took a picture, but it came out shiny.
I will however share anyway…

The not very good picture I took of the multi dimension reverse image sailing tattoo when it was fresh done.

The coolest part of this tattoo is kinda hidden.
You will notice the base shape of the entire design is a copy of the primary boat.
The entire right side color wedge is a sail… but the super sweet part is in the water.
The entire boat is there.
I worked the boat into the water so as to not be easy to notice or distract from the waves, but the whole thing is there.
It was extremely fun.

Now for some extras…..
A couple semi famous quotes that I particularly like involving the wind and sails:
First ~ From William Arthur Ward…

And second ~  From Jimmy Dean…

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.

You gotta admit… Those quotes rock!

Now a fun fact ~

Have you been Minding Your P’s and Q’s?

I sure hope you have. We have all heard this saying before , but who the heck knows what it really means and where it came from?

People pretty much use the Minding Your P’s and Q’s saying nowadays to imply that you are on your best behavior.
They really don’t know what the P or the Q stands for though.
The saying comes from old navy sailors.
The “P” is for pea jackets and “Q” is for the officers queues (pig-tails, wigs).
When it was time for inspections they had best have their P’s and Q’s in order!

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!

This is Sonny the Cuckoo Bird.
Or maybe I should say this is the original Sonny.
The new version looks a bit different.

Sonny is cuckoo for coco puffs

Sonny is the official mascot of Cocoa Puffs cereal.
What Sonny is famous for is being a freak.
In commercials usually they have him doing something semi normal until he runs into something that reminds him of Cocoa Puffs and the he freaks out and says “I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!”

Sonny’s name is not a real name.
In the beginning he hung out with his grandpa in commercials who was “Gramps” and he was called “Sonny.”
After they ditched Gramps in commercial land they just kept on calling him Sonny.

Sonny was born back in the 60′s (Or introduced to us I guess) and he is a cool and freaky bird.
They updated him in 2004 to a kinda stupid version.
I don’t really dig the new version because he has no soul and is more of an ADD spaz than a freaky cool bird.
I guess that appeals to the new generation of kids better though.
Oh-Well.

Sonny makes a great cereal mascot tattoo because he is bright, energetic, fun, and eye catching.
I totally got into doing this image as a tattoo.
The client claims he gets a lot of positive comments and a few “What the heck did you get that for?” type comments too.
He digs it.

Honey Nut Cheerios is one of my very favorite cereals.
This stuff is YUMMY!

Honey Nut Cheerios was introduced in 1979 by the General Mills as the first variation from their very popular regular Cheerios.

When it first came out they actually had nuts stuck to the cheerios with sticky honey and sugar.
In 2006 for some reason they took away the nuts and changed up the flavor.
At first I wasn’t impressed with the change, but it grew on me and I ended up loving the cereal all the more for it’s new flavor and texture.

Honey Nut Cheerios has a great mascot.
Buzz The Bee or as some still call him… “BuzzBee“.

Honey Nut Cheerios Buzz The Bee Tattoo

This cereal mascot character has been one of the most popular ever.
It was introduced with the very first television commercials for the cereal and has never needed replaced to keep people interest.
Both adults and children alike love the bee.

Originally this funny little bee didn’t have a name. He got his name in 2000 when a fifth grade girl won a national contest to name the bee, dubbing him “BuzzBee”.
Later this was shortned to just “Buzz”.

My favorite Honey Nut Cheerios tag-line was (and is) “It’s a honey of an O.”
It’s kinda naughty and very yummy… I love stuff like that.

A few other good ones existed though. My faves in order….

1. It’s a honey of an O.
2. It’s Irrezzzzistable!
3. Little O, Big Taste!
4. Nobody can say “No” to Honey Nut Cheerios

The most disliked tag-lines for the cereal (my least favorites) are…

1. Bee happy, bee healthy! (the current one)
2. Race for the taste!
3. It’s Honey Nut Cheerios! (duh?)

So… as a tattoo is Buzz cool?

Heck yes he is.

Buzz makes a great tattoo and like a slinky he is fun for a girl or a boy.
Buzz has appeal to both sexes and doesn’t seem to be a pansy, but he is no tough guy either… and he represents one of the most yummy cereals in existence that actually isn’t 100% bad for you.

Honey Nut Cheerios actually still has some nutrition and is semi high on fiber.
Yay for bad for you cereals that we can pretend to be eating semi healthy with!

In short… “The Honey Nut Cheerios Bee is a rock’n tattoo!”

Do it like a toucan.
Toucan Sam that is.
His #1 most famous line is… “Follow my nose, it always knows”
Yep. This is a tattoo of the famous Froot Loops cereal mascot Toucan Sam.

Toucan Sam “Follow my nose, it always knows”.

I enjoyed many a bowl of these tasty cereal yum yums as a child.

Loved the commercials with Toucan Sam leading the way through the jungle… yep, they had me addicted through advertising.

Recently while staying at the Hampton Inn in Seattle I found they had boxes of Froot loops down stairs with the free breakfast.
I decided to grab a box and to my surprise… “blue loops”!
WTF… When did that happen?
The Froot Loops I remember didn’t have blue. It is cereal sacrilege.

I know Archie Bunker wouldn’t have been into blue loops.
(For those that didn’t watch All In The Family – Froot loops was Archie’s favorite cereal)

Oh well… here are some great Froot Loop facts.

• Kellogg’s introduced Froot Loops in 1963.
• They have made other varieties of the cereal including a lower sugar version and a marshmallow version.
• Froot Loops cereal is fortified with 11 essential vitamins and minerals and is low in fat.
• The into on the frootloops.com site annoyed me so much I couldn’t even look at the site to get any cool froot loops facts to post here.

So… not to have a short and boring post.
Lets look at the term “Froot Loop” as “Fruit Loop”.

The word “Fruit Loop” is sometimes used as an area description for cruising and hanging out in gay circles… usually you find many gay bars, restaurants, stores and other businesses targeted to gay men and women in these areas.

A fruitloop is a descriptive term for people we consider crazy. “That dude is a fruit loop!”

Fruitloops are a common slang term for those sets of six rainbow-colored metal rings worn as necklaces, bracelets, etc to show gay pride.

To do a “fruit loop” is slang for walking through a gay bar or club while  looking for some action.

Hmmm… I think that is about it. If you have some others let me know.

So… The tattoo.

No big story to it at all. The guy who got it pretty much got the idea from looking at pictures of other cereal tattoos I had done…. He was checking them out and asked .. “You done Toucan Sam?” and I said “nope”… so he said “I want Toucan Sam”.

That’s the whole darn story.
Told ya there wasn’t much to it.

General Mills started pumping out Count Chocula cereal back in 1971.
That means I was lucky enough to grow up with this oh so healthy chocolaty breakfast treat.
I never got into Franken Berry, but Boo Berry was my favorite of the monster themed breakfast cereals.
The problem with Boo Berry is it was so hard to find unless it was getting close to Halloween.
Count Chocula on the other hand was readily available.

So Chocolate it was!

This super sweet Count Chocula tattoo owns with his old-school cereal style.

The latest addition to my ever expanding collection of cereal themed tattoos is the count himself.
Not the new style one you find on the box these days, but the old-school image that they used for all those years I ate the stuff.
The image I remember from all the awesome monster cereal commercials.
I point that out because I am not a huge fan of the new way they have rendered him. Actually I think they ruined all the monster cereal mascots.
Oh well, new days, new crowd of kids = new ways to sell stuff to them.

Anyways…. Count Chocula makes for a way pimp style and super fun tattoo.

Who wouldn’t love a wild smart mouthed chick who lives in and drives around in a tank causing all kinds of havoc for the powers that be all the while giving her sweet love to her boyfriend named Booga who happens to be a mutant kangaroo?

Oh sweetheart… you had me at “kangaroo.”

Rebecca Buck – aka – Tank Girl.
Once a semi law abiding citizen and tank pilot who worked as a bounty hunter before shooting a heavily decorated officer, and failing to deliver colostomy bags to the president of Australia who ended up having an “accident” in public over the situation (and never forgiving her) she became an outlaw with a multi-million dollar bounty on her head.
Nasty girl that she is… Tank Girl is often seen picking her nose, spitting, shouting vulgarities, and many other not so polite acts in the comic bearing her name.
A girl after my own heart she can really enjoy a good drunken night of revelry and is sexually liberated to say the least.

With a reputation like that it is no wonder some fans like her enough to get her inked onto their bodies via the craft of tattooing.

Tank Girl Tattoo

I had a lot of fun with this tattoo because I myself am a fan of Tank Girl (both comic and movie forms) and the client let me get wild with the background and do as I wished.
I figured since Tank Girl was such a wild creature I should go crazy and color bomb it all fun like.
The tattoo you see here was actually done a few years ago, but I never took a picture.
So you are looking at the aged version rather than anything recent.
I always dig getting pictures of my work a few years later anyway because I don’t like the look of fresh tattoos.
In my mind the tattoo isn’t done until it has aged and looks like ‘part‘ of the body rather than looking like it is ‘on‘ the body.

Gotta love a girl with a tank!

Just a funny tattoo post for no reason at all except that I wanted to share.

The image below is a not finished tattoo.
It is session one of a two session project, so keep that in mind when looking at it.
Pretty much we have the under-shade and sketch phase done is all.

The story:
The rack is from a picture , his first with bow hunting long ago.
I get this much done (see picture) and he goes into lobby.
A gal sees the tattoo and says “nice rack.”
We think it pretty funny.
He goes into connecting business to get a beverage and a guy says “wow, nice rack.”
I send a picture to my girlfriend (she likes to see what I’m working on) and her response is “nice rack!”

The client and I had both never even thought of it.

Nice rack!

If you think I’m done … When the client called to set up his next appointment he informed me that he also received “You got a big rack” and a few other variations of the same from people.

Seems everyone who sees it thinks “nice rack” or “big rack” on first sight of this tattoo.

When I was a kid I grew up in a mill town.
The entire area was dependent on the logging industry.
Mill workers, loggers, and logging truck drivers made up the bulk of the jobs.
I remember 2 or 3 logging trucks for every normal vehicle being the norm when it came to what we saw flying down the road.

Logging paid well.
People lived well.
Loggers made 30 to 60 k a year and the cost of a new custom home in those days was 30k to 40k for a nice three or four bedroom with all the bells and whistles.
Heck… you could actually buy a cruddy 3 bedroom on acreage for under 15k.

Now days it is rare to see a logging truck going down the road.
Those few who are lucky enough to have the few remaining logging jobs make about the same income that they did back then.
On the other hand…. a new three or four bedroom home is going for 250k to 450k depending on how many of those bells and whistles you are willing to pay for.
The economy is thrashed… jobs are scarce in the woods.
The age of the logger is over.

I still tattoo a lot of loggers however.
I get along with them.
My family was mostly boom men and loggers with a few mill workers thrown in.
My summers as a youth were spent setting chokers.
I understand what it is that they miss… because i miss it also.
It was so simple.
Get up early. Work hard. You will get what you deserve.
Times have changed.

- The perfect tattoo for a life long logger

This tattoo was done on a client who lives in Port Angeles, WA (an almost dead mill town) and works in Forks, WA (an almost dead logging town)

The most fitting tattoo ever for a logger of the pacific northwest.

We had talked about doing it in color, but I thought black-work would capture the feeling better.

The picture was taken about 6 months after the tattoo was done when the client came back to set up another tattoo.

I really dig this one.