Guest Artist "Tex" April 4-8, 2018

Tex will be back for her yearly visit this April 4-8, 2018. Email her with your wonderful ideas and she will make them come to life. "I am coming atcha April 4-8! And taking project ideas now. Email me if you wanna be included." email: Tex@textattoo.com .......................................... #authentictattoo #textattoo #sftatto#sanfranciscotattoo #portlandtattoo #pdxtattoo#guestspot — at Authentic Tattoo (Tex Tattoo).

 

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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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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Guest Tackatooer/ Matt Howse* August 15-16, 2012

 

 

 

Matt is coming in today. I think he may be over Mt. Shasta as I write this. Hope he doesn't wear out his arms on the flight up from San Francisco. We've got  a long week ahead of us. Matt and I will be in Seattle tomorrow for the Seattle Tattoo Expo until sunday and then we will be back in Portland for some fun, tackatooing and hopefully some painting time.

If you haven't set your appointment with him as of yet, you may be shit out of luck. But just in case, you may contact him to find out his schedule at:

m@reliabletattoos.com

or contact us if you have any questions.

503.234.7071

Let the adventure begin.

June and July 2012

Keeping up with keeping up. Having started into our summer guest cycle.

Summer is really here.

Though today we have had some needed showers, for those that have gardens.

After a week of eighty plus weather in consession, its a small relief for those like myself that enjoy the cool breaks between the heated kisses summer bestows upon us here in the North West.

 

First up and presently happening is Olivia's Stick n' Poke fun day.

So far....she is 7 down...20+ to go.

What a fun and unique way to mark the day then with an original handpoked tattoo.

The wait is worth the while!

 

At  the end of June, Danny Boy came up for aweek and brought his beautiful girlfriend Rosie along to share our paradise here with her.

They took full advantage of our bicycle friendly city and put some good miles down figuring their way around town.

Between nailing out some epic tattooing, eating at many of our tasty restaurants, digging through our vintage stores and some site seeing, the time flew by too fast.

For a final epic moment, after missing their plane home, we jumped on the Motorcylces and road up to my local cemetery to enjoy a splendid view of the sun setting over the Willamette valley.

I missed them as soon as they left the city.

Til next time.

 

Riding the waves.

Fortune Tattoo has been included in some awesome projects this year.

We were included in Bob Baxter's Tattoo Road Trip book on tattoo shops around Oregon. The book is being published by Schiffer Book Publications and should be available for purchase sometime in 2013.

An entire day was spent with our clients here at Fortune while Bob took photos of their work.

We had a great time seeing the diversity our works in one room.

Bob also did small interviews with all the shop owners included in the book, so make sure to check them out on his site.

They are all well worth watching.

We will keep you posted on when the book comes out.

Oregon Represent!

"Alis Volat Propriis".

Also, Fortune Tattoo was included as one of  Matador Magazine's top twenty Iconic Tattoo shops in the world.

I had not done an interview for them, but was pleasantly surprised to see something nice being written about us by someone outside of our Tattoo community.

There are many good articles about other shops on this site, if you are wandering the globe and wish to know the short list to some places worth dropping into.

Olivia also participated in the Pretty Pretty collective down in SF. Hopefully I will be able to participate next year.

I have been in school this summer and have been nailed down to making my brain stretch a few new miles of synapsis growth.

It is a delight to know old dogs can learn new tricks.

I will try to get back to this and update more of our fun happenings.

Next on Track is Lisa Schmoldt and Matt Howse, Faerie Worlds, Seattle Tattoo Expo., among other history making events coming soon.

 

 

 

 

Before September 2011

Where to begin. Summer here in Portland crept in late and seems to be creeping out just as it came in. Without a bang. In the beginning of August, I joined Lisa Schmoldt  in Seattle for the 10th anniversary show there at the expo. I was pleasantly surprised. I really like that show. I had not been there since the National show where they roasted Ed Hardy a few years back. And before that, was when Dennis Dwyer had his show there. That was one of the last times I saw Eric Hogan alive. He was toting his son Dixon around on his shoulder looking as happy as ever. I had also tattooed Danny Dringenberg's hand in our hotel room that weekend. It was a cover up on top of a cover up on top of a cover up. O joy. The funny part, was when we started, he wipes his brow and tells me he just ate an eighth of mushshrooms. I remember laughing and telling him, "ok, here we go, I'm right in there with you buddy". Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be writing about the recent past. Ok, well the Seattle show was terrific. I will definitely be back next year. Between all the work, the parties, art shows and the yummy dinners, my favorite memory was at the end of the show. Under the Needle fed us an amazing meal and then had the party buses scoop us up and take us to The Stables. I love that place. The cross made of flies, really ate at my brain for a week or so, and  creeped me out thinking about it on my drive home that night.  My friend Matt Howse was here holding down the fort with the rest of the Fortune crew. I was excited to get back  to Portland to have some quality time with Matt before he bounced back to SF. I was able to persuade him in taking a ride out to our replica of stonehenge out off the 84hwy nears Biggs Oregon on one of our days off. We rode about 230 miles that day. Just a juant. Along the way, we took him past Crown Point and down the historic hwy to see all the falls. It was a beautiful day and I am so happy to have shared that experience with him. The next day, we took him down the Clackamas river on tubes. Its about a three to five hour trip. Depending on how often you stop to hang and watch people float by. Weve been able to go about five times this year on our days off. I love it. It reminds me to take a minute and enjoy the simple beauties in life. Cheap fun worth the effort. Matt made some pretty at the shop. I am really stoked to have had him here for the week, he is one of my favorite people on the planet. Crammed to the gillet with talent and integrity. I look forward to having him here next year. I love having our guest artist friends come hang and add to the creative buzz we have going on. The shop has been running smoothly. I am so grateful to all our clients for letting us make such awesome tattoos on them. Many of the most recent tattoos have challenged me to push forward and to take a step out of my comfort zones. I love feeling like even after all these years, there is still so much to learn. Anyhow, thought I'd update you with our shenanigans. Take it easy. M

The end of July

Hello there. Here we are at the end of July already.

A whirlwind of events have taken place over the past month. I can not account for all of it. So here are some high-lights.

At the beginning of July we had Lisa Schmoldt here from Florida. She had started her west coast tour in Long Beach California in the beginning of June. She went there to hang with the pirates and the mermaids, at the tattoo show being held down there on the Queen Mary. She then migrated north to Eugene Oregon to hang out at Fairie Worlds for a weekend of flittering and mead drinking. When she finally arrived in Portland, she was covered in glitter and fairie dust. She spoke with the air of a cantankerous salty sailor that had spent a long while with the argh's, e's and the bargh's. We swooped her up fast. Got her geared up properly and planted her butt on the back of my bike for some Portland adventures.  She made fast time in making friends with our biker pals. Mind you she is a polite, fairie loving tattooed lady...that can out talk the knarliest of the bunch. By the time we were done with her, or may I say she was done with us...the glitter had long fallen off in a pair of fingerless rubber gloves. We loved having her here and look forward to next year's adventures.

Danny Boy was supposed to come up for a visit from SF and ended up canceling his trip because his mom who is a saint of sorts, when it comes to taking care of herself. Got diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer. So he stayed to pull together a benefit to help raise some money to help her with living expenses. I pray for them everyday. Its quite an eye opener of how precious we all are and how even the healthiest of us, can be prey to disease. If you would like to donate please contact Danny. I believe there is a paypall account set up for the cause.

We had the legendary Madame Vyvyn Lazonga come down from Seattle to spend some quality time with us at Fortune. Vyvyn is a treasure trove of tattoo stories and tattoo experience. She arrived in Portland and without hesitation, geared up in my old Langlitz and boots. Fitted with a helmet and gloves, she jumped on my bike and showed me she was no novice to riding. We rode to Toro Bravo to meet up with our friends from AWR who were celebrating Jeff Groci's, from Seventh Son, last night in Portland. We ate our hearts fill from the chef's pick. It was a fine dinner to welcome such a wonderful woman to Portland and say "til' next time" to Jeff. Over the five days Vyvyn was here, we spoke alot about how the women of the tattoo industry have had little to any opportunity handed to them. Not that "our kind" wants anything without working hard for it. It was interesting to discuss this topic with Vyvyn and see that it has been going on her entire, almost forty years, career. I had thought when the old timers died off, the men's club attitude would go to the grave with them. Instead, those old boots, so to speak,  got filled with less talented, less interesting, more egotisical self promoters, who seem to think throwing in a token lady tattooer suffices to including us in the game. In Vyvyn and my dicussion, we both agreed, we dont want a men's club vs. a woman's club. We would like to see more of an effort to reward the solid women tattooers that made a difference in the industry. Shoulder to shoulder with the men folk, hands down past gender, reward them for the works they have done. To quote Vyvyn, " in the past women, in the writer's industry, had to take on sudo-names, to be acknowledged.  Men seem to organize better, be more motivated to self promote and are more clan like in nature". We would like those women that have participated in making a change be recognized and included. That's all. I recently saw a top twenty five list of tattooers, that were of inspiration to some of my friends in the industry. What hit me, was most of all the tattooers listed were men. Some of which had learned their technique, style from women, that they had worked for or under. Which is not mentioned. If I were to make a top twenty five list of tattooers that have inspired me as a tattooer. There are nearly as many women on my list as men. Not sure what that says about me, other than perhaps, I dont mind admitting, where I get my inspiration. Maybe knowing where certain techniques orginated from and by whom, gives me a different perspective, who knows. What came about from our talks, was that in the end. We have to do it ourselves. Seems no one is going to share the pie unless we jump in and take some for ourselves. And no, having a tv show that depicts that it takes longer to put on my lipstick than to draw a backpiece is not a piece of the pie. My problem with the current situation is, this is history being made. History, that people ten years from now, will think is fact. When in reality, most of the publications to date, have been nothing short of a circle jerk of people, social clicks that have had the means to publish their voices and their works. Regurgitating the same iconic imagery and stroking themselves for re-inventing the wheel. These are some of the same people that have  supported  the social ladder climbers, and the user friendly douchebags that get a quick taste of fame without it being due. These people tend to have ego's out fitting their talent. They are abusive, undeserving and need to step to the back of the line. Come on folks. Support those that have a body of work, that have stories to share from real life experiences. People that positivily touched others and made a dent, if not a canyon, of growth for all of us. In fine perspective, more people should know Vyvyn. She paved the way for those that run the course. She is still working hard, everyday. She like a few others, sacrificed everything for this art. She is still pushing her limits, challenging herself and keeping up with the times. Vyvyn did a live broadcast with Bob Baxter while she was here. We had dicussed speaking about this topic during the interview. I wish she would have. Maybe next time the opportunity arises. I hope you will keep Vyvyn in your scopes and keep updated with her accomplishments. There is so much to learn from this kind woman of our business. She is the real deal. Vyvyn ended her stay here in Portland celebrating Mary Jane's thirtieth tattoo birthday at Oaks Park. Mary Jane is another force to be reconed with in our industry. You should know who she is and her colorful history in tattooing.

Finally, yesterday, we celebrated at the FFMC clubhouse to raise money for a little girl that needs support from the community. There was a great turn out and the battle of the bands was epic. Lots of bikes. Lots of good food. Lots of good people coming together for a great cause. http://frannyfund.tumblr.com/

Til' next time, M