I was sick a month ago. Then, right before Christmas... again. And now, during New Year's celebration, I'm sick with something else. And it's not just me, obviously my family joins in on the fun every time. As soon as they regain their physical composure, it seems I'm back with more.

Actually, looking back, I've been sick more in the last 7 months than I have in the previous 2 years. The difference being my arrival at the tattoo shop...

It's a bit frustrating, but let's look at the better side: I'm building a strong immunity. So in 2012 when the super-crazy, mutated (from the depths of zombie hell) virus hits town... the only people left will be health care professionals, teachers, and tattoo artists.

That'll be odd for the first few months. But hopefully, after we tattoo a few doctors, we'll manage to get along swimmingly. And heck, I really wouldn't mind bartering for health care.

A little more geek info about our immune system after the jump...

Don't mind me posting my version of what's going on in my body while I fight throwing up. Now that I'm wounding people on a daily basis, I find this even more interesting.

We've an innate immunity and an adaptive (acquired) immunity.

The innate immunity is a natural resistance to invasion. It's our canned response to infection.

We have surface barriers: coughing, flushing of tears, our skin secretes antimicrobial substances, intestinal flora doing its magic on bad bacteria - and many more.

We have body fluid (humoral) and chemical barriers: inflammation, plasma proteins that attack the surfaces of foreign cells (see complement system), white blood cells that point and kill pathogens (by touching them or by ganging up and beating them down with car antennas), then some other big named cells that either replicate, secrete stuff, or straight fight - usually some form of hybrid martial arts such as Chinese boxing.

The adaptive immunity is our specialized response to infectious (pathogenic) challenges. It's the A-Team without Howling Mad Murdock. Because Murdock was a little mentally unstable.

We've lymphocytes, B and T cells. We've Killer T cells that hate anything damaged or dysfunctional. We also have Helper T cells that sit back, direct, and send timid folks out for errands.

Easily the best is our immunological memory. It tags problems on its blacklist. It becomes efficient over time by discriminating wisely. And it remembers the pathogen it fought before so it can wage an even stronger response if it runs into it again.

Once recovered from a specific infection, from a specific organism, you'll never develop an infection from that organism again.

Some resources*:
Microbiology at Leicester
Immune System at Wikipedia
The A-Team headquarters
Straight Bourbon - The #1 Bourbon Whiskey resource, ever.
Home Star Home Planetarium

*not necessarily related

After going back to the shop from being sick, I've noticed how slow I tattoo. What takes the guys one hour, takes me almost two. Granted, I'm learning and that's part of the process, but a client can only sit for so long.

I haven't really pushed my artwork, but I'll link to one of my drawings so you can understand a little. Here's a large drawing. After viewing that image, you can tell I'm a stickler for minute details. I always have been. So how do I teach myself to speed up - even look past - some of what I naturally see in my brain?

First, I have to examine my techniques:

1. My outlines are timid. In fact, I find myself going over almost all of them at least one more time. This is a big time killer.

2. If I error, it's on the side of not going deep enough. I'm paranoid about blowing out. So when I shade light, sometimes it's too light and again I have to quickly go over it.

3. I'm too worried about the client's comfort level. Did I put enough ointment on? Am I wiping too hard? All of these I'll certainly be adding to my plate as I advance, but right now I'm being overwhelmed by these concerns. I'm sure this eats up plenty of time.

4. My left hand still cramps up after about half an hour of stretching. Any lack of proper stretching has negative results, including more time.

5. Setup is getting quicker, but I need to be even more comfortable getting ready and putting my tubes/needles into the machine.

6. I try to pull out details that I'm not technically adept to achieve yet. Does this make sense? There's nothing wrong with trying and learning, but right now it's slowing everything down.

Then I have step back and see where I am. Because I'm an apprentice at a busy street shop, I'm not yet in a position to be able to explore the visual details I see onto the skin. In fact, there are times I'm working up a drawing for one of the guys, setting up a customer for an appointment, and seeing to dirty tubes in the back room.

Shop life is busy. Just yesterday, Nic had to draw up a huge, beveled tribal design in a matter of minutes. Then he pumped it out beautifully in hours. I put myself in his shoes and felt compelled to have rendered it exact on paper first then jump into the tattoo. I would have had to push the walk-in to a later (next day) appointment.

Eventually I'll accept that, for now, I need to reserve my desire to achieve what is in my head. And through experience I'll hone my skill at actually using my tool, my machine. Then, as my ability to use the machine grows, the ability to add more detail will slowly fade into one ever growing technique.

With the purchase of Guy Aitchison's Reinventing the Tattoo comes a serial number. As informative and visionary the book can be, the number enables access to an incredibly invaluable resource: The Hyperspace Studios Forum.

http://www.hyperspacestudios.com

Inside you'll find loads of information and candid tattoo talk. It's professionals sharing and those who are learning come to soak it up. Topics included projects, technical aspects, tattoo design, critiquing and tons more. Critiquing is honest - if you can cut the umbilical cord, you'll learn a lot.

When I first started visiting the forum, there were certain terms and items of reference I simply didn't understand. Half a year later, I'm just beginning to appreciate the depth of material and thought that has been archived.

I'll leave you with a small bit of Guy's welcome:

"It's perfectly understandable for a new artist to not want to be too forward, to show humility and all that... but this forum is not the place for being shy. No matter what your experience level, you have valid things to contribute here, even if all you have at this stage are questions"

I haven't tattooed in about a week. I'm itching. But what has stood out to me lately is how much fun working at a shop can be.

I noticed it as soon as I walked in the back door months ago. There is a quick and biting wit that can pounce on anybody in the blink of an eye. Some days I laugh more than I don't. When I'm not the butt of a joke, I'm right in the middle of it grinning from ear to ear.

One guy can make up a story about you on the spot. And as he keeps adding random information - which, with other people, usually results in an uncomfortable pause - his story just keeps getting better. The other day I was told about a lesbian couple that likes to go ballooning in Wyoming. I wish you could have heard it.

I could be wrong, but I think this extends into most shops. When I think about it, some of the funniest people I've met have been tattoo artists.

Hopefully this results in most of us watching Letterman instead of Leno.

Drawing every day for months and months will stretch you - I don't care who you are. Heck, doing anything over and over will eventually get you better at what you do.

So I put up a site of personal drawings. I'll update it randomly as pieces cross my station. It's a little encouragement for me to keep up the hard work!

www.shovelcoal.com

I've got a client who has given me full reign to do a religious themed piece on his right arm. Suddenly thinking large scale has set me back a bit, but the challenge is exciting.

For the project I created these three views of an arm for reference. Overall shapes are from Jenó Barcsay's Anatomy for the Artist. I took his inner muscles drawings and applied different line thicknesses for an external template.

I'm pretty sure most arms I tattoo won't be this defined, but it's helping me nevertheless. The actual outlines of the arms print at about 20% black. This way the shape is clearly visible and doesn't get in the way of sketching over top.

Download for print (small file size! - less than 80KB):
3 Views, arms large (PDF)
Large side view, 3 Views arms small, area for notes (PDF)

I've got a bunch of emails about this, so I'll go into a little more detail. My apprenticeship costs time and effort, not money. I'm not paying some lump sum up front to be taught.

Nor is my mentor paying me to clean, clean, get, and help with customers. While I push myself and try to make life at the shop easier for everyone involved - I've also got a weight on my mind that has to be controlled. See, I'm not 19. I'm a 27 year old husband and father. And, somehow, money has to come in while I go through this process.

At first I had bags under my eyes. Work the shop then go home and design late into the evening. It's wonderful that I have that option. If it weren't for connections made through the years, I'd be working at 7-11. Whatever it takes, right?

Thankfully, I'm at an in between stage. My tattoos are worth money, but the time to get there is still taking awhile. So I'm tattooing at a discounted rate to those who actually seek me out. But I'm not yet in rotation with the other working artists.

(Rotation is simply a fair way of balancing out walk in tattoos based on rotation and balanced pricing)

I'll admit I've still got some bags under my eyes, but I'm getting used to the routine. Hopefully, in time, things will begin to sort themselves out. But for now, we just keep on. So when posting gets thin around here, don't worry. I'm around... but probably working on a website or CD layout to keep up with that mortgage.

Well, that or drawing a fat, naked guy. You know, sitting on a turtle. Sure, he takes awhile to get to the scene, but he's one amazing superhero.

Ashlee and I enjoyed a wonderful trip to Rome a year ago. One of the highlights was a visit to Galleria Borghese. Bernini's incredible sculpture of David (close up) blew me away.

Well, today was slow for me so I started a session of David's face on my leg. The only true black is around the outer edges. Everything else is a 5% grey wash, so it'll heal much lighter. After it heals I'll come at it with a darker wash. Then, to make certain areas pop, I'll deepen sections with standard black Kuro Sumi ink.

Right now he looks like a mean, old man. Nice. I've much more to do, so I'll post as I progress.

I'm running out of room on my left leg. Everyone is telling me to use my thighs, but dang I've got some nice thighs.