It’s that time of year again – the time when you count down the days, the hours, the minutes, when you can put the machines down and bugger off on holiday for a while.

This year the Sinner family headed off to the beautiful island of Crete. We’ve been to a fair few of the Greek islands, but never tried Crete and everyone told us how lovely it is.

So we’re up at 3.30am to get in a cab to the airport at 4.30am! Blimey, talk about early…! waste of time going to bed really… anyway, the little sinners take it all in their stride and are stuffing cake and biscuits in their faces at 5.30am at the cafe in the airport, while we’re downing extra strong cappucino’s just to stay vaguely awake!

The flight was on time and easy, then as usual when you get off the plane onto the tarmac in Greece, the heat just hits you, making you instantly relax and realise the holiday has actually begun – brilliant!

After a (longer than in the brochure) coach transfer to the hotel we rock up to the reception only to be told that our room wasn’t ready – ‘here we go’ I think, typical of our luck…

… but then… the (very nice) man at reception said ‘we apologise for the delay in getting your room ready, so we’re sending you off to the restaurant (one of four!) for a free lunch’ RESULT!

Then a nice man arrived in a Fiat Read the rest of this entry »

As a tattoo artist I get really pissed off with people who come in when we open (at 11am), give me that ‘You’re lucky, I start work at 4 in the morning’ look, and say ‘must be nice to start work this late! Half day is it?…’ Wankers! What they and all you others who think we just live a rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle (thanks LA Ink!), don’t realise is all the work we do before we open and after we shut.

A normal day starts with taking the kids to school for 8.15 (early enough and rock ‘n’ roll enough for you?), coming home and getting breakfast. Then aim  to get to the shop by 9am-(ish). On goes the computer to answer all the emails, along with a double shot cappuccino. This is always hard work – ‘how much is a tattoo?’ being the benchmark! This can take up to an hour, sorting designs, quotes, appointments etc etc, binning the Viagra ads (got plenty at the moment ta).  Then it’s checking the diary for the day ahead, making sure the designs are ready for each customer, calling customers who’s designs I’ve got drawn up,  and checking that we have a few moments sometime during the day to eat lunch (quite rare most days). Then it’s inspecting the work stations for supplies, cleanliness etc, and another double shot cappuccino.

Once the doors are open at 11am, it’s heads down, non-stop tattooing all day, interspersed with giving quotes for tattoos, taking designs, answering the phone, answering customers questions ‘how much is a tattoo?’ - told you it’s the benchmark, ‘where’s the toilet?’ (a close second) and so on. At 6pm we stop (apart from Ben, who’s usually running late). Then it’s cleaning… everywhere. Vacuuming, mopping, bin emptying, etc etc, then cashing up, which usually involves chasing the guys who’ve inevitably forgotten something they’ve done, ‘cos it doesn’t add up.

If I’m lucky I can be home for 7pm, in time to have dinner with Mrs Sinner and the kids, maybe give them a bath (not Mrs Sinner, she can usually manage herself) read them a story or two and put them to bed (see it’s SO rock ‘n’ roll!).

Then it’s back to the computer, checking the days emails, editing and uploading photos for the website and writing this blog. Hopefully this won’t take long – then it’s out with the pencils and onto drawing up tattoo designs for customers – and believe me we have loads and loads of them to do. So if you’ve left us a design to draw up, my apologies… we’ll get it done as soon as we can! Normally I can’t draw past about midnight – my eyes start to hurt bad and I begin to dribble and nod off onto my art pad! Hopefully by then I’ve got a couple of drawings done for future tattoos.

At last it’s off to bed… then the alarm goes off… and it’s back to groundhog day again…

So, there you have it. Not rock ‘n’ roll. Not 9 till 5. Not fucking easy OK!

But after all is said and done, it’s brilliant and I wouldn’t swap it for anything.

Keep inking all you lovely Sinners!

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