About the Author
About the Author
You might say I'm obsessed with tattoo. Rightly so, tattoos are fuckin' magic after all. This site is a repository of my tattoo-related thinkings and makings, and a healthy channel for the ineffable force that compelled me to abandon all reason and pursue an apprenticeship in this bizarre carnival craft… continue
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Category Archives: Tattoo
Twenty and Ten
During this evening's LOTR-esque public transit journey from Victoria to Vancouver I savoured a few spare moments (“gift time” I call it) to reflect on the past year.
Let me get all scientific-like and suggest that if you take an individual day as a representative sample of the year, today has been solid evidence that 2009 [...]
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Thomas Cave, Beanpicker,
and his Social Security Tattoo
I really love the atmosphere in historic black & white photos, especially photos where a bit of an old tattoo is visible.
Once you've picked through a handful of historic tattoo photo books (Henk Schiffmacher's "1000 Tattoos" is a good place to start) you realize there are a finite number of vintage photos of tattooed [...]
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Cowboy Ornament and the Tattoo
For me, cowboy hats are so iconically American, iconically Canadian too, really, considering the significance of our Prairie provinces to Canadian identity. It's been my experience that a good cultural centrepiece usually has a lot of power as a tattoo.
As an eight-year-old I saw my first episode of Bonanza, in German no less, while visiting [...]
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New York State of Mind
Today I went and got myself tattooed by Chris David at Government Street Tattoo. (I gave the small painting above to Chris, a small token of thanks for the tattoo).
I've been wanting to get something by him for awhile after seeing the bold and tidy traditional work he's put on for a couple friends. Throw [...]
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She’s Possessed to Skate
Some stiff competition in tattooland today.
Gerry put up a fun challenge to the shop: everyone takes the same flash (pictured left) as a starting point and has to re-draw it, adding their own twist, no looking at each other's drawing! It was great to see what everyone came up with and, despite starting with the [...]
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Tattoos by Chris
Did up this little design from some anonymous historic flash during a great painting session at the shop with my ol' pal and coworker Bryan J. Turnbull. Lots of painting going on at the shop these days.
It's fun doing something quick and simple to cap off the end of the day before heading home, recreational-like. [...]
Magneta, Magenta
Chemistry class, Grade 11.
After combining a few dribbles of Hydrofluoro-somethingorother with two parts Whatsitium I was admiring the vibrant pink the solution had become. "Can anyone tell me what color the mixture should change to?" asked the teacher. I blurt out my response, "Magneta!" (You read that right: mag · net · uh)
Probably thinking [...]
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Should History Matter to a Tattooer?
It's about being in the middle, not being at the end. You're not initiating something, nor having the last word, you're just carrying it through with the time you've got. Dan Higgs, Interview by Ed Hardy, Tattoo Revue Magazine.
When you consider how long tattooing has been part of our history (at least 5300 years according [...]
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Full Circle