The Return of the Night of the Mostly Living Undead

Ok so I'm back... I had to take some time off of all my sites I had some pretty heavy stuff going on family wise and needed to deal with it. I tell ya the break was nice tho. I took about 2 weeks off of Etsy and tattoos, and about a month off of all the other networking sites. Just kinda got my head together, vegged out, played lots of video games... Oooooh I'm so hooked on Brutal Legend it ain't funny. Jack Black Metal God... The game is just balls out fun... lots of cussing and fighting and a terrific soundtrack... graphics are amazing, cameos form Ozzy, Lemmy, Rob Halford to name a few.
I've had a crush on Jack Black since his HBO Tenacious D days... I find him adorable and irresistable. I pride myself in my morning Tenacious D guitar riffs, playing 3 chords and making up stupid songs with Brad about cooking eggs, over easy, and who doesn't like the bacon, skit skat doodley dat... god I'm a nerd. Ok so Check out Brutal Legend, highly reccomend this game, its just good fun, and how can you not love a game that you need to build a hot rod called The Duece to get you around the play field... Horns Up bitches!

Spent a lot of my time just kinda chilling with my kid too, we really got to reconnect and just hang out, playing Rock Band till 3 am, being loud and silly, eating junk food, and laughing till it hurt. It was pretty good. And crisis aside, it was a good month... I think a hiatus of sorts is needed every once in awhile. I've kinda swore off of the etsy chat thing too. I was finding myself just going in almost like morning coffee and a cig... like a habit, but not even an enjoyable one anymore. A lot of women hate me in there... they seem to feel a need to bash me or talk shit or whatever. It kinda cracks me up how people who no nothing about you can make a call on the type of person you are by a shop and a name... those are the people I have no time for. I have met some very very cool people in chat, well ya'll are on my blog list so there... nerr. But the rest... they are too dull, automatic, and judgemental for me. I just can't be bothered with it anymore. For the most part the people in chat don't buy from me, don't like me, have nothing interesting to say so why torture myself... I'll talk to you fine people here who actually give a shit.

Oh yeah and the latest tattoo... this was borderline self harm, my enormous chest piece that I came up with after drawing a nekked zombie pin up chick with tattoos. I have wanted a chest piece for eons but really had no clue what to get... I certainly didn't want to go with the typical Dia De Los Muertos that everyone seems to get now, not to mention I have done so many of those on girls I want to pull out my eyes. I am working on a tattoo flash book of pin ups... I have about 11 drawn out of 50 which is my goal... so anyway I drew a killer green rotting zombie girl with bat tats and a chest piece with a heart bat... that was a eureka moment. There was my chest piece i wanted forever. Tatuesday rolled along and I had an insatiable urge to tat myself and there we have it. It was painful, not the tattoo itself but the twist and contort, absolutely horrible. Much had to be done in a mirror which was challenging... wait lets get the story straight, a mirror propped on the laptop while tattooing myself on cam with Carl... he's wonderful, finds my oddities interesting and entertaining... maybe it was just my hands on my boobs... oh well whatever. Yes and my hair is now highlighted with purple on Carls suggestion... odd at first I've grown accustomed to the pink tho I think the purple suits me better... He's good, he knows me far too well, better than I know myself apparently. Well I am pleased with it... theres some other little bits I will add later, some baby bats and stars and flies... I love flies, love to draw and tattoo them, they make nice lil additions and fill spaces easily to my undead tattoo themed body.

Ok kiddies, thats it for now... hope this finds everyone happy and well... bee back soon.

True Until Death

Those of you who know me personally know that Sailor Jerry Collins is far more than a passing fad because he's cool at the moment. I have been in love with Collins' work since I was a kid. My Pap had a honest to goodness, for real Sailor Jerry Hula Girl from WWII on his forearm, he used to make her dance for me... gosh she could wiggle her hips. Anyway I loved that tattoo and at the tender age of 8 years old I told my Pap I was gonna be just like Jerry when I grew up. He laughed, he always did at my little girl fantasies that were never the fantasies of normal little girls... astronaut was a passing phase, so was a Carni... well not really, I'd still run away and join a side show if I could.

Yesterday I had some time to myself and I decided to work on another Sailor Jerry design... True Until Death... yes I am...

I really love the look and feel of this one, I was going to do the traditional heart and dagger but I figured i would tweak it and went with the Jerry skull and flowers. Simple design, profound meaning for me. I used to really think that it was a bad thing to be ME. I mean I have dealt with so much shit from people who don't know me, making assumptions, judgements, the usual bull shit. There was awhile in my life when I conformed. I wore the suit, worked the 9-5, played the part. I died a little bit each day. My insides were screaming to be unleashed. Finally one day I quit my day job... walked into work with a chip on my shoulder and a couple shots of rum in me and told my douchebag boss and his filthy whore of a wife to take the job and shove it... it was so liberating. Ever since that day, 10 years ago, I have been doing whatever makes me happy, whenever the mood strikes. And when I get a stare or a glare from someone who doesn't approve of my look... I just smile and say hello... theres not much they can do when the scary tattooed amazon turns out to be a friendly and intelligent girl. I love who I have allowed myself to become. I am me.


Now onto Love Thy Neighbor... this is one I wanted to do for quite sometime. I did it about 3 weeks ago so it's still in that shiny almost healed stage, I call it the cellophane stage, last about another 2 weeks...

This tattoo just has Fuck Off written all over it. I think it takes some balls to sport the Sailor Jerry designs, he was in your face, no holds barred, honest. Bad to the mother fucking bone with out even trying. Ok but those people who wear like the Ed Hardy shirts and crap, you know the ones who don't even have a tattoo, that ain't bad to the bone... that's just sad, I hate posers.

I am such a fan of his work, old school designs in general. I love the honesty in the design. No frills, to the point, just real. I decided to do my right leg as a tribute of sorts to my idol... theres big plans for this leg and it's slowly coming together, at 3 week intervals. Next is the back of my calf "Stewed, Screwed, and Tattooed"... a classic. Then the fills will be mermaids, pin ups, nautical stars, and random things like pistols and brass knuckles... yet another work in progress.... my body is.

***********When I die I'm donating it to science fiction.***********

Pardon Me But Your Doll Tried to Kill Me

What a great day today was... I tattooed my True Until Death on my leg (I'll blog that tomorrow), I slept in and i never sleep, AND My Chucky and Tiffany dolls came in!!! It was a great day indeed.
I have wanted these two for ages it seems... ever since the Bride of Chucky was released. I found them on Ebay for what seemed to be a typo on the price... all the other listings for the set were 150 on up... but this lovely couple was 75. I did a double take and then just grabbed them. The following day I get an email from the seller which read "Dr. Strychnine, Congratulations on my misfortune. I accidentally mis priced your dolls but since you seem kinda scary I have decided to do the honorable thing and ship them out anyway instead of cancelling this sale. Hope you like them and leave POSITIVE feedback." Well well well.... heheheh I freakin knew it!!!

So how bout my Tiff... Omg she is the cutest thing I've ever seen, and they remembered every last detail on her... From her "Tiff" necklace to her fishnets and combat boots... Its been a running joke amongst my IRL friends who came first? Tiffany or Dolicia... well thats silly we all know I am so way older than her...hehehe

Now on to Chucky... I noticed in the pics of all the listings he had longish CURLY hair. Thats just wrong but I was like who cares! So when I got them I just had to do their hair. Chucky got a hair cut and his hair straightened. I also pinned back the front of his hair with some staples... STAPLES? yes of course staples, watch the movie... you'll see why. But other than that he was perfect.

I'm a huge horror buff... I love to be entertained with blood, guts, mindless killing sprees, interesting ways to die, and dark humor. I think the Child's Play film series encompasses all of that. Chucky is such a douche I love it, the sarcastic little fucker. And I just love Brad Douriff's voice... then along came Tiffany in The Bride of Chucky, Jennifer Tilly is seriously on of my favorite modern day actresses. She is so sexy and goofy. Bride of Chucky is on my top ten list of "Give it a Chance" Movies. Yes it's cheesy, yes it's far fetched, yes it's a film about dolls inhabited by the souls of serial killers... how can you not love a doll that says FUCK? Theres also some big name actors in it, John Ritter for one who I adored, an awesome soundtrack including Monster Magnet and Rob Zombie!! Oh yessss, MONSTER MAGNET! Scroll down to my playlist and give #123 a listen.... Makes me want a stripper pole.

So Give the films a chance, Bride of Chucky most of all. Better yet grab them all, get a 6 pack and pop some pop corn, turn off all the lights, light some candles kick back and have a laugh and a few squeals.

Old School VS New School

I decided to try something new with a charcoal illustration I did today. I think I've been hanging out with Carl too much, he's starting to influence my doodles now... not that it's a bad thing at all... I was always such a purest and wouldn't think of touching (or retouching) a charcoal illo but there I went and messed around with my Carnage. This is the original... It seemed to take forever for some reason. I think it was a combination of the fact that it's been 11 days since I got dirty... 11 days of tattoo after tattoo (the busy season is upon me)... I had in my head that Carnage is red not black and it was honestly driving me bats that I don't know how to paint and don't have the time to give it a whirl at the moment either... oh yeah and did I mention I didn't pick up charcoals in a week and a half, I thought I forgot how to draw for awhile there.
The original turned out pretty well I thought but I still felt it needed to be red and it was driving me mad and since I can barely paint a wall, the best I could do was to run I some filters over it and came up with this revamped version.
I have to admit that I'm actually torn between the two. The colorized version was super quick, just messing around with the filters of which I don't know how to navigate at all, so I'm thinking the more I use them the end result will look better than this, quicker, and less head scratching and cigarette smoking. But again I'm really torn... First off I have never digitally colorized a piece before so this is brand new territory for me... Second I think it might look good, but I'm not sure. Third, I think I might need a graph pad to do this right if I want to continue to do it... I decided to post both the original and the colorized version as a print on ETSY... not that anyone cares but hey hey it's worth a shot right? Feedback is a good thing too, so I'm hoping to get some input either in chat, convo, or here... as far as I'm concerned everything I do sucks, but we all know we're our own worst critics.

Ok, so thoughts on this PLEASE... should I continue to colorize/enhance/digi/whatever the originals and offer them as prints or just quit while I'm ahead?

Oh yeah and feel free to check out the rest of my Illos:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/DrStrychnine?section_id=6974795

Progression, Nostalgia, and I'm Wearing Pants!

Today I did a bit more work on my Nana and Pops memorial tattoo... I finished the boy swallow. I was really pleased with the colors on this one as well. These colors are significant to both me and my Pop.

I remember when I was about 8 my Pop had this great old Caddy (he loved his Cadillacs). Well he had it painted in these great retro colors, green and blue. He was so proud when he brought it home from the shop so off he went to cruise around and show it off. WELL, when he brought it up to our house my Dad took one look at it and almost fell over laughing. Dad thought it was the ugliest color scheme he ever saw... I on the other hand thought that it was the most bad ass car I ever laid eyes on. Pop took me for a drive... we went for ice cream and mini golf and I thought I was the coolest kid alive as we drove around listening to Dean Martin the world seemed to just go away. My Pop was one in a million... he was an immigrant from Cornwall, England... he had the best accent and a deep growl to his voice. He was silly and yet refined at the same time. He never left the house without wearing a suit and tie and a pocket full of Tic Tacs (orange). He drove fast and drove till the day he died with an accumulation of speeding tickets to rival any stock car driver. I like to blame my Pop for my obession with mid century vintage, especially cars, more over Cadillacs. Pop was the senior citizen equivillant of the Transporter... he was saying "respect a man's car" in the 80's. He was the coolest. He resembled Anthony Hopkins, but a 6'2" version, slender, completely bald, moved like a cat. Spoke with authority and yet there was a kindness you could feel in his voice. And he had the bluest eyes I had ever seen in my life, they would smile when he laughed. Pop was a cool cat, to the day he died he was just cool, he oozed it.

This was pretty brutal to do on myself. I had my left leg twisted around to the left kicked out on the bed in the Bat Cave, very attractive to watch I'm sure. Another tattoo done on cam with Carl... OMG and his mom walked in while he was watching me work. At least I had pants on... that could've been far worse than it was considering I sat all morning in my undies playing Dead Rising, but all I can think now is she must think I'm bat shit crazy. I'm a bit embarassed tho I'm told it's cool still I feel like a crazy American girl corrupting her English gentleman son and now his mom knows it... EEEEK! Story of my life...

The tattoo is definately moving along as sketched although it's running into days instead of one sitting... now the healling process and in 3-4 weeks the banner will be added. Should've stuck with the yoga... maybe i wouldn't be so damn sore right now. I feel like I was beat up from the 2 days and 4 hours of twisting like a preztel. At least I get a break from it for a couple weeks, that is unless I start on my other leg.

Mental Health Day

So today I decided to take a mental health day. I think it was a subconcious thing cause today was the 75 anniversary of The Bride of Frankenstein. For me a day off needs to be scheduled weeks in advance or theres this ridiculous amount of juggling clients around... so yeah, I'm leaning towards the subconcious... a Thursday night without a tattoo appointment hasn't happened in over a year.

Wednesday night I busted my ass I had a late night with a huge back piece and I wasn't done until 1 am and then I kicked out Etsy orders for the past 3 days and crashed at 4 am... overslept... woke up 15 mins before it was time to get Brad to school, but somehow we made it. We have mastered the art of the mad dash, yes we have. Off to school and oh the sweet silence of a teenage boy free home... well it wasn't silent but it was my kinda noise. I lumped around for 3 hrs dinking coffee, smoking cigs, watching my own little Munsters marathon and then decided to get cracking on a little self medicating.

Oh yes, I love to self medicate... and what is the Dr's drug of choice you might wonder... well INK of course. I'd been tossing around a couple ideas between my head and Carl and last minute decided to start on my memorial tattoo for my Nana and Pop. I was initially leaning towards a Sailor Jerry swallow design but then when I got the pencil in my hand I went my own route. It's a bit of a mix between old and new school, much like me... the final design is two swallows, a girl and a boy, with a curled ribbon with Lottie on top and George on the bottom.
I initially intended to have the entire piece done today but that was just not happening. this swallow is on the outside of my left calf and I was contorted into the most uncomfortable position ever... my leg was falling asleep, my hip was stuck, my back was aching... so I resigned myself to this being a work in progress. I'm hoping to finish the "boy" swallow tomorrow and after they heal I'll add the banner. It really is a tough thing to tattoo yourself. I notice my lines are scratchy when I tattoo myself but on others they are solid and clean. It's not like i can position myself comfortably to work like i would on a customer so i kinda am ok with the not so perfect work when its on me and the great thing is I can just go back later and clean it up if I have to.

This is the second tattoo I've done on cam with Carl... it's a whole new experience for me. I never have let anyone see me work on myself and 90% of my tattoos were done by me. Not even my son is privvy to watching me tattoo myself. Kinda a phobia I have... just one more thing Carl has been helping me get past, whether he knows it or not.

Ok, it's late... I'm wiped out. I'll post more tat pics as the piece progresses.
Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!
OUT!

Hey is this thing on?

Ok so here we go... the blogs maiden voyage....
I have no idea what I'm doing btw. I tried posting a couple vids and seriously folks I'm starting to think I'm special... you know the special of which I speak too... helmet, window licking, little bus... yeah, thats me. So no video for now, just that pic right there of me this morning, good and pissed off at the fucking birds chirping outside... little fuckers woke me up. I hate nature.

So yes another day, another week, almost nearly another month had passed since i started this account without so much as a post so i figured I better do something quick or the blog police might freeze my account... do they do that? IDK, I would do that to me. I'm hoping to be less caffeinated and less frustrated this weekend so that I can give the video a proper go. Last one was an epic fail because not only was I severely camera shy, I looked more wretched than that pic up there, I had nothing to say (probably cause I was so pissed off about the other one being unusable), not to mention throughout the vid my chair was shaking like Haiti from my dumb dog Manson who decided it was time for Battle Royale with Rope Thing (I like to name inanimate objects yes i do)... vid scrapped, didn't even make it to the cutting room.

I blame this comp... I do. It's new to me... I got it in December, just before Hexmas when everything was stupid cheap. It's really an awesome laptop, it's an HP G-60. I hadn't touched it tho till 2 months ago. Basically my kid was using it to play games on and I was using the MAC and the desktop...... Then Dr. Strychnine needed the web cam..... that's a story for another day ;D So yeah I'm just kinda getting to know this comp at the moment, and switching between 3 comps and 2 different operating systems takes talent, talent of which I don't posses at the moment.

It has become my mission this weekend to:
1. Get drunk
2. Clean my house
3. Post a video blog
4. Wash my car
5. Post some more art
Not in that order

Ok, far too much typing for 6 am.
BeetleJuice! BeetleJuice! BeetleJuice!
Fuck! I'm still here, that never works...