We at Artisanal believe that Black Friday shouldn't only be the day after Thanksgiving... So with that thought in mind check out our Black Friday deal that goes on and on, until December 22nd!!!

Time to get piercings you BOHABS.

I cannot think of a better time....



......to come into the shop and get a brand new, nice as HECK piercing.

I just got in a whole shipment of goodies, new organic plugs, glass, metals, and some cool jewelry that just about doubled the amount of stock.

Time to upgrade suckas!

and some cool piercings to gawk at:

Lets do some tattoos...

Man, I love this time of year. Cool, crisp weather, Samhain blaring on the radio, hot coffee and hot chocolate...

...perfect time to come get some INK done sonz!!


Come down to the shop. We'll talk about cool stuff. I'll do a killer tattoo on you. There's a freakin ARCADE down the street from the shop.

Some new tattoos FER YER EYEBALLS TO LOOK AT!

Borderland: The Pre Sequel

FUCKING AWESOME. EXPLOSIONS!!

DEAD BANDIT CORPSES FLOATING IN SPACE AFTER YOU ANNIHILATE THEIR CORPSE WITH LASERS!!!

AND CLAPTRAP!!!

PEW PEW PEW DWEEEEDLEDEELLEEWHAAAAAAAA!!!

AHHHHH SO MUCH DESTRUCTION.


FRIEND ME, COME HELP ME WAGE DESTRUCTION ON ELPIS.

I'M ON USUALLY BETWEEN 9PM AND LATE, LATE, LATE!!! DWEEEEDDLEDUHDUNDUNDUNDUNDWEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Find me fellow Vault Hunters. XboxLive Gamertag

Lou Morgue

Back from Portland part 3: the Tifecta

So kiddies, I told you about the food of Portland. I told you about the convention.

Now I will tell you about the gaming.

Everywhere I looked there was evidence of gamers. Video game art, comics, tattoos. A small patch sewn into a backpack or a vintage NES shirt.

Downtown Portland is home to Ground Kontrol, an arcade/bar/place of awesomeness. I hit it up after the convention and it was packed! Two floors of classic arcade cabinets and pinball games, and they had some BAD ASS games! The place was packed but there were enough games so something was always available. There was a live DJ blasting 8 bit and chiptune remixes while everyone was playing. Such a good time, and I'm glad these places exist because there was a time I clearly remember that all arcades were almost extict like the mighty Sasquatch.

                                    DROKK IT! Playing Judge Dredd pinball!!


Across the street was an art installation, no fuck that, a TRAINING FACILITY FOR THE COMING ROBOT WAR OF 2084!!!

It's called the Church of Robotron. That's all I can say about the place. I have been swore in, gave an oath in blood and oil to protect the human masses from the metallic death machines. Go to their website. Do not hesitate, do not delay or you will be crushed under mechanized wheels like the other human sheep.

Go. Go forth and join. Hail! Hail! Hail and KILL...ROBOTS!!

One last adorable aside. On the Saturday of the convention right next door to the tattoo expo was the Portland Pet Expo. I HAD to go check it out, and pet as many fuzzy dogs, cats, ferrets, and one llama. There was so much cuteness I was in heaven.

 

What a dork. I just had to pose with this cat while wearing a cat shirt. So Meta! NERD.

Back from Portland Pt II

So enough about the food in Portland, sheesh, makes me look like all I did out there was eat. (well.....)

I did get a chance to visit the really cool zoo out there, and explored the cavernous Powell's book store, and perused the many thrift/vintage shops.  There were lots of neat art galleries, underground comic shops, toy stores, and little niche boutiques that I was fortunate enough to check out on my downtime.

It was a breeze to get around the city once you figure out how to use the colored train system. It made it easy to get back and forth from the hotel to the convention and get to the many downtown areas of Portland AND they ran late so you had time after the convention let out to do some stuff after a long day of tattooing.

To me, that was the worst aspect of the working vacation: the work part. I'll quickly sum it up. The convention was slow, it was not well attended, and a lot of browsing and not many people getting tattooed. I know being an out of state tattooist is always a gamble and I always manage to at least break even tattooing nerds and gamers, but I'll count this as a loss. Very minimal entertainment, and not many people buying stuff that artists were hocking.

                                                           BORED.

That was the part that killed me. Every booth had FANTASTIC drawings, art, prints, specials, and solid portfolios. Which for some reason equals talented tattooist sitting around.

LOU's TATTOO CONVENTION TIP #1 If you attend a convention, please PRINT out and bring the reference of the piece you want tattooed with you. Artists who travel do not have printers and we can't properly trace an intricate, even simple thing, FROM YOUR PHONE. Take a few minutes and make the effort, you will be rewarded with a killer tattoo and an appreciative tattoo artist.

It wasn't all bad, I had fun, I met a lot of really cool people, I tattooed a crazy Cholo who was cool as fuck, and people really seemed to dig the new portfolio and work. I brokered a couple of guest spots so I'll keep you suckers posted on that.

I wish I was a little busier and tattooed a little more, but it was cool to be part of the Northwest tattoo world for a weekend.

 

So I'm back from Portland...

So Portland was awesome. 

Hands down a city made for nerds and people who worship at the alter of food. I mean, the food was unbelievable, everywhere I ate be it a sandwich shop at 11 at night to an expensive Peruvian I took a chance on one night. There are places to eat everywhere you go, and real nice coffee shops dot the city as well. There was an area on 10th that was an entire city block of food stands that served up anything you were looking for; vegan BLTs, paleo grub, Greek, Mediterranean, Georgian, Indian, Thai, so much good crap to stuff my face with...and believe me, I did.

 Portland was also home to Sizzle Pie, the hard rockin' metalhead pizza place that Bill and Ted would call home. I used the tattoo convention as a front to really travel out here and consume as much Sizzle Pie pizza I could.

  
                                              DEATH TO FALSE PIZZA!

I don't mean to keep going on and on about the food but hell, I had waffles served by a bad ass punk chick outside a punk burlesque club, good food in Portland's Chinatown, and the tourist DESTINATION spot Voodoo Doughnuts. This place was was created by pervert stoners, with donuts like the "triple penetration" (chocolate with cocoa puffs) and the "Grape Ape" (fucking grape Kool Aid mixed with the frosting). Amazing.

                            Finishing off the Cock and Balls doughnut.