All booked up!

Just a quick little post to let you all know that Eckel is booked up for April, May and June.
That means we have closed for bookings for now.
So, what does that mean to you if you're a person wanting to get tattooed by him asap?
It means that you'll need to write us from June 1st. to book appointments in July, August and September.
As usual, we ask you to include your ideas for the design, size and placement, any relevant pictures of yourself or design reference, as well as a list of dates in July, August or September where you'd like to get tattooed.
And as usual, if you live in the area, we will ask you to come by for a consultation prior to your tattoo appointment.
If you are interested in an appointment later in the fall, do not write us yet.
In June we will only be booking for those three months.

That's all, we look forward to hearing from you in a couple of months, and remember, if you'd like to know more about booking, read the tabs named Eckel and client info.

Og så på Dansk:
Eckel er fuldt booket de næste tre måneder, og vi har nu derfor lukket for booking.
Det betyder, at hvis du gerne vil tatoveres af Eckel, skal du sende os en mail i starten af Juni for at booke en tid i enten Juli, August eller September.
Som sædvanligt vil vi bede dig om at inkludere alle dine idéer til design, placering og størrelse i mailen, eventuelle billeder, samt en liste over dage i de følgende tre måneder hvor det vil passe dig godt at blive tatoveret.
Og som sædvanligt vil vi bede dig om at kigge forbi til en konsultation inden din tatoverings-aftale hvis du bor i nærheden.
Hvis du ønsker en tid senere på efteråret skal du ikke skrive til os endnu.
Vi booker kun de tre måneder ad gangen, så hvis du vil have en tid senere, må du vente.

Vi håber at høre fra dig i Juni, og hvis du vil læse mere om booking kan du gøre det her på siden under Eckel og client info.

OPIN DA DO!!

>>>>>>> Postcard from Africa!

Recent events

In case you were wondering, we're still a little bummed about not going to Japan this spring, and a little bit in denial too.
I'm sure it'll hit me around the 29th, but for now i feel ok.
Honestly, i was a little worried about leaving our pretty shop home alone for so long anyway.
What if it wouldn't recognize us when we came back?
That would be bad.

We're missing so much by not going, but hopefully we'll be able to go to some birthdays, concerts and events that we'd otherwise have missed. So there's that.
There's actually a convention going on in Copenhagen in the beginning of April, the first one in years, and i think we might drop by.
We're not working there by the way, even though there has been some speculation about that. Ahem. But we were never meant to.
But i think it could be fun to check it out because, really, how often do we get to go to a convention and NOT work and NOT stay at some crappy hotel afterwards? It's even close to our place, and we do know some people working there and it'd be nice to say hi.

Chriss Dettmer was here visiting us this past weekend, and with the earthquake happening, i totally forgot to blog about that.
I didn't announce his mini guest spot on the blog either, and i am sorry for that, but he was here for such a short time, and we wanted to have some hangout time too.
He did do a couple of tattoos, but i promise that we'll get him to stay longer next time, so you guys get the chance too.
Anyway, it was wonderful to have him here. He's such a good friend and an easy house guest, both at home and at the shop.

Like i wrote in the last post (by the way, sorry that this post is all over the place, but it's Friday and it's late and i'm in no mood to write anything coherent right now, so you'll just have to bear with me) we're working on making some prints to sell for Japan and that's still happening for sure. We got some test prints today, so hopefully we'll have the finished product sometime next week.
They'll be limited, as usual, and we'll sell them alone and with other prints/flash at reduced prices.
More about that when i actually have a product!
I already started raising a bit of money for Japan, so if you like hats and animals, and hats with animals on them, check out my etsy shop. If you don't, just ignore that last sentence and scroll down for some tattoo pictures!
Pictures! Yes! More of those and less of... me ranting.

The orchid in the office came back from the dead, maybe thinking it's spring? Poor, dumb bastard...

Anne got another session on her backpiece, this time in color

Clients from Geneva brought us delicious chocolate

Young brought us cake

So did Tom and Ellie (the A is for Amalie, there was one for Allan and Eckel too)

Eckel and Lucifer plotting world domination, as usual

Chriss finished this one that he started a while back

I cleaned up the back rooms for god knows what time, so the dark room is just waiting for our carpenters now

Today on the way to work i rode my bike through the old hood.

We needed Dettol and the grocery store that i usually buy it at has closed down. So i went by Nansensgade cause i knew they had it there, and boy, did that street blossom since we left!

I mean, really, when we were there all the cool stores were always closing down and in their place hair salons and coaching cults or new age-y massage places would open. You know, boring shit.

But now, i spotted a bunch of new shops and at least two new café's.

One of them was even called "Amalie's Kaffebar" so it's obviously a coffee shop for people named Amalie.

And it opens right after we move out? Oh, the irony.

Anyway, it was weird to see the street looking alive again, and it made me wonder; did we kill it?

I hope not.

At least there are no shops to kill here in Schleppegrellsgade!

Thinking of home

Today we canceled our trip to Japan.
The government here finally started advising against non-essential travel, and so we decided to call off our trip.
It was a hard decision to make, one we've been struggling with since Fridays earthquake and tsunami, but in the end it didn't seem worth the risk.
We had friends and family here at home worried sick, and going started to seem both unnecessarily risky and a little selfish too.
We're not exactly the praying kind, but rest assured, Japan is on our minds all the time.
We've been in contact with our friends in Japan who are all unharmed, but due to the continuing problems at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, we still worry about their safety.
According to Hata from Inkrat, the power is out on and off, there's no water in the super markets, shops and restaurants are closed down and Tokyo is basically a ghost town.
We're feeling pretty helpless, or useless even, over here, doing nothing, so we decided to do something.
Last night i asked Allan if he had some painting or other lying around that we could possibly make prints of and maybe sell to help out, and it turns out he did. So we talked to our printer guy and it's happening, and hopefully soon too. They'll be limited and they'll be awesome and we'll donate all the money to an emergency relief organization, probably Red Cross since they seem to be the ones who get in there and do the most good the fastest.
So stay tuned for updates!
And until then, please donate if you can, and if you're in Tokyo, go get tattooed and support the tattoo artists over there who, like everyone, are in for some rough times.

Sweet Kōenji

I don't know exactly when we'll be back in Tokyo, but hopefully things will get better there soon, and we can get back over there.
And when we do i hope we'll be able to reschedule the clients who had already booked in with Allan.
ごめん なさい, we will be back!

Ria's birds

Allan did these pretty birds on regular client Ria on friday.
See bigger and better pictures of hers and Richards tattoos on Allan's blog.
Good stuff.

Matching thighs are awesome

You know what else is awesome? Clients who fly in via Paris and bring us these:

Happy birthday to us!!

Yes, you read that right, it's our birthday!
Today it's been exactly a year since the big move from Nansensgade to Schleppegrellsgade.
I would have liked to do a huge month-by-month post documenting the last year and all the progress we've made, but, as usual, i don't really have the time.

One year ago i would have laughed if anyone had told me that we still wouldn't be completely finished with working on the shop on our first birthday, but at that time none of us knew how many things could possibly go wrong.
And considering the amount of crap we've been through, i actually think the shops current condition (which is "almost done" and "totally awesome") is pretty impressive.
I don't even mind waiting a few more months with the opening party!

Like we have for the past year, we're still going to flea markets all the time, this is one of our latest finds

And this is what it looks like in our amazing new work room

 And just so ya'll have something pretty to look at, here's the worlds most giant armpit tattoo, by Eckel

Alright, i'm gonna go celebrate our big day by scrubbing some tubes...
Yay?

Zissou would be proud...

... Cousteau too!







>>>>>>> Postcard from the South Atlantic!

Stolen diamonds

Ok, this is embarrassing, but i have actually been working on this post for a week now.
Not constantly, of course, but on and off.
So much keeps happening at the shop, so every time i'm about to hit "publish" i remember this one thing i need pictures of, and then i decide to wait.
Well it ends here!

On Sunday, and that's last Sunday, not the one we just had, our glorious new wallpaper was put up in the work room.
That room never really became what we'd hoped for the first time around, and in comparison to the other rooms it just seemed a little too... not us.
And with Nick leaving we needed to do some major remodeling anyway, so we decided to go all out.
We sold the old desks, ordered some wallpaper from our favorite wallpaper pushers, bought wood for the paneling and convinced our painters and carpenters to do the actual dirty work for us.
Morten already did the paneling on Thursday, so everything was ready to be painted and wallpapered up.

Fancy

Poor Morten, trying to tame the crooked walls

 Me, Allan and Eckel started the day by going to the flea market to get some new, old furniture and while we did that, our two trusty painters got started on the wallpapering and painting.

There was quite a lot to be done, and at one point it looked like there wouldn't be enough wallpaper for the whole thing, but you know our painters; even when they're wrong they're right!

So they made it with only scraps to spare and it looked amaaaazing.

In progress

Stolen diamonds... no, really

 

We put our marks on the wall before the wallpaper came up...

... this will be there FOREVER!

Everyone joined in

Remember this?

The following Sunday, yesterday (or day before since it's technically Tuesday i guess) the painters finished the black panels and the red wall.
It looks so amazing and i can't wait to get stuff on the walls and make the room come together.
Epic is not too big a word.

The red wall

Eckel started on his corner today 

The other rooms are getting small makeovers as we go along too, here's what the office looks like now

The small orange couch now lives in the drawing room... off limits, as it should be

Oh, and tattoos still happen here too, here's one that Eckel did of Danish national treasure, Lars Von Trier (i'm sure you're all very nice, but if you don't know him, we can't be friends)

 

I'll be back with more work room pictures as soon as things are looking a little less chaotic than they are now!

And we're selling stuff again...

I'm trying to make room in the back for all the new photo equipment, so stuff has got to go.
Today i'm selling the mini fridge from the old shop, and since you probably won't buy it unless you live around here, i'm gonna switch to Danish again.

Vi sælger vores 40 liter mini køleskab for at få plads til at bygge vores mørkekammer.
Hvis du kan bruge det, eller kender nogen der kan, må du endelig gi' os et kald!
Se annoncen her.

As good as it'll get

I finally got around to fixing the laminator (that i am perhaps, maybe also responsible for breaking) so we now have a sign!
Well, almost.
It's more of a sign than the handwritten Rilakkuma note was anyway.

It's the same size as the handwritten note, only slightly more official looking

For the locals...

This one is mostly for the readers in Copenhagen, so i'm afraid it's gonna be one of my rare in-Danish posts.
But if you're terribly curious, there's always good old google translate!

Vi er (igen) ved at rykke om og små-renovere i butikken, denne gang i hoved arbejdslokalet.
Siden vi nu pludselig har to i stedet for tre tatovører siddende derinde, besluttede vi os for at give (eller rettere, for at få vores trofaste håndværkere til at give) rummet en velfortjent overhaling.
Vi skal have lavet paneler, sat fancy tapet op, og lavet nye arbejds stationer, så vi har nu hele to store skriveborde som vi skal af med, nemlig Allans og Nicks.
Jeg har derfor sat dem begge i den blå avis (se annonce her og her) og håber selvfølgelig på at der er nogen der kan bruge dem, da jeg hader at smide gode møbler væk.
Hvis du skulle være interesseret i at hjælpe os af med et eller begge, kan du ringe eller skrive til butikken, eller lægge en comment her, og så giver vi dig en sweet deal!

In other more tattoo related news (hence the switch back to English); Eckel has a few unexpected openings in February and March, so holla if you're interested!

Friends 4eva

I wish i could say that this Sunday was just like any other Sunday spent at the shop with two of my favorite people, and not the Sunday before the Monday that i have been dreading for so long.
But it wasn't.
It was, and is, the day before Nick leaves us*, and while thinking about that sucks, sucks, sucks, we spent it just the way i'd hoped we would; hanging out at the shop and getting stupid tattoos together.

Before this, Nick hadn't been tattooed in about 7 years... no, really!

Aaaand, by the looks of it, he hadn't missed it much

  Viking?

 

A viking indeed!

So, Nick got the viking tattoo he'd been wanting for so long, but the party didn't stop there.

We needed buddy tattoos as well.

Of course we did.

Nick did the drawing and Allan did the stencil that was used on all three of us.

Magic.

 Nick went first

Next up was Allan (Nick is concentrating hard on trying to figure out Allans machine, and the whole "stencil" concept too)

I was the last one up

Well, what else could it be?

Happy nerds

As a special treat for Nicks clients, i hereby give you a video of your tormentor being tormented... you all earned it!

*I wanna say more on the subject, cause lots more needs to be said, but i think i'll leave it at that for now.
I wanna be able to stay in denial just a little longer.

More butt roses

I was just about to post something on my personal blog, when i realized that i didn't really have anything to blog about.
It's a real problem for me these days; either we get home super late and i'm too tired to blog, or nothing new and exciting really happened.
That's winter for you, i guess.
Just lots of work and lots of xbox playing.

But back to this blog, where i actually have a little update on a really cool piece.
Anne got another session on her... well, her ass, mostly, last week.
Still only lines, but now there are thicker lines, thinner lines and yeah, basically just a hell of a lot more lines.

The fanciest butt in town

Hopefully i'll have another update on this epic piece soon, so stay tuned!

Sad, but true

Today was Nicks last workday at Conspiracy Inc.
In like, ever.
I mean, it's not like he's never coming back to visit, he totally will, but as of today, he doesn't really work here anymore.
It's strange to think about, after all these years. Too strange really, so i actually prefer not to.

... and his last official piece here was a touch up too... what!?!

Check his blog to see all the finally finished pieces, and one shots, he's been working on for the last few months.

More projects

Yesterday my parents drove in from the country with our new dark room.
Or, everything we're gonna need to put in it, that is. The room itself has yet to be built, but we're working on it.
And we're wondering why the shop is never gonna be finished?
Maybe we shouldn't.

I have no pictures of the back room, because it's a total mess, but i do have a picture of my new custom made granny blanket!

Thank yous

It's the last day of 2010 and we've had quite a year.
Anyone who knows us, or follows our blogs, knows that 2010 was the year that we moved to our new home in Schleppegrellsgade. And although the decision to move to this particular location looked like a terrible idea at first, it actually turned out to be a good one in the end.
We love our new home and couldn't imagine being anywhere else.
But that doesn't mean that it didn't nearly kill at times. It's been a rough path, getting to where we are now, and not just for us.
Without the help and support of our team of carpenters and painters, the shop simply wouldn't have happened. There was only so much we could do ourselves, so if they hadn't decided to go all-in with us, we wouldn't have made it, and the shop wouldn't be the magical place it is today; a place we actually look forward to going to every day.
They basically worked two jobs for months and got even less sleep during that period than we did, and trust me, that wasn't much. Some day oil paintings of their handsome faces will grace the walls of Conspiracy Inc. Or we'll write a nice song about them or something, but for now they just get a blog post dedicated to them.

Our friends and family have also been a huge support throughout the year. Whether they helped us paint our new walls, loaned us money when our most valuable equipment broke down, gave us crap to put in our empty new shop, or loaned us their car so we could go to a million flea markets, it would have been hard to get to where we are now without them.

I know this is turning into a lame blog version of the Queens new years speech, and that really wasn't where i was going with this, but i have to give one last thank you. To our clients.
In the beginning, around March when we first moved, there was no furniture for them to sit on, no real entrance, and in some rooms, no floor. In the winter time there was (or is) very little heating and some days they'd be lying almost naked in a freezing room for hours and hours, and afterwards they'd give us money.
They keep coming up with awesome ideas for the guys to tattoo, and rarely complain when they get something completely different from what they initially asked for. And sometimes they bring us cake too.
Thanks guys, i hope you know that we appreciate the crap out of you!

Last tattoo of 2010; Jon's death metal swallow

We hope you all have a super happy new year, wherever your are, and we hope to see you at the shop or around the globe in 2011!

Not this shit again...

Four weeks. We had out perfect, awesome, beloved kitchen back for four weeks, and now the ceiling is leaking again.
I don't know what kind of retard they got to "fix" the leak, but obviously he didn't do a very good job.
We got people on it already, and luckily it doesn't seem to be dripping constantly, but holy shit was it depressing getting back to work today.
Oh, and Allan had a no-show too.
And it's not even Monday!

Bye bye, perfect white ceiling, it was nice knowing you

I'll be back in a few days with a post that's less of a downer. Maybe i'll even post some tattoo pictures, who knows!?

Guns & ammo

Sunday we had our (first) annual Conspiracy Christmas party.
Or Christmas hangout you might call it, since four people in a kitchen does not a party make... but close enough!
Nick and me made some pretty amazing food while Allan tattooed Martin. Our friend Suzy came by, with Lucifer's best friend Palma, to sew some doggie clothes and i made Christmas presents.
After dinner we listened to jazz and then converted the basement into a shooting range.
That's just how we roll.

Our BFF came by to get his Christmas present (a portrait of his mom)

The Conspiracy library is both educational and entertaining

The tards getting ready for dinner

Beuf Veganoff (Get it? We thought it was hilarious!)

Presents for some, post-it's for others (what? I've been busy and i totally am gonna get them stuff, so back off!)

This is what "WTF?!" looks like

Don't worry, it's not real, we ain't THAT crazy*

One of the perks of having a tattoo shop; easy access to script books and stencil paper

Allans pile

Ready to settle it with the Canadians once and for all?

Lucifer wasn't a fan, but the rest of us had a great time!
The next day, me and the ninja went downstairs again to kill something

Only this time it wasn't innocent plastic bottles, but a terrible beast (possibly from outer space) we had to deal with

We're only gonna be at the shop some days during Christmas, so if you really need to get in touch, don't call or drop by, just send us an email.
But if there's any chance it can wait, please wait to contact us until after new years.

Happy holidays, everyone!


*If anyone should be interested in an explanation, and i'm sure that some of you are; Nick decided to get rid of some of his most priced possessions since he's moving to Hong Kong where everything is dirt cheap, and that's why Eckel is now the lucky owner of a bb gun!