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Thank you for making Eddie's tattoos more realistic than 99.999% of the tattoos I see in movies/TV.
They aren't fresh and dark with super crispy edges like the stick-on fake tattoos they usually use.
The person who did his tattoos made them a little opaque and they're not perfect. Look at those lines.
And they're not done in prison tat style, but more like a home artist from the 80s who knows what they're doing.
His tattoos look like they were done with a homemade tattoo machine and homemade needles, as was done in the 80s by people who knew how to make those tools and use them well.
There are still old-school artists out there who used to make all their own needles by hand, and I've learned SO MUCH from them.
Eddie's tattoos also look like they're done with ink that was available in the 80s. Black ink (in the US) done in this style ended up looking just like this once healed, and the brighter or stronger colors that stay in the skin weren't available back then.
Seriously, some colors would just fall right out during the healing process. Premixed tattoo ink colors didn't become widely adopted until the 1970s, and the shades available were very basic until even 20 years ago.
Starbrite Brite White ink (a white that really stays well and stays bright) didn't come out until 15 years ago.
Another fun thing that I'm pretty sure was done on purpose is that these tattoos aren't in the typical spots a guy in the 80s would've placed them.
Tattoos weren't nearly as mainstream as they are now, but men who got them tended to place them on their upper outer arms and outer forearms unless they got tons of tattoos. Some would do chest tattoos, but not quite where Eddie got his.
Same with the wyvern -- it's not QUITE where guys would get a tattoo on the outer upper arm. Men tended to get them on areas with major muscle groups underneath.
This attention to detail helps to communicate wordlessly that Eddie wasn't even mainstream for alternative 80s guys. He has tattoos that are placed in a more personal way. Like they mean something to him, and if anybody else happens to see them, well that's fine, but that wasn't his main goal.
Even if some of them were gotten on an impulse without much thought, they're still all very personal to him, but I have a feeling his character would think about them a lot and maybe doodle them a bunch before getting them.
quit bleeding in my shop!
Jul. 3rd, 2019 01:01 amDude and his friend came into the shop, bought a needle and tube, left, came back 20 minutes later to tell me the tube sucked and broke right away. I finally got it out of him that he had turned the power supply ALL THE WAY UP and blew the f/ucking end clear off the tube.
But as he’s telling me this, I look behind him and see blood on the floor.
His friend is limping into the tattoo side of my shop.
A blood trail is following him so I’m like bwuh?
Evan leads him back over to the supply side and closes the door between the two sides.
I look down and this guy has a gash from just below his knee down to a few inches above his ankle.
It’s gaping and he’s bleeding onto my floor.
me: yeah that like it needs stitches.
dude: uh yeah this oh i got that when i tried to jump over the half wall between the parking lot and the street
So then the guy starts whining at me that he doesn’t want to go to urgent care, leans over, and pulls it open (I guess to try and show me that it isn’t that bad?). Yup it’s gaping. A lot. And bleeding.
me: dude, you really need to go to urgent care. There’s one across the street.
dude: okay lemme just pay for this and we’ll go
He walks up to me and starts pulling money out of his wallet with blood all over his hands and now all over the money.
I hold my hands up and say nah just take the tube and needle. It’s $1.90, so totally not worth it to me.
dude: no! no i wanna pay for it
me: dude you’re bleeding all over the money and my floor. take the needle and tube and go to urgent care
When he looked down at his hands it was like he had seen the blood for the first time and dude just f/ucking passes out.
His friend hefted him up and dragged him out while I’m standing there like okay then.
It took me about 20 minutes to clean the shop and in the meantime Evan stood in the doorway directing people over to the tattoo side so they wouldn’t walk through the blood on the floor.
needles aren't THAT expensive
May. 19th, 2019 12:11 amA woman came into the shop tonight because she dropped her tattoo machine and wanted one of my guys to repair it. She was in the middle of doing a man’s scalp -- she does that tattooing where you make it look like the person has hair -- and she dropped it and couldn’t finish the tattoo, so this guy is walking around with half a head of “hair.”
Anyway, as Evan was working on it, she mentioned how expensive her needles were.
I questioned her a bit and come to find out her “mentor” told her that Kwadron needles are his brand that he patented himself. That they’re special and start with one needle that splices out into three prongs, and nobody else has that.
He’s been charging her $100 PER FUCKING NEEDLE.
For needles that cost $0.47 each.
SERIOUSLY. You read that right. FORTY SEVEN CENTS. And the splicing into three prongs thing? Fuck that. It was just a 3 Round Bugpin needle. I’ve got tons of those in many different brands. It’s three extra thin needles soldered onto a needle bar.
Oh, but this nice guy gave her a deal! If she bought 5 at a time, she only had to pay $400! A $100 savings!
To lighten the mood, after I told her about the needles being only $0.47, I told her I’d give her an awesome deal - $40 a needle! She laughed so hard she doubled over.
Kwadron needles are really, really good, but damn, they’re not fucking $100 each. This asshole had better hope some of the more physically inclined tattoo artists don’t hear about what he’s doing. They’re very protective of women, especially women like her who are quiet and trusting and sweet.
the king of half-assing things
Apr. 18th, 2019 11:58 amMy dad is the king of half-assing things.
And then he always expects praise for the half-assed thing.
Yesterday he decided he would help me out by picking up a huge order that came to our PO box. I didn’t ask him to, but he did it anyway.
It was ink. $5000 of it.
Which he then left in his vehicle all day (including over an hour at a restaurant where there’s a lot of car break-ins) instead of bringing it into the house.
We live in the desert, and even though it’s not super hot out yet, it sure as hell got hotter than the 80-degree top limit you should store ink in. That was outside. Inside cars it’s even hotter.
The ink itself can get pretty hot. That’s not the problem. The seals, plastic bottles, and labeling are the problem. Things burst and crack here if you leave them in a car even for a short period of time without air conditioning. In the middle of summer, air conditioning can’t even keep up with the heat. It’s hard to get ice cream or ice home quickly enough even if you live close to the supermarket with the air conditioning blasting the whole way.
Let me just reiterate that the ink was at the PO box, which is air conditioned and relatively safe from theft, and I could’ve picked it up myself today and gone straight to the shop with it.
When I told him there was $5000 in heat sensitive ink in those boxes, the color drained from his face.
I thanked him for picking it up. But it probably didn’t come across as gratitude. Thankfully the bottles seem okay. I’m glad it’s not hotter outside yet.
do y’all notice a pattern with my family? like i’d probably be a wealthy person if it wasn’t for them? but instead i just scrape by while my family fucks it up making it look like i’m not as successful as i am and damn it that last bit makes me sound like a whiny privileged brat but i just want to rant i’ll stop now
i'm excited about new ink!
Apr. 1st, 2019 06:12 pmSo there’s this new-ish company that just started their own tattoo ink line, and the colors are GORGEOUS. I talked to several well-known artists who have used it, and for some reason this ink stays really well in the skin and continues to be super bright, no matter what skin tone -- which is great because there are a couple ink companies that continue to be bright but only in lighter skin tones.
So I ordered from their retail page a couple weeks ago just to get some in -- I had to sell it at cost because I didn’t have a distributorship with them. It’s beautiful ink and I’m already running out of it, so for the last week I’ve been trying to get a distributorship from them. Emailing and pestering them.
I just got an email back saying I’m accepted!
One of the best parts is NO ONE else in this state or region has a distributorship with them yet, so anybody interested in this ink will come to me. And companies this big list distributors on a map with a link to each of their stores, so I’m going to be the only one on the map in this area :D
(no subject)
Mar. 30th, 2019 02:39 pmThe 2-year-old’s little brother woke up and is now doing that newborn screamy thing. He’s been going for 15 minutes.
I didn’t even realize there was a baby here until he woke up. I thought the screaming 2-year-old was enough.
Every couple minutes they harmonize.
But it’s still agony.
I hope the mom’s tattoo is done soon :(
