American Tattoo

In the Great White North it’s still white, but some of the snow banks are a bit smaller than they were just a few days ago. After weeks of cold, cold weather, we finally got a break from Mother Nature. On last night’s TV, the meteorologist reported a high temp of forty-nine degrees yesterday, only two degrees off from the warmest temperature ever recorded on that date.

For most people it meant a chance to ditch the heavy parka, put on shorts (I’m not making this up) and go jogging. For me, it meant the temperature in the garage finally reached fifty degrees, and I could paint the floor of the Henry J, prior to bolting in the seats for the last time. The paint I used is Por-15, a magical and somewhat expensive paint that stops all but the worst rust dead in its tracks. In my case, parts of the floor were put in last winter, and had acquired a light coat of rust. That light rust is now gone, replaced by flat black paint.

As with nearly any project, everything I do is a catch-22. In this case, I wanna bolt in the seats, but first I have to paint the floor. Then I need to seal the welded seams, and then I can bolt in the seats.

More Tattoo Books
There’s another tattoo book on the spring schedule, in addition to the Tattoo Sketch book. This new tome is American Tattoos, photographed and written by Doug Mitchel, the man who’s responsible for our first tattoo book, Advanced Tattoo Art. Like that first book, this one is made up of photo sequences that follow ten very traditional tattoos from the first sketch to the final, colorful tattoo. Doug swears all the photos will be here this week, so look for American Tattoos to be ready by mid-April.

Another great tattoo book from Wolfgang, this one filled with start-to-finish tattoo sequences.