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...

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!

Buying myself some time...

Really real post from Hong Kong coming up right here on the blog, as soon as we're not here, enjoying our vacation, anymore!
Sooo, later this week.
Hope y'all are well!

From our hotel

Still not answering emails, by the way.
Because i am on vacation.
It's something people do sometimes, or so i've heard, and in our case we actually don't have access to internet at our hotel.
So yeah, it'll all have to wait until i get back.
Also, sending me the same email twice, or a reminder after just a few days of no reply, will not make me answer your mail faster. More like the contrary.
(Sorry if that sounded a little harsh, but really, what's so important it can't wait a friggin week? Not much.)

OPIN DA DO!!

>>>>>>> Postcard from Africa!

Zissou would be proud...

... Cousteau too!







>>>>>>> Postcard from the South Atlantic!

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...

Roses, roses, always roses

I wanted to do a US post here, but Allan has been blogging quite a bit about our trip, as have i, so i guess it's not really necessary.
Allan even posted most of the tattoos he did there, but i do have one that he didn't get a picture of, just one!

A spontaneous rose!

I'll be back soon with some new shop photos and news!

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.

Allan at Inkrat

Sweet, new Tokyo tattoos up on Allan's blog.
Go check them out!

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.

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.

Friday news broadcast

It took me a while to track this down, but here's some tootin', or hootin' as it's apparently called, for your viewing pleasure.
The hoot is quite powerful, so use it with great care!

Now, to the news.
As you may already know if you're a Plog follower, Nick is leaving us for a while.
This makes us very sad, of course, but he will come back, so it's not a huge deal.
At least that's what we keep telling ourselves.
I try to focus on the good stuff, such as the souvenirs he'll bring back for me from Hong Kong.
If you have a piece in progress by him, and you'd like to get it finished before he leaves, just send him an email (pick@electricpick.com) and he'll hook you up with a date.

In other Conspiracy news, Eckel has a blog now!
Told you the hoot was powerful.
Go follow him, he has some good stuff up already.

A few random London shots

Our booth, merch overload

DooM!

Chriss and Hunter

Friday, on our way to the convention

Allan working

Chriss' fancy new rubber-bands (wonder if all the fanboys will be sporting this sweet combo in the future?)

Signing the super duper...

... awesome limited prints!

Thanks to our clients and all the people who came by the booth to say hi or pick up a t-shirt or a print.
And to our sweet convention family who made it such an awesome weekend.

To see Allans tattoos from that weekend, click here!