the best different tattoo design: November 2010

Hello Everybody! Jason and I got back from our European adventure fully intact and inspired! What an amazing trip! I can't wait to share our stories and pictures with you. Problem is, I really suck at getting my pictures together. So I'll be working on that and by the time I'm finished it'll be next year but whatever! It'll be worth it! We travelled between France and Spain, did 2 tattoo conventions, made tons of new friends and ate lots and lots and lots of baguettes.

When we got back we had a few days to rest and then went on to the State of Grace Tattoo Convention which usually takes place in San Jose but this year they moved it to The San Francisco Airport Hyatt Regency. I must say I really liked this location a lot more than any of their previous spots. The State of Grace convention has an amazing roster of artists and the location always seemed to detract a bit from that. They had to scale down this year because of room and I think that made for a nicer, more intimate convention. You could probably hit a convention every weekend of the year if you really wanted to but seriously the quality of most conventions isn't so good. If you live in the Bay Area or near this will be the convention you want to go to. If you want to look at cars and wet t-shirt contests, you'll want to go to a different convention. A few highlights of the convention were the release and signing of Grime's new book Iron Will and the Chris Conn Seminar. All in all it was an unbelievably inspiring weekend. Jason and Iggy worked the booth and did some fun tattoos and everyone basically had a really good time visiting old friends and making new ones.

Apparently the only pictures I took the whole weekend were this one showing the boys and the banner...

the boys and the table...

and this dude being amazed by JDon's portfolio...

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Also, before I left the new issue of Tattoo Energy (no.67) came out with a stellar article on our very own Cris Cleen. Here are some crappy pictures he took with his phone but you should really just go out and buy a copy:

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Guess what??!! It's that time of year again. The Lower Haight Art Walk will be Friday, Dec. 3. We will of course be doing more Get What You Gets and Hightower will be playing the roof again!! Don't miss it! I'll write another reminder post in a week or 2 but mark your calendar's now!!!

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And now for some pictures.

Trip out on this: