April Fool's!

Just about every year on our anniversay, April Fool's Day, we do something special. Last year we threw a huge party at the shop, this year we went to Forbes Island (for the 2nd time). For our 2 year anniversary we had a small shop party and tattooed Idle Hand tattoos on each other that TJ designed. Our 2nd year anniversary also happened to be Jason Donahue's first day. So the way we planned it was that we would tattoo each other based on the order we arrived. TJ would tattoo me, I would tattoo Andy, Andy > Iggy, etc. Jason Grace was tattooing Donahue and I guess he was so excited he started the tattoo before any one else, putting the Idle Hand symbol on Donahue's hand. TJ and I were at his station about to start and TJ said "Just follow my lead," as he was eye-balling the Jasons.

Just as they finished (and before any one else had started) TJ jumps up and says "HAHA! April Fool's SUCKER! None of us are getting the tattoo, just you!! Welcome to Idle Hand! HAHAHAHAH!" and we're all following along, laughing. Jason's face turned a shade of red I've never seen before as disbelief, regret, anger and every other emotion passed his face. haha. We probably let it go on a little too long but it was definitely hilarious. And of course, in the end we all got the tattoo.

Well, we're on our 6th year anniversary. I'd say we have about half of the old crew still here and some new additions to the family. I'm looking forward to building more memories like Jason's first day, and sharing them with you.


*Disclaimer: Here are some pictures I took and Bryce's GF Tracy took from our Forbes Island Dinner. I didn't take many but if you look close enough, I'm pretty sure you'll see everybody in at least one shot, but my apologies if someone got missed... Also, Isaac was pretty drunk (I know you're surprised to hear this!) so he was very entertaining and therefore is in a lot of pictures. I kind of apologize for that also. But my biggest apology goes to the pirate lady that night. I'm so, so sorry...
 

Shane and Holly wait for the boat to take us to Forbes.

Adam and his date Johnny looking handsome and waiting for the boat.

Isaac contaminating the Champagne, Kelsey, Mark

Trudy eating 1 of the 4 desserts she ordered (she is eating for 2, you know!!)

Aaron, Erik, Melissa

Isaac and Cris being creepy (as usual)

Bryce being creepy

Aaron, Erik (again, with the covered face!), Melissa and Nicole

Cheers babaayyy!! (From Left you see: Isaac, Kelsey, Mark's head, Jason, Iggy, Jen's hand, Trudy, Aaron)

Cecelia in the ladies room.

This bed is also in the ladies room...

The beginning of the end...

Tracy being nice to the pirate lady...

Right before things got weird

I just...have no words...

Embryo

I met TJ almost exactly 6 years ago. I was living in Austin and I came to San Francisco to meet family. A mutual friend introduced us. TJ had just opened Idle Hand; April 1st, 2004 is the anniversary. By September I had gotten rid of most of my belongings, save for my dog, my bed, tattoo equipment, painting supplies a few other things and was living in San Francisco, working at Idle Hand on Haight Street. I had (and still have) a magnet that showed the Haight/Ashbury sign I got when I turned 16 on a family trip to San Francisco. It's on my fridge. We had my 16th birthday dinner at Benny Hana's. We rode the trolly and my brother got cat-called in the Castro.

Idle Hand was not what it is today. Initially it was me and TJ. Andy came in October. Iggy came in December. I remember the day each of them walked into the shop. I guess those memories are for a different blog entry but they were important days in the history of Idle Hand. Maybe to sum it up quickly I can tell you what I remember the most is how TJ welcomed them into our "home" in an unconditional way. Whatever was in their past was in their past and they were here now and they were part of the family. He was like that with everyone he brought in.

Years have passed and TJ and Andy are gone (but still family!) and Iggy remains as one of my best friends and my Captain at Idle Hand. He and his wife Jen just had their first child in November and Iggy's been on paternity leave, taking care of his baby through, as most of our clients and friends know, 2 heart surgeries and with that, some trying times. I think I started this blog around the time of little Magnus' birth. In respect to their privacy, I've only posted a few times about them. I try to keep this blog focused as much on the happenings in the shop as possible, but because of how close we all are, that line gets blurred some times.

We had some new additions to the shop right before and after Magnus was born and so I've been excited for Iggy's return; 1, because his presence is undeniable in the shop and 2, because his presence is undeniable in the shop. ha! What I'm trying to say is Iggy is back at the helm on a regular schedule of Tuesday, Wed., Thurs, and sometimes Saturday. His computer is fucked. His boss (Magnus) keeps him up at night and occupied during the day, so his photo postings have been and will be limited but you should know he's back in the shop.

So quit playin' with your ding a ling and get a tattoo like this guy did:

 Iggy did this on the original Vanilla Gorilla the other day. If you don't know who that is, get your booty down to Bender's.

Also? 

"Sometimes I wish I was a Jellyfish"

WELCOME BACK TO IDLE HAND A@#$@#($#$*E!!!!


 * * *

I started this backpiece of King Kong, with "plants" and San Francisco behind him. I am anxiously awaiting our next session. I'm really enjoying this tattoo (except the butt clenching, that was kinda unexpected)

This is the 3rd session on this tattoo. Portraits are hard enough, but make them small and put them on the ribs and you're looking at Holly having extra sweaty armpits.

But! Probably not as sweaty as Jeremy's armpits were when this guys was suiting him up in his armor so Aaron could photograph him for a painting.

Obviously totally worth it though. The dude in this awesome painting is the dude tying Jeremy's bonnet.
(Painting by Aaron)

 Aaron

Aaron

 Cris

Cri
(Cris is in New York again. You should check his blog for updates and photos...Link to his name on our list of peeps on the top right...too sleepy to copy and paste right now.)


love you xxoo xxoo holl to the eeeee

p.s. next post will be photos from our 6 year anniversary dinner on forbes island. mostly of cris and adam molesting the pirate lady. thanks tracy for the disk of pictures! mu ah hahahahaaaa.

Less Chat, More Tat. Yup.

Iggy and a Local Thug

Holly (in Progress)

Holly (going to do a 2nd pass on this one)

Holly (first sitting)

Holly

Jason

Aaron

Cris (1st sitting on Bryce - hi!)

Cris

Cris

Cris on Isaac - hi!!

Lower Haight Art Walk

I want to start this post by thanking everybody who came out during the Lower Haight Art Walk the other night. I think this is the 3rd one we've had so far and everyone single one has been great. We were really disappointed that the weather kept our bands from being able to play but we still plan on having bands for the next walk, which I think happens the first Friday of August.

So anyway, we were super busy doing tattoos and Bryce and Isaac were so awesome. If it weren't for them things wouldn't have gone so smoothly. It's not so easy to have 6 people tattooing nonstop for 7 hours - that's after we already put in a full normal work-day (yeah! we finished tattooing at 2:30 a.m.). Bryce and Isaac handled all of the setting up/breaking down of the stations and getting everybody set with a tattoo who wanted to get tattooed, keeping the place clean, etc... They were cool, calm, collected and I want to put out a big thank you and a slap-on-the-ass to them for being so wonderful!


So if you've been following this blog at all you probably know that we've been making a lot of changes to the shop.  Everything has been so drastic it seemed until we did the lighting (which Adam did a few days before the Art Walk). Personally speaking, getting rid of the fluorescent lighting has been the biggest change and had the most impact on the shop, everyone who works here, all of our clients, and all of our neighborhood friends who stop by to say hi. I'd like to thank a very special person for making sure they were installed in time for our lil party.

(Thanks Adam and Johnny!! - sorry no pictures of Johnny but a big shout out goes to him!)

So here are the pictures from the art walk...Isaac was the photographer for most of them and that's why they are blurry, bad lighting, bad focus. The dude was busy! So I don't want to hear any complaining. 8) Love you, Isaac (especially that magical picture you captured of Cris. Thanks, especially, for that one...)

(Also, I would put space between the photos, write witty comments - for instance, how Emma and I wanted to have a friendly picture of us but that creepy brown guy snuck half of his face in, or how that one picture captures the moment right before Jason opened a can of whoop ass on Adam - but Blogger is a D@#$"(@-WAD!! and won't let me do these things right now. Apparently blogger is for people who like words more than pictures because it is really not user friendly and I have a pile of laundry and a convalescing dog and I don't have time for this! Seriously, everything about blogger is annoying the crap out of me right now. So if you have suggestions for where I could move this blog to that'd be great, thanks. Love you.)

 

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