Odd Angel Studios

I’m having old tattoos repaired and reworked. My back piece is finally coming together and might even be *gasp* finished by the end of the year. It feels good to look in the mirror and have my sense of self reflected accurately. James is the responsible artist working to make it all happen. On top of this Karin came by and did hair for all of us last night so that’s another awesome plus in favor of reflection scrutiny.

I’m enjoying the work here and I have my own space now. Sort of. The opportunity I spoke of previously altered itself but still remained an opportunity outstanding in its own right nonetheless. I now share a tattoo room with the uber talented and very matter-of-fact Mike Sikes.

I’ll pause while you click and check out his portfolio.

No, seriously. I’ll wait.

Done perusing? Blown away? Yes. I know. And I get to be his artist roomie. When we get back from St. Louis I’ll be spending some of my days off here at the shop so I can sit in with him and learn all I possibly can.

See? Opportunity. Just not the one we all thought it would turn out to be.

I’m really loving it here, but I’m also looking forward to being back on the road. I miss the Airstream something fierce and the lifestyle I have in it will go a long way toward reducing the massive amounts of stress I’m currently experiencing. It is a space I can keep up with in terms of cleanliness and order, unlike my three level townhouse which is in a constant state of flux. It is a space I love to lounge in, rest in, prepare food in and enjoy life in. It is a wonderful self-contained aluminum bubble of joy. In July we’ll get to camp with similarly tempered folks among their own vintage bubbles of joy.

I need this desperately, some semblance of control over a small portion of my life, especially after some extremely devastating gig losses this year that were perpetrated on a number of performers in addition to ourselves by people with a need to demonstrate Who Is In Charge. I considered giving up entirely a number of times.

Being able to come here and do good work for people who smile and thank me for making their reflections more accurate to their eyes works wonders for preventing potentially bad snap decisions. I am very very fortunate, but I also realize while feeling as such that I have earned this.

That’s a really good feeling.

Tattoo work has been steady and good. I have new and wonderful foundation items accumulating in my wardrobe so I can put together a better look for myself. The Greater St. Louis Renaissance Faire is confirmed at last. I am actually managing to make some new friends here and there and get out to be social. This last item is of special note, really, especially considering that Celt, crippled up as he is, gets out five times as much as I do for social butterfly behavior. Of course he’s much better at it than I am, the charmer.

I wish I had a little more of his love of socializing. I’m a bit of a recluse these days, which isn’t helping my stress levels. I absolutely must find ways to reduce my levels of stress when I’m through working at any given task on any given day. My body’s perpetual manner of dealing with stress is getting all bunched up across the shoulders and neck to the point of vertigo.

I just want to be able to RELAX for a bit when the opportunity presents itself. This is a recurring theme in my life.

So of course I’m stressing out about it constantly.

I’ve made up my mind to be very aggressive about pursuing an opportunity that is getting ready to present itself here at the shop. I’m not an aggressive person by nature, unless you go after my family or friends in a hateful or abusive manner, then it’s instantly Tarantino’s Bride all over the place. When it comes to business I’m not used to being forward and assertive, and this has led to my being replaced many a time with a choice deemed better in some fashion or other.

I’m very good at what I do and I do a great many things. I’m not a master at them all but I’m am nonetheless quite adept at what I actively pursue. Now is the time for me to remember that, as well as all the traits that make me a desirable addition to any event or team.

In short, I’m really going to go for it this time. I’ve earned it. Wish me luck.

Now if I can just stop stressing out about it.

Alas, the years of tattooing and other various work done in close proximity to all of my media have now come to bear and my eyes politely demanded a thorough going over about three weeks ago.

I am farsighted, as it turns out, my right eye being twice as bad as my left, which explains the frequent headaches and subsequent irritability upon completion of a full day of work at the shop or a full day of sewing in the studio.

I just did my first drawing with the new glasses and I am over the moon. I can see clearly, down to the minutest detail, my eyes don’t hurt and neither does my head. I can hardly wait to work in them at the shop today.

I find myself wishing it were balmy and slightly breezy outside so that I could trade up environmentally after sitting at the MacBook in design mode all day. I feel a little like Rilke’s panther on cold moist days like this. I just don’t know quite what to do in order to engage the parts of my brain that aren’t on the Photoshop CS3 bus, or the ones that just disembarked for that matter.

I’m still recovering from the soreness of getting my back piece worked on by James last evening. Anna walked in as we were hard at work, remarking, “that’s just a sucky spot to get tattooed.” She was most correct in this. It got harder as we got further along. I don’t recall my shoulder blades being so difficult in times of tattooing, but since I’m now covered in ink from below the left armpit diagonally up to the neck this session did last much longer than any previous incarnations of tattooing in approximately the same area.

I look in the mirror now and have some semblance of wings. I knew I wanted wings of a sort, just not the uber trendy angel / bat / faerie variety that seem to have sprouted on absolutely everyone since I first saw a most gorgeous version of them in Coney Island close to fifteen years ago. Mine come as part of a painting, The Lament for Icarus by Herbert Draper. I saw the print in the National Gallery gift shop just after that trip to Coney and purchased a copy. I have been getting work done on the tattoo sporadically over the last several years and James and I are determined to keep up regular work on it. We may be done before the year is out, a concept difficult for me to really grasp.

The news on Celt’s leg is very very good today. The doc is happy with his healing process and the cultures came back negative, indicating they got all the infected bone out of the leg. Next is a bone graft, scheduled for May. We are all just so grateful about this very wonderful prognosis, quite different than what we’ve been hearing in previous months.

I’m tired and sore. I’m grateful that we have company coming tonight to help with dinner. I’m in a place where I really don’t feel like doing very much of anything. I’ve been working since 8am this morning so I suppose I’m entitled but that doesn’t make me feel any less guilty about stepping away from the studio.

I’m just bad about things like that.

Going to ask Alex to put lotion on the tattoo and then go check on Celt’s pain level. Then I’ll try to relax and wait for ribs to arrive.

• My complete and total addiction to Etsy and the potential for support of a wide and wonderful artistic community it affords me
• A love for mixed nuts and mascarpone cheese
• A desire for more followers on Twitter because I actually USE it (MJR? Lena? DB Echo? Anyone?)
• The buffalo chicken wings at Amphora are really really really tasty
• Rainy days are less disappointing when you’re self-employed
• A great deal of totally forgotten and totally awesome clothes in my closet just waiting to be shown off
• Freecycle is amazing and everyone should be using it
• Purrahna is a sweet and wonderful kitty now that she’s settled in, even with the new monicker
• Disapproving Rabbits

I’ve been home for almost three weeks.

The tattooing has been wonderful. I cannot stress enough how absolutely awesome it is to work with sane adults (allowing for the particular idiosyncrasies associated with being tattoo artists, of course) who enjoy being where they are and love the work they are doing. I am extremely particular about the attributes of shop life I detest as well as those that I adore. To find not only one of the adorable attributes present but three or four of them actually practiced and enforced at a shop I can drive to in under twenty minutes has made me look up more than once to see if the ceiling is in fact stable and intact. And the detestable ones? Well, except for normal strong-personality friction from time to time, there really aren’t any.

Now that there is a stable black light reactive ink on the market that has been tested to within an inch of its life for safety, I finally broke down and got my first UV tattoo. I have crossed pirate sabres above my heart dogs, pointing to the grail at my throat. With a number of swordswallowers we know having been hospitalized with life threatening injuries of late I wanted a reminder of how fortunate I am to be alive, a reminder that wasn’t necessarily visible to the entire world all the time. Jason von Victor made that happen this past Monday. Thanks Jason. You’re amazing and fabulous and I can’t wait to work on you in return!

Celt goes back in for further surgery on the leg today. The prognosis is better than it has been and we have high hopes for a full recovery down the line. It’s been a long and hard road to get to this point and being away on tour for most of it has been stressful, to say the very least. I am trying to be as high-spirited about it as he has been and feed him lots of tasty meat dishes while we’re all at home. We’ll have friends coming by to take on meat dish duties this next week so that he can concentrate on healing and the rest of us can work our weird swing-shift hours.

I started a Twitter account this week too. It saves me from being on Instant Messenger all the time while still feeling like I can keep up with a few cool folks here and there.

Working on a new look for this site, during which I am learning a boatload about CSS and coding for Wordpress. This will all be brought to bear on two other sites that I am amid redesigning for clients, as well as the work I’m doing in Photoshop creating some pretty nifty graphics if I do say so myself. The Swordswallowers site will be next in line for redesign. It’s high time.

Time for the gym. It always makes me feel much stronger and more able to face the day. Today has hospitals involved, so I really, really need it.

Tattooing dates are up! Check the “Schedule” page for my available days at Marlowe Ink Studios in Fairfax, VA. Here’s a recent dragon tattoo of which I am particularly proud.

And just because I want to show off a bit before I have my Costuming gallery completely set up, here is the new bodice I completed on this tour (graciously modeled by a dear friend), worn proudly for the entirety of the Gulf Coast Renaissance Faire in Pensacola, FL.

More to come. Off to a gig in DC this evening. I have LOTS of updating to do in the next while!

It’s been a busy few months, but I’ve finally gotten around to some much needed changes here.

• The “Visual” and “Performing Arts” pages have brand new galleries to peruse.
• A “Contact” page has been added
• A “Schedule” page has also been added, to include performance and tattooing dates

Now if I can get some costuming photos up, some recipes posted, the audio files posted and my custom theme completed for unvieling in the next little while I’ll really feel as though I’ve gotten something accomplished.

***Note to Gwen: No bedsheets in the trees after all, but there was quite a bit of drama anyhow from what I understand, though none of it was fault of your Sex With Jen recipe.***

The easiest thing to do is to surf on over here, where I’m maintaining a tour blog of our adventures.

This whole traveling sideshow thing is a hard way to make a living, but I do get to do some very cool things occasionally, like what you see below.

And no bedsheets in the trees yet, Gwen. That event isn’t until January. I’ll definitely keep you informed.

Cheers, everyone!

At about half past eight in the evening, Pinball comes upstairs and climbs into my lap in the most theatrical manner possible. This is followed almost immediately by an all-consuming need to tread upon my keyboard.

This is how I know it’s time to stop working.