tumbleweed_tattoo

Happy Holidays!
I wanted to post some celestial bodies for this New Moon / Solstice vortex we just passed through, but I’ve been limiting myself to a couple hours of design work every day, so I’m a little late. . . But I’m stoked on how this project is coming together
While looking online for Bert Grimm’s original sun/moon designs, I fell down a rabbit hole and learned about Sailor George Fosdick, Bert Grimm’s mentor, who slung ink in Portland and Seattle between the 1910s and the 1940s.
Then I came upon some photos of the heavily tattooed Captain Elvy, who had some familiar looking designs on his knees.
Who knows who originally made the designs. Might’ve been Sailor George, might’ve been Sailor Gus, might’ve been Charlie Weston, might go back to a port of call one of them visited during their time in the service . . . And who knows what the original tattooer’s source material was . . . It could have come from a book, a rug, wallpaper, a temple, or any number of places, traditions, crafts, artists, till you get back to a moment of inspiration – or necessity – when some unknown artist in some unknown time and place made an image of the sun in some unknown medium.
Regardless of where these came from, I enjoyed copying them and then breathing new life into them. I’m going to keep working on these old designs and giving them glow-ups consistent with my personal experience of the aesthetic zeitgeist.
Oh yeah, 160 for b/g, 180 for color. HMU

Whatchoo know about Portland’s tattoo history?
Here’s my take on a monkey face from an old Bert Grimm flash sheet. $180 in black ‘n’ grey or $220 in color. DM if you want it!

Happy birthday to my favorite artist!
I wanted to make a reel of some of my favorite MC Escher pieces, but
A. It’s all of them
B. Time
So here’s a pic of one I tattooed years ago! I’d love to do more, especially some good tessellations! Or any of them, really – I don’t think I’d ever say no to an Escher project 😂 HMU with your ideas ✒