no matter how we try to stay humble and focused, even the most devoted of us lose track. we think we find new goals, new ambitions, new people we want to help. when those goals and people leave you, who are you left with? why do they leave in the first place? the only person left is you. what do you do when you, yourself, has become unreliable, unable to ask anymore questions, and completely lost?

Kanji days

all of these were done 4/9 and 4/10. doing kanji at the shop to get used to lots of little tattoos with simple linework and solid fill. quite an improvement between just the first and last tattoos in this post.

Look mom, I'm tattooing! (4/6 - 4/8)

Look, mom, i'm tattooing!


Tattooing the diamond on the girl below:

She got this one a few days earlier on her wrist:


Our piercing apprentice that started all the diamonds:



Did one on my own ankle. This wasnt much fun.



Angry cupcake on one of our piercers!


And onto the free kanji:
This one is on the side of a hip. I'm realizing how much I value a good sitter who sits still with tattoos.

Tattoos. The first ones.

I will never tattoo a palm again!! This is the most awful skin i've done- its super thick, full of weird creases, and her hand, no matter how still i held it, would not stop curling up. She chose the palm because tattoos don't last there.

"always" was already there, I went over it with the "void" stamp tattoo. By far the funniest one i've done yet.

BUSINESS! On the other apprentice. He originally tattooed these himself, I went over them and fixed em a bit. We're doing some more lettering soon between the first and second knuckles.



Rampant lions! Did these two and the next piece in the same day. (thats a lot when youre beginning and worked on a grapefruit for 2 hours prior to.)



A (nerd) symbol on a co-worker, my first out-of-shop client!




Second attempt. Redid the word loyalty on another piercer's hand. Touchy spot, was definitely more difficult than the arm.
First attempt. On the boss. Not too bad, circumstances considered. Will need to be retouched but that's expected with your very first tattoo. (especially when its that big)

more more more! grapeyfruits.

For Brendi, our awesome piercer


Rocket ship!


Happy st patty's, of course!

Heart in a grid- its a good test to see if your depth is consistent and boring as hell to get you used to not rushing through a piece.

Grapefruits. Again.

There's another artist at the shop who does really good portraits, she draw a caricature of one of the other apprentices so i tattooed it.


Part of the Japanese sleeve i helped draw on. Had some reference of a flash sleeve, drew it all on with some help from sniper.



<3 mom

<3 dad

Grapefruits.

My first grapefruit tattooed at Extreme Graphix. i got so excited i did two more later that day. Talk about a cramped hand. I can't wait to do more!