Tattoo TV

Lately there's been a lot of hate out for a certain tv show right now in the tattoo community. If you don't know which one it is I'm not going to tell you and advertise it for free. Basically it is irresponsibly perpetuating a LOT of misinformation and is promoting unsafe (unsterile) tattooing, basement scratchers, and full-on lying to people who want to become tattooers.

Anyway, so for those of you who love watching shows about tattoos, but are sick of all the bullshit things that are being produced by tv executives who haven't even been inside a real tattoo shop, here are a couple (realistic) alternatives, full of some of today's most prolific tattooers.

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1. Tattoo Age, on the Vice network. I can't believe some of the peoplc they got to talk on camera in this series. Not that I know them personally or anything, I just thought that some of these guys were little eccentric hermits. Anyway, here's Dan Santoro in part one of three, of the first episode.

See more here. 

2. Marcus Kuhn's The Gypsy Gentleman. Here's episode one, featuring Thomas Hooper and Virginia Elwood. I believe the show tours around and visits some of the best tattooers in the world.

The Gypsy Gentleman - Episode 01: New York City from Marcus Kuhn on Vimeo.

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Also on the topic of weird tattoo phenonmenons in this technological age...check this out: the world's first animated tattoo. I don't even....

Via Needles and Sins, a cool tattoo blog. I follow them on twitter with the Tattoo Zoo account, they've always got something interesting and relevant to say.

And, if you want more, Tattoo Artist Magazine, in blog form, has a list of a bunch of other online resources that are tattooer owned and run. So much better than "check out my ink dot com" or whatever. Click here to go there. Don't support people leeching off an already saturated and over-hyped market. Let tattooing go back where it should be. Do I sound like a grassroots hippie yet?

a focal mishap

Things I Love Thursday!

Dew on a flower in the morning sunshine. What? It's pretty!

I'm also loving:

The eight most terrifying diets in the animal kingdom.

What I would probably spend $13, 413. 30 on if I were a millionaire. 

That can be my next tweet. 

6 Famous Figures You Only Know By Their Insulting Nicknames.

Catalog Living - a look into the lives of the people who lives in catalogs. Related: What If You Lived at Ikea?

This underwater restaurant-cum-hotel room. I die. I'd be so afraid to sleep in there, but love it at the same time. 

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This beautiful suitcase. 

Too bad it's sold. :(

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Fractal aesthetics.

Lauren's post on "Hum"s outfits. Man that guy has style! 

Manhole cover pillows.  

This elaborate infographic on the history of science fiction. 

Tobias Kruse's photography.  

Grilled Cheese Academy. Yes, it is as yummy as it sounds.

Awful Library Books. 

100 logos in 100 days. Very imaginative, haha! 

How to make organically shaped gears. I don't really know what you'd use them for but they look cool. 

Ten Abandoned Cities, aka Ten Places I Want to Visit!

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This comic made me laugh the other day:

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I also love...

This video of an epic battle between a kitten and some apples on a bed. 

This letter "Homer Simpson" wrote to Will and Kate to attend a Simpsons table reading.

Conspiracy theories/truths (?) about what images are hidden in cartoons.

This list of the 100 all-time greatest toys. 

Sleazy male mating rituals in the animal kingdom. 

Smithsonian Wild: 206340 random photos caught by motion sensor cameras around the world. 

The 'Japonizer': a traditional Japanese background generator. Great for Twitter or whatever.

These amazing facebook status puns. 

That there's going to be a new Marilyn Manson documentary...and Shia LaBoeuf is going to help make it. What the?

4 Pugs doing the head tilt! HAHAHAHA

And last but not least...

Brian Dettmer's book carvings. Oh, the time he must have spent on these! I can't even process what I'm looking at here. Love!

For like, a million more, click here. I love the photos of the works in progress!

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What do you love this week? Leave me a link and I'll come check it out!

Retracting my previous statement.

The other day when I mentioned that some pretty roses just basically magically appeared in our front yard after I said something about liking two-tone roses...well that was only my side of the story. Ryan was all bummed that I made it sound like he just ran out to the full-grown-roses store or something. The truth is, he's been working on our front little garden for weeks.

And to my unobservant brown-thumbed self, it was like magic. All of a sudden, one day pretty roses were everywhere. Because I don't really even know what's involved in making a rose survive.

I'd like to apologise to you, mister Ryan, for not recognizing all the hard work you put into the yard.

Just so you all know how crazy beautiful these flowers are, I didn't do anything to the pictures. No cropping, no color saturation tricks, nothing. They look surreal when you're walking up to our house, like somebody colored on them with hi-lighters or something.

lately I've been...very 'metal' apparently

Reading: I am just about to start Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. I've started this book twice and never got past the first twenty pages, but I just keep hearing how amazing it gets, so I'm going to try again. It's one of those twenty pound tomes that I love so dearly, because it'll last me more than a weekend, you know? Another really good huge-ass book is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark.FYI.

Oh, and I did a guest post over at Desirous of Everything on ten books I am loving right now, so check those out as well! I think I did pretty good.

Watching: Ryan and I watched the last season of Dexter in three days this week. It was awesome.We watched two episodes of The Yard, a show about a school yard. It's really good actually...and they make little kids swear in it, which is always funny to me. We ALSO started watching the first episode of Deadwood but I got way too bored, so we shut it off. Because I wouldn't stop whining. I just don't care about whores and land rights and shooting guns and goldrushes apparently.

Listening: This is weird, but I can't stop listening to the song Limo Wreck by Soundgarden lately. Like, it's basically on repeat. Which is a strange choice, I know. I just randomly put the Superunknown album on one day a few weeks ago and got all obsessed with this song.

I am also listening to Priestess like crazy lately. They're really catchy and great and fun to listen to. Here are some examples:

Eating: Peanut butter and sliced dill pickles on toast. It's excellent hangover breakfast material if you don't have time for a greasy brunch.

Loving: Visiting with my dad and step-mom who are spending time here/on Saltspring Island/in Seattle this week. They're fun. And now that I'm an adult I'm not scared of my step-mom's sarcastic sense of humor...I actually get the jokes! (haha)

And the intro to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. We pre-screen movies to see if they're suitable for Ryan's kids when they're away and they've seen some commercials of ATHF on the cartoon channels...um...I don't think they're ready for it. But anyway, the intro. I would DIE if they played this at a movie and I wasn't expecting it. It's so awesome. But I can't figure out what the green singer guy is.

Looking forward to: the Slayer show in a couple weeks. Actually I'm kind of scared, to be honest. I'm going by myself and I got a floor ticket. I may just get to the front and hold on for dear life. That seems like the safest plan.

You know that thing where someone buys your dog a bandanna?

Yep. I went there. I mean, what else was I supposed to do?

Look what Ryan grew!

Noooovaaaa innn Spaaaaace!

 via

Thanks, picnik.com, for having awesome outer-space stuff you can overlay onto photographs! 

Hahaha, too much fun. I made the second one my facebook profile picture. Rad.

I'm thinking about doing another outer space post soon, like this one. What do you think?

macro dandelions plus a little fashion advice

Look in the mirror at more than one angle. 

I can't believe I have to tell people this. It's like, hey, you're a three dimensional being. The parts you can see in the mirror straight on are only part of the whole! Specifically, when you style your hair, you need to look at the back and sides, and um...not use ugly hair accessories.

So many times I see immaculately dressed women, who *almost* look nice and classy, except for that dollar store hot pink hair elastic holding their pony tail on top of their head. If you must use cheap elastics or (shudder) scrunchies for some reason, at least make them the same color as your hair. And unless you want to look like a teenaged wallflower, just say no to these:

via 


That is all. Have a good weekend!

Things I Love Thursday!

I love...the kind of art that is constantly being erased and re-built.

I'm also loving...

This TED talk on Authentic Creativity vs Karaoke Culture. (1 hour long) His speaking style is a little choppy, but he makes really good points. Maybe listen to it while you're making something original, it'll make you feel good about yourself, haha. 

Krisatomic's photos of Iceland from above. 

IRL Barbie and Ken fashion photos.

A dapper day at Disneyland sure sounds fancy.  Also fancy in Disneyland? These color photographs Tim Haack discovered of models posing in Disneyland for a 1961 issue of Midwest Magazine. Here are my three favorites: 

click here for more

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I'm also loving:

This nature video on how the seahorse got its shape.

The Eternal Shame of  Your First Online Handle. Mine was Freakgirl21 hahahaha! WHYYYY? 

Travel hacking cartel - seems like a great resource for those traveling on a budget. Also, HelpX. Cool!

This black macaque's self-portrats! Look at its nerd teeth, so cute! 

I love this article on how to talk to little girls.

This snoring seal. Ha!  

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These really cool sketches by Hugo Lugo. (click for slightly larger view)

Via My Modern Met.

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I don't normally post stuff from my workplace, but it's so exciting to have guest artists, and Mikel Johnson is in town again, working at Tattoo Zoo! 

Hotels with a macabre past. 

This is such a great idea, and should be implemented in every workplace, especially in creative fields.

Guest posting over at Erin's blog last week was fun. Do you want to read about my trip to Oaxaca during Dia de Muertos in '07? With lots of cool photos and videos? Click here.

Save the pink bathroom. A pledge to...save...pink bathrooms.  

The idea of a technology-free digital-detox vacation. 

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This photo of the real loch ness monster Nessy. 

Found via The Whoa blog.

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The teenager audio test on The Oatmeal. Maybe because I can still hear it, haha.

Halt, hammerzeit.

A cartoon that was censored in China for having political overtones. It also has cool music. Make sure you read the description underneath the video. Caution: exploding baby bunny faces and other cartoon violence.

This video of an adorable chipmunk cleaning itself in slow motion! 

The Jazz-Age Lawn Party. So cute!

This sign, you could call it a 'sign of the times'.  

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And last but not least...

These REALLY cool book covers in the 'Become Someone Else' campaign. I assume it's to promote reading.

Bonus: This riddle: What is a word made up of 4 letters, yet is also made up of 3. Although is written with 8 letters, and then with 4. Rarely consists of 6, and never is written with 5.

---What are you loving this week?---

Add a link here and I'll come check it out! 

Taking care of a bulldog.

The thing about bulldogs is they are sensitive little muffins. They look all tough but you have to be careful. They have breathing issues, skin issues, short life spans, tummy issues, they can't swim, they overheat easily, they get foot problems if you don't cut their toenails, you have to bathe them yourself ... and more! Tank's quite a little princess sometimes. He loves the blow-dryer after he gets a bath though which is the cutest thing ever.

In the summer heat, Bulldogs will literally choke to death on their own saliva if they pant too much. Can you believe it? That would be an extreme case, obviously, but I'm still careful. I still don't want him to get doggie heat-stroke, so our walks have to be either early in the morning or late at night during the summer.

This morning I got up a little late, um, 8am late, so our walk didn't happen until it was kind of hot out. I cut it short and brought sir-pants-a-lot home to his water dish pretty quickly. This is him on our cool kitchen floor after he had a big drink.

And, I mean, it's not like we were running around, this was from walking at what I would consider a pretty slow pace. It still probably took him half an hour of lying on the floor, drinking water and panting to get back to normal.

So, in conclusion, if you find yourself taking care of a bulldog for any amount of time, please do your research and be aware of all their issues. As far as doggies go, they take a lot of work and care. But it's worth it, they're the best dogs in the world, I swear.