I head to Wilmington, North Carolina, about every two or three months. I have clients waiting for me, plenty of work at Port City Tattoo, and a surprisingly limited knowledge of the city itself. I know the route from the house to the shop pretty well. The ride back at night, too. Sightseeing is still a work in progress.
If you picture tattoo guest spots as traveling around America with a little tattooing in between, my trips usually work the other way around. But I like it that way, especially when I'm returning to familiar people and projects we've already started.
Why I Keep Coming Back
I've built up a pretty solid client base in Wilmington. Some people are waiting for their next session on a larger piece. Others come in with a new idea. So when I fly out, I usually know what I'll be working on, and my schedule is generally full.
Those return visits matter when you're working on large tattoos. You can't always finish a project in one trip, so the next visit becomes another chapter. For me, Wilmington is tied to specific people and pieces I get back to every few months.
The schedule is usually tighter than it is at home. Everyone wants an appointment during the seven to ten days I'm in town. There are only so many days to work with, so most of the trip happens inside the shop. That pretty much explains my ambitious sightseeing schedule.
Port City Tattoo: Flash on the Walls and Familiar Faces
Port City Tattoo is an old-school tattoo shop. There's flash all over the walls, lots of American traditional designs, and the kind of character that comes with a shop that's been around a while. Tattoos take up just about every available surface. As they should.
They always make me feel welcome. Good people, a comfortable place to work. The lineup has changed a few times over the years I've been visiting. Someone moves to another shop, someone new comes in. The local tattoo scene has its own thing going on, so there's usually something to catch up on.
But it never feels like I'm walking into a completely unfamiliar place and starting from scratch. I know the shop, I know what to expect, and I can settle right into work.
Mostly Black and Gray, with Some Color in the Mix
Most of my requests here are for black and gray tattoos: skulls, roses, angels, religious imagery. Color comes up too, just less often.
Ask me to list every tattoo from a trip off the top of my head, and you won't get a very organized report. You work every day, then sit down to talk about it and realize you need your photos to put everything back in order. A few pieces come to mind right away, though.
One that stood out this time was a color biomechanical piece on a forearm. I love biomech. Working with the shape of the body, building depth, and making mechanical elements feel like part of the arm gives you a lot to play with. I'm always happy to get those requests.
I also tattooed a purple-and-green cannabis bud on the shop owner. In a schedule filled mostly with black and gray work, those two color pieces stuck in my memory.
Not Your Average Samurai
One of the funniest requests came during an earlier visit. I did more than three samurai tattoos over two weeks, so there was definitely a theme developing.
Then one client wanted Shrek. As a samurai.
Okay, now we're talking. When you've been working on Japanese warriors, that's a request you remember. Later, we added Fiona as a geisha on his thigh. Our own version of a Japanese story. The guy definitely stood out. Well played.
I like ideas like that. Someone takes a familiar subject and brings their own twist to it. A samurai already gives you plenty to work with. Now you have to make sure he's still unmistakably Shrek. Figuring out how those things fit together is the fun part.
One Day Off. Maybe.
We usually aim for about one day off during a ten-day trip. If it works out, we might head to the shooting range or go fishing on a boat off the coast.
There's another perfectly good option: sleep in, eat a lot, then go back to sleep. After several full days of tattooing, that sounds like a solid itinerary to me. No complaints.
So I can't give you much of a travel guide to Wilmington. The shop, the clients, the tattoos? Absolutely. The rest of the city might have to wait until next time. With my schedule, I'm not making any promises.
Next Stop: Florida. First, Get Off the Plane.
After Wilmington, my next guest spot was at Bullfinch Tattoo Atelier in Jacksonville, Florida. I was flying through Miami.
We were already on the plane, waiting to leave for Jacksonville, when they told us to grab our bags and get off. Back in the terminal, I could see passengers coming off planes at neighboring gates too. The departure boards were full of cancellations and delays. Well, this looked promising.
At the information desk, I was told there had been an incident involving a cargo plane that was holding up flights. I didn't see the incident myself, so I won't try to reconstruct what happened. For us, it meant a few hours of waiting before we finally took off.
Travel seems to come with a regular supply of complications for me: connections, cancellations, delays. Once I'm working on the other side of the country, everything feels pretty familiar. Getting there can be a job of its own.
From Alaska to Hawaii
Guest spots are a big part of my life. Along with Port City Tattoo in Wilmington and Bullfinch Tattoo Atelier in Jacksonville, I've worked at West Side Tattoo in Colorado Springs, Golden Oak Tattoo in Austin, and North Tattoo Shop in San Francisco, as well as shops in Dallas and Denver.
I enjoy going back to familiar crews, and I'm always interested in new cities too. If you run a tattoo shop and would like to have me as a guest artist, get in touch. I'm open to guest spot invitations across the country, from Alaska to Hawaii.
And if you'd like to get tattooed by me in your city, let me know. Especially if you're thinking about a large piece or some biomechanics. Samurai Shrek is apparently on the table too.
Take care of yourselves. See you at the next guest spot.