I'm a strong believer in the need for balance.  Whether it be work, play, family, friends, hobbies, alone time, loud or quiet... we all need to practice and perfect balancing these things and much more.  Well, taking the shop off of the scale has creating a little teeter totter where different things can be placed and moved around to readjust and re-balance... and it's been good. For the past couple of years I've been putting forth a lot of weekend warrior effort towards tattooing, with a strong push during the last six months when LHV was open.  I think the first few weeks of 2013 have given us a chance to catch our breath a bit.

The addition of Huckleberry to our family has been a good reminder of the need to balance, since he needs so much loving and attention!  He also needs exercise, which is something that Lord knows we ALL need on our scales.  On Saturday, me and my bro hit the courts for the first time in a while and got in a good sweat.  That was followed by a good lunch with the family and a trip to the dog park at the beach with the in-laws... which meant Huck got to spend some time with cousin Aspen! 

After that, my bro must've been in a mood for a little pain, so he finished up his 2nd session on the Philippine Owl on himself. Check out the difference between the sessions...

One more session should do it!

The wife and I are currently a little dog crazy, so today we treated ourselves and Huckleberry to some free entertainment and exercise at another great dog park in the area.  It's pretty fun getting to know these creatures.

As nice as the breather has been, I need to get back to work and draw, paint, draw, and draw.  Not that I've been completely unproductive... just that I feel I can and should produce more.  I have a full sleeve coming up that rescheduled to next weekend... definitely  looking forward to that.  I also drew up this little piece for my dad that I'm pretty happy about...

I've got a few other things in various stages of completion that aren't quite ready for pics.  Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

Bernard has been working on a triple Philippine Eagle tattoo on a leg that he's had to pause on since his client actually went back to the homeland.  I wonder if any eagles tried mating with his leg.  Either way, he should return soon and get those two "in progress" eagles completed to tie it all together.  Check it out...

Happy New Year!

I guess the Mayan's were wrong.  Or perhaps, modern day man was wrong?!  Tough one.  Nevertheless, here we are and human life on Earth goes on.  It's a beautiful thing.

This song from one of my favorite skate vids has a nice perspective on life... check it out, if you're interested (I liked the lyrics version better than the video version on youtube.  Bummed they don't have the skate vid version):

A father and son got semi-matching tattoos in memory of their father/grandfather, Bud, who passed away last year.  I also did a semi-matching tattoo last year on their nephew/cousin (which I will update, if I can locate the pic).  Folks are often asked the significance of their tattoos, and this is a good one.  I hope they don't mind me sharing, but their inspiration comes from Bud himself decades prior... when he hand poked the same semi-maching tattoo on himself in the 7th grade.  Awesome.  Here are his grandson's and son's versions:

This one has been on hold for a while and we finally found the time change it from paper to skin.  It's amazing how my client decided to change the location and the same design just so happened to fit the new spot perfectly.  Very pleased with the placement and the first session of lines and black and gray.  I'm excited for colors... it'll definitely give it a little pop.  By the way, my client asked for a girlier koi, so I obliged.

No girliness in this next one.  Here's a little sneak peak of my latest draft of a battling tiger and dragon full sleeve coming up soon.  Needless to say, I'm antsy.  I have a couple weeks to keep improving it, but I'm happy with the progress.

I'd love to do more like this or perhaps some good ol' American Traditional would be fun too.  I guess to me, it's all fun!  Let's do it.  Contact me!

Thanks for reading.