AARON RIDDLE

Levi Memorial show 7/15/2011

2011-07-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

So I'll have a full review and pictures up tomorrow! I still have a shit ton left to post. Feel free to take these images and do whatever you like with them. I have full high-res images all set to 8x12" at 300dpi if anyone wants prints. This show was amazing and event though I didn't know Levi you can definitely tell he was a great person just by judging the company he kept. Such good vibes, great energy, and probably the best all around show I've been to in ages!

Long time no post!

2011-07-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

So here's the deal, I've been super busy tattooing and doing things at the shop. I haven't had much time for posts on photography or tattooing so here's a whole boat load of tattoos I've done most of which are on facebook! Thanks and enjoy...

Audrey fuckin' Hepburn...

2011-05-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

So today I did a portrait I was really proud of! I like to do portraits very high contrast with lots of black and whip shading. It's just kinda how they turn out after doing them for awhile. To be honest, I wish I could do the super soft extremely detailed pieces you see in a lot of magazines but I'm pretty content with the direction mine are heading in. I'm more concerned with how these bad boys heal up in the long run then matching the exact tonal qualities of the said portrait. You see, to me most of that shit just fades away after a few months anyways so I'd rather go too dark and have it lighten up in a month or so then to be too light after a few weeks. Anyways, this took around 2 and a half hours and I got to use my Seth Ciferri liner I got awhile back for once. Normally I'd only use it to do super fine line tattooing but I gave it a shot as a shader and god damn it blew me away!

Now it's time for a rant. So here's the thing, I don't care about how I'm perceived in the tattoo world or to my peers. The people who know me in person know me to be a very caring, mild mannered individual who often talks alittle too much and is alittle too open. So with that being said, I'm not gonna sugar coat shit from now on. So here we go! It seems to me a growing trend in my town is spreading like the plague. Suddenly every shop has artists who apparently are "award" winning artists and only do custom work but at the same time are apparently given high critical acclaim in the tattoo world. Now, what's funny is that most of these guys bragging are the ones who put out the worst work. My complaint though is that they claim to work in street shops dedicated to doing solely what the customer wants and providing them with fast tattoos. So how can you be a street shop if you only do custom work and don't have a single lick of fucking flash on your tattoo shop's walls? It makes no sense. Also, I'll come out and fucking say it, I am by no way, shape or form ready to enter my work into competitions. This is an area of tattooing I'll never venture into because to me it's more rewarding to have a complete stranger see my work and get tattooed by me then to see a bullshit trophy and make their decision based on some "award" I may have won at a shitty convention like the assholes in my town do. I focus day in and day out on bettering myself as an individual artist both inside and out of tattooing so that I can further my skills and be a more well rounded individual. NOTHING pisses me off more then when I see a fucking tattooer in my town claiming to have gotten bored with tattooing because they conquered all it had to offer and was "too easy". Tattooing will never get easy to me because I try to see my work without an ego and understand I always have room for improvement. So to all the faggot fucking hack jobs in my town, go fuck yourselfs. If you're too good for improvement you're too good for me to give a fuck about you. I'd rather be hated by every single shop around me then to waive my convictions as an artist. More people need to stand up and say what they feel is right or wrong no matter how rediculous it is. We're not all friends. Most of us will never be. For those of us that are, you know what's up.

Baltimore Road Trip and a Crazy Rant

2011-05-25T06:07:00.000-07:00

So me and Manda Jo' just got back from an awesome road trip out to Baltimore to our good friends Aneli and Rob Levering. We made our first pit stop in Morgantown, WV and let me tell you, it was fucking beautiful. The weather sucked driving out but shit got better the farther east we traveled. We played everything by ear and didn't use GPS or any of that nonsense for this trip. Instead I did shit like a real man and looked at a fucking map. Granted, the map was on my phone so it takes away alittle credibility but it was still a map. I don't need some fucking lady in a fake british accent telling me which area to turn at. Fuck that.

So we hit Baltimore early afternoon on Friday after staying in a sweet hotel in Morgantown. Let me tell you, Baltimore is sketchy as fuck. So needless to say it reminded me of home. Regardless, there is something amazing about driving through the mountains and rolling hills and seeing cities built in the hillside. I did three tattoos over the weekend and got to see some pretty cool shit. One of the most humbling experiences was being able to tattoo their friends daughter's names on his arm. It was a special request I don't get very often but I'm proud I was able to tattoo him.

Moving on, we checked out a sweet fucking town called Ellicott City. We went to the same woods they filmed the Blair Witch Project at. We checked out this sweet fucking mountain/rock thing that had a ton of graffitti and human hair all over the place. But enough of the bullshit here's some more pictures...

This is me sitting at the edge of a huuuge cliff. Obviously I'm pointing to myself because I'm fucking awesome.

Chilling at the Baltimore Harbor.

As you can see, Manda Jo' is a scumbag (on our way to the appalachians)

This picture doesn't capture how huge that valley was below

A real badass pirate ship.

This ship was chilling at the Baltimore Harbor

Drinkin in Ellicott City

Morgantown WV river

Aneli and Rob


Awesome Graffitti in an abandoned old factory in Ellicott City

Now it's time for the tattoo rant...Alright listen up, if you're a tattoo artist and are complaining about the state of work ethics that my current generation has then you need to re-evaluate what you do for a living. How the fuck are you gonna complain about people having no work ethic and not working a hard days work in your life when YOU are the one who sits in an air conditioned chair all fucking day drawing on people? Seriously, tattoo artists have no right to talk about actual hard manual labor or complain about anyone who doesn't do manual labor. We don't sit in a 165 degree fucking oven banging away all day on molten hot steel plates or weld shit 500 feet up on scaffolding at an oil refinery. We don't roof houses for a living in beating sun, nor do we fuck with this outside in the winter. Shit, with the amount of money most of make we aint even fucking blue collar. So quit the tough guy act for all you out there trying to be social commentators for the working world. There's a huge difference from working hard in an office and working hard in a factory. I take pride in my job and the fact that I don't have to do manual labor. It's one of the perks to what we do but the only reason why we are on a level playing field with those who are truly blue collared badasses is because we mostly supply the middle class with tattoos. That is the only thing we have in common with them. So stop lying to yourselves, your not a working class hero. You're an artist (or a "tattooer") who sits in a comfy chair all day. So lets leave the hero shit for the guys who truly do hard work. I support the fuck out of anyone who busts their ass doing hard manual labor for a living. You blue collar guys are right up there in my book along with Soldiers, Fireman, and yeah I guess some police officers. Either way, quit stealing the true working class's thunder.

So without further ado... here's some actual tattoos I've done recently.

I just did this tattoo on an awesome client/friend of mine Jeff Smith. This was his grandfather's actual plane that he flew on missions during WWII. And yes, this is on a bicep. Jeff currently benches 405lbs so don't make fun of him. He might flex you to death!

This is a horrible pic I got of a tattoo I did for charity. I can only hope tattooers would come to my side and help me out even if they didn't know who I was. We gotta support our own! Anyways, this is Ben Franklin if you can't tell. I'll get a healed pic soon!

A lesson in portraits...

2011-05-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

So I did a portrait a few weeks back on a really nice guy from Tennessee. This portrait was done from a tiny 1" picture that was taken back in the early 60's. 1961 I think is the year he said. This tattoo is of his mother who passed away recently.
So, after some consideration, I decided to show how much a difference it makes when properly taking a photograph of a portrait and how dramatic the changes can be in appearance regarding positioning of the camera, body, lighting etc. I made these images side by side to show how a portrait changes once healed. At first, I could tell my customer was alittle worried about how dark the tattoo itself was and how it was portrayed not only in the mirror when he looked at it but also how it was photographed. I had to take about 10 pictures before I got the one with the best view to represent it. It's extremely important to do this because unless you saw this tattoo in person, an image is the only representation I have to show for my work. So many artists out there are quick to take a photo and slap it up online without much thought as to how it represents the tattoo itself. I've recently acquired a Canon EOS Rebel T3i and it has drastically changed the dynamic my portfolio now has. Almost no editing was done to these photos besides cropping them and slightly changing levels to adjust a more natural light setting. Also as you can see in the photo, the image on the right is still in the semi healing process. It's alittle glossy looking once it's enlarged.

Another video...

2011-05-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

This is a youtube version of another video I shot on sunday night out in Fort Wayne. Unfortunately my vimeo account won't let me upload it until next week ( I haven't gotten the "pro" account yet) so the quality is alittle shitty on this one. However, here's Leroy and the boys doing two Hank covers and closing with a pretty original. I really like how this video came out because it really shows how much energy can come from a show with almost no one in attendance and the band still fucking rocked that shit. Stay tuned for more!

Hellbound Glory@ The Brass Rail 5/15/11

2011-05-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

So here's my first time shooting a band's live video or any video for that matter. I had a lot of fun with this shit and experimenting around with selective focus and what not.

Alright, time for the review now. This was my first going to the Brass Rail in Fort Wayne Indiana and let me tell you, this bar is a hidden fucking treasure. True grit is truly felt sitting on the old worn down barstools and flyer plastered walls. Hellbound Glory hits the stage and they were just as true and gritty as the venue itself. None of that wannabe "outlaw country" shit here. Every song's lyric pertained to true life stories and events and it showed everytime Leroy belted out those sweet sweet tunes. Great dudes, great music, and a great fucking time. We partied just as hard as they played and they shook that fucking joint down. With covers of Hank Sr, Merle, and Waylon strung throughout the set, it added to the lowdown vibes and simple dirt of the night. Definitely see this band live.

Hellbound Glory 5/15/11 from Aaron Riddle on Vimeo.

5/14/2011

2011-05-14T19:22:00.000-07:00

I just finished up this super sweet virgin mary tattoo. I had an open saturday afternoon for the first time in months so I was excited that my friend Topher was able to get in on short notice. We based this tattoo off traditional catholic imagery. I really like how it turned it out! I feel like I'm finally being able to follow the direction of tattooing that seems to be the best for me. Sometimes they say if you got a good thing just take it and run with it so I think I'm going to start focusing on the more bold, basic aspects of tattooing from now on. It's been a love/hate relationship on the direction I'm trying to head towards but I feel as if it's finally starting to show. I'm in a weird transitional period in my tattooing at the moment if you can't tell by now with my work. My 4 year tattooing mark is coming up in a few months and I'm still nowhere close to where I wanted to be when it hit but there's always time to work on it. All I got is time.

I'll be usin' this a hell of a lot more now...

2011-05-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

I'm done with facebook so from now on I'll only post my tattoos and tattoo progress on this site. You'll also see much more insightful writings and ramblings, photography, and social commentary on my travels and journeys in the future. For now here's some new tattoos I've been messing around with.

I did this tattoo on Manda Jo my wonderful girlfriend. Both our families are from the south and each of our families faught on both sides of the war. This tattoo is paying respects to our heritage and history.

This tattoo is on Rod owner of Wicked Ways Tattoo in Lakeville, IN. He's an amazing artist and a super cool dude.

I had a lot of fun with this portrait. It was taken off a super small grainy photo from the early 60's. It was definitely a challenge.

Old style phonograph. I think the is the Edison version?

Horrible photo that's why I made it black and white. I really wanna do more with traditional meets realism in the future. Ben Franklin is the man!

This tattoo was done almost two years ago. I finally got a good healed pic recently. This is a god damn biker tattoo if I've ever seen one! Gotta love old spaulding flash!

Easter Sunday

2011-04-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

Drinking booze, pills, and country music. My Easter Sunday was awesome. I did alot of kickass painting.

Jesus's second coming...

2011-04-22T01:09:00.000-07:00

A depiction from the bible of the dude who's gonna come down and kill all the non believers while him and angels along with sparrows eat the flesh of all the non believers in the name of the lord during the second coming of Christ...and they say Hitler was bad! Oh lordy!

In progress piece

Alright...enough of the bullshit.

2011-04-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

Alright so I'm done with the shit talking and ranting for awhile. I think I'm going to make my blog alittle more "consumer conscious". So with that being said, I'll be updating this thing alot more frequently based on the tattoos I feel like showing the world.

So I did this sweet little panther/rose combo on my buddy Jaaron's hand yesterday. I made a sketch one morning and this is a concept I've always wanted to try doing and I really enjoyed it. Jaaron is really easy going and his pretty open to letting me do what I want so I had a blast tattooing this piece.

In other news, I jammed the fuck out to Nachtmystium pretty much all day today. They really opened my eyes as to what a band can really do once they're pigeon holed into a musical genre filled with purists. It's really refreshing to hear a band expand their boundaries and add influences not normally heard in that said genre and make it flow. Lately I've been on a huge Miranda Lambert kick but I feel like dark, ambient music is starting to find itself slowly getting back onto my musical playlist inside my head. I think tomorrow I'll probably end up listening to Earth for most of the day.

Healed tattoos and road trips...

2011-04-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

Just got back from an awesome trip to Natchitoches, Louisiana. I went to Tattoo Paradise run by Maxx Tucker, one of the coolest dudes I've met so far on my journeys. It was nice to get out of Indiana for a minute and see how other shops are run, how clienteles differ, and so forth. Needless to say it was an eye opener. For the first time, I was in a town that was NOT oversaturated with tattooers. This was a small town with two shops. I wouldn't even call the other shop a "shop" more like a sex store with ex-cons tattooing in it. Pretty weird. Anyways, if you're ever in that area be sure to hang out with Max cuz he sure knows the meaning of southern hospitality. I tattooed nonstop and met alot of cool locals. Hell, we even ate some kickass sushi with a cajun twist.

As far as tattoos goes, here's some healed up shit I've been doing recently as well as some cool sketches.

This piece you see here is from a game called "stubbs the zombie" stubbs up top is all healed up and the piece below it is fresh. I had alot of fun with this one because I don't get to do too much shit like this...

Healed up portrait. Real small on the forearm.

Some sketches for my upcoming book I'm doing.

And finally all healed up Einstein! We added the hair in a second session and I just now got a full healed pic of this piece!

I figured I should post some pics of my trip to LA as well. Not LA as in Los Angeles, but rather Louisiana (the better of the two) Fuck California...

New Posts it's been awhile.

2011-03-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

So I lost the password to my blog site so all the ranting, raving, and drunk bullshit has all been directed towards facebook. Typically if you've seen a rant on my facebook it's because I'm drunk, drinking, partying, or taking the occasional pills. I'm a grown man and make my own decisions on how I like to have. With that being said, I'm make a book called the "The Criminal Coloring Book". It'll be a showcase of art with 30 double sided pages featuring pen and ink artwork ment for enjoyment NOT tattooing. I'm so sick of all you artists half assing flash and just putting out "sketch" books with scribbles of tattoos you've already done and then selling them and then getting pissed when people rip your shit off. So what I've done, is already take images that are well known and seen the world over, put my spin on them using characters I know in real life, in which a story will be placed along with each illustration. Here's a small preview of what's to come!

Titties and beer...

2011-01-09T09:38:00.000-08:00

Two things I don't have right now. No beer cuz I can't drink for awhile. No titties cuz they're at the gym. Off to a bad start right? Anyways, I don't have much to complain or rant about. Things have been going great. I'm officially convinced we're all descendents of ancient aliens. Just thought I'd share that!

Good times...good times.

2011-01-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

So I've had a pretty awesome last couple of days. I've been almost entirely surrounding myself with art be it painting, tattooing, taking pictures, the more I immerse myself in it, the better I feel. The image you see on the right, I painted for my good friend Jered Peters.

Now, photography is something that I've been interested in for years now. Sure call me a bandwagon jumper or whatever but I truly enjoy taking pictures and what I like even more, is being able to use the picture I've taken and put the work. My basic goal for this new year is to stop creating images based off of google searches or facebook, but rather (given the opportunity) create my own real life references through photography and apply it to my tattooing. Someone once said "you're good at everything but a master at nothing" on facebook. None of us are ever masters. It doesn't mean that we can't stop the pursuit towards that goal. However, it's totally possible to master mechanics, numbers, equations, and all the factors that go towards creating art or the tools I should say. It's the thought behind it that we'll always be on the search for. So all in all, read your fucking camera's manual and you'll take some pretty damn good looking pictures.

Animal Abuse

2011-01-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

Looks how fucking cute Ashton is! He's my little bully boy! Alright, so nothing pisses me off more than a customer who fucking brags about hurting animals. First off, this guy was a total asshole. He treated his wife like shit and was the most condescending person I've talked to in months. Not too bad for the new year right? So this hillbilly gets this ridiculous back piece. Seriously middle fingers, snakes, skulls, "don't tread on me" bullshit. No joke. I mean hillbilly as fuck. BUT, this was my first backpiece I've ever done that I was given total control on. It was redneck but I made it look pretty sweet. So I tell him how excited I was to do my first back piece like this and he says in total seriousness "are you kidding me? I think I should just go to the guy next door who actually has alittle bit of experience then". I look him dead in the eyes and I say "listen dude, a tattoo is still a tattoo no matter how big it is or where it's at. look at my fucking portfolio and shut up." This is how we started out day.

He then decides to tell me how he beat his pitbulls head into the sidewalk because he was dragging it by its neck and it decided to bite him. Real fucking smart eh? I hate people. This is my vent for the day. 1-1-11 looks like its gonna be a looooong year.

Before we start, Paco is a fucking siant. Second rant, I'm sick of the lack of work ethic in most tattoo artists. I hope you guys starve yourselves out. It's not even than I'm upset that there is so many tattoo artists around me, I just can't fathom why you would want to take the day off when you just took 3 days off for christmas, a day off for thanksgiving, and now two days off for the new year when tomorrow is sunday. Get a fucking clue, get a fucking work ethic. Make money and tattoo.

Just in time!

2010-12-29T19:46:00.000-08:00

So you're gonna hear a lot of bitching, ranting, and raving from an excessive drinking elitist asshole. If you don't like it, don't read it. I'm using this to vent and let out my daily frustrations in a way that is not only constructive but also entertaining for myself. Usually I'm intoxicated when I write in these things anyways. For now, we'll start off with a tattoo. I did this today and a really cool chick. This was her dog that she grew up with and protected her as a child. Nothing is more sacred than an animal who is willing to give you nothing but unconditional and never ending love at all costs.

Today was pretty sweet. I got to do some really nice tattoos on a lot of nice people. My morning started off shitty though. Alot was going through my mind. One of the main things that I've been dwelling on lately is this whole machismo attitude in the tattoo world going on right now. People think that because of your accomplishments you should be given respect. They forget that respect is earned not given and I don't care who you are or what you've currently done or contributed to the tattoo world, if I don't know you I shouldn't have to respect you. Plain and simple. I respect what our forefathers have done and paved the way for us in the past, BUT at the same time I'm not gonna suck anyone's dick because you can paint a nice flash set and have a bunch of jerkoffs at a tattoo convention tell you how "clean" your work is. I don't care what groups you belong to or "secret" societys you're in. I've ran with the toughest and best there is in that world and let me tell you something, aint nothing glamorous about living a life looking outside your window every day hoping someone won't blow your house up. You tattoo artists that think you're tough need to understand there will always be people out there like me. The guy that doesn't give a shit. Because quite frankly, in the end, no one gives a shit except the people we're putting the tattoos on. Everything else can go suck a dick.