Sad day in Cape Town

This is not normally something I will blog about but I am really saddened and sickened by this.

Whoever did this, your next life, I am very sure, will suck pretty fucking bad.

a Rhino call ABSA was dehorned by poachers and left fighting for his life, he passed away this morning, another Rhino was also dehorned and killed, and a third Rhino was darted but not dehorned

"ABSA was the first rhino reintroduced to Aquila and to the Western Cape in over 250 years after being shot out by hunters. ABSA fathered the first two rhino calves born in the Western Cape in this time. The surviving rhino was one of the two fathered by him."

Read the full article on NEWS24's Website

Aquila Private Game Reserve is offering a R100 000 reward to any information leading to the arrest of the poachers.

For some scary statistics regarding poaching in South Africa, see the following CHART, 2011 still to be updated

Cool Inc. Convention

Its been a year already? wow time has flown by! See the blog post i wrote about last years trip / convention

Cool Inc. convention will be held this weekend 26, 27 and 28 August in Fourways, Johannesburg. I'm bummed that we will not not be in attendance this year, due to the new shop, Cape Electric Tattoo that we recently opened, we have our hands full

If you are in the area be sure to check it out, there will be a bunch of great local artists in ascendance, of what I know the following studios will be there and are confirmed:

Other World Tattoos (Knysna) / Voodoo Ink (Lynnwood, Pretoria) / Phoenix Tattoos (Hartebeespoortdam) / Tattoolya (Weltevreden Park JHB) / Electric Eye (Umhlanga, KZN) / Chapman's Tattoo Studio (Waterkloof, Pta) / Keep It Real (Hatfield) / 1933 (JHB) / Sins of Style (CPT) / Wildfire (CPT) / Buzz Tattoo (JHB) / Tattoolya (JHB) / Living Art (JHB) / Handstyle (JHB) / Golden Tiki (JHB / Studio 52 on Main (CPT)

Sponsor to the Event are

Hunters Dry / Sailor Jerry / Tattoo Goo / Bloodline Clothing / Black Fly / J Sound Productions / Cool Running and 9to5 Supply

Hope everybody there will have a great time!

It's all about now.

Finally, Fully underway and long overdue with the all new and upgraded website coming soon.

New and better stuff, limited and anti-bullshit. For tattooers by tattooers

Fully stocked with Wavely’s Original Dark Black and also FINALLY stocked up with Waverly’s full color range!

Waverly Color 60ml (2oz) prices

Single Bottle 60ml: R130

Japanese Colors 60ml: R220 (RED. ORANGE. PINK)

Full Set of 60ml, includes Japanese Colors: R4300

JAPANESE COLORS

This photo does not justify the intensity and glo of these 3 colors

PICTURES IN ORDER:

ADOBE, AQUA, BANANNA, BLUE, BROWN, CARAMEL, CHARTREUSE, CHOC BROWN, CRIMSON, DARK RED, GOLD, GRAPE, GREEN, JAPANESE ORANGE, JAPANESE PINK, JAPANESE RED, LIGHT BLUE, LIME, MAGENTA, MEDIUM BLUE, MELBA, MINT, OLIVE, ORANGE ORCHE, PAYNE’S GREY, PESIMMON, PINK, PURPLE, RED, SEA FOAM, TIGER ORANGE, WHITE, YELLOW

STAY TRUE

Lighthouse Supply

The Gypsy Gentleman...

This is a REAL show about tattooing, as real as it gets. No bullshit and above the hype of the last couple of weeks with a bunch of new shit airing on TV.

Please support this show, buy a print from Thomas Hooper on the websites store HERE and get a free DVD of the first episode. Its the best thing you can do for tattooing right now.

The Gypsy Gentleman - Episode 01: New York City from Marcus Kuhn on Vimeo.

The first in a series of films chronicling the travels of the gypsy gentleman. A travel documentary profiling the world’s greatest tattooers and the world’s most fascinating places.

PROMOTE RESPONSIBLE TATTOO EDUCATION

THIS WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED BY : SAMMY HAYDEN

This woman ….. Lisa Huba Fasulo , from New York , who got her start in the industry building and selling needles to local shops , went on to open up a tattoo shop . She now owns and operates a “Tattoo School” with Locations in Albany, NY , and San Diego, CA . Her facebook is locked down and you cannot request to be her friend . Apparently she is not very well like in the area that she is in.

The following people are involved with the show and the “Tattoo School” :

Charlie Dejesus – Shop Manager / Instructor

Lindsey Kate Adams- Instructor

Jeremy Garner- Instructor - His Facebook

This is from the tattoo school website : a few excerpts from there enrolment process , tuition costs , etc .

What does the tuition include?

* A professional tattoo machine, yours to take home.
* 80 Hours of tattoo instruction with certified, experienced, award winning, tattoo instructors.
* FREE lodging for 2 weeks.
* Dozens of willing, pre-screened human models for you to learn and practice on.
* Use of all our equipment at our State of the Art tattoo training facilities.
* Informational binder with all the important contacts and sources for all things “tattoo related”.
* DVD of machine tuning produced by the TLC staff.
* Tattoo techniques textbook
* Tattoo License permit (as per county)
* Certificate of Completion upon course graduation.
* Tattoo Learning Centre T-Shirt.
* 3 “during school” lunches.
* Transportation to and from the student housing daily.
* DVD with digital pictures of all the tattoos you completed while at school (enough for a beginning portfolio).
*** LOTS and LOTS of nurturing and emotional support that makes us the finest tattoo school!

Please help by contacting Discovery / TLC to prevent this show from airing , let alone becoming a regular staple in the viewing schedule of the American public .

This is a link to the BAN on the T.V. Show - Facebook Page

This is a link to the Group against the T.V. show – Facebook Page

This is a link to contact Discovery / TLC – Contact

TLC’s Facebook Page : Facebook

The ” Tattoo School ” Facebook page – Facebook (WAS REMOVED)

SIGN THE PETITION HERE - PETITION

Please join me in supporting this BAN on both TLC and the Tattoo School TV Show. These people are crooks and these students should know that the Tattoo School will do nothing but hurt theirchances of working with real tattooers . EVER.

Holy shit, Its been a minute!

Damn I cant believe its been almost 6, no wait 7 weeks since I last made a blog post... well actually that makes me very happy, as it means i just didn't have time...

I have been a very busy man over the last 6 weeks, for 4 of those weeks I was entertaining and road tripping around South Africa with Thomas Morgan (L.A) and Shon Lindauer (N.Y.C)

This was a very eye opening and inspirational trip, inspirational to make shit happen and get on the map, I think driving through South Africa in my beat up Renault I realized

how far off the map I am, but not just me there is more to it... or do i mean less? fuck I'm not sure, but i am sure things are changing, and its the cliche of "get the fuck on or stay behind", far behind. But more on this later... full write up on this coming ASAP with photos

Lighthouse Supply... I have a new website ready to rock, i just need to allocate the time to finish it off with loading the products ... this will all happen soon.

I have Stencil Stuff on the way!! if anybody wants some hit me up, read good prices, and I mean REAL good. Lighthouse is a Authorized dealer. 8oz and a new 4oz bottle available!

Tattoo Artist Magazine

I have Tattoo Artist Magazines available! R180 each as from today! issue #6 to #24 get them!!!

Here is a post I wrote for Tattoo Artist Magazine's Blog, read it!!!

NEW STUFF

Got some new stuff in! get on it!! I apologizes for being quite over the last 3 weeks. Back on top of things!

Grenade Grip Covers

GRENADES! Top quality grip covers
Grenades! made by tattooers, use an ergonomic "barrel" shape to reduce hand fatigue during both lining and shading. The comfortable shape and non-slip material make for superior control.
GRENADES! fit from 5/8 up to 1'½ in. grips, eliminating size specific ordering. One size fits all!

Knurled Red Rat Grip Covers

Red Rat grip covers are hand made using a high-quality, non-porous, autoclavable rubber. Their 1/4" thickness creates a soft cushion between your fingers and equipment and will effectively absorb machine vibrations helping reduce the strain on your hand muscles and nerves.

Black and Pink Rubber bands

Sold in packs of 100's or 1000's by weight

Thick Black Rubber Bands

Sold in 100's by weight

Red Spring-less Clipcords

Then I also still have Mike Godfrey, Lucas Ford, Adam Ciferri and Seth Ciferri machines in stock!

Follow these links for more products available

Foot-switches etc

Seth Ciferri / Adam Ciferri / Mike Godfrey

Lucas Ford

Sharks of April

Tattoo Artist Magazine issue #23 and #24 is now in stock, finally... our local postal service reverted to their undeniable retardation... took them, I think a good 4 weeks to get it processed... it was shipped 6 weeks ago, but thats not the point!

They are in stock! Get yourself a issue of each now, only 17 of each available!!

Its the middle of the month and I'm not exactly sure how that happened, its a bit blurry up until this point.

Been taking Sam Rulz around town and just shooting the shit, needless to say she is pretty damn rad! We went to Boulders Beach a week ago to go swim and play with the Jackass Penguins, cool little critters and always nice and refreshing to see foreign people's reactions to them, reminds me of how naively we take the most amazing things for granted in more than one way... humans are are really good and being stupid.

The past weekend Sam and I went on Shark cage diving mission... I was reluctant to go on the trip at the initial thought of it, being a surfer its a bit of a contradiction, with the myth of shark cage diving taunting sharks and making them human aggressive, i understand the argument from both sides... But it was a super dope experience, very informative and educational... and damn are those sharks gnarly...

I will have more to write soon and have loads of stuff to share! here are some photos!!