It's certainly not a whole lot, but I've posted a handful of new tattoos in this gallery. Also, for your enjoyment, I've made sure to include both meaningless commentary and random attempts at sarcasm.

Oh, and keep those tattoo contest entries coming. I've received a lot. But, honestly, the odds are still looking good - 1 in a 100.

After reading the Hyperspace Studios call for entries, I decided to submit something for the tattooer "Scratch Art" book. I've cross hatched my way around paper for years, but have never tried working with scratch art like this.

I had no clue how valuable it would be. I had to rethink pulling out the brights with my lines, as opposed to adding darker values with a pen.

Anyway, that's my entry on the left. It's my little one, Xavier. Later, I'll show a bigger version.

Tattoo by Monte Agee - View comparison image of all sessions

After this, I think we're about 21 hours in. Monte went straight into the black, so I felt it. After about 20 minutes I found my mental spot of pain management. It doesn't usually take that long, but this time was a bit more difficult. Mentally, I was somewhere between a sandy beach and an Old Rip Van Winkle distillery in Kentucky. Nice.

My iPhone was prepped to watch a movie, but I couldn't focus enough. So, thankfully, my imagination stood intact. Well, that and good conversation.

Also, I've video of this. Once I'm able to transfer and edit, I'll post a condensed version of this session.

I had a little time today, so here's the second session of self tattooing.

I've got around half of this figured out in my head, the rest I'll figure out eventually. As much as I've worked on smaller pieces, I have an itch to shape ideas to the body.

It's exciting trying to create a flow and balance.

My concern is creating excess for no other reason than to fill the mass. If I'm to add composition around and within the piece, it has to be cohesive. It can't distract or overwhelm. To me, the final piece should be whole and direct viewers to the intended visual destination.

One of the coolest aspects of tattooing, for me, is that I'm the one who gets to select and cling to that visual destination. I may not see it in my head completely, but I'm learning the steps to clarify the translation.

Today, those steps didn't really take the route I'm accustomed. Instead of trusting paper and Photoshop, I went pulled out some Sharpies and drew like the big boys. By building up forms and shapes with different colored markers, I had a good representation of what I wanted. Once I put on some shorts, I then had enough time to tattoo some light wash into more of the forms.

Note that all of this is a work in progress, and will be for some time. I've much to do.

Here's a larger version. And here's the first post from Session 01.

Two days left, and I'll be selecting the winner of a free tattoo.
So send in your idea.

If you haven't yet, Read the post, and enter.

Based on content, I had a lot to choose from. But I'm also familiar with some of you from visiting. So, to make it fair, I separated the tattoo ideas from the names (as best as I could). There were some wonderful ideas...

What I was looking for was something different than what I've done, and a piece I could fit around the body:

The winner is Brad Spitzer from Iowa. Congrats!
He'll be getting a color underwater scene on his leg - waves, fish, squid (?) done in my style.

Nice.

Here's a condensed version of the final running. My mind ran wild with what I could do with these pieces:

1. The underwater scene with freedom.
Who knew? ...I'm going to make this really cool.

2. Greg's sacred knitting heart with needle, oak leaves, banner, acorns, etc. in honor of his mom.
Interesting and fun texture.

3. A Mucha piece on... Mr. Marcus Mucha
How cool is that?

4. Joseph wanted hops (the plant) in black and grey on his arm, woodcut/textile design style.
A great idea that could flow really well

5. Melissa's flowing organic arm with freedom: morning glory, hummingbird, trumpet vine etc.
This would have been fun

Thanks for the good time everyone! I'll be firing off an email tomorrow to two other people with an offer to work on your tattoo for half off (shop gets cut, I work for free).

As soon as I got over being sick, the server caught wind and jacked up while being worked. Does that make sense? I've got a few things to fix behind the scenes before I can even post.

I've been having to work just as much, if not more, while sick. No complaints here.
Many of the newer projects are challenging and I love it:

1. An Olivia pinup on a lady's ribs. She wants it "realistic and black and grey".
2. A flock of bird gradually getting closer from hip to opposite rib
3. A band symbol: it's a pair of snakes that form a heart. And he wants them huge on his ribs.
4. Van Gogh's Starry Night on the back of a shoulder (or leg). How do I make it fit the body without having to put a rectangle around it?
5. An odd version of a butterfly with the wings shaped in the letter "K" and asymmetrical to flow with the top of a foot.
6. And a portrait of Bjork is on hold for now, but dang was I excited.

Update: Here's the Starry Night. I just used her skin and freckles as a bit of the lighter elements and tried to fade out in the directions of his brush strokes.

Back in 1996 I created a website for hardcore. A year later I bought the name HXC.COM. Five years after that our biggest day was well over 25,000 unique visitors. Nice.

But as my career progressed, the site slowly went by the wayside. Here we are, 11 years in, and the site has been revived by some old friends.

I couldn't be happier. Thanks to Seth (Buzzgrinder), Jorel (Unshadowed) and Media Temple.