So I have returned from Brighton from tattooing at the Convention. I really didn’t get to see that actual convention aside from our booth, the bathroom, and a little of the booths on the walk to the bathroom. Having said that, I was quite busy. I got to do some rad tattoos and the people here were very pleasant. Aside from a few guys attempting to ‘re-tune’ my machines that I was selling right before my eyes, everything was groovy. My friend Ross from Ireland picked up one of my favorite machines of the bunch and is giving it a good home. I get attached to certain machines, what can I say I’m sensitive, but it’s nice when someone you know and like buys those particular ones.
Man I love this town, the heartbeat of this city sends a pulse I can feel 5,000 miles away. I usually take better photos but since I’ve been here I’ve just enjoyed this city with my own mental photobooth or been way to cold to stop and take my camera out to get just the right shot, I curse my thin californian blood and can’t wait ’til it adjusts to the chilly weather. In any case, I still have a few for you to enjoy. I plan on doing some tattooing at Frith Street Tattoo and The Family Business, these are two of the premier shops in London and I am honored.
So I was browsing my desktop on my laptop and came across an untitled folder, in it was a bunch of photos I took from a convention in NorCal like two years ago. I scored a couple new pics of some pin-ups I did on my friend Patrick. Tattooing is so awesome, you can draw things however you like, for example I can make breasts obnoxiously huge as we see here…
I have sold half my machines in Singapore and Bangkok but I still have some great ones left for the next convention in Brighton. After Brighton I will be posting what doesn’t sell on my eBay store for a ten day auction before I visit the Milano Convention. If you have been emailing me about machines, not to worry, I will get back to everyone asap and start taking orders for custom ‘one-offs’ when I get home in late February. Here is a gallery of some of my favorite machines that are left in my bag of tricks. I really put a lot into these, I hope you like them.
These guys are crazy, this show is near where we are staying in Samui and it was really fun. They have a bird show before it that is hilarious. As much as it sucks seeing Tigers in captivity and I know some animal rights activists will hate me for playing this but whatever.
There is an awesome Temple in Samui that if you are here I highly recommend checking it out. It is called Wat Phra Yai or ”Big Buddha” and it really is BIG. It is on a small island that has been connected by a man made road that kind of converted it to a peninsula. Driving across that road and on the way to it there are scores of small shipwrecks, I guess they are just sunken fishing boats but in any case they are cool to look at. While we were there a bus filled with enthusiastic kids pulled up, they bolted up the stairs and grabbed every available free stick to whack the bells that surround Buddha. Later on that day we drove around the other side of the Island in hopes of find a quiet beach to watch the sunset. We ended up in some weird place where a man with a machine gun told us to make a u-turn, needless to say we quickly did. We ended up finding a secluded dirt road leading to a pretty beach where we just made the sunset. I was chased by a massive bee and I ran into the water to escape.
In case you have never been here I will explain, Koh Samui is an island in the gulf of Thailand with a bunch of small islands surrounding it. If you have ever seen that movie “The Beach” the secret map that Daffy gives to Richard the night before he kills himself is a map of Koh Samui and Koh Phangan with a cluster of nature preserve islands surrounding the west of it. Now even though they actually filmed it on Phi Phi Island on the complete other side of Thailand, Koh Samui is amazingly beautiful. There are waterfalls, elephants, tigers you can pet, oodles of Temples, crazy monkeys, thick dangerous jungles, friendly locals, amazing food and some of the most beautiful white sand beaches the world has to offer. Sure, there’s also Chaweng Beach that is filled with sunburned,obese, big hat wearing, loud shirt sporting, drunk in your face tourists and horny college vacationers; all searching for a wood carving or a set of cornrows and some kind of sense that they are now a free-spirit and adventuress ’cause they took a boat to Koh Phangan and let themselves go at a ‘full moon party’. Though Chaweng does have its hidden treasures, last night we all went to a drag-queen show that was electrifying and was good for a solid hour of entertainment. Afterwards the women/men line up outside and you can take a photo with them for 100 baht(that’s about $3). I am really enjoying myself here and am sad when I think about having only three days left in Thailand.
Right after we left our place in Hawaii to go ‘adventuring’ a big swell came through again. This winter the North Shore of Oahu has been pounded by some epic and HUGE swells. My friend Rico sent me some pics of ‘a bomb’ that he caught the other day, I thought I would share them with you.
I’m not sure how to describe Bangkok to someone who has never been, so I won’t try. I am lucky that I have a Thai wife to escort me around and also have a father-in-law and his wife that live here to take such good care of us. I have seen shopping malls with 7 floors of madness in every direction, to many wigged ‘Lady-Boys’ to count, and some of the most reckless automobile driving known to man(I laugh the whole ride); I’ve also eaten the best food imaginable and eight hours later pooped fire out of my bum. The convention was slow so sunday we all went to Chatuchak market and wandered aimlessly at the one place in Bangkok that you can acquire anything, and I really mean anything… Our last day in Bangkok my wife and I went to see Wat Pho, a gorgeous and massive temple with a HUGE reclining Buddha. It was a great last day here and now we are off to the Island of Samui to stay in my father-in-law’s resort and relax.
So I spent my last day in Singapore walking around with Chris Garver, Alena, and my wife. We went to little India and it felt like a whole other country, and the smell… hmmm… not my favorite. I went to a temple and unconsciously offended people worshiping, hey I had to continue american stereotypes. Singapore is an amazing place, it has quickly become one of the places I expect I will long for very soon and definitely have to return. The locals were so warm and welcoming to me and I met people I will never forget. I am in Bangkok now and will be starting a new adventure in the morning, the lights of the city shine through the glass in my room and are pleasant welcome to a new city.
