The Body As Canvas

Fronkie’s work and thoughts of the melding of ink and skin.

Eyecandy, Fuel for Mind and Spirit, The Body As Canvas, The Body As Temple

I’m Here to Help

Gallery | Posted on by fronkielheureux

Well, it’s the 13th day of 2020, 13 being an auspicious number for transformation, and it’s time to check in! Especially since the last time I checked in I was leaving Loose Screw Tattoo, helpfully transitioned by some of the most professional people I’ve ever had the honor of working with. I was bouncing from shop to shop this summer while my friend… and now I can say it… Christian Buckingham was opening his shop. Yes, THE Christian Buckingham from several seasons of Ink Master. Renowned for his black and grey and on-screen antics. He and I formed a friendship at LST and found that we were quite like-minded on a lot of things.

In December of 2019, I graduated from the Karuna 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training, but I still have quite a few hours to fill. It wasn’t my intent going into it to end up teaching classes- except maybe leading groups of tattooers in a gentle morning practice at conventions. I did it to enrich my knowledge and understanding of something I’ve been doing on my own for years. Something that has sustained me through chronic pain and fatigue, that I want to share with others. I trust that my deepened understanding will enrich my art and all that time and energy will come back to me if I can share what I have learned, in whatever way that happens.

If I could sum up the benefit this experience has had on my life, I would say that it brought me through a dark night of the soul, I have had some really low moments as I shed layers of trauma, but in those moments I got in touch with a deeper peace. There is a stillness that resides beneath my reactions, my feelings, my thoughts, my need to do something in reaction to the universe around me. And from this place of peace I have learned of my own power to influence the world around me as I see fit. And I’ve seen that when I come from a place of peace and love and joy, I create a more habitable environment for myself and the people I care about.

Tarot card I designed for my research project for yoga teacher training

I feel the shifts happening in our collective consciousness. So many of us are waking up to the inner guru and shedding all that no longer serves. Growth can be painful, but it doesn’t have to be. That which we resist, persists. We all make mistakes every day! But when you see it, you have to know it doesn’t affect your worth. Learn how to be better, and move forward. And if you keep stumbling over the same lesson, you’ve got to see things differently before you’ll ever move forward.

I’m in a place professionally, emotionally, and artistically that I feel really empowered in, and with reasonably-paced growth I could maintain this place for the long term happily. I hope this for you too, dear reader. And if it isn’t that way for you, ask yourself what is stopping you from finding that goldilocks zone that makes space for future growth but keeps you content in the moment? Start by looking inward, asking yourself questions about yourself and how much of your discontent lies in your own reaction and how much of it is in allowing others to cross your boundaries? Steal your time? Steal your energy? Your joy? I invite you to create your own world from the inside out.

And then if you feel so inclined, you could share that journey with me. I can give you a tarot reading for some guidance, or if you have just come through some kind of transformation and want to get a tattoo to symbolize that shift, I’m here for it. I’m also here just to make pretty pictures. I’m here to help.

Namasté.

Top 5 Tips to Get a Tattoo You’ll Love Forever

Posted on by fronkielheureux

If you, like me, believe that your body has value, that you yourself have value, and that you deserve to get a tattoo that you will always love, then this blog is for you.  If you’re a bit more nihilistic, perhaps you don’t take things so seriously, you could still learn something from it 🙂

If you’re already pretty experienced with tattoos, you can probably skip right through #1, because it’s pretty common sense, but believe it or not, common sense ain’t so common.

1) Never ever ever, and I mean this with no exceptions, get tattooed in any establishment that is not a licensed tattoo studio.  I originally wrote “never get tattooed in someone’s house” but some of the best tattooers in the world have a private studio in their homes, because they ball like that.  But they are licensed and they tattoo out of their homes to avoid the hassle and overhead of a street shop.  They have paid their dues, worked hard to become renowned to the point that people from around the world seek them out specifically and will travel any distance to have their skin imbued with these artists’ work.

99% of people tattooing out of their homes are NOT these artists.

So if your cousin invites you to a tattoo party, I’m begging you DON’T GO.  Sure, a $20 tattoo sounds like a great deal, especially if you’ve been drinking.  Or even sometimes maybe your friend knows a traveling artist who’s “legit” but just doesn’t have a shop to host him or her in your town.  BUT remember these guidelines

  • “Legit” tattooers work in licensed tattoo shops- if they are not working in a shop, chances are it’s not just because they don’t want to share their commission- it’s because no legitimate shop wants to be associated with them.
  • Cover-ups are waaaaaaayyyyyyy more expensive and time-consuming than if you had just gotten the right tattoo in the right place by the right person in the first place.
  • Bloodborne pathogens and communicable diseases.  Look em up.  They are no joke.  Come on, don’t risk it.

2) Look At Portfolios!  Sure, the shop came well-recommended from your friend who just got some pretty high-quality work, but if you walk in and get tattooed by the first available artist, you could get stuck with the apprentice and walk out wondering how you ended up so unlucky.  Maybe you’re a little more experienced and know to ask for a certain artist that you’ve heard good things about.  And that’s great, because you’re a few steps ahead already.  But what if they don’t do the style you want?  What if you want a portrait and this person specializes in traditional?

The first thing you should do when you’re thinking about getting tattooed is look up the tattoo shops within a 3 hour driving radius of you, and look at the portfolios.  Select your top 10 artists and call the shops to schedule consultations.  And that brings us to #3.

3) Don’t give your money to a shop/artist with bad customer service.  If you call the shop, and they sound bored, irritated, or condescending, don’t go there.  If you arrive at the shop and they don’t greet you with a smile, turn around and leave.  This is a service industry, don’t let the old taboos fool you into thinking it’s normal to be intimidated when you walk into a shop.  If they don’t make you feel good when you walk in the door, how do you think you’ll feel being cozied up to them for the next 30 minutes/several hours while they literally take your skin in their hands?  And sure, maybe the artist has a better personality than their front-counter help.  But chances are, the attitude of the person sitting behind the counter reflects the attitude of everyone who works there.  They are hired to be the face of the shop, and if that face isn’t smiling, they don’t care if you stay or go.  They do not aim to please.  When you get a tattoo, you’re paying for the whole experience, and you deserve the best for your money.

4)  Trust your artist to give you good advice, but be very clear about what you really want.  A lot of times I tell people it’s best to come in with a very flexible idea of what you’re looking to get.  Select a theme and a location and if you like the artist’s work, trust them to take your idea and run with it.  Trust them when they tell you something you want to do will not work the way you’re hoping it will (this is, of course, assuming you’ve followed the first 3 tips).  Trust them when they say that they have a great idea and would like to run it by you.  Be open minded when they show you a custom drawing they seem passionate about, because those make the best tattoos.  Good artists know what’s been done to death, what can be done, what can’t be done, and what needs to be done, and chances are they have a much better idea of what will make your tattoo great.  But they don’t know YOU.  So be very specific about what you want and don’t want.  Don’t feel pressured to get something that isn’t really what you want.  A great tattoo is a delicate balance between the artist’s knowledge and ability, and the tattooed person’s desires.  If you can’t nail down something you really want and the artist has drawn something for you, offer to compensate them for their time and find another artist that “feels” you more.  This will get you off the hook and leave the working relationship open- you never know if this artist may be better suited for another tattoo you want in the future.

5)  Don’t let time and money factor in to your decision-making.  So many people want to get tattooed right there on the spot, and there are a lot of artists who thrive on walk-in business.  And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that… until there is.  If you’ve followed the first 4 tips, and you’ve found an artist who gets you and you want them to tattoo you, but they have a waiting list or the price they quoted you seems a little daunting, don’t let that deter you from getting your tattoo from them.  Your skin will always be with you and that can be a blessing or a curse.  Let’s say you don’t get burned by a fly-by-night tattooer, and you don’t regret turning down the artist you really wanted in favor of someone available and within your price range. Ten years from now, you could have a mediocre tattoo that came a lot cheaper and you got it when you wanted it, or you could have a piece that you saved up for and waited to get and now it’s your most prized possession, and you’ll have it with you as long as you live.

She takes her travels with her

Posted on by fronkielheureux

Recently, I had the privilege of finishing Hannah’s first tattoo.  Originally, she brought me a picture of a sculpted skull with a frog on its head which was hidden in the architecture of a building in one of the countries she had visited on her travels.  By itself, I was excited to tattoo this on her and happy to leave it at that.  Until she told me eventually she would like to work it into a much larger piece dedicated to all the highlights of her travels.

Well, hold on there, I said.  I typically discourage trying to work existing tattoos into larger ones.  It works better as a composition if you think it through from the beginning.  So we rescheduled her consultation so she could compile the images she already knew she wanted to incorporate into her travel piece.  Knowing she had more travels in the future, we determined that each piece could stand for a different period of her life.  She left the images with me, I showed her some reference material I had that I was interested in using as inspiration for her tattoo, and we pinpointed exactly how she wanted it to turn out, with what knowledge I could supply her about what works for a good tattoo.

It turns out that besides sharing my wanderlust, we also share a love of health and mindfulness.  In this video, taken just before we started her outline, we discussed using visualization as a pain-management technique.

http://youtu.be/xYPwKlIgYOk

Several weeks later, she came in to get the color, and the client I had scheduled after her happened to call out sick that day.  Thinking we were going to have to split up the color into a few sessions due to time and money constraints, it turned out she had exactly what I estimated it would cost to finish the piece.  Fate, it seems, had designs on the completion of this tattoo in a more timely manner than anticipated.  So, here she is, the final product.

travel thigh photo