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!

In case you hadn’t heard, Sinner HQ is on the move.

We’re taking the shop to new premises, slap bang in the middle of the high street. The new shop has had a fair bit of interior construction and now, after what seems like ages, we’re finally on to the fun bit of painting and finishing.

So on sunday we had a bit of a painting party with brushes, beer and pizza. All the Sinners were there, getting splattered with emulsion, painting each other and… eventually the walls and stuff they were supposed to be painting!

It was a fun afternoon and we made great Read the rest of this entry »

Ben in 'bible reading' shock!

There’s never a dull moment in Sinner World!

Last friday I took a phone call from a film producer who wanted to film in a tattoo shop using a heavily tattooed person. Cool eh! Anyway she asked if the crew could come down within the hour(!) – Game On!

So the crew turn up. Sound man, camera man, grip(? grip what exactly?), producer, runner etc. etc and I decide Vegas Ben would be the man for the job (especially as I had already been told this was for a religious film and I know Ben worships Satan!)

The crew set up the camera and lights then explain to a rather excited Ben that all he has to do is ‘look moody’ Read the rest of this entry »

Here in the Sinner household, in Sinnerville, me and little Sinner seem to have got the fishing bug lately and keep getting up really early to go fishing in the local lake. There’s something really good about simply  sitting by the water as the sun makes an appearance, waiting for the fish to take the bait.

Those of you who keep up to date with this happy little Sinner blog(!) will remember how upset the little Sinner was a while back when he nearly caught his first big fish, only to get snapped up and left slightly weepy and wondering what could have been…

Well I’m pleased and proud to report that he managed to land his first, very decent common carp the other day. Typically this was his first cast of the morning, before I’d even managed to assemble my own rod!… one itty bitty bit of sweet corn and ‘bingo’ he was into his first carp fight, and he did a sterling job, playing it well and getting it to the landing net all by himself. It was an exiting moment in our fishing world and one we’ll both remember for a long time – well done you little Sinner!

‘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