Milo "Mr Lucky" Marcer

I'm Italian and I'm pissed at Italy going out of the world cup, as Italians we are just build that way when it comes to soccer, but right now I'm pissed! I'm pissed at a Mexican ref that's just an asshole, pissed that Suarez felt it necessary to bite someone, but most of all I'm pissed that a poes like Mario Balotelli gets to play in a world cup, when he has to be without doubt the biggest waste of space on the european continent, I just can't find the right negative superlatives to describe his performance on and off the field. I'm not even going to get into his performance on and off the field. That's the one and only world cup post from me....

“Ours is an era of constant distraction, a punishing drumbeat of constant input, this cacophony that follows us into our homes, into our bed, seeps into our…into our souls, everything out there has gotten so… so amplified” Sherlock from episode 7, season 2. It rings so true for me, and the reason I bring it up or shall I say cause, is the tirade that spewed from my mouth at my phone, when after a day of work, my phone also had to insist on attention by telling me it needed charging. It’s all so damn noisy this life we lead, and it’s not that we can even choose to ignore it because it insists that you constantly listen and attend to it, take the phone for instance, ok I am my own worst enemy here, I did choose the fancy thing, and for that I am truly sorry, but do you absolutely need to know about every social media titbit, or exactly when it deems it necessary to be recharged, or when you are out of wifi range, and I know you can turn it off, that’s not the point. This constant barrag...

Love or hate social media, that’s completely up to you, but today and it’s early in the day so that’s not good, but here is my line in the sand. I am not going to go on about opinions and assholes again I have said it way to often, so here is my brain fart. I use social media to promote myself, and my studio, I don’t have a shop front, street studio, I have chosen another path and that is to build the kind of space I want to be in all the time, and then share that with my clients. So we work on an appointment based routine, which gives each artist time to spend with there client and design custom pieces for them. There are many pros and cons to this as you can well imagine, but the single most important thing is getting the message out there and as any small business will tell you this isn’t always easy. Client word of mouth has been our greatest allies, but social media has really catapulted this idea of mine and made it a viable venture. Every morning I get up and “check the wir...

Well nothing really good comes from all the shit around you and this situation is no different. The morning of the 27th I got a call from the IStore manager, saying that he was really sorry, but they had found the issue, and it was gonna take 5 more working days to return my money. I had just got out the shower, was drying myself while taking the call, speaker phone dudes, and I just lost my mind, I am pretty sure I was close to bursting a blood vessel in my brain, bursting through my skin and like a party balloon that gets away from you my head would go flying wildly across the room, I'm grateful it didn't. Certain threats were issued, and I gave him 12 hours or I was going to the store. Yesterday after having been contacted by a young woman from the group, they had arranged and did, in all fairness drive to my home and give me my money in cash, and for my troubles a R500 gift voucher for the IStore, for those that don't know I was brought up in an Italian Catholic house...

On the 12th of the month, I made a purchase at the IStore in Canal Walk, went home wasn't happy with what I had done, without opening my purchase I went back the 13th and returned it for a refund. Pretty simple right????? well the R4599-00 leaves your account the very moment of purchase, that is a fact, but returning it, well....... that takes a little longer. You would be very wrong in assuming that it would be returned as quickly, but by a week later, I still had not been refunded. So off I go to the bank, get a statement which I am charge R11-00 for a cost that also leaves my account instantly I might add, and ask the simple question "Where is my money?". I am told that the bank has nothing to do with this, the IStore has to refund this money and if it's not in my account, it's still with them, well that makes perfect sense, so with all my documentation, I'm off to the IStore. Now the fun and games begin, the first thing I do is ask for the manager, who ...

It’s been a while since my last post, but I’m not going to bore you with bullshit post every second day. I have been meaning to get some stuff out, but have refrained, but some stuff just has to come out. Firstly, I have plugged a restaurant called “Orinoco” in Bree street, great value and authentic South American food, I’m afraid to say, no longer, I took Nicci for dinner and two ridiculous portions of poorly cooked food, cost over R480-00, I’m sorry, but that’s just retarded, and had the food been of an epic standard, it would not have pissed me off so much, but this is just fucked up. I complained to the owner, and the best she could do was shrug her shoulders, well that’s blown it for me, they certainly will not see me there again, and I would suggest you stay away too. It is just amazing how the odd little magazine article and a little plug here and there can give people such an attitude, Bob said it best, “Be good to the people you meet on the way up, cause you’re b...

It comes as no surprise that nothing, and I mean nothing at all, lasts forever, your health, friendships, relationships, your pets, your life, forever isn't really forever, not even this planet will last forever. So why is it that people still today expect to be together forever? in an existence where everything is transient, why is it we labour under the delusion that it all has to last forever? I met a beautiful young woman the other day, recently divorced, and in pretty bad shape as she struggled with the fact that her marriage had ended. I felt for her, I really did, you could see she was hurting at the fact that it was over, yet you knew it was going to end eventually, one way or another, so why is it we have this unrealistic expectation? I personally, and this is a personal opinion, take it leave it, it really doesn't matter, believe it's the fault of the church, this belief in everlasting life, and that we go to a better place, and that faith is what's needed to...

As a tattooer, I find that our industry has become exactly that, Industry, and that the craft and it's roots and traditions is falling by the way side. As more artists market themselves well and reality shows aggrandise many, I feel that where we come from, and who we are? is easily forgotten. I was tattooing a paratrooper, here we call them "Parabats" and what I was tattooing to his chest was the "Bats" insignia, something they in their day were not allowed to do, something not new in many armed services. As I'm sitting tattooing, the fact that I'm carrying on a very long tradition in tattooing, and Sailor Jerry Collins came to mind. Tattooing in Hawaii through the 2nd World War, Sailor Jerry and those men and women in uniform that frequented his studio before leaving for the Pacific Sector, created such iconic images. Though unaware at the time, this is a body of work that has become such a large part of the strong tradition in western tattooing. I fe...

Hello again, and once again it's been a while so I will apologies right away... TIME.... well it's fleeting alright, and before you know it the day is done and the next, then the week, and month and pretty soon years, it waits for no one. Written about, sung about, "time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth" whatever David meant who knows... and as for "Tiiiiiiiiimme is on my side" well Mick it certainly ain't, but formaldehyde and surgery might be, but time, I'm not so sure, and it brings me to my issue. I love my periodontist, she is awesome, friendly, explained everything that has to happen, how it's going to happen and so on. She has even helped me out on the costing of my implant, oh I hadn't told you yet. I tooth got broken many years ago in an accident, it was repaired but after 18 years.... it was done, and I need an implant. As I usually do I have digressed my point was, I have an appointment for 16H30, I'm there 15 minut...

At the urging of a friend I am going to get my shit together and blog more often. I don't write about stuff if there really isn't much to talk about, it's always the empty vessels that make the most noise, just take a look around you. Things have been a little weird of late, and I find myself out of sorts, so much so that even the wind tonight has me anxious, and it's keeping both Little Laika awake. Actually just me, as she has fallen asleep on my foot. A couple of rude awakenings have taken place in my life recently, one being finding out I'm diabetic, rather a great shock, but not unexpected, as I have lived my life to excess and I guess there has to be some cost. The other has been the realisation that in 5 years of living in this city, I have made very few friends, as beautiful as this city is, it also breeds a type of arrogance and self serving that I haven't seen in many places before. People who professed to be your friends but in truth really were o...

I been thinking about change this morning, and the old cliche comes to mind, "the only constant in life is change" and I think it probably is true, but I wonder if it is also true about the very essence of you, can you change after all you have seen, experienced and lived through, this sets patterns in your life, and I wonder if therapy could even change those ingrained patterns. Of course I will admit that all those things cause your growth, and that in essence is change, but after years of that growth there is a whole bunch of things that cause you to act, react, and feel, and that forms patterns of behaviour and I wonder if this can ever be truly changed or worst case scenario modified? All that, got me thinking about just what I let into my life, and how those things are going to change how I act, and worst of all, will I repeat the errors I made before in the handling of these things because I haven't actually changed at all. The truth for me I'm afraid is dark,...

I have been talking to my good friend Rob, a financial adviser, about money, and how we go about spending it, he drives a A5 wanted to own a coupe in his life, and on impulse went and did it. Now he's thinking of getting something smaller less expensive, but was feeling a little pressure to keep up appearances in his industry, that clients might not see him as successful. But what came to mind, especially in his circumstance is that he's advising people to spend wisely, not to spend on huge luxury items, and so the thinking was that by not bowing to this pressure you would show that you take your own advise. Now you're wondering, cool, good for you but what the fuck are you on about. Well last year I felt the financial pinch in a big way, and I had to make some really hard decisions, as I'm sure many have had to do in the last 3/4 years under the financial climate, but I found one thing, one solitary sentence that pulled me through. DO I REALLY NEED THIS? before any cu...

So I got back Monday evening from Johannesburg, knowing that Tuesday morning I had a doctors appointment to have my blood pressure checked out... as I get older these things, well you gotta keep an eye on them. So at 09H15, I'm on my Vespa, and into town, off to Chris Barnard hospital to see Dr Ramjee... mmmm I get there and believe me my Dr is a good guy, he listens and gets what I deal with, and my health, so I go to him here and that's it, even if it's out of the way. Tuesday however, he caught me by surprise, he checked my blood pressure, and all's good, then he said we need to chat, "how are you doing?", "how are you feeling?" "when last have you had an EKG stress test? and when last did you have your prostate checked?" to which I replied, well its been a few years, surely we can just do a blood test for the prostate and a quick EKG while I'm here.... "No Mr Marcer, you need a prostate exam, and as you said while you are here,...

service  |ˈsərvis| noun 1  the action of helping or doing work for someone :  millions are involved in voluntary service . •  an act of assistance :  he has done us a great service  |  hevolunteered his services as a driver . •  assistance or advice given to customers during and afterthe sale of goods :  they aim to provide better quality of service . •  the action or process of serving food and drinks to customers:  they complained of poor bar service . What has happened to it? It seems that service is a thing of the past, that as consumers we have no right to decent service, let alone GOOD service. It seems that people who own, or work within a store feel like they are doing you a favor, like dude, you are taking up valuable time they could be spending doing.... what?  For fuck sake, this is your job! Your chosen profession!  I r...

1  a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to  happen ,  without proof :  they made certain assumptions  about   the  market  |  [ with  clause  ]  :  we ' re working   on   the   assumption   that  the time of death was after  midnight . I was amused at assumptions made by what I had posted, and it came to mind that people making assumptions say a hell of a lot more about themselves and there characters and motives. Assumptions are made without fact, or proof, so already this sets the scene for disaster,  assumptions are just mere mental conjectures that do not thrive on reason ability and are therefor, questionable. An extreme and overt reaction, made by some one on an assumption, says something very clear about them, the reaction is that the issue pertains to them in some way, (the assumption) but if it didn't then that extreme reaction only underscores the guild or involvem...

Wednesday evening, and I seem to be feeling a better, the post convention blues have passed, I am going to mention Hymne’s passing, Tuesday was the 2 nd anniversary of her passing and as expected, coping isn’t easy, but I focus on the love she gave me and our time together. The convention was as usual, busy, as I am booked up well in advance with clients who come down from up country, and I do try accommodating them, as they do not get the opportunity often. I do however feel that the convention this year was not very well attended, by artists as well as tattoo enthusiasts. The recession I guess is felt by all this year, and with that in mind, I’m always surprised by the lack of marketing done by the organizers. A simple sign outside of the building I don’t believe is too much to expect. Having said that though, I really enjoyed this years. My convention weekend began with the arrival of my great friends Rob and his gorgeous wife Michelle, on Wednesday morning, we hustled back...

It’s Wednesday and I need to do some writing, It’s been an eventful weekend as Nicci a good friend arrived from Johannesburg for the weekend so we could begin her partial cover-up back piece, a geisha that will use some of the previous tattoo as well as cover parts I don’t think work. We started out Saturday with a quick spin into town to Mozart for breakfast then sat shooting the breeze with Carl at Deluxe Coffee, those guys are so funny, we were in hysterics, then of to the V&A, cause I spoiled myself with a Nespresso Machine, as endorsed by Mr George Clooney I might add… whatever….   but I needed more pods, or cartridges, they only give you 16 and I was half way through on day one, needles to say I had a few anxiety issues, but hey it’s a new toy and you just got to test the damn thing right???? Took a spin in the Ferris wheel they have, and I’m just not happy at heights, and besides the coffee anxiety the swinging gondola on the wheel was making me more than a l...