The final blog post about my trip.

I promise.
I'm back in Minneapolis,
but my Off the Map Tattoo visit is still lingering.

I took this photo with a borrowed camera,
and got it emailed to me yesterday.
Yeah, that's an elk with 192 points.
(too bad the antler war has been over for a year or so)
Tree Cutter Doug drove up from VA overnight for that tattoo,
and slept in a rest stop before his appointment.



I'll be back at Off the Map sometime in 2011,
but we haven't figured out the dates yet.
Looking forward to more fun (but with less fever) then.

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.

A little bit of tattooing

Today I was able to do a few really, really fun tattoos on some rad folks.

Amanda lives in Savannah, Georgia these days, and is about to graduate from the very art school that I dropped out of.
So we shared stories of muggings, graffiti, jail, cockroaches, street wolves, Circle Takes the Square, and other little known facts about the poorly named "Hostess City".
Her and JoeJoe and I had an awesome time, AND I got to do a Blue Footed Booby WITH antlers.
Man oh man.



Then Sidney had to add to her "too cute" tattoo collection, by getting this T-Rex on the foot.
I didn't get kicked in the head, and she got her tattoo, so we both felt like we won.

Sweet Peacock!

I love this zombie-30s' pinup come peacock lady from Ryan Mason.

To Be Continued....

Today was my last day at Identity Tattoo for 2008.
I had an awesome year here.

But I realized around 3 pm that I wanted to close out my last day with a bang; something fun and nutty and very blog worthy.
However, my schedule called for otherwise.

I resorted to some serious mind control antics, and willed things my way.
Really?
Yup.
(sorry Ben's dude.)

Rebecca and I both got an early Christmas present from Ryan. I got to do this baby antlered owl, and she got to keep it. Even though she had only 15 minutes notice, she came with some vegan ginger snap cookies for me as well. (she's vegan too!)



Have I decided that the Great Antler/Crutch War of 2008 (which I surrendered to the fearsome JR Tubbs of OHIO some time ago) should continue?
Did I not learn my lesson when JR did the portrait of ME, with antlers, on Dustin's now much sexier leg?
Can the defeated side even begin these guerrilla attacks after 'the War' is over, and trophies have been issued?
I don't know, my friends.
But I DO know I'll be seeing JR on HIS turf for three full days of madness in barely over a month.
And I'm sure he'll have a lot to say about this.


Also, I know everyone has gotten some snow recently.
And, yes, I know some of you have gotten snow in places that haven't seen snow in ages.
But it's negative temperatures here.
Tomorrow it's going to be -25 degrees F with the windchill.
I promise you, you don't want to even imagine what that's like.
I shoveled when I got home from work tonight, and gave my right earlobe frostnip.
I'm not joking, it's so swollen, it looks like the skin will burst.
What does one even do for that, put ice on it?
Also, this week the pipes in my downstairs bathroom froze.
No water to the sink, or toilet.
I'm not bragging, I'm just putting things in perspective.
So stop your whining, Eastcoasters, or I'll resort to posting pictures of my disgusting eargrowth.