Faster then a cat can blink his eye my boy!

I made a quick trip to New York City this week with Chris Smith and Mr. Bill Waverly. First up we went over to the Japan society to see a VAST exhibit of original Kuniyoshi ukiyo-e prints. The exhibit was extraordinary to see. The kuniyoshi exhibit mainly covered more of the mythological subjects of Japanese folk lore. So seeing room upon room of monsters ghosts and warriors fighting Korean tigers really blew our minds. It was AWESOME.

Next we went over to Brooklyn to get tattooed by Mr. Bert Krak.We hung out and had lunch with the gang. All of whom were extremely welcoming and hospitable. While I was getting tattooed local tattooer Steve Delgado stopped by and regaled us with some hilarious anecdotes. Seriously I had to stop and laugh a few times. Bert's tattoo was fast, virtually painless and clean as a whistle. and I mean CLEAN guys. It's one of my favorite tattoos.

Most of the paintings on the wall are original and had painted so the shop almost doubles as a mini folk art museum however all of the imagery is still in service being tattooed every day.Ironically The bathroom has some of the coolest hand painted flash sheets I've ever seen. If you are ever in the neighborhood, stopping by the shop is a must! And everyone interested in tattooing or who is themselves a tattooer should definitely stop by and get something tattooed. In my opinion, It's probably one of the best tattoo shops in the country and the amount of knowledge and experience as well as sheer talent there is astounding. I highly recommend them.

After Bert finished up my my tattoo Steve Delgado invited us over to The shop of the oldest tattooer still working in NYC's Mr. Tony Polito. Tony has been tattooing for a total of 52 years and 30 years at the location we visited. He comes from a time in tattooing TOTALLY alien to the one most of us are familiar with now. The shop is the oldest of old school to its core. We sat and talked and watched Tony and Steve belt out walk-in after walk-in after walk-in. Two old dudes just blasting out tattoos non-stop. Let me tell you it was WILD to watch. I have never seen anything like it. Tony told us stories while he drew on designs and even showed us some of his old flash in between tattoos including an old doc king flash sheet that was just amazing to hold.

All in all this was one of the best trips I've ever had. Every stop on it more wild and cool then the last.It changed a lot of how I view things and I feel a renewed sense of determination now regarding my own work.

-Murray