New Orleans Tattoo Museum * update!

Again, iiiiit's beeeeen months since I've had the time to update this thing. LOTS has been going on... it's been an amazing and simultaneously arduous year for all of us on the Oretha Castle Haley corridor. And the Tattoo Museum is going great!

Just one thing! THIS IS IMPORTANT. We need your help to finally open the doors to this thing... This building is old and I've done as much as I can afford to do on my own to bring it up to code. City hall insists I have to do more to the doors and exits and (yes) even add a sprinkler system...

so I launched a kickstarter to do these things!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1248798617/keep-tradition-alive-the-new-orleans-tattoo-museum

It's fun and we need the funding something fierce. There's a bunch of cool swag in all the tiers. Made sure of that. Kickstarter.com . Go!!

On the art side of things, yes, I'm still tattooing, everyday. See?

aaand if you wanna see more, follow me on instagram - adammontegut

Fresh - leave of HoHW and the New Orleans Tattoo History Project

This announcement is a little late as of this posting, but things have been pretty crazy! January definitely kept me busy - thanks everyone!

This may be news to some of you, but I have left my post at Hell or High Water Tattoo. A big thank you and 'i-love-you-guys' to Tony and my work-family at HoHW. The past two years have been crazy and have flown by and I think your influences will become more obvious in the coming months.

As of Feb 1st I am tattooing full-time at my brand new spot at 1915 MLK Blvd. Slated for the space are areas dedicated to contemporary tattoo art, a 'tattoo museum', and a section for my own custom tattoo practice. I will have guest tattooers from time to time, but initially it will be just me working.

It's basically my own private tattoo studio, with a forthcoming museum/gallery element embedded as well.

The leave is so that I can further pursue a tattoo history project involving the history of tattooing in New Orleans. I will continue tattooing while I research and develop the material.

So please - follow me to this new outpost, if you will. I promise to bring everything I can to the table. Hope to see everyone soon, and tell your friends!

Cheers!

And coming up...

Hot out ch'ea - Hokusai, Temptation, and Prometheus sleeves and such

Long time no post no time but here's bunch of pics.

Time Reel

In the lull, while I get a chance to compile/edit some of my tattoo photos, here are a few snips from my day-to-day and misc excursions. 

Lir and his Children, Prometheus

This swan and skull tattoo is a take on The Children of Lir, a story in Irish folklore. Lir is lord of the sea and his children were turned into swans by their jealous step-mother. They remained swans for 900 years, until a magic bell broke the spell. Pretty fun story with tons of possibilities. I would really like to do some more tattoos based on this story. 

We outlined this Prometheus sleeve a week or two ago. Here we have Prometheus chained to a cliff face shirking away from the eagle that comes daily to eat his liver, as punishment for giving fire to humans. At the top Zeus is lording over fire.

There's some other stuff going on in this drawing though. We're also drawing a parallel between fire and knowledge and have included books as a way of getting that idea across.  The eagle is holding olive branches, arrows, and a ribbon in one claw, alluding to the eagle on the Great Seal of the United States. Zeus is holding the torch of Liberty. Fun stuff.

I've also been tattooing more foliage recently. I'd be interested in doing a few more trees if anyone's looking to get a tree tattoo. Pictured here is a crape myrtle and it is the opposite side of the shotgun house I tagged a few posts ago. Sorry for the poor photo - it was taken on my phone.

Cusp of the Year

The last month of 2012 gave me some fun things to end the year on.

Thomas came all the way down from Shreveport to get this tree, a commemorative for his son who was just born this fall. Trees might appear to be an easy subject to render, but tattooing foliage gets pretty challenging. It was a ton of fun. 

Here we have a serpent/dragon/sea monster/dinosaur type creature for Nick! He is so angry at that little volcano! Or maybe he just read a bad horoscope prediction... we'll have to wait and find out i spose... Not the best photos but I'm hoping to get more once it's healed. It's on this upper-middle arm and extends into the inner arm. One day perhaps we'll extend onto the forearm and see what the rest of it looks like?

This shotgun style house is typical of New Orleans neighborhoods and has become kind of iconic. Here, however, the house is part of the collector's memories of his grandparents, and the whole tattoo is a wrap of various memories of his grandparents and the passage of time. The tracks on this side of his leg (pictured) represent the path through the physical world, and on the other side of his leg (not pictured) the tracks are a passage into the tombs (spiritual side). There is a spot where the two sets of tracks intersect on this shin/foot, which could be read as the intersection of life and death. There's a few other significant elements intertwined into this tattoo which will be unveiled as we get more completed!

The year 2012 was super and I was glad to have ended it yesterday with a fun, smaller tattoo. I got to do a small shrimp boat on Kim that is not pictured, but it was also a very fun one and it was not very large to boot!  We had a difficult time getting a good photo because of the weather and the placement on the body. Of course I will get one once it's healed and perhaps a little more favorable outside.

Thanks again to all of my clients and collectors - it's been a rewarding year and I'm looking forward to the next! Happy New Year and Cheers!

Water Cones

While I haven't been able to do much painting since I broke my arm in March (weird, right?), I have been slowly putting together a few watercolors that share a pine-cone theme. Some of these are more finished than others and all of the images below are details taken at various intervals... so some of the shots are not as high quality because they were taken with my phone, etc. But hopefully it gives an impression of what's happening... Anyway, I hope to have them done by the time January rolls around and maybe do a small showing where they will be available to collect.