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...
