What not to write

Winter is on us like a big, heavy, grey blanket and it seems to be suffocating my need to blog.

But we're good, don't worry! The shop is doing great, and since it's not nearly as cold as last year, we're not even freezing our asses off inside like we usually do.

I believe our often partially dressed clients appreciate that too!

Allan is busy working on his art show and his book, Nick is tattooing almost every day as well as working on his new web comic, and Eckel... where is Eckel anyway? I believe he's in Hamburg today, actually. And also tattooing a lot, when he is around. And next weekend he'll be moping around Brighton, mumbling about some vegan burger joint that no longer exists.

So yeah, all is well at the Conspiracy, gloominess aside!

Me and Allan's trip to Japan is moving closer and closer, and just to emphasize how much we friggin miss that place, we've already bought tickets to go back in April, which should be good news for all the people Allan won't have time to tattoo on this coming trip.

Speaking of clients and booking, i do have a bit of practical info, possibly in rant form, that i could squeeze into this post!

You see, i have started to book from the Uncle Allan waiting list, and all in all it's going ok.

Except for a couple of things...

1. Some people still don't seem to understand that you shouldn't write a bunch of questions to the waiting list. I will not email you back, and you will not be added to the list.

If you have any questions, ask them before submitting your ideas to the waiting list, and ask them via our regular mail.

2. You will also not be added to the list if you don't include tattoo ideas and placement.

Also, it's up to you to think of something interesting for Allan to do. Try to make it fun. 

If i'm going through the waiting list and the choice is between someone with an awesome, well thought out tattoo idea, pictures of placement and reference, all wrapped up in a polite email, and a dude who's whole email goes something like this; "hey, i wanna get tattooed, i don't know what i want, so just do whatever, i don't care", well... it's not a super hard choice, is it?

3. Lots of people apparently only read the part of this page that has the email address in it, and so again, those people, who don't read the whole thing (yes, i know it's long) and leave important stuff out, they won't be added to the list.

4. If you get impatient and decide to go get tattooed somewhere else, at least have the courtesy to send us an email, so we can take your name off the list. If you sign up for a service of any kind, anywhere, and decide to back out for whatever reason, you let people know, right? 

This especially goes out to the people who couldn't wait for Allan and decided to get tattooed by Eckel instead. It's fine if you don't have the patience to wait, but for christs sake, let us know so i don't waste time writing emails offering you dates to get tattooed!

5. You don't get to chose the date you get tattooed, another thing that's explained on this page, so if you write an email saying "i'd like to get tattooed in June 2012", that's probably not gonna happen. Once we book you, we'll do whatever we can to find a date that works for everyone, but until then, you shouldn't assume you can get tattooed whenever you feel like it.

Whoa, with the angry teacher-type ranting, sorry about that, but seriously, a good third of the mails i get for the waiting list are either missing information or missing the point.

But the rest of them, those who get it right, we're so grateful that they take the time to read all the rules, come up with fun projects and wait patiently for Allan to have time to tattoo them!

If you read Allan's blog, you already know that he has claimed the month of March for his book project, but as soon as that's done, it's back to regular booking!

Ok, if you've read this far, you deserve some friggin tattoo pictures.

And even if you've only skimmed this... whatever, you still came by to read the blog, so you deserve some pretty pictures too!

Here's a couple of newer Eckel tattoos, one from 2011 and one from 2012. Enjoy!

Tattoo by Eckel

Tattoo by Eckel

 

Tattoo by Eckel

 

 Ps. Sorry for the obvious iPhone pictures... ahem...

I swear we're still alive...

Sorry for the blog silence in the last, what, month?

Wow, that's embarrassing...

Anyway, not much shop stuff to blog about when you're not actually anywhere near the shop, but we're back now.

Our trip to Japan was wonderful, and i hope those of you who are on instagram have been able to follow Allan's tattooing there (@unclea), cause he did some really fun pieces on this trip!

We also went to some really fun places (as always), helped Inkrat move to their new shop, took Japanese lessons, and just enjoyed the crap out of Tokyo, our forever favorite city in the world.

But we're back at work now, on a more or less regular basis.

A few things have changed around here, though, for one thing, Eckel does not work here anymore.

So please, if you have any questions for Eckel, about anything at all, send them to: grifzzfizz@gmail.com.

And as you've maybe already seen here on the blog, Nick, or Electric Pick and some like to call him, is coming to visit for a month in August, and we're pretty fucking excited about that. Hope you are too!

Ok, i think that's actually it for news, but i could be wrong, i swear my brain is still in Tokyo...

I found this beauty on one of my film rolls...

I'll be back soon with some info about our upcoming mystery event in June... exciting, huh?
Yep, it will be!

Greetings from our second home

Hello from Japan!
It's a bit of a rainy day today, and i have no plans, so i figured it was the perfect time to do some blogging.
Allan is tattooing, so maybe i'll post some tattoo pictures from Japan soon, but until then, i actually have some shop pictures to share.
I shot a film on our trip to Germany, and finished it in Copenhagen the day we left for Japan.
The Germany pictures are over here, if you're interested (there's a peek at the paintings as well), but i figured that at least some of the ones taken at the shop belonged on this blog!
All pictures were taken with my Canon AE-1, which is (in case you didn't know) the bestest and prettiest camera in the whole world. Yup, sure is.

Front room goodness

 Corner details

Nørrebro

 Around the lake

 Workroom corner

 Photo lab in the back room

 Last client the day before leaving for Japan was our good buddy Christel, who's obviously a total badass

More Japan goodness soon... probably!

Uncle Allan for Japan

Alright, they're finally here, the Uncle Allan prints we've been talking about for almost three weeks (well, mostly on twitter, but we have been talking about them!)
The prints are limited to 100 signed and numbered A3 sized prints on 300 gram fancy card stock, and we're hoping to sell them all.
All the money will go to the Red Cross' relief efforts in Japan, a country we love so, so much, and that was devastated by an earthquake and following tsunami on March 11th 2011.

If you scroll down to the end of this post there's a button that'll take you to our paypal.
Please pick the country you wish to get it shipped to in the dropdown menu, we will ship anywhere.
If you have questions, please write us before purchasing!
The prints are, of course, also for sale at the shop, just remember to call or write before coming by!

If you are interested in purchasing any of Uncle Allan's other prints, check them out here and please send us an email at conspiracyinctattoo@gmail.com before buying, and let us know which other prints you are interested in purchasing, so we can give you a separate shipping quote for the whole thing.
For this occasion only, we will offer a discount on all prints and flash (except the collaboration set with Hunter Spanks) and all the money from those prints will of course be donated as well.

We will ship once a week until the prints are (hopefully!) sold out and the first shipment will go out a week from today.

Please let us know if you have any questions, and thanks for your support!

Uncle Allan for Red Cross, 2011

(Watermark obviously not included)

All signed and ready to go

Print including shipping

to Denmark $65.00 to Europe $66.00 to US/AUS/Other $70.00

Please visit these links for other ways to support japan: All for Japan, Yellowblaze Webshop (proceeds from prints and t-shirts will go to relief efforts), I Stand with Japan, Tattooers for Japan, and our buddies at Progression Tattoo in Adelaide, Aus. who are having a walk-in day for japan on April 16th.
The TAM blog has links too, so visit them as well.

Ps. We're still planning on finding more ways to help, so check back later!

Recent events

In case you were wondering, we're still a little bummed about not going to Japan this spring, and a little bit in denial too.
I'm sure it'll hit me around the 29th, but for now i feel ok.
Honestly, i was a little worried about leaving our pretty shop home alone for so long anyway.
What if it wouldn't recognize us when we came back?
That would be bad.

We're missing so much by not going, but hopefully we'll be able to go to some birthdays, concerts and events that we'd otherwise have missed. So there's that.
There's actually a convention going on in Copenhagen in the beginning of April, the first one in years, and i think we might drop by.
We're not working there by the way, even though there has been some speculation about that. Ahem. But we were never meant to.
But i think it could be fun to check it out because, really, how often do we get to go to a convention and NOT work and NOT stay at some crappy hotel afterwards? It's even close to our place, and we do know some people working there and it'd be nice to say hi.

Chriss Dettmer was here visiting us this past weekend, and with the earthquake happening, i totally forgot to blog about that.
I didn't announce his mini guest spot on the blog either, and i am sorry for that, but he was here for such a short time, and we wanted to have some hangout time too.
He did do a couple of tattoos, but i promise that we'll get him to stay longer next time, so you guys get the chance too.
Anyway, it was wonderful to have him here. He's such a good friend and an easy house guest, both at home and at the shop.

Like i wrote in the last post (by the way, sorry that this post is all over the place, but it's Friday and it's late and i'm in no mood to write anything coherent right now, so you'll just have to bear with me) we're working on making some prints to sell for Japan and that's still happening for sure. We got some test prints today, so hopefully we'll have the finished product sometime next week.
They'll be limited, as usual, and we'll sell them alone and with other prints/flash at reduced prices.
More about that when i actually have a product!
I already started raising a bit of money for Japan, so if you like hats and animals, and hats with animals on them, check out my etsy shop. If you don't, just ignore that last sentence and scroll down for some tattoo pictures!
Pictures! Yes! More of those and less of... me ranting.

The orchid in the office came back from the dead, maybe thinking it's spring? Poor, dumb bastard...

Anne got another session on her backpiece, this time in color

Clients from Geneva brought us delicious chocolate

Young brought us cake

So did Tom and Ellie (the A is for Amalie, there was one for Allan and Eckel too)

Eckel and Lucifer plotting world domination, as usual

Chriss finished this one that he started a while back

I cleaned up the back rooms for god knows what time, so the dark room is just waiting for our carpenters now

Today on the way to work i rode my bike through the old hood.

We needed Dettol and the grocery store that i usually buy it at has closed down. So i went by Nansensgade cause i knew they had it there, and boy, did that street blossom since we left!

I mean, really, when we were there all the cool stores were always closing down and in their place hair salons and coaching cults or new age-y massage places would open. You know, boring shit.

But now, i spotted a bunch of new shops and at least two new café's.

One of them was even called "Amalie's Kaffebar" so it's obviously a coffee shop for people named Amalie.

And it opens right after we move out? Oh, the irony.

Anyway, it was weird to see the street looking alive again, and it made me wonder; did we kill it?

I hope not.

At least there are no shops to kill here in Schleppegrellsgade!

Thinking of home

Today we canceled our trip to Japan.
The government here finally started advising against non-essential travel, and so we decided to call off our trip.
It was a hard decision to make, one we've been struggling with since Fridays earthquake and tsunami, but in the end it didn't seem worth the risk.
We had friends and family here at home worried sick, and going started to seem both unnecessarily risky and a little selfish too.
We're not exactly the praying kind, but rest assured, Japan is on our minds all the time.
We've been in contact with our friends in Japan who are all unharmed, but due to the continuing problems at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, we still worry about their safety.
According to Hata from Inkrat, the power is out on and off, there's no water in the super markets, shops and restaurants are closed down and Tokyo is basically a ghost town.
We're feeling pretty helpless, or useless even, over here, doing nothing, so we decided to do something.
Last night i asked Allan if he had some painting or other lying around that we could possibly make prints of and maybe sell to help out, and it turns out he did. So we talked to our printer guy and it's happening, and hopefully soon too. They'll be limited and they'll be awesome and we'll donate all the money to an emergency relief organization, probably Red Cross since they seem to be the ones who get in there and do the most good the fastest.
So stay tuned for updates!
And until then, please donate if you can, and if you're in Tokyo, go get tattooed and support the tattoo artists over there who, like everyone, are in for some rough times.

Sweet Kōenji

I don't know exactly when we'll be back in Tokyo, but hopefully things will get better there soon, and we can get back over there.
And when we do i hope we'll be able to reschedule the clients who had already booked in with Allan.
ごめん なさい, we will be back!

A+A go to Yokohama and get tattooed

For those who like to read about our tattoo adventures in Japan (mostly mine, since it's my blog), i just posted a few pictures here.
Go have a look!

Allan's back, done for now

My leg, also done for now

Two more sessions for both of us in April.
Who knows, maybe they'll even be finished.

Greetings from Tokyo

The A+A has arrived in Japan, in case anyone hadn't noticed!
Actually, we got here a few days ago, but they have been busy days.
Allan has tattooed a bunch already, and it looks like the next couple of weeks are gonna be busy as hell.
So, where are the tattoo pictures, you may ask yourself?
Well, normally, i'd have to either manipulate Allan into giving me some for the blog, steal them from his card before he has a chance to transfer them, or compromise, like in the last post.
But Allan seems to think that since we're in Japan, and not the shop, i have no claim to tattoo pictures here.
The nerve of that guy, right?
So you'll have to visit his blog for tattoo updates, or my blog for all the other things we get up to (like our own tattoos for example).

I may post here too once in a while, but really, for the next month, our own blogs are where all the action is.

Almost there

This lucky walk-in had no idea who Allan was!

(Full story here)

Seeing as i'm not at the shop, wouldn't it be great if maybe someone else who is there, and who is a co-author of this blog, could post updates if anything shop-related should happen?
I sure wish i knew someone like that...

Nrrds!

Allan got to tattoo Hata a few days ago, and if you know Hata you'll know that this is something that doesn't happen too often.
In fact, Allan hadn't tattooed him since our first trip to Japan back in 2004.
Pretty big deal!
But a small tattoo, so despite a bunch of whining and complaining, he survived.

Beached whale position

Rei is impressed (maybe!?)

The final result: ED-209

And while we're on the subject of über-nerds, our friend Chrystal finally got her other foot done, so Chewie won't be lonely anymore.*

Greedo

Chrystal in her glorious Kappa hat

*Don't go all canon on us, in our happy little parallel universe they're friends and that's the end of it.

Ta dah!

Sorry, i haven't forgotten about this blog, it's just that all the tattoo stuff seems to get posted over here.
So that leaves me and this blog with... a foot.
A rose on a foot.
Hope you like it, i really had to fight Allan for it!

Done at Inkrat sometime in April

So, we're (obviously) still in Japan.
We're trying to have a bit of a vacation, and for me that means not answering emails in a timely manner.
Bear with me, i need the time off.
Also, we're not taking any bookings at the moment anyway, so if it's not urgent, it'll just have to wait.
Everything will be back to normal (whatever that means) in the beginning of May.

Also, we have changed the date of the official opening party yet again.
It seems that me and Allan are the only two people at the shop in May, so it'd be a little silly to have the party then.
So, after much consideration, we decided to move the opening until July, when the whole gang is (hopefully) in Copenhagen at the same time.
The date should be announced soon, and you, dear readers, will be the first to know!

Big in Japan

Sooo, we are in the new issue of Tattoo Burst and if you're in Japan you should pick it up.
You know, so you can look at us all the time!

Or because it's a great magazine with an awesome cover-dude!

And that's us!

Full story here.

Whales are awesome

We watched The Cove last night.
It's amazing and we think you should watch it too.
Ok bye!

We're back

Sorry for the lack of action on this blog while we were in Japan.
I hope you've checked mine and Allan's personal blogs from time to time, at least they've been sort of active.

Today is the 30th and for some that means time to send your in submissions for some sweet, future Uncle A tattoos.
I just wanted to let you know that it's gonna be a little while before you'll get a reply to those mails.
I'm just gonna collect them all this week, and then get out the calendar and try to fit everybody in.
After that, i'll get back to you, so please don't mail me more than once.

Unfortunately, i can already tell that there won't be time for everyone this time around.
This is not because i don't want to give you all appointments (there's nothing i'd rather do) or because Allan doesn't want to tattoo you (if i didn't occasionally stop him, he'd tattoo all the friggin time).
It's simply because there's not enough time.
We're already booked for a really long time and we don't want to be booked so far into the future that it won't be possible for us to take a trip somewhere, or a day off once in a while, so we're gonna try to fit in as many as possible, and the rest will have to get back to us when we take new clients again.
The selection process is not gonna be first come, first served, so you still have all week to write me.
Ok, i think that's it!
If you don't get an appointment this time around, don't be discouraged, we'll open up for new clients again in a couple of months.

Oh, also, i'm starting to get a few Milan mails already too.
If we do Milan in February, it'll be the same deal as last year: walk ins only, and you'll be able to chose from a bunch of line drawings that'll only be tattooed once.
Kind of a custom flash type deal!
We don't take request for the flash, Allan is gonna do whatever he feels like, and if you like it, come by the booth and get it tattooed.
All be designs will be made to take around three hours and as usual he's not tattooing any weird or awkward spots.

Ok, now that's really it!
I'm actually super sick and the only known cure to this type of food poisoning* is Star Trek and Lucifer snuggles.

Just because no one likes a post with no pictures, here's one of us at Inkrat with our American buddies, Hata and Allans Singapore clients

*Damn you sushi, i have your image tattooed on my arm and this is how you repay me?
Shame!

Kimono pattern awesomeness

Allan had two sessions on his back this weekend, both around six hours.
Phew.
More pictures here.

By Shige at Yellow Blaze in Yokohama

Light as a feather

Allan did two of these little foot feathers (slightly different from each other, but i figured one photo was enough) AND that giant cover up on Wednesday.
He sure is busy here.
Tomorrow; Yokohama!

Ellie's first tattoo (or is this the second feather?)

Back in Koenji

So, now we're in Tokyo, Japan.
Me and Allan, that is, we left Nick, Eckel and Lucifer at home.
We arrived on saturday and today is... i don't even know, wednesday maybe?
Whatever day it is, it's damn good to be home!

Allan has been working a lot, there are pictures up on his blog already.
Besides that we're just hanging out with our Japanese/American posse.
This weekend Allan is gonna get some work done on his backpiece and the weekend after that we'll go to a mini convention in Osaka.
Oh, and we're going to a j-pop concert too, so awesome!

Today at Inkrat

Gui is getting some flames covered

Later tonight, Okonomiyaki at one of our favorite restaurants, yum!

Sanna

Finally we have a decent picture of Sanna's backpiece!
Allan remembered to bring the good camera today, so hopefully this marks the end of the "shots-from-Amalie's-iphone" era.
Hopefully.
Today they did a lot of green and a whole lotta pink.

Looking good, huh?

Even the rinse cup was a somewhat murky, but happy pink

We leave for Japan on friday, so if the next couple of weeks are a bit quiet, that's the reason.
I'll try to post some tattoo pictures while we're there, but i never know what the internet situation is like in our apartment.
We will also try to post regularly on our personal blogs, so keep checking in.