Devil City Press

Singapore or Bust!

Written by Brad

Tuesday, 02 February 2010

     After 23 years of tattooing, I’m still amazed and extremely
grateful for what this profession has enabled me to do. The places
that it has taken me, the opportunities that it’s provided, and the
great people that I have met in every journey are un-measurable. It’s
a great feeling to return home and share with friends and family
something that they might not ever get to experience.
     The main reason for travelling to Singapore was to attend the 2nd
Annual Tattoo Expo. There were
four of us going in total, including myself. My loyal
apprentice Andy, my business partner from NY, Michelle and her husband
Kevin. The trip started out a little rocky. I had anticipated the
travel would be daunting but the first challenge was just departing St
Louis. When leaving St. Louis headed to NY the flight was cancelled
due to mechanical problems. Although, this was paled in comparison to
how the return trip would play out. Anyway, after a 12-hour flight
from NY to Dubai, and another 7 hours to Singapore, we landed to 90
degree, humid heat.
     With a steadily growing tattoo scene in Singapore, artists from
around the world stayed busy throughout the weekend. The event venue
was a huge convention “mall”, with several other events taking place
simultaneously. If it wasn’t for all the foreigners, it would have
felt as if you were in any American convention, with a 7 Eleven,
Subway and a Burger King all contained within the complex. This is the
new Orient!
Singaporean Temple

With the convention over, and finally being able to breathe a
sigh of relief, we take to the streets, starting in Chinatown. Yep,
Chinatown! Most large cities have em’, even in Asia. Streets packed
with barkers selling their wares, everything from ear cleanings to
custom tailored suits. It wasn’t long before we stumbled upon the
first of many tattoo shops, some good, most BAD! This
           particular one,
   Galaxy Tattoo, was one of the leading shops. I kind of figured this
from the pre-existing Ironage and Daredevil stickers on the frontdoor
of their studio. It’s always great to see things like this. All in all
there were tons of tattoo shops, most of them in malls, and even right
next door to each other!
     Another highlight was being able to share life experiences with
Andy. He discovered that Dorian fruit isn’t so bad and that fish
eyeballs are a little more crunchy than he would have thought. I told
him that learning how to tattoo wouldn’t be easy!
     So after the countless miles of walking, the few lady-boy
sightings, and the unforgetable expierences with exotic foods, it was
time to head back to the good ole’ USA. Or was it? Assuming that our
den mother had the itinerary under control, we started packing and got
ready for our last day in Singapore before our flight back home.
Meanwhile, I was on the phone with my wife; she asks me “so what time
do you actually leave tonight? You better check!” My heart dropped…
“let me call you back, I think we missed our flight!” Sure enough, we
were scheduled to leave at 1:20 a.m. that morning! Kicking myself for
not checking and catching this earlier, the only thing to do at this
point was to start the endless day of phone calls trying to fix this
MAJOR fuck up! Breaking out in a sweat after initially being told that
we were going to be stuck in Singapore for another week, and countless
hours of trying to decipher broken English, it eventually boiled down
to us leaving a day later, the next evening, or should I say morning?
     So here we are, back in St. Louis, and finally over jet lag.
Overall the trip was quite amazing and filled with great memories.
Singapore was a beautiful country and I feel most fortunate being able
to experience it.
The cost of and additional night at the hotel… $120. The
additional cost of airfare… $1200. A day of phone calls with the airlines...$1507.55.