I just saw a thing about how Kat von D is going to tattoo a LA logo to break the world record for most tattoos or time? Whatevs. Yeah.. so she's tattooing for 24 hours straight and doing 400 tattoos.. the same tattoos. HA! Oh man. Seriously.. I want to be number 350 on her 20th hour of tattoing. My tattoo would be the best then, right? right guys? huh?

Makes me think of pornos.. where they break fuck records. Like dude number 400 is waiting in line while they pour buckets of lube on her crotch and he's thinking, "Im gonna rock her world!" right?

Anyway...
It started snowing around 2 pm.. I left work and picked up james and our bud, tim. We started to drive home. Normally on a busy commute .. its like a 25 minute drive. It took 3 hours and 45 minutes to get home. I felt like I had cabin fever. I was going insane. We drove 1 mile per hour for like 3 miles (literally. we could see the mall the entire 3 hours almost).. and then like 20 for the rest. I hate the snow. Shit. A plow truck just drove by after we had the driveway plowed.. you know there's a snowbank behind my car now. Bastards.

ha.. i just found a picture of me from halloween.
This one is my man's band. They played a show like this.. seriously. And funny. James is the Batman to the left of robin.. the one not in black, and not holding a guitar over his penis. His band

So I've had a very busy week. It's very frustrating how much of a change work can be. One week it's slow as hell.. the next I'm drawing my appointments till midnight for the next day. I guess beggars can't be choosers.

So yeah, in other news.. I'm tattooing a giant rib piece on an 18 year old girl today. I'm very very stressed. We will see what the outcome is. But.. It's highly likely not to be great. My wrist is already throbbing from working non-stop yesterday. And if she squirms at all.. I'll be so sore. I'm too old to hold people down. ha.
However, I do really like the design i drew. It's lilies and some swirly ornamental stuff.

Yeah.
Rib tattoos are the new "tramp stamps"
Tell your friends.

Every 18 year old girl wants script or flowers on their ribs.
Also, stars on feet are the new lady armbands.
Edited to add a message from mrs_misha -And long pieces of text are then new Taz.
(that woman is hilarious)

I think I need a Japanese pink colored unicorn tattoo. Probably on my foot. If I had room, it would be eating a muffin, or maybe a cookie. mmm.

I hate Xmas music. It's alllll over the place. My goal this year is to avoid the 12 days of Xmas parodies.

I'm in the middle of doing a giant painting. I haven't finished any paintings in like a year. I get so irritated at myself for not finishing my paintings... that every time I see an unfinished one I'm like "blaaaaaytch" Which doesn't put me in the mood to finish it. So yeah. I've got one that has like maybe 3 hours left. (can you tell I'm a tattooist? measuring my work in time chunks ha.) So I've gotta get to work.

Also. WHERE THE FUCK IS MY UPS PACKAGE! I ordered ink and disposables on last saturday. So it was shipped monday. I ordered it from a supply place in friggin' NJ. I am impatient.

Reading- Kristen Britain- the high king's tomb. Dece so far. Her dedication seems to be to her pets of some type.. which i think it weird. Because.. um i guess you can thank a pet in the thanks section.. but the dedication is usually reserved for a person or persons who can appreciate it. But hey.. It's a nerd book. What can I really expect.mrs_misha

Let's see.. since the bloody pad incident (see last post) I have been pretty busy. I've been doing important things like reading meg cabot's new book "big Boned" in one day. Very important. haha. Also, I was eating the crap outta a lot of food. I'm huge into eating snackies.

So.. yeah. Books I've been reading- Robert Jordan's wheel of time series. Now I'm on 7 (haven't started yet) so don't tell me. But damn, those books are good. The man had some amazing creativity. Unfortunately, he died before the last book is finished. I hope they get him a ghost writer soon, cuz in a couple months I'll be done with the series. (what like 6 books left including the prequil?) And I hate waiting for the last book in a series.

In other good news, I just read the last book in the twelve houses series by Sharon Shin. Pretty sweet. It had a nice cute ending. Summed everything up well. It did seem to be a tiny bit rushed at the end.. but still a good read. She's one of my favorite authors.

So yeah.. Meg cabot. The woman is hillarious. She makes me laugh like mad. I realize she wrote the princess diaries and that's why none of you will read her other books.. but seriously. Shes so fucking funny. I hope she finds my blog and realizes that a 27 year old punk rock tattooist with throat tattoos reads her teen novels. I thought about going to a book signing. Just.. think of all the parents with their 12 year old daughters in line.. with me. Delightful! haha

Yeah.. I think thats it for lately.. the Robert jordan books are really taking a lot of my time. I'm about to read the third book in the green rider series by Kristan Britain. That woman needs to get off her ass more often. Its taken her like 7 years to do three books. Meg Cabot is pumping out like 4 books a year and Kristin Britain can't even do more than one in three years. I bet she's watching Tv right now instead of writing me another book. Robert Jordan is dead for christ's sake and he can still get a book out in less than 3 years!

So I put up the Xmas tree. Haven't had one in.. um 10 years. So James and I were like wtf! So we did. And kitty was so impressed. She thinks its her own personal backscratcher. We come home to tufts of fur dangling off of all the lower branches. ha.

So, I have a little story for you kids.

Now, I live in a small town.. and near that town is another town. It's considered a very very trashy town. And in this town is a street thats considered the most trashy street in it. By trashy, I mean most of the houses have porches that are collapsing, or windows boarded over. Most of the houses have a token drunk person out front, drinking out of a bag. Most of the houses have a 15 year old with a baby, and many houses on the street have been raided by cops for some reason, ususally drugs. I mean, it's not West Philly, it's still a little town... but this section is trashy.

So anyway.. I was with Friday the other day and we went to visit a friend who lives in one of the nicer houses on the street. (cheap rent man) and we parked in front of a house. Now since its all apartments, the whole street is parking for anyone. So As we're getting out we see people in one house lookign out hte window at us. Then a few seconds later you can hear yelling. So when we get to our friend's house.. we ask. She tells us how that apartment has a 50 year old drunk man living in it and how he's always crazy and so drunk he falls down the stairs daily. He also lives with two older women who have no teeth and stringy hair and are also drunk.

So we hang out a bit, chat, whatever. And we decide to go to the store real fast. We walk out of the house and toward my car. And this is what i see.







A disgusting bloody pad, on my car window.
So I think.. NO! this is not real blood. Who would put real blood on a person's window in this day and age? So I look close and it is absolutely real blood.

Now what's really bad, is that its not even a pad. ITs a panty liner! but the peson used it as a pad. I mean, It's embaressed to be pranked by someone so ignorant. Those shits are for light days! That was obviously a super tampon day for that lady.

Anyway.. our friend had gloves in her house so she took it off the window of my car and put it on the window of their house. Fuckers. ha. So we went to the store and I decided it was war. Everyone knows I have a horrible fear of blood. So Those bitches were gonna pay. So I bought a box of condoms and a bottle of glue.

When i got to the counter.. the guy says, "Condoms and GLUE!!!!! Wish I were ya boyfriend!!!" And I'm like, "huh?" because seriously. What the fuck sexual could you do with condoms and glue?? "Hey baby put this glue on your face and when we fuck I'll rip it off!!" ????? I was just all.. "uhhhh"
So we left.

Then i filled the condoms with glue and tied them in knots. Then we drove by the house and Friday flung them out the window. The first one landed on the first step, the second the second step and the third.. the porch in front of the door. It was perfect. They all plopped with a mushy satisfying squish noise. I'm certain they oozed a little and when that shit starts to dry it'll get all yellowy.

So then we left and I got a 12$ carwash.
But the sticky part left a little stripe on my window. It's still there.
THE END

people get all defensive if you tell them they are doing something wrong. sheesh.

I read an article the other day by a well known female tattooist whos been in the field for like 20 years. And in her article she states that she doesn't think it was harder for her to be a tattooist in the male dominated industry. It was kinda a bummer. I mean.. I'm not really sure if she just found a totally respectful shop or what..

Some of the things I face and some of the women i know face are:

• When a customer asks you a question, doesn't like the answer, and asks a younger (but male) person the same question. (usually the apprentice or piercer)


• when a customer treats you like a counter person and expects you to do things for them when they aren't your client. (things they wouldn't ask the other male tattooists to do. like can you call them a cab or get them something or put their coat somewhere etc..)


• Asking credentials. Thats really common for me, how long I've been tattooing, if I've ever had any real jobs and can I see some work. (which the y should do for EVERYONE, but didn't for the last tattoo they got from a guy at my shop.)


• phone calls from customers who ask to speak with a tattooist... after I tell them I'm a tattooist. (very confusing..)


• Other tattooists acting very surprised that I tattooed my work.
• other tattooist questioning how i do things, despite the fact that I've been tattooing longer and my work is better. (usually this is from some pretty sketchy dudes to be honest)


• people assuming i had an easy apprenticeship because I'm a girl.


• people assuming that female tattooists are all about getting famous on attention and being rock and roll tattoo stars.


• in the apprenticeship, I had a longer time in some respects because women have the reputation for falling in love and quitting, getting pregnant and quitting, or having a boyfriend/husband that comes in and acts jealous of the other guys.


• Most people see a tattooed woman and assume she's with a tattooist and not one herself. I get the, "oh did you learn to tattoo from your husband?" a lot.. Like we can't love art on our own. We're doing it to impress our men.


• I've been told that women aren't good tattooists because we are too sensitive and too soft. We coddle our customers and by being too kind and letting them have their way, it degrades the quality of the tattoo. (Some people really believe women tattooist are this soft.)

Now these are just a few of the ways that it makes tattooing different for women than men..
And because this is how a lot of people view female tattooists... it's harder to get an apprenticeship sometimes. I've heard of some serious sexual harassment in the job field too...
But there are a lot of good things too..


[LIST]

Women are more comfortable with other women. (usually)

dudes are worried about being gay so they don't want other guys to tattoo their upper legs haha..

And because people are, for some reason, so surprised that women can tattoo as well as men, you can get more attention and a better reputation which brings in clients.

I'm not complaining like my job sucks.. It does suck, all jobs have sucky parts. And when you argue for 30 minutes about cost or tattooing something their cousin drew, or have a customer flail about, barf or poop themselves.. you'll see what I mean. But that the same time, I love making art and when you have a good customer.. i really makes you feel awesome. When you inspire another person to do their best and make art.. that's really awesome. And when you get a stack of christmas cards from clients that you worked with... and you realize you really made an impression on them, it makes the job worth it.

But with all good things.. they change with time. You can't just be happy with what there is now, you have to keep striving for better, picking out the bad parts. If you don't.. the bad things will little by little erode away the good before you realize it..

It is widely frowned upon to set your customers on fire, despite the fact that occasionally they deserve it.
I guess I'll just have to be contented that what goes around comes around and blah blah.
I can never really get into it here.. because some customers are spies and I would hate to be venting.. and have a person assume I'm speaking of them, when I'm not. So let's just say that I get very frustrated with these things in my workplace, even if sometimes there is an excuse.

• Tardiness- I'm on a schedule people


• Rudeness- I don't get paid to take crap from you. I do, however, get paid to put something on your body FOREVER. be nice...


• Talk of Miami ink, la ink or kat von d.- The woman may be a talented tattooist.. but i don't care. And when she learns how to stop touching her face and hair with her gloves, I might care.


• Telling me how to do my job- If your cousin who does tattoos in the garage knows so much, get your tattoo there.


• Price haggling- When this works for you at hannaford's or K-mart, by all means come back to try again.


• Touching my stuff- NO TOUCHIES!


• Askign me to make a finished colored product before we do the tattoo- Get a box of crayons and do it yourself... Or pay me 125$ an hour and I'll color it.


• Changing your mind 400 times- Decide what you want BEFORE you set an appointment.


• Touching me- again.. NO TOUCHIES! My arm does not need an arm jobbie


• Dragging my chair across my floor- both of which i paid for myself. No scraping! In fact, why are you moving closer to the person getting a tattoo in the first place? You sit there and NO TOUCHIES! You touch.. and you make the person move.


• Moving- Don't do it, it's for assholes and crybabies.


• touching my trash. Seriously. It's full of blood, sweat and poison. Why would you touch?

So the moral of that story is not to touch anything or irritate me. I just don't like it.

In other news...TransistorTransistor (my guy's band) was in decibel magazine again. Sweet for them. And they are playing a show tomorrow (halloween night) I will be there, dressed up. Feel free to go.. it's in Boston. Do it.

Hmph. I'm a terrible poster, but maybe that's due to the fact that.. uh.. its before 9am. Yes, I wake up before 9. Gasps of shock, I know. This is truly coming from the person who used to not get up before 10:30- ever. But, I have to. I have to drive James to work for 8. So I'm up at the weeeeee hour of 7am. Last night I went to bed by like 11:30 for once. It made me feel very old. All tuckered out and yawning before midnight. I used to be unable to sleep before 2am. sheesh.

Anyway.. So happenings.

On saturday november 3rd, my shop, Tattoo Junkies Studio, is having it's grand opening party. So I have been busy. We had a meeting last night to discuss the plans. We talked about a lot of tom foolery.. and a little about said plans. But in the end we made some. We have to get a flag pole, because our open flag was ravaged in the wind storm the other day.. and we have to do some magic riggin items together all mcGyver style. We have to figure out a way to hang paintings from the cieling... withought destroying the wall. And best of all.. the cielings are slanted in various places. I think we have a way.. but yeah.
So we have a main artist for our opening and for our first "gallery show"... hes Joshua Andrew Belanger. I went to high school with him, and we were close friends. But more importantly.. he's realy talented. He does a lot of graphic design work for bands.. and a lot of giant paintings. So I'm stoked. We're going to put some of his art on our own site to sell shortly..
The second artist is a metal sculpter and he's only putting in one peice. Which is cool. ITs all viney and creepy like Pan's labarynth style. His name is Matt Clarke and he's a tattooist from Chichester, nh. And we already have his art all photographed and ready to go in the gallery section of my website.
Blah blah blah..

Anyway. If anyone wants to come to our opening party, please do.

In other news..

This is Shaun's (That I work with) dog, conan. He's pretty awesome.. also huge. Huge as in 185 ounds huge.. as in I'm 125 and hes bigger than me, huge.

So..
I've been very busy. We're moving our shop, building a new website, painting the rooms, i painted a shelf.. move move move.. All busy stuff. Not much time for making art.

So our new shop is awesome, I painted my room yellow and all the stuff in it is orange. Pretty sweet. Seriously.
The new shop has private little rooms and a big drawing office room for us. So nice. I have a new drafting table all set up. I love having space to make art if i have time ha..

Yesterday.. I got these dumplings. I get them all the time. They are very yummy.
I'm not sure if anyone here knows i have some weird food phobia where i am always very worried about eating rotten food. If I leave something in the fridge for a couple of days i get very concerned and wont eat it. If juice stays in the fridge for a couple of weeks I think it's turning thicker. I just don't trust it. Anyway, you can see where this is going. And its not good. So.. I ate half these dumplings when a car drove by and reflected light onto my container of dumplings.. and i see... the glint of fur... all over the food. So I had just eaten like 10 hairy dumplings. Mold. Bummer. So I gagged a lot. And was pissed. Then i worried all day that I would get sick. But I didn't.

Whew.

sooooo yeah. Eating mold. Bad.

I wanted to put up some pictures.. but my camera is at work and full to the brim. So.. no pix for any of you. All 5 of you that read this. haha..