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.
The Convention is over and man-o-man do I need a hand massage… with a happy ending. Here is a couple more tattoos that I made during the convention, enjoy.
So I only made two tattoos today at the convention, but I thought I would post the pics of ‘em for ya being how the pin-up on the forearm was one of the better color tattoos I have made in a while.
My feet are tired and my legs are sore, and no not from border jumping, but it was worth every step walking around this beautiful city. What an interesting and cultural melting pot, Liz and I loved our first day cruising around the city with a good crew of positive people. We witnessed the largest mall I have ever laid eyes on(gentlemen, put the horse blinders on your chick, seriously). The Buddhist temple was my favorite part of the day, this one is five stories high with a garden on the roof, radical right?
Just in case you are wanting to get a tattoo or a tattoo machine I will be at the Singapore AND Bangkok Convention coming up in the next 2 weekends. I will be accepting WALK-UPS ONLY, no appointments, so get there early folks. I will have a number of great machines with me, but if you in the market for a hand made machine that’s guaranteed for life then you might wanna get there early because they’re already selling. I just shipped out two beauties this morning from Hawaii, so get ‘em while I got ‘em. See you there folks – Tim Hendricks
These two are already sold to a Miss Katie Sellergren, they only made it half way to Singapore before they were nabbed up.
After I work my ass off at the Singapore and Bangkok Conventions my wife and I are headin’ to an Island in Thailand to her Fathers resort to just chill out for 10 days before we go to the Brighton and Milan Convention. I’ve been looking at pictures online at the resort and I gotta tell ya, this place looks like something out of a movie. Like one of those motion pictures where some naive traveler goes to south-east asia and everything is beautiful and awesome, but then disaster strikes in the form of a blood thirsty massage parlor murderess who kills you during your happy ending… too much? Ok, well, I can’t wait to get there none the less. I’ll post some photos to make my friends and family jealous as soon as we get settled.
So the day before my wedding a few of my friends came over to wake me up and drag my sick ass to breakfast. After I reluctantly got up, I realized that there was 15 guys outside ready to take my skydiving! What a cool idea and what the hell did I do to deserve such good friends? Hell if I know, but I jumped anyhow, even with my bad karma… Still alive assholes.
