some old, some new

It's been a while since I posted any tats on this site, so I thought I'd  just add a bunch of pics from some of my older work.  If any of you out there are former clients and don't see your ink here, feel free to send me your pics.  I am always in such a rush to get people clean, bandaged and ready to go that I forget to take pictures!  Help me out and send your tat pics.  Thanks!

-Corrigan

In the miscomfort of your own home

Not everybody wants to go to a tattoo shop to get a tattoo.  I actually don't like the atmosphere of most of the shops I've been to.  Part of it is that many inkers have no sense of identity outside of their work, so a lot of tat shop flexing and posturing goes on.  They tell tat stories, talk pain and skill, and could care less about their clients lives, except to see what other ink their artwork will share real-estate with on each paying skin canvas that books an appointment.   There's also a tendency for tat shops to be decorated as if they were a meth lab or  the backdrop for a 1st person shooter video game.  The truth is that half the people who get inked these days are not sailors, bikers, gang bangers, or prisoners.  They are accountants, retail clerks, mommies, soccer coaches, and pastors.  Not the kinds of people that usually open fire on strangers or drop by to pick up the latest batch from Meth-Mart.

Two such incredibly boring people are Brendan & Janelle Hojara.  We met in Haiti a couple years ago and when I went to visit them recently in the U.S. of A., they asked if I could bring some gear with me and ink them up at home.  This turned into a veritable Tattoo fiesta, complete with tacos and really yummy guacamole.  Extended families and Tattoo eager friends crowded around to enjoy the sights of Brendan containing his agony while I put a crown around his arm in black and grey.  Brendan already had a small Hebrew text tat of the name "Ezra" on his arm to signify the birth of his first son.  He was looking for another piece to honor his second son, Kingston... so a crown made perfect sense.  As we designed the tattoo, Brendan's love of music inspired him to ask for the band of the crown to resemble a piano.  We were both pretty happy with the result.  I love it when people have creative and unique ideas.  Of course, being creative and unique is Brendan's job, since he is a media/marketing producer in Florida.  Not that boring after all.  If you need web & media work, consider looking him up at http://hojostudios.com/.

Janelle wanted a non-traditional looking lotus in black and grey with some Arabic text to celebrate her relationship with her sister.  She had preexisting artwork to work from and the text written and approved by her sister, who lives in Abu Dabi.  Or Ubuntu Gumbi.  Or somewhere like that.  I'm pretty sure that instead of "sister" I wrote something like, "meat slurpee" or "puppy slingshot", but Janelle was happy with it and convinced that I had written her sanskrit or klingon or whatever language text correctly.  Unfortunately time ran out for me to do any other tattoos that night, but there were many people gathered around that wanted to make appointments for the next time I could come.  Tattoos at home... I love it.

Jo-el

 Joel is a return customer.  I love that.  He could have got inked at home in Colorado, but he chose to come back to Ayiti Ink.  Joel's first visit was in March of 2010, not long after the earthquake in January had written its' dark chapter into Haiti's already tumultuous story.  Retrospectively I have to commend Joel's genius.  He and the group of guys he was here with were helping Heartline Ministries develop markets for their seamstress program.  I think they did some relief work too, but back then hardly anybody was thinking about development... they were too busy flooding Haiti with aid... giveaways that can sometimes have the net effect of debilitating the Haitian economy.  But Joel's group was already working on development and transitioning from handouts to job-creation for the long term impact it would have on Haiti.  The timing was really right on... urgent needs (other than housing) began to fade right around that time as long term economic sustainability became the most vital concern.  The primary needs were no longer food and medicine but homes and jobs.  People with jobs have homes, so if you meet that need... anyway, Joel was doing the right thing at the right time.  Go Joel!  Go Heartline! 

Back in March Joel asked for a cross with the Superman emblem in the center of it and Hebrew text from Isaiah that speaks of the coming of the Messiah.  As he explained it, basically the comic concept and general plot of Superman was written by some Jewish guys with more than a little influence from the messianic promises of the Hebrew scriptures.  The cross tattoo allowed Joel to celebrate a long standing appreciation for the comic hero and to proclaim his faith that the desire and hope that Superman symbolizes, and Isaiah predicts have been realized by a true historical messianic hero. 

Joel's friend (I think his name was Jonathan?) got another cross with a more direct "God is my strength" text written in the center.  We had a good chat late into the night as I inked the two of them, and Joel says I started to fall asleep in the middle of doing one of the tats.  I don't remember that, but I do remember being tired and having a lot of fun talking with these guys.  Jonathan was a big soft-spoken, kind-hearted Maori-looking guy, that looked like he probably wanted to hug more people than he's allowed to because he'd probably crush them to death.  I am starting to think that all of Joel's friends have names that start with "J", are super nice, and physically intimidating.  This time he brought another guy named Jason... or was it Justin... or Jarod?  Anyway, he looked like Mr. Incredible, and he was a very cool guy.  He got a calligraphic wrist piece that said, "AYITI" on one side and "ESPWA" on the other... Haiti and Hope.  Easily the two most frequent words people ask me to tattoo on them here. 

This time around Joel asked for a tattoo of C.S. Lewis's Lion-as-Christ character, Aslan, from the Chronic (what?) cles of Narnia. based on this vector image from istock photo.  He wanted me to remove the crown from the vector image, so I did.  He also asked for a little cross under the lion's chin.  I thought it was an interesting thing to balance out the other shoulder with another of the most compelling metaphorical Christ characters in popular culture.  Garrison Keillor once said, "If you can’t go to church and for at least a moment experience transcendence; if you can’t go to church and pass briefly from this life into the next— then I can’t see why anyone should go. Just a brief moment of transcendence causes you to come out of church a changed person." Ken Gire, comments in his book, Windows of the Soul, “I have experienced what Keillor described more in movie theatres than I have in churches. Why? I can’t say for sure—movies don’t always tell truth or enlighten, but they do let you lose yourself in someone else’s story.

The Bible is primarily narrative... not propositional like a textbook on God, but an accounting in various voices of the human story as it interacts with God's story.  Telling that story again through a metaphor, be it superman, a lion, or in the cloak of an old fairytale (anybody see Tangled?), makes it somehow transcendent again, and reminds me that some things ring more true, feel more tangible, and sound more familiar when they are told "slant" through analogies, images, and kids' stories.  Just like the abstraction of this lion makes my heart and mind reach more for Aslan than a photorealistic lion picture might.  Because this is not "on the nose" like a straight illustration, it gets my imagination going and I can't look at it without taking a little dive into the story.  That's part of what I love about doing tattoos: when I hear the stories that people find so compelling that they want them to be a part of their skin it reminds me how much more there is to know about them, how much deeper their stories must be than there is room on their skin to tell.

Thanks Joel.  Let's do it again some time.  I can't wait to hear more of YOUR story!

-C

About Ayiti Ink

Well this is it!  The first blog for Haiti's premier skin art venue. This blog exists so that you can see some of our work, meet our clients and hear some interesting tattoo stories.  Please subscribe to our feed to see our latest tattoos and be notified of special limited time offers.

About Us:

Location:
We are located in the Delmas 75 "zone" of Port Au Prince, Haiti.

Hours:
We are open by appointment only.  To make an appointment, please email your tattoo idea, any source images, and a description of the size and placement you desire for your tattoo to ayitiink@gmail.com.

Pricing:
Ayiti ink charges a $50 sitting fee that includes the cost of the first hour of tattooing.  This covers the cost of materials and the labor that it takes to sanitize, prepare equipment, and clean up.
After the first hour, each additional hour costs $75.  This fee is negotiable depending on the ammount of work being done.   We usually suggest a follow up appointment for color/shading work on larger pieces so that the quality of the artwork and the healing of the client are maximized.  Any time spent creating custom artwork will be paid at the same rate of $75 per hour, or a flat rate for custom art can be negotiated.   All touch up work on tattoos given by Ayiti Ink is free if Ayiti Ink aftercare rules have been followed.  All rates are flexible.


Sanitation: For many people, part of the attraction of getting a tattoo in Haiti is the supposed risk.  Saying you got your tattoo in an undeveloped country gives you about the same street cred as sporting prison ink, right?  Many people envision a dirty shack with a tattoo machine made from a toothbrush and a rusty guitar string dipped in some mystery ink composed of ash, animal innards, and bacteria.  Sorry.  If that's what you're looking for, we're not your tattoo shop!  We can give you "Haitian tattoo" bragging rights, without the risks implied by third world conditions. Every tattoo needle and tip we use is brand new, out of the package, factory sterilized, and discarded after use. We clean the tattooing environment thoroughly, wear gloves during the tattooing process, and disinfect your skin thoroughly before you receive your skin art.

Pain
"Does it hurt?"  Yes.  But the ammount of pain depends on the size and location of the tattoo.  Some have compared the pain to being scratched by a kitten... others have described it as giving birth while being engulfed in flames...  everybody has a unique pain tolerance!  We do, however, offer topical anesthetics for the faint of heart.  This pain relief costs an additional $35 and will add 45 minutes to your ink time.

Contact:
AYITI INK
(509) 3719-8748
ayitiink@gmail.com