Tattoo Flash & Self Tattoo

So I have been off of here for a while now, but I have been a busy bee. For starters I passed the tattoo certification exam , so I am officially a licensed NYC Tattoo Artist. I also have been having fun with watercolor and Prismacolor colored pencils. The images I will post are drawn with pencil, and inked with my trusty Micron 0.8 pen. For the 2 or 3 people who actually read this blog you might recognize some of the designs from my Etsy shop.

I also just did my first tattoo on myself today. I am a big fan of the Grateful Dead, so I opted to do a variation of the skull and roses on my left leg above my knee cap. RIP Jerry, Pigpen, Keith & Brent.

A Volunteer From The Audience

So I popped my cherry to coin a phrase. By that I mean that I cleanly, and successfully completed my first tattoo on a live person. My dad's friend John is a staunch NY Mets baseball fan and asked me to ink him. He wanted it on his calf muscle. He was really cool about it all and was confident in my art skills. I was able to finish it in a bit over an hour. He is following the aftercare nicely and its healing well.( It also helps that he has skin like a Rhino ) People can't believe it is the first tattoo I have done. I know it is not perfect, but it came out a lot better than I thought and he really, really loves it so that makes me happy. John wants some Koi on his arm and a devlish mermaid in a martini glass next. Those should be fun to draw out and ink. They will only get better from here on out.

Let me also say that pigskin sucks and is unpredictable. This was so much easier than pigskin. Although pigskin is good to practice on. I think next time I need some to see if the butcher can get me some back pieces. The parts near the belly are too soft and turn mushy. I practiced his design on pigksin ( You can see it on the op of the page), and had to throw it away cause it got so damn mushy. I then decided to finish the design on a piece of the rubber fake skin I had on my work station. While not as good as the real stuff it is firm and you can at least finish a design.

Geisha

So I tried my hand at a portrait today for the first time. This piece of pigskin seemed to behave alot better than usual thank God. I used a 1round liner for the outline. Much Much better. and a 9 mag shader for the rest. Not great but not bad. Im gonna go with mixing my gray washes in larger cups to get more water in the mix.....this Kuro Sumi ink I'm using seems very powerful. Good product. More to come

Swallow Redux

So the last 2 posts I made really don't sit well with me because I am a perfectionist. There is a learning curve when working with pigskin. Its like tattooing rice pudding when it gets soft. Generally it has a firm texture, but fatty parts bleed through no matter how much you clean off the grime. That being said, I decided to redo the swallow with a fresh out of the freezer piece, it defrosted pretty rapidly, and I was ready with stencil in hand. I also got a tattoo ink kit, so I have several colors now. It made a huge difference when I added the red. So even though pigskin is an uphill battle, this time I feel it came out a lot better. I was unable to properly draw and render the bomb the way I wanted to because of the soft nature of the area. So all in all not too bad considering. Enjoy.

The Shader

Drop Dead Swallow

So here is my horrid Old School Swallow attempt. The flash is cool and I dig the concept, but the mushy pigskin threw a monkey wrench into my plans. Oh yeah and I picked a thicker needle by accident to line with cause I am a spaz. I will redo this it does not sit well with me. Blah.

Another Load of Carp

So my pigskin tattoo adventures continue...It comes in a large roll and I slice it into 5x5 or a bit larger. Vacuum sealing them and freezing them seems to be a good method of preserving them for use. This one I had defrosted in the fridge for 2 days, and I think it affected the quality of the piece unfortunately. It seems that the surface gets mushy and its difficult for the ink to hold so I did my best. The first piece I did was pretty fresh, so I will try to defrost them as they are needed not so much in advance. I was bummed and I know they will come out better. I hate to be the carpenter blaming his tools as they say, but it was really tough to work on. I think pretty soon I will be ready to do some on myself and some friends who are eager. This stuff is just too damn mushy. I know if I used the rubber skin stuff this would have had alot more tonal values in the image. I will post the picture and of the pencil sketch I did as reference. I am not totally happy with it but it is part of the learning curve I guess. I also did a Sailor Jerry inspired piece with a swallow. It came out ok..same deal with the mushy skin. I will definitely redo it. I didnt have red tattoo ink for that one so I used Higgins ink. Blah.

My first tattoo attempt on pigskin

So I finally got some pigskin to practice on. It's the closest thing to practicing on human skin; although its a bit tougher. I decided to try my hand at quickly tattooing a Japanese style koi. My color choices were a bit limited because I only had orange and blue, I need to pick up some yellow and red to add some more hues. I love fish, so I will probably tattoo a few more koi. Enjoy.

19thc Suicide Girl

Here is a picture of a 19thc inspired pinup girl I am working on. Its on a 6x6 square of rubber meant to simulate skin. It isn't quite done yet but for my first tattoo I have ever done I think it could be worse I guess. I need to go to the butcher and get some pig skin. That should be pretty close to the real thing. So yeah this is what I have been up to lately. Enjoy.

Dead Fruit

Here is another twisted tattoo flash design I whipped up. I am working on a series of skull related imagery for this set of tattoo flash. In this piece its a bit stylized, which is always fun for me to do. I wanted to achieve an old woodcut type of feel with the rendering of the apple tree, and keep the illustration fairly simple and straight forward. The image is 8 1/2 x 11 and is drawn with archival India ink, on acid free paper. Check it out at my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/listing/50195858/rotten-apple

Man of Constant Sorrow

Man of Constant Sorrow

This is a hand drawn illustration I created paying tribute to old school tattoo flash design; namely the work of Bert Grimm and Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins. I am an apprenticing tattooist and I really respect and appreciate these artists and what they stood for. Their bold and straightforward designs have endured the test of time and are now part of mainstream culture. I wanted to pay homage to their work but also add my own style to the mix.

The "Man of Constant Sorrow" is a theme that has been in art for hundreds of years. It depicts the pain and suffering of Christ, and was usually depicted by the Netherlandish and Northern European painters. I chose to do a variation on the subject matter and added a skull design and razorwire instead of a crown of thorns. Man of Constant Sorrow is also an old timey country folk tune, written in the early part of the 20thc. It has been covered by a host of musicians including: Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Waylon Jennings. Ron Tyminski's version became a chart topper when it was featured in the movie " O Brother Where Art Thou? "The drawing measures 8 1/2 x 11, and is created using India Ink, and Archival paper. If you are a tattoo enthusiast, or just like art with some grit to it, maybe this is the piece for you. Check it out in my Etsy Shop http://www.etsy.com/listing/50195204/man-of-constant-sorrow Enjoy.

Yeah, Hi...What's Happenin?

It has been a while since my last blog post and for the few who actually read this damn thing im sorry. I do have good reason why I have not posted though....
I am lazy and did not change the batteries in my camera, and I have been busy drawing. I have decided to take the plunge and become a tattoo artist. I start my apprenticeship tomorrow. I even bought a tattoo kit and the whole shebang. I have been working on some flash designs and I will try to post some pictures to show all yous guys out there in tv land. I want a job where I get to be creative everyday. Maybe I have been watching Office Space too much. :)

Tibexican Sugar Skull

So as promised here is a new Zen inspired design. I think I am gonna do a few of these sort of pieces I am having a blast drawing these out. In this tattoo inspired sort of imagery, I juxtaposed a Mexican sugar skull of sorts with some Buddhist imagery and a Tibetan inspired lotus flower. Hence....Tibexican. Drawn with my trusty brush pen. Its really starting to go... I actually dipped it into ink like a nib for certain effects in here. I will definitely keep it on hand for special effects like dry brush, but I think I need to replenish my stocks. Enjoy!

Finch on a Teacup

Here is a sketch I did I thought it was neat. Im gonna probably make this a shirt at some point. Enjoy.

The Monkey King

This was an illustration that I recently completed as a gift for someone. My friend AJ wanted to commission me to draw the Monkey King for his Kung Fu teacher. I definitely jumped at the chance because this sort of subject matter is really cool and interesting and I don't get to do this sort of stuff every day.I decided to draw it in a slightly comic bookish/Manga type style. Again, I never get to draw this stuff so it was cool. The Monkey King was a total bad ass, and then he became a Raw Foodist Monk. Stay tuned for more Zen inspired designs, coming to an Etsy shop near you!

My Pussy Is Smarter Than Your Honor Student

So here is the female companion piece for the Cock tshirt. I think it speaks for itself. I created the drawing by hand using pencil and my trusty Faber Castell Brush Pen. Gad I love them things; even when they start to die out they are great. After I scanned in the drawing I added type with Adobe Illustrator.

I then printed the image onto the transparency and burned it onto my silk screen as I have mentioned previously. I ended up printing it onto a black shirt with kind of a bubblegum pink ink I concocted. The neon pink ink I originally bought was turning a dark burgundy color when dry and on a black tshirt it wasn't showing up very well. I remedied this by adding a bit of Pearl White ink (Speedball). That did the trick. Kinda looks like a Zombie Cat now, which isn't necessarily a bad thing...

Anchor Tattoo

So I got my first tattoo today from my buddy Joe. We've been good friends since we went to The
High School of Art & Design. He recently got his tattoo license and is also an Etsy seller as well. I gave him a copy of my anchor design and he came up with a stencil. Joe came by my house today to ink me up; and with some Allman Bros. and some Ramones tunes we got it done. In the near future Joe will be inking my other arm with a Striped Bass skelton design I came up with. Check out Joe's awesome mixed media tattoo inspired paintings in his Etsy shop. The link is: http://www.etsy.com/shop/JoeVegaLtd

Stoopid Birds

So here is my first foray into printing tshirts for women. I originally made this design as a linoleum block print, which I printed on hand made paper. The design is very popular on Etsy whenever I go into the chatrooms to network. I decided to print it on an Old Navy ladies tshirt. Its this cool bright orange color. The ink is black waterbased fabric ink.

I transferred my print onto my silkscreen and made this tshirt.

Ghost Anchor Tshirt

Well true believers, I have decided to post again since I made a new tshirt for my shop. This design is kind of personal. It is based off of an old bookend that was given to my father by my mother. My father was in the Navy during Vietnam, and when my parents first got together, my mother gave it to my dad as a gift. I now own this, and it inspired me to create a drawing based on the piece. I guess it reminds me of my parents, and an anchor remains stable in turbulent waters. I guess its a life lesson of sorts. I am actually going to get this drawing as a tattoo ( my first) in the near future.


I originally made this as a linocut print(the big one near the header of my blog) on handmade paper which I have for sale in my other etsy shop: onitisfineart. I took it a step further and thought the old school nautical image would make a cool tshirt. I redrew the image in pencil and used my trusty Faber Castell Ink Brush Pen to finish it. So now it is a nifty new tshirt in my Etsy shop.

My Cock Is Smarter Than Your Honor Student

Ok... so here is my first real post on this thing. I have completed a new tshirt for my etsy shop, and I thought it might be cool to show the process etc. I got the idea for this shirt one time when I was stuck in traffic behind a bad driver, and I was forced to see their honor student bumper stickers. I mean great thats wonderful; but Long Island is filled with proud parents who can't drive. So I had an epiphany, and this shirt is the result.

All my artwork is done by hand, one at a time. I started with a pencil sketch on vellum which I inked with a Faber Castell Brush Pen. I love these pens, they are filled with India Ink, and really are like using a brush.

Next I scanned my drawing into the computer and I used Adobe Illustrator to add some text to my image. I didn't take pictures at this stage 'cause well.. I forgot. After viewing many fonts I settled on one called Rosewood. It has a cool 19thcentury vibe to it, and I think it worked well with the illustration. I then printed my drawing out onto a transparent sheet of plastic. I placed this transparency backwards over my silkscreen to be developed.

The image was burned onto the screen after 12 min and 30 seconds. I use a 500watt halogen light, suspended on 2 broomsticks, on 2 chairs. on each broom stick I use 12 DVD cases as support...6 under each broom stick. After exposure, I rinse my screen clean with cold water in the shower or a garden hose if I am at my friends studio. I also use an old house painting brush to wash and lightly scrub away any particles that would clog the design.

I let the screen dry and then used my heat gun to wick away any extra moisture. I have a one color screen printing press that I set up at my buddy's studio but I was stoked to print today so I rigged up some ghetto fabulous methods to print. I basically took my shirt and put an 18x24 picture frame inside of it. I taped newspaper to the one side of the frame so the ink doesn't screw it up. So yeah its a decent support for the shirt. The inside edge of the frame even provides a support for your screen to rest on when lining things up. I didnt have my squeegee either, so I used a linoleum block that I would normally carve out. I used it as my mock squeegee.


I chose yellow because I haven't printed with it yet and I thought it would look neat against the brown shirt. My print has kind of a vintage distressed look to it which I like. I think I will print this with white ink on black tshirts, and also gray shirts with black ink. Check out my etsy store OddmanOutPress, I can do all kinds of custom stuff. Well thats it for todays blog

first post

Welcome. This is my first attempt at a blog and really joining the 21st century. In the coming days I will try to document things that might be interesting to any readers out there. You will see artistic, and culinary processes in motion; and hopefully some landscape and fish photography. Who knows what tomorrow may bring?