Hi everyone,
I hope you've had a wonderful March!
So, it's technically finally spring, but it sure doesn't feel like it here in Toronto (we had snow and freezing rain today - fun 🙃). Right now I'm sat in the airport waiting to board my flight to the UK to visit my family. It's funny to think that in Toronto we're still waiting on the flowers to begin blooming, but when I land in the UK, spring will be in full force. I'm secretly (or not so secretly) happy to be missing the tail end of Toronto winter and see some flowers. Hopefully I'll have a good amount of drawing time!
Anyway... back to March....my March did include a brief trip to visit one of my oldest and best friends Martin down in Houston! Yes, it's a weird time to be vacationing in the US, but I had been planning on visiting him for a long time. We both grew up in Plymouth (England) and somehow both ended up on this side of the Atlantic. But other than that my March consisted of mostly hibernating (pretty much the same as February 😂).
More on that later, first let's take a tour of all the wonderful tattoos I got to make in March...
Tattoo Time
Btw my books open for SUMMER next month! Check out my booking info HERE if you want to know more. Also, I'm going to be taking a but of time off both in September and November // December, so keep that in mind of you're thinking of getting tattooed this year.
Jayda
Jayda started working on her sleeve 7 years ago (!!!) and I'm so happy she chose me to fill the last spaces. We added the sunflower & snake (for her hognose snake, Jasper) that you can see in this pic. As well as daffodil, sweet pea, and holly that you can see in my IG post. And previously I've tattooed the otter, the mushroom // snail piece and the peony (which we touched up a teeny bit), and are in my 'healed' highlights reel. Loved being trusted to bring this all together 🖤.
Korissa
Korissa sat like a champ for this phoenix, flaming lily, morning glory and aster backpiece! It's a super meaningful piece for her and I was so happy she chose me to do it. I've not had the chance to tattoo flaming lily before so they were especially fun!
Becca
Meaghan
Meaghan has a few thread veins that she doesn't hate, but was getting frustrated with people asking if she had a bruise (especially with one group on the back of her leg, by her ditch). She didn't want to have them medically removed so we incorporated them into this gooorgeous floral piece instead 🥰🌿. We freehanded this one to fit, and you can watch the process HERE.
Christina
Christina's tattoos are all reminders about the things and people she loves 🥰. And her new sleeve (that we started over a two day sitting) celebrates her love for cooking, and her family. I think my favourite part is her subtle 'Mom' tattoo, you can look for it HERE (hint: it's super cheesy).
Colin
You might remember the snippet of Colin's project from my February newsletter, and we fitted in two more days of tattooing this month! We're nearly done and should be ready to show the whole piece off after his last session in April!!!
Victoria
I have had the joy of tattooing Victoria pretty much since I arrived in Canada 8.5 years ago. I absolutely love tattooing her (and her best friend Jessica) and seeing her tattoos settled after so many years is a joy (you can see some in my 'healed' highlights reel on IG).
This month we added this gorgeous freehand rose in memory of her Dad. It balances the peony we did on the other side of her knee a few months ago. The little scorpion is a very meaningful addition for her, and I was very honoured that she asked me to include it.
Rachelle
Rachelle wanted a ram's skull and dark peony with a western // witchy theme, which you know I'm aaaalll about. She's gradually building up a sleeve, and already has a couple of tattoos by other artists, and we made this piece fit perfectly between them. Thanks so much for the fun project Rachelle 🥰🖤.
Kayla
We started working on Kayla's sleeve over 5 years ago! Shocking right, it all blends sooo well together. We did her lower arm then, her elbow mandala 2+ years ago and the top of her arm 8 months ago. This month we finally added a gooorgeous big peony to fill her inner arm (and a lil fleur on her ankle, to start a new leg project). Photos will be up on my IG soon! She's always so much fun to tattoo (and sits like a boss).
Bea
Lovely Bea, had a bunch of small tattoos that she initially planned to had a patchwork sleeve, but after collecting a bunch of them she found that she really did not like how they looked. So we transformed them into this lovely peony piece. It was a really tricky project, but we smashed it 🥰🌿.
Natalie
In Other News
If you noticed that I'm a little light on the tattoos this month, that's because of my trip to Houston, and I also came down with a cold at the end of the month.
I was only in Houston for a few days but we managed to cram in so many things! We went to Cirque de Soleil (which was a peculiar combination of torture and awe-inspiring for me - I hate puppets and get very anxious that people are going to get hurt, but in is amazing), to the Nasa space centre, to the Houston rodeo (where Post Malone was the guest artist!!!!) and I also made it to the Museum of fine arts and the zoo.
Here's some pages from my sketchbook from my trip...
I've been reading...
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The List // Yomi Adegoke (thanks Jessica for the recommendation, and also the only non-romance on the list 😂)
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Reckless (liked) & Hopeless (did not like) // Elsie Silver
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The Graham Effect & The Dixon Rule (both mid) // Elle Kennedy
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I also re-read Love on the Brain // Ali Hazelwood, because it's set in NASA (and I really like it).
I've been watching...
- The Oscars - it's a yearly tradition, I was so happy Flow won best animation. It is an independent Latvian film that was made entirely on Blender (which is FREE software) and is soooooo beautiful.
- Flow (lol, obviously)
- Anora (had to watch best picture winner, it was really good Mikey Mendelson 🔥)
- Conclave (I watched this on the flight to Houston ,and was pleasently suprised how capitvating it was, I also had no idea how a new Pope is elected before watchign this).
- Mikey 17 (weird, thought provoking, would not watch again, leave their tails alone)
- The Penguin - series (I really struggle watching things when I can't root for any of the characters, but this was really well done).
I've been doing (besides hibernating)...
- The new lychee matcha at Dark Horse Espresso is very good.
- The ice in the park has melted enough for walks! I can't wait to for everything to start turning green.
- Malone is still the most perfect creature in existence.
