A moose and his centaur friend

Here's a couple of sweet pieces Sarah did at the shop this week.
She did one on Saturday too, that i didn't get any pictures of, and one on me on Monday, that you can see if you click here.
It was a pleasure having her at the shop, as usual, and we hope it won't be her last guest spot of 2012 (don't worry, it totally won't)!

Fancy gentlemen... they're probably Lords or something...

If you're one of those people who check the travel and guests section regularly, you may have noticed that i've added some new Adam Hays dates to the March calendar, so if you don't wanna miss out, go send him an email right now.

Ps. Our other German bff, Chriss Dettmer, just stared a blog, and i think you should all go follow it.

No, seriously, he did, go see for yourselves!

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...

A reluctant return to the internet

Oh hi, i trust you all had a great new years?
We sure did!
Eckel spent his in Barcelona and me and Allan spent ours at home. Good times!
I think i speak for all of us, or at least Allan, when i say that while it's good to be back, we sure could have used just one more day on the couch, watching Star Trek or playing xbox, and eating delicious new years leftovers. Just one more day... sigh...
But it is good to see the shop again, it always is!

I have a bit of early 2012 news for you, so let's start from the top, shall we?


-Nick aka Electric Pick is here! He arrived yesterday and he's already working today.
He is however, pretty much booked solid, so i hope everyone who wanted an appointment with him already got one! You can, as always, drop by to give him the gift of double espresso in a takeout cup if you wanna talk to him about future projects or just say hey.

Tattoo by Electric Pick

-Sarah B. Bolen (check out her fancy new website!) is coming back to work with us later this month.
The exact dates are the 20th till the 24th of January and if you want to get tattooed, email her at blackmirrorparlor@googlemail.com.

Tattoo by Sarah

-James Kiley (check out his sweet new blog!) is also coming back, this time to keep Eckel company while me and Allan are in Japan.
He will be at the shop from the 13th till the 17th of February and you can book with him through thetruesoul@hotmail.co.uk. 

Tattoo by Kiley

I will hopefully have some more 2012 guest artist news for you soon, and lots of general conspiracy awesomeness too, of course.
If you wanna read a little about some of our plans for this year, go check out Allan's post of not-new-years-resolutions (yeah, right!).

Ok, that's it for now, i gotta get back to scrubbing dumb tubes and writing emails like i'm three years old (seriously, vacations make me retarded, apparently)!

To all of our clients...

Merry Christmas, guys, we love you!!!

Not so winter-ish, but a wonderland no less

Cats, cats, all about cats

As you may already know, Eckel isn't leaving Denmark after all!

At least not right now. I know, so confusing, but good news nonetheless. 

And in very related news, it's Eckel booking time again, but things are gonna be a little different for new clients this time around, as Eckel has made a list of designs that he would like tattoo, and if you're a new client wanting to get tattooed by him, you should pick something from this list of ideas. Don't worry, they're all awesome!

If you already have a piece in progress by Eckel that you wanna continue, this obviously won't affect you at all.

Booking procedures have also changed a bit since last time and to keep things simple, we've decided that all bookings should go through one email instead of two, so from now on all booking will go though: grifzzfizz@gmail.com.

However, i will still answer any general questions and concerns you might have on the conspiracy mail after you've booked in with Eckel.

From Eckel's blog:

"and here we go again.

as i said a few days ago(read post below for further information)here is a list of ideas that i would like to do:

small,one session pieces:

-small animals with wings(such as:cats,rabbits,mice/rats,frogs...)

-black cockatoo

-a worker bee carrying a factory

-bird getting its wing cut off with a scissor

-girl face with ONE eye(as in cyclops)

-zebra head

-a guillotine

-stagbeetle with a castle for a head

-frog on a girlshand

-an old,ugly witch

-girl wearing a burkha(ideal for cover-ups,and i am not even kidding,see painting above*)

bigger projects(such as sleeves/ribs/chests and stomachs)

-girl riding a polarbear

-a black and a white cat

-hammerhead shark head with a deer's body

-a rat king(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_king_(folklore))

-bird with a surveillance camera for a head

-crazy cat lady

-the young woman and the death(as in grim reaper)

-a hornbill

big projects(backs)

-a raging or dying horse

-large bird of prey with dead rabbit or smaller bird

-womans face with fancy hair and jewellery

-a sphinx(as in the egyptian woman with a lions body)

-a harpy(as in bird with woman's head)

-cat and bird/cat fighting cat/whatever CATS

the ideas and placements do not have to be combined in the way listed above,although some ideas categorized for big placements might be difficult to do on smaller areas.

note that the suggestions on this list are the only new projects and clients i will take on in this period of booking.

other than these i will just carry on with projects that have already been started.

in case you are interested to book appointments with me as a new client,i need all your contact info,even though i prefer communicating via email.pick one of the ideas from above for whatever placement,and a variety of dates that work for you if you have to travel to have an appointment with me.in case you want to get most of your travel,i have done two sittings on following days with a few customers in the past,and it works great that way as well if the piece allows working on different areas. in case you are up for a torture like that, let me know about it in your email as well.

that should be it.

thank you"

 * or in this case, below

So there you have it, now go book!

Balloon-moth-thingie

You know how i always let you know well in advance when we have a guest artist coming so you have a chance to book in with them?

Yeah, sometimes i don't do that.

I already knew a while back that our friend Sarah B. Bolen, who lives in Berlin, was coming for a visit and we'd arranged for her to work at the shop for a few days, but since she'd already booked her weekend a good while back, i didn't wanna post about it here and make it seem like she had time for more tattoos.

And now i feel bad!

But she's already making plans to come back soon, and i promise i'll let you know when she does.

All official like and everything.

This is what Sarah did today

  If you wanna see what she worked on in this goofy picture, you should look her up on instagram (@eraserbits)

And speaking of everyones favorite app obsession; Allan tattooed Sarah yesterday and both their pictures went popular at the same time... what a bunch of nerds!

Coming soon: a screen printing update!

That there church, that there church is on fire

Oh look, a tattoo!
That is all, i just wanted to show you that they still happen around here, and that i'm occasionally lucky enough to capture one on my phone.
This one is on Martin.
Don't worry, he asked for it.*

*If you're one of those people who feel the need to include "no satanic stuff" in your email when requesting an appointment with Allan, that one was for you.