so… it’s been a while, eh?
where do i start? after my last post i took a week off and went to Las Vegas with my old lady and some friends from Pennsylvania… that was a lot of fun!! went to the grand canyon… gambled a bunch… drank a bunch… ate way too much at the Bellagio buffet… stayed in a suite at the Bellagio that was the nicest room i have ever been in like, ever… hahaha. the highlight of that trip, however, was going to see Penn & Teller at the Rio and being called on stage to be a part of one of the tricks ON STAGE!!!! man i was nervous but that shit was awesome! i still have no idea how the trick happened!!! halloween in vegas is a trip man… so packed!
in november, Coop and I went out to Brussels Belgium for their first international tattoo convention! i’ll start with a bunch of pictures from that and pepper in a few pictures of recent tattoos… i leave for Ireland on the 23rd to spend my birthday and new years with my lady in a castle and getting drunk! what better way to end a long year of traveling all over the world and zapping out a bunch of tattoos than being on an island sipping Guinness on the other side of the world?
anyway, enough talk… here’s what you came here to see!
here’s some pics from my vegas trip…
here’s me with a SAW (squad automatic weapon) at the GUN STORE in las vegas… i also shot a Steyr AUG… that shit was awesome…
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a sweet shot of the Bellagio i took with the hipstamatic on my iPhone… on the last day, after the PA crew went home, my lady and i stayed in the cypress suite at the Bellagio which is in the middle column. 1200 square feet with panoramic windows surrounding the bed… his and hers bathrooms… its own livingroom… it even had one of those TV’s that rise out of the entertainment center in front of the bed… that shit was SWANK!!!!
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the hoover dam… that crap is super high!!! i had gnarly vertigo!
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Reject’s got John in a figure four leg lock across state lines… which begs the question… if John taps in arizona does the win count in nevada?
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oh and then there was the grand canyon…
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reject in the million dollar dream hold near the edge of the southern rim….
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john got reject in the walls of jericho…. haha we fucked with reject so much…
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yep… that’s me… trying not to spazz out on stage with Penn Jillette during their show at the Rio! my friends tried to get more pictures but security caught them… bummer! ask me in person about the trick! i still have no idea what happened…
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Penn and I after the show…
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Teller and I after the show… such an amazing time!!!
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this is Elvis Aaron Lewis… he is a arrtarded….. he tattoos at Steel City Tattoo in PA and is a damn good artist… he’s not normally in a wheelchair, but we found this at an antique shop in vegas… it was too funny to miss out on this photo op. sorry wobbly’s, no offense.
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drew a big triumphant cock on the stationary of the hotel/timeshare that we all stayed in… i always draw something on the stationary…
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me and my beautiful girlfriend on our last day in vegas right before we drove back home to san diego… we all had a blast in vegas and i can’t wait to see everyone again, wherever we decide to go…there are a TON of other photos but i want to keep it focused mainly on tattoos here…
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so now on to Belgium…
mmmm… beer….
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amazing architecture…
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another shot from the main square…
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i ate a horse… yep, that’s a horse steak… and it was pretty good. not amazing… but good. now i can say “i was so hungry i ate a horse”… can you say that?
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after some horse, a nice chug of beer to wash it all down…
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i found a dead bird…
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mmmmm…. belgian waffle…
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sugar skull and roses i did at the convention… drew it on the spot as well… i am realizing i didn’t take any pics of the convention… hahaha. you can click HERE to see shots of the convention and see what i missed…
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here’s a freehand skull i did on Nico from 25 to Life Tattoo… we just kinda drew it on and ran with it. i think it came out pretty sweet and he was pretty stoked on it. i couldn’t get a very good shot so this is all i have to show…
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here’s a zombie-ish yoda i did on a guy at the show… the guy only has 23 yoda tattoos and the rest are all star wars related… pretty trippy… kind of a creeper too… i did a sweet hourglass tattoo as well but the guy never came back after we finished to get a photo… i’ll get a shot someday and put it up.
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Coop and i took our day off and went to Paris!! we went to the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower… here’s a couple shots from that extravaganza…
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a sweet hipstamatic shot from the eiffel tower…
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the louvre….
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Venus de Milo…
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La Victoire de Samothrace…
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i got so many amazing pictures from the louvre… there’s no way i could show them all… i think i literally took over a thousand pictures in there… if you’re friends with me on facebook i guess you could see them there! if not, you’re fucked.
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here’s some tattoo shots of stuff i should have been posting…
this is a section of full leg sleeve i am working on… remember the piece of the angel slitting the demons throat on the thigh? well this is a cross section of the lower part of the that leg sleeve… more to come of course… you’ll need to see the thing that the demon is eating…
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this is a sweet, seven sorrows of mary, piece… this is also a first time tattoo and he sat like a champ! there’s actually color on it already but those pics came out like crap… so for now this is all you get… looking forward to finishing this one for sure!
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here’s a HUGE rib piece i have been working on… i believe this pic is from the third session… it’s a sugar skull cased in by sparrows with day of the dead decorations on them and some water… the water and the upcoming light have a meaning so they’re not as out of place as you might think… this one is gonna be color so stay tuned for more…
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this is a piece i finished on my buddy recently that consists of a scratched up book with an inverted cross and banners that read “think for yourself”… also, we added flowers that are native to the area that he is from. he said he got the idea when he stayed in a hotel and the bible in the drawer had fucking stab marks all over the cover… in fact, as a gift, he brought me that very bible…. and it sits in my studio to this day… come see it for yourself!
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saw this on “cash in the attic” on HGTV… hilarious!!!!!! personally, i would have thought a rusty trombone would be worth a bit more… hahahahahahahahahahaha
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domo arigato mister roboto!!!!! so many times i have used that joke for this piece… i am tired of it too… haha. the robot is colored as you can see and we have a few areas to color in and close it up to the existing upper half sleever… at some point, too, we are gonna add some more to the inner arm and fully complete the sleeve. almost done!!!
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here’s some shading on that half sleever i started a while back… gonna color it after the holidays… gotta go over the letters again as they healed kind of shitty because he didn’t follow my instructions, haha…. also, we added a key and some more curlies and shit… those pics were too awkward to show all the angles and shit because i took them weird but i’ll show you more when i color it… this sleeve is a long time comin!
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here is some gnarly lettering and scottish thistle and scottish flag i did on a shoulder blade all in one shot…sweet and fun one shot tattoo and i am glad he made it all the way to the end!! good work!
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here’s a cool ganesha tattoo that i did based on some noble art i saw (thanks)… i have maybe only ever done one of these one other time but i think it came out pretty fucking awesome! all in one shot about 3 and a half hours! great job!!! this is just black and gray so this is how it will look… i am pretty pumped!
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this is a rad black and gray inner arm piece that i did in one shot… obviously, it reads “family”, and the number of roses is symbolic to that… we did another on the other inner arm the next day which will be posted below. these were a ton of fun, man. i don’t get to do black and gray that often. i know i don’t really do it the same way other people do it, but i kinda like that. here’s the other one…
this one is “friends” and was done the very next day after the “family” one… sparrows are generally symbolic of travel and in this piece they are a reminder of fun travels with old friends and so on… these two pieces were drawn on the same layout to make sure that when you saw them together they would look similar in weight… to balance out the “friends” piece i added a budded rose. i thought that it could be perceived as a symbol of the blooming friendships… or more jokingly, its one of the buds, hahaha get it!?!?
oh yeah and i forgot to mention these too… we did these on the same guy that got the “family” and “friends” tattoos on the insides of his arms… in fact in this pic you can see them sticking out of his shirt, and still red from being so fresh… these are based off the Jim Croce song “rapid roy” in which there is a line that goes “he’s got a tattoo on his arm that say ‘baby’… he got another one that just say ‘hey!’” so we did them in a single pass simple old style tattoo way that would have been similar to the way it would have been done around the time in which the song was set… it’s an awesome song and i am pumped to have done it!! also, you should note that this guy got tattooed for almost 4 hours one day… almost 4 hours the next day… and THEN got two more!!! think of that next time you puss out! hahaha
Check out these amazing bottles of wine that were given to me by the guy who got the “family” and “friends” pieces… he owns his own winery where he blurs the line of fine wine and hot rod kulture… you can check it out HERE… these bottles are filled with an amazing hand crafted wine and don an amazing pinstripe design AND are a cross-promotion with the Roth family… you guys know BIG DADDY ROTH don’t you??? we’ll why don’t you go to his WEBSITE and get yourself a bottle or two!!
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also, check out this rad promo for SK8MAFIA that i was part of… the first minute is the promo where Jimmy Cao pays for his whole days worth of adventures with his awesome signature slips… he comes in and gets a SK8MAFIA tattoo across his stomach and pays with slippers… such a funny and rad idea! check it out…
funny part is, we shot that shit for like 2 hours… i went through all these steps to make sure it looked as real as humanly possible and all we got was a few seconds in the shot, hahaha…. it was a lot of fun though! Still waitin’ on my slips guys… size 13!
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that’s all i got for now… i know i keep saying i will update every week and i always try to make sure that i do… but i’ve been working on new art… new tattoos… another interview coming out soon… a sketchbook… flash… prints… new shirts… all that!! and i’ll be creating a new website for the band, we’ll be recording soon, putting out a record… stuff like that.
my girlfriend and i will be traveling to Ireland for the holidays… i will be in a fucking CASTLE on my birthday!! (day after christmas, in case you were unaware)… i won’t start working again til the 3rd of January so you might only see some rad pictures from Ireland in the meantime… check back every once in a while and see all the new stuff!
until then, happy holidays?
TURK
