Pick up the new Inked Magazine this week and you will find several things of note. My friend Broklynn has a big spread in there which is pretty damn hot, I have some party photos in there as I do pretty much every issue, but more importantly I have the first ad I have ever shot. (Actually I shot an add for a local newspaper 10  years ago, but I don’t think that counts.) I shot an add for Friday Jones tattoo studio. I am not super stoked with the way it was photoshopped, but it looks pretty nice I guess. Anyway, here’s the Ad.  I only took the photo at the top.

My friend and tattoo artist Friday Jones asked me to come shoot an event she was throwing at the salon that she has her tattoo studio called Senses NY.  They are a swanky 5th avenue salon that does all sorts of things including tattoos.  They are working on a reality pilot and as part of the show they wanted to throw a big benefit for breast cancer awareness month.  They got a bunch of sexy kids and painted them and charged $10 if you wanted to write your name on them, they sold pink hair extensions, they had a remembrance wall and they had a big raffle. There was also a suggested donation at the door.  It looked liked they raised a lot of money.

I wanted to win one of the prizes which was to have Fran Drescher do your voicemail message.  I don’t know if you know this about me, but I am a HUGE Nanny fan.  I mean, I have had a crush on Fran for well over a decade. The event was benefiting her charity Cancer Schmancer although unfortunately she wasn’t there. She has a boyfriend anyway, so I couldn’t hit on her, even though she does follow me on Twitter.

The party was a lot of fun, and I ate a bunch of Salmon and people drank a lot of free Hypnotic, there was pink stuff everywhere and most importantly they raised a lot of money for women’s health. Fucking awesome.

Click here to see all the pictures from the Senses NY event.

Indian Larry Motorcycles threw a block party down the street from my house in Williamsburg and Inked Magazine asked me to photograph the party.  While I got a few more people asking me not to take their picture than normal, most people were very friendly despite their often terrifying motorcycle riding demeanors. I have noticed in fact that generally the scarier people look the more likely they are to want their pictures taken.  That being said, I did have a few people tell me to stay away from the Hell’s Angels in attendance.  The party was a lot of fun with a grill going, bands playing and a lot of motorcycles.  I got to go inside the shop and check out a few of the Indian Larry bikes on display. They were pretty incredible.

Click here to see the photos from the Indian Larry block party.

My friend Marisa Kakoulas wrote released a 500 page tomb about blackwork tattoo art called Black Tattoo Art: Modern Expressions of the Tribal at Tattoo Culture in Williamsburg on Thursday night. I shot the event for Inked Magazine. I spent most of the evening talking about my knee, which is pretty much the only thing I am capable of talking about these days. It is pretty depressing. It is feeling a bit better and I got a really fun MRI today. Anyway, about the night… Marisa’s book is intense. It weights like 12 lbs. People were dropping them just to hear the noise they made. The affair was well attended and the first thing I have been to in a while where you could actually talk to people without having to yell over people. I also think I found someone to do more cheap Driven By Boredom tattoos, so if anyone wants a free one, let me know… I lost my old list of people who wanted them.

Anyway, check out Marisa’s site Needles & Sins and then check out the photos from her party.

Some of my favorite events to shoot are the parties I cover for Inked Magazine.  The NY Adorned annual block party was no exception.  I am not one to exist in the day light, and of course I had not slept at all, but I managed to make it to the block party a mere 4 hours after it started.  I had visited the Brooklyn location of Adorned once before when Mikey from Just Friends worked there, but this time the streets in front of the store were filled with tattooed people of sorts and their dogs and babies.  Pretty much everyone there had a lot of tattoos and either a dog of a small child.  I felt a little insecure without a smaller mammal that counts on me for food and shelter and my all my tattoos being covered didn’t help matters.  Fortunately, whenever I feel inadequate I just pull out my long hard black zoom lens and get to work.  I always think my day light work is going to be terrible, but these photos didn’t come out that bad.  You can check all the photos by clicking here, and you should, because I am only going to photos of cute adorable puppies below and you don’t want to miss the shots of sexy tattooed ladies and the musical stylings of the Dixons.

The other day I shot the opening of Friday Jones tattoo shop for Inked Magazine.  These are the out takes.  Friday is the woman who gave Angelina Jolie her Billy Bob Thornton tattoo and now she has set up shop inside of the Senses NY salon on 5th Ave.  The idea is “tattoo couture” where you get a massage and cocktails while you get your tattoo done.  Personally, if I had it my way tattoos would only be given by giant scary men in creepy underground tattoo lairs, but if you are going to get a butterfly tattoo on your shoulder you might as well get a manicure while you are doing it.

The event featured a tattoo fashion show, free Hypnotiq drinks and a pretty decent gift bag as well as appearances by tattoo legend Lyle Tuttle and Danity Kane member Aubrey O’Day. Aubrey got her finger tattooed to start the party.  She also has a pretty cute dog who was kicking it at the party too.

You can check out all the shots by clicking here. 

PS. I was at Coney Island for the Siren Festival all day today and I took 2100 photos, so get ready for a weeks worth of band shots… Also the shots from the art party at McKibbin yesterday should be up tomorrow.  It was a pretty fucking nuts event, even if the photos I took sucked.

Show some swag on your skin and get your tattoo ideas inked.

Inked Magazine had a booth at the New York Tattoo Convention at the Roseland Ballroom last weekend and asked me to come out and take photos.  I’ve been to several tattoo conventions, but this was the first time shooting one.  It is slightly and odd experience when you have guys who look like they are in a white power motorcycle gang pretty much beg you to take their photo.  Pretty much the scarier the people look the nicer they were about having their picture taken.  I was on zero sleep and I spent a lot of time hanging out at the Inked table, but I got some fun shots anyway.  A lot of the best stuff will be in Inked magazine.  But you can check out all the out takes by clicking here.

Big fan of tattoos? Here’s a source for finding local tattoo events and conventions online.

A while back I went to hang out with the kids at the Glamour Garage salon/tattoo parlor.  They did some DBB Tattoos for me so I came over and shot some photos of some of their super hot staff.  I was really happy with some of the natural light shots at the end of the gallery.  All and all it was just fun hanging out.  It is a cool place, I hope to shoot some more there at some point.  All these photos are totally safe for work by the way… Girls do occasionally keep their clothes on when I am around even if it doesn’t happen often.

Inked Magazine editor Jason Buhrmester just published his first book, Black Dogs.  In 1973 someone stole $203,000 from the hotel Led Zeppelin was staying at during a 3 show stand in NYC.  The crime was never solved.  Buhrmester wrote a fictional account of how the money was stolen.  The party was at Angles and Kings and I covered it for Inked.  Unfortunately because of this, they stole all they good photos for print including shots of some of the New York hardcore scene celebs in attendance.  Still, there is some fun stuff here including Jason getting punched, people getting wasted on free Jack and PBR and a couple ladies getting naked with the book.  NSFW.

Click here to see all the out takes.