Tattoo Talk = International Trailer Park Cuisine

Looking to decorate your body in a rather permanent way? Be sure to ask around the folks who know. You wouldn't wanna wind up with a limb-eatin infection.

I asked my friend, Darbi Hamilton, what she had to say about where to find talented and safe tattoo artists. (She knows. Darbi's got both the body art and the dashiki goin' on.) Apparently one challenge is finding an ink-wielder who is all that *plus* cheap.  Here's what she said:

Depends. If you're wanting high quality and respectability, there's some places here in town that you'll pay an arm and a leg for (like where the [friend's name] got their first tattoos on [big boulevard in the city]).  If you're wanting quality and affordability, [a different friend] has the friend who will do "tattoo parties" at someone's house.  The more folks we can gather to get ink, the cheaper it gets. 

[Another friend] might offer to trade tattoos for... ahem... services, as well, which is either a big pro or a big con depending on where your morals lie on that sort of thing.  :-)
   
Then there's every place in between. Basically, if you walk into any parlor and it smells more like hospital than smokey bar, you're safe on hygiene. Then you just want to get a look at what the artist has done in the past to make sure he knows how to draw straight lines and appears to be able to match the detail that is in the pattern that you bring in.

[Then Darbi offered this tasty international trailer park recipe that she swears by for unbearable summers...]

Portuguese Salad
(also known as Bastard Hybrid of All the American Picnic Salads-Tuna, Egg, and Potato)

This can be made with cooked fresh ingredients, but the glory of this dish is that you don't have to heat it up, making it the perfect meal for afternoons in The Republic when it's too hot to put clothes on, much less cook.  You do have to boil eggs, so do that early in the a.m. before the sun heats the trailer like a tin can (or the night before if you've got some real forethought workin' for ya.)

1 can sliced carrots
1 can corn
1 can sliced potato (can be sliced smaller, depending on preference)
1 can cut green beans
2 cans of the cat-food-sized tuna in water
2 to 3 hard boiled eggs, depending on your love of eggy things

Throw everything in a big Tupperware bowl and mix it up.  Store it in the fridge for a while, since it's best cold (but if you're hungry dig on in.)  Serve by the bowl-full and add about a tablespoon of mayo per bowl.  Mix the mayo in and munch! Always remember, boil at night!  :-)

Comments

[Jenn]

Hey - I feel kinda famous when I make your blog. Even when I am only referenced as "another friend"

You considering tatting or just sending out the good word?

The newest best/affordable guy is Ephraim who works upstairs from Ranch Hill.

He did my most recent as I didn't have the #s to do another party. Mariah, Tess, Chris and Darbi among others had all been tatted up in my back room - back when I still had a back room.....

[TPK Bodhisattva, of course]

You're famous even when you're NOT in my blog, Jenn. Nope. No tats. No time. My skin and stuff are already saggin'.