Copper Pots and Ray Guns

These machines tattoo really sweet. The shaders also do fat outlines like butter, and the liners do grey wash in an unusually perfect and predictable fashion. Every time I sell a machine, it's like a horrible breakup. I sleep next to every one, and I try to tattoo with every one as well. If I send you your machine without tattooing with it first, it's because I can tell that it has "the magic." I needle hard rubber for an hour or so once I assemble each machine. This places much greater demand on the machine than human skin does, and I can tell how it's going to tattoo from this test. I just made my first all-steel flywheel. That's going to Ron Earhart on his new shader. I also decided that tattooing demands too much from the offset pin to make it out of brass, so those will all be steel from now on. The current tube vise style I make is very grabby and reliable. If you have a hard time loading your tubes because they are extra fat, just pry open the vise a bit(carefully!) with a screwdriver. Make sure you loosen the thumbscrew first, duh :] I can't wait til everyone has TWO of my machines so we can all get excited about this new dimension in tattooing together!

Kansas City Tattoo Convention 2010

Well, my pals Jim and Peter rolled out the red carpet for this one. I stayed at their house and had Jim's 2nd car for the whole week I stayed! This made everything soooo much easier. I was able to dive into tattoos at the convention, and was still able to have some much needed downtime in KC. The convention was really fun. A bunch of regular ol tattoo fans were waiting outside the door at opening time on Saturday! It's been a while since I've seen that sort of enthusiasm in the tattoo biz. It seemed like everyone worked and made some money this event. The Mercy Seat booth was kinda in a separate front room, and in our room at least, the vibe was awesome. I didn't get to see much of the convention because I was working at it! See you next year at the Real Deal KC Tattoo Convention.