It has been way too long since I have updated this site. I had big one planned announcing my new zine but life got in the way and then I had to leave town on this big trip that I am about to talk about. I figured I would have time to work on it on the road but I never did so I am just going to do a big update about it when it’s available for sale, but in the meantime you can preorder it here now! Now, let’s get in to what I have been doing the last two weeks…

I started taking photos for Sailor Jerry back in 2011 and they had were one of my best clients for nearly a decade, but then came the pandemic and my back injury and suddenly it had been about four years since I had worked for them. Fortunately we are once again working together. You may have already seen the trip I did with them to Sturgis Buffalo Chip, but now we are back with not one, but two music festivals, and a handful of stuff in between. In total I was on the road for twelve days, four in Louisville, KY for Bourbon & Beyond, three in Nashville and then four more days in Louisville for the Louder Than Life festival. It was a ton of work, but also a ton of fun. I am going to have separate posts about the two music festivals by themselves, but I wanted a post to give you a highlight of all the Sailor Jerry activations, which primarily included giving out Sailor Jerry flash tattoos.

The first festival, Bourbon & Beyond was an eclectic mix of music with other events centered around food and drink. The crowd was equally eclectic and we tattooed a TON of people. Tattooer Justin Smith was in town from Dallas, TX and cranked out some great tattoos all weekend. One of the highlights was that Bruno Mars was playing and my buddy Shaun is Bruno’s tour manager, so I got to hang out with him a bit and his girlfriend signed up for her first ever tattoo while he was off working. 

After B&B I jumped in my rental car and drove to Nashville where we had a series of small events mostly catered to people who work in the alcohol industry there. I spent the week hanging with bartenders and bar managers which are of course my kinda people after working in nightlife as long as I have. The first event we did was a collaboration with a clothing designer named Travis Austin who helped everyone customize their own hat that he is going to make for everyone. Now, I pretty much only wear baseball caps, but I got a chance to design one too and I am pretty excited to see how it turns out. Perhaps “Retirement Igor” can pull it off. I have a handful of photos in here from the bar stops we made at Honky Tonk Central and Tootsie’s and a couple from the Nashville Sounds baseball game we attended but those aren’t really very interesting photographically so I only posted a couple from each. The final event we did in Nashville was another tattoo event, this time for local bartenders. We had Bradley Delay tattooing who happened to be in town from Portland. He tattooed a bunch of bartenders and VIP and was still tattooing when I left to go eat lunch at an Aquarium themed restaurant in a mall. I should also mention that my girlfriend came to Nashville for a couple of days as well which was amazing. 

After that it was back to Louisville for Louder Than Life which was a kinda nostalgia festival, but one for bands that were huge when I was a kid so that’s perfect. I got to see Rancid and Weezer and a bunch of other bands I listened to as a teenager, but more on that in a future post. This post is about Sailor Jerry. The SJ booth seemed like the place to be at the second festival. We had local artist Christopher M. Waugh tattooing all weekend. We had a ton of media come by, a lot of cute goth girls and our friends The Bronx did a meet and greet there after their show. Brad from the Bronx is a friend of mine and Matt their frontman does the Sailor Jerry Podcast so it was cool to be able to do something with them. Oh, also my buddy Buff Monster was there all weekend because his long time girlfriend is my SJ boss! The festival was a lot of fun and I shot a bunch of the bands so be on the lookout for that post. 

Okay, that’s it for now, but I will be back soon with seperate updates for Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life. I also have a couple other shoots coming soon and more info about my new zine so maybe check back more often than normal for a couple weeks. See you guys soon!

Now click here to see some highlights from my Sailor Jerry road trip!

 

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