SEPTEMBER
was my last month in europe n time to start my way back heading west an making it around the world.the first i started
the day sittin back in the airport this time headin to IBIZA, Spain. I actually stayed in the San Antoni area where
apparently is where all the young people go. I only had few days here so I tried to make the most of the days as much as
i could. This place was gorgeous crystal clear water an white beaches an a topless beach at that. but the only negative i
do have the beach was very shallow like there wasent much of it. So my week pretty much consisted of relaxing an just
enjoying the sun. Europe is a very rainy area. All the countries I visited along my trip all consist of rain so I was goin
to cherish these days as best as i can. I did get to go scuba divin which was actually not very good at all. Saw some
small fish but nothin really interesting to me. I have snorkeled better places. I also went out on a party boat tour. that
took us around the island to different beaches an gave us a little history of Ibiza island an what surrounds the place.
While I was eating one day there was all this ruckus goin on of people hollering an beatin on some drums. Shortly after the
place i was eating these people came down all dressed up in these silly outfits like the guys in the movie “Role Models” if
you ever seen it you know what im talkin about if you havent well there outfits look something like you would wear as a kid
in which you made out of cardboard a sword shield an maybe even a helmet. well as they rolled by i didn think nothing of it
an then shortly later the beach was packed with people an there were the same people in the outfits on some shady lookin
boat an wavin flares in the air so i finished up my meal an headed down to the beach to see what was goin on. after a long
drawn out of chants back an forth they started rushin each other an throwin tomatoes. so all this was done for a huge
tomatoe fight on the beach which i must admit looked super fun. on the the 5th i headed back to Hamburg, Germany for my
last 2 weeks of tattooin at JungBluth tattoo. Mo the other artist at the shop who i would say became a really good friend
picked me up at the airport an we went out to eat an i just crashed at his new flat on the out skirts of the city. the
week pretty much just consisted of tattooing cause of course it rained almost everyday again. but did get out an party it
up with another person who i consider a friend Sascha on my last saturday in town. I said my goodbyes on the 20th to the
guys at the shop an made my way back to the airport an down to Munich, Germany for the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest.
My dad an my buddy nick also made the trip to Munich both flying from the states. My dad of course flyin from Pennsylvania
an my buddy nick flyin from Los Angeles. The week pretty consisted of what you would think oktoberfest would consist of
an yeah that would be drinkin beer an lots of it. Our first hour at the oktoberfest I met up with a girl who a mutual
friend suggested that we meet an she take us around the city while we were in town. The girls were fuckin awesome
Andrea an Laura got us lost almost everywhere we went but I believe made it more interesting cause I really dont know
what us 3 boys would of done without these girls. I kept my dad out till 4 am almost every night roamin around the city
looking for bars an drinkin into the wee hours. Outside of drinking we did get out to Olympic park home of the Olympics
back in 1972 and also the BMW factory. Unfortunately the factory was sold out on tickets but we did get into the museum
which was definately something cool to say i have done an been to.. on the 26th I said my good byes to my dad who was
heading back to PA while Nick an I kept the party rolling an then on the 27th Nick an I seperated an both headed our own
directions Nick headed back to the states as well as I moved more west to Singapore. I had no expectations of this city
what so ever. I just booked it beacuse it was a half way point flyin to australia. Figure it would b a good idea to stop
here an relax for a few days. Well needless to say this was my fav place on this trip by far. Everything was amazing the
people were super nice an spoked better english there then they did in germany an all the other european countries I been
to. The I stayed on a private island in singapore that any body can go to They just charge you to go on it called Sentosa
Island. My hotel was wonderful, I always say im goin to book a place outside of the city cause for the most part every
major city is the same but i never do i always stay in the heart of the city well not this time I finally stayed outside of
the city an it was nothin but amazing. I didnt get to go scuba divin here which i was pretty bum about. But there was so
much to see it didnt bother me at all. I went up in the cable cars to view the city in both day an night on the first day
which had me instantly in love with the place. The following day I headed into the city an walked an just got lost ate
some pig brain which had a really weird texture an almost pudding like in chinatown.An ended my day chillin on the beach.
That night I headed to Songs of the Sea show which was absolutely amazing something different that I never seen or ever
even heard about. It was a show where they sprayed water an project a picture against the water kinda hard to understand
so hopefully the pics below justify it. The next day sept 30th it ended up rainin on me of course but cleared up mid day.
So I did some shopping and ended up in a casino doin some gambling. That night I went to singapors version of Cirque Du
Soleil called Voyage De La Vie which honestly out of the 6 cirque du soleil shows that I have seen this honestly would
rank number 2.
AUGUST
started off in Paris frace visiting museums an seeing all that paris has to offer i got stuck longer in paris waitin for
the damn us embassy to give me a new passport since they took my regular passport cause they said it was to muttilated. i
was tryin to get a 2nd passport so i could mail off one of them to america to get my visa for china but instead the us
embassy said no an took mine. so i ended up missin my flight out of paris that i had booked on the 4th since i was not
able to fly. I did get a flight out on the 5th luckily i wasent stuck there for the weekend like they were sayin. but i
did miss the first day of Wacken Open Air Metal Fest. Which really pissed me off i pretty much planned my whole europe
trip around Wacken an Oktoberfest well unlike oktoberfest if you miss one day of Wacken you missed alot. I did however
land early on the 6th back in Hamburg, Germany checked in my hotel for the weekend hopped on the train an headed straight
to the town of Wacken. To be sure I dont miss any more of this festival. The festival was absolutely amazing it was the
biggest music fest I have ever been to with meeting people all over the world. Met some people from california, Mexico,
Canada, Russia an of course there were many more countries there from the site of all the flags that were flying around at
the camp sites. I will definately like to make the trip back to wacken again next year. The festival has been goin on for
21 years an as the fest was sold out 210 days in advance with 100,000 people attending it im sure it wont be goin anywhere
anytime in this century. On the 9th I started back up at Jungbluth Tattoo in Hamburg for another two amazing weeks of
tattooing an got out an made it to 3 hardcore shows. I feel like the hardcore scene in europe is much much stronger than
it is in the US wish that wasent the case but its good to see Hardcore music is still alive n well. On the 23rd I made my
way to Manchester, England for a crazy busy week of nonstop tattooin. I manage to hook up with Kelvyn who owns THE
TATTOO SHOP in prestwhich. I was referred to check out an do a guest spot at this shop from a great tattoo artist out of
York, Pa which is my hometown his name is Sevil an im totally glad he did. Its good to know the tattoo industry is not all
about hatin on other artist an helpin them out. As Im sure many of you readin this probably know I was born in York an
started tattooing there but from another tattoo shop than Sevils. Its a small town an as shitty as it is all the Tattoo
shops seem to hate on each other instead of just comin together. Through goin back to York, Pa several times a year to
tattoo Sevil an I have become in which i would consider good friends so yeah Sevil is a great check him out at his shop
called Built To Last. During my time in Manchester I manage to catch up on all the drinkin I havent been doin in Europe
by headin to the pub every night. To shoot some pool an knock down some NewCastle brown. Also one night we went to
Blackpool to hit up the amusement park. It was a great time I cant remember the last time i was at amusement park so it was
super fun to be there an ride some roller coasters again. Kelvyn took amazing care of me during my stay in Manchester an
I will definately be coming back again next year to do some more tattooin.
JUNE n JULY
ok ok yeah for those who actually read this an care what my month to month is like which i doubt is many yes
i didnt update month of june well beacuse not much really happened. i started the month out in vegas after a day of driving
back to cali to say my proper good byes to my buddy johnny who was leavin for alaska for 3 months to film for a tv show
that he just got pick up on a couple days prior but with my dumb ass lookin for food an not payin attnetion to exits i
missed my exit an arrived at 1 in the mornin after pickin up kaitlyn. so it was to late johnny was already in bed. so
with an early wake up at 7 i said my good byes to him n kaitlyn an I headed back on the roadd back to vegas right away.
I tattooed the days away an we partied the night away a typical vegas week for me but did manage to finally make it to the
cirque du soleil show “O” which i thought was amazing.I then left vegas on the 9th an headed back to Louisville, Ky for
a week down in Manchester, Tn for BONAROO 2010 with my boy Keith and a bunch of his friends that I had a blast with. We
rented an RV for the week an picked that up on the 10th piled everybody in got the beers tapped an off we were for a
smoldering hot weekend with hippies an more booze. The RV sounded like an amazing plan to get but when it came to the
test it was nothing more than a piece of shit. The AC never seemed to work when needed which was the real reason of having
it cause without that well fuck we could of just slept in a tent. So the weekend consist of gettin wasted an seein some
good music. I ran into a high school buddy Josh McCormick who is livin in Cali so def random to run into not only a
person i know but yet a person who lives in nothern fuckin cali who i grew up with in PA. My two bands that i choose
to see an kinda one of the main reasons for me comin didnt let me down at all. Clutch who i saw many times was amazing
Gwar followed them another good show by them an my first time seein a band that Im a huge fan of Against Me had a good
show which was during the day in the ridiculously humid day. Saw a couple of people I would never pay to see Jay Z who
was actually really good even though i dont like any of his music. Stevie Wonder was awesome to see an definately happy
to say ive seen him. Weezer who I only caught two songs of apparently there whole set was the best of Bonaroo. So kinda
bum I only caught 2 songs but again they played during the day. That ended the 4 days in Bonaroo an we ended up headin
home sun night just cause we knew the AC would b off in the morning an we would all wake up miserable in the heat. So
since we were home all day on the 14th I got some tattooing in. The 15th I headed back to Miami for one of the best weeks
of tattooing Ive had in a long time down there an got to tattoo 2 knew people which was awesome but besides the one night
i made it out with Marcos and his bro Adrian that was the only thing that entertained me during the week. I then headed
back to Cali on the 21st for what was goin to be a long but great week of tattooing. An like all of the past couple
of months I didnt get out an do shit but did have an amazing sat with all the boys bbqin pool party at our boy Ryans
new pad with his ridiculously big swimming pool. I then left on the 29th to head back to baltimore an york. Kaitlyn also
flew back with me so she could return home an see her family for the 4th of july. We landed in baltimore an headed
straight to tattoo my boy Mark. Unlike most weeks of being in the PA/MD area I did get out a couple of times saw a movie
went minature golfing at two different places an caught some firework action all thanks to miss K. cause otherwise when I
got done tattooin I would of done nothing. I was finally about to make my trip to europe on July 7th. First stop Dublin,
Ireland. I had no expectations of goin here besides goin to the guiness brewery and the jameson distillery an hopefully
catch a couple sites of castles and well thats pretty much all I did but the people here were super friendly and definately
would like to make a trip back. July 11th I headed to Hamburg, Germany where I was goin to spend the majority of my time
in Europe. Got settled into the private studio that JungBluth Tattoo has. Which honestly is way better than there original
studio which is fairly small with a lot of foot traffic. I work here for 12 days straight an WOW they said ahead of time
I was booked out an would be pretty busy but didnt expect to tattoo like that an able to charge what they charge. It feels
good to actually charge what I feel I should be charging in the first place. I did some super cool pieces that Im really
happy about an have 3 customers that are goin to b comin back to me. Which will have me putting in some late hours an
some hours on a sunday to be able to get them in before I leave in sept. Next stop on the 25th was Venice, Italy all the
people in germany that ive spoked to are not real fond of the italians an well me being from the northeast cant say im
real fond of many of them myself. but still had to be a place for me to go an well am i ever so glad i did. not sure
what the guys in germany were talkin about but then again i probably didnt run into one italian in the city because there
is so many damn tourist everywher. This city is absolutely amazing to me not necessarily beautiful friendly awesome place.
It is mainly just crazy how its laid out there is absolutely no cars anywhere everythingn is ran by boats an small walk
ways which in america we would call alleys goin every direction. I definately got lost several time but its easy to find
where u are when u realize what direction the grand canal is. This is easily the most inspiring cities i have ever came
across being an artist an that kinda says alot cause i feel i been all over the world an seen more than anyone that I know.
I would definately make a trip back here but like Hawaii its just not a place to be by yourself its surrounded by couples
family an the worst kids everywhere. My next destination is Paris, France that i made it to on the 30th again another place
i havent heard to many good things about an the small part of french people ive came across in europe yeah not really a
huge fan but i like to go to places just to say ive been there take a pic say yep i was there an head back out an if i like
it i will be sure to return again. Well the two days left in the month 30n31st really had me at surprised. Like I mention
I didnt have high expectations an Im glad I didnt cause Paris has been nothin but great for me. The first day got in a bit
late so just got comfortable and grabbed some food. My first day I walked all around the weather was great an was over
whelmed by the first museum of my trip but a bit dissapointed in the acquarium. The second half of my day I was roaming the
city for a charger for my camera so that ended my second day.
