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Showing posts with the label ink

Your Gang, my clique, your set...

I have been alarmed, bemused and a little caught a little off guard by the actions of some friends, I won't mention who, but it seems that a need to belong has taken up residence in their psyche, and though I know it's common, I don't get it. As a tattooer, I have spent a lot of my time convincing people to do things that are tailor made for them, individual, something unique, as unique as they themselves are. I do need to now say that just because you chose not to do so does not lessen you or your experience, I just felt that when the time came for something as exciting as getting tattooed, you might want to consider something all your own, something that spoke of your individuality as a person. This in time unfortunately, early on in my career been misinterpreted as me being exclusive and given rise to rumor that I'm a self entitled ass, and in now what is a very competitive industry, I can see how this is easily believed by those that have chosen not to do justice ...

Know it all...

I'm so bored with it all. I check the wires for some news on the world, and all I read these days bitching, jeez a little positivity some times would be nice, perhaps I should hang around a better bunch of people...lol I find it funny however that those bitching and complaining are always the ones who shouldn't, hey and in this, I will own it too, cause it did make me pause a long while before I wrote this. I'm just so tired of the stupid infighting and back stabbing going on in all fields, how no one can just shut up if you have nothing good to say, and don't mask it in constructive criticism, because you need the right credentials to get on that soap box. It's said that to understand the man you need to walk a mile in his shoes, well in my humble opinion, before you criticise the man you should be running an ultra-marathon in his shoes, so before you go shooting your mouth off about how bad that artist is and how bad that band is, or how ugly that girl i...

A little this and that

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...

Forever

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...

New

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...

Beauty Dish

It's been a few weeks since I wrote something, and I guess you could say I been content, but you know you would be wrong... I just have been giving to much energy to the shit surrounding me that I just haven't taken the time to write. Things have been weird, I mean really weird, people getting possessive about fuck all, and taking up my space and time, not to mention the constant freeloaders, I just had to eventually make myself heard, and so some are pissed at me, but I really don't give a continental shit. I have been doing some cool work of late and have some great projects besides the 3 new t shirt designs, I have been doing some really nice tattoos. Every morning for 2 weeks I'm woken by a baby crying in the car park across the street, firstly why is this mother bringing her child with to sit in a car park all day? Secondly why is it constantly crying? I need to find out what is going on, and call child protection services. Jeez I have so much to b...

Change

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,...

Joburg, joburger....

I just spent 6 days working in Johannesburg, and had a blast, besides the odd niggle, and the pollution, a lot hasn't changed since I left 5 years ago. I arrived Tuesday, and after popping into Randburg Motorcycles, an experience that has left a bitter taste in my mouth, Rob and I went to his place and set up the studio, awesome place, in a beautiful garden, everything set up right, perfect and in the evening I did a cover/clean up of a piece. Wednesday saw us make a quick tour of some of the studios in the northern suburbs, and found one has moved into my old premises in Greenside.... rather funny, popped in to see Thys, and Jen at Fallen Hero's before Sek's arrival and we then started his forearm Then at 6 Pippa arrived for her session, but we stopped for a bite, the Veda and Deon arrived and My brother Sandy and his Girl and there daughter, so the house got crazy. My hostess Michelle whipped up a dinner for the ever increasing masses, and buy 9 I had to grab Pippa...

Service

service  |ˈsÉ™rvis| 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...

the pot calling the kettle....

I had a long blog written about someone I once cared about, but I just realized, I don't care... how fucking awesome is that.......haahahahahaa So onto more fun shit, I am going up to Johannesburg for a week to work, and I; looking forward to seeing old friends and of course how much the city has changed. Just got Adsl, it's awesome uncapped means I am loving all the info I can get my grubby little paws on. Found the new Edie Brickel, and I'm loving that.

Just in time

Finally it broke, two days of migraine and sinus, felt like a boxer beat my face to a pulp. I don't usually get migraines so I was not prepared for it, but thanks to lots of advice and a quick trip to the chemist for a cocktail, a dark room, and I'm feeling a lot better. The cause? you ask, is stress, self inflicted as usual, but changes have stressed me out, some disappointments and the obvious annoyances at being pissed about by unimportant people. Time will sort things out as usual and taking it all to heart isn't going to solve it at all. It does however change a few things. It does mean that the sponsorships I normally do, are a thing of the past. I'm done with giving my time, effort and craft to unappreciative people. I have worked with several artists, that have always had a lot negative to say about sponsorship, or as I like to say putting a little back, from a karmic point of view it makes sense to me to do them, but of late, all it's done is prove those a...

Convention Time

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 weekend in a nutshell

I just spent the saturday finishing up the large dragon back piece and it's always bittersweet, after one spends so much time and effort  in a tattoo like that, it always is Sunday was spent with Jarad a Kaylin, I did the demon girl piece on his fore arm, the "Dark Lady" as I refer to it and it was fun to do. They have asked me to the God farther to the baby boy "Mason" who is due in a week, it's an honor and all a little scary, guess if I'm not going to have my own, I may as well be a God Father to now my second boy. Whats more daunting is having to go to church, I haven't done that since I don't know when, perhaps that's not such a bad thing after all. This is my gorgeous friend from Poland, Doris Cash, check her out.

What to do?

Quite some time ago I met someone I thought was interesting we met for a lunch, and then coffee a few more times, and you know when you meet someone, and you just need to delve a little deeper to know that this just isn’t going to work out… I left it at that, we talked every now and then, but something kept warning me, I was uneasy about this person, a few things had taken place that just didn’t sit right with me and so I lay a trap. I told her something that I knew she could use against me, and waited… sure enough she did not disappoint, before long all hell broke loose, as I had expected. Obviously this made her go to ground, and it’s been a long time since I’ve heard from her, but the other day she contacted me again, wanting to be tattooed. Now the reason I’m writing this shit becomes apparent… I run a business, and things aren’t easy in this financial climate. The question is do I take her on as a client, or just keep the snake at bay? I think I know what the right answe...