Ten Years Later

Today is my high school's (official) 10 year class reunion.
Too bad I'm 1300 miles away,
I could've been partying like it was 1999.


Who woke up early to go buy stuff this morning?
Gross.

In the spirit of the 18 year old me,
I loosely planned an Adbusters' style "Buy Nothing Day".
I packed a lunch of Thanksgiving leftovers, and headed to work.
When I got there,
I realized that even though I wasn't celebrating Black Friday,
Not Casual Friday was still happening at Identity Tattoo,
and I wasn't wearing a tie.
So I hit the thrift store super fast,
and got a shirt, vest, and tie all for 11 bucks.
I don't feel too bad,
it was second hand,
and Adbusters sold out years ago.

Fashion superstar:

Thanksgiving Eve

Among other things,
I'm super thankful that I didn't get punched in the face today.

Hannah got her first ever tattoo,
and it took 5 f'n hours.
Around hour 4, I sensed that I might be in danger.

Luckily,
we made it to the finish line with only one of us bleeding.
She has big plans for it to continue some day, with background,
and wrapping around the arm, etc.
But for now, that's a serious first tattoo.

(the picture doesn't really show how high up it goes)




Who's ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow?
Not me.
I'll take the day off, you don't need to ask me twice.
And Meryl and I will certainly take first and second place (respectively, even)
in Total Food Intake,
whether or not anyone else is keeping score.

Speaking of food,
Megan and Joan weren't kidding when they said they'd
overnight us some Brooklyn bagels once they got back.
There was a big box on the porch this morning,
with a dozen doughy delights inside.
I ate up a marbled one immediately,
and we're bringing the rest to dinner tomorrow.
Those two are awesome.

dribbling poison and blood...

Jordan wanted to have a full sleeve, and keep it Nordic themed.
So we're completing his arm with the story of Thor's fishing trip.
Sea serpents, giants, ox heads as bait.
Here's Jörmungandr, Thor's enemy.
It wraps around his forearm,
and yes, there's a severed ox head on the end of a fish hook in there, too.
That's officially badass.
One more session, and we'll have it finished,
and I'll post fully healed photos soon.

A little bit of Brooklyn.

Louderhorn Inn was full of food and laughing these last couple days.
Megan and Joan came out to Minneapolis to hang out, get tattooed, and overeat.
They were only here for 50ish hours,
so we just crammed it all in.
No kidding.
We hit Hard Times, Seward Cafe, Evergreen, Triple Rock, and Mayday.
And Meryl cooked an awesome meal somewhere in there as well.

No tour of Minneapolis is complete without a trip to Ryan and Rebecca's Garages of Oddities in NE,
where there's lots of taxidermy, bicycles, and craigslist scores.
Here's their latest find, a 1950's Exercycle.
It plugs in, and you have little control after that.
East coasters getting their laugh on:





Joan loves birds, but just didn't know she loved dead birds as well.
(now she's converted)
Here's her new (not dead) goldfinch.



Thanksgiving is right around the corner.
I'm certainly thankful that I know lots of awesome folks,
and that so many of them take the efforts to come visit us out here.
We're flattered that everyone has made Minnesota a destination
(especially in late November!)

Almost back to *normal*

It was a rough week,
but I'm doing much better now.
Dr Pepper free for eight days.
My blood sugar has (mostly) adjusted,
and my violent mood swings are much less frequent.
I haven't been blogging much,
because unlike some people who only get funnier the worse things look,
I only get uglier.
Today's appointment actually called a few days ago to make sure I'd be in good enough spirits to successfully tattoo him after seeing my previous post about quitting.
So good.

We have some rad guests coming tomorrow.
Megan and Joan of Brooklyn NY are headed this way to get some bird tattoos,
eat a bunch of vegan food, sit around a fire, and see the sights of Minneapolis.
Megan has been friends with us for ages,
and I'm very much looking forward to it.
There may even be some art making other than tattooing going on,
but this weather in the mid 50's might keep us outside and riding bicycles instead.

I need everyone's addresses again.
My computer blew up while I was in Northampton,
and I lost everything.
So if you've ever gotten mail from me,
(or wanted to)
email me your address to shawnhebrank(at)gmail.com
While you're at it,
you can send me lots of good music as well.
But don't feel too bad for me,
I got the new 27" iMac to replace the blown up one.
And it's sexy like a dead bird.

An ugly road ahead.

Friday the 13th.
I make my own bad luck.
I quit drinking Dr Pepper,
and immediately regretted it.
Imagine my standard shop antics,
but with less joking when I'm poking fun.
Irritability has been turned to eleven, for sure.




I celebrated my first day of Dr Pepper Independence by going to a Dark Dark Dark show.
Meryl and I met up with Camden at the Bedlam,
and we got a weird spot behind the drum set.
Drum set?!?!
Yup.
If you didn't go,
or got turned away at the door for being Kyle Mack,
then you missed out on some serious lineup changes.
And guess what?
It was so dope.
I felt a lot better during the show,
but once it was over, I still couldn't have a soda.

It's officially my weekend.
I've been working or traveling every day since Mr Albie Rock got married.
(and I'm beat)
Tonight I'll be dreaming of high fructose corn syrup and carbonation.
Withdrawal is a bitch.

Lighthouses are sexy.

Steve has been getting tattooed by me for a while,
and has caught me at a few of my locations over the years.
Even that exclusive Rocky Hill one a little while back.
(wink, wink)

This was his first Off the Map trip,
and his first piece that wasn't black and grey.
So I eased him into color with some muted up business.






Steve was my last tattoo of the guest spot this time around.
After that it was packing up time.
I can't believe another seven days of work have gone by,
seems like I was hanging with the Cucch at Albie's wedding just yesterday.

Amy and Jaime made me a seriously amazing last supper tonight,
and homemade vegan chocolate mint ice cream sandwiches for dessert.
Amy has some serious baking skills.
I hope to be designing some logos/flyers/stickers/labels
for her baking business sometime in the near future.

I'm off to get a few hours of sleep,
and then we're headed to the airport in the morning.
Goodbye, Northampton.
And Maynard House.
I miss you already.