Undead Carousel

I have been dabbling in the idea of a potential rib piece for myself. Now, if you know me, in even the slightest bit, you would be thinking, "What the fuck!? You? Rib piece??? Pssssh!" Yeah, I know. I am the most ticklish person ever-seriously. If you go near me with a finger I will freak out. But rib tattoos are so beautiful! And I thought of the most epic thing ever that I love and I want-badly.

Picture this (you don't really have to, since I drew it out anyway!): an undead carousel horse. Rotting flesh hanging off of bone, but with pretty little detailing. It's amazing, right? I know! So I was thinking of the many places I have on my body that I could get it, and I couldn't picture it anywhere else except for my ribs. Fuck! Why? The one spot I said I will probably never tattoo. Uhhg, but it would be so perfect...

Well, it probably won't happen anytime soon, since I have so many other ideas that came first that I should get done, and I don't have the money. BUT! It is going on my list, and that will give me the time to think about the placement some more. I know everyone will say go for it, but hell, it's going to suck.

Ta-da! With tweaks here and there, obviously..

I Fight for the User

Well, another post about my hair. I dyed it black yesterday (finally!), and I'm just beginning to get used to it.

Funny thing though. I have never thought this previous times dying my hair, but after coming out of the shower and drying my hair, I thought, "Wow, I sort of look like Angelina Jolie in Salt." I didn't know how I felt about this. Then this morning while getting ready for the day, whilst listening to the epic soundtrack from Tron Legacy, I realized how much I resemble Olivia Wilde in the movie, but with long hair. Then I was ok with it.

I also realized, I'm obsessed! OBSESSED! As if I need one more thing to be infatuated with! I have never seen the original movie, just bits and clips I've found on Youtube (really, the lightcycle scene is hilarious!), but the sequel blew my mind. Best 3D I have ever seen, and it's just all around awesome! And the music. Uh, man, it's incredible. Just add Tron to my list of things I adore!

See? I can be in an awesome sci-fi action flick too! Battle bitches unite!

I Made The Cut

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I'm sick of my hair! That is why I bought a hat recently, but I really needed to do something with it. Something sort of drastic, but not too drastic.

I cut my bangs! That's a huge step for me. I hate cutting my hair, and I absolutely hatehairdressers. Out of all the hairdressers I have been to in my entire life, there was only one who ever got it right, but she was a student and that was years ago so there is no way of finding that one again. So! I just started doing it myself, cause I only trust myself.

Anyways, so my bangs are short, straight across, I kind of did a hack job but oh well. I'm not sure if I'm used to them yet, we'll have to see when I'm all ready for the day. It definitely feels weird though. I haven't had my hair like this since I was 16! And I'm dying it soon too. I'll be a whole new person! But not really. Just me with darker, different hair.

mmmmm PB&J..

In other news..

Well, things have actually been quite consistent in the shop lately, so that has been nice. I have also been offered a guest spot in Edmonton! Yeah, that's right. My first guest spot. It would be my first time in a larger shop with other artists, so it is an awesome opportunity. I'm just working out a few kinks on accommodations and whatnot, but I really hope I can go! More details on that later.

For now, you get tattoo pictures! Some of these I did before the new year, I just suck and keep forgetting to post them!

"We will all evolve."

I did not do the design on this one, just changed a few things.

Fully healed!

I wish I could do more traditional..

One Girls' Trash is Another Girls' Treasure

Well, it's either treasure, or a sure sign that I need to grow the fuck up!

I went to Value Village today, and whenever I venture to that place I find the most magical things. I usually find something so awesome, but it's either way to big or heavy as hell to carry home. But I do it anyway. It's hard to not buy anything there when it's such a good find, and a reasonable price!

Curious as to what I found there today? Well, say no more! I found a fantastic Jesus statue made out of cement (which I left there because he was so heavy!), a gum ball machine, a Moselland Zeller black cat wine bottle, a gnome, a sweater, a sweet old bird cage, zebra print fabric, and a bag of My Little Ponies. Yeah, that's right. Original MLP from the '80s! I was so ecstatic, I had to buy them.

I do realize that I'm 22 years old. You might be wondering why I bought myself a set of six My Little Ponies. Well, they are so hard to find nowadays! I had so many when I was little, so they hold a special place for me. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, and I'm afraid that I might have triggered another 'collection'. If you have ever seen my room, you would be worried too. I have no room. I'm just waiting for they day I move out, then I will have room. I might need two display cases; one for my robots, and one for my MLPs. Or, maybe one day I will pass them down to my little sisters. I will tell them that they new ones are ugly, and that the old ones are waaaay cooler in every way (cause really, they are). Either way, they're sweet, and I'm happy to be reunited with a little bit of my childhood.

Museum Madness

I love having two day weekends. It reminds me a lot of being in school, where you have those two days of freedom to relax and hang out with your friends an family. They haven't been too frequent in my life since I've been out of school, but lately they have been a regular part of my schedule (with a few exceptions).

One thing that sometimes bothers me, though is when one of those days kind of goes to waste. I don't mind having those days where you sit around at home and relax, as long as they're somewhat productive. I can't stand those days where you sit and do nothing, nada, zilch. They kind of put me a bad mood, and I start getting frantic because there is nothing to do, or I just can't figure out what to do. Unfortunately, my friday was one of those days. But, today definitely made up for it!

Refusing to be glued to my bed and/or couch, I decided to hang out with my mom today. We went to go visit the Glenbow Museum to see a few exhibitions that are going on. Right now they have an exhibit by Brian Eno called 77 Million Paintings. It was definitely not what I was expecting at all. I was expecting, literally, 77 million paintings. Instead there was a stunning, dark room with multiple cozy sofas facing a curious cluster of what seemed like illuminated canvas paintings. In front of these paintings were two piles of...I want to say sand, but it was like large flaky sand. Almost something you might use as kitty litter. All of this was accompanied by a relaxing ambient soundtrack. Anyway, the "illuminated canvases", which I soon realized were a sort of LCD screen, started to change, but they changed in a way that you would barely notice. The colour, the pattern, the shape, all would change over a span of a few seconds. It was so seamless, it would take you by surprise. There were moments where I was like, "Whoa! those lines weren't there a second ago!". It was so crazy.

There were also a bunch of amazing paintings in other exhibits. One was of a collection of historical art, paintings of portraits, landscapes, and animals framed in beautiful ornate frames. And another exhibit with these GIANT landscapes that you feel you could just walk into. They were incredible. And of course, we saw all the Asian and North American artifacts, which were pretty cool as well.

After soaking in all the beautiful artwork, I started to get inspired and got myself thinking, "What if I put on a gallery show?". It would be so cool! I would just get a bunch of my artsy fartsy friends to work around a theme, and put on a small public art show. In this city, there needs to be more art, and there are lots of younger people that are struggling to share their work. Plus, I think the public would like to see more little independent shows. I'm definitely thinking about it, so I hope I can get something up and running! I look forward to the future...

Bad Camera

I really need to learn how to take better pictures. I have always loved photography, and have always dabbled in it as a hobby, but I never really learned how to take good pictures. It would be really nice to know how to, especially for tattooing. Part of the job is being able to showcase your work, and having a portfolio of mediocre (and sometimes just straight up horrible) pictures does not do your work justice. If someone sees a low quality picture they're going to see your work as low quality. That is something I'm really not down with. So, someday down the road, I would like to invest in a very spiffy camera, one that real-people-with-real-photo-knowledge use. I just printed out a bunch of recent pictures for my portfolio, and I'm sure my printer is my camera's partner in crime when it comes to presentation, but I'm just not happy with the photos. But I need to update my work so badly! So, for now, they will have to do, and I will hopefully be able to take better pictures of the work I have already done sometime in the future.

Here is a fun tattoo I did today on a friend of mine. It is a memorial tattoo, not a boyfriend's name, in case you are wondering. The weather has been awful, so I wouldn't be too surprised if some people don't show up for their appointments, which happened today. I don't blame them. I would stay home if I could!

Forever 3:16?

I just discovered something. And essentially, I find it quite peculiar. I was digging through my bag of plastic bags, trying to find one large enough to house my growing colony of Batman t-shirts (that's a story for another day), when I pulled out a massive bag from Forever XXI (herein F21). The first thing I saw was some small print on the bottom of the bag. After realizing what it said, I was shocked. It says "John 3:16". That's a passage from the Bible! What the heck is it doing on the bottom of a F21 bag??

In my confused, yet curious state, I looked it up on the internet. Sure enough, it is a passage for the Bible. First, let's get this straight; I'm not religious. I guess you could say I'm mostly an Athiest, but somewhat Agnostic. I don't believe in a higher power, but I believe in the possibility of there being something. I'll believe it when I see it type thing. I do not believe in worshiping something that you cannot know for sure exists. I understand what faith is, but I prefer to have faith in something tangible. Anyway, that could go on forever, so back to the religious bag!

John 3:16 is the following passage "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". Hmm..so what are you saying, F21? If I buy your clothes and don't believe in Jesus, it's unlikely that I will live forever? Well, I already knew that, it's just nice to have a clothing store to reassure that for me. Ok, first of all, assuming that this place is religious, have you seen the clothes? I doubt any good Christian mother would let her young and 'innocent' daughter wear anything from there. I love that store, it's one of my favourite places to shop! But I've seen some things (and I've bought some too) that would make Jesus blush. I'm really not trying to offend anyone, and I apologize if I have, I know religion is a touchy subject.

Anyway, upon further reading into this sneaky 'advertisement', there are other companies that do the same thing! An American drive-tru chain print it on the bottom of their paper cups, and a fuel saving device company prints it on their boxes. I have never seen anything like this before, so I just found it very strange. What is the point? Is it to let everyone know, like, "Hey! We believe in God!", or are they trying to gain fandom from fellow religious customers? I don't know, and I don't think I will ever understand. Whatever floats your boat, I guess? Whatever their objective, I don't think it worked on me. If anything, they got a blog post about it.

Proof!

Oh hey! It's been awhile!

I am bored out of my mind! And I just realized that I have to work tomorrow at 10 am! UG! That just ruined my mood. I suppose it could be worse. But that's early, for me.

I have been working on a design for a chest piece for the past few hours, plus a little bit of wasteful time on the internet, and I just feel like I have done nothing productive. And non-productive free time makes me grumpy. Not to mention that my room is a disaster. Like Godzilla came through here and trampled the shit out of it (I wish).

But what is strange about this whole thing is; I'm listening to AFI. What? I haven't listened to them since I was convinced I would marry the lead singer back in high school. Oh, those were the days. I am not ashamed (but actually, I kind of am) to say that I had some very typical 'troubled goth girl in high school' obsessions. Davey Havok was one of them. That was until he became...very pretty. Like, prettier than me; a girl. But you have to admit, he could have made a very pretty lady! But I guess he's back to his more masculine self? I've missed a lot! Oh well, things change.

Anyways, bedtime! And for the record, I will not be dreaming about Davey Havok. Or will I...?

Back to the Usual

Welp, back at work after a nice weekend of partying. And let me tell you, I'm not feelin' it. Being sick doesn't help either. This past week has been a blast, but now it's time to get back to my regular schedule.

New Years Eve was so much fun though! And I didn't even drink one bit of alcohol! Erin and I drank sparkling peach grape juice that tasted like fuzzy peaches, mmmm. So good! So I woke up the next day feeling fantastic, except for recking my already sick throat from yelling all night. Oh well! It was probably one of the best New Years I've had yet, and I spent it with (almost) all of my favorite people! And that's what matters most.

Do I have a New Years resolution? Hmm, I'm not sure. I actually haven't had much time to think about it. I have always wanted to 'eat healthier', but I think my stomach's will power is..well, non existent, so I usually just eat delicious junk food. But I know that at one point down the road, my body is not going to appreciate crappy food as much as it does now, so I'm thinking I should start ahead of time.

What else? Oh, well I'd like to try to travel more. Since a bunch of my good friends, and my brother, live in Vancouver, I would like to go there more often to see them. My mom is also planning on going to Hawaii for Christmas this year, so I hope that works out.

I also want to work on way more art. This past year, I have been way too lazy. Painting is one of my favorite things to do, but for some reason I just didn't feel like doing it. This year I'm going to push myself to work on more, and try new things. I've always wanted to learn how to use oil paints, and I have been wanting to paint more portraits and realism.

Well, I guess those are my resolutions! I think they're generally more like life goals. I'm sure I will come up with more along the road.

Anyway, enough about resolutions, more pictures! These are from New Years eve and day. Enjoy!

Sailor Moon poses!

Trying to be gangsta

The Babely Bunch

Erin and I are dancing..

It's the babe train!

Kelsey doing the Coyote Ugly

Erin as a penguin..

..Erin on a penguin!

And me on an emu!