I guess, because I'm the middle sister.

It's a well documented fact that Dan Wysuph is known for his musical taste as well as his tattooing abilities. I work with Dan once a week and each week we obsessively discuss and debate music, culture and art, not to mention hilarious anecdotes about his baby (whom I call Baby Banjo). Basically if Dan wasn't my friend I would probably just listen to Bob Dylan all day. 
So last week we got into a debate about youth culture, the future, the death of art and music, and civilization's general turn towards its inevitable impending doom. Rather that is what I was claiming and he was defending art and new music and pointed out I was probably saying the same old thing that every generation before us had complained about. Well, here I am, taking this moment to publicly apologize to American culture and change my negative attitude towards anything not Bob Dylan. I am obsessed with this band, this album and this song which coincidenatlly are all called Middle Brother. 

Something different, inventive and interesting. Fun and catchy, a good one to celebrate this beautiful sunny day in San Francisco. Hope you guys enjoy it!


Oh p.s. this is one from Dan

Sometimes they just don't show up....

I spent the last few weeks preparing a backpiece drawing of another Suikoden warrior; Kaosho Rochishin. Rochishin is bad ass. He is a big, fat, drunk, angry warrior with a bad temper who becomes a priest to escape the death penalty. Bald, hairy and covered in flower tattoos. He is also known as the "flower priest". (The below rendition is by Kuniyoshi, 1830.)

 "Rochishin in a drunken rage smashing the guardian figure at the temple on Five-crested Mountain" 

Rochishin ransui godaizan kongôjin o uchikowasu no zu

(The below image is by Yoshitoshi,1887)

"After killing a man in a fit of rage, military captain Rotatsu (Lu Da) escaped a death penalty by becoming a monk at a temple on Five-crested Mountain, where he was given the name Kaoshô Rochishin (Lu Zhishen). He was unable to reform his appalling behaviour, and could not be punished because of his violent temper and prodigious strength. One night he staggered back drunk and tried some physical exercises at the temple gate to prove his strength. He accidentally knocked down part of the gate, and in his drunken surprise saw the guardian statue looming above him and attacked it. Rochishin was persuaded to leave the temple shortly afterwards, eventually linking up with his friend and fellow outlaw Rinchû."

This is the thumbnail sketch for the piece. I planned on adding peonies and wind, for background, to complement the cherry blossom and wind tattoo designs that I was planning on tattooing on the warrior. 

After all of my hard work, the guy never came in...and his phone is disconnected.

KUMONRYU: Tattooed Warrior

 After over a years worth of work I have finished this backpiece of Kumonryu. Kumonryu is one of the Suikoden warriors. Meaning he is a character form one of the 108 folk stories from Japan's beloved Chinese tales of heroes, warriors and bandits. Kumonryu was a great warrior having mastered all of the 18 martial arts of his time. He was a top cavalry officer and although born into wealth he chose not to follow his family's footsteps and instead pursued the life of a warrior. His name comes from the tattoo he bore; a bodysuit of nine dragons. A perfect warrior archetype, he is depicted as strong and handsome and died young while being ambushed by arrows while surrounded on all sides by enemies. Kumonryu is among the most popularly depicted characters in the Suikoden stories.

R.I.P. RJ

A little over a week ago we lost one of the great ones.

 RJ Enriquez

Father, Husband, Bike Builder, Biker and all around Big Brother.

(left to right; Roman, Ray, Uncle George, R.J.)

 Nine years ago this September I arrived in San Jose to work for Taki at State of Grace. I showed up just in time to help put the final touches on the new shop and started work the first day we were open. The space was offered to Taki by Roman Enriquez, him and his family have been building Harley's in San Jose for over 30 years and their shop is called 45s Forever. Roman and his brother R.J. had been getting tattooed by Taki for awhile at that time and they had a house on their property that was available, so Roman offered it to him to rent to build a tattoo shop.
 New to town, I was a lost puppy and was just figuring out my new surroundings, but from day 1 the Enriquez family adopted me. I don't know that I can think of a more close and loving family. Coming from a big close family, myself, I always felt at home at their BBQ's and parties. The oldest of their 4 kids was R.J. He had an awesome personal style and taste; 100% biker/gangster. He was a talented artist and it came through in the bikes he built. He made working at our old shop fun. We all joked we could tattoo through natural disasters because R.J. thought it was hilarious to lite off dynamite and blow fire balls at our window while we worked. His laugh echoed through the shop. The bike he rode was a beautiful sleek chopper of his own creation. It had such a long front end and we would run to the window to watch him pull up in the morning and leave at night. It was a steep hill getting in and out of the parking lot and he made it look easy dropping in and pulling up at the 45's garage.

                             (The insane chopper)


R.J. was the big brother, he was the toughest dude you'd ever know but also the funnest and most loving. His smile was genuine without an ounce of bullshit in his eyes, everyone knew that if he liked you he loved you and if not, well,  you knew it.  Words cannot express this loss to those that knew him and my family, the Enriquez's. All of my deepest Love and Respect to his parents Ray and Erma and the rest of the extended Enriquez and 45s Forever families.

Ho-o, Birdman/Birdwoman

Ho-o, is the japanese word for phoenix. Contrary to common misconception, Japanese phoenix have nothing to do with European phoenix, you know the bird known as "rising from the ashes". Actually the Japanese version is a conglomeration of other animals and is generally depicted as having "a pheasant's head, a cock's comb, the beak of a swallow and a tortoises's neck with flame like appendages." (Kitamura, Tattoos of the Floating World, pg. 92) " It exists as the male ho and the female o." (pg. 95)

I am grateful that I get to tattoo tons of phoenixes on people so I am always looking to evolve the details of the ones I draw.  So I started looking at pictures of the different animals that make up the phoenix.

Keeping these different aspects of the phoenix in mind, I tried to really bring the pheasant out stronger on this one:

Zocólalo, Visions of Mexico

This is one of my latest completed backpieces. The client came to me wanting to express his Mexican heritage with the center icon from the middle of the Mexican flag, portrayed in the style of a Japanese tattoo with full background. I was fortunate enough to be working alongside my friend Chuey Quintanar, of Good Time Charlie's Tattooland, when I was working on the drawing. He explained to me that the Aztecs had had a prophecy when they were looking to build their city, that an eagle woud land on the prickly pear cactus on a rock and kill a snake. Unfortunately when this finally occurred the rock was in the center of a lake. Unable to go against the foreseen vision, they built what would later become Mexico City on the lake. Although modern day Mexico City is currently sinking, it is an interesting story and I tried to pay homage to as many details as I could, including the two splashes of water on either side of the rock, as seen on the flag. In designing this piece I was excited about flanking my clients shoulders with the eagles wings. Also, I felt it was interesting to do so with asymetrical composition, definitely a fun challenge to draw but I mean what's more awesome than an eagle taking down a snake???

Of course I had to share one of Chuey's pieces too, he's one of my favorite black and grey artists out there.

BORN TO TATTOO

It always starts with a song...

Been thinking for a long time about getttin a new blog going, sometimes I write in my journal about thoughts I have about the tattoos I work on and all of the things that inspire me. I hope that you guys will enjoy all of the words and images I look forward to sharing...

welcome!