Saturday November 05, 2011

Everyone here at Off the Map is no stranger to Dave Barton, he is a good friend of the shop that we are always sure to catch up with at conventions and events around the U.S.  Dave also makes a point to stop in for a weekend or two every year to tattoo his New England clients.  Unfortunately for those interested in getting tattooed by Dave this time, he is all booked up for his guest spot.  But, don’t fret he will be back!!  

For those of you who are not familiar with Dave’s work, be sure to check out his portfolio and if you are on the west coast, be sure to contact Dave and get an awesome custom tattoo.

Snowboard Gal by Stefano

Are you a tattooer who likes to snowboard? If so, plan on coming out to the Paradise Tattoo Gathering Snowboard Party at Keystone ResortJan 10-11th for some professional development and snowboarding! Stefano from Last Rites will be giving a free seminar on realistic tattooing (worth $250!) and TattooNOW will be giving a free seminar on marketing. All you need to do is call (800) 258-0437 and reserve your room with code CF1PTE to book your room and click here to send us an email with your reservation number. You can check out more details about theParadise Tattoo Gathering Snowboard Party here. 

Adam Lauricella is of one the best guys ever, and we’re really excited to have him tattooing at the studio for a couple days. Adam came up from his studio Graceland Tattoo in Wappingers Falls, NY. We were getting really nervous about whether or not we would have power, so we are thrilled things went as planned for his guest spot and he’s here tattooing our clients as scheduled.

Today Adam is working on a traditional eagle and rose tattoo, and then a metronome tonight. Tomorrow, in one of the weirdest combinations ever, he’ll be working on a collaboration tattoo with out own Kelly Doty. It will definitely be very interesting to see how their very different styles combine for that unique custom tattoo! Adam specializes in more a more traditional style of tattooing, like this Indian Girl Tattoo based on a piece of flash by Sailor Jerry himself.

Adam is an all around great guy and super professional and talented tattooer, so you should definitely check him out, as well as his self-owned studio! Tell him we sent ya!

Dave Barton is traveling from California to tattoo at our studio next weekend and he wants to tattoo the crap out of you! Not only that, him and our resident all star, Kelly Doty would love to tag team for an awesome collaborative custom tattoo! 

Just imagine their forces combined. If you combine Kelly’ cuddle fish and Dave’s beer shark… who knows what might happen.

Dave specializes in bio-organic and bio-mechanical tattoos, as well as gnar. He just wants to do some awesome tattoos while he’s on the east coast. Give us a buzz if you want to set up a tattoo appointment!

Our very own Gabe Ripley, shop owner extraordinaire, had an amazing opportunity to go to Rome last week to participate in the World Wide Tattoo Conference. He gave a seminar on businesses planning and got to share the stage with amazing tattooers including Jeff Gogue, Alex De Pase, Nick Baxter and Boris .

It seems like overall it was amazing trip and this video by Jeff sums up parts of it! This conference will be happening in the states in Chicago this April, so stay posted on the website for more details!

This week we have two guest tattoo artists this week the do some awesome custom tattoos! Myke Chambers is coming in tomorrow, the 25th and tattooing through the 27th. He’s fully booked for his trip, but he does have space for his watercolor seminar Wednesday at 7pm. Cost is $80 and you can call the shop to sign up! Full details here!

After that Madison Casey is coming up Wednesday, October 26 through Halloween and he’d love to do a custom tattoo for you! He’s got appointment available, so feel free to call the shop to schedule something, or come in for a walk in tattoo!

Madison enjoys doing portraits and photo realism like the Marilyn Monroe portrait tattoo above, but he’s also happy to do smaller things like this super cute butterfly tattoo on his clients foot!

We also have our 4 amazing resident artists, Max Rothert, Tim Senecal, Kelly Doty and Chloe Vanessawho are always here for free tattoo consults and booking tattoo appointments! Winter month appointments are starting to fill up, so if you were thinking of getting tattooed call or stop in to set up your next tattoo!

We are so happy to have brand spanking new promo materials for the shop, and we can’t wait to get the posted all around the area! For the first time we have full color 11x17 posters for the shop, and we also have new double sided post cards! Big thanks to Alexis Design who created these awesome marketing materials! She’s local and does a great job, so if you’re ever in need of graphic design Look her up!

Halo Couriers helps us to get promo stuff of the streets but we want your help too! You can earn money towards your next tattoo by coming to the shop, grabbing some promo materials, putting them out and sending us pictures of the promotion you’ve done! The more you poster the more you earn, there’s no limit! You can put them at your own business, your school, the coffee shop your frequent, or anywhere that will take posters! We want them everywhere! Just please flyer responsibly and ask permission to post.

Want more info? Email Mary@TattooNOW.com for specifics. Come in and grab some promo materials and we’ll give you an Off the Map Tattoo shot glass for stopping in!

Thanks for the continued support and we hope to see you soon!

Don’t forget we have two amazing art seminars coming up in the next few months right here at Off the Map Tattoo! We are thrilled to have Myke Chambers, and Chris Lowe doing a watercolor and colored pencil seminar, respectively. Read on for details!

The Basics of Traditional Tattoo Flash Watercoloring Seminar by Myke Chambers October 26 @ 7pm

Cost is $80- Call Off the Map Tattoo to sign up! 413-527-6574

“I’ve been asked in the past to do seminars on tattooing but i’ve always turned down the offers. I mean, what would I teach it on?  How to pull a straight line and pack solid color? And then call it “things you should know already but don’t”? Nope. 

The questions I get asked the most are about painting with watercolor so I thought this would be a good seminar as you don’t see it offered often. Watercoloring isn’t as easy as it might look…well, I take that back, if you know a few simple tricks it’s actually pretty easy. After you get the basics down it’s only a matter of practice and patience. With this seminar i’m offering you the basics that will set you on your path…nothing too technical…keep it simple stupid”-Myke Chambers 

Topics Covered:

-Brushes

-Paper/wood/board

-Paint (watercolor verses liquid acrylic)

-Spit shading

-Staining

-Sealing

This is a hands on seminar, brushes, paint, and paper will be provided. (supplies permitting)

Chris Lowe’s Rendering Realism with Colored Pencil- November 13 @ 1pm

Seminar is 4 hours, $250, cost includes a free sample set of paper a copy of the Rendering in Color Pencil DVD- CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!

This workshop is designed to help you better understand the different ways you are able to work with colored pencils from layering and burnishing to more complicated blending techniques.  Chris will show you the way he goes about capturing extreme realism in his art. 

The workshop will last approximately four hours and guide you step by step to completing your own piece using his techniques.  Everyone will receive a 24 set of colored pencils as well as a few sheets of the papers Chris prefers to use.  Chris will also go over the benefits he has seen in his tattooing since he began working with these techniques in colored pencil. 

Each attendee will also receive Chris’ dvd where he renders a piece from start to finish.  This workshop is one you don’t want to miss if you are at all interested in bringing realism into your colored pencil drawings. 

Cracked.com is one of the best websites ever to kill time, and one of all time favorite features on the site is “Images You Won’t Believe Aren’t Photoshopped.” Let me tell you, they’re not kidding. It’s seriously hard to believe a lot of these images aren’t created by a computer.  They’re fun to look at, and the commentary not only explains the circumstance behind the photo, but the writers are also witty and so funny to read.

Some of the images are just silly, others are really quite artistically stunning. If you can’t get enough of these, luck for you, there’s 8 different collections of images. Have some fun looking at these, but don’t get mad at us is your boss catches you!

Enjoy!… and more… even more… yup more... keep looking… click here… last one.

“Oh, bullshit. Are we supposed to believe a bunch of flamingos all got together and stood in the shape of a flamingo?

Yes, unless you think National Geographic isn’t above just screwing with us for web traffic. Though we guess it’s possible that photographer Robert Haas and his team waded out into the water and carefully taped a bunch of flamingos together while a helicopter circled above, radioing down instructions. Or maybe he’s the Beastmaster.”

“This looks like an entry in a “what if advertisements came to life and fucked up your car” Photoshop contest, but it is an actual photo of an actual ad in Columbus, Ohio.

The ad isn’t for a paint brand, but rather Nationwide Insurance. So how did they achieve the illusion that paint had spilled down the building and onto the parking lot? By, uh, spilling a bunch of paint on the building and parking lot.”

“The Internet is lousy with mind bending images of street art that turns a few panels of sidewalk into a swimming hole, or a terrifying pedestrian hazard. But Edgar Mueller’s neighborhood swallowing painting makes that shit look like hopscotch.

With most sidewalk art, you can wrap your head around the illusion if you look at it long enough. But this one just gets more insane the longer you think about it. Especially when you take into account his contingency plan for rain is “ leave and paint a new picture tomorrow.” So while the dog perched precariously out on the ledge of the literal floating buttress might look like it’s in danger of starring in the Disney version of Drag Me to Hell, it could actually ruin the whole week long project with a territory marking stream of piss.”