Closed for the Holidays

Chrome Gardens will be Closed for the Holidays from Thurs Dec 24, 2009 until Tues Jan 5, 2010. We will be checking phone messages and emails over that time, if you need to contact us for any reason. Emails would be checked more frequently then phone messages.

All of us here at Chrome Gardens would like to wish our clients and friends a wonderful holiday season!! Remember that winter months can be very drying to your skin and your tattoo, so moisturize every day to keep your colors bright.

Happy Holidays everyone and Best Wishes for a Happy New Year!

Congratulations Jim!

We'd like to congratulate Jim for winning Tattoo of the Day on Sunday at the Meeting of the Marked with his adorable portrait of client Jackie M.'s dog Izzy!

Jim won a tattoo machine from Chris DeWitt @ Amoeba Designs, a Critical Tattoo CX-2 digital power supply and a one year subscription to Tattoo Artist magazine courtesy of TAM.

Jackie won a $100 cash and a hand crafted trophy from Jeff Gogue .

We'd like to give special Kudos to Jackie, who was getting tattooed by Stacy at the same time!!! That's right... 2 huge tattoos by two artists at the same time! Our hats are off to you, Jackie.

Mandy & Stacy showed up in an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, you can read that article here: Tattoos Mark Weekend

Thanks to everyone who showed up at the convention to say hi to us and to all the folks who got tattooed. We'll see you all back in Pittsburgh next year!

Meeting of the Marked

Just a reminder, Chrome Gardens will be closed this weekend as our artists attend the 17th Meeting of the Marked in Pittsburgh.

Meeting of the Marked Tattoo Arts Expo

If you are anywhere close to the event, come down and see us!!

We'll be back open Tuesday, Nov 3.

Broken Photo Galleries

The latest Adobe Flashplayer update has thrown a monkey wrench into Chrome Garden's Tattoo and Piercing galleries, causing them to crash your browser when loading them. I have the fix in hand but it's going to take a little work to clear everything up and get things running again so please bare with me.

I'll update when the problem is solved.


8:31pm

Ok I think I have the tattoo galleries fixed for now, the piercing galleries will have to wait until Tuesday. If you are still having issues with your browser crashing when you try to view the galleries, please clear your browser's cache and refresh the page you are trying to view... that should solve the problem.

Party People

Our friend Matt of Digital Ephemera Photography has put up a Gallery of some of the photos he took of Chrome Gardens clients at our 15th Year Anniversary party.

You can check out all the pretty party people here:

Digital Ephemera Photography»Chrome Gardens
On a personal level, looking through the gallery is very poignant for us; there are faces in there we have seen since the week we opened our doors in 1994, as well as new friends who's faces we hope to be seeing for decades to come. We know we'd be nowhere without you, loyal friends, and we are grateful for your support over the years; Thank you all!

Chrome Gardens at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Marked

The Chrome Gardens crew will be attending this year's 17th annual Meeting of the Marked in Pittsburgh. This will be Jim and Mandy's very first time at the Halloween event, although Stacy has a handful of awards from the M.O.M convention over the years (as far back as 1994!)

Stacy's schedule for the event is booking up quickly so if you're hoping to get some work done by her there, you would want to contact the studio asap. Jim will also be tattooing at the convention and Mandy is excited about attending some of the seminars.

All in all, it should be a great time so if you are in the Pittsburgh area or want to have an extra reason to visit Andy Warhol's old haunts, come out to the Meeting of the Marked!

Convention info can be found at the following link:

http://tattoopgh.com/mom.html

Mandy's Apprentice Journal - The First 2 Months

My first 2 months at Chrome Gardens have gone by so fast, I can't believe it! It has been so much fun. Since I started here I have been working side by side with two of the coolest people out there, Jim and Stacy. Both of them are helping me in every way they can to ensure I become a good tattooist with good habits.
Of course I have to do the usual apprenticeship labors, IE: sweeping, mopping, scrubbing tubes, and cleaning stations, but that's a given. Jim and I have spent many late nights at home drawing. He's shown me tricks of the trade and inspired me to go outside of my comfort zone and develop the confidence to come up with a solid tattoo design on the spot. I am still working on that, but making good progress.
Stacy and I have spent a ton of time together. I watch her work whenever I can and she gives me pointers and explanations for everything she's doing. She also worked on my vigilante justice leg piece and walked me through the whole process.
After about two weeks I was given my own tattoo equipment, which was way better than even Christmas or my birthday! Jim and I worked together to soup up my little shader and it's puuurrin like a kitten. He showed me the breakdown of a tattoo machine that night and I broke down and reassembled the machine with my own two hands.
I started working with the practice skin one-on-one with Stacy's guidance. The first time we did this I layed out some stencils from flash and worked on holding and controlling the machine. From there Stacy let me practice different things on my own. I did some black shading, and then colored a flower Stacy had drawn up. It's been a great way for me to get familiarized with the equipment and techniques.
The last time my mom was in getting tattooed, Stacy even handed me her machine and let me lay in some solid black, which was awesome and scary all at once. Yesterday I went off on my own and did a black and gray portrait of an Olivia painting on practice skin and it came out great, if I do say so myself. At this point I am hungry for real flesh! So bring it on!!

Everyone's a Winner

Our Open House Party on Saturday was a lot of fun... Good music, tons of seriously good food thanks to Dish Catering, good friends and a bunch of Gift Certificate Winners!

Here's a List of the Winners:
Greg
Sonya P.
Tim M.
Liz H.
Rhea G.
Rick M.
Erin
Melanie S.
Melissa M.
Kim F.
Erin F.
Stacy K.
Sue H.
Terre K.
and whoever had ticket #38... the phone number we have for you seems to be incorrect. If you have #38 please give the studio a call... You Won!

If you didn't win a Gift Certificate, bring in your raffle ticket for a grab in our Body Jewelry Grab-Bag the next time you're in the studio. Yup, that means Free Jewelry for everyone who attended the party!!

If you had your photo taken by Matt of Digital Ephemera we'll be trickling posts of those up as Matt processes them. If you'd like prints of any of them you can contact Matt directly.

We all had a terrific time. We hope you did too. Maybe we wont wait 15 years for the next party.

Open House Update

Here's the plan for our Anniversary Open House:

Open House is from 1:00pm to 9:00pm Saturday 18th

We're holding a free raffle for a chance to win one of 15 $50 Gift Certificates. Everyone who attends our Open House will have a chance to win! The raffle will end and the drawing will be held at 8:00pm that night and any Winner not present will be called with the good news. That means you don't have to be here to win, you just have to show up between 1:00pm and 8:00pm that day and then hold onto your ticket.

We'll have some excellent food brought to us by Dish Catering but I can't guarantee how long the teriyaki chicken sticks will last.

Digital Ephemera Photography will be set up to capture the event and get fantastic pictures of some of the beautiful tattoos done here at Chrome Gardens over the years. If you've ever seen their photography, you'll want your picture taken by them.

Our beloved Raye and his compadre Thane will be providing us musically with a little Jazz Fusion so we don't blow the neighborhood down with Death Metal.

Sounds like a good time, huh? Show up if you can, we only do this once every 15 years.

Getting excited yet?

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, Baby

Back in the day, tattoo apprentices would have to practice their new profession in a variety of ways... some would have to use chicken or pig skins (hmmmm... not a good choice for the vegetarian out there like Mandy) or sometimes fruits, like oranges. They could also practice on themselves or perhaps some one who believed in their ultimate talent enough to donate a few inches of skin.

Happily, these days there is a product available for the budding tattoo apprentice that allows them to practice their new craft without resorting to cadavers, fruit or friends who could potentially hate them after being practiced on.

Here is Stacy's new apprentice Mandy, picking up her tattoo machine for the first time and laying down some ink on some fake tattoo skin. It might not be as good as the real thing, but it definately beats the altenatives.

No animals were harmed in the making of this video :) Check it out.

Jim's First Week

After a long week of really getting himself situated and getting used to his new, more rural environment, Jim pulled off this beautiful tattoo last Saturday for Matt A., who had gotten work here at Chrome Gardens before. The piece took just over 7 hours non-stop. By the end of it, both Jim and Matt were smiling like Cheshire cats.

Excellent work, Jim! We're all glad you're here.

Open House Update #1

After much protest of Chrome Gardens' having our 15th Anniversary Open House on July 15th, which is the actual anniversary date but a Wedsnesday, when folks have to work, we've responded to the outcry by pushing the date at the Open House back to Saturday, July 18th.

We sincerely want as many of you as possible to show up and enjoy the celebration.  It's an all-day event from 1-9pm.

You Have Been Warned!

July 15th of this year will mark Chrome Gardens 15th year of operation. We are planning a big to-do at the studio on that day to celebrate and we're giving you all advanced notice because we want you all to celebrate with us!

We're planning the event as an all-day open house; we'll have food and door prizes and raffles for gift certificates and Matt Ensminger from DIGITAL EPHEMERA PHOTOGRAPHY capturing the event for all you losers who don't show up.

But please do show-up. We're not just celebrating our 15th year of business but our 15 years as a part of our community and we want to show our appreciation for our incredible clients who have supported us year after year.

There will be more information posted to our blog here as the date gets closer, but circle the date on your calendar NOW!

Piercing Special

To celebrate the warmer weather, our lovely piercer Nikki is giving a discount of 25% off Navel Piercings.

Mention this blog post to receive the discount. No mention, no discount.

Stalking us has it's rewards, so keep up with our blog to get the latest specials and studio news!

3 kittens in a box

The other day a package from far away was delivered to the studio and inside the box was a black kitten, a white kitten and a gold kitten...all bringing me luck since they arrived. BUT...I don't know who sent them, there was no card or invoice. If anyone knows who was the the dude or dudess was that sent this gift please let me know.

Don't Drop the Soap

Nikki had a little accident in the shower last Saturday morning that she swears wasn't related to anything improper. She was hospitalized briefly over the weekend but is back home safe and sound now. She will, however unfortunately, have to remain at home until Tuesday of next week, which means we wont be able to take any piercing appointments this week.

You can send her your well wishes here, or you can just stop by the studio next week and give her some soap on a rope... she needs it ;)

Smokin'

So we're all just finishing up dinner, our new artist Jim is settling down to his 5:00 appointment, and Nikki says to me, "Do you smell smoke?"

Turns out there was a small fire under the studio's back porch that was mostly dead leaves trapped under the very old wood back there. The fire was producing an enormous amount of smoke for the relatively small area that was burning. It was a windy evening and that's most likely what fanned the flames, as it were.

We would like to say a huge and heartfelt Thank You to the Gettysburg Fire Dept. They responded like lightening and did an amazingly fast and effiecent job in containing the fire and securing our property. Their professionalism is unrivaled.

And the studio is fine. Both Raye and Jim were back tattooing within an hour or so of the fire breaking out; their clients were both good natured in taking all the extra added excitement of getting thier tattoo (for one of them it was her very first tattoo!) in stride. Our thanks to them as well.

It does smell of smoke in the studio and probably will for a few days, but we feel very grateful to have had the incident be as minor as it turned out to be. We appreciate all the well wishes.

It's....ALIVE!!!

I think I have all the bugs worked out of this but please do let me know if you are encountering any weirdness.

~~~Linda

Brand Spankin' New

So new, in fact, it's not even published yet... but I have the new Chrome Gardens website burning a hole in my pocket and I'm still deciding if I want to incorporate a blog. If you ever see this post, welp, you know what I decided.

~~~Linda