Quiet House on the Prairie

Ok, ok,
I'm almost done talking about last week's Philly Tattoo Convention.
But our friend Stephanie posted some photos of the show,
and I felt that this one deserved more exposure.



Who would have thought that spray adhesive for linoleum tile
isn't the best way to stick two pieces of burlap together?
Parts of my banner were falling off all weekend,
so we were continuously providing damage control.
(somehow that made people like it even more?)

I got a lot of compliments while I was out there.
Or, at least I took them to be compliments.
Stuff about me not fitting in,
and not being very "tattoo-y".
Maybe it was the pink shirt?

Right about now I was supposed to be halfway through
an Albie Rock action adventure.
I was so ready.
I have two big ass boxes in my living room;
one is of blank shirts,
and the other pinecones.
Ryan even scored us a tuba for the week.
But instead of Louderhorn Inn being turned into a nonstop workshop,
it's kind of empty.
Meryl ran off to Wisconsin with a bunch of her poet friends,
and it's just me and Shamira holding down the fort.

I mean, I have stuff to do,
for sure.
There's seeds and gardens and drawing and projects,
and taxes.
I'm still staying up late doing it all,
but can't help wishing southwest and the S.W.B. didn't suck so bad.

I'm glad all my East Coasters who know what's up
have been driving across states,
and across state lines,
to catch a show of Dark Dark Dark.
You're missing out if you missed out.
April 15th is the big return date for the DDD,
and we're happy to have them back.

I'll miss you, Philly.

I heart Philadelphia,
and all the people who made it such an awesome time this weekend.
My friends are really the best.
They drove and bused in from five states:
we tattooed our asses off,
celebrated Jaime turning 30,
ate tons of vegan food,
and got absolutely no sleep.
And running on 5 hours sleep
after tattooing for 12 hours
was certainly a lot easier
when I drank a 12 pack of Dr Pepper a day.

I shared a booth with Laura Usowski of CT's Lovecraft Tattoo,
and it went so very well.
(she ALSO did bird taxidermy for Yale's Peabody Museum,
so she's on board with loving dead birds and all that)
But she's pretty awesome at booth sharing,
and took good care of me and my poor packing skills.

I didn't really get any good photos of the tattoos I did.
So these two will have to be "teaser" shots
until better photos hopefully get emailed to me soon.

A birthday surprise vegan pride tattoo for Randon,
bought for him by his girlfriend MiMi.
No Milk, No Masters.



MiMi got her own tattoo, too.
An antlered pink flamingo named Kyle.
(named after my brother,
who bused up from University of Maryland for the weekend
to help me out and charm my friends.
he did a fantastic job in both accounts.
i mean, c'mon, he got a tattoo named after him)




On Sunday, the last day of the convention,
Northampton's Amy and Jaime joined Kyle and I on a pre-workday lighthouse hunt.
We found The Sedgeley Club,
which is a building some "lady's club" built around an 1887 lighthouse,
located on the Schuylkill River.
It's Philly's only lighthouse, of course,
and it was a beautiful morning to walk around.




SO many people came to get tattooed,
or just say hang out.
I appreciate everyone taking the time off of work,
spending money on gas and bus tickets,
hotels and convention wristbands.
Hope everyone had a good time.

Now I got to get back to Minneapolis,
cause an Albie Rock visit is only a couple days away.
Hopefully I can get everything unpacked,
straightened up, and ready to go in time.
We have some big plans for "Never Quiet, Never Soft".
Good thing I didn't lose my voice in Philly.

Getting Closer...

I finished my convention banner this morning, I think.
Here it is in an early morning/almost done stage.



Yeah, it's made entirely out of burlap.
I meant to call up Kingpin,
and ask if banners with imagery other than skulls were allowed.
No kidding.
Have you ever been to one of these things?
Skulls everywhere.
Oh, and tattoo machines.
Sometimes tattoo machine and skull morphs.
Or crossed tattoo machines with hot rod flames.
Yeah, yeah.
Or naked ladies riding tattoo machines.
Oh man, I feel like I'm there already.

I'll be sharing a booth with Connecticut's Laura Usowski,
co-owner of Lovecraft Tattoo,
and fellow dead bird lover.
I got some of my absolute favorites all coming to visit,
some of whom aren't even getting tattooed.
I'm pretty sure there's going to be a Sunday morning lighthouse visit,
before I do some more work on this piece.
Vegan brunch and a lighthouse group photo?
Oh man.


After shipping off the convention shirts this morning to the future me,
I got to spend some serious time in the garden.
What's more badass than burlap?
Compost piles, apparently.
Mine fought back when I attacked it with a shovel.
I kept wiping it off,
and it just kept bleeding.
I let it drip into a little baby Swiss Chard plant that
I'm hoping grows up to at least eat some
of the squirrels in the neighborhood.