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The responses we've been getting are overwhelming. Thank you all for your support, your ideas, and your kind words. After every convention our subscriptions go up, so I know you are all helping to spread the word about out little project.
Issue #2 is well on its way to completion and our goal is to have it out by the Richmond convention- though the CD's may be a little later than that. It will contain features on:
• Grime and Jason Kundell from Art Work Rebels
• A small article written by Marcus Pacheco on the RedRat grip covers
• History of the Dragon by Jason Schroder
• Will Lollie's interview by Mark Longenecker
• Bill Canales' interview by Adam Sky
• A marker Step-by-Step by Tom Strom
• Tattoo Tales by Mike Malone
• more Machine Theory from Seth C.
• and some more flash, submissions, etc...
The CD includes video of Grime and Jason, and maybe some of Jeff Zuck left over from #1...plus extra photos and a bunch of other goodies.
Another update coming soon. Hang in there...
-C
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Just got back from shooting video of Grime, Jason Kundell, Marcus Pacheco, and Adrian Lee's gallery opening. The trip was great and people were flipping out on the magazine. A lot of hype getting around about our little project now and the reactions are fantastic. While in San Jose, I stopped by State of Grace to meet Horitaka and give him a few magazines to check out. He seemed very pleased with the overall concept and we immediately started talking about ways to get him involved. Today I got an email from him explaining that Horyoshi III would commit to do an original cover for issue #4!! AND he would send us a ton of photos, some video footage, and do an in-depth interview with Taki for us!! Talk about being stoked!
Adrian's art show was unbelievable ... and I mean that it the strongest possible way. I was speechless for a good hour. We got some video of the show and some from the after party. All in all, it's going to be a great little article ... probably in issue #4 also. That will give Adrian time to take the show to Japan in October/November, then write us up something on the whole process.
Spent a day or so hangin' at AWR and shot some video of Grime and Jason tackin' ... ran over some article ideas and completed our interviews. A lot of people are going to be offended by the Grime interview as he tackles one of the most important topics in Tattoo today: BITERS!! And we go into ways that we can all be influenced by people without biting their shit.
Next day I got my chest started by Adam Barton. Thanks for gettin' me in, Adam.
The last day with spent with Marcus and he has some really BIG plans for our rag. In addition to his interview for issue #3, he's contributing an article on the REDRAT grips all those left coast guys are using. Then a few issues after that we're planning on introducing an art assignment article in each issue tackling specific challenges we face as tattooers to see how many ways we can solve the problem; then Marcus and a few friends will critique the submissions in the next issue and online. Oh yeah ... wait till you see the painting he did for the magazine cover ... HOLY SMOKE is that thing cool!!
Other news: our subscriber area of the site is getting closer to being done and it will include a forum where everyone can come and share ideas about features, critiques on the magazine, whatever. Give us a few more weeks to hammer it all out. All you subscribers will get a password enabling you to enter...
And finally, if you play poker (Texas Hold'em specifically), go the SJ ... I cleaned up. Lots of easy money if you know what you're doing. Shit, it paid for a Barton tattoo!
-C
Now give us some feedback on issue #1!!
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Hahaaaa ... they're finally here!! YAAAAAY! Sorry for the seemingly endless amount of delays but we had to make sure everything was perfect at the printers before we approved the proof copies for printing ... so, another month (and a lot of money) later, we have them in and we couldn't be happier with the end result. The CD's also arrived today so we're packing and shipping for the rest of this week and most of next.
If you just can't wait & you're going to this week's DC convention you can find a few copies at the Workhorse Irons booth ... just ask for SOBA.
The subscriber section of the website should be up and running in a couple of weeks, and our new forum will be operational by then. Please join in and give us your feedback once you recieve your issue ... we really, REALLY want to hear what you guys think ... and I believe you will be blown away by the final product.
Issue #2 updates. We're ahead of schedule and already have about 65% of the content completed so it goes to the magazine designers this week. I'll be heading out to sunny SF again real soon to finish up Grime's interview and shoot some video footage of him and Marcus Pacheco for the CD editions. And speaking of Marcus, his interview is being held up another issue, (till #3), to allow him more time to track down and photograph his clients from the last 5 years. In the meantime, Marcus will be contributing the first of many articles he plans on writing for Tattoo Artist Magazine.
HELP WANTED:
First off, please send in your article ideas, feature ideas, and column ideas; anything goes ... if there's something you'd like to see and you think others might benefit from your idea, then send it in. But don't be suprised if we ask you to take the helm.
Next, we really need to land some more advertisers and subscribers in order to make issue #2 even BIGGER than #1 ... so it you've been putting it off, please contact us today and commit to helping make this the best damn tattoo magazine ever.
We could still use a few design/layout artists who are proficient with Quark and Photoshop. This isn't quite a paying gig yet ... but it may be soon.
We also could use someone to help with video editing from mini DV tapes. We are looking to do something fresh, so If you have the talent and some time, I'd like to see what you can do.
Other than that, please send us your feedback ... we want to know what you think about your first issue and the CD's. Thanks.
-C
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Sorry for the delay folks. I know you've all been waiting patiently and I really appreciate all the emails and phone calls of support encouraging us to take all the time we need in order to make sure this thing is done right. We have and it is. The good news is that the layouts are finished and the book should be on its way to the printer by the time you read this. The bad news is that the CD stuff is taking a little longer than we thought and it may be another week or so before production begins. Overall I think we're going to blow your socks off once you finally have it in your hands.
Other tidbits.
Apologies to Will Lollie and Mark Longenecker. Unfortunately we had to push Will's article back to issue #2 due to size restrictions in the book. I know you were all looking forward to that one, but you'll have to wait a little longer. We might put it up on the website soon as a sneak peak into issue #2.
The posters for Noble's cover painting will be available real soon online. We thought we were going to have to wait a while on releasing them, but a little help from some friends has made it possible to get the printing done now...so stay tuned.
We have committments from both Tom Strom and Adam Barton for some step by step action: Adam works in watercolor and Tom does some pretty spectacular marker work.
Chad Soner is working on the cover for issue #2 as we speak and I can't wait to see it.
Marcus Pacheco is still gathering photos for his feature and will have it together either for issue #2 or #3...he swears. And if we do have to wait till issue 3, (which is fine with me ... I'd rather have as many photos as we can get from this guy than have it quickly), he's going to write one of the many articles he has planned for #2. So it's a win-win situation no matter what.
Besides all that, we have The Grime and the AWR crew lined up for issue #2, along with the Will Lollie interview, Bill Caneles, and I think Aaron Cain's article on his Damascus frames. A lot to look forward to.
-C
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I have just viewed the final version of the video footage for issue #1 and all I can say is "DAMN!!" Everyone is going to love them. Many thanks are due to John Hinkemeyer, Nicholas Ramey, and Drew Marshal for doing a fantastic editing job; you guys are the best.
Finally we are getting that machine theory article I've been striving for all this time; Seth Ciferri has signed on to helm the project and I couldn't be happier about having him involved. My hat is tipped to you, sir.
That's all for now ... stay tuned.
-C
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It was a busy time last week.
Mike Dorsey's step-by-step photos came in.
Noble's cover painting came in (and it's baaaad, man...just wait 'till you see it!). The final part of Guy Aitchison's contribution came in the mail also; several minutes of video footage showing various stages of his sleeve tattoo as applied by Grime and Aaron Cain. Many thanks to Guy and Michele for making that available to us and to our readers. It's a fascinating peek at marathon tattooing by some of the best.
The layouts are being worked on daily and all the writing is finally finished.
All that remains is to finalize the text, finish the layouts, and complete the video editing process. Once those parts are done it's off to the printer and the guys at TattooNOW to put together the CD.
More to come...
-C
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I'm happy to announce that we have hired a new Art Director to help keep this baby on the tracks. Bert Smith has officially joined the team and will be overseeing the layouts and production aspects of the magazine. Though he isn't a tattooer, he has a lot of extensive work and has worked for a dozen different artists over the years designing their business cards, flyers, ads, and such. He's been in the commercial art biz for over 10 years and I KNOW he can handle the job. (Besides all that, he's really into the project and is willing to do it cheap -haha). He also has one of the coolest business cards I've seen in a long, long time...I'll try to get him to post one up for everyone to look at. Welcome aboard, Bert.
-C
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Just wanted to add that Jason Schroder of Incognito Tattoo has joined the Tattoo Artist Magazine team with an art history lesson for the each issue; the first topic: the history of the Oni- with background story info, example images, drawing suggestions, and a good bibliography so that you can learn how to do the research yourself by finding some good books. This piece was totally Jason's idea and I'm really excited about it. I think it's a great addition to the magazine and I hope you all agree. He's also talking about doing the machine thing with Adam Ciferri.
-C
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It's Tax Day!! Which reminds me that, though it's not going to be ready for the first issue, we will have some good articles ready for future issues to help us all, as tattoo professionals and shop owners, be better prepared for next tax season.
In addition to that timely news, I wanted to let everyone know that we are running late with the first issue. It's just way more than I anticipated and I am NOT willing to sacrifice the quality in order to meet my self-imposed deadline. I take this thing way too seriously to compromise the final product. There are still a few contributors who have not finished their writing assignments and sent them in and several came just in the last week. A few interviews remain to be completed still. And the scanning picture stage, though well under way, still has a lot left to be done. Some Ads still haven't been received yet either, though everyone assures me they're on it. This really isn't all that surprising; we are, after all, talking about TATTOO ARTISTS!! It looks like we will still be out in late May if all continues to go well. Please be patient, I'm learning as I go.
-C
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Mike Malone has sent me the first draft of his running column and it's good. I can't give it away yet but, trust me, you will all like this one. Thanks for the contributions, Rollo; it is my pleasure to have you on board.
-C
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It looks like we won't be having that Machine Theory article yet. There is a lot of resistance to actually writing these theories out for the general, though professional, audience. I can understand part of the position but we are still trying to find a "middle ground" that will make everyone happy. The whole idea started because I flat out don't know enough about my machines. I've just never been a technical guy...and I figured that if I don't know enough, then a lot of other tattooers don't either. I asked around and have found that this is generally true of a lot of professional tattooers out there. With that in mind I have asked some of the best machine builders I know to come in and lend a hand to help educate those in our professional community with some basics of the tattoo machine. What we have worked out initially is to have dialogs between machine builders that we can listen in on and, hopefully, glean some gems of wisdom. Any reputable machine builders with ideas...get in touch.
-C
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A few advertisers have unexpectedly pulled out on us at the last minute, leaving us kinda high and dry since their commitments were made almost a month before and, having sold most all of the ad space, I stopped trying to find advertisers. In the wake of this development we have decided to offer Biz Card sized ads to anyone interested for $100, 1st issue only! Please contact us if you are interested and get them in immediately. If the space is not filled, the 1st issue will be shorter than we originally thought, though not by much. This predicament has started the advertising debate once again and I've asked the kind and opinionated group at the Read Street Forum to sound off on the issue. I'll keep you updated on the topic. Thanks for the support everyone.
-C
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Finally! The Paypal page is set up and finished for subscribers. We have finished confirming all current subscription submission forms and will now do that once a week to keep up with everyone. Once you are confirmed you will receive an email with the link to the Paypal page; from there you can pay via CC, eCheck, or send us a check or money order for your subscriptions.
-C
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Received Guy's article and photos today. Everything is fantastic. The article itself is both entertaining and educational, (from Guy, what else would you expect, right?), and the photos are superb. Some short video footage should be arriving soon for us to include on the CD edition of issue #1. If you don't know what this is about...you're gonna flip! Here's a hint: What would you get bringing three of the most influential modern tattooers together, all collaborating on a sleeve design??? hmmmmm....
-C
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Looks like Cory Kruger's new and original cover for TAM is going to be a little late due to his trip to Japan...which is fine. I've asked another longtime favorite artist of mine to crank out a body suit painting for us and Todd "Noble" Halloway has kindly agreed to pull us out of our jam. If you're not familiar with Todd's work all I can say is you're missing out...this guy is SICK! You'll see what I'm talking about soon. He's also agreed to let us print some give-away posters and some limited T-shirts for subscribers only with the image so stay tuned. We'll have a merchandise page up soon enough. Thanks again, Noble...you 'da man!!
-C
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This is a "Good news/Bad news" kinda thing. Marcus Pacheco has absolutely signed on to do an in-depth interview and showcase dozens of new photos, sketchbook pages, paintings, and he also has a few articles that he wants to write for us over the first few issues. Bad news- it won't be until issue #2. Sorry. It appears that Mr. Pacheco has not been taking too many photos the last, oh, 5 or 8 years so he's on a quest to catch up with some of his recent clients and get some good shots for our feature. We started the interview while I was out in SF/SJ late last month and we spent about 5 hours taking PICS and doing the interview. We will continue the process in early June and have it finished up for the 2nd issue.
-C
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Greetings everyone. Here's some new news about the project. I recently spent more than a week in the San Jose/San Fran area conducting interviews with the entire NewSkool crew for issue #1. Got lots of great photos, sketchbook pages, and video. I also stayed a few days with Adam Ciferri (thank you, sir, for your hospitality), and started the AWR interviews for issue #2. You guys are gonna flip when you see the video footage we got for the AWR crew!
-C
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Tattoo Artist Magazine and TattooNOW.com have teamed up to bring everyone a CD edition of the magazine! We are very happy to be able to offer this special edition FREE to everyone in the 1st issue. The CD will contain most of the content of each issue, PLUS extra portfolio pictures, video footage, screensavers, interactive games, website links, music, advertiser info, and anything else we can think of. The price of the regular magazine is $15; the price of the special CD Edition is going to be $25 and IT WILL BE WORTH IT!! Just to prove it I'm personally paying for the CDs for issue #1 and will include them FREE with every issue that's not sold via subscription.
-C
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