Milo "Mr Lucky" Marcer

I was alone in Colorado and desperate to hit the trails. My guidebook had all the usual tourist crazy areas around Silverton and Ouray. This area is known as probably the best in the USA for outdoor motorcycle adventure. But I had my eye on getting to Summitville. Summitville is the site of Colorado’s worst eco mining disaster. The EPA even built a water processing plant on top of the 12k foot mountain. I wanted to go find it. So down my road and west on 160 into Pagosa springs for gas and through to Wolf Pass. A breath-taking ride up and over the stunning mountain. The road is full of turns and hairpins and bike nirvana. It’s wide and easy to pass the huge dinosaur motor homes being towed by pick up trucks.  I’m sure if the truck could communicate, it would be shouting at its owner ”Why would you leave your suburban mansion and tow a suburban mansion across the country to park it in a suburban trailer park, with all the same suburbanites, what the fuck...

Jorge is a twat, no if's, and's or buts the guys a arrogant prick. Great champions are talented and charismatic, Rossi, Marques are Lorenzo will be easily forgotten, the events of qualifying Misano yesterday just prove my point. There is no guarantee that Rossi will win his his 10th world championship, but if he does he will most certainly be the most popular with fans and other riders. I love Valentino, I'm Italian, why would I not, but it goes beyond that, it goes to the charm and character of the man, and only time will tell if anyone will ever come close.

Let me say that for the most part I love social media, and though it's fashionable to keep telling everyone how idiotic they are being on it, or wasting their energies, I for the most part love it. Social media is like a cellular phone, love it or hate, everyone has one and everyone subscribes in one way or another. What I can't stand though is the thoughtlessness that pervades, It seems that from behind a computer some people feel it's ok to burden everyone else with their inability to shut up. The worst is the insensitive abuse hurled at others while sitting behind the relative anonymity of a computer screen, these very people would never spew their venom face to face, but from behind that screen... You are not anonymous, we all see you and we all see through you. I always say the "opinions are like assholes, everyone has one" and this is mine, thoughtful I hope, thought provoking I wish, but probably just more shit from the asshole.

It's been a while, I know, formulating these things in my mind sometimes takes longer than I would like. I have a really bad memory, I have always had a sketchy one, but after a bike accident in 2006 it really isn't good at all, lets say it's selective, but I don't get to choose what sticks and what doesn't. I've been told that it's laziness and I should try harder, but I really try, I have tried making notes, then I can't remember where I put them, I started writing them down in a note book, when I can actually find the note book I can't remember what the notes were for. I have tried taking photos of how I built or stripped something and a couple of days later.... the photos mean nothing and I can't make head or tail of what I was doing..... Ok, I don't want to alarm you, a lot of stuff sticks and I function and do things just fine, but things would be so me easier if I could remember. I am now going to get to why I wrote this blog, I have...

Tell me, just tell what seems to be the point? Why do people that are freaking assholes, who are users and takers always seem to get ahead, and those that take the time to help and support never do?  Is the climbing over the next persons corpse really the only way of getting ahead? Does pushing in-front of a good friend to get something before them make you great, or better or happier? A man should be sufficient for himself, and when that falls out of balance we end up like this, when we are constantly told by all and everyone around us that you are not enough, will never be enough, never have enough, we will always want and need for more and never ever be sufficient for oneself. Perhaps it's time to believe you are where you should be, and that the time wasted chasing what other deem to be enough is time wasted. That useless pursuit, isn't what makes you whole but the belief that you are who you are meant to be, and that fucking others over empties you and by doing so y...

I was looking for our next project, as Nicci and I love spending what little free time swinging spanners in our garage building café racers and we are almost done with our second a 1983 BMW r100rs, so I was looking on gumtree and olx and I came across an add for a café racer where the guy says “professionally build, not a backyard garage builder”. And he’s right I am a backyard garage builder, but I do know when a nut is loose and when it’s tight, and seeing as I ride what I build, you would be right in assuming as I’m on the damn thing I check everything twice, hell more than that. To him I have this to say, you may have a workshop, but buddy it doesn’t make you any good at what you do, let alone legitimize the design eye you just don’t have. This is what I am getting at, there is a lot of talk about where you work from, let me explain. I opened new premises many years ago, after having worked from my a dedicated tattoo studio at my home, a tattoo artist, I won’t mention names, com...

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 ...

I was talking to a client a few days ago, and we were just chatting on about perception and how skewed it can be when she blurted out, "I had heard that you were arrogant, but chatting with you, I see you aren't at all". This got me thinking, the first instinct was to retaliate and get really rude about what has been said about me, but I started entertaining the thought more and more and I found myself wondering who had said this and why? How could it be that the perception of me is nothing close to what is being said??? I then remembered my favourite saying "A wolf does not concern himself with the opinions of sheep" and that put paid to that bullshit then and there. The reason I brought this up is that we have a tendency to give a lot of our power away to people of no consequence, and that perception is nothing more than uninformed opinion, and we know how much opinion and an asshole have in common don't we. People use perception/opinion like they have...

I am at a point where I just sometimes feel like is this the best people can be? I woke the other day to a inbox message on Facebook, from someone I knew in high school at best an acquaintance. The kind of girl that makes you want to be Joe Pesci in the Snickers ad, but you know what I mean, some one you never gave a second thought too. Suddenly they find you on Facebook and you greet each other, befriend each other, but you still don't have much in common. Then the message went Hi. Milo, I just turned fifty and it's not a midlife crisis, but I thought I would give this tattooing thing a go, can you perhaps tell me what "gun" I should buy, as I may do a course in the new year. I responded negatively, as one should in this case, which obviously garnered a diatribe of bullshit from this person, directed at my person and character, hey, I am the first to tell you all I'm a first class cunt, as many will attest I'm sure, but after almost 30 years of never giv...

Finally I have taken the plunge again and opened another studio, here is the press release, writen by my awesome friend Tracy Loader. Ink master opens Mother City's first Cape Town Tattoo Social Club Saturday, 14 September, legendary artist and custom electric tattooer Milo "Mr Lucky" Marcer is set to launch the first Cape Town Tattoo Social Club. MTV Base ink master, old school tattoo specialist, director and artist Milo Marcer, better known as Mr Lucky, is making his mark on Cape Town permanently. The purveyor of fine, custom, electric tattoos is expanding the tattoo business with the launch of South Africa's first  specialist skin, art and entertainment space - Cape Town Tattoo Social Club, offering a tattoo studio, custom men's lifestyle store and exclusive rooftop events area with spectacular 360 degree views of the Mother City. The Woodstock-based studio, which opens it's doors on Saturday 14 September 2013, has been over two ...

So many months ago, a good friend requested 4 songs on her radio station, I can't remember the reason, and so I did, but my response was "Wow that's hard to narrow down, how about 4 bands beginning with the word Black?" Obviously this went down well, so I started sending her, every week for her show, 5 artist I liked beginning with each letter of the alphabet. What you have here is a slightly expanded version, these are 6 of my favourite artists  and songs per letter, I hope you will take the time to give each a listen, and enjoy them as much as I do. AC/DC - Jailbreak Aerosmith - Dude Looks Like A Lady Al Green - Lets Stay Together Alvin Lee & Ten Years After - The Stomp The Atomic Fireballs - Pango Pango The Animals - Story Of Bo Diddley The Band - When I Paint My Masterpiece Bo Diddley -  Hey! Bo Diddley The Black Angels - Sniper at the Gates Of Heaven The Black Keys - Phychotic Girl The Black Crowes - Remedy BB King - The Thrill Is...

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...

I'm not playing it safe any more. I'm gonna take it right to the edge. And do pirouettes. - What are you talking about? Pirouettes, you dumb fuck. And if I fall, well, so be it. You know. Who gives a shit? "Oliver Platt in Funny Bones" and so I have, pirouettes baby, I woke from a dream, and I was shaved clean, my face that is, and there were tattoos creeping up onto my face from my neck. This is the first dream I remember in I don't know when, I never remember anything while awake let alone while asleep, a little gift left from too many hard knocks against my head. So after 25 years in this industry I got completely immersed, I have had visible tattoos for quite some time now, but my face, well I always thought I would never go that far, and you know, I just felt it was time, and the dream, though it had no real direction, had an impact. The problem was I just couldn't remember what the shapes were that crept up on my face... and while doing some...

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...