One of the cooler branding promotions that exists on Earth is Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum giving out free tattoos. Not little fake temporary tattoos with their logo on them, but actual real life tattoos given by a bearded man in a small air stream trailer. If you are not away Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins was a bad ass motherfucker who pretty much revolutionized tattooing. He was tattooing sailors in Hawaii for something like 40 years and designed thousands of flash tattoos that have been compiled into three tattoo flash books that pretty much every tattoo shop in the world owns.  Sailor Jerry died in 1973 but his legacy lives on and hundreds of people still get his work tattooed on them every week. At special music events around the country Sailor Jerry rum sets up a make shift tattoo shop in their air stream trailer and give out Sailor Jerry tattoos to any of the musicians who want one.

During Voodoo Music Experience New Orleans tattoo artist Terry Brown set up shop in the air stream for three days and did close to twenty tattoos on bands, crew members and me. He tattooed Diplo and Piink from Major Lazer, two of the members of Fishbone, Peelander Green, Jesse Hughes and Tuesday Cross from Boots Electric, my homies Star Eyes from Trouble & Bass and Roofeeo from TV on The Radio and a bunch of other people who I lost track of. Sorry.

Terry Brown is a great tattoo artist who specializes in this traditional tattoo style pioneered by Sailor Jerry. If you are in New Orleans you can set up an appointment with him at his shop Uptown. But if you happen to be a musician at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin this weekend he will be doing them there for free. I’ll be there so get at me and I can make sure you get hooked up.

Now check out all the shots of musicians getting Sailor Jerry tattoos at the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans.

As you may noticed the people paying for my adventures of late have been Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. They hired me to shoot CMJ, Voodoo Music Experience and Fun Fun Fun in Austin next weekend. I feel like they are a perfect brand for me to represent as they do rad shit for bands, throw awesome parties and are entrenched in the tattoo culture that I love to document.

At the Voodoo fest in New Orleans they had a photo boot set up and provided the rum for the festival but they also had one of their air stream trailers parked in the aritst only area and were serving up rum drinks to all the bands back stage. We had a bunch of cool bands hanging out all weekend and I got to document that stuff while they still let me check out all the bands I wanted to see. It was a pretty ideal situation.

We had Major Lazer stop by one night for tattoos and Fishbone stop by for a random 80’s dance party in the trailer. Peelander Z were there all day Friday and members of Fitz and the Tantrums and Civil Twilight spent a lot of time hanging out. Jesse Hughes from Boots Electric (and Eagles of Death Metal) stopped by and filmed a segment for Fuse and he and his girlfriend (and Boots Electric bassist) Tuesday Cross got Sailor Jerry tattoos. You might recognize Tuesday from somewhere…

Anyway this gallery is a bunch of shots of bands and other people hanging out at the air stream. Tomorrow I’ll get up all the pictures of people getting tattooed including Diplo, two members of Fishbone, Roofeeo from TV On The Radio and Peelander Green. Get excited.

But for now, click here to see the shots of the party that was the Sailor Jerry Air Stream trailer at the 2011 Voodoo Music Experience.

I am sorry I haven’t updated in a minute. I have so much fucking content to get up but I am in New Orleans at the “Voodoo Music Experience” shooting photos for Sailor Jerry. I’ll have so many photos from it up next week but I had to get something up today.

Part of Sailor Jerry’s promotional stuff here is giving the musicians at the fest free Sailor Jerry Tattoos. In the last two days they have given them to a bunch of musicians including Diplo, the green guy from Peelander Z and the lead singer of Fucking Bullshit.  Oh wait, that’s me.

Instead of going to see Blink 182 tonight Terry Brown tattooed a Sailor Jerry pirate head holding a knife on the back of my right arm. It is not my first Sailor Jerry tattoo, I have this sweet Monkey too. The pirate head is pretty fucking awesome and Terry rules. If you are ever in New Orleans or playing a huge music festival sponsored by Sailor Jerry you should get a tattoo by him. He works at Uptown in NOLA if you in the city and in need of ink.

This is my arm. I’ll be back soon!

During CMJ I shot two after parties for music documentary screenings at Mondrian SoHo’s club Mr. H. On Wednesday I shot the a after party for “Fix: The Ministry Movie” and on Thursday I did the afters for “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest”.  I was a huge fan of Ministry when I was like 12 and a big Tribe fan for a long damn time. I am pretty sure I own like 7 of their albums.

On Wednesday Paul Barker from Ministry was going to DJ but he was missing some gear or something so that didn’t happen. He still hung out and I got to say what’s up and take some pictures.  On Thursday Questlove DJ’d and Beats, Rhymes & Life director Michael Rapaport showed up. Pharrell Williams who was interviewed in the documentary was also hanging out. I think I have now run into Pharrell three times in the last 10 months and this is the first time he let me take his picture. I am a pretty big fan of both Pharrell and Michael Rapaport. Pharrell’s from my home state of VA and Rapaport has a fucking Bad Brains tattoo which I tried to get a picture of but he had it covered with makeup for work.

Both parties were fun and everyone washed down the good hangs with free Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum and everything was right with the world. Keep up the PMA y’all.

Click here to see pictures from the “Fix: The Ministry Movie” CMJ after party at Mr. H.

Click here to see pictures from the “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest” CMJ after party at Mr. H.

Filter Magazine and Hyundai threw some crazy party in the Chelsea Market for CMJ last Saturday. It was an amazing clusterfuck of crazy social networking madness, toys, shoes, Hyundai cars and all sorts of wild shit. There was an insane amount of free Sailor Jerry, a performance by Cold War Kids, a DJ set by Datarock and some insane Underground Rebel Bingo thing. I really had no idea what was happening the whole time but it was clearly a lot of fun.  I also thought Cold War Kids were pretty awesome live despite never really being a fan of their music. Probably not gonna run out and buy a CD or anything but I would check them out again for sure. I have a bunch of stuff to do today so I am gonna end the write up here, but look at the pictures because it was a pretty good time.

Click here to see all the pictures from the Filter Magazine/ Hyundai Re:Mix Lab CMJ Party at the Chelsea Market.

This CMJ was my best in a few years. Every since CMJ stuck my friend Teddy Blanks in the back room of some bar that should never have had bands play there I have been down on the festival.  The last two years I sort of avoided it completely and was planning on doing so again but luckily I got a gig working for Sailor Jerry Rum and they got me off my ass and I had a great time in the process. Every event they had me cover was a good time and I was psyched to work the Brooklyn Vegan Day parties at Public Assembly.  I have worked for Brooklyn Vegan in the past and I was glad to be working with them again, plus it was in Williamsburg so I didn’t even have to get on a train.  On top of that there were free Sailor Jerry drinks so everyone was clearly going to be properly partying all day.

Friday’s party ended up being a lot of fun but musically a little down tempo for my liking. I walked as A Place To Bury Strangers were midway through their set. They were good performers and so fucking loud which of course I was into, but they are just a little bit droney for my personal tastes. Everyone else I talked to was psyched about them though. Plus I took some pics of them in the Sailor Jerry air stream and they seemed like good people. Chelsea Wolfe was another performer that everyone seemed really into. Her music was really pretty and I get the attraction but it was a little too sleepy time for me to listen to at a rock club. When I am out and about I want to rock. For me the highlight of the day was Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis who did things with an acoustic guitar that I didn’t think possible. He didn’t exactly put on a wild show or anything but the guy is a legend and he impressed.

Saturday’s party was a bit more up my alley. I was kicking myself because Peelander Z was leaving right as I go there. I have seen the crazy Japanese rockers a half dozen times over the last 10 years and they are always amazing. They were a highlight of this years SXSW for me. Luckily I grabbed them and took some photo of them in and around the Sailor Jerry air stream before heading into check out the New Orleans booty bounce madness that is Vockah Redu. He did an insane NWA cover and I found out that I had actually met his dancer before and we have some mutual friends. If you get a chance to check out Vockah you fucking owe it to yourself to do so. The band that I would most likely go home and listen to (I am actually listening to them now) was a California punk band called Fidlar who headlined the second stage. They are no Fucking Bullshit of course but I would go see them any time. Headlining the main stage was Idle Warship a hip hop/soul group fronted by Talib Kweli. They were great and I am pretty sure they covered Devo and there was just awesomeness all over the place. Oh, and also there was a guy dressed like a stegosaurus. Wild.

After that I headed home for 90 minutes and then right back to Public Assembly for another Sailor Jerry party… but we will get to that another day.

Click here to see all the photos from both Brooklyn Vegan CMJ Day Parties!

PS. Shout out to the cute girl with hot dog tattoo who is a big fan of Driven By Boredom. Keep me bookmarked!

A quick update today while I organize the rest of my Lollapalooza shots and try to enjoy Chicago now that I don’t have to work all day.  These are the shots from the second night of the Filter Magazine Lollapalooza after party.  If you didn’t see the shots from the first night they are here.

The location – Hard Rock Hotel, the free booze – Sailor Jerry Rum – and the Celebrity DJ – Elijah Wood, remained the same but there were some changes in the mix as well.  Kid Color DJd and Phantogram played early in the night, but the night was headlined by Foster The People who completely packed the place.  They also brought Lindsay Lohan with them who clearly didn’t want her photo taken so I didn’t take it. That being said you can see her in the back ground of one shot… see if you can find it!

Anyway, the night was a lot of fun and you should have been there. Click here to see all the shots from the Saturday night Filter After Party at the Hard Rock Hotel.

I gotta go get my ass down to Lollapalooza right now but I wanted to quickly get the photos from last night to you. I hit up the Filter Magazine after party at the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago.  Of all people Elijah Wood was DJing. He is so tiny and DJ’s with an iPod but also he seemed very nice and took photos with a bunch of people and that sort of thing. Plus he was in Green Street Hooligans so I am on the record as pro Elija Wood. Chris Holmes also DJ’d who I have seen do his thing in LA. He does the Night Swim party at the Roosevelt which is probably my favorite party in LA. Two bands played, Maps & Atlases and Cults. They were both way better than average and pretty interesting if not exactly my cup of tea. On top of that there was free Sailor Jerry rum which is awesome because while I rarely drink, I do have a pretty sweet Sailor Jerry tattoo.

So yeah, good DJs, good bands, free booze… I will be back tonight…

Click here to see all the pictures from the Filter Magazine Lollapalooza After Party at the Hard Rock Hotel.