Kitty!

I had written this long and hilarious post here, and then my stupid mouse (probably in retaliation for this post) fucking closed my tab, and I lost it all. So, fuck you mouse, here's a kitty tattoo.

This is on my friend Jenn, because she loves kitties.





and apparently, with this post I became html retarded.

Showcased!

So, I've been a member of BodyMod.org for awhile now, and I've noticed something rather cool lately. Three times lately I've had a tattoo I've done showcased on the frontpage. I'm thinkin' that that's pretty cool.

Heart Tattoo On A Friend

This is on my friend Chandra. Her dad has had a stroke, and an embolism recently, and she asked if I could design something pulmonary related for him. I came up with this, and she got it on her ribs. The linework looks shinier than it is, as I did it before the coloring and it had just healed up.

A Flower, Blooming Out Of A Gramophone

This one was fun, and I wasn't even supposed to do it. My coworker Chong, who is an AMAZING artist, drew the gramophone, and started on the swirly things. He asked me if I wanted to collaborate on the flower, and handed his half over to me. I was pretty stoked, I love his artwork, and a chance to add to it was fine by me. Things happened, and he wasn't able to tattoo it, so asked me if I would, because the girl wasn't going to be in town long. So when she came in, we sat and talked with her, and she liked my portfolio, and we started it. I have yet to do a background, but that will be blues and greens and some negative space butterflies.

Sacred Hearts and Hilarious Flash

Okay, so this guy came in with a friend of his. The friend asked me the standard "how much" question and showed me something, and I quoted him a price thinking he wanted it a LOT bigger than he was thinking, so I told him $300...he decided to go ask someone else (which was understandable after I realized how big he wanted it), but his friend decided to ask me how much for this sacred heart flash he brought in. It was terrible. I'll admit, it wasn't as bad as the guy that came in with something off badtattoos.com (no fuckin joke), but it was pretty bad. The only reason I could tell it was a sacred heart was because of the flames and thorns. So, I told him $200, if I could redraw it.



Now to the guy that came in earlier. I felt sorry for my coworker, Rob, when he had to deal with this. Seriously, why would you go to a website called BADTATTOOS.com, and decide, 'Oh, I want that tattoo'? I mean, seriously? Whut? Rob had to redraw it, and make it not suck. He did it, I give him props, but dame, that mustve given him some kinda headache.

Moogle Riding a Chocobo Tattoo!

This was the girl's first tattoo. I had wanted to tattoo a chocobo or a moogle for a long time, so when she came in wanting both.....yeah, I was pretty stoked. She didn't want the more "realistic" version of the chocobo, nor did she want the seriously cartoony one from Chocobo's Dungeon, so I drew up something in the middle for her. I love drawing chocobos, but for some reason I had never drawn a moogle before. I'm pretty happy with the pose, and the way it all came out though. It was super fun to tattoo.

Also, the girl who had gotten the "No Music, No Life" tattoo on her foot came in to get somnething else done, so I grabbed a healed picture. Turned out pretty solid for her being in basic training, and having to pretty much immediately put her tattoo destroying boots on.

Newschool Skully

My computer is being EXTREMELY slow right Now, (I'm here, it's on the parenthasis), so I'm just gunna drop this in here...



It's about a month or so old, on my co-worker, Rob.

Behold.....THE OCTORILLA!

This one was fucking fun as hell to do. I will be pressuring him into turning it into a sock. If he does not, I will kill his dog. If he doesn't HAVE a dog, I will buy him a puppy.


And then kill it.

Day Of The Dead Flamingos ROCK.

This is on Vic from Sharp Tattoo (i think that's the name) in the new orleans area. This was fuckin fun as hell to do....my first lower back tattoo on a man. It isn't a tramp stamp....its a MAN STAMP.

So, I know I've Been Slacking....

But hey, sometimes we get busy, and sometimes we get lazy, and sometimes we get World of Warcraft at home....

So heres some more tattoos for you to peruse at your leisure.

I did this on a former Miss Deaf America. Flowers on a hip.


Laugh now, cry later tattoo, custom drawn.


Neo-traditional rose tattoo, custom.


Here's a monkey tattoo I did on my brother's girlfriend. It's for her son that likes to scoot around on the floor with his cars.


And I'm gunna toot my own horn here a little. This guy came in with a video of a soccer player with his name in big black roman/greek-esque lettering on his arm, i think, and he wanted his name just like that. I told him how much it was gunna be, and then said I could do it for a little bit less if I could do it in a way that he would like that would be fun for me to do as well. He agreed, and I got to do this, which I think is the best tattoo I have ever done.



All tattoos I do are custom drawn. You can contact me at Myspace, or you can call Freak Show Tattoos at (210)673-7325

Freak Show Tattoos (www.freakshowtattoos.com) is located at

310 Valley Hi Dr, Suite 203
San Antonio, Tx 78227

Been A Bit Busy....

I've been a bit busier at the shop, and havent really had time to update this, so here, have some new stuff.

Have a rampaging turtle:


A simple reaper tattoo:


A winged sword...uh...thing:


This one was fun. I did it at the 4th annual Alamo City Tattoo expo 2008, on a fellow tattoo artist (although still aprenticing) Named Cale, from Oklahoma.


This guy came in wanting tribal. All he had was $500 to work with, so I told him to let me do something a bit different that he would like. When he said yes, I busted out the sharpies, and draw this on his ribs.


This was another drawn on with sharpie.

We are SO hard on apprentices...

Sleep little Chongo, sleep.

Chihuahuas

Not my favorite dogs. But by far the favorite tattoo I've done lately.

Mom's and Tattoos

Nothing really to say today, just wanted to post some of the tattoos I got to do for other mothers.

Randy "Rambo" Grady R.I.P.

This Saturday, May 10th, during regular business hours Freakshow Tattoos will be hosting a benefit for Randy Grady, (a.k.a. Rambo).

This young man was in a skateboarding accident last week and passed a few days later. Unfortunately, the family needs assistance with expenses. Therefore, the artists at Freakshow Tattoos will donate 100% of the proceeds to the family.

Even if you don’t wish to get tattooed, all donations will be greatly appreciated.

We would like to see as many people out here at Freakshow Tattoos as we can get. The more money we can pull together, the more that we can do for the family. Help us instigate the kindness of others and come support the Grady family and the Cody kids in their hard time.






Many thanks,
Freakshow Tattoos

310 Valley Hi Drive Suite 203
San Antonio, Texas 78154
(210) 673-7325

So I Was Looking At My Traffic Stats...

and I see this:



No. Absolutely not. Printer ink is NOT tattoo ink. It probably isn't even non-toxic, turbo. See, this is the reason there is laser removal, and cover-ups, not to mention infections and other nasty things that happen to skin after putting something in the skin that definitely is NOT tattoo in. Like printer ink.

Come on people, common sense need not be a thing of the past. If you want a tattoo THAT bad, go to someone who KNOWS what they're doing, with real equipment, in a real sterile area.

Tribal Tattoos

I know what you're thinking. You want to get a "sweet tribal tatty" right? Wrong. Unless you go in and say I want a maori tattoo, or you bring in references and history and meaning about the tribe a certain design means, you are getting blackwork. Here's a quick how to guide.

Go into a tattoo shop, talk to the artists. Don't pick something off the wall, or the internet, most likely someone already has that. Ask them to draw something for you, or better yet, draw something on you. A good artist that knows about muscles and how they move in your body can generally draw you one that will fit your specific body.

Like Mariah Carey, Only.....Better?

Yesterday

People are wierd. Some people are weird and dumb. Some people are just plain dumb. Yesterday started out fine, and then shit started rolling downhill, like a snowball gathering mass.

First customer that comes in is an eighteen year old kid, wanting his first tattoo. I'm always down for that. But kids, don't start with your neck. You not only limit future employment forever, but you limit yourself other ways too. I tried to convince him that it wasn't the best idea. I say it could keep him out of a job he really wants. His answer? I have a job already. So it's okay. After about half an hour of talking to him, I say fuck it, gotta feed my kids, and do it, shaking my head internally the whole time.
So then, I walk outside to smoke a ciggarette. There's three guys out front of the restaraunt next door (Mama Lee's is THE best soul food ever. EVER.), talking about tattoos. One says that he's thinking of walking in the shop and checking us out. His friend says "No man, don't go there, I gots a friend named 'Dirty Dave' that did my tat fo ten dollas!" Dirty Dave? Ten dollars? No shit? Did it come with free AIDS and hep c as well?
Later, I'm outside again, and this 60ish woman walks up and looks in the door. "is that a LADY getting a tattoo??" she asks. Why I say yes, she says "Seems to me that she'll regret that in a year". I turn, and all the tattoos down my left arm become visible to her. "I don't regret mine" I say, and her eyes get big and she asks "Oh my, do you WORK here?" and walks off.
She comes back later with two kids, takes them to the big window, and starts lecturing them. We ALL wave from in the shop, and she gets scared and walks off.

Good times man, good times.

Kanji Tattoos, and How To Find That Phrase In Latin.

Seriously people, why get a tattoo of something in a language you don't know from a random source on the internet? I can definitly see if it's part of your heritage, has something to do with a larger tattoo (i.e. you have an oriental dragon, holding an kickass orb, a scrool with kanji on it and other badass elements), but why get something so....random? Anyways, my little rant on kanji being over, here's what the post was goingh to be about originally lol.

Tips on finding a tattoo in a different language.

1. Go to the library. Contrary to poular belief, there is plenty of sources more reliable than online translators at a library.

2. Go to a local collage, find a teacher that specializes in languages, or better yet the language you are looking for.

3. Make friends with someone from a country that speaks that language you want as their first language.

4. (one of the most unreliable ways) the internet. Try to find at LEAST three different sources that give the phrase, word, whatever it is you want in exactly the same way. You don't want a menu do you?

In the event that you find what you're looking for, make sure you get it checked out. If you DO find out someday that the beautiful kanji you have that you thought said "love" turns out to mean "lover" meaning "whore", don't come blaming me. I do not speak or write in any other language besides English, and mostly, I pretend I can't even speak that.