Here is some artwork for the band Trial by Combat. They are my favorite local Metal band it happens to be my boyfriends band too! I got help from the guys at the shop. The throne is the image for the their latest EP, they are getting ready to launch. I did it on scratch board and  Adam helped with the photo shopping of this piece. The bird on the skull, was a sketch I did on tracing paper that Jessica helped fix it up with her fresh photo shop skills. We actually got stickers made of this piece.

Four years in the making. Blessed be!

Valkyrie survives another year! Four to be exact this month!
I always think about the people that keep this place going, and I have such high regard for the people that come in here and support us. The close friends and clients know that having project Valkyrie is and has been my dream for so long, and to be endeavoring on just warms my soul. So, thank you clients and friends for coming in here and honoring your tattoos as much as we do. On the other side I want to say how much effort and energy goes into doing these tattoos. As of January 2012 the health department has new laws in effect, and we have had to do a lot of work for compliance and pay a lot of money to have a professional establishment. We spend hours and hours coming up with custom designs for your tattoos, that we don't charge for- and the setting up the stations and breaking down, and all the cleaning is very time consuming. Not to mention the cost for all the disposables we go through to make sure you are safe. So thank you everyone who thinks our charge for tattoos is fair and thank you everyone who tips us here. Tattooing is magic. But it is way more than just, Presto! There is so much sweat equity that goes into it, so thank you everyone who gets this.

Here is Gary's hawk tattoo I did last week. He was such a pleasure to tattoo. We both agreed upon the fine things in life, like good quality olive oil!

Cogen's cover up

AFTER

 This is a piece that we started in October 2011. We have had 11 sittings on it thus far, our last session was May 5, 2012. He originally got the piece about 15 years back and had been living with it unhappily the whole time. We first started talking about going into the piece and doing a major cover up on it about two years ago. It's one of the most extensive restorations I have done before. I put a lot of work into getting it where it is today. We are going to have one more session on it to do some minor touching but I am ready to move on from this piece. This was a very special piece for me to do since it was on my Sensei. The tiger below is the symbol for Shotokan karate. I think this cover up was so successful because he gave me freedom and I came up with the design.

outside of arm BEFORE

inside of arm BEFORE

BEFORE