even landlocked lovers yearn for the sea like navy men

yes, death cab lyrics for the title. why? u ask..... only because i'm seeing them play tonight and am totally AMPED!

it also ties in nicely with this tattoo i just did on the lovely Sharron from Northern Soul Tattoo.

was fun to do. she sat like a rock, and we managed to squeeze something that was originally booked in for a day rate into a measly 4 hrs. not too shabby! 

anyways, back to death cab, feel like sharing in case any of you poor deprived people haven't heard them..... here's some of my favourite songs.... enjoy.

who am i kidding, all their songs are awesome. i'll stop.

at least i now know where i stand..... and that i stand alone.

so, what a weekend. decided last minute to go to the Hop Farm festival coz the line-up was retardedly awesome. wait for it........ ok you ready?! 


MORRISSEY
IGGY & THE STOOGES
LOU REED
PATTI SMITH


seriously?! couldn't have asked for a better line up. some of you may know i'm quite partial to a man named steven..... Steven MORRISSEY *drool*

i took way more photos than what i'm posting right now, but they are on my phone which is being used as a music maker in the studio as i speak. well as i type.

so without further ado.... (apologies to Mr Reed for not getting any decent photos of you)

Gotta admit, standing there watching Morrissey on my own (well i suppose the other few hundred people there kinda counted, but when i say "on my own" i mean with nobody i know) kinda made me have this horrible epiphany about how alone i trully am. luckily, my company is pretty alright, and i received a really sweet voice mail from one of my best friends which almost cheered me up. Still, when he started playing "the is a light that never goes out" i couldn't find it within myself to summon enough strength to hold back the tears. (i've had one of the worst weeks to date, but only 2 people know ... well 3 people know what i'm talking about and i'm not gonna elaborate.)

anyways, when all was over, i had to try to figure out how to get all the way back to London (i'm not much of a forward thinker, clearly not when it actually matters that is....)

this kinda made it difficult....

anyways, after stumbling round a few fields, i found some coaches heading back to London, didnt have the right money for a ticket, and the guy selling them was kinda sweet, and kinda horrible, but it all worked out. he said "well, seeing as your own your own and everybody else has friends, i'll do it for a tenner" charming. rub it in, why dont ya?

in other news, this really cheered me up. this is some of an e mail i received the other day outta the blue (that's pretty much all it said but i figured not everyone and their mother needed to know this guys name or where he lives......


Hey Julia, so I jumped on the face book to check on something and got lost in a trail of friends of friends and somehow ended up on your tattoo blog, oh and we don't know each other, and I figured what the fuck and took a minute to tell you I liked your blog narrative, I don't really care about tattoos but you seem like a fun person. Take care and cheers too I guess you say....


I'll be sure to post the other pics soon. promise. Oh in other other news.... i now have 2 accomplices, minions, general awesome people who are also now taking photos of old men.... so soon i'll have enough to start posting. (the quest regarding photographing these old men has now also evolved, it now encompasses ALL old men, not just the ones who use public transport) exciting....

bitchin'

super quick post coz i'm off to the pub.... but wanted to share what i just did. posted a sketch of this months ago, askin if anyone was interested, and good ol' mog stood up to the plate. (not rubbish)

yup.

in other news i might go check out the "gay dog show" later on, where they r giving awards out to the 'dandiest dog' and 'prettiest bitch' (don't ask, i'm trying to keep myself entertained any which way at the moment! i'll be sure to take photos if i go...... don't u worry now.

i don't know if i care, and don't care if i know

so, where do i start......

i guess with yesterday's tattoodle? the lovely alex is off to travel the world, or trek the arctic, or open a bar in croatia or something..... so he leaves today, and managed to squeeze in getting tattooed AND hanging out with small children (his words..... not mine) into his last day.

so from the tattoo front to the tattoo back (see what i did there?!) i got my...... is it fifth?! session on my back done on tuesday. always a pleasure hanging with jay n steev (i'll have you know i do know how to spell "steve" it seems "steev" however, does not)..... luckily i sat swell this session, and we got lots of educational conversation about snuff films, murder, and scandal mongering. good times......

so here's where we're at so far....

(there's still a paw on my ass that needs colouring, but i don't feel the need to repeatedly post photos of my ass if no work's been done i'm afraid.)

so, what else.... oh, i got my bag back! fuck yeah, all my cash had been taken, but i got everything else back *sigh of relief*

gotta say it is SO insanely nice to be able to travel on public transport and not have my brain bombarded with ear traffic. no more listening to people adding a "k" on the end of all words ending in "ing"

example : everythink

GRRRRR

also, no more listening to a gaggle of OAP's openly discussing the fact i have 'far too many tattoos and will never find a husband.' ha, little do they know, been there, done that. i was eagerly awaiting hearing about what else 'i'd never do' with my pitiful existence, i felt like it could turn into a quest of sorts.... to show these almost dead nay-sayers they are wrong before they pop the cork, but alas, i had to get off the train.

oh well.

speaking of old people, public transport and quests of sorts, i have taken it upon myself to photograph awesome/crazy/creepy old men on public transport. so far i have all of 2. but when i get more, don't you worry, stop fretting, i will share the visuals.

speaking of old people.... and quests of sorts, (stuff is tying in smooth as eggs today) there are a few words i'm making it my mission to pull (albeit kicking and screaming) back into everyday conversations. these are awesome words that never/rarely get used. 

you ready?

ok here they are :

choicest

premium

and this is for steev.... (i'm not sure i agree.... but maybe if i was a lunch lady in a school full of chavs, maybe i would see the light) 

portion

so there you have it, i emplore you to pick the choicest word, and pepper your otherwise boring portion of the Queen's english so that one day *wistful sigh* the world will once again be a premium place to co-exsist.

ok, enough with that, so last night i went to go see Flogging Molly play. it was great. 

unfortunately towards the end of the set something blew up and they all died. true story....

oh well. 

so, speaking of dying.... (flogging a dead horse now? a little? maybe, but fuck y'all i'm having fun)

eli came back from sweden with the choicest example of swedish manufacturing.... behold

speaking of europe (promise, last one)

mr zombie recently returned from finland with a gift for me. not sure if it reflects finland as a country, or a mindset, or a colony that made it past the age of 8 as a whole..... but here it is...

there is a reasoning behind this seemingly obscure choice of gift from abroad, and i suppose i'll elaborate, seeing as i highly doubt anyone has stuck with this post thus far anyways.....

i used to have a fucking epic Pez collection. when i say "epic" i mean best EVER. unfortunately, as i seem to move more than a pikey on the run from caravans.... i seem to have mislaid said awesome collection.

blog done. :)

total loser

so what a week. my god, i'll be glad when it's over! First up, tuesday i went and visited Black Gull books in camden, bought a friggin' sweet book for a friend, and ended up reading it in the space of 24 hours.

Reginald Farrer is my new hero. Even started a painting about him...

for those of y'all with no interest in reading the book, the reasoning behind this painting is he described a globular show chrysanthemum as a "moulting mop dipped in stale lobster sauce"

yeah.....

anyways, in other news, wednesday i ended up going to the Evil From the Needle party, and ended up losing my bag. Yup, so that's my i pod, wallet, journal, book, make up, EVERYTHING!

so thursday was a sucky ass manic day trying to get into my flat, make sure my dog was ok, blah blah. not good. 

Yesterday i went to go watch Ryan Bingham play, which was fuckin sweet.

here's some Binghamy goodness for y'all....

The awesome news regarding me losing all my worldly possessions is, this morning i got an e mail from some legend who found my bag (after it had already been rummaged through), but my ipod's still there, and my books. so gonna go collect that later *phew*.

So now onto today's tattoodles....

session 3 on the gramophone cover up piece. 

coming along nicely. reckon we'll get this done n dusted next session.

stags n slags

so what a mental week i've had....

first up, i got punched in the face at 6am a few days ao which is well.... lame. long story short, some dude was attacking some woman outside my flat, i heard it and went and got involved. i'm pretty sure i broke his thumb, and he ended up running off, so in the bigger scale of things, it worked out pretty well.......





so what else? went to a stag do...... that lasted an entire weekend.



mike only getting bitch whipped with a belt that is most likely never gonna come clean.

was fucking cool to be hanging with some of the old CBR, brought back some good memories!

hmm, oh, same night, i got given these!!!!! too cool for school!



and the other day i got given THESE!!!!





also, went round the gazillions of charity shops where i live yesterday and found a lot of books..... i cant say no to books, especially when they cost a quid or less!



looking forward to reading them. the Danny Wallace one sounds hilarious, who starts a cult buy accident?! hmmm, gonna be good.

so yeah, that's whats been going on. got a sweet fuckin tattoo in tomorrow, so keep them eyes peeled.

(oh, and blogger isn't uploading photos right now for some lame reason, so this took me ages to post coz i had to go via this antique system of uploading..........)
so apologies for the dishevelled appearance of my photos, bulging outta pretty background motifs and such.... i'm not normally this careless..... but i cant be arsed to go back and resize them all, then reupload them.... coz believe it or not, i do have a life.

black n grey..... like the weather.

so here's some non colourful tattoos i did recently. anyone who knows me/reads this/isn't retarded will know i do love me some colour, but sometimes, just sometimes, i gotta do black n grey.....

this 1st one we managed to squeeze some fuchsia into.... but for the purpose of this particular post, it's black n grey. it's a cover up of a fat ass black circular thing she had.....

next up, some healed pics.... well almost healed! little shiny, little flaky, but again for the purpose of this post.... "healed enough to photograph?!"

apparently this guy did magic or something.....

apparently this chick was a virgin, and gave birth to a really good magician.

in all seriousness though, the mary is super tiny, it's tucked up inner upper arm, and it's pretty much same size as u see it when u click to enlarge. teeny lil' face.

righty-o, i'd better set up for my next customer, so thanks for looking y'all!