Oliver Peck is back in town filming the newest season of his tattoo competition reality show Ink Master and he decided to throw another party. Last time he was in town he threw a “Wig Party” which involved karaoke, a drag Ramones tribute band and a ton of Sailor Jerry rum. This time it was exactly the same except the Ramonahs were the only people in wigs.

It was a hell of a good time at Arlene’s Grocery last night. I am not a big karaoke fan but Oliver and his Dallas based Good Luck Karaoke partner Josh Hammertimez are pretty hilarious and join people on stage for their karaoke jams. Oliver’s Ramonahs killed it again and his Ink Master co-hosts Dave Navarro and Chris Núñez showed up to support his deviant rock and roll performance.  Carl Hallowell works at Oliver’s Elm Street Tattoo in Dallas and was back doing Sailor Jerry flash tattoos all night. It was the most people from Dallas I have been around since I was at Elm Street’s music and tattoo festival.

I have a big ad gig this week and I brought my clients to the party and they had an amazing time. They are from Switzerland but it turns out one of their favorite bands is the Ramones. It was pretty awesome and we ended up casting model Leah Jung in the ad after meeting her there. Leah can sing her ass off and it was pretty impressive watching her and this hilarious dude Roman do “Baby It’s Cold Outside” together. I did some Minor Threat karaoke but I pretty much just embarrassed myself when I realized my mic was up way too high and I was just horrified by the sound of my own voice. Good times.

Seriously though, it was a great party and I am not sure how those dudes make me enjoy karaoke, but if you ever get a chance to see Good Luck Karaoke I highly recommend it.

Now click here to see all the pictures from Oliver Peck’s Sailor Jerry presented Good Luck Karaoke and Ramonahs throw down live at Arlene’s Grocery!

So I meant to get these pictures up a week ago but it didn’t happen. Remember when I went to the Sailor Jerry Presents Elm Street Music & Tattoo Festival? Well there was a big fundraising raffle for True South, a charity that helps people injured in motorcycle and bike accidents. The big prize was a 1984 Harley-Davidson, but what I didn’t talk a lot about was the 2nd Harley that was given away.

Another bike was given away by Elm Street Tattoo’s Oliver Peck. A bunch of tattoo artists and some locals were offered the chance to play in a massive dice game that happened on stage at the end of the tattoo convention at Prophet Bar. 40 people gathered around a table and one by one rolled three dice in a game of C-lo. Four people managed to roll the best possible score of 4-5-6 and they moved on to the second round. In the end it came down to Chicago tattoo artist Keith Underwood and one of the members of the nightclub Trees staff. In the third and final round Keith won the bike and celebrated like a crazy person. It was pretty amazing. I’ve worked with Keith at a couple of Sailor Jerry events so I was psyched that he won.

I should also mention that Oliver rolled a 1, the lowest possible score. Everyone but Oliver got a huge kick out of that.

I video taped the whole thing as well so all the shots I took were one handed and a lot of people were in the way so they aren’t the best of my career. That being said I kinda love these photos anyway so I decided to make them their own update. It’s a lot of fun to see all these very serious looking tattoo artists laughing their asses off and high fiving each other over a game of dice…

Click here to see all the photos from the dice at the Elm Street Music & Tattoo Fest!

Yesterday was day two of “Sailor Jerry Presents the Elm Street Music & Tattoo Festival”. I didn’t get any tattoos on day two but I had a lot of fun. There was skate boarding, tons of rock and roll and of course more tattooing. Bowling For Soup were the headliners yesterday and there were a bunch of tattooed babes hanging out everywhere. No complaints.

I hung out on the half pipe out back and shot kids skateboarding for a while. I shot a bunch of skate stuff when I was in high school but I didn’t have that many friends that were any good so I have really only shot skate stuff a couple times in the last 15 years. Sports photography, and especially skate photography is such a specialized thing but I had fun anyway. I got a couple of nice shots but my favorite might be the one of a board flying at me. It actually hit me in the face but the shot was worth it. The shot is always worth it.

Bowling For Soup headlined Trees but I was more excited about the headliners over at Wits End across the street. Dallas Uber Alles were an awesome Dead Kennedys cover band and I had a lot of fun fucking shit up in their mosh pit. It also made me realized how many Dead Kennedys songs I don’t know. That was pretty surprising since they were one of the first punk bands I ever listened to.

This fest has been so much fun so I gotta thank the homie Oliver Peck and Sailor Jerry for bringing me out to Texas. Half my family is from Dallas and I have spent a lot of time here and this is the first time I ever had any fun… (Although I did fire a gun for the first time here.)

Click here to see all the photos from day two of Sailor Jerry Presents The Elm Street Music & Tattoo Festival in Dallas, TX.

Yesterday was Friday the 13th and that means one thing, cheap #13 tattoos! Getting the #13 tattooed on you has historically been a way to ward off bad luck and in recent years it’s become a tattoo shop tradition to give out small inexpensive #13 tattoos every Friday the 13th. Tattoo artist Oliver Peck and his shop Elm Street Tattoo in Dallas, TX have taken that idea even further. Oliver has 13s tattooed all over his body and once broke the world’s record for most tattoos in a 24 hour period by tattooing 13s on people.

This year Oliver and his shop launched “Sailor Jerry Presents The Elm Street Music & Tattoo Festival” on Friday the 13th in Dallas. On day one of the festival they had something like 100 tattoo doing Friday the 13th tattoos during the whole  24 hour period. The festival lasts all weekend and features tattooing all day and bands all night. The convention took over four venues on Elm Street in Deep Ellum. The actual tattoo convention is taking place in the Prophet Bar and bands are playing at Trees, Three Links and Wits End. Day one was a lot of fun and the Reverend Horton Heat headlined Trees and I used to love those guys so it was awesome to see them for the first time in over a decade.

I should mention, that I was supposed to be in Dallas at midnight but I didn’t get there until 4pm on Friday because of a canceled flight and a nightmarish runaround that had me spend 11 hours of my life at LaGuardia airport. To celebrate the worst travel day of my life, and to help ward off bad flight luck, I got a Friday the 13th tattoo myself… Rana Almiron, a tattoo artist who flew in for the festival from Argentina, tattooed the Delta Airlines logo on me with the number 13 on top of it.

Now click here to check out all the photos from Friday the 13th at Sailor Jerry Presents the Elm Street Music & Tattoo Festival in Dallas, TX.

I am back from my insane road trip! If you somehow aren’t aware I spent 31 days on the road driving from Detroit to Chicago and then taking Route 66 from there all the way to LA. From there I drove up to San Francisco and then drove back across the country to Chicago where I spent several days photographing Sailor Jerry’s Pitchfork Music Festival after parties AKA Cobrafest. I finally drove back to Detroit and then flew home on Tuesday. I spent a couple days sleeping and recovering and trying to catch up on emails.

I have mostly recovered and although I might take another couple days off this weekend, I am ready to get back to work. We are going to start things off getting all the Cobrafest photos up. Keith Underwood and Jason Hoodrich from Taylor Street Tattoos gave out Sailor Jerry flash tattoos all three days. Tons of bands played and DJs spun outside.

I already did mini updates on the road trip blog about all three days of Cobrafest at Cobra Lounge if you want to know more about the events, but I will give you quick break downs right now.

Cobrafest Friday: The Bronx headlined and absolutely destroyed the place and my friends in Habibi were awesome as well. The People’s Temple and Thing played as well and there was a pretty sweet dance party outside. All of Habibi got tattooed and I got a tattoo as well. My dad raised me on Jimmy Buffett so I got a dead parrot head tattoo as a secret homage to that upbringing.  Click here for photos from Cobrafest Friday.

Cobrafest Saturday: The night featured The Growlers headlining with Toxie, Heavy Times and Denney & The Jets all performing as well. Most of the Growlers got tattooed as did Denney and his girlfriend. Saturday seemed like the most chill of the days probably because there was so much other shit going on that night but the Growlers and local favorites Heavy Times still brought out a pretty packed crowd. Click here for photos from Cobrafest Saturday.

Cobrafest Sunday: Sunday was my favorite day specifically because there was a Yacht Rock party with a water slide that made for awesome photos and a lot of cute tattooed girls in bikinis and a lot of Hall and Oates being played outside. My pals White Mystery played and opened up for King Dude and Chicago’s own Hollywood Holt spun outside. Nones and Rainbow Gun Show opened the night and it ended with two cute girls driving me to the place I was crashing. Nothing but awesomeness all night. Click here for photos from Cobrafest Sunday.

Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins, one of the most important traditional tattoo artists in history, died 40 years ago yesterday. To keep his memory alive the company that that bares his name threw events across the country. I photographed the New York event at the bowling alley/ dive bar The Gutter in Brooklyn. Sailor Jerry gave out free tattoos for seven straight hours. The guys from Three Kings Tattoos busted out dozens and dozens of mini Sailor Jerry flash tattoos that people picked by throwing a dart at a dart board. You might be asking yourself who would want an actual tattoo that they picked by throwing darts and a bard and the answer is hundreds of people. The line was around the block hours before the event even started.

On top of that Sailor Jerry brought out Matt Van Cura from Invisible Ink NYC to do slightly larger Sailor Jerry pieces on bands, journalists and friends of the Sailor Jerry crew. The drummer from Foxygen got one of the most confusing tattoos I have ever seen which was “Tom Jones” written in script under the letters DC. Evidently there is a DC Sailor Jerry flash that you can write any name in. I have no idea what the DC means and I have less of an idea why he would get Tom Jones as the name. It’s pretty amazing/hilarious especially because it’s his only tattoo. Nightlife legend Steve Lewis, artist Buff Monster and Inked Magazine’s creative director Todd Weinberger all left with Van Cura pieces.

The party was a great time with tons of cute tattooed girls ever, delicious hot dogs, cheap Sailor Jerry rum and lots of bowling, but after seven hours of tattoo madness I was ready for bed… but instead I went to The DL and shot another party until 4 in the morning. Pictures from that up tomorrow! Until then…

Click here for all the photos from the 40th anniversary of Norman Collins death: Sailor Jerry Day at The Gutter!

Oliver Peck is not only a bad ass tattoo artist and host of TV’s Ink Master, he  also happens to be one of the only Republicans that I get along with. After spending the last seven weeks in NYC filming season three of Ink Master Oliver is headed back home to Dallas. Last night with the help of Sailor Jerry he threw an insane going away party at Arlene’s Grocery.

Back in Dallas, Oliver and his friend Josh Hammertimez host Good Luck Karaoke, which is pretty much like regular karaoke except Josh and Oliver cause a ruckus on stage while you are performing your song. They brought the party to NYC last night and did karaoke until everyone was too drunk to sing anymore. I have seen a lot of karaoke in my life but never as out of control as last night. The Alkaline Trio showed up and Matt Skiba got wasted on Sailor Jerry and decided to play the drums during about ten people’s karaoke sets. It was pretty amazing/ hilarious.

Oliver also brought his friend and co-worker at Elm Street Tattoo, Carl Hallowell, to tattoo Sailor Jerry flash on people while the karaoke madness was going on in the other room. Skiba got a death head moth on his hand, my dude AK Murda got a hinge, Steve Lewis got a pin up, etc. Lot of rad tattoos all around.

Oh, I should probably mention that everyone was wearing wigs all night. Why you ask? I have no idea actually, but it probably has something to do with Oliver’s drag queen Ramones tribute band The Ramonahs. They played a set in the middle of the karaoke party and it was fucking awesome. Oliver does a pretty good Joey Ramone impression only with a mustache and fake tits. Seriously it was wild.

Enough with the story let’s get to some pictures. It was a wild night…

Click here to see all the pictures from Oliver Peck’s Wig Party at Arlene’s Grocery featuring Good Luck Karoke and The Ramonahs!

The Tribeca Film Festival is in town and one of the films I was most interested in was a documentary called Bending Steel about a man named Chris “Wonder” Schoeck who is training to become a strongman. Like sideshow Coney Island style bending bars over your head type strongman. I have always been fascinated with the sideshow and while I sort of hate magic, I love actual feats of strength that seem like magic. When I was a kid I learned how to blockhead (hammering nails into your nose) learned to swallow hot dogs whole with the idea that maybe one day I could learn to swallow swords. Two of my favorite photographers growing up were (and still are) Diane Arbus and Bruce Davidson who both documented sideshows and circuses and there was a time in my life where I really spent a lot of time researching and learning about this amazing culture.

Eventually my interest wained, mostly because there are only so many feats you can do. Unless someone is particularly innovative or captivating eventually seeing someone swallow a sword, eat glass, spit fire, etc eventually somehow gets old. But actual strongmen are few and far between. Sword swallowing is incredibly difficult and dangerous but I have seen dozens of people do it. But before Saturday I had never seen someone bend a steel bar into a bunny head.

Let’s get to the point here… After posting the trailer for Bending Steel on my Tumblr page I was asked to photograph the after party at The Red Door. Aside from free Sailor Jerry rum and a bunch of cute girls running around there was an amazing strongman show! Adam Realman, who hosts the Coney Island Sideshow Spectacular, hosted an evening full of incredible feats of strength featuring Chris “Harculese” Rider, Sonny “Man Of Steel” Barry, Steve “The Crusher” Weiner, Gary “The Brickman” Brown, Bill Solony and of course Wonder Shoeck himself. On top of that Cardone performed a straight jacket escape which is always impressive. The highlight for me was watching Adam Realman blow up a hot water bottle. It’s a feat I have heard about and seen online but never in real life. It’s legitimately terrifying waiting for the bottle to pop, especially being a few feet away from it. A piece of exploding rubber could honestly do some serious damage. Another highlight of the show was just watching the camaraderie of the strongmen. You had four generations of strongmen there rooting each other on. It was a cool glimpse into a world the most people never see.

I didn’t get a chance to see Bending Steel yet but I know it’s playing a few more times this week. Go see it if you live in NYC and if not I am sure it will get distribution and we will all be able to see it soon! Anyway, these photos are pretty cool but you need to see this stuff in real life to really appreciate it. Some of these guys are twice my age and they are beding steel like its tin foil meanwhile I seriously hurt my back trying to rip bubble wrap. Maybe it’s time I started strongman training!

Click here to see all the photos from the Bending Steel Tribeca after party at the Red Door!

We are in the home stretch! We just have two more South By Southwest updates! Today I bring you the rest of the Sailor Jerry take over of the Gypsy Lounge. This update is a mix of three parties plus a few other shots in between. We start with the opening night party which featured my homies White Mystery and a ton of other bands. The next day Natural Child Family Band headlined and Sailor Jerry’s own Justin Pittney’s band the Residuals played their first of three SXSJ shows. They killed it so check them out. On Thursday during the day Shannon & The Clams headlined a big show featuring the Jacuzzi Boys and a ton of other bands.

Aside from the bands there is a ton of photos of people getting dart board tattoos from “Downtown” Terry Brown. He tattooed all day, every day and gave people more shark and anchor tattoos than you could ever imagine. He also tattooed some of the bands with some different Sailor Jerry designs that weren’t picked by throwing darts. He even hooked me up with a tiny bird! Pretty rad.

Anyway this update has so many pictures, so many bands, so many tattoos and so many cute girls and rocker dudes drinking Sailor Jerry… Also that dude from the Counting Crows. At the very least you should scan through the pictures because there is a lot of South By Sailor Jerry madness inside!

Click here to see the rest of the photos from the Sailor Jerry takeover of the Gypsy Lounge!