Well the first tattoo convention of the year for us Sinners was, quite frankly, a stress-filled pain in the arse!
From the moment we arrived on day one, it was clear we were going to have problems.
We found our booth ok and started to get set up… but hold on… nowhere to put my power pack, colours etc? No water, no paper towels? What the fuck? So off we go to find someone who knows… an organiser (ha-ha) So we find one, who tells us there should be a stall for paper towels, water etc, but it’s not set up yet… so we leave it a while… then find another person with a smart ear-piece, and… surprise, they still don’t know where to find these basic essentials – he does manage to direct us to a sink though! Which isn’t really what we needed. Eventually we gave up trying to get anything with these muppets and Mrs Sinner went into town to get them instead. Then we began to put stuff up… and it fell down! brilliant!
Then I started to realise the bits I’d left behind in the studio… no lamp! excellent!
Good job I found my clip on the glasses led lights in my case!
More drama – Not enough small tips! so I have to go and buy a box of disposables. The I look and my cleaning bottle is almost empty! Blimey, I really must pay more attention when packing stuff up.
So, we get the booth looking okay and the punters start arriving, and asking for designs and prices etc – so I get the laptop going and try to scan stuff and print stuff…. and surprise, surprise! The fucking thing won’t work! No scanner, no printer! I get a bit flustered and delete the driver I need by mistake – bollocks!
So then I have to pay a fiver to get the internet (you’d have thought these days that a massive International Centre would have free fucking Wi-Fi wouldn’t you?) and download another one – and it still won’t work – I figure out it must be the USB cable is knackered… so as I don’t have a spare, I’m knackered too!
But, then one of the organisers (lol) tells me there’s a booth in the merchandise hall that can scan and print for us – result! So I leave the expectant customers waiting while I go and get the designs re-sized. Well these two idiots were fantastic! How about nearly 40 minutes to do two scans and print outs…! Honestly, it was the most frustrating thing, watching this dumbass who obviously had never managed to dress himself let alone used a Macbook before, try and do such a simple task. By the end of my long wait there was a massive queue behind me! So then I get back and at last manage to get the first tattoo of the day under way.
After that it got marginally better – though my wolf started pretty badly, looking a bit like a scabby dog for a while! Before I got my brain engaged, changed machines, and sorted it out. The Indian Chief and wolf turned out alright in the end, thank god, and the customer, Hank, was pleased with it.
By the end of day one I was ready to get back to the hotel and just disintegrate! Mrs Sinner and I went down to the hotel restaurant and had a bloody fantastic dinner! Just what the doctor ordered!
Day two was better – we nipped into town and got a new USB cable which sorted the scanning and printing drama – yippee! But despite being quite busy, it really lacked any atmosphere and people were just browsing and asking ‘how much’ and not really seeming to want much tattoo work. I did a funny finger moustache to add to our Facebook folder and some diamonds and stars but that was really it. No-one seemed to want anything big, but that’s how it goes sometimes I guess… At least it was less stressful!
So by about 4.30 the place was dying a death, so we packed up early and were back on the road home by about half six.
Will we go again next year? I doubt it. Pretty poor organisation, lack of atmosphere and lathargicl punters mean I’ll give it a miss thanks
Oh yeah – and they still owe me a bloody refund!

Mrs Sinner in hiding!

Good job I packed the 'eye-lights'!

Lamb Shank on parsnip mash... awesome!

Hayley and her new 'tache!

You can't go to a convention without getting a new toy!

At last… after a couple of months of stress, long nights painting (thanks Mrs Sinner!), hassling tradesmen etc, (wondering why the sign guys can’t wire up the light box they sold us?), we’ve finally moved into number 10!

On wednesday morning I’m rushing around getting a few last minute bits sorted before the Environmental Health Police, sorry, Officer, pays us a visit to check everything’s in order. You know, that we’ve got enough No Smoking signs, elbow taps and Risk Assessment essays. Honestly, it’d be easier opening a doctors surgery…

Anyway, we passed with flying colours (apart from now I have to write a Health & Safety Policy!), stuck the fresh registration (another three hundred and seventy quid ta very much!) on the wall and got the doors open to get working. After ten years in our old shop, it felt kinda wierd starting work in the new one, but after a bit you just focus on what you’re doing and get on with it. It’s kinda like working a convention, you ignore everything around you and just tattoo…

On saturday we had our opening night party, which was a raging success. Once again Mrs Sinner gets the credit for pulling it all together, making sure we had plenty of crisps and beer! A huge thanks to Malcolm for getting the sign lit up in time, I owe you mate! A massive thank you to everyone that turned up and I hope you had a good time. Levi sold loads of her families’ naked calendars and we had a raffle to raise more cash towards Regans Fund. Well done to our oldest Sinnerette for winning the coveted flamed pig! Oh yeah, and Mrs Rice, you’re barred from future raffles Ok!

So now I hope we can just concentrate on tattooing and keeping us Sinners steaming ahead as the best studio around, bar none!

If I don’t see you through the week, I’ll see you through the window!

Our weekend slave (soon to be full-time slave), Levi and her family have been raising money for her cousin Regan who has Retts Syndrome. They are aiming to raise £7,000 for a stairlift as Regan is unable to walk. So far Levi, her family and friends have raised £2,500 through various fundraisers. One of the fundraisers is a nude calendar, featuring the family (if you know any of them, it’ll be worth a laugh at least!), which they’re trying to get sold in the shops.

So here at Sinner HQ we’re going to be selling copies to you, the always generous, beautifully well dressed and extremely good looking readers(!) And for every calendar sold Seven Sins Tattoo will contribute the same amount. So one calendar is £10 and we’ll add £10 too.

If you Read the rest of this entry »

‘Evening lads of the village’

A wierd expression I know, but one me and my old mate Mark were greeted with by the landlord of the Greyhound one night years ago… sorry I digress…

Village life is a beautiful thing. Old fashioned, quant, bordering on the senile and demented! But so much better than living in some nondescript city where no-one talks to each other and everyone treats their neighbour with manic suspicion.

Anyway, the last May Bank Holiday in the Sinner Village, we had our annual May Fayre. The ladies of the WI go baking mad, filling their stall with awesome cakes, buns and biscuits. There’s plants for sale, ropey ceramics, grubby car boot tat, bouncy castles and more. The very modern lady vicar turns out to pour tea in the refreshment tent, there’s tombolas, fishing for ducks, maypole dancing, a May Queen, the absolute lot! And along with this they have competitions for everything from flower arranging to poetry to wine making. One of the categories is for painting – so I thought ‘Why Not?’ I grabbed a few off the studio walls, paid a quid an entry and left the lady taking the entries saying ‘ooh aren’t they all different!’

Well I like to be diverse you see and paint all kinds of stuff – I entered an artists pallette with a bulldog on it, a budha, a heart with wings, a flaming skull in blue and a Bob Ross inspired mountain landscape. (You’ve gotta love a bit of Bob Ross!)

So me, Mrs Sinner and our little Sinnerettes toddle off to the May Fayre and have a jolly old time. Eating cake, hooking ducks, trying to win a coconut (poor little Sinner boy is a lousy shot) and trying to shelter when the rain pours down as it usually does on a Bank Holiday! Then Mrs Sinner checks out the competition gallery and guess what… I’d only got 2nd for the blue flaming skull and 3rd for the mountain landscape! I was pretty chuffed and not too bothered that I’d been beaten by a pretty average windmill scene!

Picking up the rosettes (yes rosettes, I told you this was village life!) from the visiting vicar, he asked me which painting had got the 2nd place and didn’t bat an eyelid when I told him it was a blue flaming skull!

So there you go – tattooists are artists too

Rock ‘n’ Roll!

2nd Place for the Flaming blue skull

3rd Place for the mountain landscape

All winter I’ve been looking in the back garden at this silver shape, with black hoops peeking out at the bottom. Most of the time I forget it’s even there. Every day I get up and go to work in a nice, warm, heated seated box, listening to comfortable (old school) rock, trying to avoid the potholes left from the snow and every now and then think, it’d be nice to get my bike out when the weather gets better…

Well yesterday the sun came out, for probably the first time this year and I approached the silver shape with trepidation – knowing that the battery charger and extension lead would need to be found before I could go anywhere. Dragging the silver cover off the bike revealed my utterly dejected 1200 Bandit, the tank and seat covered in paw prints and fur where the cat had been taking shelter under the cover together with some nicely progressing rust spots and green mildew – awesome!

Now came the moment I’d been dreading – would it start? The first thumb on the starter let me know that the battery had survived the winter well and had life! Then on the third try it fired up! Well three cylinders is better than none right? So I left it running for a while until it was nice and warm and (almost) firing on all four then went in search of the bucket…

So (and this is a rare thing) I got the sponge and bucket out and washed it down – hurriedly I might add, as the sun could disappear at any given moment – this is England after all. The Bandit scrubbed up pretty well considering it’s total neglect (I think I last rode it in October ’09?)

Quickly getting my helmet and stuff on and out onto the road I figured I’d better check the tyres (last time I did this I had about 18psi in the back tyre and wondered why cornering was getting wierd!) This requires the skills of a Krypton Factor contestant, with the garage air lines designed for cars and not for bikes – trying to manipulate the nozzle onto the valve is frustrating to say the least! Much swearing and scraped knuckles later, the tyres are good and full of air and the street is now fun.

When I get on the bike after a bit of a layoff I always mentally tell myself to take it easy, then the feel and excitement of riding very quickly takes over and OH YEAH! up comes the front wheel and the fun begins!

And what fun it is! The whole point of this blog was to expound the virtues of how much fun motorbike riding is – it’ll blow away your blues, it’ll put a hug grin on your face, it’ll make you feel so alive you can’t explain it! If you’ve never done it – give it a go – you’ll be amazed.

Me, I just love wheelies – it’s impossible to ride without having to get the front wheel up at any given opportunity – yes I know it’s illegal and naughty – (it takes skill and control you know) – but I’ve been doing it forever and I ain’t stopping now!

Young Chic - Reigate School of Art - circ 1978(ish)

Young Chic - Reigate School of Art - circa 1978(ish) - Photos by good mate Del Ongley

There I was, relaxing in front of the TV (not drawing for a change!), the in-laws are round and it’s been a long day – you know how it is… right? Anyway, despite trying hard not too, I drift off to sleep – it was kind of inevitable. Now the brother in-law likes to think he’s a funny guy, so he makes some signs, adds some cuddly toys and takes some photos with my own camera! Obviously I’m blissfully oblivious and only find out the next day when I go to take some pics of a just finished tattoo… This pic is one of the cleaner ones…

Minnie's my new best friend!

I’ve vowed to get revenge – so I’ll keep you posted…

Read the rest of this entry »

Chris came back from Lanzarote today and shock horror! he’s actually (very slightly) tanned! Seems like he managed to remove his beanie hat long enough to get slightly burnt ears too! He had a great time and brought us back the BIGGEST cigars you’ve ever seen! We have a bit of a tradition here at Seven Sins of buying cigars for birthday’s, christmas’s etc – Chic usually gets the boys a fat one! Well these things must be a foot long and inch thick! The mind boggles…. anyway, cheers Chris – they’re gonna take a month to smoke!

Ben had a weekend of playing soldiers out in the Skirmish fields and as usual shot the shit out of everything and everybody! He wasn’t complaining as much about aching legs and stuff this time though, just an aching butt where he’d been BB’d! Sweet really as it’s usually him that’s a pain in the arse!

Full on machine gun and grenade Skirmish action from Ben

Our saturday slave Levi hit 18 in the week and came bouncing in (literally) eager to get her tattoo on her ribs started. So we’re all ready with the video camera waiting for her to winge and grimace, but she was an absolute rock! Chatting and feeling no pain – not bloody fair! It must be because she’s full of rainbows! Anyway she got the rough lines done and is looking forward to the next sitting. Nice work Rainbow! One more of us, one less of them…

Rough lines on Levi by Ben

And so to rain…

Working away on monday and Iva says ‘bloody hell, look at that!’ and I stop and there’s water pissing in the ceiling! Great, just what I need. So we go and investigate and there’s a ton of water in the loft where the landlord has put tarpaulines and buckets to catch it where it’s coming in! Talk about a lash up. Wednesday was even worse, with water pouring off the light fitting! So it was ‘abandon studio’ and back to work at Chris’s station (he was on holiday you see) So now we have to put buckets and stuff out to catch the drips when it rains hard… in a certain direction! So I guess I’ll just have to keep nagging to get it sorted… wish me luck!

Useful saying of the week: Monkey Butter!

This week was mouse boy Chris’s birthday – he mumbled something about going to London and going up the eye? We presume he meant the London Eye! Happy Birthday Chris!

What is it with computers? They have to be the most frustrating cause of stress on the planet (well, after your missus obviously!) Seems like not a day goes by without some dilemma – this week it’s the printer and scanner. Apparently it doesn’t exist! Despite having been connected and functioning fine it suddenly goes on holiday – so another few hours of dicking around trying to sort that out really makes the day go well!

Ben’s DIY corner

We had to laugh – Ben trying to file his back spring slot… goes something like: rasp, rasp, ouch, rasp rasp, ouch ouch, rasp, rasp oh shit ouch! Oh the fun we have…

… and don’t get me started on snot! Snot just keeps pouring out – why?

Yo Duders

Iva la alien here… just a short blog to thank all for coming and supporting my band MACHINEGUN HIPPIES. Last Monday we won the stables 9 round of battle of the bands @ The Forum Tunbridge Wells. So this means we will be playing the next round (not sure when) and will need your support again…If you have never experienced the bands unique sound, check out the myspace site..

See you soon dreamboats xxx

Seven Sins Iva Rocking

Seven Sins Tattoo Rocker

Machine Gun Hippies Lead Vocalist