This week I actually tattooed at a corporate event for a company called Poitroll that does online advertising and it inspired me to update our online presence late into the night. I made a fanpage forr us on Facebook , I fooled around with our Twitter page and managed to while a few hours away at the keyboard once again. Then I came across a whole other time waster  depicting the days before social media with this Google Life Magazine photo search . These were never posted on Facebook  and a few could probably get you flagged. imagine some of the captions.....  Dude that was so crazy tattooing you on board our battleship the other night during that storm!

Scored some Cee-Lo loot at the shop last night

Dr. Dave Says he can Zap that tatt for me

Great, my mugshot made it to Page Six 

My barrista at Starbucks was smokin hot this morning

You like my new Dress????? I love shopping makes me feel better ☺ a cute belt accessories and some fly heels #sexy xoxo

This is my fav weather...six pack all out lol
18 minutes ago from twidroid

Five-O came in and got tatted today

This lady was putting tattoos on purses way before Ed Hardy....Now you can flag this as SUPER INNAPROPRIATE

Monday night our apprentice Mina got to do her first official tattoos as our apprentice. It's been a long road of over three years of cleaning, setting us up and most importantly getting us our food and drinks but she made it and stood the test of time. Even more impressive is the progress she made as an artist in that time blowing us all away with her drawings and paintings. We tried to make her first tattoo as nerve wracking as possible. I think about the only thing we could have done to have made her job even harder is to have lit off fireworks while she was tattooing but that might have caused other problems so she just got lots of heckling and screams.

In the time that Mina has been at the shop others have come and gone with the same aspirations.  I get constant request for apprenticeships. Why did we decide to teach her? Because Mina was happy to put in the time and didn't come to the shop with a sense of entitlement and just put in her time starting at the bottom. Mina earned her place by impressing everyone at the shop with her progress as an artist and by her willingness to do whatever was asked of her just for the opportunity to work in an environment where she knew she would learn weather we ever offered to teach her or not. Congratulations Mina you've done good we're all excited to see the tattooer you're going to be.

If you would like a free starter tattoo from Mina email us and we will put you on her victim list. If you've already signed up Mina will contact you when she's ready to go.

Ryan Sheckler of Life of Ryan / skateboarding fame stopped by on Friday for his second Daredevil Tattoo by Brad Stevens. I'm sort of bad at spotting celebrities but I knew this guy was special when a tour group passing by the shop all stopped to snap pictures with Ryan out front. There were about 20 of them in all, freaking out. It's the first time any one has come by the shop with their own fan club! His buddy said it was even crazier at the airport when they ran into an entire girls softball team of fans.

Ryan got his two brothers names tattooed on his wrists. Here's him with Brad doing his best to look crazy for the camera.

I would like to mention that Monday is Mina's big dance recital so she'll be looking for practice skin. If you're intersted in a FREE apprentice tattoo let us know. 

Milan and Venice were awesome!

the convention was completely packed with tattoo-hungry people from all over the world and amazing artists. The language barier took a while to get used to but for the most part, everything ran smoothly. Milan was beautiful but Venice was defnintely the icing on the cake. While riding in the boat taxi to the airport back home I couldnt stop thinking about how lucky we all were to be in such a surreal and incredible place (thanks michelle!). heres a few photos from the convention and venice :