Here’s a peek at Emily who came in recently to begin her side piece.

Emily spends her time aspiring to become a photographer like her two friends Thomas and Tiffany who also joined in.

You can visit their site to see more photos of the session. More to come with Emily, stay tuned.

Photos courtesy of Thomas Yuan, thanks brother.

This Friday is the final release of a special collaboration I’ve been working on together with The Hundreds . Together with Canvas LA we will be showing a collection of work along with a special tribute to 5 of my greatest personal influences in tattooing. All are welcome, and stay posted for more on the evolution of this special project.

Today I found a new personal hero.

THE WATTS TOWERS, by Simon Rodia is not just one of the most important  landmarks of LA, but is a timeless and mind blowing piece of art.

With concrete, glass, beer bottles, tile, and every other household throw away material you can think of Rodia spent 33 years building these towers that rise up to 100ft tall in his back yard.

With wives, family and business relationships broken and destroyed, and while the world around him was crumbling, Rodia was in the process of building his legacy that has survived the generations. Watts once use to be an Italian neighborhood, then a Japanese neighborhood, then a black neighborhood, and now they say 90% of the population is latinos.

And through the decades, regardless of riots, shoot-outs, law-suits, and a failed attempt by the city to rip the towers from their foundation, the towers still remain. By hand, this short, old man built the towers piece, by piece with everything he got.

The entire structure is set in the design of a ship, making ties to Rodia’s italian roots. It was said that his failure to lead the ideal life led to his own redemption, and that the only way to get to heaven is by sailing to it with this.

Each tower was built by himself, molding each level, climbing to the next as he went along. Most people that live in LA no little about this piece, or never knew about it’s existence. Now you know! Everyone needs to take a visit down to these towers before your time is up on this earth to see a jaw-dropping  monument that I bet will stand the test of our time.

“I had in mind to do something big, and I did it” ~~Simon Rodia.

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I’m in Watts to visit The Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival. Every year, the community comes out, takes over, and celebrates American culture of jazz, rhythm and blues.

People from all over LA, mothers, fathers, young and old come through to a neighborhood that on an average day is not the place to walk your dog. But on this day….

all are welcome.

Stay posted for  the Watts Towers.

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Joseph drove through from San Diego to get his inner lower left sleeve started. He wanted to incorporate his love for SD, football, and women. Misa Campo quarterbacks the first of many sessions to come.

I needed some inspiration, but end up in this hole.

I mess up the neat organized shelves like an addict looking for a fix,  in search of this..

A classic. By far probably the most influential and powerful work of Frank Miller.

I start to read and I’m 6 years old again. Looking at it now, the concept is lame. An old retired Batman comes out of retirement to fight the villains-beats them, only to fight with Superman over the struggle of power. But regardless, Miller twists and tears through each illustration and each scene flawlessly, and turns a retarded  marketing idea into a timeless piece of art.

Illustrating a story I think is different then telling one, and few are able to hit the spot with them together.  This is definitely one of them-check it out.