dustinancona@gmail.com

So…this was a shock.

The tattoo I did is on the left. I was really pissed at first but now that I’ve had some time to think about it and get used to the fact that nothing is sacred to people anymore, especially with the internet, I’m at peace with it. It’s up to us to educated our clients and also be the ones to give someone their own tattoo and not someone else’s. We must use this discretion since what we do as tattoo artists is permanent. This was not on a flash sheet, it’s an image I painted, put on my business cards, and tattooed on a good friend. It’s personal to me, and probably to them as well.

While I’m flattered (maybe?) that someone liked it enough to reproduce it (without permission or credit, and literally copying it almost exactly), it’s still disrespectful. I won’t name who did it because everybody makes mistakes, but I want to take this opportunity to try to let other people know that it can happen to them, and also to think about it before you just grab something and use it.

In this age of instant gratification, blogging, and reblogging, please credit your sources, or if you want to be even more decent, ask permission. It really goes a long way.

XO

O. Britz

From the time he was 10, Jordan Hoffart knew skateboarding was his life. For years, he lived his life in Vancouver working construction and skating every spare moment he had. In 2009, Jordan moved to San Diego from his Canadian homeland to live the skateboarder’s dream. Working his way up the ranks from shop sponsored skate rat to professional skateboarder, Jordan has paid his way with blood, sweat and sacrifice; the only true way to make it.

Today, Powell-Peralta is excited to announce Jordan Hoffart’s much-deserved pro model, The Hoffart Pegasus, featuring one-of-a-kind graphics by the mystic, Vernon Courtlandt Johnson. This is VCJ’s first commercial offering since his highly anticipated return to Powell-Peralta.

VCJ, known for some of the most iconic graphics in skateboarding history, has returned to Powell-Peralta with a vengeance. “I had been away from skate art for a long time in order to find some answers to personal questions. I am satisfied with what I have found. I am back in the game of skate art,” said VCJ reflecting on his return to skateboarding. In his early career, VCJ was the man behind the Ripper, Caballero Dragon, the Tony Hawk Hawk Skull, the Ray “Bones” Rodriguez Skull & Sword and the Mike McGill Skull & Snake graphics.

After some tinkering to the initial design, VCJ has produced Jordan’s pro model graphic with a Pegasus theme of a winged horse. VCJ shared his insight on the image, “I see the symbol as a representation of the eternal soul and physical body. I am the soul and my body is the the horse that carries me through life. The logo behind the image represents those who love and support Jordan in respects to his giftedness, devotion and time in this form as Jordan Hoffart.”

“I’m stoked the way it panned out,” said Jordan reflecting on the experience, “It’s amazing. The whole process of sitting down and really getting to know VCJ was a blessing. The amount of energy, time and effort he put into making this graphic is unbelievable. I literally got a stack of 100+ sketches he did leading up to the finished drawing. I’m beyond stoked to have this opportunity given to me.” The levity of the first VCJ graphic since his return to skateboarding is heavy to Hoffart. “I just got it tattooed on my arm, so I get the significance of it. It’s a huge honor.”

Powell-Peralta’s commander in chief, George Powell, talked about the time and effort that went into the project. “Jordan’s new graphic is a gift of love from Court. We spent the kind of time on it we used to in the early 80s, months, until it was as good as we could make it, so it will last forever.” Powell hinted at the velocity of the creative hurricane stirred up at Powell-Peralta since VCJ’s return. “Working with Court is very different than it was 30 years ago, what used to be difficult is now easy, and Court’s depth of understanding of both the skater he is creating a graphic for, and the deep meaning of the graphic keep bubbling to the surface as the design evolves. We are having too much fun.”

The Hoffart Pegasus comes in two dimensions and is available in royal purple and blood red. The Hoffart Pegasus 1 is 8″ X 32.125″ with LIGAMENT™ technology, and the Hoffart Pegasus 2 is 8.5″ X 33.5″ both featuring a VCJ masterpiece of ride-able art on the highest quality skateboard decks available.

The first five decks offered will be signed by VCJ and Jordan and available on the Skate One site Saturday. The net proceeds of the sales will be donated to the Grind For Life Organization.

In the beginning of August, I joined Lisa Schmoldt  in Seattle for the 10th anniversary show there at the expo. I was pleasantly surprised. I really like that show. I had not been there since the National show where they roasted Ed Hardy a few years back. And before that, was when Dennis Dwyer had his show there. That was one of the last times I saw Eric Hogan alive. He was toting his son Dixon around on his shoulder looking as happy as ever. I had also tattooed Danny Dringenberg’s hand in our hotel room that weekend. It was a cover up on top of a cover up on top of a cover up. O joy. The funny part, was when we started, he wipes his brow and tells me he just ate an eighth of mushshrooms. I remember laughing and telling him, “ok, here we go, I’m right in there with you buddy”. Oh yeah, I’m supposed to be writing about the recent past. Ok, well the Seattle show was terrific. I will definitely be back next year. Between all the work, the parties, art shows and the yummy dinners, my favorite memory was at the end of the show. Under the Needle fed us an amazing meal and then had the party buses scoop us up and take us to The Stables. I love that place. The cross made of flies, really ate at my brain for a week or so, and  creeped me out thinking about it on my drive home that night.  My friend Matt Howse was here holding down the fort with the rest of the Fortune crew. I was excited to get back  to Portland to have some quality time with Matt before he bounced back to SF. I was able to persuade him in taking a ride out to our replica of stonehenge out off the 84hwy nears Biggs Oregon on one of our days off. We rode about 230 miles that day. Just a juant. Along the way, we took him past Crown Point and down the historic hwy to see all the falls. It was a beautiful day and I am so happy to have shared that experience with him. The next day, we took him down the Clackamas river on tubes. Its about a three to five hour trip. Depending on how often you stop to hang and watch people float by. Weve been able to go about five times this year on our days off. I love it. It reminds me to take a minute and enjoy the simple beauties in life. Cheap fun worth the effort. Matt made some pretty at the shop. I am really stoked to have had him here for the week, he is one of my favorite people on the planet. Crammed to the gillet with talent and integrity. I look forward to having him here next year. I love having our guest artist friends come hang and add to the creative buzz we have going on. The shop has been running smoothly. I am so grateful to all our clients for letting us make such awesome tattoos on them. Many of the most recent tattoos have challenged me to push forward and to take a step out of my comfort zones. I love feeling like even after all these years, there is still so much to learn. Anyhow, thought I’d update you with our shenanigans. Take it easy. M

Here we are at the end of July already.

A whirlwind of events have taken place over the past month. I can not account for all of it. So here are some high-lights.

At the beginning of July we had Lisa Schmoldt here from Florida. She had started her west coast tour in Long Beach California in the beginning of June. She went there to hang with the pirates and the mermaids, at the tattoo show being held down there on the Queen Mary. She then migrated north to Eugene Oregon to hang out at Fairie Worlds for a weekend of flittering and mead drinking. When she finally arrived in Portland, she was covered in glitter and fairie dust. She spoke with the air of a cantankerous salty sailor that had spent a long while with the argh’s, e’s and the bargh’s. We swooped her up fast. Got her geared up properly and planted her butt on the back of my bike for some Portland adventures.  She made fast time in making friends with our biker pals. Mind you she is a polite, fairie loving tattooed lady…that can out talk the knarliest of the bunch. By the time we were done with her, or may I say she was done with us…the glitter had long fallen off in a pair of fingerless rubber gloves. We loved having her here and look forward to next year’s adventures.

Danny Boy was supposed to come up for a visit from SF and ended up canceling his trip because his mom who is a saint of sorts, when it comes to taking care of herself. Got diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer. So he stayed to pull together a benefit to help raise some money to help her with living expenses. I pray for them everyday. Its quite an eye opener of how precious we all are and how even the healthiest of us, can be prey to disease. If you would like to donate please contact Danny. I believe there is a paypall account set up for the cause.

We had the legendary Madame Vyvyn Lazonga come down from Seattle to spend some quality time with us at Fortune. Vyvyn is a treasure trove of tattoo stories and tattoo experience. She arrived in Portland and without hesitation, geared up in my old Langlitz and boots. Fitted with a helmet and gloves, she jumped on my bike and showed me she was no novice to riding. We rode to Toro Bravo to meet up with our friends from AWR who were celebrating Jeff Groci’s, from Seventh Son, last night in Portland. We ate our hearts fill from the chef’s pick. It was a fine dinner to welcome such a wonderful woman to Portland and say “til’ next time” to Jeff. Over the five days Vyvyn was here, we spoke alot about how the women of the tattoo industry have had little to any opportunity handed to them. Not that “our kind” wants anything without working hard for it. It was interesting to discuss this topic with Vyvyn and see that it has been going on her entire, almost forty years, career. I had thought when the old timers died off, the men’s club attitude would go to the grave with them. Instead, those old boots, so to speak,  got filled with less talented, less interesting, more egotisical self promoters, who seem to think throwing in a token lady tattooer suffices to including us in the game. In Vyvyn and my dicussion, we both agreed, we dont want a men’s club vs. a woman’s club. We would like to see more of an effort to reward the solid women tattooers that made a difference in the industry. Shoulder to shoulder with the men folk, hands down past gender, reward them for the works they have done. To quote Vyvyn, ” in the past women, in the writer’s industry, had to take on sudo-names, to be acknowledged.  Men seem to organize better, be more motivated to self promote and are more clan like in nature”. We would like those women that have participated in making a change be recognized and included. That’s all. I recently saw a top twenty five list of tattooers, that were of inspiration to some of my friends in the industry. What hit me, was most of all the tattooers listed were men. Some of which had learned their technique, style from women, that they had worked for or under. Which is not mentioned. If I were to make a top twenty five list of tattooers that have inspired me as a tattooer. There are nearly as many women on my list as men. Not sure what that says about me, other than perhaps, I dont mind admitting, where I get my inspiration. Maybe knowing where certain techniques orginated from and by whom, gives me a different perspective, who knows. What came about from our talks, was that in the end. We have to do it ourselves. Seems no one is going to share the pie unless we jump in and take some for ourselves. And no, having a tv show that depicts that it takes longer to put on my lipstick than to draw a backpiece is not a piece of the pie. My problem with the current situation is, this is history being made. History, that people ten years from now, will think is fact. When in reality, most of the publications to date, have been nothing short of a circle jerk of people, social clicks that have had the means to publish their voices and their works. Regurgitating the same iconic imagery and stroking themselves for re-inventing the wheel. These are some of the same people that have  supported  the social ladder climbers, and the user friendly douchebags that get a quick taste of fame without it being due. These people tend to have ego’s out fitting their talent. They are abusive, undeserving and need to step to the back of the line. Come on folks. Support those that have a body of work, that have stories to share from real life experiences. People that positivily touched others and made a dent, if not a canyon, of growth for all of us. In fine perspective, more people should know Vyvyn. She paved the way for those that run the course. She is still working hard, everyday. She like a few others, sacrificed everything for this art. She is still pushing her limits, challenging herself and keeping up with the times. Vyvyn did a live broadcast with Bob Baxter while she was here. We had dicussed speaking about this topic during the interview. I wish she would have. Maybe next time the opportunity arises. I hope you will keep Vyvyn in your scopes and keep updated with her accomplishments. There is so much to learn from this kind woman of our business. She is the real deal. Vyvyn ended her stay here in Portland celebrating Mary Jane’s thirtieth tattoo birthday at Oaks Park. Mary Jane is another force to be reconed with in our industry. You should know who she is and her colorful history in tattooing.

Finally, yesterday, we celebrated at the FFMC clubhouse to raise money for a little girl that needs support from the community. There was a great turn out and the battle of the bands was epic. Lots of bikes. Lots of good food. Lots of good people coming together for a great cause. http://frannyfund.tumblr.c​om/

Til’ next time, M

We are pleased to welcome Matt Howse to Portland.

He will be joining us for some painting, summer fun and epic tackatooing!

Check out more of his works at Spider Murphy’s.

Call for appointments:

4154606979

or email him at:

m@reliabletattoos.com

Get em’ while you can.

I thought I would post her bio here and let all of you read about this amazingly talented tattooed woman that set out on the tattoo trail in 1972.

Vyvyn Lazonga has been a tattoo icon for more than 30 years. She was one of the first female artists in the world who went out on her own and didn’t work for her husband or partner; she worked for herself and her art. She broke many boundaries, challenged the tattoo/artistic norm, and continues to create amazing custom body art today.

I have always done art, ever since I could remember, from the age of about 2. Anything I could pick up and draw with I did. Once I remember getting in trouble for drawing on all of the furniture and walls with crayons at the age of 3. The tattoo muse struck me in the early l970′s after I had seen an article done about tattoos in a men’s magazine. The article was on Cliff Raven and his work. At that time there were no tattoo magazines so this venue seemed to be the only happening way for a tattooist to show their work.

I first tattooed on the original “skid road” in Seattle. It was called that because around the turn of the century when they were building the city, they would skid the lumber down the hill to the waterfront where it would be cut and processed for all the new buildings. This became the hub of nightlife for all the sailors during WWI and WWII. My shop is now located in one of the main historical buildings in the Pike Place Market, about 2 blocks from the waterfront. It’s also about 2 blocks from where I started out on 1st Ave., skid road in Seattle.

I learned tattooing from one of the old timers, C.J. Danny Danzl, who was a sailor during WWII and retired seaman with Foss Tug Boat Company. When I first heard that someone was opening a tattoo shop in Seattle I immediately ran down there to talk with him to just feel the situation out. I approached him with the idea of me being his “Go For” and helper. He really liked the idea, so that is how it started.

It never occurred to me that you could create works of art on the skin until I had seen Cliff Raven’s work. I thought how beautiful it would be to create not only a work of art but to be able to carry a talisman around on your skin until you died. This seemed like a very powerful way to make the ultimate affirmation for yourself.

After serving a 7-year apprenticeship with Danny I struck out on my own and decided to take tattooing off of skid road to a neighborhood called Capital Hill. I had that shop for a few years and then moved around after that and wound up in San Francisco.

Living and working in San Francisco was like going to school in a way. I got more streetwise. I had a shop in the outer Mission for several years and learned to adapt to Hispanic culture. After a couple of years of that I moved to lower Haight Street and started developing a very good clientele base.

I made friends with some of the local tattooists there like Henry Goldfield, Ed Hardy, Bill Salmon, Lyle Tuttle, Erno and Captain Don. It was fun times, especially when Lyle would have some of his parties and all the tattoo groupies would be hanging out outside begging to get in. I met Kurinomo, (Horiyoshi II) when he was still alive at one of Lyle’s parties.

It was such a great honor. After the earthquake of ’89 I moved back to Seattle. My place was pretty well ruined in the earthquake so I packed up what I could and moved back to Seattle where I knew I could start over very easily. That was when I opened a shop in Pike Place Market and I have been happy here ever since.

I recently changed my business name from Vyvyn’s Tattoo to Madame Lazonga’s Tattoo, because I had that name for many years early on in my career but had changed it to Vyvyn’s for numerological reasons. Now I feel it’s time to go back to Madame Lazonga because it sort of conjures up it’s own mythological imaginings and it’s more playful. I have also recently opened a larger shop in the Market and added some talented artists.

Philosophy

Watching tattooing change over the decades has been very fascinating. I think one of the reasons why tattooing became so popular is because we as a culture are looking for more meaning in our lives. Technological advances have made it even harder for us to stay in touch with our bodies and our spirit and what has meaning. Tattooing is a very primitive and universal way of honoring the sacred, it seems that we crave meaning in our lives and this can be a very powerful experience when approached with conscious intent.

Joseph Campbell used to say “Artists are the modern day mythmakers, shamans and story tellers.” It is an honor to be able to channel my art in this way. The act of tattooing is a way of transitioning from this world into other unspeakable worlds that lend themselves for being able to create art on skin. Most of my inspiration comes from the natural world, or cultural motifs, a lot of it is non-literal and decorative.
Of course, the ancient tradition of Japanese woodblock prints I’ve always been in awe of. One of my favorite artists is Yoshitoshi; he did a lot of art that depicted women doing every day things. This was during the Edo period of Japan, the period of their renaissance. I really like his One Hundred Aspects of the Moon series. His compositions were genius.

Nature to me is like a religious experience. I can’t help but see the miraculous ness of it all. It’s fun to look at things that grow in nature, their markings and to use them in my art. I’m also very fond of art nouveau because of its fluidity and ability to conform to the body so easily. I get so much of my inspiration too from art nouveau jewelry books. I adore some of the last turn of the century artists like Kaminski, Miro, Chagall, Dali, Klimt, and the Russian constructivist like Leger.

I have been doing more mastectomy scar cover-ups lately, and I finally realized after doing my third one, that I needed to sit down and talk to these women about their grieving process. I needed to talk to them and tell them that this process might dredge up the experience of what they went through and that it’s normal, but that will pass too.

At first, I didn’t quite know what to do or how to console them, but now I have a better idea of how to be supportive without losing my own boundaries and still be able to do the work; work that is very important to their lives.

One thing I noticed, through all of my experiences is that so many people are beginning to see that being tattooed is a way to mark a time in their lives. I totally understand that but for me it was always something beyond time. I always liked the idea of going beyond time into a dimension where the images being put on the body would be something that wouldn’t necessarily represent time but a profound and universal concept.

By having maybe one well thought out tattoo, it saves the body from having a bunch of pitchy-patchy, (that’s what I call it) tattoos that don’t have any congruency. That’s why I think when a person does extensive bodywork that it becomes an expression of their mythological belief system.

Mythology, in my opinion, has always been the glue that has held societies together. What a fabulous thing to see so many people now as an expression of what holds meaning for them. I’m excited to see tattooing changing in this manner. Finally, after 30 years of watching and waiting, we’re finally getting it.

We are pleased to welcome the Legendary Madame Lazonga to Fortune Tattoo July 18th-23, 2011.

If you would like to set an appointment with her, please contact Vyvyn at: 206.622.1535

You may also email her at: madamelazonga@hotmail.com

Please feel free to check out her website and if you have any questions you may also call us.

The site is super easy to manage.

Take a look at his own site if you get a chance.

He is not only an awesome webdesigner, but a great artist!

I am so happy to have been referred to him.

Thank you sooo very much Aaron, you rule with raddness!

Mikki

She will be working at Fortune June 17th-June 29th.

Please contact Otherside Ink to set appointments.

(941)766.1465

othersideink@gmail.com

and or find her on FB

or flittering around at:

Faerieworlds