Niki came through for her second session of her native wildflower woman inspired half sleeve. Stay tuned to peep the next session soon!

Check out this under the naval rocker I drew up for my bossman, Derek. Stay tuned to check out the first session of linework. This thing’s gonna be bad ass!

My reliable, ass-kickin girl that takes me wherever I want to go. After a headache of paperwork obstacles, I’m finally starting to become acquainted with her, and there’s a lot about her that I really enjoy. She can keep up with other bigger bikes, loves wrappin around twisties, and best of all, she doesn’t have “Ninja” scrawled on her side, ’cause she’s OG and incognito about it. Initially, I wasn’t too crazy about the red on her, eventhough red is my favorite color, but they’ve really grown on me. The colorway is pretty rare in The Dot. Her name originates from a combination of her pearlescent white which strikes up a heavenly vibe to me, and my Godmother, Emily, who passed away a few months back. I hope that she will protect me when I’m on the road.

To all the peeps behind the wheel out there: I see you pullin’ that stupid shit every now and then. Please keep your eyes open for other riders.

I promised some announcements.

Here’s the first one: My wife, Mikka‘s photography has been selected for an upcoming show at the Leslie Lohman Gallery in the art and food mecca of the world, bright and busy, NYC. One of the two shots that was chosen by the gallery includes Yours Truly done up in drag. You can peep the photograph here. It’s the one with the one where I’m lying down. Despite totally tripping on the fact that someone may actually purchase this shot, we’re pretty stoked, as that shot made two dreams come true: Mikka had the opportunity to do a shoot in her style and receive recognition, and I finally got to explore the taboo world of drag. That week in June is going to find her in NYC accompanied by her wonderful Papadukes, while I’ll be in sunny Los Angeles to reach the Iron n’ Ink convention in Longbeach, as well as attending a huge shop opening after wrapping up my convocation ceremony here at the University of Toronto. Hard work really does pay off, doesn’t it?

With finals about to rear their ugly head in my direction, I had the opportunity to work with Scarlet O’Neill, who is so talented and driven. She is in the process of putting together an installation called Inked, and revolves around, you guessed it, tattoos and every individual’s unique stories behind their chosen ink. If you are tattooed, doesn’t matter how big or small, and have always had the desire to have yourself shot by someone who has an incredibly crisp vision, please do not hesitate to get into contact with her. From what I have seen of the shots so far, I love what she has done and I am anticipating checking out the rest of the flicks. For a preview of what she was able to capture, you can go and peep it here

Here are images of a tattoo I did on Emily and Nikki. Emily has a knack for getting pieces in outrageous spots, and this side of the head bird was no exception.

Nikki came to me wanting a really beautiful and elaborate halfsleeve. What she had envisioned was a native woman caught in a moment of sheer ecstasy (her idea, not mine, surprisingly) surrounded by flowers with a dreamcatcher in the background to showcase her Native background. Her native name literally translates to “wildflower woman,” so this is what I ended up doing for her. As you can see, it’s just the line work, but I’m pretty happy about the foundations I’ve laid down, and she’s just as, if not more stoked than I am on it. We’ve got quite a few sessions to go, but I can already tell this one’s gonna be a doozy.

Stay up, My People.

It’s been awhile since my last post, and much has happened since so I’m going to break it down into a few posts over the next couple days, so that I’m not just regurgitating all of it in one shot. Notable achievements include completing the last 1.5 credits of my undergrad and completing my M1 and M2 in a weeks time.

The RTI course I took was great, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is considering ever operating a motorbike. The instructors are encouraging and enthusiastic, with lots of expertise to share. I spent a total of eighteen hours over the weekend outside by the water on the docks riding bikes. Saturday was brutal, the weather had us see everything from rain, snow, hail and wild gusts of wind. Sunday was more forgiving, with warmth and sunshine. I became familiar with different types, dropped a few others, and had some fall on me pegging me down to the ground. After each spill, I got back up and road that fucker again. Our whole class passed, and I completed with a perfect score.

I think what that’s supposed to mean is that I operate a motorcycle better than I do a car.

So since that first experience of riding solo on a motorbike, I became instantly hooked. I wasn’t about to let go of this feeling. So I’ve been searching relentlessly for the perfect bike over the last week. And on Wednesday, I found her. But like most great things in life, you have to work for them. So I literally traveled to where hell freezes over.

I embarked on my first road trip to Peterborough on the back of my buddy, Erdem’s ’84 Interceptor. Through this experience, I learned a lot about riding, myself and what it takes to persevere in less than ideal conditions.

After tattooing at work, then doing a little thing for a friend’s sister at the studio, seven o’clock rolls around to find me running out the door with my gear one. I’m glad my wife had the sense to tell me to slap on a pair of long johns, because inadequate is not how I can even come close to describing how we were dressed for this adventure.

We decided to take backroads there, at the suggestion of one of our roadmates, and a one and a half hour trip progressively turned into 3.5 hrs one way, with the temperatures dipping down to 4 degrees around the 3am mark and us riding on speeds averaging around 110 km/hr. Erdem and I wanted to get a cheap $60/night motel room, but our roadmate had to be back in the early morning for work, so not wanting to have him travel all the way back to Toronto by himself, we left Peterborough somewhere around midnight with the moon hanging half full and high in the sky. After refueling, we ended up going our separate ways anyways, with Richard wanting to take the same backroads, and Erdem and I opting for the highways. We reasoned that a short amount of time to be focused was safer than a prolonged steady course. The 401 is a barren with long dark stretches of lightless road, and all that passes by you are convoys of transport trucks all threatening to set you off course with their crosswinds. We had to make frequent stops every twenty minutes because our hands and toes were freezing. Erdem must have been more cold than I was, seeing as he was breaking my wind out front. In total, we accumulated over 7 hrs of riding in the freezing cold.

Peterborough, Port Hope, Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Scarborough, Toronto.

We reached my house around 4am thursday morning. We also caught a case of hypothermia that was quickly advancing into stage two. I’m still frigid to my bones today, and it’s been three days, many layers and soaks in the bath after the whole ordeal. And trust me, starvation, exhaustion, hysterics, bitter cold and riding into pitch black were all worth it. I put down a deposit on an 87 Kawasaki EX500 Ninja and she’s expected to touch down here in East Toronto tomorrow.

Monday morning, I’ll call the insurance company to activate my plan, march on down to the MTO and get that license plate, bolt it onto my bike, whom I still have yet to christen with a name, KNIFE CCS, and take her round the block a couple times to get acquainted.

My life, once again, has been changed forever.

Mighty Mos said it: It was love for the thing that made me want to stay out.