MARKING

i don't draw every tattoo onto skin freehand,
but i do draw a LOT of them that way...
i mean,
how else will they fit jusssst right?
i'm sayin',
when it's time for a flower, or some feathers or a flippin' tree?
or a skull???
man,
y'boi over here is ON it.
in the last week, we had some typically weird new england weather,
and some typically unreliable new england clients,
which atypically freed up a couple of spaces on the schedule-
very last minute, but very empty spots....
what's the answer?
well, it's to tattoo, of course!
yeah.
it'd been a WHILE since my cohort and co-conspirator natron was tattooed by me.
years, in fact.
so, when a doo-doo butt dropped off the schedule, he slid in with the clean drawers,
and let me do a pretty clean drawing in the pizza slice triangle of his forearm.
uh-huh.
the pizza slice, man.
that's a thing. ...because of the shape, obvi.
ANYway,
i did a thing:

FLOW'R'UMA!!
that's a flower daruma.
and that's two of my most favoritest things.
i can't take a picture without a muffin in it to save my life,
but i hope you get the idea here-
and here's the preliminary on-skin beginning:

marky-mark'ems!!
the very next day, i spent five brutal hours drawing and blasting the bendy-bone
on our shop guy, dylan.
yup.
he sits great, and he's a certified rose gold weirdie,
so he gets cool tattoos, too.
check this stacked demon-morph savagery, all over and above and below his kneecapper:

OOOOOOUUUCHHHHHH!!!
y'all have any idea what a tough time it was for both of us?
and the roughest part?
it's TWICE normal size already, with bloaty stretchin' all over all of it in the photo.
that's real.
really, you just blast away and hope it heals saturated,
since it's swollen as a whole from the get-go when it's happening...
and again, the drawing:

marking the skin in lime, berry, and blurple is how it's done.
at AMPERSAND TATTOO, i'm basically at home;
and homestyle custom jauns are what's on the menu,
even when sometimes all y'all bring in are your bummery pinterest ideas.
i mean,
if we have the chance to turn up the flavor on some beige-A* google image searches,
don't we owe it to you and ourselves to do that?
after all, it's all a choice.
and if the options are turn up or turn off,
you already know where my volume knob goes, bros.
not every tattoo is a joyous experience,
but i'm grateful for all of them.
no jokes.
each and every day is an opportunity to learn something.
and to maybe hone a little somethin' else.
and maybe even to improve upon the existing bits, so that maybe someday,
ALL the tattoos will be a la prima drawn-on custom fuego,
it has to start somewhere, just like anhy-and-everything else.
it's all really happening, i was just pumped to have back to back days
of bad clients not showing up turning into good opportunities for creation;
never quiet, never soft.....