April Recap

It’s been a while since we did a shop update post so I wanted to  share a little about our lives with you! The week of April 13 was kind of crazy! I was off Friday and Saturday much to my dismay waiting on a covid test because my roommate was advised to isolate. No worries though, it came back negative on Sunday night. This is also why I didn’t have time to get a post out last week. I usually start researching these on Saturday after the posts go up and all my resources were here at the shop, but we’re making up for it this week with 2 posts, 1 being pretty long. Sunday night was also nuts for me because we had an intoxicated driver in my neighborhood, the guy did end up getting arrested and the whole thing unfolded in only about a half an hour, everyone involved was ok! Tuesday felt like a whirlwind trying to catch up on everything going on since I was off Friday and Saturday it feels more like I was gone for a whole week. I feel like I made a total mess of the day but by now of course I’ve gotten caught up and everything’s on track. 

If you called that Friday or Saturday and we were a bit scrambled it’s because I couldn’t make it in so everyone was trying to juggle phones while tattooing and their regular duties. Then last week (April 20) Xam from @resolutetattooclub was here guesting. Wednesday morning Chris got him up nice and early to join him on a run and we definitely felt the need for coffee that day. Xam tattooed our fake shop cat, napkins. Napkins is a sphynx cat made of fake skin that tattoo artists sometimes use to practice on before they get to skin. We use ours to collect a little piece of art from guests. So far Napkins has been pretty bare with only a slice of pizza. He added a little tea bag and I’m excited to see what Jonnii will add in May. Maybe Napkins is going to be full of food tattoos.

We recently ordered some ink because a few of ours expired and the guys over at Source Tattoo Supply did a little doodle and a sweet little note which brightened up Chris’s day! When I was younger I took mail very seriously and thought for something so official it had to be a clean package. I don’t know where I got that idea but I’m glad I was wrong because how fun it is to get decorated mail. Chris also doodles on packages we send out if you order merch, now I wish I had taken photos of those too. There were some fun ones!

This past Saturday was lots of fun, we had a lot of old friends come into the shop! My dad came and got tattooed by Xam, inspired by a tattoo that I got from him myself back in February. I really enjoyed having him in the shop and getting another tattoo with me. We already have some matching wheat stalks by Loren. He has been getting tattooed by Chris since he was an apprentice in Edmonton, these long friendships give me all the warm fuzzies. It was my dad’s birthday the following Monday so we all got treated to OMG Cupcakes in his honor.. it was pretty great. 

A few weeks ago it was one of Bryan’s kids birthdays. He used some expired equipment that we were about to throw out to engrave her name on the bike with a phone number in case it gets lost and a little traditional rose. What a cool idea and a great idea by Bryan to use up some of the expired needles and such that we couldn’t otherwise use. Personally I didn’t know what to expect from this little experiment but it turned out great and she loved it! 

I am now right in the thick of the moving process. Myself and my roommates have upgraded and we’re moving from un upper duplex to a whole house, it even has a yard! Crazy thing to be excited about I know but I’m pumped, taking my dog out in the front yard with no fence 4 times a day blows. Unfortunately you will probably notice this with blog content. I am off work May 18-20th for the big moving day and I’m going to try and write up something in advance for Saturday May 22nd as I wont have time during the week but we may miss another weekly post in May. Thank you for reading!

Gatekeeper

Hi there! I'm Taylor, you may know me as Sterling Skull reception, or gatekeeper, or most recently Tater (thanks Chris). I love writing, creating and I love tattoos; so what better way to use my passions than to bring you a personal experience of our studio via a blog! Welcome, please stay a while!