And now, I know.

It makes me feel warm and fuzzy to get comments like "*ahem* you have not posted anything since last weekend *ahem*" LOL

OK. So, here's what I've learned. I am much better at giving and receiving tattoos than I am at letting very large ones heal on my own body. And that's kind of embarrassing.

I've been so consumed with this thing, so wanting it to heal JUST RIGHT.... that I over moisturized it. Last night I found myself on the bathroom floor, kneeling down, head between my legs, unable to move, nearly passed out from lightheadedness and why? Because I was freaking out- obsessing over it thinking it was getting infected and that I was too stupid to know (forget about the fact that Mike checks it out daily, several times), and that it would either be ruined as a result or my arm would have to be amputated, and that I was a huge failure as a tattoo artist. Can we say 'get myself all worked up' much?

So, I make my way finally to the bedroom and lay down, barely able to inform Mike of my situation. All weak, shaking, terrified. Pathetic! LOL. Due to being all worked up, I lay awake until 1:15am when I finally take some nyquil. Antihistamines, advil-type stuff and sleep inducing goop all in one. Thank you, Nyquil. You are wonderful. I drift to sleep thinking if it's not improved in the morning that I'd either go straight to a Dr. or at the very least, the nursing department here at work (since the walk in clinic is literally right next door to the building I work in, if they said go see a Dr. I'd just walk there). So I get up, my arm is not as freakish. A big relief. While at work today I decide to google overmoisturize tattoo. Ya know, it's like noone talks about it. At least, I've never heard it mentioned before.

Too much goop (moisturizer, A&D, whatever) suffocates the tattoo and liquefies any repairing tissue that may have formed. THAT is what was freaking me out- gooey scabs! To top it off, these gooey scabs formed super hard big scabs while I slept all week. I saw no other signs of infection. I mean, there's some slightly red shading around 2 areas of the whole thing, but, that is completely normal from what I have experienced in all my other tattoos healing up. So I was pretty confused and full of panic. What I've realized is that I was not only using too much goop, but too many kinds. I started experimenting with something that a friend gave me that's from Greece that boasts wonderful healing properties for tattoos. OK stupid to do on a tattoo of this size. I was just in a fit wanting it to heal up gorgeous. After a few days of that, I switched to Curel as per Pat Fish. Been using that pretty much exclusively, except yesterday started using A&D again in some places.

So what to do now? Let it dry heal, with maaaybe some ointment once or max twice a day. Keep a super close eye on the scabs, making sure that none of them get ripped off prematurely (as that'd pull the ink right out leaving the tattoo blotchy).

SO. Fun stuff. I'm feeling pretty stupid BUT.... I certainly am learning a LOT. I've never had a tattoo anywhere even REMOTELY this big. So, it's new to me for certain. Mike had a big one recently done, a huge dragon on his thigh that I drew up. But, wearing pants all day, he didn't have much change to obsess over it, over moisturize it, and the friction of his pants probably helped the scabbing/healing to top it off.

Other than dealing (not so well, mostly) with my tattoo healing, this week has been full of resting, keeping my arm above my heart, typing with one hand, LOL... OH right that's all about the tatt. I've also been readying my room, setting up for tattooing. I am now officially OUT OF ROOM for all my stuff, even after getting rid of a bunch. We've got a garage packed with stuff waiting for people to pick up. I mean we're giving away GOOD furniture, come get it, peoplez! LOL!! I have my massage table all set up, my station ready to go, supplies stored neatly and cleanly away. I need to get a chair reupholstered, replace the futon or recover it at least, and find a place for my alter wares. OH and I need to get my hands on a light table. That reminds me, my bday is coming up. I think I'll email my Dad since he wants to know what I want. Perfect! :-)

I would be tattooing by now if it weren't for my screwing up my healing time with obsessing. LOL But, no worries. I've got an appt for next Thursday, and a consultation with another person being schedule for Mon or Tues. Plus, all sorts of inquiries. So, life is good. Esp on the big tattoo healing side (until the itching comes... oye! LOL)

oh man, school's almost done!!! aaahh!!! I'm all emotional.

OK. SO. Wow. My last freaking day. It almost makes me tear up. Although I am PMSing so that probably has a lot to do with it, hah! Speaking of, I almost totally went off on Lisa's partner's daughter at the very end of the day at the shop last night. Was never introduced to her, and she's been there all week, so I don't know her name. I refer to her as Bristol Pailn. :lmao Because she's 19, in the Navy, freshly pregnant, and is a Bush fan. Her dad is a racist Bush fan, too. (Fun times :um) Anywayz, yeah. She's been starring at me ALL FREAKING WEEK and I was finally able to just ignore it. Last night there were 9 of us standing around at the shop, Jane and Matt in conversation make a few comments about pennies. Bristol Palin says "they're talking about getting rid of pennies". I chime in saying they've been talking about that for years. Bristol says Obama was just talking about that this morning and then suddenly turns fucking psycho and for the FIRST TIME, ALL WEEK, looks me straight in the eye, bobs her head all around, raises her hand (like, 'talk to the hand') and says all loud and angry "OH, but Obama's going to "Change the World". This from a pregnant teenager who likes George Bush.

Now you see, I'm not a big fan of such a situation. :lol That, on top of PMS.... :um Well let's just say it could have gotten ugly. I was so taken back. I just said "Geeze, don't be such a narrowminded, angry Republican." There was enough going on in this small circle of 9 people that noone seemed to hear me. A smart little voice in my head said "Geri, just leave. JUST. LEAVE." So I did. I mean, there's no arguing with stupid.

Why did I just put that all into my blog? Because it's my blog, and I can. And I've been dealing with Lisa's partner, Jeff, fairly well the past 2 weeks, knowing that he's a war happy republican (hell he's got a bumper sticker that says "Give war a chance") (gag), and hearing that he doesn't like black people. Lisa, on the other hand, is FAR more intelligent than to let anything, I mean ANYTHING, but positivity radiate from her. And it's sincere, genuine. She's one of a kind. I love her to pieces. Does she agree with Jeff on politics and such? I don't know, because she's smart enough to avoid all that crap. We had a brief conversation early last week and I would venture a guess that she is far more middle of the road, a nice blend of conservative and liberal. Which is ideal

SO, back to tattooing bliss reporting :)

Yesterday I didn't post much because man, long day of tattooing, then a couple hours of getting tattooed followed by dragging Matt out with us to Dunzys for a drink or 2 and late dinner.... the 4 of us just hit the hay soon as we walked in the door. Four of us you say? Yeah man, dig this- one of Lisa's very very first students, long before she even got this gorgeous studio she now holds school in, visited for an overnight. Her name is Jane and she's on the Jersey shore. I have her business card, I'll link to her stuff soon. She is SUCH a cool chick!!! She works at 2 shops, and her work is amazingly tight and fresh. She brought her portfolio to share. She was SOO helpful; she hung out at the shop all day yesterday and gave us all pointers and was super impressed with our work. Both Wed night and last night she had dinner with us a Dunzy's and we talked shop with her 99% of the time. She was soooo sharing of anything we asked, from the technicals to the human side of it all to anything in between. MAN what a blessing!!!! I mean right?? :)

So, Wed I did 2 tatts. One was this crazy skull thing on this guy's left pectoral. One big skull with 4 little ones, with flames, black and grey. I suggested the eyes be red and then added yellow pupils, telling him we could just go over that in red if he didn't like it. He loved it! Yay! I was very happy with how it turned out:

The other one was this boring tribal piece. But, the dude had drawn it up himself, as he drew all the other tribal on his arm and he drew it to match. Plus he has it all filled in with color instead of black, so at least there was that. OH and he had me write in his daughter's name. Lisa was going to do it but she was all super busy, so I was like, well let me give it a try (in pen) and see if you like it. I wrote it out and he said "That's it! Go for it!" :) So that was a cool festive little thing. :) Here's the tatt:

Yesterday I only did one tattoo. :( It took me almost 4 hours. It took me an hour just to prep this guy though, between the stenciling of the drawing he brought in, to the hair cut and shave I did on his skull (I am not kidding. I had to clear out a huge section of inch long hair! I mean what do people THINK when they pull that? :lol), and drawing in parts of the drawing that were just not there. It was fun tattooing a skull, I mean literally tattooing on someone's head. This is the same guy who I thought was returning on Wed but instead came in yesterday, he's the guy who I tattooed a vampire chick on his thigh last week in black and grey. Here's what I did yesterday, it measures about a foot long (from my fingertips to my elbow bottom):

Cross your fingers and ask the Universe to pllleeeease have Matt be able to finish the phoenix. :) I want to revisit the school... but not till June on our trip up to New England. Otherwise it's a return visit for him to finish- 13 hours of driving in a weekend... oye. kwim? Lisa's supposed to tattoo me today, too, but the priority is for the phoenix to get done. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE a tatt from Lisa. Her specialty is animals and that's what I want. If I could have tatts from both of them, I could have show and tell for people, and I LOVE to talk about this school, about Lisa, Matt, and how motivating it all is. Lisa raged against the outdated norm, followed her own bliss, and if she's not inspiring, well, noone is. :)

OK.
Last day, coming up. I'm so sad, so excited, so happy. And teary! :lol Damn PMS.

Inauguration Day Tattooing Bliss!

Quarter till 5 my eyes just open and viola. I'm up. Oye. It's gonna be a LOOOONG. DAY. I have 2 clients coming in today that I tattooed last week. I'm stoked because the first one is John and OH I have a such a cute little crush on him HEH. (nice Jewish Irish boy from NYC/Jersey area with that cute little accent). #2 is dude who I did the black and grey vampire type chick on. He's got a huge (from the way he described it) back piece he wants done. THEN, after that, the Pain Begins- my arm sleeve gets started. I'm gonna sleep like the dead tonight

SO, yesterday I did 2 tatts. What was cool was I was able to guess how long they'd take. Well, both I figured 2 hours. The first one, the lizard, took 1 hour 45 min. The 2nd one, butterfly wings on both feet, took just over 2 hours. It's nice to be able to figure how long something will take me. Before I just had no freaking clue. I suppose it's true with everything in life you do, once you do it enough you can figure how long it should take.

I loved both tatts yesterday. From the choice, the colors we picked out and the locations.

The first one was the lizard:



The tail goes over his shoulder and down something like 3 or 4 inches. I am perfectly happy with this tattoo- it might be my favorite one yet, besides that HD I did on Gary's left wrist. I tell ya, I don't know what it is about that one. I just love it. Anywayz, Lizard guy was a total sweetheart. Hot damn I love tattooing. It's the perfect blend of art and people.

The 2nd one was also very cool. I'm typically not a fan of tattoos on feet. Not sure why...? I'm starting to change my mind on that I think. Chica was totally cool, and had a great sense of humor and was cracking me up the whole time. While I was really really happy with how it came out, later when I saw it online there's a major flaw I noticed. Nothing crazy, it's just they do not match up perfectly with the black shading... see how the right foot (our left as we look at it) is lacking some of the thick black on the inner bottom wing and even is a bit thinner up top? Noone noticed this. 7 people looked at it when it was done and not one of us saw it. I must improve on this. But, otherwise it's groovy. And that's a simple touch up, say, if she were to come back to me (or to the school) it'd take 15 min start to finish (what with setting up for it and all).



Again, it's a bummer that pics are taken right smack after the tatts are done... since this butterfly will have gorgeous brilliant colors once it starts to heal. For now it's all blended with blood and plasma. But, of course, this is just a part of it all. You can't have people come back in a few days just to get a better picture

At the end of the day, Matt took the phoenix pic I like for my arm sleeve and hand drew it on my arm.

I am totally stoked for this, and was reaaaally bummed he could not start it last night as planned. I thought a phoenix tattoo the day Bush leaves office and Obama and family take control would just be PERFECT. That on top of all the other reasons I want this was just too awesome. But Matt had an unexpected family thing, so it's all good. Family First. Amen, my peeps. Amen.

OH, here's the pic I gave him for the phoenix I like:

Last night I ordered business cards. Shannan and Alyssa, don't be pissed! HEH. I really wanted some RIGHT AWAY and I will take Alyssa up on her offer to make them for me once I have a tattoo that really WOWS me enough to put on a business card. I'm going to hand them out like government cheese, hah, so I'm sure they'll go fast enough. :) For now, it has the Modigliani Seated Nude that I did in oil pastels (my favorite painting EVER). On the back it has appt time info and such.

And oh, some of you might notice that I'm using my maiden name.... I had always seriously thought that should I ever make a living off of my art (be it writing or some form of studio art), that I'd use my maiden name. Because that is where I come from, it is my heritage and my family and who I am at the core. As I was filling out the information to create these cards, I found that I could not decide! SO in the end, I decided that Slitzer is not only far easier to say, it's easier to remember how to spell so that people can Google me. Know what I mean? I am explaining myself because I don't want anyone out there to ever think it's some sort of slight on Mike (is that the right word? Slight? Ya know, like slap on the face sort of thing). It's TOTALLY not. It's something I've always thought I'd do way before I even met Mike and in the end it makes sense due to pronunciation and spelling. I love my babydoll with ALL of my heart. But you all should know this by now, heh. :)

OK.
Let's Party!

Sleepy bliss Monday haha

Gary came back into the shop today and the Buddha looks Awesome. The beads really stand out (they're green), and all the colors just pop. It's such a festive tattoo :lol

This morning we learned all about how to tune tattoo machines. It was really awesome, great information. I was bummed though... because Matt was going to tune my 2 machines while he taught us but the fucking things take metric allen wrenches and I only have one that came with the kit which is only good for the three (yes, three!) parts of the tubes. :gaah But, all I need to do is find a hardware store and pick up a set, and I can tune them while I'm here and have Matt double check it all. :) Which I totally forgot about... after school we hit the grocery store and the liquor store (haha) and that was it.

Anywayz, I did 4 tattoos today, all simple. A Capricorn sign with a name below it on a girl's upper back which turned out well and the name I was happy with.... finally I am happy with a name I inked. The Chinese symbol for love on a girls shoulder, a cover up of a name that was a tribal design on a guy's shoulder and a skull on Gary's other wrist, hehehe. It's so cool- he's got the HD on one wrist I did and this skull on the other. :) I think he won't forget me. :) heh.

I'm pooped out.

OH!! OH OHOH!!!!! I'm (95% sure) going to get a sleeve on my left arm of a phoenix. Matt's going to do it, starting after class tomorrow. And I am set for Lisa to do a tiger stripe thing on my upper back, much in the way that the leopard spots are situated on Pixie's neck, see here: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=226538006&albumID=114770&imageID=1773238

I'll have to pay for the phoenix but not the tiger stripes one.

OK. Too spacey to write. Going to shower now. Need to place a big order for supplies, since Mike has like 50 people lined up for tattoos. With all the cost involved I will have to be charging most people soon after I get home. There are some people who will get free tatts, and some who will ALWAYS get free tatts. If I charge you, and you're a friend, it will not be full price and I am open to bartering. :)

Buddha belly bliss

Introducing Matt Tyszka. He's the assistant teacher, a really nice guy, funny. He was about to finish his masters in art education, 3 classes left, when Lisa approached him for the job a year ago. He's REALLY good at what he does, both tattooing and teaching.

Anywayz, here's what I watched for 6 hours yesterday.
Here's Matt in action tattooing Gary


the outline finished:


The finished product:


I am super happy I watched the whole time. Learned a LOT. Matt's a great teacher and Gary is the perfect client. :)

Bliss overflow. End of school week one.

So, today I got to do my first black and grey piece. I am happy with how it came out, although these types of pieces are hard to tell at first, as blood mixes with the ink making it look red, and distorting the shading, and the white highlights are hard to see. Luckily for me, this guy is coming back next Wed for a tattoo, a big back piece, and he wants me to do it, which is cool... but I'll get to see what this one looks like in a week! How sweet is that?? Here it is right after it was done and before we applied A&D, which is the point when all of the student tatt pics are taken. This guy's tatts are all black and grey (or at least most of them) and the one he wants next week is too, which is groovy- I hope I get to do it. On Monday we are going to learn all about fine tuning machines. Speaking of machines we got ours today. I can't wait to take it apart.

I'm going into the shop tomorrow; Matt invited us to come by if we wanted. Personally, I feel like I can't get enough, so I'm totally there. Matt has an appointment at 1pm for this guy Gary, the Teddybear I did the Harley "HD" wrist tattoo on. So I'll check that out, getting to watch, learn and hang out with some very excellent people. I mean right? Priceless. I'm so happy. :) Matt's totally awesome, his work is fantastic and he's a great teacher. And a totally nice guy.


The first tattoo I did today was a big couple of flowers on this girl's leg. This girl, Ashley, gave me full artistic go ahead with the coloring of the flowers. The shop was hopping, so I dove under radar quietly to experiment, heh. As I was working, I thought to myself, "Man, I really like this effect I'm getting", not thinking of what it might resemble or be called. Lisa comes by and said "Ohh, nice, I really like the watercolor effect." Well sweet! I love to do it! :) I used a magnum for the flower colors- deep maroon, pink, orange, and then a 5 round shader for the yellow highlights. I am THA-RILLED with this piece. On the flip side, I can point out several flaws, mostly with the outline. :( But then, she had us stencil in her daughter's name above it, and oh my goodness. I am just NOT good with names, and in my opinion it looked like crap. But, she was happy with it. Oh well. I'm going to take on more names so I can get them right.

OK

It's after 2am and I can't get to sleep. It's like I just don't want to but I do want to because I want to get up and get in some stretching, maybe a trip to the gym and some chill time before going to the shop. At this rate I it's a close call to fit it all in! Of course it doesn't help that the bar next door is crazy loud still. :(

update- I'm up at 6:30am. Perhaps I'll just give into my body's whacky business and have myself a lazy weekend, making being at the shop as much as I can my only worry. One of Lisa's clients, this really nice guy named Bob, got me a free week pass at Gold's here a couple days ago and I've yet to use it. He did that because I had asked about a gym before I even arrived. Now I feel like I'd let him down if I don't make it there, ya know? Oh well. Cross your fingers that I get back to sleep soon. :)

Inky Bliss happiness

Three tattoos today. The first was a tribal. Oh god, ok like it's only been 2 days, but man, I'm worthless for tattoos before noon. LOL It's "okay" only because he liked it and all that shit. But. It sucks! Ok so moving on. My 2nd of the day was an Awesome little Arizona desert design and I was ready to dive in to give it detail out the wazoo, right? Well half way in she's like "I have to leave soon". OH mygod. I'm not feeling wordy or I'd type out all the thoughts I had. So, what I did was bust out detail on the skull and then left the cactus, mesas and sun for just simple color. I was disappointed, because really I did not even have the time to really do up the skull/horns/feathers like I was envisioning. BUT, it really did turn out great and she was super stoked. She kept commenting on 2 things in particular, one that it was sooo much better then the other student tattoo she got prior, and two was that she was impressed with the wide variety of colors I busted out to do this. It was only like 11 colors. I was grateful that she appreciated it all. And she was friendly. And the placement of the tattoo covers a handful of very painful spots and she took it better than most. And she didn't move. It was all good. :) I got to squeeze in a 3rd tattoo, and it's only because Jeff and Lisa called up their good friend and loyal client Gary and he came right over. Him and his wife did. They're both very cool. Gary is like a sweet unassuming teddy bear. I did an "HD" with a diamond between the letters (for Harley Davidson) (yez he rides a Harley) :) I got to use a magnum for the first time on it, and I got to pick the color (I suggested he add some color instead of all black) and so of COURSE I picked orange haha. I was a nice student, heh, and asked first (after he said "whatever color you want is fine) what colors Harley Davidson used. He luckily said Black and Orange. SO YAY!!!!!

So, go check it out, my peeps! http://www.tattoosbylisa.net/schoolthisweek.html

You're tracking a life changing time here. Thanks for being a part of it. :)

I dig the Bliss. Day 3

Today I got to go first in picking out what tattoo to do. 10 am a bunch of people showed up for us newbies to draw permanent stuff on their bodies. Flash, at that! Well, lucky us, right? Anyway... my choices are this cute colorful, not realistic turtle, this little bolt that looks like it's going thru part of the skin and under it the words 'Born nuts' and this kinda large (like 7" maybe top to bottom?) colorful one with this topless chick standing on an 8 ball with flames and three playing cards behind her. So, do I go for the adorable colorful, yet easy turtle thing? Or do I go for the complicated (as in tons of straight lines, tons of fine lines, one great big circle) skanky chick on the 8 ball? "Dive in, Geri, and go for the challange!!" SO yep, I go for the skanky 8 ball chick. Oh. my. word. It took me almost 3 hours.

Dude would not sit still.
Dude had wrinkles on his hand area that were deep crevices like bad stretch marks.
Dude had scar tissue I was tattooing over.
I messed up the chick's arm. Her other arm looks too long and skinny but that was indeed the flash.

Well, in the end, the guy loved it. Said it was beautiful. Honestly, as much as I think it sucked (as in I screwed it up), it did look better than a lot of the tatts I saw on him, heh. So, I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I'm glad I went for it though. It really was a challange, especially this morning.

Why this morning? heh. Well, because you see, as I've mentioned, I'm cutting WAY back on my drinking. So last night though I had 1 or 2 more drinks than the most I usually have (which is 2). Woke up feeling hung over! It sucked!

So I survived messing up my stencil by getting it wet with rubbing alcohol, a design with a ton of straight lines, circles, 7 different colors plus black, a client with deep wrinkles, scar tissue and moved a lot all on a hangover (which by that time was not bad really, but you know how you just feel run down even after you feel better? yeah.) And he loved it. His wife loved it. All was good.

Off to lunch, I went back to the house for some chili I made last night, which I hardly could keep from wolfing down in record time because I could not WAIT to get back to do another!!! I get back and my next tatt, was a shamrock on fire with the words "Easy Money $" below it. The guy, John, was a total doll. Just adorable. And he sat still mostly. And he was great to chat with. And the outline style was new school which is great fun to do, and he gave me some artistic go ahead so I added more depth using color. The font was that.... heck I don't know what it's called. It's just L.A. Ghetto to me, haha, but it's popular in tatts. I can't usually read it though, LOL. I thought that kind of stuff (that crazy font) would be really hard but it totally wasn't. All you need is a good stencil. Heh.

John's friend, Terry, got a tattoo from Tara. OH. mygod. This girl is a born natural. I knew right away, when she first started her first tattoo yesterday, just watching her- she naturally takes her time, she gets a great grip on the person... she just does the right things naturally.. and her work is omg fantastic. She did a chameleon on Terry that I swear man is better than MANY MANY works from tattooists that have years under their belts. This girl puts them to shame. Right as I type the finished work of the chameleon is not yet up on the site ( http://www.tattoosbylisa.net/schoolthisweek.html ) but it was finished tonight, the finished pic will be posted in the morning. You just have got to check it out. You'll agree she rocks. And if you disagree? Well. Um. Yeah. You're wrong. LOL hehehe

Anyway though, this guy Terry. Oh my freaking lanta. Never ever in my LIFE have I heard a guy whine so much. For over 4 hours he sat for this tattoo, and everyone in the shop agreed that it was WELL worth the time and pain (near and on the elbow, a hella painful spot for a tattoo). But I mean this guy moaned- literally MOANED- like he was having a bowel movement after being constipated for 2 straight weeks. I heard him say "You mean you're not DONE in that spot yet???" and other such nonsense at least 20 times. I am not exaggerating. Near the end, Jen fixed up a spider web on someone else's elbow, and they barely winced. Ya know? I am juuust saying. The funnier thing is, this guy John comes to this school like all the time to get ink. AND he will go straight to Lisa for BIG tattoos. So it's not like he has not sat for long periods of time before for ink..... but each time he complains like a constipated republican.

haha that was funny. LOL

Tara and I can not WAIT to get back to the shop tomorrow and do more tattoos. We both feel like this is it. Neither of us are looking forward to going back to our day jobs. She's pressured to finish grad school in a subject she's just not interested in, while keeping her day job of course, and well I just have to get things lined up to make the transition and that will just take some time. Her and I went next door to Dunzy's for grub... yeah we have food here at the house but we both felt, without saying, that today was definitely a day to not cook for ourselves. It was a historical day in both of our lives. We have the fever! Jen did not come with us. From Hawaii, she is NOT digging this zero degree stuff. And our driveway (which is what leads directly up to the house) is NOTHING but ice. And her poor ears have not recovered from the very LONG trip here.

Meanwhile the weekend fast approaches. I can't believe I don't want it to! hah, that does not happen too often in one's life LOL. I was pretty stoked on going to Burlington VT, but, it seems that plans are brewing for festiveness that includes Matt, Tara, and the guys from the shop. And I am not so sure that I would be too smart to miss out on them. I mean we're bonding here, ya know? I just miss VT horribly. And have never spent time in Burlington. We shall see when the time comes.

Oh. One funny thing- I drop paper towels like nobody's business. LOL. I mean they just fall from my hands. For those unfamiliar, when working a tattoo the artist usually keeps in their non-inking hand a paper towel with some green soap, so as to wipe away the excess ink and such so we can see what we're doing as we go along. Well I just keep dropping them. Like *poof* ...*drop*. After about 1o times it became really damn funny to me. I think it's my "trademark" HAH... at least for now. :P

OK.
Sweet Dreams!!

Bliss following :) day 2

Today I did my first legit tattoo. Check it out! http://www.tattoosbylisa.net/schoolthisweek.html
That was on John- who has over 400 tattoos. He gets ink from students every month. He had me pick out the tatt I was to do on him. I mean, when will I ever ever EVER get that happen again? hehee!! I only had a few flash mags to pick from, and it was not my first or 2nd or 3rd choice. But being my first tattoo I had to do something more basic than what I had wanted to do. But I'm totally fine with that of course. I was far more nervous than I had expected to be. It's nothing like tattooing my beloved Jack or my sweet Mr. Wise, that's for sure! LOL :) Much more nerve wrecking.

Tomorrow it's nothing but tattooing different people. All day. Then the day after that and the day after that etc. Next week we talk about machine tuning and business running as well as tattooing people all day every day.

Well, I'm kinda feeling not as wordy as I have been. hah. It's going to snow tonight. I'm at the 12306 zip code if you're so inclined to check out upstate NY weather.

OK.

Until tomorrow....

Geri follows her bliss, day one.

I just don’t know where to begin.

OK. I’m just going to be random here. That’s my best plan for getting things written out, as I’m pretty darn tired and it’s been a great experience already.

Let’s see. First there’s my roommates, the other 2 girls in this class. Tara from NYC. 25, awesome, she looks like a pinup girl, loves Betty Paige and flower tattoos. Totally cool. Then Jen, 23, married, from Hawaii. Never saw snow before. And as we speak, the snowbanks on the driveway at the student house (which is pretty sweet) are taller than my Cherokee. So can you imagine? Teehee She’s got zero tattoos. She’s very artistic and does mad crazy stencil work. She’s got a great sense of humor. Tara and Jen both rock socks and I consider it a HUUGE blessing to find myself not only in a class as small as 3 total, but they’re chicas and they’re actually truly sincerely COOL.

OK then there’s the tattoo shop. Here’s a link by the way, check back because starting tomorrow she’ll have pics of us all. http://www.tattoosbylisa.net/ The shop is gorgeous. Warm, inviting, bright, clean, comfortable, not intimidating, sterile. Lisa is amazing. Her work is fanFREAKINGtastic. I totally actually forgot just how fucking good she is (from checking out her work online previously). Her tatts have been featured multiple times in tatt mags, and she has tons of awards and trophies. Anywayz, at this point in time she figures she’s taught about 100 students over the years (there’s about 10 classes a year, average of 3 to 5 max students a class), and she keeps in touch with nearly ALL of them. She was asked today by the guy she tattooed what percentage she reckons have actively persued and been successful in a carreer as tattoists… she figures about 95%. That’s great! Also, she says only 2 people she has taught have gone on from the class straight to an apprenticeship. One guy already had it set up and it was a good friend of his, so it was not an apprenticeship he had to pay for. The other person was very young, 18 I think, and just felt he needed more life experience in general before he did it on his own. Lisa said that she’d be very shocked (I don’t think she used the word ‘shocked’ but I’m tired and fuzzy memory) if, at the end of these 2 weeks, we’d feel we’d need an apprenticeship.

We’ll start tattooing real people on Wed. In fact, between the three of us girls tonight in conversation, we can’t remember if it’s Wed or tomorrow. We know we’re tattooing grapefruits tomorrow though. But come Wed we’ll be tattooing non-stop. There are 100’s of people on the waiting list to get ink from the students. I mean, say what?? Can you believe it? It used to be free but now it’s $5. I mean ya know ink costs big freaking money so I guess I can see why it’s appealing. Esp since Lisa is a very warm, trustworthy, VERY fucking talented person, and they fix up any student tatts that might need it. So hey, it’s no worse than dental school ya know?

Random mentions:
My bedroom faces the street. Kinda funny since our house in Frederick sits next to the highway. Will I never escape the sounds of cars going past? LOL

The house has radiator heat. I LOVE RADIATOR HEAT. I’m not joking.

The washing machine is broken. I can’t tell you how fucking lame that is. Ink gets everywhere.

The bar/resto next door is excellent. Good food, good clean Guinness, friendly people and staff. And it’s literally right smack next door.

I bought Guinness tonight- AT the grocery store. HAH! WOOT!

We went on an adventure into downtown Schenectady this morning as it was the only coffee shop (Ambition) that was not a starbucks or dunkin doughnuts that I found nearby on google. The coffee was FANTASTIC. I got a skim cappuccino large with 2 extra shots.

My bed is a twin bed. But ya know, between all the pillows I have at home, and my cat Chat who hogs up a ton of space, I don’t really notice that I’m not in a king sized bed hahaha. LOL

OH, and I also picked up some Patriots stuff – At the Grocery Store!!! I LOOOOOVED seeing it. I must have looked like a fiend, going thru all the Giants, Red Sox, Patriots paraphernalia haha. I was super stoked.

OH. And the best thing- at my workstation, the first thing I noticed was an EXCELLENT omen- mine was the only one that came with a RUBBER DUCKY!!! It's got tattoos and a pierced devil horn! hahaha! Rubber duckies are the shiznittle man. I was stoked.

OK. That’s all for now my freakish beloved peeps.

Sleep well.

Geri

I have pics, but the internet connection is super lame here. We're hooked into the bar next door. It drops a lot. Meh. so yeah I can't download them yet. Will do asap.

The Future

Hmm. Speaking of "The Future", I'm heading to Albany, NY on Sunday for tattoo school. "The Future" is one of my favorite Leonard Cohen albums. Speaking of, Mike and I have not been able to find a single one of our Leonard Cohen cd's and I have been JONESING for WEEKS now to hear him. Argh!

I've got all sorts of emotions going on. Finally I was able to spill some of it out to Mike over the last 2 nights. I'm scared that I will SUCK as a tattooist. I'll suck so bad I'll get a bad reputation. People will point and say "there goes the girl who can't ink a straight line" or "that's Geri, she totally screwed up my friend's tattoo". I'm also afraid that my creative spark is a farce, that I won't ever get it back. I'm afraid that I have whatever issue it is my step dad (the artist, musician) has- that is, he's been a reproductionist with his art; very few originals. But what he does paint is really fantastic. I'm afraid that going to get formal training will make me an outcast and no shop in town will want me. That's not too bad I suppose; in that I mean I can overcome that it will just take time, persistance, and maybe relocation. What would be super ideal is I own my own shop. I'd bring in the best artists I could get, and I'd learn from them. I'd have a very chill shop, no stupid loud music. I'd raise the bar for tattoo shop environment. I'd challange the norm.

But anyway.

Yeah, to sit and dream is one thing. To do the work to make it all happen is another and I'm just a-scared that I will fall on my face time after time after time and will suck as a tattooist. I should probably get a helmet. Or like that face mask hockey goalies wear.

And what's up with this PMS cramp thing I'm suffering? Well this is TMI for most of you. Aunt Flo hung out twice in one month, super cramps and all. And now just a few days after her last unwelcomed visit I have these horrid PMSy cramps. ARRGH!

We have a meeting suddenly here at work at 11am today. It's MANDATORY. I hope I don't get laid off. But then again that'd force me to catapult my life changes. So it would not suck completely, just a whole lot.

Work sucks today I'm sooooo not into it. I need more coffee. I'm switching coffee for alcohol. Not giving up the drink completely, I'm not into radical crap like that. But I am cutting waaay back and I am really liking the difference A LOT so far. :) But yeah. need coffee. See ya.