Baxter's Blog

Hi there, Bob.

Just wanted to send you our newest article about the shop. There’s a little video in there, as well, plus an interview and some pictures! Would be awesome if you posted it up!

Thanks!

—Lee Leahy, Family Tattoo, Chicago, Illinois

USE OUR TATTOO SHOP DIRECTORY

I have contacted each and every tattoo shop on our Tattoo Shop Directory. Only the “best in town” make it. We talked to each shop on the phone or at a convention and check out their work before we consider adding them to the list. That way, when you are looking for a top shop in your town, you know that we have been there first. Las Vegas, for example, has well over 200 tattoo shops. We only accepted the top 10. Albuquerque has one hundred shops. We list the top 9. Calgary, with 100 shops, just the top 7.

It’s slow going, but the result is a list you can trust. Think your shop deserves a place on our Directory? It’s easy to apply. Just click HERE.

DANA SPINS ANOTHER ONE

One day I was tattooing a young fellow with his grandfather present. As the tattoo took shape, I couldn’t help but notice the interest the older man had in my vintage tattoo collection, which is largely displayed in my shop. As we talked, he explained that he had several tattoos from the Bowery in New York City during the 1940s. He said that his father had been heavily tattooed and had worked for a guy named Charlie Wagner. Did he say “Wagner”? My attention grew keener.

His father’s name was Mr. B. Lyeer, a name that I didn’t recall in my tattoo history. Our conversation continued as he related how his dad had told him about “the good old days.” It seems his father had been a childhood friend of Wagner’s and had followed him into the tattoo world, helping with the shop and supply business. Then the bomb fell. The old guy said he still had some stuff that his father had left him and would bring it by and show me someday. Yeah, right. So, time passed and my conversation with the old guy was almost forgotten. Lo and behold, a few months later, while I was tattooing, I looked up and there he was, looking at me with a big grin on his face. Placing a large box on the floor, he stated, “I’ve got that tattoo stuff for you to look at.” I stopped what I was doing and immediately began going through piles of photos of his father, Charlie Wagner and other tattoo-related stuff. The old man was proud and happy that I liked the collection and said, although he needed to keep the family photos, he had brought me some pieces for my collection. Oh happy day! …read more

A FOOTSWITCH!

Every tattoo artist uses one. Every ounce of power that is transmitted from wall socket to tattoo machine is controlled by the humble foot switch. Well… Jeff “El Jefe” Arnett, from Birch Avenue Tattoo in Flagstaff, Arizona has changed all that with his mind-boggling collection of custom foot switches for tattoo artists that want something just a little more special. Not only that… “El Jefe” is currently constructing a special Tattoo Road Trip “El Supremo” footswitch as first prize in our next tattoo contest. So, if you want to win one of these ultimate pieces of tattoo hardware, stay tuned!

THE ART OF SQUINTING

By Uncle Tim Heitkotter

For the uninitiated, this may seem like a bizarre topic for “Lettering 101.” SQUINTING? WHAT the Hell? Most of you might be thinking, Tim’s finally lost it. Hang in there… trust me! I remember way back in the ’80s, when I had a sign shop in Monterey, California. Business was booming and I had a big contract with the U.S. Army painting banners for their safety program. They had the usual cliché slogans like “Click it or Ticket” and “Gas and Alcohol Don’t Mix!” Some of them had “McGruff,” the trench coat-wearing cartoon dog, whose slogan was “Take a Bite out of Crime.” There were two dozen twenty-five-foot by forty-eight-inch banners, all with different copy. My shop was a 1,200 square feet; twenty feet wide and sixty feet long, which gave me about forty-five feet of wall space to pin up these banners and lay them out. Of course, being the “Old School” guy that I am, they were all laid out by hand with a three-foot wooden yardstick and a dark-blue Stabillo pencil. No computers needed.

There was a neighboring sign shop about twenty miles away, owned by a friend of mine named Carl. He had a young apprentice named Deano. Deano was a kind of hippie kid who smoked a lot of weed. He would drop by now and then to say howdy and hang out. One particular day he came by, when I was laying out these banners. He leaned back on the workbench (beer in hand) and watched, open-jawed, while I took my yardstick and Stabillo and started laying out these things out with my usual speed. That is, quick!

His employer, Carl, had a sign computer and did everything on it. Carl never laid anything out by hand, because nothing in his shop was hand painted. All they did there was vinyl signs… and it took all day on the computer to lay things out for the plotter to cut, and then Deano would have to “weed” all the excess vinyl and apply transfer tape so they could stick it to the surfaces. So, when Deano saw me layout this twenty-four-foot banner in fifteen minutes, he was aghast with fascination. This, of course was nothing to me, as I watched men layout sign after sign by hand in my father’s old sign shop, and letter them up even faster. By hand! With paint! I remember Deano saying, “Dude! How can you do that so fast and it’s so…..perfect?” What else could I say other than, “Practice, practice, practice?” …read more

Vyvyn Lazonga

Dear Friends and Clients:

Forgive this mass mailing. I just wanted everyone to know that I will be out of the shop from March 19 until probably the middle or end of April. I just booked my surgery time for a new hip and wanted everyone to know as soon as I found out. I’m sorry for any inconvenience but I’m looking forward to not being in pain any more, going for walks and having a more normal life.

I will be having two excellent guest artists that will be working in the shop, when I am gone. For more information about the artists, you can go to my website.

Thank you so much. I look forward to seeing you in the Spring.

—Vyvyn Lazonga, Madame Lazonga Tattoo, Seattle, Washington

Mary Jane Haake

NOT TO BE MISSED

Mary Jane Haake, who has over thirty years’ experience in restorative tattooing, began her training with Bert Grimm, who was hired by the United States Army to help injured soldiers returning from World War II, who had mustard gas burns and other battle scars.  He passed down his personal recipe book for his formulas to Mary Jane and she has been actively working in this arena throughout her career.

 Mary Jane will be teaching a specialty workshop for tattooers, entitled “Camouflage – Restoring Damaged Skin” on Friday March 16^th, 2012, from 2 – 5 p.m., in conjunction with the 21^st Annual SPCP Convention, at the Hyatt Regency, Albuquerque, New Mexico.  This advanced class is open to any tattoo artist or permanent makeup technician, whether you are a member of this association or not.  All proceeds from this class go directly to the SPCP to further educational projects.

The Legendary Bert Grimm

If you have ever been approached to help with the Wounded Warrior Project, or Breast Cancer Survivors, but didn’t feel comfortable working with these technically challenging projects, this is the workshop for you.

Mary Jane will address techniques she uses to disguise scars resulting from trauma, burns, staph and MRSA infections.  She will also discuss surgical scars, skin cancer, cleft lip repairs and tattooing at a time when your clients might unwittingly destroy your work with the newest laser designed to rejuvenate skin. And more importantly, she will tell you when to walk away from a project.

This workshop will include a set of pigments and formulas, together with a take-away package containing detailed information and charts needed for this type of work.  And did you know that many of these procedures are covered by insurance?  She’ll give you the forms and tell you how to get paid through insurance, which allows for fair compensation for you and doesn’t burden an already injured client with additional expenses.

Register for this class online at www.spcp.org, or all (847) 635-1330.

In addition to Mary Jane’s workshop, there is a Bloodborne Pathogens Standard class by David Vidra of Health Educators, at 8:30 a.m. the same day.  David Vidra, is a registered nurse who is heavily tattooed and pierced and is excellent at focusing this discussion on our industries.  David Vidra will also teach a practical class on the most common mistakes tattooers make in setting up, performing procedures and tearing down when finished.

This is the first time I have ever seen either of these classes offered.  Don’t miss out.

A GATHERING ON THE RIVER

Felicia Conley (Flo’s House of Ink, Kelso, Washington) cares a lot about her tattoo friends. For the last ten years she has provided a comfortable place (the Red Lion in Vancouver) for local tattoo artists to come together, lay on some righteous ink and reunite with their Pacific Northwest tattoo family. Lyle Tuttle was there, along with Crazy Philadelphia Eddie (in the photo below, with one hand on his trademark highball and the other on Mary’s shoulder). Sailor Cam (South Tacoma Tattoo) showed up in a kilt, along with fifty or so other tattooists mostly from Washington and Oregon. Lord knows there are too many tattoo shops nowadays, but I must admit the quality of tattooing at shows, even these small, cozy, neighborhood ones, is getting better all the time, and, where there used to be five or six outstanding artists at any particular gathering, now there are twenty or thirty.

One standout of this show was Spider Monkey Tattoo from Olympia. I was stopped in my tracks when I saw the blackwork that Brian Childs had tattooed on his wife, Debbie. Same with the backpiece by Monkey’s Lexi. Other amazing ink was evident at the booths of Jacob Hanks (Tattoos by Jacob Hanks, The Dalles, Oregon) and Charlie and his son, Austin Spencer (Studio 21, Las Vegas, Nevada). Hey, that’s five excellent artists… plus I saw another fifteen or twenty who were first rate.

Two small complaints: Someone could have done a better job policing the hall, especially when there were plates of discarded food stacked on top of an autoclave parked in the aisle (instead of a clean area away from traffic)… and then there were the significant number of young parents standing next to or, even worse, sitting inside a booth while tattooing was going on… rubbing up against someone getting inked, with babies in their arms! Some of those little ones looked to be no more than a few weeks old. Don’t these loving parents know what’s flying around in the air in a tattoo environment? I really don’t think I’d want my baby exposed to that. I know a lot of tattoo artists who forbid anyone under 18 in their shops. Perhaps we  should have the same rules at a tattoo convention. What do you think?

Other than that, Felicia’s show was fun, energetic and her handmade plaques and bowling pin trophies were (just like  her pirate swords, from a couple years ago) one more example of the love and care she puts into this annual event. It wasn’t a big show, but with Mary Jane Haake, Dermigraphics, Portland), Lyle, Eddie and Jay Brown from the Rosini Tattoo Family on hand, it had plenty of class.