Retrospect and Moving forward in 2025

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by, here's my latest update on things;

Personally, (as of today) I've just finished one of the most hectic & intense workloads I've ever taken on. Huge thank you to those who showed support and understanding while I've been burning the candle on both ends for the passed 11 weeks

I've really wanted to keep this blog a more regular thing, while keeping things as sincere & transparent as I can while navigating exactly how it is I'm gonna do that

There's a lot of interesting stories from my past & history I'd like to share in future blogposts. I believe would be entertaining, informative or just even good for me to get out on this kind of a platform. Stories like; my tales of being an apprentice over two cities in two different states and many different studios. The travel I've done, tattooing in Europe in places like Amsterdam, Russia and even in America in Massachusetts. Crazy instances that have happened in conventions, daily studio life, there's a lot I could share that I believe would be very interesting

Having the time to nourish everything has been impossible to secure during the passed 3 months, so it's really up to me moving forward how I wanna handle things and share my journey along the way

While I've been going through such a heavy workload (both in tattooing & out of tattooing), I've been determined to enable healthy habits along the way. Gratitude journalling everyday, meditating, exercising, both physically and mentally. The mental exercise I chose was to be firm on drawing with pencil for an hour every single day on top of designing & drawing digitally on ipad. No excuses, just sketchbooks to punish

In doing so, I recently chose to draw from the GOAT anatomy book, Gray's Anatomy. I feel like this is now a permanent habit to every so often, reference & study by sketching from this book. Sketching & studying from Gray's Anatomy has been so valuable to me over the passed few months. I endeavour to discover & learn how others build anatomy in their conception & sketching process, so to have this highly regarded source material become something I'm familiar with in my understanding of anatomy, feels really good

Moving forward, I'm determined to maintain time to study through sketching as well as creative drawing as new daily routine, now that it's in motion & cemented within my daily life again. My next goal in regular sketchbook exercises is to consistently focus on drawing background elements rooted in Traditional style japanese tattooing (drawing and sketching windbars, elements of fire & lightning, floral, water & waves etc)   

On a side note to all that; back in 2022, some friends & I started a band. This band was & is named, Chief Irons. I've never been able to dedicate time or find like-minded individuals to create a musical project with before, so I fell into this band thing HARD. This was a new expression & interest I became obsessed with

I've since shared a lot of that manic excitement over the band with clients, friends & colleagues and anyone else who never asked but I always told. This has been a rollercoaster journey so far that never really ever made it to the stage in a venue. Instead, it's been for the most part, me & my band brothers grinding, as well as understanding & supporting each others life circumstances. Taking the time in when we've got the beans to grind. However, we've also been taking the time out when needed to focus on the priorities in our life. So things in Chief Irons are still in very early, conceptual stages, were still figuring it all out with each other

For the most part, we just love getting in a room together when we can. Play songs we love (both covers & originals), talking shit and sharing our goals as individuals with each other

For those who've showed & kept invested interest, I don't know when we'll have our music on streaming or even recorded, let alone mixed & mastered to be ready for streaming. I don't know when we'll have the opportunity to play live, I don't know what our exact plans are. We're still figuring all that stuff out ourselves. In the meantime, I'm sure once there's something worth sharing from our musical project we've been creating together, I'll be more than eager to share it asap with you all

Otherwise & lastly, in the spirit of plans for 2025; I'm working out my next foot forward with my creative projects outside of tattooing. Myself as a tattooer, I'm currently open for bookings in February & March, then in April, I'm somewhat locked in to go to Europe in which I'll be guesting and tattooing. So far, logistically I can only see this being a 'Black Ink Only' tour, as the rules & regulations in Europe seem very intense and confusing. From what I can gauge, to tattoo in Europe, I will need to buy a completely new set of inks, as a lot of what's regulated here in Australia, is illegal to use in Europe. More on that to come, I've just gotta figure some stuff out before I can fully confirm this years Europe April trip

Otherwise, if you're local and looking for your sign to hit me up & enquire on your next tattoo .. this is it, hit me up :)

Thanks for reading <3