Goodbye, Minnesota.

I don't even know where to start.

After a million years in Minnesota,
(or at least what feels like my entire adult life)
Meryl and I have decided to leave.
I wish I could say I love this house too much,
or I'd miss the May Day Parade or Powderhorn Park more than I could stand,
but I guess the truth is I'm ready for a new adventure.
Well, I'm not sure I'm ready ready,
but we're going anyway.
And where to?
Not back to the east coast,
or even the west coast,
but somehow deeper into the unknown,
and we're trading lakes for mountains.
Some day, maybe, we'll get back to the ocean,
but for now, Fort Collins, Colorado.

Tribal Rites Tattoo,
(home to super-inspiring tattooers
Curtis Burgess, Ben Merrell, and Erick Erickson)
was hiring.
I loved working at Tribal Rites during my guest spot in September.
They work so hard there,
and push themselves (as well as each other) to be better and better,
and I want to be a part of that.
I am grateful that they are hiring me,
and starting in the new year,
I'll be there full time.

So goodbye, Minnesota.
Not yet; and not forever, of course.
I don't leave till late December.
And I'll be back every so often to do guest spots.
A flight to Denver is quick and relatively cheap, too,
so you can visit whenever you want.

Thanks very much to Twilight Tattoo for having me the past year,
and Identity Tattoo for the 5 years previous.
Thanks to all my clients in Minnesota,
especially all of those who let me explore my style,
and get a little weird with some of my drawings.

I hope Colorado is ready for me.

Important invitations! (and a lot of tattoo pictures...)

Ok, you've seen the pictures from London (right?), so now we can move on to the important information stuff!
Not to worry, as the title suggests, it's not all text; there will be tattoo pictures in this post too, and plenty of them, you just gotta promise me to read the whole post first, ok?
Good, i knew i could trust you.

On Saturday October 19th (which is so very, very soon, i know), we're having a little party at the shop and even though this is waaay too short notice, we'd be happy if you'd come.
It's gonna be a little Oktober Fest themed get-together thing, so expect beer and possibly some German sausage of both the meat and veggie variety (if the weather allows us to light the grill, that is!)
We'll be starting at 16.00 / 4 pm and we'll shut it down when we're either tired or cold or both!
This is an open house, so it's ok to come by even if you don't know us personally, but of course we are hoping that our friends and clients will have time to drop by.
And we're not saying it's like a costume party or anything, but if you should feel like throwing on a dirndl or a pair of lederhosen, hey, we're not gonna stop you!

Now, this was originally supposed to be our opening party, but as you know if you've been following us for a while, we're just not good at those (the shop in Schleppegrellsgade was host to two Halloween parties, but it never officially opened), but we are great at theme parties, so we're doing that instead!

Which leads me to the next announcement; walk-in weekend!
We had such a fun time doing walk-in week back in June, but we decided this next one should be on a weekend instead, so we don't have to move bookings, and so that people who work during the week will also have a chance to come by.
The dates are the 8th, 9th and 10th of November, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and we hope to see a lot of people there.
We'll start at 13.00 / 1 pm every day and close when we feel like it... so same as every day, basically!
I'll be posting about this again, maybe with some flash previews, so check back!
Also, the flash that Uncle Allan didn't get to tattoo in London will be available for one off tattoos, so yeah, sexy lady tattoos are happening!

Ok, did you read everything?
Good, then you get to look at some pictures!
Some of them are by the guys, and some are by our guest artists, because it's still Guest Artist Madness Month here at Conspiracy Inc. (in case you forgot!)

Tattoo by Wendy Pham

The dude at the Indian restaurant is better at food than he is at pictures!

Tattoo by Adam Hays

Tattoo by Wendy Pham on our friend Marina

 Tattoo  by Aron Dubois

Tattoo by Electric Pick

Tattoo by Uncle Allan 

 Tattoo by Wendy Pham

 Allan and Adam sharing a moment at the street fair this weekend

Tattoo by Adam Hays 

 Tattoo by Electric Pick

Tattoo by Matthew Gordon

Tattoo by Wendy Pham

 Tattoo by Adam Hays

Tattoo in progress by Uncle Allan

Guest Artist Madness Month is great, by the way!
We've had Adam Hays and his girlfriend Marina visit, Electric Pick is staying with us at the house for a month, and currently Brian Thomas Wilson and Aron Dubois, and their assistant Annie, are at the shop (both have time for a few more tattoos, and you can read about how to contact them here).
It's been so great hanging out with friends, and having more than three people tattooing at the same time!
Not that we want the shop to be this busy all the time, but it's so much fun when it actually happens, and we're also just really enjoying all the good and inspiring conversations and ideas that come from having a bunch of awesome creative people under the same roof.

Ok, i will be back here to remind you about both Oktober Fest and Walk-in Weekend next week.
Thanks for reading!

Not-so-foggy London Town

I was in the middle of writing a really exciting post (no, really!) about upcoming events at the studio, but as i was uploading pictures, i realized that i had way too many for one post.
And also i feel like the London Tattoo Convention deserves a post of its own.
Not because i'm gonna write a whole bunch about it, but just cause the show was so kick-ass this year!
Like, it always is, but every year it gets just a little bit better, and so this was the best one yet.
We shared a booth with Chriss Dettmer (as we always do and always will!), and we had a great time, and Allan and Chriss got to do a bunch of cool tattoos.
There's still some left from the super sexy American Apparel flash that Allan did, though, but those will be available at the studio on upcoming flash days (more about that in the next post!)
We saw lots of clients, friends, healed tattoos from last year, and unlike the other years, we even had some good food and coffee!
Oh, and as the title of this post implies, the weather was pretty great too!
Yup, it was great.

Ok, pictures so we can move on to other important stuff.

We stayed at a new hotel this year, and holy shit, what a difference that made... never again, Ibis!

 Tattoo by Uncle Allan at the London Convention

Allan hard at work, as always

Tattoo by Uncle Allan at the London Convention

 Tattoo by Uncle Allan at the London Convention

Our booth, with all of Chriss's awesome handmade merchandise

 Tattoo by Uncle Allan at the London Convention

 Tattoo by Uncle Allan at the London Convention

Tattoo by Uncle Allan at the London Convention

Stay tuned for the next post, coming up in a matter of minutes, if i don't get distracted by something shiny or edible.

Thank you very much to be part of this book
http://www.monsa.com/en/

London!

Ok, yeah, it may be kind of last minute, as we're leaving tomorrow, but here's that preview i promised you!
Allan has been working lots of late nights to finish these sheets for the convention, so we hope you'll like them.
We will bring his flash from last year too, so whatever he didn't get to tattoo last year is still available too.
There may also be some originals for sale, so come by the booth and check them out.

Enjoy, and see you at the convention!

Uncle Allan London 2013 Flash

Uncle Allan London 2013 Flash

Uncle Allan London 2013 Flash

Some stuff i´ve done last week

Some stuff i did last week

Paradise Tattoo Gathering, III

I flew out to Colorado last week to work at Tribal Rites with Curtis Burgess and Ben Merrell in Fort Collins, 

and then we drove together up to Keystone, CO for the third Paradise Tattoo Gathering

(but only the second time it's been in Colorado).

I'm super jealous of the working relationship those two guys have, 

they really feed off of each other, 

and push each other further, 

while still keeping their unique style. 

I was really inspired being at that shop, 

and I got to do some fun tattoos, 

and also got a tattoo from Curtis as well. 

It's not done, yet, 

so it looks like I'll have to visit again soon. 

The convention was pretty great.

I was super busy and did 4 tattoos in the three days.

Here's two of them, 

I haven't even unpacked or found all the photos I took, 

but I am hoping there are more. 

Thanks to Tribal Rites for having me, 

for Curtis and Ben, and their families for hosting me, 

and to all the people who put on the Paradise show, 

I appreciate all your support tons and tons. 

Some Cover Up from today

Seppuku Tattoo wants YOU!

Ohayo gozaimasu Seppuku Ronin! I apologize for the lack of blogging, but the studio has been consistently slammed. We have been to two Hell City Conventions, a weekend of tattoo seminars, a paint jam at Off The Map, Ali was in Switzerland getting tattooed by Filip Leu, and a host of other events that have kept us all spinning and jet lagged.

I'm bumping my blogs about lettering tattoos and tattoo TV shows, give them a read.

http://seppukutattoo.blogspot.com/2012/02/letter-of-law-laws-for-lettering-and.html

http://seppukutattoo.blogspot.com/2012/04/tv-hammer-party-tonight.html

After a very successful partnership spanning three studios over eight years, Seppuku Tattoo is saying goodbye to Matthew Lukesh at the end of this year. Matt is relocating to Iowa, specifically the Platinum Rose Tattoo Gallery, owned by the extremely talented and handsome Josh Fields. 

In early 2012 we were on a search for new talent which netted us one Ali Chin Chin, and we wrote this blog citing what it was we were looking for.

http://seppukutattoo.blogspot.com/2011/12/help-wanted.html

Matt has some pretty big shoes to fill, so we will be looking at a lot of people. Let me take a few minutes to give you a run down of Seppuku Tattoo, and why it would make a great home for another world class artist or two.

Seppuku began in 2005 and is in its eighth year. We build a new studio in Savannah, Georgia, in an attempt to open in a city that hadn't yet been over run by shops, and also to honor our non compete contracts. Almost immediately we started traveling, attending events and winning awards. Johnny took off to attend the CMJ Music Festival, where he was a guest of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame the very first week we opened our doors. The first month we were open, we crashed the Prick Magazine Tattoo Party at the Jinx in Savannah, and Johnny took the shop's first award for Best Small Color. The Savannah shop was set up as a gallery, and hosted a series of art shows that included Jeral Tidwell, Johnny Crap, Rob Schwager, Brian Morris, Jason Goad, author Paul Grushkin, Brian Ewing, Stainboy, Jason Cooper, and of course Jeff Wood. Now free from being dictated to by our former owners, we expanded our art, began studying painting techniques again, and incorporating fine art theory into the tattooing. Matt's paintings transformed dramatically. They had formerly been based on tattoo flash styled imagery, and shot forward into proper fine art. Matt's tattoos likewise took giant leaps forward, especially being able to experiment in way we had been forbidden to do before. For example, we were never allowed to tattoo color portraits. Now Matt is known internationally for his brand of realism, having clients travel from as far away as Amsterdam. Not to be outdone, Johnny found himself being asked to paint the cover of Skin & Ink Magazine in December 2009. We would be onstage painting in the Wet Paint Projects at Hell City and at the Mad Hatter's conventions, and at closed door all day Paint Jams at Keith Ciaramello's Kustom Kulture Gallery.

Seppuku worked hard to be included in the very ethnocentric Savannah society. We hosted a number of late night fetish balls and sponsored a number of live concerts. We were at the Trustee's Theatre with Paul Grushkin as he presented his coffee table sized tour de force, 'The Art of Modern Rock', to an audience of hundreds. We held a poster show with a number of the book's artists at the Jinx. The studio participated in art shows in Charleston, including a number of poster shows, and the Munny Show. We held book signings, participated in art shows, and Johnny even performed a Halloween wedding at the studio. For all our efforts, and how well received each event was, we felt that Savannah was just not for us, and we moved home after a five year run.

Seppuku attended a number of conventions, particularly proud to be invited to the ones run by our peers, like Durb Morrison's Hell City Tattoo Expos, and Billy Easton's Richmond Tattoo Convention. Normally we are the kind of people that scoff at awards, but on the other hand, it is fun to take an award from a show surrounded by so many peers. Or taking nearly every award, like we did at the Savannah Harley Davidson Haunted Coast Run. We also received a sizable amount of attention from the magazines, notably Skin & Ink, International Tattoo Arts, Tattoo Society, Tattoo Energy, Tattoo Savage, Tattoo Revue, all the Outlaw Biker publications, and a number of Best Of issues. Matt is published in books from the Publishers of Bizarre Magazine, including 'The World's Most Incredible Tattoos'. Both Johnny and Matt appear in 'Cranial Visions', and other artist compilation books. Johnny and Matt also are quoted in Chris Dingwell's book, 'Inside Out'. Johnny's introduction to the book is actually cited by a number of book reviews. 

Johnny continued to move in his former worlds, attending a number of events as a poster artist for Drowning Creek studios. In addition to the Rock Hall Show in Cleveland, he also attended the TRPS Festival in Golden Gate State Park in 2008, and Stainboy Reinel's book signing and poster show in Orlando, The Living Dead Dolls Show in NYC, and a CBGB's Benefit Art Show just prior to their closing. He's been published in a stack of books about rock art, has artwork that appears in Guitar Hero 3, had a poster turned into a DVD for the All American Rejects, and created a poster for Hot Topic's GH promotions. His first paying writing gig was for an article on the release of the 'Art of Modern Rock' book. Johnny is sent photos of people tattooing his posters on them from as far away as South Africa. 

Seppuku has had the honor of hosting great guest artists, including Josh Fields, Dee Dee Seruga, and the aforementioned Chris Dingwell. We've had a number of tattooists & poster artists travel to receive work from us. We also hosted the multi talented Dingwell teaching his 'Painting Without Fear' seminar at the studio for a closed door all day event. Each Seppuku artist is dedicated to getting work from great tattooists as part of the learning process. Some of the artists we've collected from include Filip Leu, Horiyoshi 3, Bugs, Jeff Gogue, Paul Booth, Sean Herman, Josh Duffy, Nick Baxter, Joe Capobianco, Chris O'Donnell, Tomo, Josh Fields, and Ivana Belakova. Ali and Johnny are committed to traveling overseas to continue their collections. 

Seppuku is in Bloomingdale, NJ. We chose the locale for two main reasons; legality, as its still illegal to tattoo in portions of NJ, and the fact that's its not near anyone else, almost an impossibility in this day and age. Although in a sleepy town in the hills, we're right off several main highways, and only 30 minutes outside of NYC. We enjoy being able to attend art shows, gallery openings, conventions, seminars, as well as everything else New York offers, but come home to lakes, rivers, and great hiking. 

In the future, we plan on continuing as we always have, creating great art in all mediums, and creating a great space to get tattooed in. We plan on doing more things outside our doors, as our space isn't quite the art gallery the old joint was. We plan on continuing traveling, both as tourists, collectors, and as tattooists. We will continue to abide by the bushi code of honor, loyalty and trust. We will be enemies of the status quo and killers of mediocrity. We have great plans for the studio, and great plans require great artists. 

If you're tired of walking the demon road of meifumado as an assassin for hire, there can be no better place to call home than Seppuku Tattoo. All qualified ronin, please contact Johnny Thief at johnny@seppukutattoo.com. Domo arigato gozaimasu!