Happy New Year from Berlin

Hi guys!
Sorry it's been so friggin long with no life signs, i swear that wasn't supposed to happen!
But we have been super, insanely busy, first with packing up our entire lives in 12 days, then getting down here, and finally building our new shop and home in Berlin.
It's pretty much taken up all of our time.
Not to mention, we still don't have internet at the shop. Yeah, stuff like that can take a while here, but it's all happening, so we're not worried.

Sooo, what else have we been up to...
Mainly painting, decorating, unpacking, cleaning and going to Bauhaus. A lot.
We haven't had a lot of time to explore the city, but what we've seen, we love.
The shop is coming along nicely, but seeing how we're just two people, it's taking some time.
We also had some plumbing work done in what will eventually be the two main work rooms, so that was a bit of a setback, but we're slowly catching up.

We also went back to Denmark for Christmas, and Allan did a little guest spot at our own shop.
You'd think we'd feel more weird about that, but it's actually all good, and we can't wait to see what that crazy Dino Baby comes up with!
And we're just really happy to see our beloved shop in good hands, with someone who already knows and appreciates it. It's gonna be awesome.
I'm not gonna reveal the name he's picked for his shop just yet, cause i'm sure he'd like to do that himself, but he probably will soon!*

Ok, practical stuff.
-I'm gonna add some hotel info to the faq soon, but until then, just use hotels.com.
We're in Schöneberg, so try to find something in that area if you don't wanna be too far from the shop.

-The shop is gonna be even more of a private studio than we'd originally anticipated, so you must send us an email to book a consultation, even if it's just to check out the place, which you're of course welcome to do.
Email only, as we still don't have a phone!

-The waiting list is gonna open in a few days, i just need a chance to get in there and do some New Years cleaning first.
But expect the usual "how to sign up" post in a few days!

-Uhm.. that's it? Maybe?
I'll update you in a few days, until then, please follow us on instagram (@unclea and @floraamalie) if you wanna see what we're up to at the shop and Berlin in general.

 On our last night in Copenhagen, David finally got tattooed by Allan... what a perfect way to end our trip

Yes, very evil stuff, obviously

I also just wanna say thanks, real quick, to everyone who got tattooed by Allan in 2012, especially those few brave souls who are following us to Berlin and will continue to get tattooed even though we moved.
You all rock and we're lucky to know you.
And to all the Germans who've expressed interest in getting tattooed now that we're closer to them; thanks, we look forward to meeting you all!
And a super special thanks to those who have already gotten tattooed at the new shop; you've had to deal with some seriously messy conditions, and you still never complained. Thank you!




*Apparently some people have been wondering why the name Conspiracy Inc. didn't stay with David in Copenhagen, so let me just clarify: this never even came up.
First of all, David doesn't want our smelly old name for his very first studio, and contrary to what some may think, it's not like he paid a huge chunk of money for the rights to our name and address. He simply took over our lease, simple as that.
Second, the name Conspiracy Inc. was never tied down to any address, after all we took it with us from Nansensgade to Schleppegrellsgade, and that was way before we even worked with David.
So to sum it up; Conspiracy Inc. is me, Allan and Lucifer and whoever works with us, and although i'd sometimes like to change the name (cause it's smelly and old) changing our blog and email addresses would just be too confusing for our clients, so we're keeping it!

Wildwood Tattoo Expo 2012

     This weekend saw myself and a group of fellow Seppuku Ronin driving 3 hours down the Parkway to the 3^rd annual Wildwood Beach Bash Tattoo Convention. The plan was to have fun, go to the beach one last time before fall is officially here, and of course to win trophies for our artists. The plan was to enter ourselves into as many competitions as we could, and win as much as we could. We’re proud of our art, and want to show it off for both our artists and ourselves. They put in the work, and we put in the time and the endurance. We consider ourselves lucky to have the amazing work we do, and we jumped at the chance to show it off.

            The drive down was uneventful; we hopped in the car early in the morning, and made our way to the competition. After checking into our beachside hotel, we headed over to the convention center. The turnout wasn’t necessarily what we expected; it was actually a lot quieter and tamer than we thought it would be. There was still plenty to see however, and plenty of drinks to drink. After gambling away a large portion of our petty cash at a cheesy casino type game, we decided to scout out any photographers that might be working the convention. We talked to a few people, and found out that a “tall, super skinny blonde” was the photographer for the convention. We found her, and she immediately asked to take pictures of our work. After some very uncomfortable undressing, on my part, the first of the competitions were beginning. We had entered Best Portrait, Best Large Color, Best Extra Large Color, and Most Unusual. The judging commenced, and while we didn’t win for every category, two of my fellow Ronin took home plaques for 2^nd place in Best Large Color and Best Extra Large Color. We lost Most Unusual, which I think is bullshit, because how can you beat a photo realistic vagina? The other entries weren’t even that unusual, but I guess the judges thought otherwise. Being the huge party animals we clearly are, we passed out hard at about 10pm. This was probably best, as going to bars in Wildwood would have been a risk since it was also Bike Week. I have no issues with bikers, frankly I like them and I love motorcycles, but my love for them does not extend to being in a crowd of rowdy, drunken ones. This fear is also aided by the fact that everyone likes to tell me how abductable I am, and it’s preferable to me to make it home rather than make it onto the back of some larger biker’s Harley.

            Sunday arrived bright and shining, with our group well rested and ready to take on another day. Today was the day for the bigger competitions, and we were excited to try and get some more wins under our belts. We were all pretty convention-ed out at this point, so we instead decided to walk around all the vendors that were set up outside for Bike Week. This proved fun; there were many characters to see and tons of cool things to look at. I tried my hand at wearing chaps, and looked more ridiculous than tough biker chick in them. Eventually, we made our way back into the convention, in the hopes that the competitions would begin on time and we could head home. This was not the case, but we did get to see some unintentionally good entertainment anyway. The sideshow act had a malfunction with a metal fan, and the poor guy cut his finger nearly off. I know this pain, as I have been clumsy with power tools in the past, and felt so bad for him. Blood splattered all over the linoleum, and they stopped the show. This was actually in our benefit too, since they had no sideshow, they figured why not just start the competitions? This round also proved victorious, as we took home more plaques and a trophy. We won 2^nd and 3^rd in Best Back/Chest, 2^nd in Best Male Overall, and 1^st in Best Sleeve. Our grand total was 6 plaques and a trophy, which while awesome, also means more things that I get to dust at the shop. 

     Just kidding, it was an awesome weekend full of wins, and we were insanely excited to take home our wins to our artists. They put in the time and effort to give us kick ass tattoos, and it feels great to be able to give something back. 

Paige Slater

http://www.wildwoodtattoobeachbash.com