RIP Painless Paul

So, another tattooer friend of mine has passed away.  Why do I have to keep writing this same damn blog entry over and over this year?  I've known Paul for 17 or 18 years, and have lived pretty much around the corner from him for the last 10.  He also had a shop about a mile down the road from me.  Paul was definitely what one would call 'cantankerous'- an old school, biker tattooer.  On various occasions he told me, "I'm gonna out-gottdamn-live you, I'll be dancin' on your gottdamn grave."  Paul was a cool old guy- there were a lot of people that didn't quite get along with Paul, but there were plenty that did.  Paul had been tattooing for 40 or so years in the Atlanta area.  There were periods where Paul quit tattooing for a couple of years, fed up with the business he'd say that he was done with tattooing, but he always ended up being dragged back in.  When he closed 'Painless Paul's Skin and Ink Tattoos', he came into my shop with a 'Welcome' sign from his shop and gave it to me saying, "You want this gottdamn thing, ain't nobody fuckin' welcome in my shop no more."  I still have that sign hanging in my shop, hell, it was painted by Paul.  I also have a 'Pay in Advance' sign that Paul painted.  Paul was definitely the 'Old Man' of Atlanta tattooing- even if you didn't have any tattoos, you had probably heard of Painless Paul Nelson.  He was an old school tattooer in every way, and we would have long talks about our mutual hatred of the Gwinnett County Health Department (I guess from now on I'll have to give them enough shit for both Me and Paul).  Rest in peace Paul.

Bennett Benefit

I recently found out that Marshall and Dawn Bennett lost their home and car in a fire.  Marshall and Dawn are super cool people, and Marshall is a great tattooer.  I don't know much else about what happened, but if you would like to help the Bennetts in their time of need, donations, gift cards, etc. can be sent to:

Marshall and Dawn Bennett

11769  21 Mile Road

Shelby Township, MI 48315

PC fuckin' bullshit!

I'm pissed off this morning, not my usual a little pissed and ranting because it's fun to rant pissed off.  REALLY PISSED OFF.  Why?  Because I'm one of those boring people that listens to and reads the news every day because I wanna know what's going on and I like following politics.  So, I read some news stories most every morning on the internet.  Now, lemme tell ya what I do- I read news stories from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, whoever has a story I'm interested in (I like to read the same stories from various news outlets so I know what all sides are saying).  I also listen to the news on my way to work- I listen to our local talk radio station- WSB.  I listen to WSB for the news and weather, and for Neal Boortz.  I know, all you folks on the left are rolling your eyes at the mere mention of Boortz, and probably going, "Oh, he's one of those 'Hate Speech' guys".  But, you're wrong.  The Left loves to throw around terms like 'Hate Speech' (the Right has their catch phrases too, I know, but it seems like the Left does it more).  Anyone who disagrees with the Left is accused of 'Hate Speech' and 'Racism'.  But, the reason that I listen to Boortz is that he is one of the few Libertarian voices on the radio (and I find him to be pretty funny too).  Look at the heading of this blog and it says that I'm a Libertarian.  I can't stand Hannity or Limbaugh- way too far to the right for me, so Boortz it is.  Most of the people that accuse Boortz of 'Hate Speech' have never even listened to him.  They just think that he's another ultra-right-god-guts-guns guy, well, he's not.  Whatever, I'm getting away from what it is I'm so pissed off about...

Yesterday the Obama administration decided that they are calling what took place at Fort Hood in 2009 an act of 'workplace violence'.  Workplace fucking violence?  Bullshit, it was an act of TERRORISM!  Nidal Hasan is a fucking terrorist.  In fact, he is a RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORIST.  But, wait, this is America, land of political correctness, we can't possibly say 'Muslim' and 'Terrorist' in the same sentence. That might offend some Muslims.  Too Fuckin' Bad!  I'm tired of this PC bullshit of not calling things what they are for fear of offending someone.  Nidal Hasan was in touch through e-mails with Anwar al-Awlaki, who was a high ranking member of al-Qaeda and was considered a TERRORIST!  OK, you don't wanna call him a Muslim Terrorist or an Islamic Terrorist because that might be considered offensive (to other terrorists, I guess), then call him a 'Domestic Terrorist'.  He was a US citizen, so Domestic Terrorist works, but call him a fucking terrorist, 'cause that's what he fucking is.  Timothy Mcveigh is considered a domestic terrorist.  Ted Kaczynski is considered a domestic terrorist.  Because they were fucking terrorists.  Hasan is also a fucking terrorist, and a radical Islamist.  An act of workplace violence- no fuckin' way.  This was not a disgruntled worker that got fired, went home, got drunk and then went back to work and shot a bunch of people because he was drunk and pissed off.  This was a man with ties to Radical Islamist Terrorists that killed 13 people on a US military base and injured 30 others.  Call it what it is you PC pussy-ass motherfuckers, but don't call it workplace violence.  It was an act of TERRORISM against a US military installation on American soil, period, end of story.

Bacon Wrapped Bitchin', Liquor and Tattoos

OK, so I've gotten a few customer drawings done, so now it's time to take a break from trying to make something out of people's bad tattoo ideas, and do the blog thingy.  It's been a while since the last one, I'm sure you've all missed me terribly.

I'm gonna start off by answering an e-mail I got recently:

You don't know me, but I want you opinion about something. I read davesdamnblog and I like your angel on lots of things. I really liked your entry about the tattoo school. I've come across the news that now spike tv is doing a program called ink master. It's supposed to be a competition based elimination thing. Some of the same people that were up in arms about the tattoo school thing and who talk trash about the reality tv tattoo stuff(miami ink, la ink etc) are now all excited about this new one. Seems messed up to me. What do you think?

Thanks

Aaron

Well Aaron, first I'd like to say thanks for reading my dopey blog (that also goes for the other 3 or 4 people that read it).  I mentioned Inkmaster in my blog back in October, and my opinion of it is exactly the same as my opinion of all the other tattoo (un)reality shows.  Bottom line- I do not believe that tattooing should be on TV at all.  Personally, I haven't heard anyone say anything about being excited about this new entry in the shit storm of tattoo TV shows.  I do find it interesting that both Spike and Oxygen are running 'tattoo competition' shows at the same time.  Oh my, how can I possibly decide which one to watch?  I would like to say that I won't watch either, but I do plan on watching at least a couple of episodes of the one on Oxygen, which is called 'Best Ink'.  Now, with all the bitching I do about tattoo shows, why would I watch one?  Well, because a very good friend of mine is going to be a judge on the show.  The fact that Joe is on the show will be the ONLY reason that I will watch it at all, and probably just to get stuff to give Joe shit about (sorry Joe, but ya gotta expect shit from your friends- what else are friends for if not for bustin' balls?).

Besides all the things I've mentioned in the past about how I believe these shows have caused the ruination of the tattoo industry, there's something else that I don't think I've really mentioned before that bothers me about these shows- the mystique is gone from tattooing.  They have stolen the magic and the mystery of tattooing.  This is one of the things that attracted me to tattooing in the first place- it was a mysterious, fringe thing that people did- it was just the other side of 'socially acceptable'.  When you walked into a tattoo studio, you left that other world outside the door and entered a place where you weren't sure what might happen.  Would you get tattooed or would you get beaten up and robbed by a bunch of tattooed outlaws?  The whole process was mysterious, and when you walked back out of that shop with your new tattoo, it was nothing short of magical.  Sure, you knew that the tattoo machine pushed a needle up and down really fast and left marks that would be there forever, but you didn't really know how any of it worked.  Now customers ask things like 'is that a 7 mag?'  Things they were never meant to know.  I usually just lie to 'em.  It's just stuff they heard on TV anyway- they don't know if you're lying to 'em.  I generally answer with something like 'No, its a 12-B wide'.  You can go on YouTube and find out everything about tattooing, from EXACTLY how a tattoo machine works, to how to build one, to how to mix pigments, etc.  Everything that was mysterious about it is now just a google search away.  It's been commercialized.  It's been cheapened.  The magic has been taken away.  There are no more Unicorns or Rainbows- they've been killed by TV executives and internet videos.

Now, on to some other stuff.  I mentioned a few blog entries back that I was going to try to get back to doing some painting/ making some art.  Well, that's still my plan, and I have a few things that I want to work on.  The problem is that I went to work on some stuff recently and I don't have any damn paint.  I'm out of a whole bunch of stuff that I need.  I know that doesn't sound like a very good excuse, and it's not really an excuse, it's just the reason that I haven't gotten anything done yet.  Here in Georgia, there is a sad lack of art supply stores.  Sure, you've got your shitty craft stores locally where you can get a lot of basic supplies, but I need 1-shot, and the only damn place that sells it is about an hour away.  I'm gonna try to get out there this Sunday and get the things I need- I was hoping to make it there yesterday, but that didn't work out.  With the limited paint I do have though, I sat down for an hour yesterday and painted a silly tentacle monster on my bottle of Woodford Reserve- it's nothin' special, it was just for kicks.  I promise that I will be working on way cooler stuff in the near future.

Here's a couple of recent tattoos.  Started this snake the other day.  The equation in the tattoo, B=f(P,E) is Lewin's Formula, which states that Behavior is a function of the Person and his/her Environment.

Finished Keith's tree.  Now he has to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his front.

Now, just to make ya hungry, here's a couple of pics from Thanksgiving.  The first is of my baked clams- one of my specialties, and one of my child's favorites.  The second is a picture of our turkey happily surrounded by a bacon snuggie.

Last, but certainly not least is a picture of Abby's motor in the back of my car as it heads to Slim's house so that Slim can work a little of his magic on it.  As we get further and further into winter, there will certainly be more blog updates on the progress on Abby.