tattoos dont grow on trees either

so this is gonna be a little bit of a rant, but i am honest to got sick to death of fixing up other people's mess! it's getting to the point where i get exited if i actually get to start a tattoo from scratch and dont have to cover or fix other previous work by other people. dont get me wrong, i am by no means expecting everyone in life to choose an awesome artist or an awesome design all the time, but oh my god people, there seems to be some sort of degenerative disease striking people nowadays when it comes to choosing tattoos and "artists".

i think the main reason for the problem in hong is one of 2 things:

a) people shopping around for price....you get what u pay for. deal with it. i am sick to death with people trying to haggle me down when if anything, i undercharge a lot of the time.

b) people not doing any research and either going to the closest shop, or the shop all their "friends" go to. if your friends tattoos all suck, and you go to the same place, guess what? its not rocket science, your's will suck too.

oh, and also, if you seriously think it's a good idea to go into a strangers tattoo studio and saying "what do u think i should get?" it's not!

(people really ask me this, and obviously i turn them away, but it seems a lot of studios don't seem to have the moral highground to realise this person has no idea of the consequences of their actions or the fact that they are completely new to everything "tattoo" that they will honestly take your advise to get some lame ass piece of crap that deep down inside your mind is thinking "well, the rent is due soon" and you slap in on them til death do them part)

here's the perfect example of the crap i have to deal with, and do not be mistaken, this wasn't done by someone's friend in their kitchen, this came out of a "legitimate" studio right here in good ol' hong kong where the government have absolutely no say in regulating the tattoo industry.

i always do the best to fix up some of the crap that walks through my doors, but it's getting to the point where i am becoming more and more picky with what i will and will not even attempt to fix, coz at the end of the day, once i've touched it, thats my name on it, and i take pride in my work.

so for future refrence, if you come to me asking me to cover your old tattoo with something around the same size, that will never happen.

if you come to me asking me to cover your old tattoo with writing, that WILL NEVER HAPPEN. it's physically impossible.
and if you come to me asking me to cover your fat ass black tribal with a pretty pink flower, that too will not happen.
do your research.

i have fixed and covered way worse than this in my time, but i normally dont even bother taking photos of this kinda stuff anymore. i just needed some piece of crap to post.



if you click on this pick, you can see a huge scar down the centre of the cross where the first artist musta been trying to dig for gold. i had to work super light handed on this coz his skin had been so chewed up, it was about ready to split at any given moment.

enjoy.

magnum mentality

so a good 4 or so hours and a shirt later (why do i wear light clothes to work when they ALWAYS get ruined?) and you end up with this :
(apologies for the not so amazing photo, it's a little distorted and long looking coz i had to have her lean over slightly to get less glare)



I forced myself to use a magnum for the whole thing, and i'm sure to most ppl who tattoo that means nothing, and it's kinda a "so what?".....but to me it's like, "OH MY GOD!".
let me explain...... see..... i dont use mag's. ever. really.
UNTIL NOW!
i think if anything it took me a little longer than if i were using my normal textured 14 rounds, but .... i'm gonna keep at it.
10 trillion points to my customer for sitting like a champ, i'm glad i got it all finished in one shot. and i'm glad i have something to blog about other than my back (which is now in agony by the way! i love bending at a 90 degree angle for long periods of time) but it's all gravy baby. I'm getting it all realigned again 2morrow, so who cares eh?!

anyways, i'm about to crash for the night, so here are some other magnums for all of you who have nothing better to do than keep reading..........

n.
A bottle, holding about two fifths of a gallon (1.5 liters), for wine or liquor.
The amount of liquid that this bottle can hold.
A magnum cartridge or firearm.
adj.
Of or relating to a cartridge containing a larger explosive charge than other cartridges of the same size.
Designed to shoot magnum cartridges.

see ya laters ya alligators.