I went down to the Bob Roberts solo show at Canvas LA a few weeks ago and had the opportunity to see Bob’s work first hand as well as meet the guy. Although it was brief and I was admittedly a bit timid, Bob was a very nice guy and is a huge inspiration to my work.

I just came across this awesome interview with Bob Roberts where he says,

“If I want to be an artist, I can go buy brushes and I can go buy paper and make art. But, if I want to be a tattoo artist and nobody’s coming to get a tattoo from me, I’m not a tattoo artist.”

I spent a few years tormented by this very concept. No matter how bad I wanted to tattoo someone, or be a tattoo artist, it was never going to happen without my friends giving me the chance. Now that I’m taking the next big step in my career as a tattooer it seems fitting to give credit where credit is due: I never could have done this without you guys. Thank you.

I made it up to Hot Dawgs and Hand Rails at Big Bear Mountain this passed weekend. The contest was fairly interesting, but I lost interest in watching other people snowboard after about an hour. Instead, I drank a lot of beer and took pictures of everyone’s tattoos. I apologize that I don’t remember everyone’s names or the artists who worked on the pieces names. Thanks to my good friend Danny Thomas for bringing me up, and the Arbor Snowboard crew for the hospitality. You can find the tattoo photos here.

I normally don’t do this, but I am too excited not to share. I drew this freehand with sharpee on Michelle’s back. I had to move the bottom of the tree trunk to better fit her back and with a little hand sanitizer I was able to take off the original sketch and redraw it. Four and a half hours later, and this the rough outline for what’s to come.