completion.....

Completion....according to Merriam-Webster is...the quality or state of being complete.

I am a work in progress like many of my tattoos. When one of these is completed I feel a bit more completed. I do know that I will not be complete until death but until then I can appreciate the road to completion and evolution as each piece of my body art is completed. I just recently finished a sleeve, well the outside part of the sleeve, hee hee. Wow! It was a 7 month process. Not because I have to travel but because I own a tattoo studio Do you eve have any idea how hard it ts it get an appointment at your own studio??? Even worse with your dear hubby! ha! Luckily with this sleeve it was my Goddess sleeve and I devoted my arm or more like donated my arm to our goddess artist Carla Daniela. (Dany). Thing is she moved away about 30 minutes up the road about a month ago so there was a bit of a crimp in our plans but it worked out.

Not meaning to we started this goddess sleeve of a phoenix on the full moon after the spring equinox...very meaningful to me. I am turning 40 this year and it meant the world to me to get a symbol of the inner transformation that I feel. Each consecutive session ended up being on a full moon without meaning too. Several times I walked out and saw her in her full beauty (the moon not Dany.haha) I was amazed that once again we had a session at this powerful time of the month.

Cherry blossoms are carried by Japanese winds from my wrist to lifting the reborn phoenix to another dimension of life (to be continued on my backpiece of a Ganesha in another fantasy galaxy plane). To have this piece finished was a threshold for me. Its almost Samhain which is a Celtic holiday that is very special to me and also Day of the Dead here in Mexico. This is a time to touch base with your ancestors as well as your inner self. For me to complete this design and sleeve was a completion of inner work I am doing for myself this 40th year of life (as well as the 11th year of being with my soulmate).

I believe anyone who really creates tattoos as a ritual for themselves with a deep inner meaning can relate to this. Its an outer landmark of inner progress. I wish it for all with or without tattoos.

Still time to get Mart-INKED!

Tattooluum has had the fortunate luck to still have Martin Avila in the house. I was lucky enough to get my moon over my faery tattoo finished by him. The moon ended up being much bigger than I thought but as we in the tattoo world know that leads us to have a better more detailed tattoo. I let him have the reins with good reason. Its funny because in the design there were just 2 faces but when Martin did it it became three. When it was two it was gonna be the dark and light side of the moon and I want to embrace both sides of myself. But now that it became three for me its the trilogy of goddesses...Crone, Mother and Maiden...or my mom, me and Akashana. It means the moon to me! ;-)

So don't miss your chance to get Mart-INKED......come by soon before he leaves.

Attempted fraud against Tattooluum....keyword ATTEMPTED

How exciting is it to receive an email asking for a quote for ten back pieces and 10 chest pieces???? Being in the midst of low season we were thrilled.

After a thread of emails back and forth I never received an answer of where they were located. So I took the phone number and researched it and found it was on a Scottish fraud investigation site. It was however for a scam for a group for a hotel. So I googled the author of the email and interestingly enough the name did come up for an offshore oil drilling journalist. That made sense since the company was in offshore drilling. So I thought ok great...but alas...

I searched the name again and it came up for the author of the scam you get that someone has died and there are no forwarding relatives so a bank is contacting you. Big flag there!!! Then I searched scams against tattoo studios and low and behold there was the exact same email word for word thatI had received but with a different name.

While all this searching was going on I was still sending them the proposal since I still held hope this could be. This was going to be well over $8000US of work! So I received the fact that it was approved and the company was paying for all of it and he wanted to get the info to send the money. He asked if we took cardit cards and we do through paypal so I thought that was another layer of protection since they have fraud protection for their clients. Meanwhile I am sensing something is up and I was trying to figure out how they could fraud us if they were using a credit card. It wasn´t a check so I was baffled.

Come to find out they have a "company" that does all their travel plans (ie. flights, transportations, hotel accomodations, etc) but they do not accept credit cards...(hmmm?). So I was asked if they could charge another $5000US in addition to our proposal and then I could send it back to them!!!!!! Well one that won´t happen as I don´t have an extra $5000 sitting around but also that just doesn´t work with me. I am not sure the details but somehow they must send you a cloned card that works and posts in your account and you send the balance back to them and then your bank figures it out and you are out of that balance that you sent back.

So I very nicely explained to him tha we couldn´t do that. Interestingly enough but not surprisingly, I never heard back. I did have one email after the request that "pleaded" with me to help them out and they really wanted to do business with us. Thanks but no thanks. I explained that once they arrived here they could bring in the cash or they could just pay the approved deposit with us with the credit card. Never heard back.

So just wanted to post this blog for any of you out there that are not aware of this. It began with the hotel and yoga groups and now they approach tattoo artists since they are very lucrative too. But I am sure there are many different branches of this scam..just remember.. if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Happy tatting!

Incredible pieces....

Incredible pieces...

This can describe several things as of late at Tattooluum....

new tats! Although its slow season the creativity flowing between our three artists, Dani, Martin and Puga, they have delved deep with in the creative unconscious to create some of the best work I have ever seen....even if most of its been on each other...haha. Puga is in process of getting a very elaborate chest piece he designed from Mayan markings that is gonna be a stunner. These are just a few of the examples.

new art! Alfredo Hinojosa is creatively adding to his collection and to the gallery. Its amazing how he can make a piece of drift wood into a spectacular mythical creature. He is also working his potential acting skills in trying out for a German tv mini series that is filming here..good luck! You can see his art on fb... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=332&id=100000301116259&fbid=100253099994727&ref=mf

Tat-tat-Tattooluum with Victor Puga

Tattuluum has all been a-buzz with guest artists. We still have Martin Avila with us and now we have Victor Puga from Cancun. Puga is an old friend of the family and has grown up with art very similar. Puga gave several of his first tattoos as well as a cover of his very first...which we won't talk about..haha!

Tattooluum is exploding with excitement even though the season is slow. Lots of inquiries and two to three machines going at once. Its a wonderful sound to hear and see the artists working in tandem spreading the Tattooluum talent and reputation.

Even is getting to look more like a tattoo artist actually getting some ink on him!

Martin Avila is in the studio now!

Tattooluum is pleased to announce Martin Avila here in the studio! He is from Guadalajara and is visiting the Riviera Maya until the end of August. His talent extends past just art on the skin but includes creativity in graphic design as well as murals and 3D street designs. He is considered a multidimensional artist.

He has worked in a number of studios including Garage Ink, Monster (Coyoacan, DF), Hikuri and Modificarte both in Guadalajara. He graduated from Condesa and Universidad DF and Guadalajara. He has has a lifetime of experience delving into many different types of art including watercolor, pastels, color pencil, graphite, charcoal, chinese paints, photography retouching, arcrylic and oil paints. He has had over 15 exposition both individual and collective and some in the Gallery of Moderna Art in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

We are honored to have Martin with us, teaching us, tatting us and leaving his mark where he goes. We are working on several projects with him like 3D street art as well as wall murals. Tulum is Blessed to have him leave his footprints behind here with us.

Check him out on these following sites.....

http://www.myspace.com/avilart

http://web.me.com/modificarte/Modificarte/Modificarte.com.mx.html

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000739716409&ref=ts

Tattooluum..adapting to the seasonal changes

We sadly say a farewell to Robert Foltyn and thank him for all that he showed us in techniques for both tattoos and life.....thank you Robert!

We are at the precipice of "dead" season which I hate the name of. We are transforming from slow to dead but seems a bit harsh this description. The main theory is to change your words and thoughts so here I go. Okay slow season is acceptable but not dead season. We are not going to die although the traffic in the streets have. This is a time to shore up our energy and pinpoint our focus. This is a time to really decide which is most important to buy to use our energy and money (a form of energy) to its very best use. Being in this small town you learn to adapt to the seasons. Maybe it should be called..adaptation season. Its also nice when the whole town comes together to help each other out. We all understand the seasonal influence and locals help others out with delayed payment dates payments..too bad big companies like the light and water company do not do that..;-)

So lets flip our thoughts and think of this as a time to cut away the unnecessary. Lets focus our thoughts like a laser to manifest the abundance that is still there but just commanding us to command it more. And when we ask for something for ourselves lets ask it for everyone else too. I read this the other day and imagine if you had 6 billion people asking for something for you. So if we widen our scope to healing the planet and if the planet asks for our healing boy will we feel great!!!

So thank you for the slow and adaptation season to show us what is truly important in our lives and to focus on what we really need not just excess of wants. Its fine to want things when the abundance is there. But isn't it always there? Its just disguised as lessons such as adaptation season....ah the lessons of life. Just remember that abundance is always there...there is enough for everyone to be rich. The birds do not wake up being afraid of having abundance. So lets dance to the dance of abunDANCE! As we connect with it is will bless us infinitely...love and light to all!