HIDDEN IN THE HEART OF LOS ANGELES

I JUST HAND LETTERED A SIGN FOR THE BALCONY HERE AT MY PRIVATE STUDIO. BEEN WANTING TO DO IT FOR A YEAR BUT HAD OTHER MORE IMPORTANT PROJECTS AT HAND BETTER LATE THAN NEVER... HAND LETTERING IS A LOST ART THAT IS BEING PRESERVED HERE IN THE HEART OF L.A. CLASSES ARE BEING HELD AT THE LOS ANGELES TRADE TECH..

BACK-N-TH-DAY

This pic was taken back in early 95. I had just moved to SJ to work for a shop called Tattoos-R-Us (yup). This is where I met Paco who had been already been working there for, I think, four or five months. The man in the middle? That’s Little G. For those who know, the guy needs no introduction. But if ya dont… Little G was the craziest mother fucker I ever had the pleasure of meeting, and I’m afraid to mention why. Think I’ll leave it at that for now.

Ah well, its past 3am and it doesnt look like I am going to be doing much sleeping tonight. Why dont we have Lil’ G story time.

G was a ronin biker (stories abound) who somehow ended up “owning” a tattoo shop (more stories).

He had notorious whips. One of them had bull horns attached to the front of the forks. G would ride around town on this thing with a chrome Nazi helmet and a swazi tshirt on.

One day he’s mashin’ around the city as the Nazi bull rider and some citizen was unlucky enough to decide and cross the street in his path. Of course G gooses it and runs the guy over. In the process the citizen gets impaled on the bull horns and the bike is dumped.

G is upset (bad thing). His ride just got wrecked and he cant manage to yank the screaming Joe off his bike. Probably because a bull horn is lodged in the guy's thigh bone. So G starts yelling at the guy, telling him to “quit fuckin’ screamin’, you’re still alive”.

Of course the cops arrive on the scene. One car carrying two officers who both happen to be (for lack of a better term) African American.

Oh, did I fail to mention? The guy screaming and bleeding on the ground with a Texas Longhorn in is leg is also… African American.

G is standing there in the middle of the street wearing chrome a Nazi helmet (yes with the spike on top) and a tshirt of equal proportion. Needless to say, he didnt bother with explanations.

Take a look at the picture of him again. Now imagine him in bad shape lying in a hospital bed, the result of a lot of blunt trauma.

Now, G didnt like hospitals. So as soon as he can stand he skips the joint and walks all the way back to the tattoo shop… in his hospital gown.

In walks a battered G and… this story goes on, and on, and on. I think its safe to assume you got the gist.

Rest in Peace boss.

TATTOO OPEN

CHECK OUT THIS PAINTING I DID A COUPLE YEARS AGO IT SITS AT THE LAST LAUGH. DEDICATED TO THE OLD SCHOOL TATTOOERS WHO LAID THE FOUNDATION FOR ME TO WALK ON. IF YOUR INTERESTED IN THE ORIGINAL CONTACT MY ASSISTANT asst@mistercartoon.com SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY PLEASE! IF NOT WE ALSO HAVE PRINTS YOU CAN GET OFF MY WEB STORE www.mistercartoon.com

REUNIONS

Big ups to Swype Nasty who retrieved these paintings stolen from the Analog workspace last year. Thanks mang!

Although we’re flattered that Mr. Shit For Brains liked the images enough to stuff them under his shirt, a word of advice… if you aspire to work as a tattooer you ought to consider not stealing from other tattooers. Its ridiculously self-evident. Are you putting these terribly basic pieces of logic together in your little monkey brain?

...I doubt it.

FEBURARY ISSUE OF JUXTAPOZ

CHECK OUT MY ADD IN THE LATEST ISSUE OF JUXTAPOZ. THIS A REAL DOPE MAGAZINE! IF YOUR NOT KNOWING ABOUT IT YOU NEED TO GO OUT AND COP IT, SUBSCRIBE AND CHECK OUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE ART WORLD...

CODE OF THE STREETS

THIS IS THE HOMIE O FROM P.R. WHO CAME THROUGH AND WANTED TO GET A "HEAR NO EVIL, SEE NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL" WITH A LATIN LINGO TWIST... TRIP OUT HOW IT STARTS FROM THE BACK THROUGH THE RIBS AND TO THE FRONT.

ROADSTER SHOW UPDATE

IT WAS AN HONOR AND A PRIVILEGE TO SHOW AT THE ROADSTER SHOW IN POMONA THIS WEEKEND AND HUMBLING TO RECEIVE A TROPHY.. THE BEST CUSTOM CARS IN THE COUNTRY TRAVEL TO COMPETE HERE AND SOME OF THE MOST PRISTINE ORIGINALS AS WELL.. THEE ICE CREAM TRUCK WON 1ST IN ITS CLASS, BEST INDIVIDUAL DISPLAY AND BEST USE OF COLOR.

OFFICIAL

ITS OFFICIAL MARK MILLER IS THE FIRST TO COME IN HERE AND GET THE CLOWN HANYA MASK AND HE BLASTED IT ON THE NECK AT THAT. BOO YA! SO FOR ALL OF YOU WHO WANT TO COME IN AND BITE THE HOMIE YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT UP WITH HIM.... HA! HA! HA! MARK IS COOL AS SHIT AND BROUGHT THE HOMIE RAKAA FROM THE DILATED PEOPLES TO CHOP IT UP AS IT GOT PUT DOWN.
IF YOUR THINKING OF THAT HANYA CLOWN CHEW ON THIS.....
website- www.fightshark.com
myspace- www.myspace.com/fightshark
blog- www.purefight.org
radio show- www.mmaweekly.com

RAY DAY!

THIS IS THE LATEST FROM RAY. HE HAS BEEN STAYING LOYAL TO THE GAME AND HAS ALSO JUST MASHED IT WITH A CHEST PIECE... HE AIN'T NO PUNK WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING IT DONE. DO THE RESEARCH ON THE BLOG AND CHECK THE TRACK RECORD.

Sometimes things just is black & white

Here is a few shots from the Holga 35mm that now belongs to Martin (Pato)...looking forward to see what he can get out of it. Normally I wouldn't give away any camera but since I got the LC-A+ it felt like it would be a shame to let Holga sit there on the shelf while L was out and about with me. So Martin got her and I like the idea of encouraging others to take pictures and I think he will get something cool out of her. Anyway...here is some pictures I just got back. Shot on Kodak 400 Tmax Black & White.

AROUND THE CLOCK

THIS IS SOME OF WHATS BEEN GOING ON THE LAST COUPLE DAYS.. WE GOT EVERYTHING SET UP AND THE LINE UP IS LOOKING SICK... I WANT TO THANK LIFESTYLE AND MY TEAM THAT HAS BEEN WORKING DAY AND NIGHT TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. WE WILL BE AT THE ROADSTER SHOW ALL WEEKEND.. COME CHECK IT OUT.

I'm kind of a big deal...my appartment smells of rich mahogany.

I somehow made it to Tattoo Artist Magazine!! They did a huuuuge article with me and not only that but they were stupid enough to give me the cover aswell. I do share it with Tony Hundahl from Rock of ages in Austin so half of them is with my cover and half is with his. So for those of you readers who are tattooers, go buy the magazine and check it out...you have to be a tattooer to buy it.

The Original Artwork

TO THE WIRE

ITS THE DAY BEFORE MOVE IN AND WE ARE ALL HERE PUTTING IT DOWN... HERE IS JUST A SAMPLE OF WHATS GOING DOWN.

BLOODWORK: SLEEVES: TEASER

Starting to put together the guts of the BloodWork:Sleeves catalog. When we were doing European and North American photo shoots everything was a whirlwind of work. Felt like I was never able to take it all in an spend time admiring the work as I would have like to. I never had a moment to truly appreciate the breadth of work being presented to me.

It was like... Are you ready? Okay shirt off. Wow, nice sleeve. Okay hold still.... Alright who's next! ...all day long... for days.

But now I'm excited that I can sit down with each set of images and really soak every one in. I have to say that the magnitude and quality of tattooing being represented is really impressive. As a whole this is going to be formidable collection of work.

Dont want to give away too much too soon but here’s another teaser for you’s...

Tatt-Zappin' Austin.

Here is a few pieces done on our last trip to Austin, Texas! You know the place where you can get awesome cowboy boots and where they have Jackalopes and armadillos. Right?

First a few that I did on the Star Of Texas convention.

This next one I did on our good friend Tina who we stayed and worked with. A little tribute to her old dog, Roxy, who now are running in doggy heaven.

This little stomach piece will be finished later on this year. We are gonna add some color and a bit more here and there. Poor Jeff...5 hours!!

Update For Tattooaddicts.

It has been a while since I have posted anything tattoo related. Sorry! I have had so many cool pieces coming through the shop but it's not always that I remember to take a "in progress" picture or sometimes there is just to much blood or glare to get a decent shot. But here is a few pieces that I have finished a while ago now.

This one just need one more shot and a bit of touch-up and we are done.

3..2..1..CONTACT

If you've tried to email us in the past with no success its because the email links on the Analog site were down for a few months. Today we finally fixed the bugs in those links. So, if you have any question, comments, complaints, tattoo requests, and or love letters... the lines are open.

At the Farm

This last roll is mostly from our last saturday in Austin. Our good friends Tina And Roger had a good day planed for us.
First we went to a huge fleamarked where we got ourself some pretty nice stuff including a bunch of cool Mexican religious stuff...although we don't believe in god we still enjoy the art. Tina got me a cool Led Zeppelin Tee and Amalie scored a few nice things her self. We also got some sweet ass belts...Texas style...Biiig belt buckles!
Just walking around and looking at cool old stuff (and getting frustrated because we couldn't buy half of it) was really cool. Good times!

Roger wasn't in a bad mood...I guess I cought him of guard...I like the picture though.

After one succes that day already Tina and Roger took us to another awesome place: THE SNAKE FARM!!
This place looked like nothing have changed (or been cleaned) in the last 20 years! Hell year! Obviously there were a lot of snakes inkluding some pretty awesome albino snakes (pictures later), but when we got to the back of the place we were met by lamas and lemurs and peacocks and chickens in the trees. There were wolfs, small pigs, monkeys and a bunch of other cool animals...Amalie was in animal heaven and ran from one animal to the other with a huge smile on her face. More good times!






After a whole day o' fun Tina made us a really delicious Korean home cooked meal with dumplings and everything. Thank you guys for taking good care of us!