Nick has a binder packed with photos he's taken of folks with aged tattoos. The fact he's taken the time and effort to document in the first place tells me he takes designing a clear, high-impact tattoo seriously and bases his approach on what he's observed first-hand. I really appreciate someone that puts in the research and takes that kind of craftsmanlike approach.

As we age, our tattoos age, pigment migrates within the skin, but if a tattoo's silhouette is strong and the lines black and bold, the details modest, despite the inevitable entropy the thing will still look readable and decent in 50 years. Proof lives on in the skin of those that got tattooed in the decades before us. Clues are there to guide us if we care enough to pay attention.

Nick had a few sheets of designs he'd just finished painting put up in his station that got me thinking about a couple other designs I want down the road. I don't know about you but while I'm getting tattooed I'm grateful for small, dense visual stuff to focus on. Great distraction… and great fodder for future tattoos.

A few months ago, I reworked a reaper design I found in a huge collection of classic tattoo flash.

The text in the banner comes from this mysterious little plaque stuck on a painting hanging in Sacred Heart Tattoo that reads simply "Don't Ask, Don't Know, Can't Tell". Combined with the reaper, the slogan seemed destined for a cool t shirt design so I set out to get something painted.

The printers did a solid job on the shirt, modeled below by ace tattooer and my ol' chum Nick Wasko.

A small run of the shirts were printed and are now completely gone. If there's any interest in a new batch please post a comment or fire me an email; I'll see what I can do about a re-run. Thanks for checking it out.

While on one of my frequent and compulsive bookstore visits I drifted to the magazine section where, lured by a cover promising an interview with Japanese tattooer Horiyoshi III (or maybe it was Kat Von D's lusty come-hither gaze—I'll never tell) I picked up the latest copy of the magazine.

Thumbing past the somewhat scant coverage of Horiyoshi III was a two-page spread on Sacred Heart Tattoo. I'm not sure how Inked became aware of our shop up here north of the border on the far west coast (as they're way out in New York City), nevertheless there we are. Thanks for looking all the way up and over here NYC!

I was happy to see the magazine chose a tattoo I did for my long-time pal and snappy dresser, illustrator Rhonda Mulder. Like a lot of you, I struggle to keep friendships alive when faced with the daunting distance of our vast country. When Rhonda paid me a visit from her home back east I was elated. We were able to spend a few hours during the tattoo catching up on the latest in our lives and recalling old memories and faces from our time spent grappling with our classes at Sheridan College in Ontario. It was a really special tattoo and precious hours with a dear friend.

The tattoo is my interpretation of some flash painted by Joe & Mabel Darpel of a woman wearing a Phrygian cap. The glory goes to you, Rhonda! Thanks for getting tattooed.

After a long day's travels, and prior to beginning a tattoo pilgrimage, the proper thing to do is visit a classy drinking establishment to enjoy one of San Francisco's finest creations, a pint of Anchor Steam. Anyone recognize the interior of this bar? (Hint: it's just steps from Union Square).

Now, besides being a picturesque and lovable city, San Francisco is home to some of the planet's most outstanding tattooers. It's obvious from the moment you walk in the door that the many hard-working folks here have invested much in creating rock-solid shops reflecting the talent within.

One of our first stops was Henry Goldfield's. Great place with a long history. As we quietly drank in all the vintage flash posted floor to ceiling throughout, tattooer Rob Merrill gave us a hearty, friendly hello and an invite to sit and hang out for a minute.

In Part II - SF Adventures continue: Blackheart, Idle Hand & Everlasting.

Friends, I have officially returned to Vancouver!

For some this news is probably months old but it came to my attention recently that not everyone knows I'm actually back to *stay* this time around. You can now find me tattooing full time at Sacred Heart Tattoo, 725 Nelson Street, Thursday through Monday.

Please drop by the shop and pay me a visit if we haven’t spoken in awhile, heck, even if we have. I’m glad to be back home and looking forward to getting reacquainted with my old chums that I didn’t get a chance to visit during my brief trips from Vancouver Island to the mainland.

Getting all settled in to the new shop and my new/former city again has meant these last few months have been astoundingly busy. This last week I feel I’ve finally caught my breath and with that figured I was well overdue for an update.

After two incredible years learning from my tattoo mentor Gerry Kramer and the rest of the outstanding crew at Tattoo Zoo in Victoria, BC, it was time to say farewell and migrate to my hometown and shack up with my fiancée.

If you’re ever over in Victoria don’t miss out on the great work coming out of Tattoo Zoo. Check out the recently renovated shop (packed with great paintings, art, and whatnot) and get yourself some quality tattoos from Gerry, Colin, Bryan, and Cody, and while you’re there be sure to say hi to Nova, the bestest shop manager ever (and a talented shutterbug, too).

If you're on a budget (which I try to be), the time-consuming commute between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay can be a real sonofabitch. Other times, on a rare warm night sitting on the outside deck of the ferry with a cold beer it's pretty damn picturesque.

Occasionally, when I've had enough of the "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" of it all I'll indulge my inner Donald Trump and fly across on a float plane which reduces the one-way trip time from five hours to a breezy 35 minutes

The cost to save yourself four-and-a-half hours of commuting time? $152.26.

For comparison's sake the same trip taking five hours on (mostly) public transit costs $30, a fifth of the cost of the plane.

Which brings us to the current week and the reason for the title of this post. I neglected to book a float plane in a timely fashion and was left with a decision: wake up at 5am and undergo the protracted-yet-cost-effective trek on public transit only to arrive at noon in Victoria or spend a few day's wages and sleep in an extra three hours and fly across on… a helicopter!!!

I should mention here I've been obsessed with helicopters since Airwolf first aired during my impressionable youth. And yet before today I had never flown in a helicopter.

I hung out in Vancouver's Helijet lounge with its resident kitty, "Rotor". He does a fantastic job of being adorable, inspecting baggage, and mousing.

Then it was on to the tarmac to board the Sikorsky which looks kinda similar to the Bell 222 (the Airwolf Model), don't it?

Idling, or whatever you call it in a helicopter, felt like being inside one of those wobbly dog toys: you're very conscious there's four giant blades spinning incredibly fucking fast just inches above your head - their motion creates a serious bounce in the passenger compartment.

Taking off was surreal and effortless - like the hand of God plucked the thing up and gently lifted us into the sky. Thankfully the wobbliness subsided as things got underway for an otherwise smooth flight.

Whereas the float plane docks just steps from the front door of our tattoo shop, the helicopter terminal is out near Ogden Point and requires a $10+ taxi ride to the shop.

My verdict: it's the float plane for utility and the helicopter for novelty. I leave you with some spoken word by Ernie Cline, just scroll down and check his bit on Airwolf, it's well… Airwolf!!!

My dear friends Meghan and Paul got hitched early this year. Regretfully, I wasn't able to make their wedding but as any good friend would do I lurked their Facebook profiles and have been celebrating their union vicariously through their photos.

They're both inspiring people that get fully into everything they take on and I'm stoked for them to have legalized their love stuff and, as Jon Bon would say, are no longer living in sin. In a world where people are either taking that Sex In The City shit way too seriously and rocking it Samantha Jones style staying slutty and single until death, or taking on multiple wives à la Bountiful BC, it's comforting to know old-fashioned one-on-one passion is alive and throbbing.

Judging from aforementioned Facebook pics this passion and attention to detail manifested itself in one damn stylish wedding. It's cool to see how their taste for the timeless and classic shows through in their attire, wedding accoutrements, right on down to their wedding stationery. Speaking of wedding stationery, Meghan and Paul chose (the very talented) Beth Campbell to design theirs.

Meghan came to see me for some work early in my start as a tattooer and we ended up doing a poppy on her shoulder. Beth gave a nod to the bride's tattoo in their wedding invitations; with a bouquet of poppies in the basket of the tandem bicycle central to the design.

I'm always curious and impressed by how other creative folks translate their inspirations from raw source material to final product.

Bookmistress recently delivered me a copy of “Skin & Bones, Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor”, a thin but nonetheless interesting little catalogue for an exhibition hosted at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philly.

The book describes a connection between scrimshaw and tattooing. Scrimshaw is essentially a carving made in whale bone or tooth. The carving is covered in ink, excess wiped away. Ink then remains in the grooves to define and emphasize the line work. It was a pastime for sailors aboard American whaling ships and likely lead to and/or existed side-by-side with hand-poked tattoos. It's easy to imagine someone with a sharp carving tool, a bottle of ink, and enough skill to apply strong, simple imagery on curved surfaces adapting their work from whale bone to a shipmate's arm.

Scrimshaw-inspired tattoo by Duke Riley

Duke Riley, a tattooer, scrimshaw artist, and all-around multi-disciplinary creative does some incredible work. I really like the texture and strength of his tattoos; they don't depend on color or whip-shading (in the traditional sense) for impact and completeness.

I wonder if the work of comic artist (or is that graphic novelist?) Charles Burns (who spent formative years in Seattle, a port city full of sailors) and poster/skate/surf artist Jim Phillips has been inspired by scrimshaw. They seem to have in common an almost-exclusive use of line to create lighting/dimension, an approach that might have evolved from carving-related arts like scrimshaw or woodblock.

Time, how she flies.

This last month has been jam-packed with tattooing: working four days at Tattoo Zoo, my home shop in Victoria, and coming over to Vancouver to tattoo for three days at Sacred Heart Downtown.

This seven-day-a-week streak lasted just over a month and has now settled into a comparatively relaxed five-day schedule.

Until the end of February you'll find me at:

Sacred Heart Downtown, 725 Nelson
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday from 10am – 10pm

Sacred Heart Kits, 3734 West 10th Ave.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 12 – 7pm

Then, at the end of February it's back to lovely Vancouver Island.

Full Circle: Tattooing where I first got Tattooed

Being at the Kits location has been a curious experience: 16 years ago I got my first tattoo there (I even kept the receipt around someplace—I'll post once I track it down again). A circle of sorts has been completed in my life: working at that shop definitely recalls a lot of my initial fascination and love for tattooing and tattoos. All these years later it remains a solid shop staffed with amazingly talented people; a great place to tattoo at, and still a fantastic place to get your first tattoo. Come pay us a visit!

In light of my Mother's upcoming birthday here's a little watercolour of her favourite critter, the Monarch Butterfly. Happy Birthday Mom!

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 was outstanding with quite a few personal milestones achieved following a serious increase in my creative output.

This isn't meant to be some big self-congratulatory backpat-athon but, hey, sometimes you have to look back to get perspective and appreciate the good times, right? You could look back on your own 2009 and pick out recurring themes and find patterns that play out day-by-day as they unfold across an entire year. Maybe there's things you can be stoked about, maybe there's even things you want to change?

Some notable themes that defined 2009 for me:

• drawing and painting
• tattooing
• machine tuning
• travel
• friends and family

Interestingly, these annual themes are almost perfectly reflected within the microcosm of today's events: I did a walk-in tattoo, built a primitive tattoo machine, cleaned some tubes, fetched coffee, food, and supplies for the shop, and the cherry on top… took a spontaneous trip to Vancouver to surprise my sweetheart with Champagne to usher in a New Year. May even get some drawing in on the bus over. That's pretty much a one-to-one thematic correspondence from day-to-year, Howzabouthat?

I have a good feeling about 2010. This will be the best one yet.