the best different tattoo design: Jason Donahue

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...

*****

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:

Holly

Jason (aka JDon)

Jason

Jason (in progress)

Jason

Jason (in progess)

Jason

Erik

Cris

My awesome client brought in all of these goodies for us! The boys proceeded to get cracked out on sugar...

Jason!!

Aaron!!

eye-ma'am!

Thanks to everyone who came out to Molotov's last Friday to see our show. The lighting isn't the best - it's a bar - but we had fun and I think we all agree that our art really elevates the atmosphere in there. Anyway it was awesome to see some of our clients outside of the shop while we're "off-duty". I just walked over during daylight to snap some photos to share with you (of course I couldn't resist having a "big daddy" - or whatever). I caught some of the people who like to get drunk early in my pictures and I was trying to be quick so some are a little blurry but you get the idea. The show will be up for 2 months so you have some time to come see them in person.

Johnny from Bender's liked it so much he invited us to do a show at his place and we're excited to start working on that! It'll be in early January so we'll keep you updated.

Iggy Vans, Holly Ellis, Aaron Hodges

Cris Cleen

Jason Donahue

Erik Jacobsen

Cris Cleen, Cecelia Altamirano, Hanna Sandstrom

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So I've been holding out on you and I'm so sorry. We've all been super busy at the shop this summer and I'm super impressed with the awesome work everyone has been doing. Please enjoy these photos and I've got an inbox full of new photos so I'll be posting those next week. Thanks for looking!!

Aaron

Cecelia

Cris

Jason tattooing Isaac. I don't know why Jason made Isaac take all of his clothes off (except the shoes???) just to work on his back but I'm not judging...

Jason

Erik

Holly

(I posted this a few weeks ago but I'm putting it up again because this is the healed photo of it)

Holly

(This is a current photo of a tattoo I did 5 years ago. I'm pretty stoked at how well it's held up)

Holly

(The girls in this book are from an awesome illustrator in the early 1900s, with some San Francisco reference added. I'm having a lot of fun with this one...)

Holly tattooing Marielle, photo by Jen Siska

Holly

(This is the 2nd sitting on a fun underwater scene)

Iggy Vans

thanks y'all

see ya soon

the best different tattoo design

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