Chillin...

Car is still not finished being fixed... starting to worry.... Hopefully it'll be done by the time I need to leave. I want to get my ass to Denver! Soon!

In the hair salon with my girls this week, just killing time until my car is all better.

Check it!

Hey everyone out there! Its been a long while but there is some HUGE news!

I was in a large carwreck last week and I have been out of my car for a couple weeks. I was not hurt and it was not my fault, but the other lady has/d no insurance. The repairs are costing $6,400 and its taking forever to fix...

Also, I am moving to Denver this weekend, god willing my car is fixed.

Big things on the horizon and I am incredibly excited.

I also apologize for the lack of updates, hopefully I will be able to update more.

In the mean time, here are some of my latest tattoos that I've done!

Great...

So my tattoo parlor was robbed last night. They smashed through the front windows and took stupid stuff and an empty cash box. #1 suspect is the guy from my last post... the police did fingerprints and took lots of information. Luckily all my stuff is safe.

But this is what I was welcomed by when I went to the shop this morning:





So my tattoo parlor was robbed last night. They smashed through the front windows and took stupid stuff and an empty cash box. #1 suspect is the guy from my last post... the police did fingerprints and took lots of information. Luckily all my stuff is safe. But this is what I was welcomed by when I went to the shop this morning:

Iiiii'm Baaaaack!

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. I have not forgotten about my little blog, nor have I been intentionally depriving all of you the exciting adventures that are my life. Quite the opposite... there has simply been nothing good happening.

A month or so ago a guy was hired to work with me. Because this is a PG blog, I will just say that he was a terrible person and a drug addict.

He only lasted this long because my bosses were trying to see the good in him. He had a terrible past and said he was trying to make right by moving to Springfield and starting over. He did a terrible job of starting over, and this morning he was finally fired.

He made my life awful for a while. I went from having the BEST job in the world to dreading going to work every day. I was stressed out and it stunk.

But now he is gone. My heart is again light and carefree and the black cloud of dark mojo that had been hanging over the shop since he arrived has lifted.

For anyone who is interested, here's a photo:


One of the co-owners of Sacred Art, the shop I am at now, is on the left. He is cool. Creeperface is on the right. He is not cool...

In fact, this may be a better picture:


More updates tomorrow!

Diet time

Its that time of year again... time to drop 20 lbs asap. I began a diet yesterday and started working out again. Feels good.

In other news, I finally ordered my own set of tips, grips and tubes. Those are the things that you put the tattoo needle in and hold onto when you are actually tattooing, kind of like a really heavy pencil.

Here are mine, nice and shiny and new:


And I did this tattoo last night... ouch:

Two Tattoos Today

Rocking along... did a tattoo for ACTUAL money this weekend... made $60, but forgot to take a picture of it. I apologize. But here are two that I did today.

Rice and bacon bits for dinner for the first time in a few weeks...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Chugga chugga chugga--

Have three tattoo appointments today. Have two tomorrow. Have two next Monday. One next Tuesday.

Pictures to come!

Wooo!

This Monday went very well! The first tattoo I did was pretty bad... but it was the first time I had ever tattooed someone with a Neuma machine. After a lot of trial and error (and a doll of a client) I finished up the linework.


(traditional tattoo machines are run by electric coils, they are heavy and I had a hard time holding one.... Neumas are powered by a turbine and a clean air compressor. They weigh virtually nothing by comparison and thats the machines that I bought.)

The next tattoo gave was a gemini symbol that two friends are getting. We made it look like brushstrokes as opposed to just black boring kanji (chinese symbols) Turned out great... and I am tattooing his friend on this coming Monday.


Third was a wilting rose on a regular client of the shop... I actually have a picture of that one:



Also... dyed my hair to look like flames... this is a terrible picture, but here ya go!

Hecckkk Yessss

I have three official tattoo appointments!

Because the other shop that my teacher (Nate) co-owns is missing an artist, my training is shifting into hyper gear and I am likely going to be sent over to that shop for a little while to keep the income flowing. Extra good news is that I am going to be actually making income from tattooing now, or at least in like two weeks.

None the less, I will be tattooing my hairdresser, Brandie, a friend of the shop who goes by the name Testicles (he has "testicle" tattooed on his knuckles), and a friend that I made at the bar.

Photos to come, but I am fa-reaking excited.

March of the oranges

Tattooed three more oranges last night.... unfortunately they were somewhat old and didn't tattoo well. I bought some more this morning and I plan to ink them all sorts of up today. Gonna work on my black and grey shading.

Our piercer Misty quit so I set up a practice station in our piercing room. I am now allowed to tattoo any fruit any time since I have my own tattoo set up. Tony, our resident black and grey artist, is going to help me today.




There's my little station. :)

Also, my tattoo machines now have names... the green one is Claude and the black one is Blackie. (Named after the crow I fed Gardetto's to at the Racquet Club swimming pool.)

The machines have arrived!!!

I received a shipment via UPS yesterday that had my complete tattoo set up in it. I opened it and everything works the way it is supposed to!



Cleaned my machines out, they were quite gunked up.


I need to name them, one of them I am thinking will be Claude. The other I'm not sure. Any suggestions?

Worked at the bar last night and it was so slow I ate cheesecake and played Pokemon on Syd's gameboy that I stole over Easter.

I am back in town

Made it back to Springfield in one piece... the drive home was FAR easier than the drive to Wichita. It helps to not be sleepy. :)

I got home and realized exactly how dirty my apartment was so I brewed a pitcher of orange Kool-Aid and set to work.



I also attempted to change my lightbulb in my kitchen, but the above photo demonstrates perfectly that I was unable to successfully do so.

Need to do laundry REALLY bad, but I think I hate folding clothes more than I hate Nazis. Ugh.

One more orange down!

Tattooed another orange today, and touched up my ankle tattoo two days ago...

St. Patrick's Day was surprisingly really slow at the bar, but we have a Pub Crawl this weekend and business should pick up.

I am planning to come home for Easter, so make time for me! :) Gotta head home from the shop to get ready for work at the bar tonight... working 4 days a week at the bar and 6 days a week at the shop is starting to take its toll on me... but I'm doin' ok.

Sweet...

The bar is improving...more business and I am leaving with decent tips every night. Bills are being covered, which rocks, AND my brainchild is taking form.

What brainchild you ask? Well, I (meaning DICE Bar & Lounge) am throwing a Wonderland Party... Alice in Wonderland themed drinks and hookah specials and even little cookies that say "Eat Me" from an amazing bakery downtown called AmyCakes.

I designed the flyer and its going to be handed out started Monday:

Big steps.

Yesterday I tattooed a pair of oranges. The rind is supposed to mimic the way human skin takes ink, but it didn't seem to, in my opinion. I got fairly good with the oranges, and I am doing a couple more today. Then I touch up my ankle tattoo that I did a few weeks ago, finish the "Mayhem" tattoo on our piercer Misty, and 8 more good tattoos. Once I reach that point, I get to start tattooing actual customers, which means money in my pocket!

I am moving forward! Still able to pay my rent, been living pretty frugally, but I am comfortable.

May or may not be coming home for Easter, still trying to figure that out.

ADFJKjj

It has been a long but relatively uneventful week. I had a meeting at Dice (the downtown bar I work part time at) yesterday and everyone ate sushi.... the boss bought it, reaaaaally expensive sushi. I had rice... lol...

Been bonding with a couple people from the shop, Misty, our piercer, is absolutely crazy, but awesome.


Ryan, one of artists in the shop..well...fits the same description of Misty, haha..


I desperately need to do laundry, but I have no time to do it. The laundry facility here is closed when I get off of work. Oh well...

Tattoo....!

I officially have done my first tattoo!!!

First tattoo

I tattooed myself last night.





Two can Sam.

:)

Life is stressful...

Well I am officially poor. It happened sooner than I had expected, but I am in no way surprised. Good thing is, I am still very happy with my decision to move here and do this. Maybe its because I had a good night's sleep last night or I am just having a happy morning, but I feel far less stressed today than I have been feeling.

Commerce Bank tried to charge me overdraft fees to the tune of $50-$100 when they took three days to process my electronic transfers, but I spoke with them and that money is back in my pocket... thank God.

I quit the gym I had joined, a little bit of drama there, but its all good.

T-Mobile charged me for an extra month of service, not sure why, but that is straightening out.

All in all, I'm doing well... need to clean my apartment though... and fold my clothes....

Updates

It has been a busy week. I set up a facebook business account for the tattoo shop. If you have facebook, you can check out everyone's protfolios just search "Eternal Tattoo" and you should find it. Our profile picture is of my boss putting up the sign.

I've also been drawing more and more, this week my assignment was wings and feathers, neither of which I have ever drawn before, so this is a bit more of a challenge than were the skulls and roses. Nonetheless, some cool stuff is coming from it and I am definitely enjoying myself.

The bar has, unfotunately, been very slow. We have had snow storms every weekend its been open and needless to say, I am beyond broke. I have $42 in my checking account... thanks to my car insurance, rent, and iPhone repair all being due in the same week. Looking for odd jobs and such to make ends meet, and if anyone has any ideas, short of donating plasma (eww!) I am all ears!

Sundays are my only day off from the shop, which is okay, because the more I sit on my butt at home, the less I actually accomplish. Right now I am waiting on laundry... gotta make good use of my time because I haven't got much of it. :)

Have had a trying few days in other aspects, but overall I am doing good. Made some friends, Ryan, Misty, Castleberry, and Brandie... Unfortunately Castleberry enlisted last week and will be gone in like two months. Just my luck, right? Ha...

Very much appreciating all the supportive facebook comments and emails. They mean a lot.

Hope everything is going good back in Wichita.

Bad day.

The one with a bunch of pictures.

Hello out there! I went out with our peircer Misty and the tattoo artist mentioned in the last post last night, and I haven't had that muh fun in a really long time. Spectacular night in the PGest possible terms. :)

Anyways, time for some photos!!







The first is Ryan relaxing on our coffee table. The second is him trying to break into the jewelry case.

Next are a couple drawings I did a coupld days ago... just some basic roses.

Last is my training artist, Nate. He is apparently a bug.

Slow day at the shop.

Still drawing and cleaning tubes. Its pretty exciting. :)

This is Ryan... he is nice. He wants to tattoo you...




Not a whole lot to update on today. If you have questions you wanna ask, send me my way.

It is all coming together nicely.

I started at the bar last night. I work with a couple guys and 4 girls and they are all actually really nice. It was a soft opening last night so it was all friends and family of the guys who own the place, Peter and Paul. Paul bought me a scotch and champagne was free for everyone last night too. Considering I only had 3 tables (it was a slower night) I made almost 50$, which is pretty good. Tonight is the grand opening... its supposed to be insanely busy. Hopefully the snow doesn't scare everyone away.

Apprenticeship is going good. Sterilization of the tubes and stuff is officially my job. Along with grunt work like cleaning the bathroom and dusting. But its all good. Each toilet I scrub is one toilet closer to my tattooing license. :)

Been getting to know the shop guys better. All very nice and excellent artists. Ryan, one of the guys, is gonna tattoo me when we are bored. So next time everyone sees me I might have a hefty dosing of new ink.

Be prepared!

It has begun!!

The tattoo shop was inspected (and licensed) this afternoon! I hung out at the parlor all day. So far, I am just drawing. As much and as often as possible to get my hand skills back that I lost since high school. I'm not gonna lie, its nice to not HAVE to use my computer.

Any ideas for drawings, lemme know! I'm happy to do commissioned paintings/drawings!

I start training at the bar on Wednesday afternoon. It is a fancy-pants kind of place so lots of businessmen and lawyers. Hopefully status translates into tip percentage.

Met a BUNCH of people at the parlor today while I was hanging out. Planted some friend seeds, and everyone so far seems pretty darn cool.

Oh, and I am being sent out at night to pimp the parlor. That means going to bars and clubs schmoozing and handing out business cards. Excellent...

The plant has been named.

May I introduce you to my house pet...

He is a Miss Cane tree, from Lowes.

And his name is Ichabod Cane.

Today is a good day.

I got a job!

I had the most ridiculous job interview ever at the Buckle this morning. I was supposed to be there at 11, and I was. I was told to shop around while the manager got ready for the interview. Then the usually pushy sales people had me try on jeans for 20 minutes, despite me telling them that, being unemployed, I could not afford a $150 pair of pants. Then the manager came and asked me about 6 questions and told me he would call me.

I wandered around the mall a little bit and stared at the Paul Blart's rolling around on there Segway's with helmets. I also noticed that they have two Abercrombie stores... does anyone else find this strange?

Anyways, I returned an application to a downtown lounge/bar today as well, and was offered the job on the spot. I shall be a cocktail waitress at Dice. Works perfect for my hours and tip money is almost always better than being paid by the hour...especially in a bar.

I've been working out and feel good... spirits are high, all things considered.

The parlor is all but finished... we are just waiting for the health and building inspectors to come and check everything. We shall be open soon.

Unnamed plant

Howdy out there everyone!

Its been a busy few days! (relatively speaking) Mom and Adam came here for the weekend and my apartment looks much more like a home now. I have my Grandma Kuhn's 1960s floor-to-ceiling lamp complimenting my 70's couch and my ginormous bean bag chair. Also, mom bought me a little palm plant thingie for my living room, and its awesome. But it needs a name... any suggestions? I can't bring my puppy here, so for now, this plant is as close to a pet as I get... and my only company at night. (Kind of sad, I know...ha)

Mom also got me an awesome bookshelf... unfortunately I significantly overestimated the amount of stuff that I had to put in it. Adam and I put it together yesterday...bonding time. :)



Still no job, but I am returning an application to a brand new (not actually open yet) bar downtown called Dice, so hopefully that will pan out. I'm ready to meet people and be able to spend money again.

Fattie fat fat.

Joined a gym yesterday... hopefully I can get some social time there. Also, I bought it instead of cable... a gym membership here is cheaper than cable, and each machine has its own television and DVD player. This way, I can work my fat butt off whenever I have a show I really want to watch.

Been helping at the tattoo parlor this week. Painting and cleaning and such. We are supposed to open Monday, but opening requires everything to be finished, so we shall see...

Still no job... still filling out applications.

Going to go hangout with some people tonight, should be fun.

Corn nuts and Netflicks...

I am sitting in bed as we speak munching on the aforementioned, corn nuts, watching The Sunshine Cleaning on Netflicks. Internet is working significantly better today than before... though I am not sure why.

May or may not go out to the tattoo parlor and help out tonight... just awaiting a phone call.

Still terribly lonely, no new friend prospects.

I applied at 10-15 more places for jobs today and I was astonished with the level of testing require for a job working the register at the Kum & Go. I spent a solid 45 minutes taking an online personality test for them.

Still no call backs...

Oh, I tried a delicious beer last night at a bar I applied at called the Mud Lounge... its called Hobgoblin...

Tuesday.

Today I busted my butt filling out job applications. Everywhere from Quik Trip to an Irish pub called Finnigan's Wake. Hopefully someone will call me back...

More importantly... I thrice heard a radio commercial for a tanning salon advertising that they could make you "brown as a biscuit." I laughed each time.

Internet is working better... but still it is really difficult to watch Hulu... and I don't have cable... so not only am I lonely, but I am also mind numbingly bored.

First meal

Fried rice... new pans... insanely delicious!!

Move in day.

Saturday was the official moving day.

We arrived at my apartment at about 12:15 in the afternoon and unloaded everything to fast it made my head spin. Since I was the only one who packed everything up before I left, (granted some friends helped, Cat, Co, Marissa) having four people to unload it all made it astronomically easier.

Adam helped me unpack everything, and thanks to his man skills, successfully hooked up the xBox, the DVD player, and most importantly, the bed. Select Comfort beds are pretty comfortable, but MAN are they complicated.

Went to Walmart to buy all the household essentials: food, paper towels, soap, detergent, shower curtain, etc. Little did we know, the shower curtain would be the biggest debacle of my life in Springfield to date. We bought a curtain rod and the curtain, but we didn't need a rod, as

my apartment came with one. We also forgot shower rings competely. So we returned the rod, got some rings and tried again. This time, the holes for the rings in the shower curtain were about 1/16th of an inch too small, so we had to return the curtain as well. We finally got it

together, but then we realized that the shower head is located chin level to me. We went then to go buy a shower head extender, but when we attempted to remove the existing head, we

found it had all but been krazy glued into place. Discussing this fact with my landlord shortly. :)

Despite the shower fiasco, the move in went well and I am settling in.

For those of you who are curious, here's my apartment:

Notice, that Eric Carr from KISS watches me cook...

Today is the first day I am truly alone. Adam left to go home to Ark City for work this morning around 5 a.m. It was hard, but I have Kyle (my cuddle monkey) to keep me company for a little while.

I start helping out at the tattoo parlor this afternoon... Excited!

But for now, I have to go sign my lease!!