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...

shirts? + thor workings

Although I haven't been blogging, I've been working quite a bit. I have three art shows in August coming up, and some new drawings/paintings and of course, tattoos!

Oh, and maybe some shirts and merch? Just some of the things jostling around my head. Maybe a coffee mugs, maybe a hoodies... who knows! I would like your thoughts though, so if you think of anything you'd like to see just let me know! Here's two of the designs I've been playing around with. More than likely if it's a shirt or whatev it would have both, but like a coffee mug or pint glass would have one...

HHorW. Hell or High Water.

Don't know why, but I took this photo at an angle... but you can see the idea, yes?

Cats and Skulls, what's not to love? I am imagining it on a tan/brown hoodie or shirt.

Thor! Session 2.

Let me know what you guys think of the shirts/merch designs... and the tattoos too! Feedback is always appreciated. As far as the art shows go, I will have to debrief in another post. Very tired, but have a great weekend!

Tony's Hand

This post is sort of a mash up in the timeline of events. We'd started this tattoo - on Hell or High Water's distinguished owner, Tony Barton's hand - one day, before both of our appointments showed up, but then kept getting interrupted by people coming in, deliveries, etc. Just like how the commas kept interrupting the smooth flow of that last sentence. Haha. So anyway, I'd wanted to do one single photo spread so I waited a few weeks later till we actually finished it. Enjoy!

The design is a complimentary scene to go along with his other hand, done by Donn Davis several years ago, of an eyeball, a wing, and a broken pencil. Here we have a paintbrush and an eye, with waves to go with the sleeve background and some scales and leaves for effect.

This is where we'd stopped the first time...  and of course no time for breaks, right to work we both went.

And then a few weeks later, touch ups here and there, and presto - here it is complete!

Ink n Needles art show

I'm going to try and stay on top of this blog, see if I can keep it up with some of the interesting things n such. Sooooo where to begin??
Last month, right after I got back from my tattoo residencies in Baltimore, MD and Doylestown, PA I began my transition from Electric Expressions where I'd been for 5 breathless years to working at Hell or High Water Tattoos on Magazine St - still in New Orleans, or it's actually in New Orleans, just uptown instead of by the airport where EE is located.

And THEN - the second week of October, also right when I got back, there was the opening of Ink N Needles, A Tattoo Exhibition at SLU (Southeastern University). I was asked to participate in the show and submitted a plethora of things, all different, so I was intrigued to see what Dale, the curator, chose to display.

I forgot my camera. So we will have to make do with our imaginiation for now, so like let's pretend like when we were kids and I'm telling a storytime. I may be able to get some photos from Dale or the university at a later point, but right now lettuce make believe... so of my stuff he mostly hung my process drawings and sketches, leading into the final drawing and then a photo of the finished tattoo work. There were also two of the finished drawings of some sleeves I have finished or begun - the shark/plane/squid/minisub and the superhero/cityscape. It was different from most of what everyone else presented. A majority of the work was hand-painted tattoo flash imagery, some enlarged photos of executed tattoos, and then some illustrative paintings by tattooers too. The contributing artists were from all across the country. Locally, Tattooagogo and Electric Ladyland had several artists showing work. It was a fun show - made me want to go home and draw!

Here's some of the promo material - the poster for the show (a tattoo by Donn Davis of Tattooagogo), and the catalogue, also flipped to the page featuring my work (the Nola's Ark halfsleeve).