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Hello all! I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and a very happy new year! There has been a lot goin down at the studio. We had our second annual Christmas party with an art opening to boot. Jesse, Jane, and Scott have been working hard and killing it with tattoo after tattoo. I have been drawing for hours every day and begun tattooing on a regular basis. Lemme tell ya, those first couple tattoos were quite terrifying, but I am so happy to be on the other side of the “first

One thing that can really bring an artist down is the repetition of administrative work. It tends to be one of the biggest annoyances for the creative brain but is a necessity for any artist that hopes to have longevity and success in business. It seems to be relative, the more successful you are the more administrative work you will have to do. Obviously, one can’t live without the other. I’m talkin e-mail correspondence (answering submission forms, forming a contact with th

Hello all you tattoo lovers out there! Today I just wanted to have a little check in with ya all to give an update of my status as an artist and apprentice. Evolution is key and progression is imperative. I’m nearing in on my one-year mark and have learned so much. I have realized that, as with most all the paths that I have chosen in life, it usually takes about one year to really set a learned behavior into an automatic routine. I am starting to feel more confident about th

Part 1 Flower tattoos seem to be a blossoming art style that brings meaning and specificity to every tattoo that they intend to enhance. They can be the centerpiece or just an accessory creating a beautiful timeless tattoo. Meaning behind flowers used in tattoo art is just as vast and wide as there are flowers in the world.  That being said, there are many meanings that differentiate from culture to culture; this can be very overwhelming. So, for those of you who don’t happen

Hi all! It’s time for a check in, no tattoo info today. So, today is officially the 8-month mark in my apprenticeship at Speakeasy Tattoo in Los Angeles. I can’t believe it! The only way I can express how quickly time has gone over these last few months is to say it is like lightning moving at a glacial pace. I have learned so much and f@*$ed up a lot! It comes with the territory of being a new apprentice. But, I’m not all shiny and new anymore. I get the death stare from Sco

Chances are, if you have a lot of ink, one day your beautiful sweet mini me is going to want some ink as well. Now, it’s not necessarily a given that you do or do not want your kid owning some ink someday, but it’s best to impress upon them the permanence of owning body art and the right time to go down that road. Putting art on your body is some serious lifetime kinda stuff and needs to be treated as so. I know more people than I can count who have gone out and gotten the re

Well, here I am designing a tattoo… not just any tattoo; MY tattoo. Sounds simple enough, right? Being a tattoo apprentice, six months deep…It should be as easy as drinkin scotch in the middle of the afternoon. Yeah, not so much. You would think everything would come easy, to create something for myself rather than designing for someone who I have only met once. Quite the contrary. There is a strange connect/disconnect that happens when designing a tattoo. A connection to a s

The stigmas that surround tattoos have always been fascinating to me; mainly because I find it interesting that certain people in the United States pass judgement on something that has been at the base of cultural traditions for thousands of years. I try my best to always keep an open mind in all aspects of life, so, that’s why I address this experience as something worth investigating, analyzing, and informing rather than passing judgement or disregard over someone who comes

So ya just got this really bad ass tattoo, now what? Well, at Speakeasy Tattoo in Los Angeles, Scott Glazier’s voice rings in my ears… “don’t go prancing around like a pixy and trying to infect it”.  So, that being said, cleanliness is of the utmost importance.  The last thing you want to do is let all the ugly bad germs floating through the air creep into freshly tattooed skin. You should keep it bandaged at first and remove the protective bandage after one hour, two hours m

Back to the basics… As I meander my way through my apprenticeship at Speakeasy Tattoo in Los Angeles, I find myself checking back in with the fundamentals of art on a consistent basis. Even more so than when I was in college working towards a degree in art, today, the foundation is more important than ever. As artists taking lessons in fine art, we are taught to explore, be free, get messy, and embrace imperfect mistakes. That is almost the exact opposite to the way I am atta

Did you know, a tattoo machine is really just as simple as a door bell… There are a lot of twists and turns in the history of tattoo machines and patents for those machines, but one of the first designs that has inspired the modern-day tattoo machine remains a built-up bell modification from the 1800’s. The earliest patents are maintained by Thomas Edison’s 1876 rotary operated stencil pen (in actuality, an electromagnetic coil-rotary hybrid); and just a few years later, Samu

With the rise in popularity of tattoos world-wide, it’s not uncommon to see the general public sporting visible ink. And, like many people, I have tattoos that I am in love with, and some that I regret. Looking back, I wish that I had gone forward with a bit more caution before taking permanent steps. This week I’d like to discuss some points that you should go over before you get that tattoo, especially if the decision was based on impulse so that you won’t regret your fresh

Tattoos have become a very popular way of self-expression, a way for people to show and tell who they are and what they’ve experienced. Everyone who have tattoos also went through the process of getting tattooed, pain included. There are lots of stories of pain during the process, and how different areas hurt more than others, but there are also stories of people who don’t even feel it and even fall asleep! The truth is, getting a tattoo is different for everyone and not all

Hello Everyone, This week, we had our first official Paint Nite!! Of course, we decided that Friday the 13th was the most appropriate date to start! We will be painting every other week, first from still life as I’m just beginning, then move on to live models! If anyone is interested in sitting for us in the future, please let me know! You will be compensated generously in snacks and high-fives. Scott started teaching me the basics of oil painting, while Jesse was doing his o