Entries tagged " albuquerque "  

Happy Holidays

Just a quick note to wish everyone a happy holiday season. Enjoy your time with your friends and family, because they really are the only people who matter!

I, once again, made the journey to Albuquerque to spend the holidays with my mother, brothers & in-laws. My dad stayed behind in LA. It is good to see everyone again. I even had a chance to run into old friends. Some of them I haven't seen in 3-4 years so it was nice to catch up with them.

I've been thinking about my new years resolution and it will involve this blog a lot. I will post about that before the new year and give a little more detail.

Anyways, everyone have a fun time this season. Next year we go back to life as we know it...

Technorati Tags: albuquerque, holidays, travel

New Tattoo

I spent a few bucks and finally got the cover up tattoo I have been avoiding for some time. Here is a little background on it..

The year is 1995. I am a young punk and want to get a tattoo across my stomach. I invite over an old friend who was pretty good at drawing. I had build a home made tattoo gun out of a pen, tape player motor, a cheap remote from a remote control car, button, guitar string and a double A battery. This is the same setup used in most prisons. Don't ask how I know about these. Well, literally 25% of the way in, my mother walked in on us. Needless to say she wasn't happy! That ended the tattoo right then and there. I was 15 and walking around with a 25% of a shitty tattoo on my stomach.

Zoom to 2003. I am not 23 and vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. My buddy, who originally invited us, suggested I finally get the original 25% covered up with a new tattoo. I had been putting it off for so long because it _really_ hurts on your stomach. I figured why not, the time is right, I might as well get it over with. We ended up meeting this guy who also happened to be from Southern California and owned a tattoo parlor in town. I go down, meet the artist, agree on a pattern & price and get to work. About two hours later, I was done, and not very happy. My cover up, was horrible and would require a cover up :(

On to Apr. 26th, 2007. I am visiting family in Albuquerque. There is an awesome tattoo artist here named Dave Martinez. He is well known in the tattoo community and has also done 2 tattoo's on me before. I wanted to get a cover up for my cover up and finally end the humiliation. It's been a few years since I had Dave give me a tattoo and apparently, his star is really rising. His rates more than doubled and he is completely booked up until OCTOBER! Ouch! I didn't give up. There is a second shop that I heard a lot of good things about, it is called Route 66, Fine Line Tattoos. I went by and consulted with Gilbert Vasquez. I had the idea to use a centaur in some sort of "mist" so everything that needed to be covered up, would be. I had my father in law draw me up a pattern. He is an awesome artist! He came up with a centaur in about 20 minutes. I had an appointment with Gilbert the next morning at 11am.

It's the next morning, 11 AM. I have been dreading this for some time. I do remember how much it hurt the first 2 times I attempted this on my stomach. About 20x more intense than on my arm, back, chest, etc. We had scheduled a 4 hour session to knock it out. I wasn't nervous, just anxious to get it over with. Gilbert knocked it out in 2 hours, 45 minutes. Result? F'n awesome! Very happy with the results! You can see the photo of it on my flickr account.

I will post more pictures in a few weeks once its completely healed. I should have taken "before" pictures so you can see what an amazing job he really did! Doh!

This was a long and rambling post, sorry about that. Just thought it was funny to tell how it all worked out. Beat up tattoo as a teen, worse cover up, and finally the huge tattoo needed to fix it all. Eesh!

Technorati Tags: albuquerque, fantasy, life, tattoo

Albucrazy, New Mexico

Yet again, I am making the trip to Albuquerque. This time I am taking the 2 gremlins I own to visit their grand parents. I will be back on the 30th. Since there are a few of us going, we are driving the entire 850 mile (give or take) trip. This is where my iPod and Sirius Satellite Radio come in handy! I've done this drive a hundred times and it's really not that great :) Going through the Flagstaff, AZ area is definitely the most scenic part of this trek. The rest is mostly flat lands, with lots of rocks. Oh, and if you haven't been to Needles, Ca in the dead of the summer... Well you're missing out!</sarcasm>

Technorati Tags: albuquerque, birthday, ipod, life, new mexico

Albuquerque

I just returned from a trip to Albuquerque. I went out to see my brother who had just came home. He has been away for a few years. I got to see some good friends as well. I lived in New Mexico for about 7 years, so it was good seeing how things have changed since my moving back to LA.

As good as it is to return to New Mexico, it also reminds me why I moved back to California. NM is a very slow paced (read: boring) place. It is paradise for a lot of people, I am just not one of them. At least not while I am still in my 20's ;) I wouldn't mind owning a cabin in Northern NM some time, but thats a ways away.

Enough rambling..

Technorati Tags: albuquerque, friends, life, new mexico