Lizzie

"Sabbatical" is a word I like to use a lot because it seems like such a nice set up for artists that tattooers don't really exploit. We have been offering the shop for some time as a place like this, taking a set of tattooers during the summer who can work as much or as little as they like for a minimal, cost-covering daily rent. This summer was the first attempt, I feel like it was a big success. I tried pretty hard to find a nice location for my shop and actually got my dream spot: Harbord street is a quiet street surrounded by suburbs -- the catch is that only a block north is Bloor, a busy/hip/main street in the downtown, and a block north of College, which has tons of good restaurants and sushi places, all the bank branches, a theatre, and a grocery store. It was nice to have vegan options to suggest or be able to show Nikki where to go to work out. And having one of the city's best espresso cafes next door makes that base easily covered. The community is just very self-contained. I do find myself sometimes disappointed in Toronto for the hustle bustle and the cold winters, but honestly if that's all we can moan about, big whoop. Snow is pretty and it's pretty comfortable to draw in a heated room with huge windows and 3 foot snow bails at the window. Being that this is a "blog" I thought I'd just ramble about how much I love the little nook of a shop that every visiting artist and my staff has helped to personalize in our first year of business. If anyone wants to comment... I'm wondering if there's shops that other members feel so fondly of, even if it is their own. Haha.

Mario: I like what you said. It seems to me that the tattooers who, in the past few years, have most greatly influence my work ethic and what kind of professional I'd like to be are those who truly make tattooing #1. It's an easy thing to say, but not so hard to actually apply. Julio: I 'm not too sure about that man, I know a lot of pretty amazing vegan tattooers. Although some people woudl still call that food, "bad."

I'm intrstd in what people feel are the qualities they see most often in their mentors or respected peers in the industry; and similarly the qualities that sem to lead to successful business across the board. Skill obviously will play a part in my idea of a good tattooer, so that's a given.

Oops tim pausinger

I was at a very anti social shop for way too long that wasn't the most relaxed with letting tattooers travel so most of my getting out in the world and learning has been this year which - at 6 years of professionally tattooing - feels unfortunate and a loss, but... Better late than never! New tribe tattoo - Toronto Passage tattoo - Toronto Speakeasy tattoo - Toronto La main Bleue - Mons, Belgium Pure Body Art - brooklyn NY Black cobra tattoo - Salisbury Maryland Sid's tattoo - orange county CA Various apartments in London Various apartments in Amsterdam Various apartments in Montreal Montreal tattoo con Calgary tattoo con Paris tattoo con Brigton tattoo con x2 And being that the list above is so shit, how about the artists who have worked in my shop in our first year of business as a home base for myself, jen and Adrian, but also a sabbatical for pro tattooers: Dan sinnes Jon gray Adam sage Josh egnew Jason lambert Nikki balls Los Ocegueda Eric Wilcox Tim pausing +lots more who have confirmed for future dates!

Hi Nick. Chad and I discuss this too when I'm at wit's end and furiously texting him about how it's just a cluster fuck, this job of tattooing. Obviusly you will know this but the ease that my career took on after hiring a dedicated manager who handles every contact that comes through the shop. It's my opinion that to fully relax and avoid the tipping-point stress levels is to absolutely restrict interaction with clients to as little as possible. I also have started changing my hours drastically, wherein I now will draw and work on extraneous art projects and machine tinkering around 7 am - 12. Shop opens at noon, I tattoo til 7 or 8 and then I do my best to sign off for the evening and stay out till the next morning. It might be a great goal to make quotas for yourself. As in the maximum amount of work you'd like to do daily/weekly/monthly for each particular field. Ie- "I only fix up 3 machines at max per day and if I finish that, then I'm not to do more and simply go home." or "I only participate in one art show per month at the most and decline the rest" I think that as tattooers we are naturally hustlers and it's in our blood to GOGOGOGO all the time. I'm sure that with conscious effort you'll be able to make things slowly come together.