So we got the lease at the new location and I got my friend and carpenter extraordinaire, Jason H to take a look around at the work we need to do to get the place in perfect shape. We could simply half-ass things and get it open pretty quickly, but I love the location and look of this shop, I see a lot of potential for a dream shop and I plan to stay there for a while. So, Im going to try to do this right, to solve the problems that working in tattoo shops for 12 years has taught me always arise before they crop up. I want to have a place that is beautiful and after seeing what those guys at Unique Ink did with a shop, I’m definitely inspired to step it up and not be satisfied with ‘good enough’.Maybe I’ll get mink covers for the beanbag chairs. . . .

In the same vein, as my tattooing has matured so has my idea of what a ‘real’ shop looks like. Keeping that in mind there will be no flash racks full of stuff I don’t want to tattoo, no piles of angry signs, no beat ass furniture, and no collections of scary skull ashtrays. On the other hand a tattoo shop is not a doctors office so there will be art, fun wall color, inspirational designs and a look that pays homage to the old school traditional tattoo shops without trying to be a re-enactment of them. Besides, I’ve never hidden the fact that I am aspiring to be artsy fartsy, I have pretty much got the fartsy bit down, now Im hoping the new location will help the artsy bits too.

I plan on being very busy for the next little while, besides building and moving the shop we are attending the Seattle tattoo convention at the beginning of August. I thought about trying to squeeze some more stuff in this next 2 months, like maybe climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro or building a bicycle out of matchsticks but I don’t want to over extend myself. Maybe in September.

So this blog will most likely be rarely updated for the next 30 or so days, but I will post update pictures and such from time to time. Wish us luck!