On tattoos and being vegetarian.

I just recently 'quit' purchasing products that aren't cruelty free.  You'd be surprised how many of the products we use in our everyday lives are at the cost of an animal. I thought it would be hard (and expensive!) but man am I glad I live in this day and age where, like I said in a previous post, there is a shift towards positivity.  More and more people are trying, nay, wanting to be conscious of the lifestyle choices they make. 

Anyway. This new shift I took towards more ethical consumption led me to thinking about tattoos as well, and how so few people think about how this can extend to tattoos. Well it does.  I thought it'd be nice to talk about how to extend vegetarianism to tattoos, because I sort of live those two lives and all. This is for your reference, if you are vegetarian and are considering getting or adding tattoos, or even if you aren't and want to lead a cruelty-less life, in one way or another. :)

First, inks.  I thank the tattoo industry for coming out with quite a number of vegan inks. I personally use (and love) Fusion and Intenze Inks, both of which are vegan. It should be noted that despite being vegan, these ink brands definitely do not compromise their quality!

Photo from fusioninks.com

photo from Intenzeinks.com

Here are other vegan inks for your consideration:

• Skin Candy/Bloodline
• Eternal
• Waverly
• Stable (which is difficult to purchase unless you are a shop owner, really)
• Alla Prima

 Make sure to ask your tattoo artist if he has these inks--Fusion, Skin Candy, Intenze and Eternal inks are now easily available in the Philippines.

Second, aftercare.  After your tattoo session, your tattoo should take around two weeks to heal and during that time, it should be handled hygienically and with care.  You shouldn't swim in chlorinated water within this two week period nor should you go to the beach.  Neither should you scratch the new tattoo (it will scab)! To aid the healing process, to moisturize and nourish your new ink, get your own tattoo aftercare lotion. (Especially if you plan on getting more!) There are a couple of aftercare lotions that are readily available in Metro Manila. I personally use After Inked, which is a paraben-free, non-allergenic, non-irritating, vegan and best of all cruelty free lotion.

I recently saw Ink Butter available locally, too. Kinda pricey but that packaging is just lovely.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me!

An Unwelcome Friend

So I've been listening to a lot of Philip Glass lately. I never thought I'd be this into classical music. I've been illustrating a lot too, since listening to him, and Eric Satie. This is called 'An Unwelcome Friend' based on his composition for the film, The Hours.

Sting: an all female tattooer exhibit + outtakes!

Hi loves,

I'd like to invite all of you to come visit our exhibit, Sting, on Feb 20 at the Kanto Gallery which is inside The Collective, Makati. It opens 8PM and I believe on that same day a Chronic Wheeze gig will be on, too! So fun fun fun, you get to hang out or meet us (if you want to) and watch a fun art/music show. It's all good, me thinks.

Here's the poster for the event:

It was soooo nice meeting these ladies, I believe we all got along pretty well and right away, too (most of them I met on the day of the photo shoot). I really do like everyone a lot. I love that they're all really talented and confident, but most of all that they're all really down to earth. I love that. Did I mention that I love that? Haha.

Mostly I like that I now have new girl friends to talk to about tattoo-related things, and makeup and all that, too. All around good vibes, basically.  Oh and also, our photographer Kevin Cayuca was awesome! Check out his stuff. :)

Photo from Nina!

From Mia's instagram!

So anyway, I hope to see you there! :) Love, W

Calligraphy love

I was asked by my good friends (and my most favorite couple in the world!) Carina & Allan to do the calligraphy for their wedding invites and this thrilled me to death! I've always wanted to these kinds of projects but I don't know, I never really got the chance to before.  I'm afraid I don't do strictly formal calligraphy, most weddings go for that. I'm glad that Carina & Allan appreciated my 'style' though, a rather informal and playful type.  Here are some snapshots:

I used a Nikko Comic G-Pen Nib with my General's #204B holder and dipped that in this J. Herbin Orange Indien ink, the logo of which I thought fit well with the couple's bohemian themed wedding.

Yay for Carina & Allan!

Love, W

January tattoos

Other than the craft itself, another thing I love about tattooing is the opportunity to meet all different kinds of people going through rather important stages in their lives, be it a celebration or a reminder of something, someone.  More often than not, the people I meet while tattooing turn out to be awesome, inspiring people. The first few clients I tattooed this month have all been pretty awesome, I'm glad to have met them as much as I am glad that they trusted their skin on to me. :)

My first two clients were Deng & Chely, who are co-founders of a company called Project Good.  They have a number of projects I'm really interested in, Girl Matter being one of them. I'd love to blog about all the other details of their project but I have yet to discover more details about it. :) Oh and also, Deng is a vocalist of one of the funnest female bands around now. They are called Flying Ipis. Do check them out if you can.

Deng's.

Chely's, which we will add more on to this week!

I also got to meet Jasmine the other day and I had so much fun tattooing her.  She knew so much about Philippine history and music, and well, it was a breeze tattooing her.  I did my first Koi fish tattoo on her. (Funny thing about sketching the koi--I had the hardest time not making the koi look 'cute'. )

Just awhile ago I got to tattoo PG.  I actually love the music he makes.  If you haven't heard any of his stuff, they're all here and here. He had a freshly done tattoo by the legendary Fang-Ud, and he wanted to add it.  I normally don't do tribal pieces, but I had good fun freehanding this one.  We're adding more to it as soon as they tattoos heal. It was nice talking to him about his process (music is one of my biggest frustrations!), and about our culture (we're both ilocano).

I'm scheduled to tattoo a couple more interesting tattoos and people soon, so yay!

Love, W

Status Magazine Feature

Haro! I'm featured in this month's Status Magazine together with other awesome tattoo artists. Grab your copies now! :) Thanks, Status Magazine!

New tattoos

I met Arlene that day I tattooed her. This is her lollipop! Gayle's Russian Nesting Dolls. How have you been? Wiji

The butterfly and the bible verse

Can't wait to see them heal. :) Thanks for the photos, Lora and Ruby! Can I tattoo you? W

The first one hurts the deepest, it's so good.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

the first tattoo I ever did! It's the yellow twitter-like bird. It was my friend's birthday and he wanted all of his friends tattoo this part of his back. That was the night I fell in love with tattooing. The following day I messaged my tattoo artist, and now my mentor, Dyun, if he could take me under his wing. Memories, W

Nikki's Ballerina

I got to tattoo Nikki yesterday, who came with her dad and two brothers! I found it so cute. I wish we could all take our (willing) dads to our tattoo sessions anytime we wanted. :)

xoxoXXxoOOxo,
W

Che's tattoo

I tattooed my friend Che yesterday and I have been so so so excited to tattoo this, an Amy Sol illustration! (I am a big fan.)

This is just the outline and shading, we might put in some color on the second session. :)

Happy happy good vibes,
W