I had the great pleasure of tattooing my friend Bambi today. Bambi is the lovely mermaid queen of Coney Island. She is a woman of many talents; burlesque beauty, snake charmer, sideshow performer, makeup artist and real life freakshow pin up girl. Everyone should make it a point to get out to Coney Island this summer to see her perform at the legendary Sideshow by the Seashore , it may well be your last chance. You can read more on that story here. In the meantime head on out Friday nights starting May 4th for Burlesque on the Beach with Bambi and check the Coney Island Sideshow website for updates and who's appearing. And June 23rd is the Mermaid Parade's 25th anniversary! So really be sure to get down there you'll regret it if you don't, it won't last forever it's living history a subway ride away from Manhattan.

I just got horrible news. Brad called and told me that Mike Malone has passed away by his own hand. Mike was one of my heros in this industry from my first days tattooing. I got tattooed from Mike at China Sea in Honollulu in 1994, he did my Mr. Lucky. I was just starting out as a tattooer and Mike was so cool. He let me look through Sailor Jerry's photo books, told some great stories and took me to dinner afterwards, because he said that's what you did when another tattooer came to visit. A true gentleman and a dedicated artist and tattooer. He even gave me a lesson on spit shading while I was there. I was just some squirt starting out I appreciated his respect and friendship. Mike was a great correspondant if you were lucky enough to buy a painting or some flash from him you could be sure to get a letter with some sage words of advice.

"......be well and remember to take care of yourself.......money ain't all there is, believe me I know. There is a lot to be said for home and hearth even if it sounds corney now and the furthest thing from your mind down the road you will see it differently (you can bet the rent on that) so don't close your eyes to all the other pleasures you can have in this world. Tattooing just? makes all that a little easier. Look how far ahead of most folks you are, you have a creative outlet and enough bucks to get by. Hell, you're way ahead, Be well, Rollo "

I'm so sorry to see you gone Mike you will be missed by many.

It's official, we hit 100 Thirteen tattoos! Not so bad, Joe and Chuck get gold stars Joe tattooed 30 people and I think Chuck got 29, good job guys! Brad was at it most of the day I tattooed some friends (I do what I want, I got it like that) Steve Boltz showed up with a killer sheet of 13 tats to add to the sheet we had painted and the sheet Joe did. There was something for everyone, mokeys, elephants, devil heads, a nice horseshoe nobody picked out oddly enough.. Big Steve came by after work and jumped in on the action. Adrianne, Chad and Mina kept everyone in line and hustled all day to keep up with the chaos, we were running them ragged, thanks ladies.