After a few conversations about her final design, Amanda went for her original idea of having a dandelion being blown over her shoulder and the seeds turning into birds as they fly. We had a great time working on it.
Here’s the final thing (sorry for the low res photo!):
Richard Hayler came to me with a design which represented his two girls, he wanted it between his shoulder blades and here is the outcome:
Here’s just a quick promo of a site a friend of mine (Josh Comley) developed to help save your email accounts from becomming the victim of shammy scams!
If you EVER find you need to put your email in a forum post or on the internet in text format then try to use this little app and maybe it will save your inbox!
Unfortunately after over 2 years Spitefire have split to individually find the magic again.
Over the past few years Spitefire has had its ups and downs with many good times along the way but nearer the end things just weren’t gelling the way they are supposed to and things stopped being fun. After such a rollover of band members throughout Spitefire’s life it sapped the energy for the music which is needed to keep everything together. There was stress, falling outs and generally stuff that’s not good groundwork for a band. In the end the flame burnt out.
There is a possibility that in the future some of the band members may get together again to work on a new project (Spitefire is truly being laid to rest) and so if you are interested in getting involved with that then get in touch with Gavin (lead guitarist) via twitter @GavinJAllen with details of what you could bring to a new band.
Here is a quick thanks and a “what they’re doing now” for the Spitefire line-up at the end:
Me – Looking for new music projects to get involved with in a number of different styles to broaden my style range and have fun.
Gavin Allen – Looking for new music projects, you can contact him on twitter @GavinJAllen
Joe Chung – Looking for new music projects, you can contact him on twitter @JoeChungUK
Forbes Coleman – Focused on Audio Beach UK, his new music studio in the centre of Hove, you can contact him on twitter @ForbesColeman and @AudioBeachUK
Liz Witkowski – After recently picking up the bass again she is getting her groove back so watch this space and you can find her on:
www.myspace.com/lizmyredangel
FINALLY! The set is complete! Now to wait for them all to fully dry, get photographed professionally and be sent on their merry way to new homes.
Now that they are all finished I will be looking to exhibit them and sell them shortly. If you are interesting in one of the paintings or you have exhibition space available in a secure, insured venue then please get in touch.
Thank you for your patients waiting for these to be completed it’s been a manic few months and it’s great to have the ideas now on canvas.
It’s been a little while since I have added a ‘helpful’ blog post but that’s pretty much because I’m doing more of the hands on practical training now rather than the theoretical and it doesn’t matter what anyone says, there is only one way to actually learn to tattoo and that’s by doing it.
However, over the past few months I have been having a hell of a time trying to find a decent kitchen towel to use while I’m tattooing. At first I must have been lucky as whatever towel I happened to pick up from Tesco seemed to do the trick and then for some reason between when I first started out to recently I found myself being stocked up with a different towel. It was awful! Really dry and broke up during the tattoo process leaving little white bits all over the place and just generally not doing what was needed. So I was on a mission to find the best kitchen towel for the job!
Plenty was the answer!
Plenty used to be called Bounty and the adverts are hard to miss with the dreadful men dressed as women being very stereotypical and just plain annoying BUT I thought I would give it a go seeing as everything else I seem to find is horrid.
Well it works wonders and now I can see what they mean in their adverts. Plenty, when it starts to get wet, begins to act more like a baby wipe rather than a tissue paper so instead of getting filled with fluid and or breaking up it stays together and carries on working. This is great because it means you can wipe the skin over and over and it will still work, also as it doesn’t break apart once it’s full you just don’t end up going through so much of it.
I wouldn’t recommend wringing it out and re-using it like they say you can on the advert but this is really the best thing out there that I have been able to find so if you happen to be having the same trouble or you just need something a little more reliable in the kitchen – look no further you’re worries are over!
Plenty – I rest my case.
Halloween rocked we should have it more often, in fact everyday should be the day of the dead so bring on the Zombies!
Halloween was crazy this year and I got to meet some really cool peeps while out and about in Brighton. At the expense of the quality of my skin I decided to go all out this year and totally cover my face and chest in makeup – I even scared myself more than I usually do when looking at myself in the mirror in the mornings!
In the past few weeks we got round to completing Davey’s (Judas James Wright) arm dragon based on the Ouroboros concept of the circle of life.
Next I added to Steve Jenner’s back tattoo to ‘straighten it up’ a little. When his original tattoo was done about 10 years ago the tattoo artist didn’t line it up straight so after discussing it with Steve we went for a simple old school banner around it to give the idea that it was meant to be a little off balance so that the banner was horizontal rather than the symbols.
After the introduction through Vickie Jenner, Amy Packman contacted me to arrange to have her boyfriend; Alex Maverick Moffat, tattooed. He wanted the word ‘Estas’ tattooed on his arm. Estas in Latin means Summer which is the name of his daughter.
Luke O’Connell came back last week to have his lettering filled in so now he has a completed tattoo on his ribs and is onto planning his next one.
I have also tattooed Gavin again – finally! I draw up a sugar skull design for him a few weeks ago but only just found the time to get him under the needle again. We did it quite late in the day and so didn’t try to get a decent photo of it straight away and so here is one from a distance. A close up photo will go up once it’s healed.
Jess Foreman is going to be back in the tattoo chair at some point this week for two swallows extending her arm piece, one pink and one blue and next weekend is looking pretty busy with a few other tattoos lined up.
Until then I leave you with this great quote as heard on Being Erica: Labels are for coke cans, not people!
Today Joanna came round to have her shoulder tattoo shaded and some old stars on her wrist re-touched. It’s been nice using my new tattoo furniture layout, we had six people in here today – including me and Joanna – while tattooing, with enough room for me to work and everyone else to watch TV comfortably.
Here is the final tattoo on Joanna:
On other notes:
Gavin has been working on his painted skateboard which has a black background and an orange Koi on it. It’s a nice colour contrast to my zombie girls on white and I’m looking forward to getting it up on the wall.
I also taught myself how to draw skulls in the week and put together a drawing of a Mexican sugar skull which will eventually be tattooed onto Gavin’s leg to start his leg piece, sleeve… or sock? Hopefully we will be able to find the time for that this week although I’m booked in to having my next tattoo done on Tuesday morning so I’m not sure how I will feel while it’s healing.
Well Mikki Avery is heading over tomorrow to work on her butterfly (name cover-up) so until then over and out.
…AGAIN
I can sort of remember what I’ve been up to but the order – that’s another thing! Where has the time gone? The heater has been brought out and Christmas adverts are already filling our TV screens – that’s just crazy talk!
Around the last time I posted I had tattooed my mum’s eyebrows, tattooed some more, painted a bit and bought more tattoo equipment. Let’s try and organise everything and get it into this post in an orderly and organised fashion ;)
Tattooing my mom’s eyebrows – Say what?!
My mother, Jill (Gillian) Leavey, hasn’t had eyebrows since she was in her twenties when her best friend plucked them all out pretty much! This was before I was born so I really have never seen my mom with eyebrows much thicker than a millimetre. As soon as my mom knew I was tattooing she said the next time she came over to the UK I was to tattoo her eyebrows back on like her friends have had done over in Spain. Of course this was an interesting request – and rather scary – but something I was going to have a go at. I wasn’t going to give up the chance to tattoo my mother let alone someone’s face and I knew she would love me no matter what happened lol.
She ended up being quite a pain during the process making such a noise unlike any one else I’ve tattooed before but we laugh about it now and I take the micky out of her at every opportunity – that’s what you do with family so I’m making the most of it!
Here are the photos, I’m still waiting for the healed after photos but she says that her eyebrows are a little lighter but not much different overall.
Paintings of late
A few months ago I painted a picture of my best friend Victoria Holden-Tuffs from a photo taken when she was eight months pregnant, just before she was about to drop. I am waiting to get a decent photo of it before I put one up so watch this space.
I have added to my wall murals:
and I have also painted the final painting in the ‘My Super Heroes’ set but I want to make some changes to it so it needs to dry and be re-touched before there will be any photos of it going online.
Tattoos
I completed the tattoo on Laura Mccullough’s side a few weeks ago:
I started a tattoo of a dragon ouroboros on Judas James Wright’s arm and a quote on Luke O’connell ribs. I’ll put up the photos when they are completed.
I also completed the outline on Carl Turner – Mikki Avery’s boyfriend’s back of a large tribal red dragon.
Finally over two sessions I completed Jess Foreman’s pin-up girl tattoo on her lower back which was a design she painted a few years ago and had wanted tattooed since.
Last Sunday I forced myself out of bed at 4:30am to do a bootsale and raised enough money to buy a portable tattoo bed to go with the arm rest I bought thanks to the donations from Laura Mccullough. So now I have almost everything I need to work in a little more comfort and I hope it also helps everyone relax more while I put them in pain.
On a low note one of my microdermal anchors in my cheek rejected after just over a year and so I had to have it cut out with a knife yesterday – yes a knife! I didn’t feel a thing though which was great and there isn’t much of a mark left behind, it’s still a shame though. Only one left now :(
To cheer myself up tomorrow I am booking myself in to have two tattoos done by Nathanial Scutt at Wizard of Ink in Brighton over the next few weeks. You’ll just have to wait and see what they are going to be and where because my mother is going to pull a hissy fit that I’m having more tattoos done – well really what does she expect! – Sorry mom, love you :)
By for now.
This evening Charlotte Winsor came round with Vickie Jenner to have her first tattoo etched onto her wrist. She created a design that incorporated her families initials along with the star sign of her grandmother who passed a few years ago.
When I was working on Vickie Charlotte was there for moral support while Vickie dealt the pain but both Charlotte and I kept laughing at Vickie’s funny reactions and her amusing swearing. Of course that meant that Vickie wanted to see how Charlotte liked it the other way around. Unfortunately for Vickie; Charlotte seemed to love every minute of it and even said she was enjoying the feeling. Oh well Vickie, you’ll just have to convince her to get something done on one of the other known painful spots so you can have your revenge.
As always the girls were lovely and a lot of fun, I look forward to their next go under the needle and there goes another notch on my bedpost for tattoo cherries taken!
