Milo "Mr Lucky" Marcer

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...

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...

It's the 30th, I have worked my ass off this December, and I'm really super grateful to all my awesome clients, no friends, because if you spend as much time with them as I do they do they become friends. This year however has caught up with me, I feel like I have kinda been through the ringer and though I live in the moment, I am looking forward to the new year. I do have to say that I'm a little annoyed at the insensitive twats out there, that feel like they have some kind of ownership of my time because they want a booking when they want it. I would never turn anyone away who wanted a piece from me, I am still old fashioned enough to be honoured by the patronage I receive, and don't play the "tattoo rock star discovery channel" wannabe, I was at this before them and will be at it long after they are no longer the flavor of the month. So for the one or two I have disappointed, I'm truly sorry, and hope that you can forgive me, I will however say "C...

Ok so you haven't seen a blog for some time, and that's cause I haven't had anything to vent about, that just changed. I have this odd growth on my arm, thought it was a wart or something, so i tried freezing the thing off with nitrogen.... Nothing. So now I'm worried about this, and while chatting to a friend he says, dude get that seen to, I had something similar and it was malignant, so don't piss about. Damn I better get my shit together. Today I call Milnerton Mediclinic, and they give me the number for the practise in the clinic, 2 dermatologists, so I call them, and after waiting 8.32 minutes for the phone to be answered, I ask the receptionist if anyone can see me as I'm really concerned about this thing. She says "sorry, we can only see you next year." So my response is, but what if this shits malignant? She in a rude tone is " well I'm sorry, but we can't help you" so I say to her well ok, but can you perhaps refer me to s...

Yesterday morning I was woken, well not woken exactly, my neighbour incessant knocking dragged me me downstairs as her car would not start. Her name is "Alleluia" and it's Angolan, and nothing to do with Leonard Cohen, and even if it did, I would say it was due to Jeff Buckley as the Cohen original just isn't my bag at all, but I'm off on a tangent again. I went out to help, and after fining that she had asked, and no one had jumper cables, I said to her do you know how to jump start a car? Four pushes up and down the road proved she didn't and as I was close to a heart attack, I stopped. I asked her if she had spoken to the other neighbours? she hadn't so I did and eventually found some jumper cables. This got me thinking, a few years ago when I still lived in Johannesburg, in an affluent suburb called Northcliff, I remember always feeling under siege while there, we where shocked by what appeared to be the random shooting of a 16 year old school girl in...

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...

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...

My wonderful friend Tracey came by to do the second session on the “Little Miss Chievious Thruxton” yesterday and it’s beginning to look amazing did 80% of the Thruxton, and in the next session we should complete it, I love what’s it’s looking like and here is a sneak peak. Now as I promised an update on the DATING site… what a pile of shit, really besides being a complete scam and needing to pay, which made me feel a little dirty, it just doesn’t work for me. Really, to be making a call on whom you would like to date, by purely looking at some photo, just seems shallow and wrong, and as some may judge me as shallow, I’ll stick with wrong. For me a woman I would like to see is more, it’s about style, grace, carriage, character, humor, taste and the things that just are not perfect, the quirky things, not some random photo, with a cheesy grin. Then there is the opportunity for complete disaster, what if she’s a stalker, a bunny boiler, a smother mother, an instant wife...

On Sunday I was visited by my long lost cousin and his partner, it must be about 16 years since I saw him, he had moved to Holland and due to typical Italian family bullshit some how we didn’t have much contact. After all that time it was fantastic to see him and see the man he has grown into, from that little guy we used to tease when they visited. He was very close to my Mum, and it was great talking about those days, and huge family lunches, with all my uncles and my Grandparents. The was sometimes 15 to 18 people at the dining room table and the conversation like the food, just kept on till late into the afternoon. Through rose tinted glasses, those were the best of days. He surprised me by asking me to tattoo him, something I never really thought he would get, I know my Uncle well, and so it did come as quiet a surprise but I never baulk at an opportunity to tattoo family, and piss the others off….lol I took enough condescending attitudes from some of my family, to really enjo...

Today been a day of chores and mixed feelings, good, bad and sad, I picked up my Kona’s remains this morning, made me look at Laika and know she misses her as much as I do, and the hole she left in our lives. It’s the end of an era in my life, it closes the door, and is the final tie to my marriage, which is what has left me with, mixed feelings. I don’t miss that segment, of my life, but to make out like it was all bad would be a blatant lie, but it wasn’t a walk in the park either. We spent so much time together, people used to comment, that we were the “perfect couple” spending all our time together and never arguing. Well after 10 years of someone being with you 24/7 you are not such a perfect couple, and when you get home after spending every minute of the whole day together you just don’t have anything to talk about anymore, nothing is new, and everything that’s happened to either of you, you both already know about, so there isn’t anything left. I do think in this day ...

Just put together this piece for Mandy :MissHapp” Bronner, her all time favorite car a 57 Chevy Bel Air. I have kept the color palette the same as the rest of her arm so we keep a similar look to the sleeve.