I finally completed the dogwood flowers and touched up, (re-colored,) all of the psychedelic stuff and the matrioshka doll. I actually had done all but the flowers over a month ago, but so much of it had faded. The flowers and the re-coloring took 10 hours over 3 days.

Lesson learned: Never use the corner of a mag grouping to fill in solid color.

Dear friends,

One of my bands, Happily Ever After, have released our 3 song ep entitled Deep Inside, including the songs “Frustrated,” “The Kill,” and “But Tonight” on iTunes, Amazon.com, and Emusic.com that you can purchase now for less than $3. You should get it and give it a listen and let me know what you think. I would be very grateful.

X

Michael

When Paul was in high school he spent 3 months in Pushkino, Russia, (studying microbiology of all things!),  and brought back an impressive collection of some really beautiful Russian folk art, including a set of the most beautiful matryoshka dolls i have ever seen.

They sit proudly on our mantle, and have given Mike Donahue’s youngest son hours of fun. Whenever they come over, the first thing he does is pull down the dolls and take them to the couch so he can open each one and put them back together again.

When it came time to decide what the next element in Paul’s sleeve would be, he thought about his fondest memories and remembered Russia. Then he thought about the dolls and how they represent a complex nature, not only because each doll contains another doll, but also because each one is a beautiful floral artwork within a simple depiction of a person. It may be that it represents his complexities, as well as his awareness of the complexity of others. We are not what we may appear to be.

I ordered special ink for this tattoo because he wanted the colors to be as bright as possible. I found a set of 3 fluorescent colors that happened to be the colors in the doll, (a pink, an orange, and a red.) However, when i started to apply the red, i quickly realized that it just did not want to stick in the skin. The pink was even worse. Plus, i couldn’t see the pink for the redness of the skin beneath. Since this is only my second color tattoo, it’s possible i just don’t know how to work with such an ink.

I quickly made the decision to lightly color the whole tattoo rather than make more of a bloody mess trying to get these stubborn colors in. In 2 weeks, after it fully heals, i will re-color the whole tattoo again to evenly deepen all the tones and bring out the super bright colors. And then, if necessary, i’ll do it again 2 weeks later. (Which will be so much fun for Paul, since the red part close to his elbow was almost unbearably painful!) =( Sorry babe!

Om, Aum, the sound that holds the universe together, representing all things and people, past, present, and future. Found in both Buddhism and Hinduism and reminding us that we are all one and connected, it is a spiritual tattoo.

I was nervous to do this because i have never done a color tattoo on a person before, but i found that it is actually easier in some ways than the black and gray work i did on myself and Ruben, because it’s just a matter of working the color in until it is intense enough without tearing up the skin too much, and using the feathering and hatching techniques i learned from my good friend Mike Donahue to blend the colors. There are 10 colors in this tattoo, and took about 5 hours, including time it took to mix some of the colors. It looks like it may need a bit of touching up after it heals.

Paul chose the colors himself. The color choice represents not only his favorite color, orange, but also the warm colors he looks best in. After this heals, I’ll go back in and touch up the outline so it will look really clean and crisp. I started by trying out an 8 round shader, but then switched to a 7 mag and was much happier with the color application. The inks are Intenze, Skin Candy, and Kuro Sumi, ordered from Element tattoo supply and Joker tattoo supply.

It started with 2 shows in one day with Total Eclipse. The first was a community barbeque fundraiser in Lafayette, immediately followed by rushing to San Francisco to make our show at Maggy McGary’s at Grant and Green.

The next day was a wedding gig in Livermore. Drank a bunch of wine, danced and sang, and had a blast.

We started outside in the olive orchard, and then moved inside where there was more light.

Finally, I started Paul’s tattoo that he has been begging me for, (since way before he even decided what he wanted!) So far I have only done the black, but after it heals I’m going to make it very colorful.

Then, I used the lotus design I made for Paul to make a design for my wrist. I like how it continues the water theme of my forearm.

I hate my job.

I actually couldn’t love it more. Do what you love. If you’re not doing it yet, at least make sure you’re working toward that ultimate goal, whatever your job is now. Yes, money can bring a great deal of happiness, but always remember that happiness is more important than money. Am I wrong?

On my leg, I added a lot of darker shading to add more contrast to the design. On Ruben’s Calendario Azteca back piece, we added another ring of the design as well as 4 more points. For now, we left the outer boxes empty in case he decides to put in words, such as “Oaxaca” or “VW” or “4:20″ maybe.

Finally, after a lot of hard work and amidst busy schedules, and complicated by my last minute re-write of “Frustrated,” (which became a fitting title,) we finally finished our 3 song demo.

Check out Happily Ever After’s demo here on imeem.

Probably the longest part of doing the outline was finding the center of his back and placing the stencil. The red mark you see in the first photo is marker, not blood.

Outline.

My new tattooing light.

Shading begins.

Done for now. I’ll refine the shading next time.

Interesting facts: The actual Aztec Calendar, or “Sun Stone,” is 12 feet tall and was carved in 1479, (pre Columbus.) It is housed in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. I can’t wait to see it someday.

Currently, i’m in the middle of a back piece on a friend of mine. I’ve done the first outline, and this weekend i’ll do the shading and then show you. I’m also still busy drawing figures from Greek mythology for Paul’s tattoo. Yes, he’s still asking me, “Where’s my tattoo? Are you working on my tattoo?” Poor baby.

Thank you to everyone for the kind comments. It’s given me a lot of confidence.