The blog that got away.....

So i realized yesterday that i never actually did get round to posting the spankin' new shirts we got made before we went away....

Really good quality shirts with a discharge print.... lovely!

We still have a bunch left available from the shop.... Girls and guys sizes.

So it's still scorching hot here in Hong Kong,check the weather forecast for yesterday HERE

But people are already dressed for winter! It's unbelievable... here's a pic from my bus ride home last night! Maybe they live in an igloo.....

Pretty non eventful day at the shop yesterday, more tribal (of course). Got a sweet piece in today so will hopefully post that later.....

Til then, here's a pic of a road sign down the road from my local pub.... best road name ever!

In Bloom

So all the tattoos i did today were flowers. It's weird how a lot of the time, i seem to get whole days of the same subject matter booked in (unintentionally). did 3 pieces today, here's 2 of them.

First one is a cover up, and i'm starting to get more and more picky with which cover up's i take on. from now on, i dont want so many size restrictions. It gets frustrating trying to something that would be A) so much easier if it was just a little bigger, and
B) look so much better if it was bigger too!



This one came out OK though, but if it was just a little bigger...... I'll shut up now.

Second up was this geometrical hallucination. She sat like a champ, cant have been plesant going over the shoulder onto the chest. 10 points lil' lady!




The half sleeve pics from yesterday didnt come out too great, all the black was healed, so the fresh sections looked swollen and funky, by the time we finished the bottom half had settled down, so here's a section that came out ok with not so much glare! more geometrical madness. I'm not an architect people! No fun! haha I have a deep rooted hatred of drawing anything that needs a "tool", ruler, compass, protractor etc etc (the closest i came for a long time was using a beer mat to trace a semi circle for a light ray on a sketch!)

stupid gravity!

OK just finished for the day (extrememly early, as my last booking is stuck in singapore airport :( )
did this piece today, the guy added the date last minute (and yeah, he wanted it that small and written in that order..... i dunno.) it sucks when u get a nice piece, u get it sketched out ur getting super psyched bout it and then there's a "oh yeah, and can i have this and that ....blah blah'' and u think WHY?!

dont get me wrong, i dont mind dates on tattoos, but i do mind when someone obviously wants something added for a reason, then making it SMALLER, and smaller....and smaller! anyways, it was a fun piece to do, and it came out pretty sweet. he gave me free reign with the rest of the design, and the colours.



I've been using my brand spanking liner the past few days, it's not quite run in perfect, but it was getting there (WAS. past tense) coz i just dropped it on the floor. DOOOOOM! sucks! so tomorrow, i'll start all over, it sounds ok, but the contact and A bar had shifted a lot.... and i aint great at tuning machines at the best of times. my approach is normally if it aint broke....




but here it is! (aint she a beaut!) Ross built it for me (among many others) and i wanna get it running smooth by the time i go to Londumb!

Here's a few more machines Ross made for me. First one was my Christmas pressie last year. Seth Ciferri frame, and other fancy schmancy goodies on it. I love the coils (Thai antique notes). This is running like a champ, love it!




I figured it was far too classy, so we ordered in one of these lil' thumb screws! TOO CUTE! love it!




And here's the partner in crime! )also awesome coils, lurrrrvly!





for some reason this week has been going insanely slow. and i want it to go way faster, coz i got a sweet tattoo booked in on thurs! (sweet in more ways than one!)

pills for the pills for the pils

So, Milo came back in the early hours of the morning, he has a slight infection, apparently nothing that a few pills and regular hot/cold compress' cant fix. he's on 3 different antibiotics at the moment, as well as his pain meds. it's not easy getting a dog as small as him to eat so many pills i tell ya! it's a week to the day since all this shit happened and the vet was shocked to see that he's actually put ON weight! we've been having to feed him so much more, coz he'll keep leaving his pills/picking them out/getting them stuck to the cone round his head etc etc!

Anyways, i've been so lax with uploading pics of recent work, and to be honest i haven't got much to post at the mo, got some nice pieces coming up, but for now, here's this lil' guy.



Hopefully tomorrow i will have a new print to post, i actually finished it last week, but then i got caught up in all this hoo-ha and havent had a minute to get it sorted on the computer.

ok, bed time, it's half four in the morning, and even though we r in the middle of a typhoon signal 9, looks like i'll be going to work tomorrow!

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away....

If you can use, some exotic booze
Theres a bar in far Bombay!
Come fly with me, we'll fly we'll fly away.

Come fly with me, lets float down to Peru
In lama land, theres a one man band
And he'll toot his flute for you!
Come fly with me, we'll float down in the blue.

Once I get you up there, where the air is rarefied
We'll just glide, starry eyed,
Once I get you up there, I'll be holding you so near
You may here, angels cheer - because were together

Weather wise its such a lovely day
You just say the words, and we'll beat the birds
Down to Acapulco bay
Its perfect, for a flying honeymoon - they say
Come fly with me, we'll fly we'll fly away



OK! So i got my fleeting, flying lady finished and scanned and done and done and DONE!
Will be making prints to take to England, so anyone interested in buying one, pls get in touch. U can e mail me on info@starcrossedtattoo.com

Cheers my Dears!

Love and peas!

Flying so low

OK. So this week, on my day off, i decided to get productive. Productive at stuff other than drinking cider and procrastinating. That's right, this time i drank beer and drew some stuff. I cant remember the last time i sat down and started a picture, and lined it, and got some clolour in one sitting NO BREAKS. i just havent had the time lately, and this time i MADE THE TIME!

so the scan came out really shitty. most the grey shades didnt even show up, so it looks a lot less finished here than in my little sketchbook. i think i'm gonna add a background, nothing fancy, a watercolour wash or 2, then get it re scanned in the proper print place down the road and hopefully it'll come out better!

but til then, here's Cpt. Priscilla...



Not only did i get her almost done all in one go, but i got something else started and half lined too! I think a lot of it was the fact i was sat on my roof in the sweltering heat so it was kinda like a race to the finish so i could go sit downstairs in the air conditioning, or maybe it was the fact that the only thing i had to colour her with were some Copic markers... and maybe the fact that the only colours i had in my pencil case at the time were lilac and grey, so i didnt have to sit around thinking about a million different colour theories worrying i'll always prefer my 2nd choice (ie. the one i didnt do) by the time i finish!

Surely over thinking is a form of over working, and over working is exhausting, so it seems that i have come to the conclusion that even when i am sat with a beer in one hand and my head in the other....... to the untrained eye I'm "doing nothing", but in reality i'm just working far too hard!

Anyways, talking of work, here's a small slice of todays "work pie".



The last few days have been pretty easy going. Fully booked, but easy going, coz it's all been stuff that isnt remotely taxing to draw, so i havent been staying late at work stressing about how to make "this and that" work, or how i'm gonna combine "A" with "B", or how to make something that doesnt even exist look realistic (dont ask, i've had a few teeth grinders in recently.)
The fact that stuff has been going so smoothly worries me though, coz it means it's the calm before the storm, and i know for a fact i have a few pieces coming up that i've shoved so far to the back of my consciousness , that when the time comes for me to draw them, i think my head might explode. Just a warning.......... stand back i say!

sweet as a nut *take 2* and then some!

So ever since i did my "sweet as a nut" donut tattoo, Ross has really wanted one, so here's what i came up with. I have to hand it to him, if it wasn't for him i wouldn't get to see half my stoopid ideas come to life, after all i can only reach so much on myself, and i hate tattooing myself!
I'll probably go back in to tighten some stuff up when it heals, but here's todays tattoodle!



Tomorrow i have allocated a full day for Sham Shui Po'ing (yeah i've made it a verb, deal with it!) I need to try and find some wholesale good-quality t shirts with no side seams to get our new run of t shirts printed on, and nobody has managed to point us in the right direction so far. I'm kinda in a mad crazy rush to get them done, and as Ross is a screen printer by trade, we both thought it would be nice if our new run of shirts is all hand printed. It's turned into quite the headache of the century though, so anyone who knows any good t shirt suppliers (something like fruit of the loom or haines would be perfect), or if anyone knows any good screen print suppliers, pls pls message me!

Just for a lil' taster, here's the new t shirt design i am HOPING to get printed (at least a small run for the UK in August) soon.



Oh, and speaking of August, here's the official spankin' new list of places and dates of where and when i'll be working etc etc.....

ok, i have a crazy hectic schedule while i am over in england in aug. so far, it looks like i'll be working at haunted on holloway rd london, the 11th, 12th and 13th of aug,

then working the norwich convention the 15th and 16th of aug,

then working at flaming 8 in kentish town, london the 20th to the 28th.

anybody interested in booking in for any work by me, pls get in contact sooner than later, as i really want a heads up on what i'll be doing and be able to get some designs prepped out before i travel.

feel free to e mail me at info@starcrossedtattoo.com for any questions/consultations/bookings.
thanks!
julia

Go folk yourself!

So yesterday i had a mad rush to meet a man about a thing in wan chai, to entrust him with my brand spankin' new portfolio ready for my trip to london. Plan is, he's gonna fly halfway across this little planet we all inhabit, and drop it off at my work establishment to be...... fingers crossed his plane doesn't burst into a ball of flames, or his luggage gets swallowed by the goblins who live in the baggage carousel, or..... he FORGETS TO PACK IT! ahhh worry worry worry.

anyways, after getting semi drunk with the man in question, i rushed home for a good ol' BBQ. the weather man was wrong, there was no rain, and no hot dogs ended up a soggy mush on the grill. good stuff!
so i did this piece on tues night last thing, but didnt have time to post it, after all i promised i'd post the other pic, so here's the piece on the boyfriend of the "bloomin' hell" girl ! For all y'all who dunno who Woody Guthrie is, here's a lil' taster.



and here's the sweet tattoo i had the pleasure of doing! (who wouldn't wanna do a woody guthrie tattoo, right?!) this is one of his lil' sketches from way back when.



anyways, it's 2am, and i am finally done for the day, and i got me a whole bunch of "I love Lucy" to watch, and a whole load of beer left over from the BBQ!

til next time.

Bloomin' hell!

ok so as promised here's todays piece. ok ok so it's not exactly RIGHT after i did it, but it's the same day (i count days as.... well if i havent slept yet it still counts as the same day!)



also finished off a half sleeve i've been workin on on and off for a while now, but couldnt get a good pic coz some of the last sections of colour swelled up loads so the pics came out a bit funky lookin'! should get a healed pic soon though.
Finally got my portfolio ready to send off to london too so quite an eventful day really!

hibiscus......funny lookin' word!

ok so today has totally worn me out, and even though yesterday was my day off, it sure didnt feel like one. what with all the running around, arguing with stoopid embassy types, filling in paperwork, then having to fill in MORE paperwork coz my signature went outside of the red box....god forbid. then going through my tax forms, and all the paperwork for the last few months, then going home in a mad rush to get the designs that were due drawn up.....BAH!

ok so this was a fun lil piece i started the day off wirh. i aint used to being limited as far as my colours go, but she was adamant (no not Adam Ant) that i only used red n brown. so i poured every shade of red and every shade of brown i had, snuck a little yellow n white in there too but shhhhhhh, it's all in the mix!



it's on the ribs, (hard to tell from this pic) and although she really didnt enjoy this, she sat well. 10 points young missy, 10 points well earnt!

tomorrow i start the day with a super sweet piece, and finish it with a cover up i've been dreading for a month. pfffffff
til then y'all!

day off tomorrow, not an off day today!

awesome, tomorrow's my day off and i have NOTHING to do. i mean, there's stuff i can do....and i'm sure there's stuff i will do, but nothing i HAVE to do! no designs HAVE to be done! i'm sure i should, but they can wait til thursday night's mad rush! hooray!
so i got the artwork for West East magazine finished, on time can u believe it!? so on thurs i'll get it scanned, send it off and then post it right here! how exciting!

So super quick post before i go to the pub.....ahh the sacred establishment where the cider flows freely, who could want more?

I thought i'd post todays doings. i know i know...all my customers have been not showing or rescheduling and i was kinda thinking i may never tattoo again, but all was solved when todays customer showed up on time, ready for the fun of having her ribs poked for a few hours.



In other news, looks like i'll be busy busy busy with not one but 2 navy's! one from each side of the world soon. so should have some fun pieces coming up in the next few months. Got a real nice piece to do on thursday too so my blog wont suck so much.....i hope!

Til then....

*New star crossed artwork!*

If you're bored, then u must be boring too

So seeing as my douchebag customer yesterday flaked out on me and didnt even call ahead to say he wasnt coming, i had hours of tedious empty nothing to do time on my hands.

After a few hours painting, i finally got the new sign design finished, quick woop dee doo on photoshop to give it a black background and hey presto!



the t shirt is way more simplistic, no shading really, black, red n white with a little shading in the hair. i'm still deciding what to do with the roses on the shirt....so aint got the artwork finalised yet... but i'll post it once i do.

3 year itch

So we just renewed the lease on the shop for another 3 years, and we fancied a bit of a change, so we are in the process of revamping the shop. the studio, and the backroom which (will soon be our brand spankin' new sterilization room!) moving the ultra sonic cleaner and the autoclave out the back will free up a lot of space in the studio, which will be nice.

last week we had a new ceiling installed, and in the next few weeks, we are having the shop fitted out with new walls, getting the floor fixed up a bit, and the studio is getting a pretty big revamp to boot! ooh, it's so exiting!

so to go along with the new shop, new sterilization room, and new studio, we are gonna have new signage, new t shirts, and maybe even revamp the website to match! so here's the design i've been working on for the hanging street sign (our old sign kept getting blown away during typhoons and it definately looks like it's had better days, so we dont have a sign on street level right now except for the one above the doorway.) i think that design will also double up as one of our new t shirt design...i'm guessin' white n red print on black....or maybe black n red with a thin white border.....i dunno, i'm thinkin' out loud now!

I'll get ross to fiddle around with it on photoshop and hopefully i can post some t shirt images soon. this isn't the final version for the sign (that's gonna be full colour) or the t shirt (there's gonna be a lot of black shading)but i got nothing to post before my day off 2morrow, so here's the scan of the design in question, enjoy!

Guns n Roses

So....friday the 13th.......ooohhh.
Anyways, quick blog a doodle do to post yesterdays doings.



I would have posted it last night if i hadnt "celebrated" a bit too much! Birthdays should be called deathdays from now on!
anyways, hope y'all had a good fri the 13th. not much happened at the star crossed fort. not much at all...............

grassroots and evergreen

So here's todays doings. dude sat like a super hero champion of trooperness (wow! right?). 10 points. anyways, nice little piece to do. photo came out surprisingly well considering my camera seemed to go on a preemptive strike a few days ago! It's ok though coz a few eleastic bands, some tape and Voila! good as second hand!



And here's what i got up to last night. Got a new sketchbook so figured i'd give it a "new face" to start afresh. Couldn't get this scanned coz once again i do not know how stuff works, but the photo came out ok i think.
cool, done for the day, so farewell. and remember, if MacGyver could fix it with tape and a toothpick, so can you! (that too goes for your face by the way)

sweet ass tattoos

here's 2 pieces i did recently. aint got time to blog coz i gotta close up shop, but enjoy the pics!





p.s i got a new dog this week and he's gonna grow up to be a rock star!

half sleeves and head tattoos

so.... did a nice half sleeve the past 2 days. we started it yesterday, and finished it today. the guy sat like a super trooper, it musta sucked big time today after a night of pain n stuff. its probably my favorite dragon to date, but this guy was a kickass customer, and pretty much left it all up to me, where as most of the dragons i've done in the past had to have "this and this, and look like this, but with a little less of this...." if ya know what i mean!

(if ya wanna see the pic not cropped, check out www.alivenotdead.com/juliawilson) or check out the website, i'll have a bigger picture posted on there soon.



anyways, i had 2 more customers after the sleeve, and i started a nice geisha on a girls back, covering a gecko or something. didnt take a before photo, but i'm hoping i got one lying around one one of the hard drives.... anyways, its only lined at the moment.
then when everybody left, i tattooed ross' head. good times!

spooky sea stuff

So yesterday i went swimming, in the sea, which is gross and i know pretty insane, but i was hot. anyways, so i'm swimming along, minding my own, when all of a sudden there's like, this gigantic splash RIGHT behind me. I spin around, and there's nobody even within 30 feet or so, so i switched into fight or flight mode, and of course, when u r dealing with the sea in HK i think its safe to say flight is always gonna be the smart option.....i swam faster than anyone in the olympics back to the beach.
I'm convinced there is a huge 23 tenticled 8 eyes boogey fish mutant in the sea where i live, but ppl keep assuring me there are huge jumping fish. hmmmmm....i'm still not so sure, this fish would have the be the size of a fat ass human baby and have jumped 6 foot in the air to have made that noise.

anyways, heres an ice cream i did (it is so teeny tiny weeny its like the size of two $1 coins!) something to cool u down on this scorcher of a day.

Oh my God!

Sorry about the title, I was toying with that or "Jesus Christ!" but then Buddha would feel all alone and depraved I'm sure.....
Anyways, 2 days, n 2 Gods. The Buddha was meant to have (and will in the future more stuff up around the shoulder blades, if ya look carefully u can kinda make out the design in sharpie..... but 5 hours was enough for the both of us, (you cant tell from the pic, but this wraps round onto his ribs too.....) so we called it a night.

Here ya go.....





Tomorrow, toy shopping and sleep. Recipe for an awesome day.

I'm not quite finished, but he sure was! haha, sounds so wrong...

So did a good few hours on a rib piece today. Wont get to finish it off for a good few months, as he's leaving HK for a wee while, but thought I'd post it anyways....I took down the "work in progress" section on the website, coz it was building up, and i was getting sick of seeing work that it seems i'll never get to finish for one reason or another.



I'm hoping, this will not be another one in the same predicament! Anyways, as expected, he did not enjoy the ribs (putting it lightly, but i'm pleased with the outcome, got enough done for it not to look like a totally unfinished piece.... even though it is! haha, i dunno, it makes sense to me.

Anyways, tomorrow, DAY OFF! but its not gonna feel like one, i got a lot of designs that need doing, and other plans, which may..... involve bowling, which is never a bad thing til the morning after. (could say the same about a lot of stuff, but good ol' bowling doesnt sound sick or twisted. i love bowling......anyway, off track and wasting my time and yours,if u r still reading.....)

OK i'm done!