Been painting and working on my truck a ton lately, it’s actually the reason I haven’t been updating here. I’m basically obsessed at this point in the game. And Ashlan’s not too happy about it, lol.

I set out originally to paint the grille inserts and emblem, along with a couple of interior plastics (Thanks to Bob-n-Maggie, and Brandon for my Autozone Gift Cards for my Bday). Well I ended up painting way more than I thought I would. It all came out great, and I have it reinstalled now, but I don’t have installed pictures. Mostly because I’m not done yet.

I ended up scoring a bunch of galvanized expanded metal from Drew so I’m currently chopping and grinding on my grille to make a deep dish grille with custom instert, one giant insert. It’s gonna look awesome. But here’s a few pics to stare at, click through to view a shit ton of them.

(Read the article)

Comments(0)

On the 25th I had to miss work and head down to the Chase Building in Dallas (the tall one with the freakin’ hole in the top) to see my sister get married in the Sky Lobby. The place was amazing, and the wedding was cool as far as that stuff goes. Too fancy for me though, lol.

The pics are goofy because A: I was dressed like a douche bag because they made me, and B: because I was drinking for the entire 9 hours I was there, and C: Because I’m fucking goofy looking. There where relatives there I forgot I even had, it was crazy. I’m not much of a family person though so i didn’t really know what to say to anyone.

Oh and her new husband, Derek Nixon, is Scottish, so that explains the Kilts.

We ended up sneaking out of the wedding unnoticed, doing it in the parking garage, and driving home, lol. It was just funner that way, although it did seem to piss off my family, but theres nothing new about that.

I took a shot of the wallpaper because this place is called the Petroleum Club, it’s basically for rich oil people only, and the hall ways where plastered in this swastika wallpaper, which I thought was funny on some sick level. Now granted the swastika is actually an ancient peace symbol that dates back hundreds and hundreds of years before Hitler fucked it up, but when I see Rich Republican surrounded by swastikas it gives me chills.

(Read the article)

Comments(0)

If anyones wondering HR 669 was defeated yesterday! Damn near by the reptile community alone! So my snakes are safe, for now…

Comments(0)

I wanted to avoid any Easter festivities I could, and Blake was free for the day, so I came in and opened the shop up despite the completely made up holiday and worked on the Dali style piece again. This tattoo is really fun to work on we worked for about 3 hours today, I guess, didn’t really keep time, maybe 4. I added black into the mix this time because I didn’t think it healed out dark enough, then went all around the clock and the other side.

Didn’t do anything to the clock yet, that will probably be next session, although I’m not done with the background yet either. I’m not sure he knew I was gonna do a 20 hour tattoo on him, but he’s down either way, lol. Hopefully when this is done we’ll be planning on the other side, and then I have a sick idea for the whole chest, but I won’t post that here because fuck you. :)

Comments(0)

I decided to rip apart my terrarium and rebuild it last night and a little again today. The pics suck, and the water is highly stirred up and dirty right now. It’s all natural, real plants, real moss, real dirt/rock. It holds two Sonoran Desert Toads (Bufo Alvarius), and an Albino African Clawed Frog (Along with a feeder gold fish that has survived to a larger size).

The toads like to burrow, which becomes a pain at times because I wonder if they are alive or dead when I don’t see them for weeks. Well I decided to build a “two toad garage” that’s split in two. The caves are on the left size with viewing windows of each on the left side glass of the tank it’s self. That way I can always find them.

The visible filter will be hidden once the water is clean and I change the filter pads. I don’t like anything fake being visible. The pump for the waterfall is totally hidden. The rock the water is pouring out of is totally natural. I actually found that awesome rock in my yard. It has a hole on the other side that a hose running from the pump is stuck into.

I’m going to plant the water area heavily with micro sword, duckweed, bamboo, and others. As it ages and grows moss, mildew, little mushrooms and molds, then it will really start to take shape and look amazing.

Comments(0)

An old friend of my sisters came by with a drawing from a good friend of his, Tom Ledbetter, of a barracuda whirl pooling around a small pirate ship. He wanted it just like it looked on paper, so thats what I did, and I think it turned out awesome. This is actually session number 2, I didn’t get pics of session one. So the fish is healed in this pic. I’ll post healed photos in a couple of weeks when he stops back by.

Comments(0)

This is just a few images I have laying around that I want to tattoo. I did not draw or create any of these, I just found them on different sites all over the internet. I want to put them on someone, so if you like one of these come talk to me.

Comments(0)

and sliced my ear up. I had a piece of cartilage that was sticking into plugs and driving me nuts so I decided I was gonna cut it out. This is with out any anesthetic because I’m a moron…and because I’m not a pussy. It’s what I did with the flesh I cut off thats the funny part….

I did my right ear also a few weeks later, but because I was still blind in my right eye at the time I did a piss poor job and I have an appointment April 21st with Brian Decker from NYC to fix my right ear.

I don’t remember when I did this, but I know it was 2004 or early 2005 because I was still living in St. James Apartments.

By the way most of these pics where snapped by Ashlan aiming at the mirror, so it is my left ear even though it looks like the right.

Comments(0)

Snapped some pics of Anthony’s healed half sleeve. I really do need to learn how to take a fucking picture, but heres the crap shots I managed to take for you to filter through. Seriously how do I stop getting glares? I’m gonna actually read one of these photography books I have…

Soon we’re gonna start on his full back piece, which is gonna be fun for me because I get to use a 25 mag!

Comments(0)

Those of you that know me personally know I keep reptiles, always have and always will. Well over the years there have been several attempts to legislate, or even out right ban certain species in the reptile industry. Something of which I’m not totally against. I think certain species should require a license, for which you have to take a test to get, just like a drivers license. Well now they are once again calling to ban all import and export of reptiles, and possibly even ban the sale of reptiles that “aren’t on the list”. Bill HR 669 (Download full PDF) is up for a Congressional Hearing happening on April 23, 2009 .

I could go on all day why this is ridiculous, but I won’t. My main concern is the fact that this economy is dropping like the drunk chick at a party and the government is blindly trying to ban and stop a 3 BILLION dollar a year + industry. That number may be hard to believe if your not into reptiles, but there are thousands of people and families across this nation whose sole income depends on the sale of reptiles, and millions who keep them. They too will join the millions of jobless people on the unemployment list if HR 669 passes. Also, how much will it cost the federal and state governments to enforce this bill? There goes more money we don’t have…

My anger with HR 669 stems from the fact that it’s all based on media hype, and flat out lies. This all started when they realized that Burmese Pythons where living and sustaining wild populations in the Florida Everglades (which I’m not arguing, it is true). Now I realize for the uneducated “the only good snake is a dead snake” type of person this seems scary as hell since a Burmese Python can hit 20 foot long. But there are some things to consider when thinking about this.

1. 

   More people a year are killed by dogs alone than by all pet reptiles AND wild reptiles COMBINED! Horses kill more people a year than all of these animals combined X 14!!!!!! Read these stats!

   Hell, more people a year are killed by Wired home appliances. Should we be worried about them banning toasters next? One could argue that they are invading the wild, I see them discarded all the time in land fills and even out in random creeks when me and my friend Drew are herping.

2. Only in captivity, where they are “power fed”, will a Burmese Python reach 20′. In the wild life is a struggle, food is hard to come by. And don’t believe the media hype about “they have no natural enemies in the everglades”. Only a complete tool would believe that and say that. Crocs will eat them, birds will eat young ones, coyotes, wolves, raccoons, skunks, turtles will all eat any size snake they can take down and eat. They most certainly DO have enemies stopping their growth. It is not “uninhibited” as Fox (Faux) News has said several times.

3. 

   They absolutely cannot travel across the entire southern US as this map that is aired all over news channels suggest. Florida, and parts of California are the Only states that Burmese Pythons, Reticulated Pythons, Anacondas, etc… can survive in, PERIOD. During summer months, yes they could handle the temps and humidity in Texas and farther east, but come winter, they are dead! No question about it, an exotic snake from the jungle cannot handle 30 degree weather, or even 40 for that matter.

   There is no chance they could handle the desert either. Any owner that has ever kept their snake too dry and seen the devastating effects of a Respiratory Infection caused by lack of humidity in the air can attest to this. These snakes nasal passages dry out quickly, and will cause an infection, and will kill them. They wouldn’t last a month in the desert, which also gets too cold for them at night. These snakes do like it hot, but they like it WET even more. Thats why I spend 15-30 minutes a day misting my snakes with a spray bottle.

4. 

   Snakes are not migratory by nature. They find a spot and they stick with it. These snakes are not trying to get to California, and the assumption that they are is asinine at best! The only reason your hearing so much about it on the news is because fear sales, fear keeps you watching, and they know most of you are afraid of snakes.

   I saw one woman on Fox News that said “they have been known to eat full grown deer”. This would be laughable to most reptile experts if it wasn’t such a serious risk with people actually believing this load of crap. She’s most likely referring to the famous picture of a Rock Python (Cousin of the Burmese Python) eating a small impala. A 20-40 pound impala could be ate by a large python, yes, and the snake wouldn’t need to eat again for months. But thats a small deer, she was obviously trying to pass the impression that they could take down a full size deer in the US, which is CRAP! I dare her right here to show one shred of proof that any Python has ever ate a full size US species of deer. They not only couldn’t kill it, but theres no way they could swallow it!

5. 

   Reptiles have been apart of our culture and daily lives since the dawn of America. In the 1800’s you could go see Pythons in the Circus. They have always been here. Why gripe now? There are also wild populations of Green Iguanas in Florida, and even some Nile Monitors, but only the snakes are mentioned because you can’t use the title “Man Eating Lizards” on the news, because it’s unbelievable.

6. One of the reasons for the ban (HR 669) is that “all reptiles carry salmonella”. Well first this isn’t true, some do, some don’t. Second, bacon carries salmonella, a grapefruit could potentially carry salmonella, so whats their point? It’s called “WASH YOUR HANDS WHEN YOUR DONE TOUCHING IT!!!!!!!!”. Bam, problem solved.

So seriously, whats the secrete agenda here? An uneducated tattoo artist can debunk all of this crap at 9 in the morning before my coffee, but yet Congress is working to ban them based on lies and pure media driven hysteria. HR 669 is purely a waste of time, and another step to socialism in America. Now they can tell us what pets we can have?

And I think whats bugging me the most is with the current state of the nation, why in the world are they worried about reptiles right now? Seriously! Fix the credit issues, fix the bank, fix peoples pocket books….oh no, not them, they are too preoccupied with a highly exaggerated snake problem that shouldn’t require an act of congress to handle!

How much money a year will Petco and Petsmart lose without the sale of reptiles and reptile supplies? Thats just two companies, and truthfully, screw them anyways, it’s the mom and pop pet stores I worry about. The family that does nothing but breed reptiles to pay the bills. Those are the people I worry about. I know these people, I’ve met them, they are my friends, and damn it, I even depend on their income to an extent, because I build some of their websites!

This problem is ridiculous at best. It is not the issue they are making it out to be. The only real problem is morons that want to “look cool” by having a huge python but fail to do any home work on them to assure them a good healthy home. They require certain temperatures and humidity levels. They need certain cage requirements met, it varies per species. They do not love you, and never will, they are not capable of this emotion as they don’t even love their young. The reptile hobby is closer related to Botany, not keeping a dog or cat.

So instead of blindly banning these amazing creatures, which millions upon millions of Americans love and keep, and even depend on for their income, let’s educate! I have no problem with the each state deciding if it’s a problem for them and setting up legislature for certain species that would require a permit to keep them. But this is not a federal issue, period! Alaska does not need the same laws on snakes as Florida, neither does New York, etc… Banning them is not the answer! It will only create a black market.

The entire idea of having a list of accepted animals, which is what HR 669 is proposing, that can be edited at anytime scares me as well. Just to pass it they will list the large snakes, but then over time will continue to ban the rest of them. The problem here is the reptile industry doesn’t have powerful lobbyist. And the industries that do are afraid of reptiles.

This is a fine example of the problem in this country, mass media driven hysteria with no facts, reasoning, or logic behind laws banning misunderstood things, and politicians that are too worried about being reelected to make logical decisions (No congressman wants to be the guy that voted to not ban “man eating snakes”). If you like reptiles, than write, email, or call your local Congressman and tell them to worry about the real problems, not reptiles, tell them no on HR 669.

All of these pictures are animals I either owned or once owned. The terrarium is one of many I have built, I no longer have that exact setup though. The last photo is Ashlan and I with Fluffy, the worlds largest captive snake at 24 foot and 310 pounds, who is obviously dog tame.

If you want to help do something about this than visit this page for more information. PIJAC (Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council). Writing or calling works better than email or fax.

Comments(1)