recycle

So here are some pics of the shop as it used to be. Keep in mind that there was a shitty 200 year old bath tub in the restroom ans that the back station didn’t have the flooring that is in these pictures. these were also taken after most of the demolition was done, it looked a lot worse!

this would become my room

the waiting room/caras station to be

the view from the waiting room area into caras future station

the view into Black cat before remodel

the place a bath tub lived before I killed and skinned it and after my brother Brandon added the new plumbing

looking into what would become my station after Dan and I (mostly Dan) installed the floor

So after all that My good friend Jason and his buddy Bobby build the walls for Caras station and the half-wall for the waiting room. Then Mica and his crew painted the place. These pictures are when we got the construction finished but before any furniture and art was in the place.

the view into my station

what you see when you first walk in

the waiting room looking into Caras station

the other side of the waiting room

my station looking into Caras station

We have moved in and said goodbye to North Craig street, Ive already been tattooing for 3 days in the new place and it feels amazing. Its positively a joy to come to work, my customers have told me they feel more comfortable and the shop feels happy and creative.

I absolutely could not have done this without Jason, Bobby, Brandon, Dan V, my folks, Caras folks, Dan V 2.0, Dan A, Thommy, Lindsey, and most of all Cara (who didn’t ask for any of this craziness and still stepped up and helped a ton while balancing an insane workload at her ‘real’ job and my stressed out wack-i-tude.) If i didnt already know this would have taught me how much other people are the miracle in our lives! THANK YOU!

Seven miles of bad road

The shop is open, finally. There are still some things to work on, getting art on the walls, installing an air conditioner, finishing the bathroom, but its open enough to start tattooing.

Im tired.

Im mentally and physically tired. I know that opening this shop is not the most important thing in the world (not even in my world) but I have been stressed and tripping out. I thank god for the years of meditation or I wouldnt have just been stressed; I would have been bent over double with wracking stomach pain (my old way of dealing with change. . .seriously)

Ive been watching the tour de france (wasnt Contador a total douchebag!?) and at the end of a hundred or so kilometers they would cross the finishline and throw their arms in the air, look heavenward and just let out that last road weary breath in what i image was nothing louder than a hoarse “ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”. Thier bodies and minds knew that the day was over, that they wouldnt have to ride one more mile, climb one more mountain, wouldnt have to pedal one more rotation. they were done. It didnt matter that the next day they would start all over (for 3 weeks!) that moment was nothing but relief.

that kinda how i feel now. Im just done hammering, sweeping, patching, moving, lifting, packing and Im fucking done. Tommorrow (well, today really) I get to tattoo again, just like normal. But for now Im just going to stop pedaling for the day.

pictures and shit will be coming in a few.

MOOOOVIN on UP!

Quick Update

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!