There's no business like snow business.

So.... woke up today, looked outside and by golly, it was snowing!

So, i put on my most snow related socks (Hana.... i hope u r proud)

Put on my new knitwear.... very festive indeed...

And once i finally managed to coax little Milo outta the front door, we went to the park where it was looking rather pretty. There were lots of squirrels running about frantically trying to find food to store i imagine...

Maybe i'll take some nuts over the weekend to give them a helping hand.

Milo hates the snow. These next few weeks are gonna be hard work...

In other news, i spotted the weirdest sock packaging last night... 

(Hana... more socks! god aren't u a lucky little minx?!)

"inusable"

I also spotted what i can only imagine a bike belonging to the most responsible toddler in existence... or the smallest midget know to man.

Oh, and my stunning new scarf arrived too! 

So as I mentioned yesterday, tonight is the Haunted Christmas Noir exhibition.

Here's the details from their Facebook page:

This show is a collaboration between fine art and tattoo art celebrating all things Xmas Noir. Artwork will be on display December 16th - January 16th with contributions coming from different artists from all around the world. Our opening night will be on Friday December 16th with a reception at Haunted from 6-8 followed by a party at The Horatia featuring cockney cabaret legend Nigel Burch and his Flea Pit Orchestra. We are looking forward to a bloody merry Xmas!

The artwork is being sold to raise money for Cancer research, so if owning some fucked up Christmassy paintings doesn't float your boat on it's own merit.... Do it for charity :)

tis the season

holy macaroni. i don't know where to start. well, 1st up, i will post the kickass christmas tree man/creature i encountered...

he was outside a pub me n Ely went to on Saturday night on the way to a tattoo studio opening party. I am not gonna post what events unfolded that night.... i wouldn't even know how to put it into words.... but just for my peace of mind... i will post some phrases to jog my memory if ever i am reading my blog on a trip down memory lane.

rubber people

massive phone

po po

brooms

beardy man

derren brown

ok, so now that's all done, back to the rest of the week. 

So every year the shop has a Christmas party, and it is fast approaching, so on Tuesday, i did all my Christmas shopping for everyone at work. I spent far too much money, but i'd rather give good gifts than absolute tat that nobody wants. Good thing Harry is away coz i probably would have broken the bank buying him stuff too.

I also purchased some stuff for myself, including more knitwear (don't ask... i can't resist)

amazing!

it also came with a kickass postcard....

also got myself a mexican wrestling mask... so this is now what my tibetan masks look like in the bedroom.... so pimped!

and i got this absolutely stunning book...

So that's me done treating myself. this is the 1st christmas i'll be spending without a significant other for.... as long as i can remember to be honest. So yeah, those are my presents to myself. 

Oh, I'm also glad to announce that all but 1 of my custom Christmas cards have sold. I think I'll keep one anyways, nice to have records of stuff. Well obviously.... i blog. You know what i mean though. Maybe.

I also got a little glue gun crazy and made some festive hair clips. I have 2 left, they are selling at £3 each. So get in touch if u want them. They are in the studio, so swing by and grab them if you find ur self in the area, or desperately seeking a Christmas clip.

Doesn't Rooster look dapper? 

In other news, I posted an I am the avalanche song on Facebook the other day, only to find out they were playing London 2 days later! Madness. 

So I booked myself a ticket at work, and was good to go solo... then Kerry pretty much got stood up, so met her for drinks... and some random dude outside the gig had been stood up by his girlfriend, so 2 wrongs made a right for a change and Kerry got herself a ticket! amazing. 

Me n Kez were stood right near the door to backstage which is inconveniently halfway down the room, and people kept shoving past us before the band came on stage.... 

And 5 dudes started pushing past, and i could tell Kez was having none of it... til this happened....

Me : they're allowed past. they are the band.

Kerry: BAHAHAHAHAHA

then i poked Vinnie in the bum. i was in a weird groupie mood... what can i say?

He's such an awesome frontman. So polite and genuinely nice. He even had a stream to his Dad in New York for his song about him. too adorable. 

He also did a good ol' rant about feelings, and people you love, and not wasting a second... and i got a little choked up. 

The gig was awesome, and i had a super sweet chat with the guitarist after. Basically, Vinnie made a real point of hating when bands walk off stage only to come back on 2 seconds later for an encore... so he just said "this next song is the encore. don't be shy, if you know it... come on down"

so i did

and the guitarist got all up in my face and started screaming with excitement. It was odd. He'd spotted me near the back the whole show. I thought it was really sweet he noticed. bless. 

here's the song that got me  dancing. rare.

this is my all time favourite track of theirs, and i just found a sweet acoustic version.... enjoy.

I don't think i have any more gigs to go to pre new year... so i'm not sure what i'll be doing to pass the time. I won't be working between Christmas and New Year, yet i won't have much money to do anything with... so i might hibernate for a wee while. Shame i'm already halfway through An Idiot Abroad season 2. Maybe i'll start on the box set of The Inbetweeners i very kindly got given to me. I've just been staring at it next to my TV for the past few months as opposed to actually watching it. Time for a change of tactics perhaps....

Tomorrow is the Haunted Christmas Noir exhibition, so i should have some good photos to post from that, then Sat it's the shop party.... 

woop dee doo.

Work doesn't always have to feel like work.

so.... Miss Lulu came in on Saturday for a pretty long session on her forearm. I tattooed her a few years ago in Hong Kong, so was nice catching up. Here's what we got done....

I've left it open ended slightly, as it will eventually wrap all the way around the arm, and didn't wanna close off the edges too much for that precise reason.

She's coming in this coming Saturday for another really fun piece that didn't take much persuasion on my part. Went something like this...

me 'i really wanna do a sushi tattoo'

lulu 'ok.'

haha. awesome.

in other news, the lovely Alex came in for his charity Movember tattoo. 

frightfully swanky.

Done deal

So! Yesterday i went for my final ... (what's that? oh yeah, u read right.... FINAL) session on my back....

We didn't have too much to do, some grey background and colour in the peacock feathers across the top. 

Here's the finished piece....

so worth it. Now I'm thinking about the rest of my torso though.... which is a very scary thought. God, i remember how much i suffered getting my stomach done the first time.... so getting full front is gonna suck immensely... i'm sure of that.

Anyways, a massive thanks to Jay Parker, who did the piece. He also taught me how to tattoo... so needless to say, i owe him a lot. 

Here he is, in case u were wondering. 

(he really aint too keen on being photographed)

Yup that's him. Note what an awesome t shirt he's wearing....

I'll be doing some cool pieces on him in the New Year which I'm looking forward to. 

So we went for a few well deserved drinks afterwards in an adorable little pub in Maidstone. Met an old man called Trev who had an endearing habit of repeating the last word of everybody's sentences and chuckling to himself... I'm not sure everybody else could hear him, but he was sat next to me so it was constant entertainment.

It aint everyday u hear an old fella go "hehe Minge.... hehe"

classic.

Once i got home (it's a fair old way to travel, and it always takes it outta me & by the time i set foot through my front door i'm knackered.... so) i laid on the sofa with the pooch and watched a movie. Milo was being extra adorable....

gotta love that lil' guy.

I'd feel more fulfilled making Christmas cards with the mentally ill.

So! I have my batch of super cute cards on the desk next to me. now all they need is a loving home.  They are selling for £1 each. Come with cute envelopes, available for pick up at Flamin Eight, Kentish Town.

for scale....

so! Limited supply available.... come n get 'em while u can! You never know... you could get hit by Santa's sled tomorrow....

too cool for a school of fish

so, Christmas is approaching, i know this because for a variety of reasons:

*Everyone is frantic and running around like a headless chicken trying to buy gifts for their nearest and dearest.
*Music being played in shops has taken a dramatic turn for the worse...
*It's fucking cold.
*A gigantic Christmas tree has been erected outside the church where i live.
*That overwhelming heaviness of excess and greed seems to be clouding the zeitgeist.

I have done no Christmas shopping, and i aint panicked. I just don't know what to get anyone.... so more bemused i suppose.

So, went round to Kerry's to help decorate her Christmas tree and drink some wine, also known as "the blood of Christ".

She had bought a cool pack of baubles that come with pens so u can draw whatever you want on them.... be it the face of Mary, an inverted crucifix, or something a little more simple....

loving how the flash is complementing my masterpiece.

Getting in the spirit. Or maybe the spirit got in me...

the girlies.

i have to say, the tree did look pretty damn swanky. oh how mightily talented we must be.

sticking with the festivities, here's some pics from the winter wonderland that never got posted...

the moose was serenading me. wish y'all coulda heard him. 

so over the weekend i went down to brighton. it was absolutely bone chillingly cold. 

had to wait a while for traffic to fuck off for this photo... 

it was worth it.

the Pavilion in all it's glory...

So I trawled through some pretty awesome shops and found this gem for Milo....

found myself some super cute mittens...

and bought some dudes hand and foot...

love it.

where in the world?

So i found a section of the map of the world on the tube yesterday. Who in the hell rips up a map and leaves a section? Now i feel like i'm part of some sort of mission.... i just don't know what it is. Or where this is....

Anyways, can't go on blogging about a mission when i don't know what my mission is now.... can i?!

So, here's a tattoo i did today... thought i may as well post something. Seems all i've been doing recently is script, script and more script. Oh, and a few stars here and there.... so this was a nice change.

Right, so with work and random finds all blogged, i guess all we're left with is what i've been up to recently (aside from photographing old men of course).

Well, i've frantically been trying to get a piece of artwork started, and finished as quickly as possible, as i totally forgot about the Haunted Christmas Noir exhibition, which i had agreed to do a piece to exhibit in... oops. 

anyways, it's almost done, maybe i'll finish it tonight at home.... but til then.... here's a sneak peek. I'm also thinking about getting it printed up and selling cards of it for Christmas.... so eyes peeled. watch this space....

almost done with the colour, still got the background and relining to go.... but only a few hours left at the most. 

So this weekend Miss Hana was meant to be staying at mine for our £5 budget weekend, but she was taken ill, and didn't make it... so I pretty much hibernated. It was insanely sunny on Sunday.... So i opened the patio doors, and i think Milo got a bit excited, thinking winter was officially over. Little does he know....

i think this photo of my front room proves how damn sunny it was out. Milo did a lot of basking....

Bless him.
it's actually his birthday today, so can't wait to go home and spend some quality time with the pooch.

So a little later i went out for a skate. I actually waited til dusk coz it was so bloody hot out!

Also took Milo to the park... tried a new park this time, which was really nice and quiet. The one closest to my house has a bowling green and a kids playground, so it can be pretty mental on Sundays.

I also cooked up a mean roast dinner. Was pretty impressed with myself going through all that effort just for myself, but i milked it for all it's worth and had amazing sandwich's for days to follow with the leftovers.

Monday night i went to an art history talk in a pub about taxidermy and colonialism.
found a seat up on an empty balcony.... and felt a little like these guys....

after the talk i went to Gary's cheese n pickle night, and shot some deer with Kerry and Andy who is a guest artist from Norway...

Andy turned out to be quite a sharp shooter..... although he shot everything and anything, and therefore didn't do so well in the game...

me: "oh! you're done! you shot a doe!"

andy: "i shot a what?"

me: "a doe, a female... you can't shoot does"

andy "WHY NOT!?!"

haha

So on Tuesday, me and Anna went to the Winter Wonderland.

Was gutted she came out the tube a little late, coz i saw the most amazing old man walking down the road with two MASSIVE blue parrots on his shoulders! God, i was in such shock i didn't even get a photo. Devastating.

Anyways, the wonderland was pretty rad!

Took a bunch of tacky photos. If i was one of those people that a) sent christmas cards, and b) made personalised photo montage cards to show everyone you know how 'happy' you are... i would have been like a pig in shit.

i'm not one of those people. 

So we headed straight for some good ol' mulled wine while we mulled over what to do. (see what i did there) oh yeah. 

There were loads of rides, and gift stalls, and food establishments, and.... stuff. lots of stuff. Luckily, as it was early afternoon on a weekday, it wasn't too busy, and we didn't have to queue for anything. Anna aint a huge fan of rides, so we started off gently with the big wheel.

Coz it was empty, we got out own booth, which was cool. They even had the radio playing so we ended up dancing around to christmas tunes like a couple of spastics. good times. 

My phone totally spazzed out at the top, and had no idea where in the country i was. i have photos saved as 'carlisle' and 'mendip'. both places i have never been. 

It was extremely windy, and once we got to the top, it stopped for a fair few minutes while (i can only assume) they were letting more people on the ride... Our carriage started swinging like a frantic monkey.... and needless to say, we both thought we may very well meet our fateful demise that Tuesday afternoon. 

obviously... we didn't.

So after what can only be described as a painfully unnecessary amount of rotations, we got off the bloody wheel. was good to have our feet planted firmly on the temporary ground they had laid down for the event.

There were loads of people with dogs there, and part of me wished i had brought Milo.... then i saw all these birds and remembered the last time he came into close proximity with a lake and birds he almost got devoured by a foul tempered goose. 

So the only other ride Anna agreed to get on was the teacups. They looked pretty safe... and slow. However, seeing as we were the only people on the ride, the attendant and his buddy came and stood over us the entire ride, manually spinning our teacup til the g force was at a point where i couldn't even muster the strength to lift my head away from the back of the seat. it was... truly..... insane.

so we decided we'd had enough of the stalls selling their weird tat which i find unfathomable as to why anyone could ever possibly want, let alone NEED. seriously... there was a guy selling wooden ties. WOODEN TIES!

has the world gone MAD?!

So we ate.

yup. 

that night i went to go see Pinback play. if you don't know Pinback, you truly don't know what u r missing out on. On the same note.... if you don't know what you are missing out on, i suppose it doesn't matter. 

i guess it's only an issue when you DO in fact know what u r missing out on.

so here's a video....

and here's a pic of the gig...

Last night i went to go see Defeater, which was also incredible. I love Defeater... and the last time i saw them play was the first opportunity i'd had to see them live, and i was blown away. This show they were not headlining (unfortunately) so their set was way shorter. Still very enjoyable though.

Here's one of my favourite tracks of theirs...

and their acoustic stuff is rad too.... 

til next time, here's a pic of me from zombie booth (Ely just got the app on her phone).