Just TeeJay's Blog

Don’t Panic

•June 25, 2014 • 4 Comments

“Don’t Panic” – said to be emblazoned in large friendly green letters on the cover of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. An incredibly useful mantra in so many ways. The things that I can tend to get upset about tend not to be the things I really ought to be worrying about.

I make tattoos for a living. This is a career which has been beyond my wildest dreams in so many ways and has brought me rewards beyond measure. I am grateful beyond words.

It is however time for me to make some changes. I will be going on a temporary (at least) hiatus from decorative tattooing starting in 2015. To ease this transition I will be finishing up any projects that I have started and booking appointments for clients that I have already spoken to about specific projects in the coming year. I will also still be taking on medical clients.

I am going to use the space and time in my schedule to complete the book that I have been working on for medical tattooing of the nipple areola complex. I feel that this work is an important part of my legacy and something that I would like to be able to leave behind. While I in no way intend to belittle decorative tattooing, the world will not be much better of a place if I make one more cool tattoo on a client’s arm. While it may mean the world to that client, I feel that I can make a bigger impact on the world at large by teaching more people to do the medical tattooing correctly. In turn helping countless women reclaim their bodies and recover from the ordeal that their mastectomies have put them through.

I hope to return to decorative tattooing once I have completed this project.

——

A note to those that will be getting “regular” tattooing from me in 2015.

I intend to open my books up for appointments in 2015 beginning in December of 2014 instead of October as I normally do. From there it is my intention to only book one calendar month at a time as opposed to the year that I have been booking normally. If you are flying in or coming from a great distance and require more than a month scheduling notice, please contact me directly and we can figure something out.

—–

Thank you to everyone for your ongoing support. For allowing me to alter your skin and share your lives with me (albeit briefly). You have all touched me in so many ways and enriched my life beyond measure.

Thank you also to everyone who has offered to help with this project. Many of you will be hearing from me shortly if you have not already. I admit I have been scared to move forward with this project on a number of different levels. I needed time away and to spend time talking with a lot of different people to reinforce how important this work is.

This has been a difficult decision for me to reach, but I firmly believe that hindsight will prove it to have been the correct course for where I would like to head with my life and my career.

Posted in introspection, TeeJay, White Tiger Tattoo
Tags: appointment schedule, tattoo, tattooing, teejay

Asheville Tattoo & Piercing Expo 2014

•June 25, 2014 • Leave a Comment

It’s no secret that I am an introvert and left to my own devices I would probably not leave the house let alone drive 700 miles to go hang out in another state at a Convention. But Lil’Tommy is a dear friend and an incredibly persuasive human. He wanted a family reunion, a gathering of friends who don’t normally hang out on the convention circuit anymore. He got exactly that.

It was a great show filled with amazing artists – run the way shows used to be done.

Of course all of that being said…. I do like painting and get damn little time to do it. So this show I brought all of my paints and focused on that. I did make a couple of tattoos, but mostly enjoyed visiting, hanging out and being at a show without any pressure at all.

They used the painting that I had done for them on shirts including onesies – so adorable! Had to get one for the Grandbaby 🙂

Painting that I started… Show Badges…. Drawing that I drew for a prospective client. She decided not to get it tattooed, so I decided to paint it instead. There were people at the show doing rescue work with wolf hybrid dogs. Started on this one and didn’t get very far when I had another idea. Family! I found out (way too late) that Out of Steps Books was doing a “Show Us Your Horns” contest with Maleficent inspired art. Didn’t have time to get this one finished to submit it, but will hopefully finish it up at home anyhow. Sleeping soundly at the Convention – starting her out early 🙂 Beautiful Scenic Overlook on the way home. Had a great time and would definitely do it again. Might even try to see more of Asheville next time. I hear pretty amazing things about it.

Posted in Art, Oil painting, painting, tattoo, Travel
Tags: Asheville Tattoo & Piercing Expo, tattoo

Time Traveling

•June 24, 2014 • Leave a Comment

There are a lot of jokes in some of my circles about time traveling. I think some of you refer to it as Blacking Out.

While I haven’t been doing anything that would cause me to black out… it appears that big chunks of time seem to be escaping me as of late. Or as Doc likes to say “Time is just whizzing by”. I’m not sure if that is a factor of getting older, more oblivious or what… but it seems all too often there is a lack of time and this feeling that I am running out of it somehow.

None of which is really that important. Here is some of what I have been up to since I thought that I posted last – but it appears that there is a good chunk of time and at least one post that I thought was here that isn’t. If I manage to figure out where it went I will post the in between stuff for you.

This painting was inspired by the Shoe Factory Art Co-op’s call for entires for “Sirens and Seahorses”. It does seem that I have finished them and could actually make the deadline on this one provided I remember to submit it.

Gretchen came to town to have a male added to her leg with her female gummie fairie. Apparently only the males of the species have wings. Gretchen suggested this might be because the females of all species sometimes need to get some distance from their partners (no matter how much they may love them). That sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Stacy had this black eyed susan done a while back by another artist. We had gone into it once before to add a bit more color and make it more vibrant – but she really still wasn’t pleased with it. This time we branched out a little bit more…

I had done a bunch of work on Chaz a few years back. After finishing his right arm and half of his left arm he took a break for a while. Now he is back and we are working on filling in the rest of his left arm and onto his back a little bit. This skull will have a samurai helmet on when he is finished.

Holly and I will be sharing a booth in Asheville. We decided that the combined booth shall be known as the McMitten’s Cat Lady Shelter. This required a new banner and a new drawing. In working on it I was periodically assisted by my own resident Supervisors.

Matthew is getting very close to finished on his Buddha/Naga(as Bahamut) backpiece. This has been a great project and I have much enjoyed working on it and hearing about Matthew’s family through his eyes.

The Cat Lady drawing finished…

Then time to make her into a banner:

Of course in my fury to get a drawing done for the McMitten’s Cat Lady Shelter I completely forgot to make a new one for my personal banner. Oh well. It’s still better than the time I made one out of a hotel towel and duct tape.

Posted in Art, Oil painting, painting, tattoo, TeeJay
Tags: Bahamut tattoo, black eyed susan tattoo, Buddha tattoo, gummie fairie, gummy fairy, McMitten's Cat Lady Shelter, merbunny, mermaid, Naga tattoo, seahorse, sirens and seahorses

Casey Baugh Workshop Day 3

•May 15, 2014 • 4 Comments

Day three was Casey painting from a photgraph instead of from life. It was great to watch him work and I am especially loving the way he deconstructs his work as he is going through. I have always loved lost edges and randomness in other people’s work but haven’t been happy with the way they worked out in my own paintings. I am looking forward to adding new dimensions in my texture and applications.

unfortunately the in progress photos that I took didn’t come out very well. So here are a couple from when he started and when we took breaks.

please forgive my typing and spelling errors on these posts. I am posting from the mobile and I can’t edit text after. I may be able to correct them when I get home and get on a real computer.

Casey’s model for Day 3 is a local photographer name Josh Wool. He has a website and an Instagram (under JoshWool) and is worth checking out. Seems like a super nice guy as well.

Which of course after a day of watching someone else paint I hurried back to the hotel room to push some paint around myself.

I am really liking the brush selection that Casey recommended. Much easier to more with and get the effects I have been trying to get if you use the right brushes. Who knew 🙂

That’s as far as I made it. Day 4 will be us painting again so I will have more photos of that and hopefully will make more rabbit progress as well.

Posted in Art, Oil painting, painting, Travel
Tags: Alice in Wonderland, Casey Baugh, Casey Baugh workshop, Josh Wool portrait, March Hare, oil painting, oil painting workshop, tea party

Casey Baugh Workshop Day 2

•May 13, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Today we painted from life.

Here are some of the stage photos of mine…

Of course the kitty stopped by periodically to inspect everything. He seemed particularly interested in my messenger bag.

Here are the final paintings from everyone in the class… Going around the room which is cool so you can see the different angles everyone was working from. I love seeing all the different styles!

I learned a lot. Tomorrow is watching again. Casey will be working from photographs.

Now back to painting rabbits 🙂

Posted in Art, Oil painting, painting
Tags: Casey Baugh workshop, life painting, oil painting, painting, painting workshop

Casey Baugh Workshop Day 1

•May 13, 2014 • 2 Comments

I’m in Brooklyn for a week to take a workshop from the oil painter Casey Baugh. Even though portrait drawing isn’t something I ever plan to make a career out of, I am fascinated by the way Casey works. He works from soft vague shapes and Distills them down into a more and more refined image… As opposed to artists who start out with a tight drawing or underpainting and then conform the rest of the piece to that.
Day 1 was spent watching Casey paint from life (his lovely girlfriend and muse Rachel).

Since day 2 of the workshop will be us painting from life I went back to the hotel room to experiment with the materials that Casey recommended for the class. At least the brushes and the palette. I am using a slightly different medium than he is and he is painting on panels while all I brought are canvases. I added a bit more to this piece in progress

Then I started putting paint in the canvas for this one. Unfortunately I had already transferred the drawing to the surface, so I wasn’t able to try out Casey’s painting style, but I was still grateful to have the opportunity to experiment with the brushes and palette before I attempt a human in Day 2.

That’s as far as I made it last night. I am not sure if I will be able to paint in the hotel room again tonight. I am staying a mile and a half from the workshop and am not sure how much supplies I am going to be up for carrying back and forth everyday. We shall see, I’m thinking about putting everything in my rolly suitcase and looking like a genuine NYC tourist wandering around with me luggage 🙂

Posted in Art, drawing, Oil painting, painting
Tags: brooklyn, Casey Baugh workshop, NYC, painting class, painting workshop, siren and seahorse, suicide bunnies

Mariah’s Alice in Wonderland Tattoo Sleeve

•May 1, 2014 • Leave a Comment

I know that you have seen pieces of this tattoo here and there as we have been working on it – but this is the first time that I got decent photos of the entire sleeve.

Mariah had been planning this sleeve for a very long time. We actually did the “Painting the Roses Red” rose on the top of her arm several years before making the rest of the tattoo. The “Off with Her Head” lettering on the wrist was done by another artist and unfortunately I don’t remember who.

Most of the tattoo characters are taken directly (or mostly) from the Arthur Rackham versions as they are Mariah’s favorite. I requested the Disney characters of the Bread and Butterflies and the Little Oysters in their beds be included and Mariah humored me.

The Cheshire Cat is a combination of ideas that I put together myself and the Cookies were a request from Mariah and include “Bite Me” as well as the more traditional “Eat Me”.

The entire tattoo with the exception of the bold reds was done with Silverback tattoo ink – They make a really unique tinted grey wash and some of the characters and areas have subtle tints that are easier to see in person than in the photos.

Super happy with the way that it came out (as is Mariah) and I hear that she gets compliments on it often.

Thanks Mariah for having me make this tattoo for you. Big hugs to you girl 🙂

Posted in Art, tattoo
Tags: alice, Alice in Wonderland, alice in wonderland tattoo, cheshire cat tattoo, mad hatter tattoo, silverback tattoo ink, sleeve, white rabbit tattoo

Painting work for my Virtual ‘Fridge

•April 15, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Feeling very much like a small person today. Want to put my pretty pictures up on the ‘fridge. Maybe it’s the weather, I just want to be snuggled up somewhere warm and cuddly.

meh. being an adult offers limited opportunities for getting what we think we want during the course of the day. Fortunately it does offer lots of opportunities for what we need.

I went to painting class yesterday, finished the ducks and got closer to finished on this bunny.

The ducks are going off to live with my accountant and his wife once the painting is dry.

The two photos are taken (top one) with my ipad and (the lower one) with my husband’s now disconnected iPhone. I have been talking for a while about the things that the iPad does with the colors in the tattoos. Now that I have the iPhone for taking photos with I am hoping you will hear (read) far less complaining about the quality of my photos.

Progress on this bunny painting. This one was part of a triptych that I don’t think I am going to finish. I think I will finish this one out of the series and move onto something else.

Hope that you are having a great day and get to feel appreciated and loved in your life.

There are no Figure Drawing photos because I didn’t go again last night. They have changed the format and there are going to be even less short poses and a 2 hour long pose at the end of the night. I don’t know if I am going to go anymore. I really missed the number of short poses that we had before and with the format being limited even further I may try to find something else creative to do with my Monday nights. We shall see.

I’ll miss the classes and the practice, but hopefully will find something that will push me even further in my artistic development.

Posted in Art, Oil painting, painting
Tags: duck painting, ducks, mallard duck painting, teejay painting

Monday Updates – Back to Painting Class and Still Tattooing

•April 7, 2014 • Leave a Comment

So of course just when I promised myself that I was going to start being super regular about posting again – my computer at home decided that it doesn’t want to talk to my devices anymore. Which while it will spare everyone nauseating details about my running regimen, has made uploading photos a complete drag. I’ll figure it out. Or I’ll burn the computer. I’ve been contemplating a bonfire of some stuff anyhow… why not toss some electronics in to make things interesting?

Anyhow, enough whining… here is some of what I have been up to.

Frank’s lower arm is finished. These photos are pretty dark, but I wanted to let you see anyhow. I will try again next time I see him.

Julia came to town and we added some more onto her sleeve and extended it down her arm a touch more. There will be more going on towards the bottom of the tattoo next session. We got the creeping charlie in there this time (I have always known it as creeping charlie, she knows it as gill over the ground) and there is clover to come. I believe some more bees, an ant or two and one other thing which escapes me at the moment.

Last Monday was the return to painting class (yay!!!). My accountant always takes such good care of me that I wanted to make him and his wife a painting to say thank you. Annie requested something with ducks…. and although every bit of my nature wanted to paint rubber ducks for them, I knew that wasn’t what she meant. It’s not a good gift if I intentionally make something ‘I’ would like instead of something they would like. So here is the first day of working on the ducks…

No figure drawing photos from last Monday on accounta I didn’t go. So there 🙂

I don’t know if I had posted this before, but I finally mailed the artwork for the Asheville Tattoo Convention (women’s) shirts out to Lil’Tommy and his crew. Hoping that it works well for the shirts.

Hostage the Mouse whilst still in captivity:

Snuck in an early Season ride on Thursday (motivated partially by my car needing a new wheel bearing). Fun to be out riding while there is still snow on the ground (but NOT on the road).

Started a fun piece on Chaz – starts out as a skeleton koi and gets healthier as it goes down his back. There will be more color in this part and more parts to come.

Was able to finish the color on Marshall’s Steampunk Octopus tattoo – I was super excited that I got to make this tattoo and that such a great client decided to get it. Thank you Marshall 🙂

Got another sit in on Matthew’s Buddha and Muchalinda (Naga) tattoo – this is coming together nicely.

Chris was nice enough to stop in so that we could get some healed photos of the Balboa tattoo on his chest. Since I was tattooing when he stopped by our Counter Guy Chris took photos for me. It was a Chris day 🙂

Hostage the Mouse spent almost all of her time whilst in our care in this exact same position. Sunday I spent a little time working on the Ducks some more. First trying to sand down the gesso ridges that were bugging me. Then adding some of the damaged paint back in.

Then off to the Park to set Hostage free finally. She wasn’t in any big hurry to run away from us and I hope all her mouse survival skills kick back in the rest of the way so no one else tries to snack on her. We did take her to Durand so she hopefully will be safe from kitties at least.

I got my Kickstarter rewards in the mail from the wonderful ladies at Scratch Bakeshop which I believe will be located at 113 Park Avenue when they get open. Keep an eye out: they will have tasty treats for those of us with gluten issues. I believe they will also have tasty vegan treats as well. These were French Macarons which are made with almond flour (who knew?) and were deemed very tasty by everyone who sampled them.

Today was back to painting class. If I was going to figure drawing tonight I should have left already so it looks like I’m not going this week either. Think I will head home and work on something fun that has nothing at all to do with work in any manner shape or form. This week is booked up with medical tattooing appointments so probably no weekly update again until I paint some more.

Posted in Art, Oil painting, painting, rochester, ny, tattoo
Tags: Asheville Tattoo & Piercing Expo, black and grey tattoo, Buddha tattoo, dog portrait tattoo, duck painting, garden sleeve tattoo, mallard ducks, Scratch Bakeshop, silverback tattoo ink, skeleton koi tattoo, tattoo

Special Paper for Figure Drawing

•March 25, 2014 • 2 Comments

I had decided a while back that I wanted to try using some other paper for the figure drawing instead of always working on newsprint. I mostly saved the “good” paper for the longer poses and spent most of the time that I was using it trying to figure out what I liked using on it best. Some of the sessions were more successful than others – but overall I think it was more than worth it.
Last night I used the last sheet in the pad. This morning I was about to toss it into the recycle bin and I decided that before I did that I would document this one pad all in one place.
In photographing them I realized there were a couple of pieces that I was really happy with (and some I would prefer not to see again)… as always the practice is ALWAYS worth it – even on the days were I don’t like anything that happens on paper, I know I am teaching my brain and my hand to get better.
If you would like any of these, let me know. I will leave them out of the recycle bin for a while just in case.

My apologies for the flurry of posts today. I was severely behind on a lot of things. Taxes, life, traveling… lots of the things get in the way… I’m finished for the time being.

Hope life brings you good things and you are loved, love another and find some things to be grateful for today ❤