A few weeks ago we headed out to Keystone Resort in the heart of the rocky mountains to host a day of free seminars, followed by a day of snowboarding with Durb and Chuck from Prick Magazine. Ten artists each brought clients and Stefano from Last Rites delivered a great seminar where we would jump into the tattoo. Every artist walked away with a few more tricks up their sleeve. The “Great Marketing in 1 hour” seminar seemed to go very well, even got some applause. Im actually pretty excited to be doing a full 2.5 hour business and marketing for tattooers seminar at Hell City in May. Space is limited, if your a studio owner, artist, manager, or front room person you should sign up soon!

Now that the snowboard party is behind us, it has been time to focus on the Paradise Artist Retreat next month! February 20-23 is coming right up, and we are all getting very excited to land at the unbelievable Tamaya Resort in New Mexico. Artists are flying in from Australia and New Zealand and all over the US and all will be treated to the amazing environment. If your a tattooer or artist looking to expand your visual language or need a break from reality and an injection of inspiration, sign up soon!

It's also time to gear up for the Worldwide Tattoo Conference in the Chicago area April 10^th and 11^th 2012. Tickets to this conference are moving quick, looks like this one might be a sellout! Thats not surprising given the line up of teachers. Guy Aitchison, Nick Baxter, Boris, Bob Tyrrell, Jeff Gogue, and Alex De Pase will all be teaching and taking part in the eventing discussion panels. I was honored to teach a class at the first Worldwide Tattoo Conference in Rome last October, and the experience was awesome. Even though I produce the retreat and the gathering, the unique format of the conference really sets this event apart and impressed me quite a bit. Im very happy to have the opportunity to help bring this show to the US. Tattooers of all skill levels will get a lot of insight from this learning experience !

While these events are exciting, they don't overshadow the opening of an Off the Map Tattoo with Jeff Gogue in Grants Pass OR on March 10^th! The paperwork is just about signed, applications have come in for the manager we will be hiring, as well as potential full time tattooers. We are in the process of setting up interviews and such, and the initial lineup of guest tattooers is shaping up. So, if you are in the Pacific-Northwest in early march, we hope to see you out and about on the 10^th!

Last but not least I wanted to mention that we are planning a worldwide benefit in July. The last benefit we ran at Off the Map went exceptionally well, and of course other tattoo shops are hosting similar benefits all the time. We are hoping to partner with up to 100 tattoo shops across the world to hold a benefit for hunger on the same day. If we can get 100 shops to participate, the goal of raising $150,000 is entirely possible. The dates are set in July, and soon we will be recruiting other reputable tattoo studios to join us. With this kind of energy, we hope the national media will pick up on the event, ignore the drama of the TV for a news cycle, and we can show the world how much positive impact tattooers can have when they put their mind to it.

Well, thats what I have going on, someday I'll have a little less on my plate and get to chat politics, both real and tattoo... until then, back to the hustle!