New Year's eve

The old year is almost over. Done. Finished... Next!

There is many good things to remember from 2011 and I wish that I had been better to blog about all these things that happened so that I could go back and look at it all in a few years. This would be a good time to make a new years resolution about being better at posting here at the blog but I think we have heard that song before. So I'm not gonna go there.

Instead of promising things that I might not be able to keep I'm gonna tell you about some projects that I plan on doing next year. That's kind of a new years resolution, right? If I write it down here it feels like I have to follow up on it.

2012 will be the year where I will have my very first solo show. March 24th will be the opening date for my Black Metal portrait show at Lionheart Gallery in Germany. I will get into this more in another post where I will have more time to get into details and such.

2012 will also be the year where we finally start using our newly build darkroom. It has taken us a long time to finish this but I have a feeling that it will be all worth it. The projects are already lining up to get started and it surely will be great to be able to develop our own rolls of film instead of depending on expensive, slow labs. I love the thought of being involved in all the steps of making the picture instead of depending on strangers to finish what you started. On top of this I have found the most amazing printer that will allow me to print my digital pictures on amazing papers. Again something that I have had to get done at expensive labs, not always to my satisfaction. Now I just need to buy this wonder machine.
Another project that we have been looking forward to get into is making our own t-shirts and such. 2012 will hopefully bring a whole bunch of limited edition t-shirts, patches and what else we can print on. But it's not only the limited kind of shirts that I am planing on doing. As soon as time allows me, I am gonna go talk to a guy about the last details before printing the first batch. Yep!

In the past there has been many ideas for different book projects. All has faded and turned into other ideas that would never see the light of day. 2012 will hopefully be the year that I actually do get to follow through on one of these ideas and turn it into an actual book. I plan on revealing the theme and some of my ideas for this project pretty soon as I need your help to pull this off. Soon...promise.

One of my latest obsessions has been Norwegian Black Metal. This has not only taken over my music collection but also taken a big part of my artistic vision and choice of subject matter. Many has jumped on this genre as a result of trend and many might think the same about me but those close to me know that Black metal really has taken a big piece of me and that this is much more than a trendy fling. This will be something that I will take with me into the new year and that you will see much more of in the future just as I still have a sweet spot for the occult and satanic imagery. ... Yes there will also still be room for cute animals and other things of non evilness... Don't worry.

For a long time I have been wanting to get into doing something more... daring. I don't like the term erotic... in my head it sound like some cheesy 90's softporn. That alone has been reason enough for me to hold back on the more graphic ideas I have had. That and the fear of what people might think and if I would shock the people close to me. Well, my awesome wife is dealing with the fear of what people MIGHT think and how that can restrain your self and she is doing a great job so I should do something about it as well. I have been in love with "erotic" photography for a long time but have way to many times felt "embarrassed" about it because people COULD see it as just porn. And so what if they did? Their problem. But it still bugs me that people automaticly degrades pictures of naked people to jerkoff material and that's not what I have in mind for what I want to do. Funny as how something like sex and nudity is still so hush hush in some cases even for someone like me. So be warned... there will be a lot of adult content in the future and hopefully I will be able to loosen up and let go of all the restraints at some point.

Something completely different that I am really really looking forward to in the new year is to go back to Japan. I still can't believe that it has been so long since we have been there. We already have two trips planed for this spring and the first will be in Febuary. Can't wait to see our friends again and to come home to the place that we love so much.
We love to travel so I hope that the new year will bring many exciting travels and adventures. I hope to be able to make it back to the states to visit some of our friends there, but also new countries would be nice. We will see.

Japan will hopefully also be the theme for many new photo sets. I have already planed to revisit a few of the ones from last time like bikes, legs and people in the streets in general. Hopefully I will be a bit less shy this time.
I'm planning on improving my photo skills a lot next year by taking a lot of pictures. Practice, practice, practice!!! I can only hope that new exciting projects will present them self along the way.

I had many other things that I wanted to write about and include in my new-years-to-do-list but as you might have noticed after reading this far, my writing skills have not been my strongest skill today. Me words today not good very much please. It might be better to stop before I loose all my followers or kill you with boredom.

But before I let you go I would like to say thank you for 2011 to all my customers, blog followers, instagram followers, Twitter followers and people in the real world who show interest in what i do, to all my friends and family and to my amazing wife who always supports me in what ever stupid plan I get. I love you.

See you all in 2012
Happy New Year

Behind the crooked cross

Ohh where to start and what to talk about.

One of the things that has been on my mind a lot lately is religion. This could turn into a looooong rant about the subject but I will try to quickly turn it towards my tattooing and keep it (as much as possible) at that.

I have had a lot of people who asks if they can get their tattoo without any upside down crosses or any other satanic symbols. Well of course you can! I'm not out to turn the world into satan worshippers one customer at the time. I tattoo what people want me to tattoo but of cause I have been steering towards some symbols now and then, that being either christian, freemasonic or Satanic. This doesn't mean that I will force anyone to get satanic tattoos unless they want it.

Right here I would like to note something. Back when everyone was doing freemasonic symbols I would hear people complain about how I used the freemason symbols without being a freemason (I will get back to this later) or without knowing the true meaning. Well... first of all I do what people ask me to tattoo. I use the symbols for their mystic value and I also know that half of the people who ask for stuff like that doesn't have a clue about it either. Should we educate the customers about this before tattooing it permanently on their body or should we simple refuse to tattoo these symbols until they are aware of the true meaning or even in this case a real freemason? I personally don't think so and I don't really care what you are or what you stand for or what clubhouse you belong to. In that case shouldn't we make sure that people really did believe in god before we do crosses, virgin marys or jesus on people? What makes that so different? My main goal is to make a permanent mark on my customers that looks great and will look great no matter what you believe in. I don't believe in any god and I don't worship satan (some believe in Satan as the devil, opposite of god. Some think of Satan as a more natural power manifested as Satan or Lucifer). I do find it interesting as an opposite to the standardized religion and church... uhhh, gotta be careful here... trying to get back to the tattoo part again...

I do like to use the satanic symbols for several reasons and I feel that in most cases my customers feel the same way about it. Some want them for the same reason as everybody wanted freemason stuff not too long ago, because it is mysterious and in this case kinda occult. Of course there is always the ones that just wants it because everybody else have it.

Another reason, I think, is that people use these Satanic symbols as their way of saying fuck religion. Maybe not in a that harsh way but still. This is one of my main reason for using them. This is my way of representing the opposite of believing in god. I don't believe in anything but atheism doesn't have any really cool symbols. Call it a youth rebellion that showed up way too late but this is my opinion and I will be happy to hear others opinion too.

One of the things I wanted to say with all this was also that I feel that the use of these symbols are getting worn out by the mass use of it. I realize that I have been guilty in this my self and I am a part of the ones doing it but I'm starting to see what the Masons fuss was all about. I realize that when you stand for something or is a part of something you get annoyed when others use what is important to you... when people water out what you feel strongly for so it feels less valuable. This is how I feel about the Satanic symbols thrown in everywhere these days. "but Allan, I thought you said you didn't believe in Satan or any god?" That's true but my opinion about religion is the reason I started to use theses symbols in the first way. It might have started almost as a joke but underneath the meaning was there and still is. So even now when we make jokes about how metal and Satanic this next tattoo will be and it might look more cute and funny than really evil, there is still my opinion about reliogion in there. I just wonder if everybody else who throws upside down crosses in their tattoos, like nobodies business, feels the same way or if they just do it as the new freemason symbols? I guess it's just because I have seen a lot of tattoos lately that has gotten me thinking about this... just random designs where the upside down cross doesn't really have any meaning or reason to be in there.

I don't care if you believe in one thing or the other and it's not like I don't tattoo christian, Hindu or any other religious symbols anymore. Anyone who have seen our shop knows how much we love Christian symbols and icons. I usually call our shop the most christian looking atheist shop because of all the crosses and rosaries and shit we have everywhere although we don't believe in anything. I have a lot of friends who believe in god and I don't have a problem with that. I know that it's something they feel for and need in their life. It's just not for me.

I don't really know where this rant ended or where it was going but here we are. Almost at the end.

What I started saying was that you DON'T have to get an upside down cross in your tattoo. I guess that after this rant a lot will feel more like they CAN'T get an upside down cross in their tattoo. I still see the humor in using it randomly, so bring it. If your idea works it's fine by me. I still see the humor in small cute Satanic animals and stuff like that. In fact the irony makes it show that it isn't really Satanic either. As I said before, my main goal is to make a good looking tattoo and most of my customers know that I feel that it's more important that the tattoo looks good than what it means. It's a tattoo... it's there to decorate.

I think I better stop now. This went on longer than it was supposed to and I have no idea if this made any sense since I just went with it and I will post it without going back to read it... so bear with me if it's a complete mess. But do feel free to share thoughts on the subjects.

Now it's time for the pictures!

First up is a tribute to Yoann's grandpa who was a hussars de la mort... I don't think he was a fox though. But foxes are pretty cool.

Henriette got her some swallows. One just because but the other one is with her boys name in a banner.

Natalie came back for two more sessions on her sleeve. This time we had two succesfull days with two finished pieces and no tears! First day we finished the lady with her birdcage in her hair. Some might think that's a strange place to put a cage but to that I say mind your own damn business! She can put it where ever she wants!

Second day we did this siamese magpie. We all know how they love their bling bling so we had to put a diamond in there... you know ... to symbolize ...um.... eternal struggle...umm ...as..or...with...It's pretty ok?!

It's also a coverup.

I have posted this before but here it is healed. It's on the other side of her arm.

Up last we have my Norwegian homey Martin who came to finish the sleeve that started it all.

I would like to note that NO actual churches were harmed doing any of his tattoos!!

We also did a second day on hime where we did a secret project. I didn't get a good shot of it but maybe if you're lucky you can find it soon on the Conspiracy Inc blog.

Martin will also be my guide on my photo trip to Norway to get some some pictures for my Black Metal art show.

I almost forgot to tell you all about the news stuff:

I have gotten a GO for my Black Metal show. The main pieces will be the watercolor portraits that I have been working on, based on Peter Beste's book True Norwegian Black Metal but also my own photos from Norway and some more tattoo related paintings based on Black Metal. I'm looking forward to have the time to get into this subject some other day.

Have a nice sunday

Big and small

Hello again! I'm back blogging from the computer. Not for long though since I have a Halloween post coming up with iPhone pictures of all the tattoos I did on our two day Halloween craziness.

I feel like I should have a lot to say here since it has been a while but I'm not even sure if anyone is listening anymore so until I figure that out you will just have to settle fir pictures... which I expect is what most of you readers come for anyway, Right? Do feel free to drop me a line in the comments if you miss anything here or if there is something you feel that would be interesting to see or hear about.

To make it short then here is some stuff that didn't made it in my last update so they aren't really that new to me.

I do have a few cool news before I let you go look at the pictures. We have just bought our tickets to go back to our favorite place in the world, JAPAN!!! Ohhh home sweet home. Can't wait to set foot on Japanese ground again. To see the people that we haven't seen in way too long. So we will be in Japan from the 8th to the 22nd of febuary. We don't know about work yet since we both wanna see people we haven't seen in a long time, go travel a bit and hopefully get tattooed a bit more by Shige if he can fit us in. We both feel so bad for not getting worked on for a whole year so we are excited to get on with our tattoos. But a few tattoo dates will be available so if you are interested already please send me an email soon. We are also planing on going back again in April for a month so please have that in mind as well although no dates are set just yet. Plans are beginning of April till beginning of May. More about that later on when tickets are booked. So for now lets focus on Febuary.

I guess it is time to look at pictures... Go...go look...

A small souvenir from the land of the vikings.

Rose sleeve all done and healed

Lucy finished her peacock.

Emil got the last bit of touchup on his satanic girl

What to do with a narrow spot...dagger!

See you soon...

All hail the pumpkin king

Here is another blogpost directly from my phone to you, yes you, right there in front of the computer. Wow right? Technology.
Anyway. If you follow me on instagram or twitter you already know this but we are having a Halloween day at the shop this Saturday. I have been working on a flash sheet that I will be tattooing from. No appointments or reservations and these bad boys and girls will not only be done once so if you have your eye on something the. Don't worry you will have plenty of chances to get it done. Thing is, on this special day it will be half price if you are dressed up. I'm not talking putting on a hat. We want to see some really well thought out costumes. So get dressed up and drop by the shop for some Halloween fun and cool tattoos by me and mr Chriss Dettmer who will bring his own sheet of scary goodness.
The fun starts at 1.
Hope to see you there.

Leftovers

Yesterday was our second attempt to get the danish customers in gear and give them a chance to skip waiting lists and all that stuff...be spontaneous and just jump right in and get at tattoo. Well... Let's start with the concept.

As some of you know (you who follow me on twitter, here and instagram) we had a few leftovers from the London flash and since I really wanted to do some more tattoos from these pages I decided to make two days where you could skip the waiting list and get a tattoo right now. First day was previous friday. I ended up doing two tattoos witch was really good but there would have been time for a few more. Still a big thanks to Jonas and Kasper for getting a piece done. Second day was yesterday. Much better! 3 guys came from Sweden to get a piece of the action and our regular customer Ole also wanted a little something. Just like in London, everything just worked out smoothly and I had a really fun day. Thanks guys! It was awesome to work like this and actually get to do 4 cool tattoos on 1 day.

If I still sound a bit disappointed it's only because I had hoped for more people to be spontaneous and just drop by. I do feel it was a success and I had great fun both days. It just seems funny how people always complain about how impossible they think it is to get tattooed by me when really, it's not. Join the waiting list. Look on our twitter for last minute cancelations, and drop by when we have a walking day like these two days. I hope it is just a matter of getting used to this before we can make it work because I have plans about doing this at least once a month. I'm gonna build up a collection of flash that will be available on these days and where you can just drop by to get tattooed on the day. It won't be one of a kind flash like this was but I'm hoping that the collection will grow so that there will be smaller chance for repetitions. The few designs that hasn't been done from the London flash will be going into the flash archive but those designs that I have tattooed by now will not be made again. DONE!

So keep an eye out for flash walking day news later. It everything works out the firs one will be sometime in December. So remember: Walk-in...no appointments needed. No custom work, ONLY from my own flash. More info soon.

So here is what came out of the leftover days, minus one that was bleeding a bit too much to get a good picture of it.

SALE!!

We have started our staycation that will last all of october. That however doesn't mean that I won't be working at all. Still have bills to pay and we do have a few fun projects in mind...maybe around Halloween!?!?

But first things first. As I have a few designs left-overs from the London flash that I really really want to do I have decided to have a flash sale out. This means that you will have a chance to skip the 2 years waiting list and get tattooed right now... if you would like to have any of the flash designs done that is. I'm gonna have this Friday the 7th and then Saturday the 15th of october to choose from. So if you are interested in getting one of the designs done let me know asap. Who ever comes first gets an appointment. I'm gonna try to squeeze as many in as possible since there is different sizes to choose from. I might update once in a while about what flash is left to choose from. All designs will be done only once except the King Diamond Flash. I might make prints of that so I can't promise that there won't be reproductions of that one. I will still tattoo from it if anyone wishes. So Email me if you are interested in getting something done this Friday or Saturday the 15th. You can also try your chance and drop by. If there is time left I will be doing walk-ins from the sheets as well. Anything to do more from these pages.

Email Amalie for appointments at conspiracyinctattoo@gmail.com

So here is what is left so far.

London is the reason

Here is the fruits of one of the most stressful weeks ever. As you may know if you read this blog or follow me on Instagram or twitter I had decided to make a special flash set to tattoo from at this years London Tattoo convention. As always this had to be done in the last minute which resulted in a week of no sleep and no time to hang out with my wife or anyone else for that matter. But my plan worked. The deal was that there would be no pre bookings. Who ever came first when I get there or finished a tattoo would get the next one. This part could use a bit of adjustment. It worked perfect for me as I was just tattooing non stop friday and saturday and got a small break sunday when we decided to stop the walking part after the first one as it was kinda big and they closed at 7. I do feel that there were a lot of people who might have felt that they wasted time just hanging out at my booth waiting to get a spot, all for nothing. I do wanna thank you all for the patience and the interest and I hope that you will come back and try again next year. If you were one of those who waited for nothing I would like to hear what we can do better next year. I am gonna do the same thing: make a set of flash to choose from and do the walk-in thing again. I just want to hear if there is anything we can do better so we don't waste peoples time. Write a comment if you have an idea.

A big thank you to you guys who did made it and got tattooed. Thank you for the patience and for sitting in painful positions while getting tattooed for hours!

Thank you to all the people who have shown interest in the flash set and asking for prints. There might be prints of the 2 sheets that I didn't tattoo from including the King Diamond sheet. I am looking into getting those printed but not sure yet so be patient and don't email me about them just yet. It will be up here if I go through with them.

Today is the first day of our whole month of stay-cation. I do plan on working now and then but mostly work on the tons of other things that I have started but never finished. BUT... I have this idea. I wanna do some more of the pieces from the London flash that never got done. I will find a few days in the end of october where it will be possible to get some of the designs done and skipping the loooong waiting list that I have. So if you a interested in getting a piece done from one of these sheets then stay tuned. I will announce the dates in a few days.

But here is what this post is all about...the designs that DID get tattooed at the London Convention 2011. It seams like it is impossible for me to take good pictures at the convention and that actually resulted in one tattoo missing here. Sorry Matt.

Enjoy:

London news.

Here is a quick post made from my iPhone so I'm sorry if it doesn't look like it is supposed to. This is the first time I try this blogger app but I have had noooo time to blog for a while. Every day working and going home afterward to paint for my London flash. Still not done yet but this is the last chance I have to post a preview of what you can get done at this weekends London tattoo convention. There is no appointments so just drop by and see if there is an opening and something you like. Every design will only be done once so it will remain exclusive.
Now if you will excuse me I have a tattoo to do before packing and finishing my flash.

here we go

So as promised... Im back with more pictures of things that I have drawn on people! Wow... right? I actually did it.

Ok so here is some of the left overs that didn't made it to the last post. I still have a few pieces left but I still don't want to spoil you with them all at once. Patience my friends!

But since I have been cheating and actually made this post right after that last one, I don't really have anything new to tell. Nothing really happened the last 10 minutes so here is the pictures as promised.

A little different kind of tribute to the two daughters but hey, if the girls wants skulls then that's what daddy should get.

Thomas dropped by from the states (well he was in europe anyway) to get this evil witch. Looking forward to get a healed picture of that one. Another super trooper in the books.

Them British girls really like their tea so here is a good start of a new sleeve.

Another British gal with her fancy lady who have a ship in her hair for some reason. Who are we to judge. I say if the lady want a ship in her hair then let her have it!

That's it for this time. Be back soon!

Hello hello

By request from certain people I am back at the blogging. I am taking a break from making the cover for my friends in The Kandidate. The front is done and I will be working on the rest later today and this weekend we will have a photoshoot for the album as well. Fun times. It is also time for me to get working on the flash designs that I will offer for walk in customers at this years London Tattoo convention. There will be no appointments so if you wanna get tattooed by me at the show just drop by and see if there is anything you like. As always there will be no necks, ribs and other back breaking spots. I all reveal this much about the designs... it will be Metal, it will be dark it, it will be satanic, it will be awesome! So drop by and see what I have come up with and grab a few of my new black metal stickers. 

I am also almost done with all the tshirts designs that I have been working on so soon I will just need to figure out where to print them but I got an idea so stay tuned for that too. 

Also in the works: It looks like we are on to a way to make fancy ass prints. This will make it possible for me to do more limited runs of prints which means more prints for sale since I don't have to do a big run each time. More about that soon as well.

Alright, I think that was enough exciting news for now. I need to save some for later posts so you guys don't have to wait months between blog posts. I have even saved a few pieces for the next post. Speaking of... here is some tattoos:

Our friend Adam Hays was here working for a week and he got him self a little tribute to his granny who used to shoot the coyotes from the porch back home in Texas. Yeb!

Alex came back for a bit of touchup on his epic battle between the mongoose and the cobra. Since he had to come all the way from the Uk to get that done we figured that we might as well add a small new piece to make it worth the trip. A tribute to his mom...i think it was...right?

...and the epic battle.

This one here was an instagram classic so here it finally is for the blog readers.

Last one for today is my Norwegian regular, Martin. I couldn't get a good picture of it when we did it so I was happy to get a picture of it healed this time. Finished a few new pieces on him but they will have to wait till next time he's back. 

I promise I will be back soon.

Don't you forget about me

Here is a quick little post to show that I'm still here. We have been on stay cation for some time now where I have been working on business cards, stickers and most importantly tshirt designs. More about this really soon...like for real soon. But now I have to make sure that my wife doesn't die of boredom so I have to take her to Sweden and maybe our vacation house.

So here is a little "be right back" sign from me. A couple of tattoos that never made it up here. Got a few more when I have time to unload my camera.

See you soon.

Just like Pearl Jam I'm still alive

I know I know... but let's just skip the excuses.

Sooo...I'm back.

Still not a lot of good shot of finished pieces. Been working on a lot of bigger ones or finishing stuff where it's hard to get a good shoot because some is new and some is healed....Buuuut I do have a bit to share and just to make sure that I have something to blog soon, I'm only giving you these 4.

Don't know what to tell about them so how about you just sit back and look at them and make up your own stories this time?

Many things have happened since last time! MANY. Some you can check out on the Conspiracy Inc. blog (Like my surprise Black Metal Birthday party) or on my photo blog (like our trip to Hong Kong and the Roskilde Festival).

I have been working on some sweet tshirt designs that I hope I can share with you soon. Just need a bit of cleanup in photoshop and then they should be good to go to the printer....who ever that end up beeing. But I hope to share them sooner than that. Other sweet metal related things have been going on at my drawing table. Like so evil satanic logos for both me and the shop! EVIL I tell you!! Soon!!!

I promise I will be back in a few days. My vecation is coming up so there should be time to blog a bit and catch up on things.

See you all soon!