one week away...

Had a good day at the shop today.

Had a few walk-ins and got to work with my mentors. I rarely get to work with both of them so I got to watch both of them work all day. Although I was busy with customers and whatnot most of the day, in my downtime I got to watch Bill work on this awesome phoenix on an arborist's ribs and Anna worked on this sweet 1/2 sleeve of lotus blossoms and hibiscus. It makes me miss Hawaii just watching her tattoo those flowers.

I'm pretty bummed that I haven't done any real "art" lately. Did a few sketches, but nothing noteworthy. I guess i've been stressing about leaving for Hawaii... leaving my boyfriend of almost 2 years..... leaving my family and friends. it's just weird. i've spent the last 3.5 yrs of my life apprenticing and now i have to leave. yes, its a wonderful opportunity. yes, who in their right mind would turn down an opportunity like this. i hope that i get to spend time one on one with them.

i'll be gone for 3 months. after not tattooing for 3.5 years, i'm leaving my homeland to tattoo in hawaii, away from everything. i'm so excited that i don't think it truly hit me until now. all this hard work has finally paid off! now i have to man up and let them know that i learned something. this is the true test.... right? 

exactly one week from today i will be in another time zone.

i'll post some art within the next few days i promise.

-T

Final countdown!

So I have two weeks left before heading to Hawaii to start tattooing. In the meantime I have been busting my ass at the shop and practicing. Here are a few things I've done on the skin....

This one was for a friend/coworker at the shop who gave me the idea for this one.  This was more fun than anything. I strapped the skin to a friend of mine and worked on this all day. Once I put in the color though it started staining the skin and made the thing look super muddy. After that I'm sticking to black and grey for this stuff.

This is one I'm working on for my Mom, naturally. This one was much for fun because I could actually see what I was doing. Also tried out this Infinite Irons machine a friend gave me to use... its still weird tattooing this stuff, but its really helping me with getting used to the weight of the machine for hours on end.

I'm really stoked to get out of Philly for a while and start tattooing. These three years have brought me to this point.

I will post on here more while I am away, letting everyone see the progress as I go along. I will be in Hawaii tattooing at Skin Deep in Waikiki from Sept 15- til the first week in December.

Until next time......
\-Tina