Hey folks-

1) My camera broke (yes, i am getting a new one).
2) I'm moving (again).

I met Patti last night. Patti is here in NYC on an extended vacation from Miami.

Patti has a sacred heart on her right wrist. She also noted that she is aware that it does look like a spade.

I met Chris about almost a year ago. The first time we hung out we went to a liquor store and talked about the Smashing Pumpkins. Chris sings in the band Kaddisfly.

After I was done talking to Mathieu about his cyst, Chris showed me his cyst. Chris has the cyst, but he has to fold his arm skin over in order to see it.

I met Tucker the other night in New Jersey. Tucker is from Vermont, he's currently on tour with the band Kaddisfly, filming & documenting the entire tour.

Tucker has a Dredg tattoo on his right arm.

I met Mathieu outside CBGB last night. Mathieu actually came up to me and started talking to me. He automatically knew where I got all my work done by the quality (NY Adorned).

Mathieu got all his tattoo work done in Greece. He also these intense stiches on his lower left wrist from having a cyst removed. He got the cyst from working out a lot, curling his wrist, etc. I thought at first he might have gotten in a bike accident, he was riding his bike when I met him. Nice guy.

Wednesday I went to the Rock Star Games' Table Tennis tournament at the Rock Star loft in China Town. I never really got into video games that much, I always find them to be an anomaly, I can't understand why people can't just play the real thing (as in real table tennis). My friend Mike actually walked away with the champion title and won a bunch of prizes.

One of the staff members (who wishes to remain anonymous) had a Arashikage clan tattoo from the G.I. Joe series. We talked about the placement since there seems to be variances in the placement in the comics vs. toys vs. series. Since I started this I've run into about 7 people with the same tattoo.

More photos @ thecobrasnake.com

The latest ad campaign for Armani Exchange features a model with an obvious emphasis on his tattoos. I am taking a wild guess in saying these tattoos are fake. You can see these ads on billboards, subway ads, & magazine ads. These huge ads were outside a future store opening.

Pictured: the Nacho Bear AKA the Heartist.

Update thanks to Mathieu! It turns out Mathieu knows the model, his name is Nick.

'thats funny that you mention the Armani billboard, thats my boy Nick in the campaign & his tats are real..its a small world'

I ran into Moby while on the way to a table tennis tournament.

I snuck into the Blender magazine Birthday Blowout at Studio 450. I was denied entrance by big security guards and firemen. I walked into the side emergency stairs, and prodded open any emergency locked doors with a twig. I then hucked it up 12 flights to catch one Ghostface Killah song.

Cee-Lo (bottom) was there, of Goodie Mob / Gnarls Barkley fame. Bad pictures I know, but still something right..?

I met Ray yesterday night at the Tap Bar at the Knitting Factory. Ray plays keyboards in the band Karate High School. Ray tried to coerce me and my friend Ken into buying their album, but we already had it. We were one of the few fans there. They are currently on tour now with the band Dog Fashion Disco.

Ray wanted me to make him look good. Ray has a tattoo of himself (jumping?) in his inner right upper arm. He also has that popular pirate from that alcohol (can't think of the name).

Walking around yesterday. Camera phones are amazing.

People sculptures made out of slates of rock on West 58th Street.

Upstarts Art Show at the CBGB Gallery this past Thursday night.

Portraits by Bryce Ward available at his site.

I started this site at the beginning of the semester as a formal school project. Readers will be glad to know that I got an A.

This past week, I have been also hired by 'the truth' campaign this summer for the entire Warped Tour.

I feel that my 'socially handicapped' body, as well as this little site, were major contributing factors to getting hired for this great opportunity.

More great things to come...

I had the unique opportunity to meet 'Lucky Diamond Rich' last night. He holds the 'World's Most Tattooed Person, Performance Artist & Tattooer' title.

I met Rich at the Icon Gallery show at the CBGB Gallery last night, which I recommend everyone go see as soon as they can!

Afte the Invisible exhibit, I went downtown in the Nolita area to see the Lori Cuisinier's exhibit 'Souvenirs Eloignes' at the Little Red House.

These large wall scale photographs painted an intimate self portrait of Lori's life after she suffered from an accident. The photographs and enlarged journal entries were all taken and written by Lori while she was recovering.

Last night I went to 'The Night Time is the Right Time' exhibit at Invisible NYC with my friend Colleen. Porter (drinking beer), who used to work at NY Adorned, who I would see on a regular basis, now works at Invisible. This was also the first time I drank (1 beer) in my 2 month alcohol sobriety.

from the exhibit press release:

'The visceral yet elegant ink drawings from Patrick Rocha's ongoing 'Gross Out' series portrays multi-figure action, and the landscape of the corpse by morphing familiar parts of the nude figure with clumps of hair, flesh and fluid to imply embryonic and other human-like forms with the suggestion of defect. Within this, a dialogue is introduced: The complexity of anatomy and it's myriad systems combined with an innate feeling of excitement and repulsion by what our bodies create, intake and dispel.'

Monday I stood around for the Dangerous Muse photoshoot for Flaunt Magazine.

Here you can see all the 'modelesque' bodies standing around being primped and preened. You can also see tattoo culture trinkling its way into high fashion, for example a Dolce Gabbana anchor (seriously- what the heck?). Also, a pack of Camels from London, where the warning is a bit more blatant.

'Big, Fat, Delicious' Camel campaign in the 'wild.'

All of the stores I have been to in the past few days told me they sold out of the designer packs about a week ago, when they received stock.

Also an ad for the NYC Tattoo Convention this weekend, any readers that can get me in for free..?

I met Mike a few times in the past few months when I would hang out with my friend Jimi.

Mike has a huge 'MAST' tattoo on his stomach. Mike was only 16 years old when he got this.

'Imagine' is a Beatles reference.

I apologize about the lack of updates. I am in the process of moving at the moment.

Thanks to Marisa from Needled for pointing out more comodification of traditional tattoo art within advertising and products!

What really bothers me about this is that there is now an established association with smoking (obviously BAD) and tattoo artwork.

More info. can be found at Gyro Worldwide Advertising

I mean can you the sheer ridiculousness of someone with a 'Big, Fat, Delicous' tattoo on their lower back?

Oh and don't smoke!

I ran into 'Shoot the Freak' while walking down the boardwalk of Coney Island last week while looking for the traditional Coney Island Circus Sideshow.

'Shoot the Freak' was being heavily advertised by a young man with a megaphone as being able to shoot a real live moving target 'freak' who is 'defenseless' for a mere $3. He liberally used the word freak over and over, I expected some person or thing with two heads or three legs or something of that nature. I didn't pay, but some pour soul that day shelled out to shoot someone in full on paintball gear and a shield.

I met Daniella a LONG time ago. I love her to death. Saturday night we had dinner around 9 PM. I had an overpriced hamburger (w/o a bun WTF?).

Daniella has a flower wrist piece on left lower forearm. It's actually a coverup of three stars which she got when she was 19 (stars somewhat barely prevelant- circled in red). She got the three stars when she walked into a random tattoo studio, trying to avoid an ex-boyfriend / stalker type. The guy working at the studio locked the door and tattooed her (for free).

Saturday afternoon I went to Coney Island. I went on the advice of one of my classmates, Jason who let the class know that there was a special 'classic' freak show at Coney Island Saturday & Sunday.

The 'classic' freak show featured Matt Frasier (pictured above)- who was congenitally born with no forearms, Ravi the Scorpion- a contortionist, a one time appearence of Koko the Killer Klown, Willow the Dog- a dog born with no fore legs, Stephanie- a lady who peformed with an albino burmese python, and a lady with a beard.

Matt has no elbows. The 'little thing' that looks like an elbow is actually what the 'nub' that you can see that is near your wrist which connects the hand to the forearm.

I met Dan at some point over the past few years. I always run into this guy in random places, this time being Union Square on Friday. I remember talking to him about Give up the Ghost at MTV Studios once.

Dan used to be in Shelter, he also was The Sounds manager for quite a few years. Dan and Maja (singer of the The Sounds) have the same tattoo on their forearms. That night we were talking about the comeback of Guns N' Roses, the Bad Brains & Gorilla Biscuits shows at CBGB over last summer, Slayer's longetivity & the fame of Good Charlotte and Avenged Sevenfold.

Dinner the other night.

'The Whitest Kids U' Know' is a comedy troupe based out of NYC. I went to school with most of these guys- all genuinely nice people, creative & hilarious.

This skit features a drunken guy walking into a tattoo studio. The sound quality (audience chatter, laughter) is a bit dodgy, but you get the idea.

Description: Tattoos... they don't come off when you sober up.

Last night I had dinner with 'Shannon Larratt & friends.'

To my right was Roger, a self amputee. Roger only has three remaining fingers and one big toe. He's saving his big toe for a 'special occasion' and also noted that the big toe is the hardest of the toes to remove. He removed all his fingers and toes himself. Sean, who sat to my left, described Roger's process fairly simple. Circulation was cut off by applying a tight rubber band, then 'chiseling' away with a pick and hammer, all the while eating yogurt (yes- yogurt).

Roger also had a random metallic object that he put in his left stretched ear lobe that he found that day on the streets of New York City.

Afterwards, I realized that I wasn't paying attention to how exactly Roger ate his food, which would have been fairly interesting since he is missing most of his digits.

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