Livin' la vida suitcase. europe. entry 1

Here, I find myself, about as lost as a rodent in a new sewer, scuffling through bags filled with re-used laundry, elbow deep into finding my passport/train ticket/ipod/pen/and whatever, clutching through cabin after cabin in trains, always a stranger frustrated to find a seat. This feeling, foreign enough to keep me in the quest, yet so familiar in the gut. Synchronizing nether both of its hostility. the lugging sound of my suitcase trolling hard thru the cobbled streets, old bistros, dutch houses slunted; wearing thin of its age. this feeling so inclined with the nature I assume I am living now. im back on the road! Sitting half assed out in a train headed towards what I think is Germany, to a little town called braunchweig. the passing trees ignorant to me, green and cold and probly half important, infamous graffitis on trains, language that doesnt register in my toungue, and people after people.





4 weeks in this adventure, another 7 to go. I see an old couple, choked in clothing, folded papers in their wrickled hands with tired eyes milimetes away, figuring the platforms and hours in to their route to wherever their headed. Rooftops floating at the height of the tracks i glide upon, as I command my fingers to write to document to let myself into exile. The past 30 days had been of an exhaustion, the only kind of exhaustion I am most happy about. the only kind of exhaustion I am proud of. The going and the drive. Tattooing. Still the reason, the bread maker, the life continuer.



So I started off this tour with the usual call of almost missing my flight to kuala lumpur. waking up an hour before departure time, fidgeting in bed imagining the long adventure that is starting to trail infront of me, it begins now. flashed, arrived into a canceled erika badhu concert after party, sipping on free champagne and beer, lending the life of the crooked rich the ones i despise, the crowd i ignore in my world. then it was back to work. tattooing off the eccentric new york city urban loft like photography studio of my good found friend julian oh and his wife carol. then it was a week back in singapore at Think tattoos. flew into amsterdam to attend the Rotterdam tattoo convention, alongside my Asian brother friend Jeremy tan. A silent hour and a half train ride thru the old concrete cities of Holland, scenic rivers, farms. Andy succeeded in pulling off a good show, the monstrosity of a crowd, working tattooers clocking time. New friends, new lesssons.



And so the weekend passed and I saw myself back in the legendary tattoo station of greg orie, in dragon tattoo Eindhoven. As always expected, spent the most beautiful and funny 3 weeks. Surrounded by the best environment any tattooer cud ask for. The quality spoken beyond words, the boldness and simplicity of strong tattoos that captivated my eyes to first pick up this craft, provoked any sense of bullshit out of the tattooing world today. just simple and good good tattoos. the way it should be. it was beautiful. I am always forever thankful and honored for the repeated opportunity to be tattooing there.

Then came the Frankfurt tattoo convention, our Asian invasion booth with elson yeo Jeremy tan and Julian oh. . 600 tattooers deep. Last one to finish, and leave. Classic taco time.

Still a Long way to go til I see the broken tiles in my room, listen to the heavy Christian couple that lives below me praising to the mystery up above. Filled with hope. Living every moment as for now.

ITS THE NEW YEAR!

its the new year now and time is a really sneaky guy. 2011 is old news at the moment and i havent updated this in almost a mocade (month decade). anyways, 2011 was an amazing year for me, grew so much as an artist/person, travelling and witnessing the world around me and the people i have met that have may or may have not moved me. such a beautiful year indeed. travelled to over 35cities, in over 10 countries, food poisoned in more than 3 of them, learnt 6 foreign ways to say "hello, i would like to see the menu please", so much pork, drunk times in salzburg, the catacombes in paris, sober in amsterdam, AND FUCKING SLAYER!!. new year resolutions? well same as the many years before this, keep livin! im gonna keep it short and brief on this one, and probly some of the works i've done in the past 2 years that i havent had time to upload on this blog, so please proceed to the *tattoo works* tab above. happy new year guys!

and to begin the fresh twothousandtwelve years after the birth of what christians call christ, zeke flew all the way from kuala lumpur to get this anatomical heart and umbrella. 5hours of canning, the most colors i have ever used on a single tattoo in such a long time.




oh and also the last few tattoos i did on the last days of 2011. enjoy the year ahead!


bandung, indonesia


collaboration i did with gary jones, bandung indonesia. i did the left side.


singapore


kota kinabalu





AND LASTLY, A FEW WORKS I STARTED IN THE LAST MONTH OF 2011:

HOME!

just a brief update on my whereabouts at this very moment, im back home! in kota kinabalu. did a 2month long adventure in europe, all thru austria, holland, germany, and france. and so much story to tell, oh well next post for shizzle. will start tattooing here again from the 24th september onwards all thru september and october. cheerios!

HOLLAND!

okkkkkaaaaaaayyy so its been 3 months since my last post, but who's counting anyways. so at this very moment, im in holland! yes, the beautiful lowlands of milkladys, legal grass and a language i dont understand. yes sirree, i did amsterdam oh too well i dont even remember most of it. went thru the amsterdam checklist of the obvious :-weed(check), spacecakes(soon), sex museum(soon), weed museum(yes), complain about the cold(check), toothbrush(shit).

im travelling with the very talented jeremy tan of think tattoos singapore, im just taggin along like a sock. we did the Rotterdam tattoo convention frmo the 12th-13th of march, set up by the amazing andy of bonzai tattoo(NL). we got in 2 days before that into amsterdam. 7hours to dubai for a connecting flight, we spent a nite in dubai, another world i almost forgot to mention. i would promise a separate post on dubai but i know too well it wont happen.

soo, dubai was great. sand on every corner it felt like a tintin adventure, i was hoping to see a legit old sand-kneegrow on a magic carpet and a talking camel but i was put back to my place straight after asking the first, second, third, fourth person consequtively i saw in the airport for directions, a FILIPINO! it was filled with FILIPINOS i wud believe if i got on the wrong plane. it was good. well again, im obviously exagerrating but who's counting. so yes we spent a good 24hours there, put on our generic japanese tourist outfit with a canon camera strap, lost as fuck, and roamed aimlessly thru the arabic streets. it was beautiful, went to the biggest mall in the world. saw the biggest Carrefour superstore, was pretty stoked. and had malaysian food. yes, good ol nasi kandang. went to this ridiculously luxurious resort world thing with sharks in an aquarium ready to be eaten. so that was dubai. i shall post pictures when i get the urge to go thru my memory card.

now back to the netherlands. we're currently guest working in tattoo parlor in OSS, which is a 45 minutes drive out of rotterdam, called Ace of spades tattoos. real nice decent shop in the heart of a small town, everyone knows each other, turkish spices everywhere. i swear to god the next time i eat frikandelle, fries or shoarma, i wud fart vegetable oil and shit out a pig in all four limbs. for the first time in my life, i am craving chinese food so bad i wud actually cry. yes.

so its the 11th day of our european venture, another 30+days to go. next we head off to belgium for the ANTWERP convention from april 2nd to 3rd. then to germany for the ink xplosion convention in munchengladbach, then the international frankfurt convention. but first, this weekend, amsterdam again!! you know, for business..pictures next!!

BACK FROM THE DEAD

ohh has it been the longest run of not being able to update this blog. was suppose to continue with more photos from my previous australian venture about 3 months ago, and got stuck 1st not being able to find even 10minutes off time to hop on the internet and binge on updating what i perceive as a personal disciplinary routine, 2nd im just getting too lazy. fuckin hell, feeling like a slob doesnt help at all. soooo, im upkeeping again!! yessss..but who gives 2 shits anyways. months has been like years sometimes, and years felt like days.

btw, tristan is 1 now! time flies like dust in a dormitory room. spent alot of time travelling to and fro singapore, hangin out with the think tattoo crew cock talking and furniture peeing. and ofcourse tatt zappin.

did a tour with our old buddies in driven fear, played 3 shows or the release of our new split ep "pale fate".

ohh and yesss the singapore convention is in about 7days! super pumped up to be participating in this show, cant wait!

so as promised, zeee fotoo from august, a quick run thru of what i did while working at progression.



did this on simone, an amazing soon-to-be tattooer and an artist. check out her work, ladymonicle.com.au. spent about 9hours on this chap without flinching. a kitsune fighting a paper lantern ghost. and a few hours after, took me to see penguins in victor harbor! it was amazingggg, altho with my incapability to have good eyesight, struggled to find penguins the whole night. it was in the dark, a tour guided lady with a torchlight, i swear the only thing i could see was the cold air. but ofcourse i had to pretend they were cute. man i paid $12 bucks, gotta be worth something.



mr jamie (simone's bf), who is also a fucking ace tattooer, got this major cock fighting snake, jamie is a dragon born in the year of the rooster( hence the tattoo). a dragon because he showed no fear in my pain staking session, and also a dragon because he was tall as a mother. im asian and im considered 'tall' here, and he was at least 2miles taller than me. he wudve easily passed being white kobe bryant. love this guy, cooked me a meal in his awesome house, slept with his awesome dog for 8 hours and got insanely bakeddddd watching a quentin tarantino flick. 2 sessions in, still not complete. hopefully i can make a trip down to visit these lads again in 2011.



tiki owl on mr.steve.

did a few more tattoos but going thru a huge load of photos in my harddrive seems like too much hardwork now.

and here are a few photos of recent jobs i've done over the past few months being in kota kinabalu and singapore.

Travel log 1: Radelaide! the taco australian adventures

it has been exactly 1 month since i left to the then-thought sunny state of australia: ADELAIDE! obviously i was shitting myself wrong, spewing over the fact that i didnt realise that it was freaking WINTER!! fuck a duck, coz the taco aint good with the cold. yupe, panzy point +1. only under 10degrees but still i was fakking up crawling like a new born wombat because i packed 1 jeans and 3 shorts. but it was all-in-all one of the best 3 weeks of my adult life. so this entry is going to be a pretty long read.



Worked at the super awesome PROGRESSION TATTOO , alongside the super-spastic Matt deverson AKA dragon tribal master! here's why? the eccentric komodo tribal dragon pose, one of the many sacred tribal pose matt whips out---> check out his work btw! dont worry, you wont find any tribal yingyangs in there. HAH! it was an honor! AND it goes to show how being an artist makes you good friends, coz i met matt 5years ago when he was over in borneo. and we kept intouch since. goodtimes!

and ofcourse there were too kind to let me stay with them, 3 mega-super thick quilts, wooden floors, and a heater was my home for 2 weeks. thank you mr & mrs deverson :) . not to forget their furry childrens lucas, leaia, and ....the cutest cat i've ever encountered in my journeys! :



to be honest i have never met cheekier dogs...wait, cheeky snoring dogs! than of lucas and leaia. besides snoring worse than my best friend jim, there are all about the snuggles...and UNDERWEAR EATING. yupe u heard me! thats how we bonded so well.

there wud've been no better way to authenticate a celebration of my first night in australia other than having THAI DINNER! ahh the amazing tanapa restaurant, where entrée's are as filling as a main dish, and restrooms are as long a walk than the chinese marathon. it was awesome, food was awesome, wine was exquisite. and also, meet jamie and simone!

so started off my guest spot with my first job, 10am, icy adelaide, of a severed nurse head on nathans hand. he was abit tanned (i use to think all australians are sun-burnt :S ), but it rocked out well!

i'll post up more works as we get along this travel log. mind you, im trying to keep things in sequence. so stay tuned soldiers.

so anyways, matt and his misses live in a picturesque small suburb, glenelg. just by the beach, and if u are as ignorant of an asian as i am, yes there are sharks! and no, shark attacks are super rare, and as WU-TANG CLAN says it best "shame on a nigga who try to run game on a nigga", well i dont really see how dat applies or justify shark attacks, but i just thought it was appropriate to quote. so fakk your couch! HAH!

Travel log 2: MAIL-BURN! the taco australian adventure

a week long after working full-on at the progression tattoo headquarters, we sneaked on a few cheap tiger airways plane tix for a quick holiday-in-a-holiday to: MELBOURNE! mainly to watch the awesome canadian based hip-hop act 'K-OS' gig. and yes, it was cold-ER, ahh the miserable weather that is winter. and taxi's in melbourne is def a richmans transport mode, it was the equivalent amount of all our 3 flights put together. well im obviously exaggerating but it came close! ! and they was a service charge! so the next time youre NOT visiting melbourne and in a taxi, shake your asian taxi drivers hand for not being in melbourne.

if i had to narrow down one thing i love most about melbourne, it'd be the architecture! well ofcourse besides lord of the fries.




















spent an amazing 24 hours in melbourne! had awesome vegan burgers, and spent a fortune on books in metropolis. then flew back to the not-sunny-at-all adelaide!

stay tuned for travel log 3!