London to a 'T'

so, yesterday was a fucking awesome day. It was just me n Layla in, but i was booked up with sweet sweet stuff with sweet sweet customers. Conversation flowed seamlessly, and all in all, t'was a good day.

First up we have Chris, continuing his Torture Garden sleeve. (well, technically he was my 2nd customer of the day, but i'm excluding mentioning the 1st for a myriad of reasons. One being he called to tell me he was running 10 minutes late, ten minutes after he was meant to be here. i can tell the time. i don't need a talking clock.) hmmm.

Anyways, we got a good few hours in, working on the underwater section down by his wrist. All the while discussing my top secret thing that i can't talk about.... and secret societies, including one in particular  that serves the small. Oh, i also told Chris and Layla all about my early morning commute game i have devised to kill some time. Shall i elaborate? O.K....

So i get on the tube at the end of the line, and it's never that busy on the morning commute, so i'll start at one end of the train, and each stop i'll move down a carriage.... and once a complete stranger smiles at me ... (not in a creepy way, but in a "oh what a lovely day, i'm in such a good mood... la dee daa" kinda way)....that's when i stay in the carriage i'm in. Lets just say i'm moving carriages A LOT. kills the time though.

Layla called me a 'dark horse'. I think it was her way of saying "you're insane". I'm fine with being a dark horse. Means i have untapped potential. Oh, i also introduced her to the wonders of Coaltar of the Deepers who are an AWESOME band. good stuff. So here's what we got done on Chris' arm....

and here's what the clinical waste trash looks like after 3 hours of underwater tattoo action....

so much for "blue and green should never be seen without something in between", eh?

as always, Chris gave me a rad tip! Stoked.

So then i had itty bitty Maria in for her pre-leaving London  piece...

super fun one to do, it's pretty small on her ankle. and seeing as she's pretty small too.... it's really pretty small. 

It was just as i was photographing her that i came up with the "London to a T" comment. She didn't get it.... and that's fine, coz she's Italian. Layla got it, and laughed, which is fine coz she's English.

can i also add.... i have NEVER MANAGED to figure out how to splice pics together on photoshop.... til now. epicness encapsulated.

in other news, it's Kez's birthday, so tonight will be.... well... let's just say tonight will be fun. Tomorrow on the other hand.... will most likely be torture. Who cares about tomorrow though? 

The past is history,

the future is a mystery...

and right now is a gift. 

That's why they call it 

"the present".

true story.

what's in a week?

so... last week Tommy came in to get his ribs tattooed. His brother does some pretty rad artwork, and this is one of his pieces. Didn't get it all finished, but got it all lined, and prob got through 75% of the black. So til next time.... this is all you get. A nice pair of boots.

After which i went down to Hammersmith to see Death Cab. Was an awesome show, as always. 

Sunday was pretty eventful too. Got up pretty early, and went out for a skate. This is what Sunday morning looked like....

was a little worried it would be too icy to skate, but it was fine... although times a ticking' and it's getting colder n colder by the day.

Sunday evening i got a message of my mate, Sam who was feeling the cabin fever, so we went out for an epic roast in one of my favourite dog friendly Sunday roast haunts which shall remain unnamed for fear of more people knowing about it....

That evening, i went along to punk rock karaoke...

it was pretty empty. i didn't recognise ANYONE there, but it was fun, and it's not everyday u get to see guys from awesome bands jamming together and just having a generally good time. 

Yesterday was my day off, and i'd booked in with good ol' Andy at the ever-green Haunted weeks ago to get some little bits n bobs done....

i think this shop is one of the few places in existence with more crap about than my humble abode!

wearing gloves today is proving a little tortuous.... 

left side of my brain thinks like this....

right side of my brain tends to be a little more like this....

So after good times, a little pain and some good catch up chatting, i swooped on down to Angel to meet Kez who i haven't seen much of recently. 

i like Angel tube, i like how they have a "thought of the day". i wish my train station had that... although High Barnet has a massive bear sculpted out of a tree trunk, and a kids plastic train set on permanent display.... so we aint too shabby.

So after a few drinks, some cheese and meat.... Kez had to head off to meet a friend and i went to go see the Okkervil River gig which was awesome. I wasn't expecting anyone i know to be there, and i was right.... although a friend of mine was selling the mercy, so at least there was someone to chat to in intervals. I didn't get any pics, so here's a music video for y'all....

The back drop at the gig was fuckin' sweet...  designed by Will Sheff, the singer. He does really nice kinda illustrative folksy artwork.... got a cool t shirt designed by him last night too. y'all should get on that google and check it out!

good stuff.

shine a light

So the ever awesome Hana came down yesterday morning.... and seeing as i was working, i sent her home to get some  rest. Think she's been seriously sleep deprived, and needed as many winks as she could get hold of. After work, her fine self and Simon came to meet me, and we trotted off to the Pineapple.... where they had a complete blackout. Didn't stop us ordering drinks and most likely paying a fraction of their true value (always a bonus when people can't be arsed to do mental addition). 

Also didn't stop us from having a frightfully wicked game of scrabble, where i think we managed to dispute every 2 letter word ever entered into a dictionary. 

thought i'd better use the flash for some pics, as i'd imagine a blog only compiled of dark grainy photographs wouldn't really be acceptable blog-behaviour. 

you could say i cheated, as 2 heads are better than one. however, milo seemed to also bring with him the "curse of no vowels" which is a slight hinderance. 

it was awesome to hang with hana again, i've missed her, and she's off for 6 months soon, so every little segment of time must be savoured. also good to hang with simon, as he's back off to Glasgow as i type.... so won't be seeing him for a while, and he's off to the States for X Mas.... so double deprivation for me. 

so after a pit stop in a second pub (our bladders aren't what they used to be....) we went n bought some stale donuts for 17p, and shared a cheese and plum chutney sandwich, and some Crabbies on the "wailing wall"(long story... but what an absolute hilarious namesake) .... if only you knew.

Buying our dinner was a slight disturbance to the evening, as the shop assistant felt the need to be rude and obnoxious to me.... TWICE! (i didn't hear his utterly retarded comment the first time round.... so he felt the need to repeat it. louder. charming)

so then we headed off to the Black Heart for Liam from Booze n Glory's birthday shenanigans. (Simon was adamant he had stuff to do before he went back to Glasgow... he was adamant he wouldn't come.... he was adamant he would be at home by this point... doing what he needed to do) He came with. 

*Pah! i laugh in the face of a man who tries to tear himself away from our company yet can't*

The barman immediately felt the need to inform us dogs are not usually allowed inside after 8pm... but we totally won him over, and it didn't take long for him to pour Milo a glass of water and educate me on how awesome and calm my own dog is. 

T'was a nice evening. A little dancing, a lot of sausages getting fed to Milo, and Liam had a pretty rad cake.

So, that was then. Oh! I almost forgot the most bizarre chat up i have ever experienced.... went something like this:

him "your dog is really cute"

me 'thanks'

him "is it a chihuahua?"

me 'yup'

him "he looks like a little Boston!"

me 'i know!!! i love Bostons!'

him "yeah he's super cute. really adorable (starts running up the stairs).... *yells* AND SO ARE YOU!"

weird. 

This morning i had to be up in time for work, so nothing too eventful. Hana proudly sported the merch i gave her last visit.... which is always appreciated.

yes, that is Milo mid-yawn. He was also the last to get up might i add. Despicable.

So we went for a stroll in the park, talked about ice cream, mean parents, out door film screenings, what we would do if we could afford to rent the cafe that's for lease in the middle of the park... spotted a squirrel! (Charlotte.... it WASN'T a rat this time and i have PROOF!)

amazing. 

She's back for one last visit next week, where we are giving ourselves a fiver a day budget. she's broke, and we r gonna see how much fun we can have on a budget tighter than a D cup breast in an A cup bra. 

niceties go a long way.

got a sweet e mail from my customer from the other day.

"Hello all at Flamin eight. 

I'd like to thank Julia for a great tattoo, I love it. I'd also like to thank you all for the warm welcome. After posting pics of my tattoo on facebook, I've had a lot of people ask where I had the art done so hopefully you'll get some more referrals.


Kind regards,


Jason"

he also  sent along some pics he took during the session. thought i'd share.

lovely jubbly. 

tonight i'm off to see Death Cab For Cutie. i know, i know, twice within 6 months. i'm a lucky girl.....

head bangin'

so, i  had no appointments booked in today, which was kinda shitty. got a walk in pretty early on, managed to get 2 designs done.... finished this off, which i hadn't even lined yet....

i didn't have any of my pencils at the shop, so had to use a half empty 10 pack thats been in my cupboard for as long as i can remember. the only colours were brown, yellow, blue and a grey pencil that was just scratchy as hell. hence the colour scheme. tell ya what, if i did all my paintings/drawings in almost monotone.... i would have a lot more free time. i like my colours though, and i like using up time..... so don't expect more like this.

(it's not that warped in real life, but it's a photo so the page curled up a lil'.)

anyways, just as i thought that was my lot.... i got this super fun walk in....

amazing how a good head tattoo can lighten your mood. i really really enjoy tattooing heads, and most definitely do not get the opportunity to do enough. *hint hint* people....

well i never

so, seems Sharron's sailor girl tattoo i did a while back got featured in this here issue of Bizarre's tattoo special.

sweet as! Flattered, slightly astonished, bemused maybe. yes, bemused.

also super amped about this

and couldn't be more humbled by the testimonials that got sent in. so to whoever sent them.... i'm really flattered. you're too kind.

spermicidal tendencies

so.... long story short. kirsty was tattooing Rufe a few weeks back. maybe it was months... anyways, it was a while ago. He was talking about someone getting a sleeve ... or back piece (my memory fails me... much like a lot in my life).... of "japanese sea men" now see.... i heard "japanese semen" .... so this is how the story started.

once upon a time, there was a girl with bad memory, bad hearing, and a bad mind.

so i drew a japanese semen. and today, at work, me n kirsty had some free time, so she tattooed a japanese semen on me and i drew up an english semen for her.

here's me doing the deed on kirsty....

and here's her english semen.

kirsty doing the deed on me (apologies for the socks, at no point this morning whilst getting dressed did i ever... in my wildest dream.... expect my sock to be a subject of a photograph. )

and there's my newest addition. cheers kirsty.

in other news, i saw this lil' guy about a month ago, and just noticed the photo on my phone while pulling off todays cum shots. 

poor little guy. 

til next time.... the end.

also, just spotted this on lords blog. sweet photos. try n spot me. i'm super hard to spot, eh?

i should be drawing... not blogging....

so quick post as i have design homework i should be doing..... but here's a fun 1-shot i did today. was odd, the reference he sent through was very traditional, flat colour etc, but once he got in the chair he was open to more shading/tonal value/colours, so it ended up being a lot more enjoyable for me to do. super nice customer. good stuff. he even put up with me playing ELO on the stereo. yup.

fact, not fiction. truth, not lies...

wow, been a pretty crappy week or 2. found out some really awful news about not one but TWO people i know. not good at all. won't blog all about that though, so instead, i will blog about burgers, bb guns and backstage.

so Anna recently insisted we go try this "amazing" burger joint. it was pretty amazing, all though the waitress didn't put me at rest.

me (to waitress) : "i'm really excited to be eating here! i've heard SO MANY good things about this place!"
waitress : 'hmmm, well see if you feel the same way after you've eaten.'

hmmmm. odd. very odd indeed.

the food was good. the waitress was weird. 

anyways, we then went for 'hard shakes' in the Diner. they do the best alcoholic shakes ever. EVER.

also saw this.... (if u haven't seen this movie you won't get the reference. and you should be ashamed. )

along the way we bumped in to a few other people we know, and before i knew it, all the pubs were closed. luckily, i had been tipped an entire bottle of rum for tattooing Ely, so had that in my backpack, and a friend who lived across the road. So to his flat we ventured, where he decided to get his super crazy collection of gas powered BB guns out. yup. Mike shot Pieman in the face. TWICE

went something like this.....

mike (shoots gun)..... 

pieman (clutches face and roars in agony)

mike "it's not loaded!"

me (looking at simon....) 'i think it is'

mike shoots his own hand... ''oh fuck''

yeah. so if the police need an official report. use this blog post. Pieman's fine, although he looks like a thug. 

Last night we went to see ~The Filaments, The Skints, and Capdown.......

after a bit of a mission to get backstage, we managed, and the view is always awesome from side stage.

'twas a good night. 

i wasn't even that set on going, but i couldn't resist a rocking Sunday roast, and seeing as we ate down the road, it seemed a waste not to make the most of the ensuing musical wonders of days of yore. 

was a really odd gig to see in this day and age, seeing as the Filaments n Capdown were playing shows i was frequenting 10 years ago, but it was nostalgic to say the least, and good to bump into some old faces i hadn't seen in a while.

weird thing happened last night though. (Pieman is convinced whenever I'm around, weird shit happens) and i was starting to think he was exaggerating... however, i don't think u can get weirder than this....

so before we got backstage, we were stood by the sound booth on the 1st tier (or "shelf" as the guitarist from the Skints called it?! so London, innit) and i see this super creepy man. i turn to Pieman and whisper "10 o' clock, serial killer, true story" he turns, and agrees the man is very conspicuous....

anyways, later on, while we r stood side of stage, HE'S there, behind us.... once more. now I'm pretty sure he wasn't with the bands, or friends of the band like the rest of us.... but we just shrugged it off. 

later that night, after the gig, we go for some non-wallet raping drinks, and who's there? the creepy serial killer guy. again. too weird. anyways, a few hours pass, i get caught up in conversation, and miss the last train by a whisker. shame. i always forget this country opens and closes on Sundays in accordance to an outdated religious time frame. oh well. so i waited a good while for a night bus, boarded night bus, and fell asleep. i live at the last stop, so this never proves problematic, and sleep does help pass time don't you know. anyways, end of line, the driver comes to wake me up..... you guessed it. 

THE CREEPY SERIAL KILLER STALKER GUY WAS MY NIGHT BUS DRIVER

you couldn't write this stuff. 

although in blogging about it, i have now written it, but i can assure you it is not fiction, it is me recanting the strangest thing.....

very strange.

So tonight, the Aggrolites r playing the Underworld, but i've been feeling all gigged out recently, so think i'm gonna give it a miss. i bought a book this week, listing London's nicest pubs, and i think i may take it upon myself to go find a few, and just sit and read or draw instead of frequenting gigs. Saying that, i am going to see Death Cab next week, which i am super excited about seeing! No rest for the wicked i guess. 

better late than never

so, yesterday was Day of the Dead, and here's what i did today. fun lil back of arm 1-shot. photo looks a little warped, he was resting his arm on a rest.... i should have taken it with him standing. *slaps wrists*

i have also come to realise that when ur machine is spitting all the way up your arm to your SLEEVE it's about time for new bands. 

in other news, got on the list for the King Blues, who i mention fairly often on here, but they are my friends, so harmless plugging is allowed, surely?

it is an odd feeling watching people you grew up with be adored by 40 year old men and kids alike. very odd indeed. 

also odd watching the gig with Al (people will know why, if u know the lyrics to "hang the landlord" hahaha)

so the after party was gash, and packed, so we headed to a regular pub where i met the most awesome dog ever! so friendly. 

yup. that's all folks.

trust me, i'm a doctor

First things first, but not necessarily in that order.
Doctor Who

So, yesterday i travelled across London to visit this. Well worth the tube time, and not everybody can say they got to fly the tardis (which really is much bigger on the inside might i add) no camera trickery involved whatsoever.

not everyday u get to high 5 a scarecrow. unless i suppose u r a farmer, with a field, and in the field is housed a scarecrow, offering a hand. but, yeah, other than that, not every day.

i could have totally taken on this Dalek.  c'mon 2 fists vs. a toilet plunger and a whisk? place ur bets.

i knew wearing my Peter Davison t shirt would come in handy. he was the doctor the year i was born. true story.

best toilet sign EVER.

i wish i coulda brought milo to meet K9 :(

i think the only thing i didn't enjoy about the "experience" was the obese sweaty dude who took a million photos of everything, and was whistling out of his nose at an obscene decibalic rate that could rival a tornado.

as u can see, most of the exhibit (except for the old Daleks and the old Tardis') were from the newest Doctor's escapades. i'm ok with that though, Matt Smith is a sharp dresser, and even with sunken eyes he can totally pull off that bow tie. no mean feat if i may say so myself.

they had this weird "walk like a monster" seminar video, and as u can see, the mirrors used in that room were.... ghetto to say the least. did make for a good photo op though!

this was taken in front of a green screen. i make a pretty convincing weeping angel. loving how the guy behind the photo booth got all photoshop happy and even made me black n white over there. bless.

and how rad is my new mug WITH lid! gotta love a mug with a lid.

so today at work i got a pretty awesome surprise in the post. only a manfriend.

Yeah, Hana sent me this man friend in the mail. he'll do for now, not so keen on the ginger, nor the beard, but apparently he's an excellent scrabble player, so that's something.