Superior Tattoo

I’ve been exhibiting a lot of discipline lately, working weekends to get caught up on projects like Hot Rod Wiring and Into the Skin, our next new titles.

Saturday was a perfect day to be outside of course, 80 degrees and sunny, all of which makes it that much harder to hang out and work on our two new books. As the day slid slowly past I promised myself I’d work until 5 PM, and at exactly 5:01 I opened an adult beverage and headed for the garage.

It might seem like a small thing to you, but getting the intermediate link……

Rick Thompson and I repositioned the steering rack brackets weeks ago, but I never actually cut and installed the intermediate link. So on Saturday I went to work, double checking the length of the mock up link about ten times, cutting the new shaft to length, then doing a test fit. Next, it all came out again, so I could drill small little indents in the shaft where each set screw hit, before doing the final installation. All in all it was about three hours of work, though I shouldn’t even call it work. Because, it was just exactly the break from reality that I needed.

… and the tie rods hooked up is a sure sign of progress in the corporate garage. Our main mechanic and maintenance guy seems to be falling down on the job.

Deadlines and more deadlines.

Hot Rod Wiring and Into the Skin – our two newest titles - both go to the printer today. Jacki is doing last minute corrections as I speak, and by the end of the week we should have proofs back on both books from our printer in northern Minnesota. It takes about three weeks for production, which in this case includes duplication of the DVD that accompanies the Into the Skin book. Look for more information on the new titles, and the likely ship date, in next week’s blog.

Hot Rod Wiring, Into the Skin: The digital files for both these new titles are headed to the printer. Remember, order early and order often.

A few weeks back I talked about some of the advantages of ebooks. Like the fact that there’s no printer to pay, no need for a warehouse, no damaged books that get shoved down your throat by some big chain. There is at least one more advantage I didn’t mention: the fact that you can publish a book as an ebook, and use the ebook as a barometer to gauge the sale-ability of a printed book.

Our friends at Superior Tattoo have given us permission to convert eight of their sketch books into ebooks, and then later, if there’s enough demand, publish them again as paper books. We’ve taken eight of their small sketch books, and combined them to create the following four sketch books: Skulls + Hearts, Butterflies + Roses, Lettering + Banners, and finally Tribal + Stars, Suns & Moons. Though these are meant as idea catalogs for tattoo artists, they also serve as inspiration for anyone trying to decide what to do for the next tattoo.

For our latest trick, we will take 8 small, printed sketch books, and convert them to digital files that you can review on your computer, iPad, Nook or???

We always seem to have the best luck getting the new ebooks up at the ibook store, that should happen in a month or so, with all the others, like Amazon, Google, Sony, and Barnes & Noble Digital, to follow. Watch for more updates right here.

Sample of just one of the many flash images you'll find in our upcoming electronic books.

I’m pleased to say that Tattoo Bible, Book II, is in stock. Book II is another collaboration with Superior Tattoo, the biggest provider of professional tattoo equipment in the US of A and possibly the world. This new book comes to you as free-flowing tattoo flash. Unlike Book I, there are no categories and no chapters as such. Most of the art, collected from the archives at Superior, is printed full size without a white border. Not only does this make the images larger, the full bleed makes the flash seem almost too big and too nice to be contained on a page.

A totally different animal than Book I, Tattoo Bible Book II is in stock and ready to ship.

Only One Week Late
Today we send the files for the Classic Triumph Calendar, 2011, to the printer. This is only one week late, which is pretty good for us. I spent Saturday shooting the last image we needed to complete the package, and would have done the photo shoot earlier but Baxter Cycle in Marne, Iowa didn’t have the restored 1950 Thunderbird assembled yet.

The early hardtail Triumphs, like this ’53 Thunderbird, have their own very mechanical look.

Sheet Metal Bible
Stacked up right behind the Classic Triumph Calendar is the next book, Sheet Metal Bible. As noted before, this new book is a compilation of our past sheet metal books, with some new photos from Bruce Terry, and a chapter of Henry J work. The Henry J tin work is a team effort between local legend Rob Roehl, and some guy named Tim Remus.

Our next sheet metal book, drawn from a wealth of earlier articles with some new material, goes to the printer this week.

At Wolfgang, we've expanded our book offerings over the years. What was a little company publishing two or three books a year about either V-Twin (and Chopper) motorcycle assembly, or custom painting, is now a slightly larger company publishing 10 to 12 books per year on topics that run the gamut from airbrushing, to pin-up painting, to tattoos.

Among our newest products is this very cool Tattoo Girls calendar.

Our forth tattoo book, Tattoo Bible, is a great collection of flash art collected by Superior Tattoo in Phoenix, AZ. One of the world's largest supplier of tattoo tools and equipment, Superior has added a very nice Tattoo Girls calendar to their long list of products. Produced entirely in-house in a vertical format, this is new calendar measures a full 34 inches tall when opened up. The pictures, and the girls, are just sexy and naughty enough to make this a very interesting collection of images.

So if you like tattoos, and you like girls, this just might be the perfect calendar.

A finished Yamaha

We recently presented some construction and paint photos of a Yamaha Road Star under construction at Donnie Smith's shop. This is the V-Twin magazine give-away bike built by Donnie and crew with parts from Dennis Kirk.

Well, the bike is finally finished. Deb Shade visited Donnie's shop recently to witness the final assembly, and to take a few finished pictures. Donnie and Rob set out to build a "High-bar FL bike" and the customized Yamaha does indeed look a lot like a short, stubby FL, complete with Rob's fabricated tail-dragger rear fender. Other goodies include the PM wheels, H of K paint and a host of chrome candy from the Dennis Kirk catalog.

The new profile owes a lot to the high bars, and the tail-dragger rear fender. To create the fender, fabricator Rob used part of a RWD fender blank grafted onto the stock fender.

As I've said many times before, it's amazing what you can accomplish with a bit of creativity, and some careful planning. All without cutting the frame or doing anything really wild. Take a close look at this stubby chopper, it sure doesn't look like any Yamaha you've ever seen.

Another big part of the look is the RC Components wheels wrapped in Avon rubber. The front tire measures 120X21, while the rear is an 180X18.