It feels like forever since I last wrote a blog!! Life has been crazy busy! It was my birthday at the weekend, I ate too much, drank far too many cocktails and danced all night in my beautiful new Vivienne Westwood shoes, ooh la la! I spent my actual birthday getting my rose tattoo inside my elbow redone; for some reason the ink didn't take the first time, what should have been "maroon" turned a rather unattractive shade of lilac. But after at least ten cocktails the night before, and not a lot of sleep, I did not enjoy the experience! I think I'm losing my edge! "Are you crying yet?" NO! But here is the result, a bizillion times prettier, still slightly scabby though!

Post-tattoo, I hung around in the shop, awaiting the arrival of all things fabulous... Chandelier... Gold mirror... Mary... The shop is quite spectacular now!

Yes, Mary is holding an energy saving light-bulb... She's so 21st Century! Soon she'll have a nice candle to hold.

It's really taking shape now! We're still looking for a coffee table, so if anyone spies a fabulous table anywhere, shout!

Enough about the shop, let's talk about me! I've learned to clean all the tubes and do all the autoclaving, I get to wear gloves, which is very exciting... I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon. I've been doing some designs which keeps me busy. It's good getting to hear other people's ideas and push myself to do things that other people want, that I'd not necessarily choose to do. Thinking outside of the box etc. One day hopefully I'll be good enough to specialise and do just the things that I want to do, but for now one can't be quite so choosy! Sooo, here's some things I've been working on...

Mexican Elvis

Patsy's hubby wants me to tattoo a Mars Attacks alien on him when I get started. He has a lot of comic style stuff already so a wee alien guy would be great! I'm looking forward to doing it, I always loved Mars Attacks! Excuse the awful lettering...

Ian from Lupe Pintos (who has been supplying us with the finest chorizo sandwiches) wants a squid. I like squids. They have two tentacles and eight legs, and I love the number eight. Behold the squid with a moustache. Everything is better with a moustache!

Business is doing great, we're booked up for ages, for an appointment on a Saturday you're looking at December! We really need to get another artist in soon, we can't have people waiting that long all the time! But we're all really happy! It doesn't feel like work, and we have a ball! Patsy and I have a cabaret most days, free entertainment! We've also got our big telly up and running playing Miami Ink, LA Ink, you know the drill. Fabulous!

I fear that I will be a bit quiet this week... my sister is getting married a week today, and I'm chief bridesmaid so I'm having some time off to calm my sister and get pampered before the big day!

I will leave you with a fantastic photograph of Patsy, who was very proud of her backcombed hair this morning....

Frenchie xx

Did you know...?

DID YOU KNOW...?

The tattoo machine was based on an invention by Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb and video camera, to engrave and embroider!? What a guy!

Early tattoo machines were so heavy that they had to be attached to the ceiling with a spring to take the weight off the artist's hand...!? Imagine!!

The modern tattoo machine's mechanics originate from those in a doorbell!?

ALSO, you probably know this but I didn't; people who are tattooed are likely to experience pain or a burning sensation when getting an MRI scan because of the metallic pigments in some inks. Euch!

I've been doing my research... I am not at all technical. Give me pictures. Diagrams with arrows! They'll help me. None of these big words like 'electromagnetic' (they make my brain switch off). I've become obsessed with knowing what EVERY bit of the tattoo machine does... and why... and I am struggling. Although it was reassuring when I asked Kev, "What is a capasitor?" with a bemused look on my face, to have Kev look back at me with the very same face and a, "Eh, a bit of the tattoo machine... but I don't know what it does. Why do you want to know that?" Because I'm still a child and like to ask "WHY!?!" all the time?

The shop has been busy busy busy! Especially when the sun is out, people are constantly milling in and out. Even if they're not booking in, it's great to see so many people interested. Patsy's been doing a fair bit of piercing which is great, but actually gives me the creeps. I will happily sit for hours and get tattooed, but ask me to get pierced and I will crumble to the ground... or at least cry about it. I see people coming out of the piercing room and I gag. It's terrible! I guess I'll just have to get used to it!

I feel that now I'm getting the hang of working on the desk. I've got the chat all sorted, I can pretty much spraff about anything, I've learned all the right things to say which is good. I'm scared now that I get into the habit of chaining myself to the desk when really I need to be getting in Kev's room when he's tattooing and get learning!

This week when there's been a wee quiet spell I've had some time to do some drawing, instead of learning about reception. I've done a few nice things that I'm quite happy with. Whenever I draw faces I ALWAYS make them look like me. It can get quite frustrating when I'm trying not to, yet it still happens. I drew this pin up today, and Kev immediately pointed out that it looked like me, which I then apologised for. But he says it's a good thing. I guess I'm lucky to have already developed a style, it's something that you can become known for. You know an Amanda Toy design straight away, and her designs tend to look like her, and maybe one day you'll know a Frenchie too!

Frenchie xx

I can't believe it's a whole week since Kev did his first tattoo in Lucky Cat. Every day has flown in! Everything is starting to feel like a bit of a blur, we are constantly busy, which is a great thing, so I shouldn't complain! I've been wracking my brains trying to remember what I did yesterday! I spent some time dealing with customers who weren't quite sure what they wanted, dishing out lots of books and magazines for reference. A girl was in looking to get a really traditional anchor design with "Hello Sailor", in my opinion, the perfect tattoo! She wants it done in the old school style, and so that it looks old, in Kev's words "with bad lines and blobs". I think that's an awesome idea, I spend so much time swooning over old photographs of sailor tattoos, so I'm excited to see how Kev would tackle this one! She hasn't booked in yet, but she promised she'd be back. She seemed quite taken by the shop!

Today Kev had a busy day, booked right up. I worked on some after care sheets and other necessities for a while, but then things got exciting! Steven was booked in to get a David Bowie portrait done! I've been raving about this all week after spying it in the calendar. He chose a more unusual Bowie picture, from the cover of the album 'Low'. I sat in with Kev while he was working on this, learning about which types of line to use, and colour layering. And here is the result...

This is on Steven's back, so he couldn't see it till he was all done. He seemed pretty impressed with the result to say the least!!! I honestly can't get over how beautiful it is! Kev knows how picky I am, and he was very pleased that this had my approval! Now I want one!! (I feel I'm in exclamation mark overload right now!)

Here's some photos of Kev's other work today:

I am forever in awe of Kev's lines! Look at them in the tiger piece, beautiful!

Today I hunted down some really cute ceramic lucky cat business card holders, they're so sweet! So we're having two. The place is slowly filling up with an ever increasing army of lucky cats. Good job I'm a cat lady, isn't it! We also did some searching for the perfect chandelier... It's a hard task! Patsy and I have finally convinced Kev that a chandelier with sparkles is a must... a chandelier isn't a chandelier unless there are sparkles!

Patsy did some piercing today, she is super quick!!! The thought of piercing gives me the creeps, so I stay well away from all of that. We also started to plan our Halloween costumes...

I'm off to do some major geeking out; my flatmate bought me a beautiful book, "The Tattooed Lady: A History". I think it's an early night for me, book and bed!

Frenchie xx

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