Hello folks.  Just a quick update from sunny Lancashire.
Beth, Addie and I have been over in the UK for a month and a half now, and I've been working at Primal Ink tattoo studio for about a month.
Since arriving here, we've been getting involved in loads of stuff in the community.  Addie has started nursery, we've been leading worship and speaking with the youth and young adults, and Beth has started her placement with Blackpool Advocacy.

I am now the only artist at Primal Ink, and work is really picking up for the summer.  
If you're in the area, and would like to pop in to see me, or get some work done, just drop me a line to let me know!  And, of course, if you're anywhere in the country, and you fancy a lovely holiday by the sea, you could always get some ink while you're here!
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Patience. 04/04/2010
 
I've been out the shop for more than a month now.  It's been good to take a little break after everything that happened, and to take stock of where I'm at, and where my family is at.

This past week, I've done a couple of pieces for friends at home.  The sun room that I'm using isn't purpose built, but it is certainly doing the job for now.  It is bright, clean, and calm. I've not been advertising myself as an artist, but the work keeps coming in anyway.  It's that time of year again, I guess.  My classy new tattoo bed should arrive in the next few days, and that will make it easier.

This summer, we're transforming our spare room into an awesome, professional private studio.  We have done our research and you can expect it to be pretty cool.

In the meantime, I'm thinking about finishing off my sleeve.  The upper arm is in desperate need of more work, and I've just about done the drawing now.  My good friend, Kevin Smith is going to work on it, when he returns from some crazy extreme sports in Arizona.  I can't wait to see the finished product.

Maybe that's where I'm at with my career in tattooing at the moment.  I just can't wait to see the finished product.  I don't know exactly how everything's going to shape up yet down the road. I've enjoyed the last few weeks, taking a break from tattooing, because It's given me a chance to learn a little patience.  Everything is going to come together, but for now, I think I just need to let God work it out.

It's Easter Sunday today, a day to remember that Jesus is not dead, but that he rose again from the dead so that we can have eternal life.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing - we can look at what He did on the cross, and recognise it as the ultimate sacrifice.  Jesus died to defeat death.  But we only know that he was victorious, because he was resurrected.  To be one of his disciples, close friends, family, on the day he died would surely have been torture. 
I suspect that, in their position, even if I'd had faith that He would return from the dead, I would have really struggled through those couple of days having seen him publicly executed.  Watching all that I'd built my life around dying in front of me.  I would almost certainly have felt like I was in the pit of despair.

It's so much easier when we look back after the conclusion of an event to see that it was all going to work out in the end.  Right now, I'm waiting for the time when I can see how it all works out.  But the good thing is, I know that Jesus was raised from the dead.  The situation now is infinitely better than it was before He died; before it seemed there was no hope.  And that's what I'm looking forward to.

Peace.
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Picture
I'm in a time of transition again.
I've been noticing for a while that the shop I was working in is a little slow on walk in business.  This is partly deliberate - the owners wanted the shop in a more residential area, with a different feel to many of the tattoo shops you see downtown. 

It's also become clear that there is a clash of values between myself and my boss.  I've mentioned on here before that I'm a Christian, and many of my clients are too.  As a result, we often talk our faith and political outlooks. 

While it's certainly not been my intention to offend anyone, some of these conversations seem to have had that effect.  It's important to me to provide a place for my clients to speak freely, regardless of what's going on in their lives.  So, now, I find myself making the decision to leave the environment I was in, where that wasn't possible.

Right now, I'm looking for potential shops to work in.  I had an interview on Monday at a successful studio that's just moved to Mississauga.  I'm waiting to hear back from them, and I have an interview on Friday at another Queen Street studio.

I'm not really sure where this is going to end up, but I know it's going to be good.  I have been holding off on appointments for the first couple weeks of March just so we can get a better idea of what's going on.  What's for sure is that by the end of the month I will be established

I'll keep you up to date.
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Revolutionary 09/02/2009
 
I've been asked by a good friend of mine to write an article for a magazine in the UK.  It's aimed at youth and young adults, most of whom are not Christians.  The aim of the magazine is to show what it really means to be a follower of Jesus.   Here's what I came up with; let me know what you think...

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I've had quite a few jobs.
I've flipped burgers at McDonald's.  I've poured pints in a nightclub.  I've stacked shelves at the Co-Op.  I've even made the perfect espresso at Starbucks.  
But that's all behind me now.  I'm all grown up.  I have a wife and a daughter.  So I work in a steady, sensible job.  You know the sort of thing - get older, settle down.  Can you guess what I do?
 
I'm a tattoo artist.
 
So, how did I end up doing this, you ask.  Well, the funny thing is that I believe God gave me the idea.
See, I'm not only a husband and a father.  I'm not only an artist.  More than anything, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ.  A Christian.  Some years ago I made a decision to trust God with my life.  I asked him what He wanted me to do.  And the strange thing is, that I ended up as a tattoo artist.
 
For some people, that might sound like something God would never tell someone to do.  Isn't even getting a tattoo against the rules for a Christian?
 
The thing is, though, that Jesus isn't about rules.  In fact, he's totally against them.  
When Jesus walked on the Earth, he broke pretty much every rule that the religious leaders of his time held to be important.  He healed people on the Day of Rest.  He chose followers who weren't considered clever or holy enough to be Holy Men.  He even hung out with criminals, tax collectors and prostitutes.  The outcasts of the day.
You know why?  Because Jesus cares about relationship.  He wants to know us personally.  Even if that challenges what we might think about Him.
 
And that's why he led me to be a tattoo artist.  Not because he thinks that tattoos are right for everybody. And not only because He wants me to enjoy the creative gifts He gave me. But because as an artist, I get to talk to a lot of people, one on one.  I get to form relationship with them.  I get the opportunity to tell them about how Jesus has changed my life; about how he changes my life all the time.  Not only that, but the fact that I am a follower of Jesus and a tattoo artist challenges what people think of Him.  Which is what He wants.
 
And maybe, just maybe, because I love tattooing.  And God loves me.
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Picture

See this picture of Jesus?  That's what my new tattoo looks like.  Some of you might have seen it.  It's on the inside of my upper left arm.
It doesn't quite look like this yet, because it's only outlined right now.  I'm getting it coloured tomorrow night and I'm rather excited.

Above that tattoo, right at the top of my arm, I have a big sacred heart, a mix of old and new school styles, with a banner that says deeper than war.  I'm wanting to build up a sleeve eventually, filled with Catholic style imagery.  I think I want to finish it off at the wrist with a realistic looking rosary wrapped around my arm, but I'm not sure yet.

My question is: what do you think should find its way onto that arm?  I don't think I want Mary on there, but I'm open to reasons that I should get that.  There's loads of stuff, but I want to keep it on a fairly classic theme, lots of colour, pretty old school in style.  A bit kitsch, but not too tacky.
I think once it's done, the background spaces will be filled with rays of light and bits of stained glass.  The elbow will probably be very little work, more gaps in the background.

I need lots of good ideas for this arm.  You can write your suggestions below.  Have fun!

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I received an email this week after I posted last.  A friend of mine brought up the subject of Leviticus 19: 28. 
"Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD." (NIV)
This is obviously a bit of a sticking point for Christians, because the Bible is apparently forbidding us to get tattoos.  My friend's point was that, for many people in the Church, the issue would not be so much with the stereotypes of people that get tattoos, but more with the law forbidding them.
Personally, I don't feel like that verse is really an issue for me.  There are two reasons for this:
1. I think that it is talking specifically to the Israelites at the time.  They had just left a pagan land, and were about to enter another.  The people living in those lands were in the habit of making marks on their bodies as part of their pagan rituals and worship.  God was teaching his people that they were set apart from those nations, and this was one of the ways that he wanted them to demonstrate this.
2. Many of the laws in the Old Testament are considered irrelevant to us now.  For example, Leviticus 19: 27 (the one just before this one) instructs the Israelites
"Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." (NIV)
I certainly have no problem with cutting that hair.  I sometimes have a beard, but it's got nothing to do with my conviction regarding this law. 
Paul and the other New Testament writers constantly come back to the idea that Jesus completed the law.  Without Jesus, there was a need for the law, but now it is irrelevant.  So long as we put our faith in Jesus, we have relationship with the Father, so it doesn't matter whether we obey the law to the letter.  That's not to say that God doesn't convict us when we disobey him, but there's a new covenant in place here.

I'm not going to write a sermon here, I just wanted to open up the debate.  If you have a problem with tattoos, I'm not going to tell you you're wrong, and that you should get one.  But I am pretty certain on what I believe, and I believe that there's nothing wrong with me getting and receiving tattoos.

I'm not done on this topic - in fact, I'm fairly sure that it's going to be a recurring theme on this blog.  I'll come back to what JLaw said in another post.

Thoughts?

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Stigma. 09/09/2008
 

It's interesting to look at the ways that tattoo culture is developing around the world.  Certainly in the UK, tattoos became more popular in the 90s, with celtic armbands being the design of choice for many.  This decade, Miami Ink, and similar shows, have helped bring even more popularity to tattooing.
Not everyone has changed their mind about tattoos, though.  A lot of people from my parents' generation still struggle with stereotypes of tattoos and the people that get them.  I was discussing this with my mum the other day, and she said, as I expected her to, that she can't get past the fact that when she was younger tattoos were mainly worn by criminals and other disreputable people.  She knows that I don't really fit into that demographic, and doesn't associate me with it, but does associate my tattoos.

I understand where she's coming from.  Sometimes it's really hard to break long-standing views on something.  It's very interesting to see how China is starting to change on this.  I read a fascinating article from the New York Times about the growing number of studios in Bejiing, and the people frequenting them. 

The journalist interviews a number of people in China about their views on tattoos. Here's the one that interested me the most:

“Tattoos are ugly, low class and an insult to your family,” said Li Miao, 68, a surgeon. “I wouldn’t judge a foreigner with a tattoo, but I would certainly think less of Chinese with one.”

I'm in an interesting position.  I work at a church, and I'm in a pastoral role.  I've also worked for some time in education.  Everywhere I go, people tell me to be very careful about where I get tattoos, because if too many of them are on show, I might struggle to get a job in a school/do missionary work in other countries/be respected by churchgoers (this is a separate issue that I might come back to sometime).  I know that they mean well, and I know that in some ways they have a point, but I can't help feeling that this is often due to their blindness to change.

People are more and more accepting of tattoos and the people that have them.  I'm not saying that it's always a good idea to get obvious tattoos, and as with any tattoo, I would recommend that you think very carefully before you get inked, but I am looking forward to a time when I might not face so much opposition about my tattoos based on who might judge me for them.  I think it serves to reinforce the stereotype.

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