My hands by Christopher Onstott for Buddhadharma magazine summer issue 2015

I had a pleasant surprise to see my hands pictured in this summer's issue of Buddhadharma magazine. Christopher Onstott took this photo while Maitripa College was preparing for HH visit and during our meditation class on emptiness. I am really happy my hands are making their way around the globe tattooed, scarred and with love. Thanks to whomever is responsibile. Cheerfully, M unnamed-4image.aspx

Eddy Deutsche legendary Tattooer in Portland 6/10-14/2015

I am greatly honored to announce that Eddy Deutsche will be tattooing at Fortune this June. We are extremely lucky to be able to have such a talented and kind person such as Eddy visit our humble little shop.

This will be Eddy's first time working in our beautiful city. I am stoked to be able to share it with him and his family.

If you would like to get a piece by him while he is here, please email him directly at: eddyd222@gmail.com

And check out more of his works and his full bio on his website. Your mind will be blown.

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Compound Art Show

Olivia and Mikki have pieces in the Compound Art Show located at 107 NW 5th street. Opening night was last night.

I heard it was shoulder to shoulder in the gallery being it was Portland Art Walk night downtown.

I am happy they were able to draw folks in to celebrate the opening of the show. I will be going down this week to check out the other artist's work with Dboy and Kristin.

If you get a chance please go down and check it out. Cheers, unnamed-15unnamed-5

Guest Artist Tiffany Garcia 4/29-5/3/15

Tiffany Garcia of Ink Apothecary will be
working with us April 29th-May 3rd.
"I try to let my work speak for itself.
Striving to create a personal masterpiece for each person I get the honor to tattoo.
I keep my style versatile as to not segregate myself from certain pieces that someone
may want done in a particular way.
I'm here here to create for you."
Follow me on Instagram @coffinqueen
or contact her directly at:
(562)756-9700

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10 Highest Rated Tattoo Shops in Portland

10 Highest Rated Tattoo Shops in Portland We made it on a list. As some of you know, I am generally not a fan of lists. They always exclude someone who should be on them or are written by people that have nothing to do with our business. And most often they lack the knowledge or experience to make a list accurately honoring those that deserve to be acknowledged. Seldom does a list get made that is well researched. This list however, has been made due to our client reviews and overall standing with clients that we have made happy. So, to you our beloved clients, this one is for you. Thank you for letting us do what we love to do.

Mahakala at Fortune Tattoo

Six-Armed Mahakala

The Six-armed Mahakala is favored by the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism, and in this manifestation is considered to be a fierce and powerful emanation of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.

He is adorned with the following symbolic attributes:

  • A crown of five skulls: This is worn by all manifestations of Mahakala and represents the transmutation of the five negative afflictions of human nature into positive virtues.
  • The Six Arms signify the successful completion of the six perfections, which are practiced and brought to perfection by bodhisattvas during the course of their training.

The arms hold various implements each of which has a symbolic significance. The first right hand holds a curved knife. In Mahakala's symbolism the curved knife cuts through the life veins of enemies such as oath-breakers and hindering spirits.

The skull cup in his primary left hand is filled with the heart-blood of these enemies. The crescent shaped chopper of the right hand corresponds in shape to the cavity of the skull cup and functions to make 'mincemeat' of the hearts, intestines, lungs, and life-veins of enemies hostile to the Dharma, which are then collected in the skull cup. A similar crescent shaped hand cleaver is used in oriental cuisine to chop meat and dice vegetables.

The next right hand holds a damaru - the hourglass-shaped drum, signifying the primordial sound from which is said to have originated all manifested existence. Its rattle is also said to emanate the sound that arouses us from our ignorant state, coaxing us on to the path of Dharma.

The uppermost right hand holds a rosary of skulls. The continuous counting of the rosary is a symbol of perpetual activity, which Mahakala achieves on a cosmic scale.

Another left hand holds a trident which represents the Three Jewels of Buddhism, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.Finally there is the noose for lassoing those of us who have strayed away from the path of the Dharma.

His left leg is outstretched while the right is bent at the knee. The former symbolizes his accomplishments for the benefit of others and the latter those for himself. An elephant-headed entity lying crushed under his legs represents our instinctive, primary animal force and urge, which when unleashed can prove to be extremely destructive. The sun-disc on which Mahakala stands denotes his illumination of the darkness of ignorance, and the lotus on which this disc rests signifies his undefiled purity.

The blazing fire surrounding him demonstrates his powerful energy out to consume all neurotic states of minds. Further, his three organs of vision express his ability to see the past, present and future. That he stares at the world with wide eyes signifies that he is incensed at the current state of affairs.

Snakes slither across his body as ornaments and also as the scared thread of Brahmins. The writhing serpent is a metaphor for the stirring of our psychic instinctive and primordial energy and Mahakala's wearing them as adornments expresses the fact that rather than impede our spiritual progress, such emotions have been tamed and harnessed, becoming in the process, crowning glories of our spiritual achievements. Mahakala

"Blame it on Rio"

Rio_BenefitAugust 19th at the White Owl Social Club

 

Please come join us to honor Rio DeGennarro.

We are having a benefit to raise some money for Rio and his family.
He was recently diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
Entertainment:
Poison Idea, Witchburn, Justin Kagan and friends(members of the oregon symphony), the Peacock's Eye belly dancers.
There will be a silent auction and raffle.
Rio DeGennaro started tattooing in 1962 under the watchful eye of his father, Lou Lewis, and legendary tattooer, Bert Grimm. Over the next 50 years, Rio travelled from the Pike on Long Beach, to San Diego, to San Jose, and New York, until finally settling in the Pacific Northwest. In 2002, he joined former student, Don Deaton, at Sea Tramp Tattoo Company, After taking over the Sea Tramp Tattoo School in 2003, and renaming it the Oregon School of Tattoo Arts, Rio continues to educate and instruct the next generation of Oregon tattooers, He encompassing all aspects of the tattoo history, process, and business, and helps new tattooers lay their ground in Oregon. 

 

"Reveal What's Real". Seth and I speak candidly about our profession.

Watch video>>>>Reveal What's Real<<<<< Gap fills.

1.Tattoo schools ran by people that cannot tattoo and charge huge amounts of money to teach people what they don't know how to do within my trade, is a scam that needs to stop.

My shared opinion that reputable tattooers are not teaching the main public how to tattoo in Oregon, says a lot for the climate of who is making a living at pushing forward new fledglings into our industry. There are maybe two people I would suggest going to in this state that will teach a person, how to tattoo and all that comes with that responsibility. That's it. Two.

The system is not perfect. It never was and is long due for a new standard that eliminates the possibility of a defunct tattooer that couldn't make it tattooing from taking ten thousand dollars a pop from some naive person, just wanting a career change or looking for a life profession. Am I going to make this change by starting a school? No. I have no desire to make a living off of making more tattooers. I've had two main apprentices in my twenty six years. Who earned their apprenticeships not by paying for them. I helped flame a few other fires that I believed in, that if they could make it, would aspire to making a good change in this business for the better. And they did. If you are wanting to be a tattooer. Ask yourself, what is your reason for wanting to become a tattooer? I'm wondering what motivates everyone these days. Is it really only to make money and be famous? Yicks. Since only a couple of decades ago, we weren't regarded with much respect in society or acknowledged as being a viable trade.

2.There are tattoo pigments that are food grade and not harmful to the body. We use them daily.

The sad part of firing off answers in this type of format, is not all of a conversation is conveyed to point or made in the cut. Our filmed conversation was about the changes that came in the nineties when tattooing started getting more main stream. There was a huge surge of new companies (not ran by tattooers) popping up that were making easy to apply pigments. Bright easy to put in colors that ended up being toxic. I stayed true with my first supply company if I was not using my own pigments. At one of the shops I was working at we banned in coming artists from using a particular brand of pigment in our shop and was then threatened by the company not to slander their product after we requested a material safety data sheet. Which they refused to give us upon request.

I guess my point in bringing up something like this was how important it is for people to use the available technology to inform oneself as to whom they are getting tattooed by. If you are going to invest your money on body art, make sure you are going to someone who is qualified, educated, practices some ethics, and is trained in knowing what they are doing to you as well as what they are putting into you.

3. Fad or Art?

I've got some really beautiful work on me and I've got some really goofy tattoos on me that I got with other tattooer friends. Spontaneous tattoos to mark some silly bonding moments in some forgotten city adventures.

Do I care what I put on people...yes and no. I do practice a huge amount of responsibility as to what I am tattooing and on whom. Every person is different. Every single one of you. If a person comes in that hasn't figured out what they want to do with the rest of their life, or is in a questionable mental state and just wants to say fuck off to their parents/society by having me tattoo their face or hands. Yeah, I'm not your girl.

If you have figured out who the hell you are in this life and can live with the consequences of your actions and want to take the shock out of the closet...yeah, I may help you with that experience. All depends on who you are and how you will live it. I'm not here on this planet to help anyone compound their life with more suffering. I learned early in my career how terrible that can be.

I love tattooing and would rather make some beautiful piece on you that you can share with your future grand kids. Knowing you will not regret it later in life. Every ten years it seems the fads come back and reinvent themselves. Bastardized tribal is out now, which means it will be back in again someday not too long from now. Just like traditional americana was out for awhile and then made a huge comeback. Just like jail house single needle style tattoos were out and now are the bees knees again. I'm a walking bill board of my life career trends. You can look at my body suit and see all the fads I road in on. Today the small print text on the rib cage is hip with the kids, because they saw some rock star sporting it in a magazine.

My wish for people to make better decisions is to help them be aware of these pressures and how they make us do shit to ourselves without our completely understanding why. I can live with my goofy tattoos. I am a tattooer. Have been my entire adult life. In saying this, I would rather say no to you, than take your money.

End cap.

My intention on doing this show was to share my view point as to the condition of my industry at this time and how some positive changes could occur if some facts were made public.

I wanted to caution people to make better educated decisions about getting tattooed. To share some of the things that are bothering me and some of my colleagues. I had hoped to use this format to let people know how much of a racket the tattoo schools are and how they are hurting this profession. Not just by squirting out certificates to anyone who has the money to pay for one. But also by the lack of integrity that is being practiced in exploiting this wonderful art. Like I said in the above paragraph, no one reputable is teaching here in Oregon because anyone that is reputable, other than the two that I know of, are tattooing for a living, not teaching just to get by. There is no job placement once you get your certificate. With no portfolio to work from to show your abilities. You will not get a job at a reputable shop. I have met way to many strippers with tattoo certification that can't get a job because they haven't tattooed enough people. Hence why we made the comments as to how these fledglings after not being able to acquire a job with working tattooers, go and open up their own shops. Which over saturates our market. These same people are charging the same rates that someone with experience is charging, only to practice on you. If you are an educated collector, you know the difference. Not everyone knows.

If you are a want to be tattooer, I would hope after spending thousands of dollars to have someone shuffle you through the required hours of training to be in this industry you would want to have something to show for your investment after making it. I believe the true path to preserving this trade for the future, if you want to be a tattooer, is by taking an apprenticeship with a world class tattooer. If you don't have what it takes to inspire a master tattooer to teach you what they know, then maybe you shouldn't be a tattooer. It's really not for everyone nor was it meant to be for everyone.

This trade has such a rich history that was long over looked and under appreciated by main stream for way too long because it wasn't accepted in the norm. Now that it is accepted by society for the time being. I would like to preserve what is left of it's dignity. Real deal.