Tattoo tea party, getting my back tattooed and moving studios
So the last seven days have been eventful! To start, last week I mostly worked on big project work that i’ll get to uploading soon enough, but usually I’m pretty terrible at posting progress posts, but I do guess right here would be a good place to post and talk about them! So thats something i’ll aim to get done on this blog. Then, last Wednesday I had another session with my boy Tibor Varga. I love how the project is coming along, and Tibor and I have worked together on what I feel is a pretty special piece of work! Though i’d be lying if I didn’t say that last session, felt like pure wet fire, as I felt that 15 mag drilling away on my tailbone and into my ass crack. That felt choice.
Me, Tibor and my hairy ass back!
Over the weekend myself and the crew over at Burns Ink attended the Tattoo Tea Party convention in Manchester. Overall, an amazing show. It’s always a highlight of the British convention season, and it was awesome to meet some new friends and hang out with some old ones. I got very friendly with Noddy from Quantum Ink and got to play with some new inks! On the Saturday I worked on a baroque piece which is always a highlight for me and I also worked on my Girlfriend Hannah’s thigh piece. It was a BIG session, and she got real bad tattoo flu. On the whole, it was a fun weekend! Good food, cool tattoos, and all in probably my favourite city in the UK! As usual at a convention like that, there was almost too much to see and do, and I didn’t get much chance to walk around and see much, but the organisers did an amazing job!
And of course, the biggest news of the last week, i’m moving. Again. But this time, it’s a big deal! I’m moving to the amazing North Of Winter tattoo studio in Salford, Manchester. This is a huge opportunity for me as an artist. I’ve followed the work of Sam Barber, Tibor, and the crew for a long time. I remember seeing the announcements for the studio opening and seeing the unreal standard set by the team there and promising myself that one day I would work under that studio’s banner. The whole thing still seems slightly surreal. I’ve been asked by others, and the team there why I didn't move there sooner in my career. In all honesty, I never felt good enough to hang there. But, there comes a time in any artists’ career where improvement can only come when you surround and expose yourself with people above your level. Regardless of how humbling the scenario might be! It will be a huge learning curve, but I’m excited to get to work with some of the best artists and just coolest people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. And as I sit here, on the bed next to our lass, re-re-re-re-re-rewatching peaky blinders (the movie just came out, Hannah can’t remember a thing so we’re going back through it all to watch immortal man)finishing off this absolutely boss cappuccino I made after cooking tea for us (Pollo al Limone, it’s my trademark dish, and I can’t cook it for you. You’ll fall in love with me) and just evaluating where I am now, compared to this time last year, and things are optimistic! I feel myself falling in love with tattooing all over again, something that i’ve done multiple times over the last 19 years, and I just feel motivated to push myself and my art. I have a woman in my life who is my best friend who I fancy. We push each other and support each other as much as we can, and it makes us enjoy our down time fully.
POV: North Of Winter viewed with a stigmatism. Thats my gonna be workstation in the far corner there.