oops

DAMN you, Lovemore Christmas !!!

DAMN you !!!

*
Ok ok ... Sorry !
Have been looking for a flat in Copenhagen for 2 months now ... Yep ! It sucks , I don't remember the last time I've had such a fruitless endeavour and I'm really missing Hong Kong now ! 2 months of no replies , 2 months of wasted time searching the net ... Until today ! I thought my luck had finally changed , that I would finally be allowed to return to the rainy island kingdom ! Finally a reply ! But something was wrong !! I used my super secret spy skills and double checked a hunch ... Turned out to be a fake ! Then another replied ... Also a fake ! Mailed my spy buddies at "Echelon" and apparently these have been on the rise lately !! Official name in the busyness happens to be "the Nigerian rental scam" so yeah !!! DAMN you Nigerian Rental Scammer ... DAMN you for getting my hopes up for nothing and posting fake flats !!!! Now ... Back to zero for me ! Double sucks !!

No worries to all the good people who have booked up August and September ... I haven't given up just yet !! I still have a month left !! If worst comes to worst I might have to push all your appointments back a bit but we're not there yet !

Wish me luck !

P.s. You ever hear of anything ... Let me know !



*Old sketchbook doodle from 05 in Berlin ... Thought the houses fit the theme of the day.

Gasket Goons + Immortal Ink Charity Show & Auction

Not only am I part of the group show at The End Is Near on July 1, but I'm also going in a charity group show hosted by the Gasket Goons and Immortal Ink on Friday, July 2. The show is in honor Army Sgt. Sean M. Durkin, to benefit his family. To read Sgt. Durkin's full story and to RSVP to the opening on facebook, click here

The art show/auction will be held on July 2nd 2010 at Star 77 Kustoms, 224 Stockton St. Phillipsburg, NJ. There will be drinks available and "DJ Kate Keen" of Sugar Shack Vinyl will be DJing!

Artists include: Josh Kohn, Jamie Schwartz, Brian Woolverton, John Moscaritolo, Dutch Cooke, Brian Keinlen, Ox, Vinny Scully, Smivee Valencia, Krooked Ken, Erik Pinchek, Alex Oscavich, Justin Weiss, Jerry Chiccarine, Michael DePrizio, Nicole Esposito, Jennifer Skidmore, Kimmie Doriety , James M Patrick, Ian Kenworthy, Kieth Ruthe, Harry Ferrante, Mellissa Graves, George Varkoly, Andrew Bannon and more

Really hope to see you all there for a great cause

Mogwai- Special Moves (2010)

Put this on, and if you survive, pick up the vinyl version with 6 additional live songs, then get the DVD documentary "Burning", and blow your brains out.


link

Mogwai Live Film "Burning" Teaser from Nathanaël Le Scouarnec on Vimeo.

BITTER END - Guilty as Charged (2010)

http://www.mediafire.com/?qvvztkymnzw

Hong K ......

.... AAAAaaaargh !


I seem to have geographically changed location !! Gimme a few days to figure out where exactly I seem to have ended up ! Just to make sure , without alerting the locals , that I still am in the same dimension !! For all I know I might not have physically moved at all ... Might be in the exact same spot just in a parallel universe ! One where .... I'm not even gonna go there ... So many possibilities ! Wish me luck .... This looks like a very hostile , unpredictable and agitated environment !!




Stay rockin'

The lighthouse !

That's it that's all ... I is outta here !


For all the old and many new friends that I have made here in beautiful Hong Kong in the last 6 months and are sad to see me leave ... Trust me on this one , I am twice as sad about leaving too !! After half a year living in my favourite place in the whole wide world , I leave loving it even more ... How tragic !! I'll miss this town like no other and I'm afraid , once again , that I have no other choice but to leave my heart here again !! I'll be back to check on it soon enough ! Take care Hong Kong ... Take care Mong Kok ! Sweet dreams tonight and as long as your many lighthouses keep burning bright ... I'll always find my way back !

Now ... Time for some more adventures ! One of which will be to get my "way over the weight limit" bags to the airport , 12 hours of recycled aircon and some of the worst coffee in the world !! But direct , this time , none the less !

Stay fresh and wish me luck !! Them big fluffy plane-shaking clouds look specially arrogant tonight !


For those of you , here in Hong Kong who need more answers to understand this tragic moment of my departure and why it is exactly that I'm leaving if I love it so much here ... Here's how it works :










Laterz !

End is Near Group Show

I have a show coming up at The End Is Near in Brooklyn on July 1. The sister shop of Hand of Glory Tattoo, this new space is having their first gallery show. The exhibition is with Norbert Kox and Anna Sea. I've been working with Hand of Glory for a while now (I'm there monthly tattooing as a Guest Artist) and am excited to show some of my other work. My paintings have really been taking off lately. I'm working on wood with acrylics and gauche, really honing in on a precise visual and conceptual aesthetic. It would be great to see as many people as possible for the opening. 7-11:30 PM on Thursday July 1 at 465a 7th ave, park slope

Here's a small preview of some of my new work. Proper images and documentation of the show to follow!

Traveling rabbit ... In 3D !

And nothing but !


HK's last 2010 3D reclamation ...

I lied !!

Well ... I just couldn't know ...


Today was supposed to be a tattoo day ... Yep ... But it just so happens that buddy Ben's leg is far from ready to get worked on !! So yeah ! We have no real other choice than to wait a bit (until I get back to HK) !! So ... Sorry Ben !

Instead of the tattoo post I promised ... You get a spontaneous photo post !!! Last shots you'll be seeing from beautiful Mong Kok for a while !! All of which taken with my new world wonder ... The EOS-1V / wide-angled through my 17-35 and shot on a cross processed FUJI Velvia 50 !!



from the 15th floor ...


Updates and news on stuff & stuff tomorrow !!!


What now ... ?
Packing I'm afraid !!

One camera to rule them all !!!

Good day good day !

Just a quick post to show you my new prides and joys (I must) !!! I'll skip the part where I overhype and explain in detail how this camera (Canon EOS-1V) is the best ever camera ever made by mankind ever in the universe ever (ever) and how after testing 3 rolls on it I have absolutely nothing bad to say about it (nothing at all) !!! It's an amazing achievement ... To think that humanity can produce such a ingenious device of pure perfection !! No kidding !! I've had dreams about this baby for a few years now and it's even better than I thought !! And then ... I got me a 35/350 canon lens too !!! Only in Hong Kong could I afford such awesomeness !!! I'm the happiest Analog-Photo-Geek ever !! Here are a few shots ...


This one next to my good old "RG" to show the size difference !!


Ok ok ok ... Enough bragging ! Just really happy about this (obviously) !!

I'm now gonna either look like a super pro reporter/paparazzi or like a spoiled rich kid ! Either way ... I'll avoid the sketchier alleys of certain cities ... Also cuz it's impossible to run with these two ... Very very heavy !!


More awesomeness soon !!! + Monday's a tattoo day !
Rock !

Overdue Update

So the new place has been open for about six months now and everything is going great. I've been doing a ton of tattooing as well as painting and illustration. I recently designed the album cover for the band Just Surrender. My band Top Soil has been playing a bunch, too. We started recording our second album on Monday at Trax East and I'm really excited about the project. Check out a video of us playing live here. Another new development is the opening of my brothers Jim and Dave's new computer repair and internet cafe, River Net. They set up shop in the same building as my studio, so check it out! We're in the brick building next to the Bridge Cafe in Frenchtown.

Play guitar? Smoke riffs? Want to live in Japan?

Tokyo horror/doom masters Church of Misery are in the market for a new guitarist. Do you have what it takes to fill the void? Grow out your hair and fu manchu stache, bone up on your serial killer knowledge, and sell all your possessions for a surplus of cabs and a one way ticket and find out, pussy. The following is their most recent entry from their myspace blog, in perfect Engrish of course:

"We've been auditioning so many new guitarist & we can not got "BEST" one still now.
So we announcing about this again.
<< Guitarist who understand our music & who makes band activity top priority. And living in Tokyo,JAPAN.>>


Please contact us"

you won't

See the world, they said !

Sorry for the delay , dearest Plog followers , but the internet has been getting really hard to rip these last few days !!

Here's part 3 (part last) of last weekend's Aussie invasion !! This time a one shot was in order (I love "one shots") ! First we doodled than we tattooed the rest of the day away for about 4 hours ! Here's what it all looked like !!

Red for me/Black for Mr. Bones !


The final product !!


Setting up mines is a hard job but I guess someone's got to do it ...

Next and last HK session before I leave will be on Monday ! Ben's Mong Kok leg will get finished !! After that ... No more tattoos until early August ! I guess you could call it a Summer break ! I'll be busy adding the final touches to my book , doodling as much as I can , re-nipping my aging web-site and trying to find a flat in over inflated Copenhagen !! That ... Plus pictures of course !!!

Stay cool ! It's been like +45 with a gazillion percent humidity down here lately !! I'm melting !!!

NAILS - Unsilent Death (2010)

Heres the new one from Nails out of California. Puts a lot of similar type bands of this day and age on blast. get it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?0tnjzgfmvun

Time to pay !!

Second in this Aussie weekend series ... Mr. Archie's leg !

Last month , when last around , we had started and finished the back of his leg on one day and lined all the front part the next day ! Now (last Saturday) was time to finish the front and we went at it all day !! We didn't actually manage to finish the said piece (the big skeleton doom demon got left for a next appointment) but got most of it done !! Background (with evil skulls included) and the main , unsuspecting accountant/tax collector dude (with desk and calculator included) !! Check it out and let me know !!! Here's how it all looked at the end of the day !


Time to pay !!



More tat-action tomorrow ... Until then ... Back to work !

Dutch-o-rama part -last !

Ladies and gentlemen ... As promised and with no further delay ... Here goes last Friday's doings for your viewing pleasures !!

As previously mentioned , I had been Jedi mind tricked into tattooing the Aussie bunch all weekend a bit earlier than I thought ! After dropping by pretty much a month ago aaaaaall the way from Brisbane Australialand for some heavy duty tattoo sessions ... I guess they didn't get enough and decided to swing by , one last time before I got outta here ! It takes about 10 hours to fly direct to HK from Brisbane and as long as that takes , I guess they figured it was better than the 27 hours it takes to get to Copenhagentown !

First in line ... None other than Jedi Knight Luke ! We pretty much finished his Dutch-o-rama sleeve (except for the green) and got busy doing all the shitty bits for just about 7 and a half hours (am gonna skip the whole Trooper speech for this mate ... Nothing to prove to us mortals anymore) !! So one last shot to wrap all the different pieces together (and the green) and this one will be finally finished finished !! Up left / An extra 3D bunny around some previous work !! And if a 3D bunny is parachuting down ... Well then he obviously is doing that in a 3D parachute , wouldn't you say !?

And here's the final shot ... Before we wrap it all up next year ! The giganto windmill robo in action (with 3D bunny crew and friends)


Round 2 tomorrow ... When "Buddy Archie gets a sweet as background !" on his leg of doom !!!!



Stay rockin' and stay away from windmills !!!
Also ... All of the accumulating e-mails in my inbox of the last week or so will be answered tomorrow !! Have no fear !


ROCK !

The Depreciation Guild- Spirit Youth (2010)

Newest release and 2nd proper full length. Great synth-shoegaze inspired pop songs, coupled with much more maturity and a wayyy better sound quality to their recording. Improvements all around.

link

!!! 200 !!!

You guys rock !! That's Osome !


Tats tomorrow !! Promise promise !!

At large ...

Still alive just busy !

Here I was , Friday morning thinking ... No tattoo work for a week ... hah ! Plenty of time to work on book stuff and prepare for my departure stuff !! Until I got woken up by my buddy Luke (the Jedi knight from Australialand guy) saying he was good to go now !!! That never happens !! Me screwing up my calendar dates ?? Never ! But then again ... He is a Jedi , after all ! So I suspect him of pulling a Jedi mind trick on me and changing my calendar with his mental Jedi powers cuz when I checked my calendar just to be sure ... He just so happened to be right ! Today was the day ! So yeah ... There's no other explanation really ... Damn them Jedi !

So forgive me for disappearing but I've been crazy tattooing them crazy Aussies again for the last two days with no time to blog !!! One more to go tomorrow and I'll have a bunch of tattoo posts for yall !!! Damn good one's too !


Also in the news ... Answers to some questions asked rather frequently as of late (I believe the kids call it "FAQ" nowadays)

(to a bunch of people)
- I'm still in Hong Kong (which is in China not in Tokyo (Tokyo being a city in Japan not a country)) and will be back in Europe in 2 weeks however will remain out of reach from everyone until I resurface , back in Copenhagen around the 15th of July ! Will however still be unavailable for work or anything related to work until the first week of August , when I will , once more , resume my Conspiracy duties at once !!

(to Rob and Nic)
- Yes ! My new baby is totally awesome and just got connected to my new new baby that I just finally got today !!!!!!!!!! This subject will get a post of its own as soon as the tattooing is out of the way !!!!!

(to Michael B)
- And no ! Not anymore !! I use to but stopped drawing for tattoos about 3 or maybe 4 years ago ! I never really did it for me but for the customers and just didn't have the time for it anymore ! So I just stopped one day and told everybody I wouldn't draw before the tattoos anymore ! I expected a lot of hating but to my surprise , everyone was fine with it !

So now I just get a basic idea from the customer and go crazy with it on the day ! Some people are more precise with their ideas than most but the only drawing is the Red and Black marker lines before we start and whether a "one shot" or a sleeve , the marker sketch is always wrapped up within an hour and 99% are always good to go with my first draft !!




Plog ya with some funky HK tattooings asap !!
ROCK !!

UNLEARN DEMO

pretty awesome local metal hardcore band from philly area. check out the demo

DL

IRON AGE - SLEEPING EYE 33RPM

THIS WAS MADE FOR ME BY MY DUDE CLAY AT WORK, PROBABLY ONE OF THE HEAVIEST THINGS I HAVE EVER HEARD. SOMETIMES A RECORD ON 33 THE VOCALS SOUND WEIRD. THIS SOUNDS LIKE IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WAY. WAY HEAVIER WITH ALMOST DEATH METAL SOUNDING VOCALS.



DL

METROPOLIS

The future is now !!










P.s. Sorry about the "comment moderation" , guys but I've been getting mega turbo spammed all day !! That or someone genuinely called "Buy Viagra" (Mr. Buyvi Agra , Mr. Bu Yvi Agra ... ?) really really likes my stuff a lot and really really wants everybody to go see his webpage that just so happened to recently get hacked by some spammers called ... "Buy Viagra" ! Either way , should hopefully be short lived !!

MORTAL KOMBAT UNOFFICIAL MOVIE TRAILER

if you havent seen this yet check it out. fucking. awesome.

Ceremony- Rohnert Park (2010)

West coast dogs keep it real and return with their 3rd and most pummeling and unpredictable full length.

link

DOWN UPLOAD

DOWN II - A Bustle in your Hedge
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NVPBEQ8N



DOWN III - Over the under
http://www.mediafire.com/?ahyeknbg30e


Havent posted in a while....just been dicking around/lazy. Ill start upping again alot since i got a decent amount of time. The search option showed up NOLA but didn't show these so here they are...doubt they haven't been posted yet though. Aw well. These are necessary, not as necessary as NOLA but you get it.

Nibble nibble ...

As previously promised ... Last Sunday's work ... Today !


My customer , this time came all the way from ... Macau (that's next door) for a very quick mermaid "one shot" and well ... It became something else , I'm afraid !!! My customer of the day made the lethal mistake to say "Take all the room you need !" so ... In good tradition ... I pretty much took it all ! Around a bunch of old tattoos , carving my way around to make this all fit together !! I managed a "Pit sleeve" (new word) ! That's when the inner upper arm (Pit) is directly connected and an integral part of a piece finishing as a lower "half sleeve" ! There you have it !! Enough babblings ... Here's what it all looked like ... A mermaid being "pleasantly attacked" by a snorkel wearing octopus ! Am afraid I most completely forgot all about taking a quick picture of the marker sketch so ... No Red and Black for you today !


More more more tomorrow !!!


Until then , stay awesome !!

I heard Mike is turning pro skateboarding

Piggyback ...

Just a quick doodle !! Nothing to write home about !!
From way back when ... Months ago ... Back when I use to draw ... Ahh ... I miss those days of drawing terribly !!!

Ok ok ... Back to book making !

Tomorrow will be Yesterday's tattoo Ploggings ! Promise !

Verblüffen

As promised ... A little late but never too late ... Last Thursday's tatzzzappings , today !

This time my customer of the day came all the way from the Alpine lands of Switzerland , land of fashionable timepieces and never ending National Service (Third after Israel and North Korea) all the way to Hong Kong for his first session on a new piece !! I admire the dedication , yes I do !!! We met , pondered for a moment and tattooed the day away ! Here's the story ... This young man is about to start a one year , around the world trip (so jealous) and well , wanted a piece (a half sleeve) to symbolize this so ... He asked me for "Something to do with traveling" !! After a few minutes of brain storming ... This is what I came up with >>>>>

Red for Simon from Switzerland / Black for me ... (Yellow also here ... Just to get the first proportions right , ya know? It happens sometimes)


And here it is after all the lines and black !!


Let me explain ... She is the North ! His guide in all situations ... Watching over his route and there when he gets lost ! Simon from Switzerland coming from the same hemisphere as myself , we both quickly agreed to have her be the North ! (us people use the North to guide us on our travels) ! The blimp is his ship (airships are just great) and the earth will eventually be all awesome and stuff with clouds and so on !! Went and had a bit of fun with the space swirly stuff things and did go a bit crazy with the North's compass head too !!

Can't wait to have it all coloured in , on the last week of August in Copenhagen ... Just before Simon from Switzerland starts his super trip !!!







Tomorrow's another tattoo day ! Apart from that ... Every other day is pretty much a book making day !!!
Godspeed !



P.s. Thanks for all the feedback from the "Plagiarism" post !! It's nice to have people's opinions ! In this case all pretty much agreed but never hesitate to let me know what you think even when you don't agree !! I'm starting to try to find time to answer more comments lately ! So bring 'em on ! And stay awesome !!!

21 years ago , tonight !

Many innocents fell !


I'll skip the endless political Ploggings for today ... You know what I'm talking about !!
Today , in Hong Kong (the only place in China where people are allowed to (or at least can't be stopped for)) we remember !




Regular Ploggings tomorrow ... Promise !!

Plagiarism ...

... "Is awesome ! It's the best thing ever !! You don't have to spend your life working and coming up with your own personal original stuff ! You just have to find something you like on the World Wide Webs , rip it and say it's yours ! It's awesome !!" - Is no doubt , what some people must be thinking out there !? I mean I , for the life of me , can't understand how anybody can even think like that and think they can forever get away with it but there sure are a few out there !!!


You guessed it ... Today's post is a rant !!! A momentary mental call to arms !! Bear with me here for a minute or two while I vent this rant away ...

I've had a bunch of people use my stuff as inspiration before and that flatters me so much ! It's nice to see ! It sometimes gets a little too close for comfort but then again ... That's how a lot of us out there started ! It's called inspiration !

Then there's some of my illustrations being tattooed by others ! I'm again flattered but then most often turns out to be a mediocre to very very bad copy ! And I can't help but think ... Why wouldn't you just come and see me and get your own personal version of that piece done by the original artist ?? Or if catching up with me is not an option ... Get an original piece from anyone else !! Any original will always be a better piece than a copy (well mostly almost all the time) !!

Then , and this is where I start having a problem with it all , the third category ! When people (tattooers) rip one of my tattoos and tattoo it on someone else !!! I'm pretty happy I've yet to see a half decent job at it but that still triple sucks guys !!!! 1-You're ripping me and making fun of my career dedicated to coming up with unique stuff every time and the fact that I came up with something original and you didn't have too !! 2-You're ripping off my customer who got something no one else had !!! 3-You're ripping any chances tattooing has to ever get respected as an artistic medium !!!

"My customer wanted it" is not a good excuse for not having any professional ethics !!!!!!!


And finally ! This is my favourite one ... Level 4 ! Outright plagiarism ! Just rip someone's web-site and say you did it all ! That's a proverbial finger to anyone who strives to come up with original work anywhere and well art in general !! That's just the worst worst ! It super sucks guys !!! I'd accept any sincere apology from anyone for any of the 3 first levels , but not this one !!! You either live on a different planet , are mentally incapacitated for any reason or are just an asshole ! Thinking you won't get caught and strive on someone else's hard work is probably what this little Norwegian twat was thinking ! Specially after I politely asked him to stop ripping my stuff (and other's) and still kept at it adding new ones !!!

If you did bear with me through this rant , give a crap about anything I just endlessly ranted about , feel concerned by said general subject and happen to have a "Deviant art" account ... Let this little shit know it's not cool !!!! (check his gallery pages , your work might be in it too) !

If not ... Let me know what you honestly think about it all !! I would really like to get some feedback on this subject from anyone !!! Artist or not ! If you find a second , I'd love to get a bigger perspective on it all !!! Thanks for taking the time !!!


Don't make enemies with an international spy man !!!



Rant >>>>>>>>>> Over !
Tomorrow ? ... Today's tatzzzap session !!! And then some more about my new baby !!!!


Stay original !

Mondo Jungle time !!

Ok... Get ready ...


Finally got my last jungle picture rolls back from the H.K.H.Q. here in Mong Kok and approved for publication !! They just understandably wanted to check if there wasn't any sensitive spy material on these rolls before I Plogged them all !! Safety first !! So finally ... The last installment (last only because I haven't posted nearly even half of what I took just because there isn't enough room on this blog for all of the awesome analog magic that these rolls contain) of my last super secret spy jungle adventures from last April ... "The Jungle"

Up river from Vientiane , and deep in the jungle lands of Laos for a few days of deep jungle covert trekking ... Me and the Hong Kong crew survived these unforgiving lands and made it back (obviously) with more new stories of adventures in lands beyond to add to our collection !!!

These shots ... A quick selection of just a few shots of 4 rolls randomly selected and taken with love , obviously , but also all with different slide films that I got developed as slides , this time ! Not cross processed ! Crazy right !? So this was a first for me and it turned out amazingly awesome ! Check em out and let me know !!!

First film (above also) ... VELVIA 100F (positive)

-"Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice mission, and when it was over, I never wanted another."








Second film ... VELVIA 100 (positive)

-"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right. Unless you were goin' all the way. Kurtz got off the boat. He split from the whole fuckin' program."















Third film ... SENSIA 100 (positive)

-"Charlie didn't get much USO. He was dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat. He had only two ways home: death, or victory."








Last film ... ELITECHROME EB3 (positive)

-"He was close, real close. I couldn't see him yet, but I could feel him, as if the boat were being sucked upriver and the water was flowing back into the jungle. Whatever was going to happen, it wasn't gonna be the way they call it back in Hong Kong."









What a picture post !!

Hope you like !
Tonight is a book making night and tomorrow is a tattoo day !
Until then ... Stay focussed ...







-"I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream. That's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight... razor... and surviving."