Sydney Tattoo Expo 2011

First off before I get into anything I would like to pay our respects to Japan and our friends who are going through a really hard time right now. When I was first told of the earthquake and disaster that followed I was unaware at just how bad the situation really was. After getting home after our weekend at the expo, I sat down and watched the news for hours and I was kind of shocked to see just how bad things are over there. The scenes I have been watching the past few days have bought me to tears a number of times. I kind of feel guilty for having a good weekend now that I know this was all going on many miles away.

Some info I got from the Sydney Morning Herald online, in relation to donating digitally:

Some useful links:

For more information on where to go on Twitter to donate or get information, in Japanese and in English, visit: blog.twitter.jp/2011/03/blog-post_12.html

For more information on donating to the Red Cross on Facebook: http://www.causes.com/campaigns/154523

For Google's Crisis Response page visit: www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

For Google's person finder tool, visit: http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/

For further options on donating digitally, visit Mashable:

mashable.com/2011/03/13/japan-earthquake-tsunami-help-donate

Stay strong Japan, the rest of the world is here for you!

Now on a lighter note and as the title of this blog suggests we have been at the Sydney Tattoo Expo this weekend. It was amazingly busy (I kind of wasn't expecting so many people) and Matt tattooed all weekend. As I mentioned in the last blog we hadn't really pre-booked any tattoo's (apart from our mate Ozzy), so weren't too sure how that was going to go. I had a fear we would be sitting around bored all weekend but as it turns out Matt did a whole bunch of tattoo's and we were run off our feet! So considering how disorganised we felt, we had a really successful weekend. We are really enjoying the convention thing, it's exhausting but getting to know some other tattooers and meeting all sorts of people is fun!

I did have a whole blog of crapping on to do about our weekend but in light of what's going on in Japan I just don't feel like doing it. So I will just post a bunch of pics and maybe next week I can go into more detail:

Here is a pic of a tattoo Matt did on Thursday before we raced to the airport to jump on our flight to Sydney.

Traveling across the bridge on our way to the convention, first day. I am such a tourist.

About to start a tattoo on our mate Ozzy

During

Something tells me Ozzy has had enough in this one

Japanese Ghost lady, carrying skulls and stuff. Just the black and grey done at the show. Will do the colour in a few weeks. Crap photo

Matt's first tattoo on Saturday. Just a small finger tattoo on Rachel.

Second Tattoo on Saturday, black and grey rose on Natalie.

3rd Tattoo on Saturday. Old School Black and Grey panther on Joel. Excuse the shit photo again.

Me having a little contraband at the booth. What can I say, I got a little bored and needed something they weren't selling at the bar. Little nip of vodka and coke- yum

This guy is doing tebori on the head of another guy and it looked fricken brutal. Of course I love to watch the most brutal stuff going on.

You can kind of get the idea of how busy it was.

Our good mate Dann Ritter from After Ink, who was kind enough to share a booth with us! What a great guy!

A portrait Matt did on Sunday on Josh. Took a while and Matt hasn't done a portrait in ages but I think it turned out nice.

And Joel ended up coming back again on Sunday to get the other side of his leg done, with a snake. Bet he was sore on Monday.

Joel getting one of his tattoo's, think this one is the panther side.

Big thanks for Bec and Lachie who allowed us to crash at their place all weekend. It was great to see you guys, even though we didn't get to spend much time together. We will be back very soon for sure, Sydney is really starting to grow on us.

That's it for this installment.

Matt's contribution "Best wishes to everyone in Japan and our friends in Japan, please let us know if we can help in anyway".