suede-head-case

so today the Bembol Rockers rocked up..... I owed Marc, the singer a tattoo, and i keep my promises. ...

Before that, we had good ol' Pat... none of you will know who i'm talking bout, but i feel the need to mention him, coz he guarded the shop while ross was at the airport pickin up the band.... 10 points pat.! love you long time.....

so today we had Sam's second session on his chest piece....and none of y'all will believe me..... but.....drum roll...... are y'all sitting down?...... i used a MAGNUM! i never use mag's....i'm that girl who does everything with a round shader..... and for some reason, coz of the scale of shit, and coz we had a 2 hour limit for the black shading.... i thought "what the fuck, lets try these fancy bollocky things"....now i hate mags, so so so much. i think the redeeeming feature today was the fact it was a 14 mag, see.... i always figured i work my up from a 5.... and one day i'll like mags. didnt happen. my normal (when i say normal i mean every single set up is a 5RL, and a loose 14RS textured. ) every piece i do..... ever......

i will not say i'm sold on the mag.... but i definately feel small mags suck, i was wasting my time, coz i always thought, why use a 5 mag when i'm more happy using a 14RS?! (ooooh, does this count as a tattoo school? can y'all pay me 10,000HKD) i dunno, i did a post like this a year ago, when i crazily used a mag.... and nothing ever came of it. we'll see......

so heres what we got done this time....

(This pic shoulda come up way bigger when clicked on, but alas , it doesn't.... i cant figure this shit out and its starting to piss me off!)

So after work, we all went to none other than Ned Kelly's The band missed it, and for anyone interested, they'll be playing all night this sun, from 9:30pm til 1am. 

Word of advise, do not bring up Morrissey to them and me in the same room, how can "you love someone" and still slate them,..... let's not go there y'all! (and i left my i-pod at the studio, so chances are i will not be singing a song with y'all tomorrow, i kinda needed at least an hour or 2 to learn shit....but we'll see.....   :(      !)

And to top the night off, none other than a very suspicious maybe suitcase bomb....

I can't understand why some pics come up large and some don't on blogger, i didnt even resize this, but the note says "please throw this suitcase away thank you"....... creepy, i was expecting to find a chopped up corpse..... just because!

At 1st we fled, smoked round the corner, then Lakshmi told me he thought he saw this very same case at the airport a few hours earlier.... I get impatient, and i figured we were either gonna die.......or not, so i went over and opened it. no bomb, no explosion, just a lot of interest in people who wanted a samsonite suitcase for free....

HALLOWEEN PARTY!

Just a quick reminder to everyone in HONG KONG bout tomorrow nights zombie party we are organizing....@ Rock School. Hopefully if u click on the flyer it'll come up bigger, but Blogger seems to be very sparadic when deciding which images get bigger and which don't.... for any additional info feel free to call the studio mobile on 62560217

The Bembol Rockers are flying in tonight from Manila, for those who didn't have the plesure of catching them last time.... this time will be just as good if not better....so zombiefy yourselves up and come on down!

It's the icing on the cake!

so forgot to post tis lil' cover up i did on tues. Pretty hard, i wanted to go much bigger, but she didn't want it going any higher than it already did.... difficult. in fact, when i put the stencil on she was all "oh my god it's huge!" (it's not huge....at all!) anyways, here it is...

The 1st pic had no flash, and the 2nd does, hence the colour varyation, and the 1st pic she's standing and the 2nd pic she's laying flat, so it's a little distorted.

May need one more pass to pack some of that colour in when it's healed, we'll see. I kinda felt bad for the lil' Koala, lookin at me with those big ol' eyes all like "dont cover me!"

Anyways, felt like i should post something just to prove i'm still going to work everyday!

Arrrrriba!

“A person born to be a flower pot will not go beyond the porch”

Mexican Proverb

So today was my day off, and it ruled. Woke up bout 2pm, tidied the flat which was long over due, and had a Mexican BBQ. Fajitas, chilli dogs, nachos....Corona and Margarita who could want more?

Not quite sure what my face is trying to do here....smile....maybe?

Weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold, just like the food!

Been fixin' to have a MEHICAN bbq for forever, was gonna go all out with hats, and stick on moustaches and a Piñata.... but..... ahh, too much like hard work! 

Milo was our special real life Mexican guest. He fit right in! After the bbq Ross n Scott got fancy with Scott's fancy shmany new camera he likes leaving under benches  (even cameras need to learn how to fend for themselves) taking photos of Ross' newest custom. It's for a competition where the prize is a Ltd edition G.I Joe Cobra Commander figure. He's very VERY excited.

(this isn't one of the fancy pics taken on the roof) 

Oh, and if any of y'all are interested on my views on this so called "tattoo school" (or as i like to call it the rape your ass til it bleeds money school)a certain someone plans on starting in HK, NO i do not think it's a good idea, and NO u will not become a rockstar and NO you can't really learn how to tattoo in a couple of months from someone who quite frankly has a shit bucket full of stuff to learn herself. Get a cocaine habit, it's money better spent.

Cheerio!

Hello(ween)

I am the "who" when you call, "Who's there?"
I am the wind blowing through your hair

OK, so my blog has been seriously lacking in the tattoo department recently, and i do apologise, but in all honesty, there's been a whole lotta fix-up's, cover-up's and general non blog worthy little bits and bobs that i haven't even taken pics of. The Bembol Rockers (that rockabilly band from the Philippines) are back this week to play our awesome ZOMBIE halloween party this weekend @ Rock School. So i'll be tattooing mark on fri night, late after hours, and hopefully that'll be a nice'un! Other than that, got an owl rib piece soon which should be nice (if he sits still, and some other goodies coming up (FINALLY!).

So i apologize, but this is all i got (i said sorry already right?!)

my sexy bodyless bar-mate

This is my dyslexic version of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" (it's hard when i have a head with no arms! gimme a break!

Oh and the accomplice is Steve, the drummer in Ross' band, who spent the bus ride home explaining how his latest bout of diarrhea felt like "two duelling ninjas having a knife fight in his colon" NICE!

website walk-about

For anyone wondering, www.starcrossedtattoo.com (i would make that a link, but what's the point!?) is down at the moment. guess it's taking the public holiday that sneakily escaped me! i know that most people who read my blog find it through the aforementioned website, that has mysteriously vanished.....*poof*

i have been informed by my ever trusty web guy it should come back... lets hope it doesnt get lost.

Come home safely, oh dearest website, don't do anything i wouldn't do!

If it's not returned home tomorrow, maybe i'll start planning a vigil. *sob*

Everyday is like Sunday

Bad news today, Morrissey collapsed at one of his shows, seems like he's recovering.....  read bout it HERE and then an updated version  HERE.

Other than that, no news on the Hong Kong front, just work as usual, and for some reason i thought today was Monday, so now i'm super peeved that i have an extra day of work before my day off! 

Hope ya get well soon, Mozza.!

If you want blood......you got it!

OK, super quick post coz it's 5am and i'm really tired. But i just watched Blood, the last vampire (the new movie)

i was really worried it was gonna rape the original, which i'm a huge fan of, watched it like a million times on VHS til the tape wore thin. It wasn't the best film ever, but it wasn't bad at all. filmed beautifully in places, not sure about the ending....maybe they r thinking of making a sequel...i don't wanna spoil it tho.

started awesomely tho, very tru to the manga....then kinda..... veered. that's all i'll say!

Anyone thinking of watching the film should go out and find the manga first, watch it. enjoy it. me like!

This music that i make you, is for your ass to shake to.

So I'm at the shop waiting for ross to finish band practice before we head over to battle of the bands HK final. I WILL BE ON BEST BEHAVIOUR. i will not punch anyone. anyways, i'm bored, so i thought i'd share some "cheer you up" music. y'all might hate it, you might love it, you might not really care, but it's a fun way for me to waste half an hour, so ....there!

i wish i could find a half decent video for "bright lights', coz i fuckin love that song, but "Meh!"

of course, Screeching weasel, in fact ...here's another

Lawrence arms, fucking love this band. if ya like this, check out the falcon too.

Next up, the Loved ones, again awesome band. 

Then we got the Saine Catherines...

Kid Dynamite....

And last but not least, my friends, The King Blues

(they have way more videos on youtube, but a lot are embedding disabled, so go check them out, especially "my boulder"....such a cute video!

Lights, camera, action!

This tattoo did not want it's photo taken, outta like 40 odd pics, this is the best i got. bah

So we had a film crew round the studio today, which meant we didn't get outta work til past midnight, hence why it's past 2 am and i'm blogging bout "today". They were funny, coz they had no real clue bout tattoos so i had to really help out, we set up a machine with a needle bar but no needle so it didn't look too lame (although it wasnt plugged in, it had a clip cord, but that just trailed outta shot.) anyways, took some pics coz i had nothing better to do, ross was at band practice so it was pretty boring...

I told him to lube up her butt so the tattoo looked fresh....and coz it was funny watching how awkward he was doing it! hehe

It's weird, the guy playing the tattoo artist is really good friends with a tattoo artist i know in London, actually, me n ross met at his birthday! small world!

Milo was super well behaved!

Ok, watching more Medium and i gotta cut Ross' hair before bed time (2morrow is the final of battle of the bands so he has to look for the split second before he jumps around and messes it up)

Oh i believe in yesterday....

OK, so yesterday, after i managed to leave the house, here's what happened.

Me n Ross both had stuff we wanted to do, and we both had stuff we didn't wanna do together. I went shopping in an awesome 2nd hand clothing shop that stocks stuff from Japan. Trouble is Japanese people are generally pretty tiny....and i'm not tiny....at all. Anyway, i have patience, and i quite enjoy trawling through crap, even if i want half of it but it won't fit. So i came away with a few goodies, saw the most incredible dress....60's era, but so teeny weeny...i think i might know someone that small but she just had a kid, so i dont wanna buy it for her then offend her if it doesn't fit....so poor lil' black dress with white piping has no home. :(

ok anyway, then i went to meet ross in the Wanch, coz we were gonna meet there then go for dinner @ the Dining Wok, which I love. It does more Westernized chinese food, which means there's more than one thing on the menu i'll eat.... anyways i'll get back to that in a minute.

So Ross was an hour late, and i was sat there like a donut getting tipsy all on my lonesome, listening to a covers band who kept going on about this "incredible band" called "The Pedo's"....now, i'm sitting there thinking to myself "that's an awful weird not to mention inappropriate name for a band, and i can't imagine these middle aged chinese businessmen rocking out on their downtime listent to punk....so......" ok so it was about half an hour later, when they played one of "The Pedo's" hits that i realized they were trying to say the BEATLES. WOW. i love language barriers!

So Ross shows up, i figure Dining Wok would be closed coz it was half ten, so we rush over....only to find it's closed.....FOR GOOD. i almost cried. so we ended up in what used to be Big Earnies Diner, which is now a very reasonably priced drinking establishment with very good Bangers n Mash.

Melvis (anyone in HK will know, but for all y'all who dont, Melvis pretty much thinks he's Elvis. He's been around since i was underage drinkin as a teenager....and runour has it he superglues carpet to his face for side-burns. GENIUS!) showed up which was a Kodak moment...

And here's me looking very uncomfortable, i cant remember why, maybe Melvis, maybe the Pedo's, maybe Ross saying I look like i shop in "the oversize doll shop"...

Oh, that reminds me, i got an awesome cardigan today, grey with multi coloured specles knitted in, and it kinda matches my jeans, which are starting to look like the Lucky Charms Leprechaun had an orgy with a Unicorn on acid....

Perks of the job, eh?!

Wasted daze

OK, quick post for yesterdays tattoo. Hopefully i'll get a healed pic in the future, but that never happens, so when i say "hopefully" i mean "if hell freezes over".

I've been having some trouble with pics not coming up bigger once u click on them, i dunno if this will, (try it and see) but here's a few pics and 2 not spliced in case the sliced one don't get bigger...

We left it pretty open ended at the bottom in case he's gonna wanna extend it at some point.

So todays my day off, got no immediate drawing to do, and had so many plans.... but it's 5:30pm and i haven't left the house yet. Never a good sign. That's what happens when u stay up til 6am watching Medium, huh? OK, enough blogging, i'm going out, maybe....i'll have something to blog about later! Did some more awesome shopping yesterday, got an awesome black shirt....i don't know how to describe it..... OK, Ross thought I was buying it for Halloween. I wasn't.  It's gotten to the point where if Ross hates what i wear/buy, i'm almost certain it's awesome. He seems to think i like dressing like a granny..... and maybe i do.

Royalty or Royal Asses?

So we've had some really really reeeeeaaaalllllly rude customers recently, mainly via e mail, some even threatening to bad mouth the studio! I've gotten to the point where i realize everyone can't always have the perfect experience when booking in (we have a waiting list, sometimes i can't fit people in, sometimes people reschedule, sometimes people don't show up, sometimes i have to move people for one reason or another), but is it me being stupid.... or does acting like a spoilt brat,or somehow thinking a deposit tides me by (or even makes my day) when customers don't show up reasonable now? Well, fuck that. They can say what they want, i'm over it.

I mean, i've been moved around when i've waited to get tattooed, and sure it bums me out, but at no point do i forget that the artist needs what they need (whatever the reason for me moving is), and i'm not gonna squabble about whether the tattoo that will stay with me for THE REST OF MY LIFE has to wait a month. I also realize that a deposit is to guarantee that i will show to my appointment, as time is money, so why can't these customers get their heads around the fact that if i move them, it sucks, but if they just don't show up....it sucks AND blows?!

(if any of you rude people are reading this, this is about like 4 differnt people....believe it or not, you are not my ONLY customer EVER!)

Finished a big ol' asian piece today....tiger dragon deal but need to get the pics sorted, maybe splice them together before i post it, so for now, ladies and gents....here's the teeny tiny writing i mentioned yesterday!

Thumbs up

Oh, I forgot to mention in my last post, since i had half a day to waste today (someone rescheduled) i thought "ok, get organised, sort out your portfolio"... basically, i have pictures of my work/sketches/paintings scattered across both computers, in no particular order.... stuff gets confusing, blah blah. So i got one of those USB thing-a-me-doodles and i'm gonna try and keep all my large images in one folder, all my blog/small images in another folder, and artwork in another etc etc. 

So i started trawling through the computer at work trying to sort my shit out.... and i came to realise a lot of my favorite work....i only have small images of. I cant for the life of me figure out why. i dunno if i saved them after cropping or resizing as originals...or if they just went missing.... or ....fuck knows really. Anyways, found this, and realised i never blogged it, so i will.

Here's Rob's thumbrella....ella ....ella....ella ladies n gents.... i also found the smallest script i ever have and probably ever will tattoo....but i'll have to post that tomorrow coz it aint on this computer. I'm sure you're all as excited as i can imagine! 

What's in a week?

So it's been about a week since my last blog, and the worst thing is, i really don't have much to blog bout....so apologies, but i feel like i gotta write summin'!

Here's a token tattoo pic, (did a nice coi on thurs but it was right up on the collar bone and upper shoulder, so super hard to get a good pic), so here's a... butterfly.

So what else has happened since my last post....

Firstly, I got contacted by a guy putting a book together, looking for some artwork submissions, but i aint gonna go into that unless i get in the book.... so more on that later.....or not! Oh, and i almost had a guy book in to get the Flamingo-go dancer i painted tattooed, but i think he's only in HK a week or so, and i'm booked up (when people show up) for a good few weeks.

Secondly, a new cupcake shop has now opened on the street i get my bus home from work, which has inadvertently made me much more conscious of how late i normally close the shop, as it's only ever been open ONCE on my way back from work! I WILL CLOSE ON TIME MORE OFTEN!

Hmm, had a few no-shows this week, actually had a whole day where i did absolutely nothing at the shop, well, i caught up on some design work, but no tattooing.....at all. i cant even remember the last time that happened. I've come to realize when i am not swamped with work, i go wander... and when i go wander.... i wander into shops, and when i wander into shops i spend money. This is getting out of control, far too much shopping recently and not enough working. 

 Oh, and this is weird, but there's a shop down the road from my shop....well i say "shop" but i mean "lady who takes up a stairwell during the daytime"....anyways.... she is now selling feather hairclips (well hers are on hairbands) just like the ones i made, so i bought some, coz i dont have the patience to go back to sham shui po for at least another month. I pretty much have one in every colour now.... except orange & yellow. i dont think i ever wear ...... crap, i just bought a yellow top today....thinking outloud....will stop.

Hmm, so as you can tell not much to blog about .... Oh, i almost forgot, i punched a guy in the face on friday night. That was the highlight of my week. (please don't think i go around punching people for fun, but this guy was such a grade A douche, and he deserved it.... and you know they deserve it when loads of people you don't really know buy you drinks after to thank you for punching him.....and that's all i will say). 

Luckily my hand is fine, which surprises me coz it's had 2 broken bones and sometimes i hurt it like.... sneezing or something lame. 

Tomorrow i got a big ol' piece getting finished, we'll see if i can get a good pic, if not y'all.... the future looks bleak. 

keeping them coming!

here's yet another weird search that resulted in some poor person finding my blog. i reckon i could do 1 a day at this rate! (i aint being biased to google, but so far, google's winning the weird search engine wars)

are the noodles getting bigger, or my husband getting smaller?

“I dropped my pants in a tattoo parlor in Amsterdam. I woke up in a waterbed with this funky-looking dragon with a blue tongue on my hip. I realized I made a mistake, so a few months later I got a cross to cover it. When my pants hang low, it looks like I'm wearing a dagger!”

Angelina Jolie *what a dick* So, remember a few days ago i said i had a couple nice pieces coming up, so less crappy blogging and more tattoo pics? well....i may have been mistaken. a quick flick through the appointment book set me straight. i dont even know what i thought i had booked in, but it aint. :(

to top that off, "Mr double booked" from a few days ago aint coming on the second date either!

Anyways, i'm still recovering from my cold thingy, feeling much better but today really wore me out. aside from a small piece 1st thing and a quick touch up last thing, i had my buddy Zane in, who i owed some work (for looking after my dogs while i was the other side of the pond....that's England to anyone confused).

(not the best pic, but meh!)

We worked out today it's been a good 2 years since we first started his arm/chest, and now that i'm leaving, we wanna get this done and dusted. Got a lot coloured in today, aside from the majority of the dragon (still little bits and bobs to go) we also got 2 peonies done round the other side of his arm too.

Tomorrow is my "day off" but i got 2 designs to do, and not the kind that come easy. one's a weird devil/angel backpiece thats "made up of shapes, not faces" ........no idea.

and i gotta do some polynesian tribal stuff, adding onto an old piece i didn't do. i'm probably gonna end up free handing it anyways, coz it aint symetrical (it was meant to be.... i think)... but anyways, he wants to see a design 1st.

i'm gonna start stopping all this "can i see the design before my appointment" malarchy. it stresses me out, and i end up drawing stuff that isnt even due, and forgetting about stuff i should be doing.

Anyways, enough moaning. Ross had to get up super early to go on the radio to talk bout his band (very exciting) i slept in, coz modern technology now means u don't have to listen to the radio live (genius!)

I'll be sure to post a link once they host it online.

They stumbled upon the world's largest pot of noodles, and Ross was kind enough to realise this is the kind of crap i like to blog about!

We recieved a package in the mail from Ross' parent with photos from our trip to the UK, and for some awesome , yet unbeknownst reason, loads of the pics look old and kinda 70's-fied.

this isn't the best example, but i'm not sure how his family would appreciate being on my blog!

yup

So here's another genius search result that ended up (maybe they followed the yellow brick road) to MY BLOG! i will publish these weird and wonderful search results religiously..... well, until i get bored!

enjoy

Today was a complete waste of make-up.

Before i recall the fantastic events that when strung together make up what was "today", let me quickly post yesterdays doings. 

started a fun piece made up of toys, marbles, a spinning top, and a kendama. Gonna be full colour, but all we got done was lines n black til next time!

Then did this lil' forearm one shot, so all in all a pretty fun day!

So today on the other hand, not the best day ever. I've been coming down with what feels like the Mother of all colds, struggled my way outta bed, seriously contemplated calling in sick, but my customer was coming across from Macau, so he would already have been on the ferry, so i went to work to start a mammoth piece of.....you guessed it! TRIBAL.

Anyways, i had this weird feeling that he might not show, i even called the shop and said "if he doesn't show, call me back" (i was running late, from me moving in what felt like slow motion (even my eyes hurt today).

So i get to work in record time, ready for some crazy half sleeve/chest/back freehand tribal awesomeness.....i was very excited....... anyways, he didn't show. Turns out, somehow he was booking in for the whole of today, and half the day on the 19th....so somewhere wires got crossed. I'm guessing 19th it is then!

So i hung around (very relieved i had an unexpected day off work but still angry that i even crawled outta bed), drew tomorrows....wait for it...... tribal piece and we all closed up early and went to Hebe One O One for dinner. (they do the best food i've had in what seems forever).

(my boys waiting for their food)....and i mean their food, milo had a good chunk of Ross' sandwich!

The only down side is i cant enjoy a nice glass of wine .... or a refreshing cider for a good few more days coz i'm on 2 sets of antibiotics right now too. Anyways, that didn't matter dinner was awesome, my dessert was even more awesome! 

So then into Sai Kung for a spot of late night grocery shopping ( i dont know why but late night  grocery shopping normally cheers me up...no ques, or screaming families, or mad rushes), all the Halloween crap is out, and i wanted to buy half of it! Bought lots of comfort foods, and even though we almost died in the cab ride home (we musta skidded a good 20 feet and missed another car by less than a meter thanks to our mentally challenged driver ), all in all, the evening cheered me up.

It's now 3am, i'm having epic Ghost Whisperer night-morning (we've already watched the new office, lost and medium, so we r down the not so awesome stuff, but i have to admit, season 5 definitely managed to bring some "new life" (mind the pun) to the show)

here's hoping i feel less like death warmed up tomorrow!

Wha-Huh?

So i was checking my stats counter, and found this..... what does this even mean? what in God's name were they looking for? I don't get it! Thought i'd share....

So i started looking online....I even wikipedia'd "ink monkey, and nada, zilch....

So i looked a little longer, and found this here page, which just so happens to be talking about Hong Kong! Too coincidental....weird. Can't be true. I dont believe it. Hmmmmmm............

I'm gonna trawl through every antique shop looking through all their desk drawers and see if i can't find myself my very own ink monkey! Oh, and I also found this pretty sweet website, selling awesome art,posters and prints for some not too shabby bands! Not too shabby at all....

Here kitty kitty....

"A cat is more intelligent than people believe, and can be taught any crime."
-Mark Twain Notebook, 1895

OK, so today we finished off the Chairman Meow chest piece. It was so difficult getting a half decent photo, this is the best i got, the cats face and outlines are all healed, and there's a bit of glare and some shadow on the hat from her head... so it looks a little weird, but she's booked in for another piece next month so i'll try and get a better pic then! I took about 15 pics, and this one's the best by far. The cats face is still a little shiny, but i think y'all can get the picture from this!

Got some pretty decent pieces coming up the next few days too for a change, so hopefully many more tattoo pics and less "i feel like i should blog but having nothing to blog about" stuff!

Til next time y'all!

“Leisure is a beautiful garment, but it will not do for constant wear”

So, today ended up being a really, really good day! Woke up, and the weather was stunning, so i showered, got dressed, and went up to the roof for my morning ciggie. 

Still half asleep and no make-up....

Milo hadn't quite woken up yet either.

Terror came and joined the party

Joey conveniently let me know he wanted to go for a walk.

I'm gonna miss the view from my roof.

So later on me and the boys went into town ...

Milo was not going anywhere near the cows..... at all..... ever! (I'm always suprized at how such a small dog can have such a strong pull.)

These are either super intelligent cows (crossing at the sign), or this just happens to be a very fortunate photo! 

So after a tasty meal, Ross headed off to Mong Kok to buy some toy stuff (he customizes toys....i never quite follow what's going on!)

And i went home and made these...

I love this one!

I'll have some for sale in the shop as of tomorrow. For any of ya who are looking for something that doesn't look like a 5 year old made it, check out these stores.....

OK, first off there's THIS (really nice flowers, feathers, stuff and stuff) and THIS (awesome everything, i want it all, definitely check this one out!) and if that's too classy for ya, check out THIS. It's super kitsch, and tacky.... but i'd wear some of it!

And finally, for all the mini missus' (toddlers and infants), check out this. There's a link the their shop on the blog

* Thanks to Cici, who gave me these links, check out this and this too! * 

ENJOY!