I have a darling new client. She’s getting a large scale piece I’m particularly excited to do, so already she’s got alllll the points. But then she tells me she read my blog and she thought I was still in Maryland at first. Cue “oops, I forgot to update my blog!”

Cuz who reads my blog?

Anyway, here’s the news. RJ and I have moved, like so many are doing right now, to Richmond Virginia. Richmond is amazing, everything you could want in a city- culture, nightlife, murals and monuments everywhere, a river running through it, tattooed people everywhere- and it’s still affordable… for now. We’ve already seen more bands in the last few months than we saw in our entire stay in southern Maryland. We feel as if we’ve gotten our lives on track to a picture of our own design.

My mom retired and my parents moved up to Richmond and they watch the kids for us. After years of living a prohibitive distance from each other, it is so heartwarming to reconnect with them. No one loves you like family.

What’s more is that I’m working at one of the best shops in the city, possibly the country, Loose Screw Tattoo. Owned and operated by Jesse Smith (on seasons 2 and 7 of Ink Master, but before that he basically pioneered the new school/illustrative kooky character genre all by himself), the shop boasts long time new school tattooing veteran Jason Stephan, Ink Master star Christian Buckingham, spooky power couple GWooKi and Sabrina, zombie caricature artist to the stars Nick Mitchell, future rock star illustrative artist Chris Jenkins, black and grey realism wizard Juan Canales, apprentice Jen Bean and one of the best support staffs I’ve ever seen.

I know right? I can’t believe it myself. I don’t know what I’m doing there. I was just the thing that wouldn’t go away and Jesse took pity and hired me. He sits with me biweekly and critiques my work and points me in the right direction. I wanted growth and boy am I getting it, and all I have to offer in return is a naturally sunny disposition and a drive to be the best I can be.

I’m not really on Facebook much anymore. It feels like a huge waste of time, especially my business page. Every time one of my friends likes or comments on a tattoo I post, some elderly relative who doesn’t yet understand how Facebook works comments about how much they hate tattoos in general because it popped up in their feed and they can’t read the fine print that tells them why it’s there. Facebook is the dumpster where people put their useless opinions. So Instagram is my platform of choice now. Follow me @fronkietattoos to keep up to date with my progress, travels, and special deals.

Thanks for reading!