DC Tattoo Expo Round 3

Same as the first two rounds except I made one exception to an unwritten decider I previously utilized and included an ‘unfinished tattoo’. Eight more rows of 24 artists and eight favorite tattoos. Difficult feeds from artists I recommend are – Patrick Flynn @patrickflynntattoos and Matt Grosso @lil_matt_tattoos. One more round for this event.

1 “Absolutely one of my favorite lions I’ve ever done.”
2 “IN PROGRESS H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu!”
3 “Boo.”
4 “🙏🏻 had a #blast w this ol #warlock to end the night!”
5 “Super happy this drawing got picked up this at @sevenfeatherstattooexpo.”
6 “Sleeve work @embassytattoo”
7 “Super stoked to start Josh’s lower arm today!”
8 “Super fun and educational tattoo”

DC Tattoo Expo Round 2

I went through eight more rows (24 artists) and chose ten works (maximum one per artist). I have done a lot of research lately in tattoo judging, equipment, culture, history and how the body works with them (or battles them) and also learning intro to tattooing with Miguel in Houston. Looking at tattoos and choosing them in this context however, I am not referring to set criteria. I am trying to be educated and fair as well as reasonably receptive and rejecting to the forces of the tattoo spirit in cooperation with my updated knowledge.

1 “Did this fun viking and raven yesterday. Thanks tim.”
2 “Work from Saturday at the @villainarts”
3 “Viking”
4 “Half sleeve completed on a rad client today.”
5 “Fun one on the Homegirl”
6 “Healed…”
7
8
9 “Mini hannya fan”
10 “R.i.p. Mac miller, piece I did a couple weeks ago”

DC Tattoo Expo

Another list started because of these color card advertisements for tattoo festivals that were with the ink and surgical markers I ordered before from Ultimate Tattoo Supply. This one I am doing differently. There are three rows of featured artists, three artists each and then twenty-nine rows after that. I went through the featured artists so far and going to give my eyes a rest before the next round.

Considering the top 13 rows max from clicking on artist via https://dctattooexpo.com/artists.php. Not disqualifying tattoos based on overall feed this list, however if it is difficult to choose a tattoo from their selection, I will also mention artist name to recommend. This set I liked Holli Marie @hollimarieart and Cameron Pohl @campohltattoos. A couple of artists don’t really have tattoo pictures on their instagram, therefore technically dnq.

1 “…ideas are bulletproof.”
2 “Super fun compact”
3 “Little japanese ghost with his sleepy time robe and lantern 👻💖”
4 “Competing last night on @inkmastergrudgematch @inkmaster was a blast and super challenging!”
5 “Tattoo of the day. Thank you.”
6 “Mummy stuff 😊💀”

End of the day

After I dropped off the practice skin at the tattoo shop I was tired, but continued to walk towards Chinatown to get some food. I sat on the grass outside of St. Agnes Academy and finally finished the first epic chapter of Hard Choices. It is actually about her major decision to transition from Senate to Secretary of State as asked by Obama. I was thinking finally, what the book is about, something I can apply to my life and it was making a lot of sense in the parallels of my life. I remember the first time I mixed something with XYLØ in it was just before I became homeless and I lived at Pacific Garden Mission. Often I would sit on Clinton St. eating a block of vegan cheese and tortilla shells on food stamps thinking about the election between Clinton and Trump. I think it was before and after. I would walk downtown and look up at the Trump tower wondering how life would be different voting either way and with either candidate winning with this tower over us. Sometimes it seems like we don’t have a choice. Often being a vegan we have possibly the choice of to get it or not to get it as there may be only one option available. I don’t love politics and thinking of this book as an unusual thing for me I have distinguished the vibe as more specifically governmental because politics become necessary in most working and societal relationships. Probably why I am deviating into cultures that are more rebellious that acknowledge political thinking in other realms even spiritual ones. It’s a difficult decision to limit your life in some ways. Veganism reminds me of living abroad because I remember thinking of comfort food for example being less available. There would be one choice for a restaurant if you wanted a certain American food. One peanut butter at one foreign store, that kind of thing. All this concludes with Happy Birthday! This year has been the start of celebrity birthdays for Ckwal and really surprising experiences living life with these events as checkpoints on my calendar. I think Hillary’s helped break the political/governmental ice. The intimidation or nervousness of putting that much thought into how to go about honoring such a thing.

Halloween Mix

The original Halloween ’19 October MixList cannot be made on time due to funding, unless something happens before the end of the month. Donations excepted at artist email on PayPal. Therefore as mentioned early this morning, I have used some tracks still left in the online archive and from this year’s lists that were not put in a mix. ‘St. Anger’ and ‘My Church’ are now moved out of the Christmas List and Three Days Grace’s ‘Painkiller’ which helped propel this mix into fruition is going to be added somewhere.

10.26.19 3:50-4:29pm

Bleeding Love (The 564 Crew Remix) originally performed by Leona Lewis – Heidi Zeus
Holograms – Gareth Emery & Ashley Wallbridge
Make It Bun Dem (Teddy Killerz Remix) – Skrillex & Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley
War Of The Roses – David Heartbreak
Fireworks – XYLØ
My Church – Maren Morris
Really – BLACKPINK
Zombies (Jesse Slayter Remix) – Bro Safari & UFO!
Body Language (feat. Miranda Glory & Haris) [TWISTERZ Extended Remix] – Tujamo
St. Anger – Metallica

Flip side (second half)

Woke up early and got going on the stencils that were drying overnight. A My Little Pony‘s ‘Twilight Sparkle’ found on Wired Magazine’s website and a sketch found at the footnote an email of Brian M. Viveros‘ dog announcing his recent collection of works entitled Tougher Than Leather. I haven’t read much of Hillary Clinton‘s book Hard Choices yet and it’s her birthday today. I’m thinking of doing a short mix of some songs I haven’t used from this year and from the end of SKMillion or beginning of Ckwal as it will be the five year anniversary of the creation of the ckwal.net domain on November 6th. Can you believe it’s been that long?

Artwork and clipart above is for education purposes. The halloween figures and weapons on first post are from texts found on DaFont under ‘Dingbats>Horror‘ and were traced. The California Raisin circa 1987 is a rendition from an old keychain figure like this one for sale on Etsy. Vegan Pizza, Twilight Sparkle and Lexi are also freehand sketches.

Movie(s) of the Month

I didn’t think I would get these in before the deadline and finally rented all three of the Hotel Transylvania movies which were on 99 cent special from Redbox. Attempting to finish the third before 9pm tonight. Already watched the first last night and second today. There is some weird stuff in it, especially vegan unfriendly animated monster food, but overly cute and not too much. I especially like the mini werewolves, like Winnie Werewolf, who do aggressive comic relief scenes that fly by. One might have to ‘rewind’ to see if you aren’t paying attention. I also keep forgetting who plays some of the voices. Two of the leads for example, Adam Sandler (Dracula) and Selena Gomez (Mavis), are really impressive because you can’t tell it’s them. Overall I think this movie trilogy, so far, is overloaded with talent and production/animation skills. Sometimes I think it’s wanting to go over the PG line as Adam Sandler associated movies many times do, but I have to think that considering the many of comedians in this that they are being well behaved for family-friendly, Halloween musts.

Evening update: I finished the third movie. It is a vacation that mostly takes place in transit where Dracula zings for someone on the cruise who tries to secretly kill him. It’s a strange turn of events as Dracula falls head over heels. I liked the different scenes of the airplane to Atlantis through the Bermuda Triangle. All of these could be watched anytime of the year as the main ideas can be applied to lots of relationship philosophical points. I read some past reviews on Wikipedia about critics wanting to put a stake in the heart of the series. Apparently they are already working on one for the holiday season of 2021. Since I started watching movies again, these were the easiest to get into and finish all the way through of all the movies I have seen this year. There was a point in the first movie I was scrutinizing one section and rewinding as I kept getting a bad impression and it turned out okay. I finished it being glad it was a great movie and the other two were as well. The biggest difference in the third movie was Mavis. Her facial expressions seemed like a totally different person. Anyways catch up with you guys on Christmas in two years.

The Flip Side

A little more stenciling practice and lessons to the practice skin on the flip side. This time on the lighter rotary machine and some edited steps. See below ‘vegan pizza’ on the right (some work done by Miguel, like the possible non-vegan topping edit) and three stars for straight line practice. I was about to get some shading/fill practice when a client walked in for something pretty serious, so I had to get out of the shop. Tomorrow I’m trying to find some non-gmo/organic fruit to practice on as well. I was dreaming about doing this sometimes especially when I was without home or apartment, but the paths are like chopping branches down out in the jungle. If you ever ask someone for help with it starting out, make sure you trust them because they may have to keep you progressing when you can’t on your own.

Tat practice

Day three in converting drawing practice to applicable skill. Day two with the ‘practice skin’. I was back and forth from the shop seemingly all day. Yesterday I did a Sailor Jerry free sketch for practice and tried to make some custom Halloween Mandalas. I showed them earlier and then went to donate the shorts I finished after lunch. I had a few strange encounters after reading some of Hard Choices and hurried back to the shop to pick up the practice setup. I recently finished buzzing loudly for a couple of hours it seemed. I’m now trying to find consistent settings and how to be sure of getting some good artwork onto the silicone/rubber palette. I melted the tips on two grips and only finished the sickle, then had to get another grip for my last chance to finish the other three designs. It is still super frustrating, but getting a little bit closer to controlling the beast. This coil machine is much more noisy and heavy metal than the others I’m being introduced to, but I figure it will help in the long run. See below the second days attempts (everything except the reaching hand and zombie). The California Raisin character I had still from remaining belongings packed into a mini SUV when the house I grew up in was being sold. I had to give away, throw out or auction almost everything when I left truck driver training for Denver and became homeless in Nebraska when the vehicle broke down. I for some reason couldn’t throw away this figure. It still reminds me of my late Poppa who looked a little like this character of my childhood. Funny that although he was sort of a wild guy in some respects, he probably wouldn’t have supported tattooing.

Other successful mixes

For record keeping purposes here are the times of the other successful mixes. These are mostly in celebration with the Queen City Tattoo & Arts Festival which one can follow the posts on instagram with hashtags. Some new artwork is still showing up as of last night. #unitedink #queencitytattooandartsfestival. Scroll down to the most recent to be sure they are from this year’s event. Also, in collaboration with Rockstar Tatoo/Rocko’s and my recent experiences. ‘Pagan Pt. 2’ was first heard in their shop.

2/October 19th 12:13-12:44pm Falling to MindLove
3/October 19th 7:30-8:06pm Falling to Pagan Pt. 2
4/October 21st unrecorded time Falling to Pagan Pt. 2

All mixes have the same 10 or 11 tracks with same order as the first mix. The only difference is the finishing track which adds around five minutes. The fourth success had the best transitions from a mixing standpoint. Keep in mind that no mix (2019) can be listened to after it’s over (since some time last year). Next to the practice mix, it was probably my favorite, but they had much different meanings and impressions. Putting ‘Pagan Pt. 2’ at the beginning makes everything else compete with it’s energy surprisingly, but I haven’t wanted to mix it again with those transitions after the first official mix order. I also don’t always feel it belongs in the mix, so I like that one as an optional beginning or ending. The fourth success was from a perspective of a practicing tattooer at first and thus the singer took on some meaning of a friend who had just received a tattoo. Overall it’s a low difficulty level of a mix, but you must practice a few transitions to avoid complete disaster and others can be made much more technically and sonically impressive.