Monday, January 16, 2012
THAT THING THAT I DO
I have a terrific day job. Really, it's one of the most awesome day jobs in the world.
I get to work here:
This is my tattoo shop. Family Tradition Tattoo in Marietta, Ga. I've been tattooing now for over 15 years. I love it. I opened my own shop about 3 years ago and it is exactly what I wanted. A quiet place where grown ups come to get nice tattoos. No crowds of 'hanger out-ers' to wade through, usually we have blues or country or pop playing on the stereo, and we stay drama free. I have great artists who work there with me and I like them both as people, so work is a pleasure.
And I get to do stuff like this to people....and they PAY me for it!
Now in my day job I do run into a LOT of people. You will see some of these people show up in my books. No I never tattooed a Were-spider, but I did tattoo a lady that reminds me of Charlotte. In my day job I also get to meet people who are experts in weird stuff that I wind up using in my books. I have tattooed on police officers, undercover officers, military folks, firemen, and "contract security specialists" (read that last one as mercenaries). Yes some folks are full of BS, but not all.
And I learned the patience it takes to write a book. Sitting there slogging through the fifth hour of someone's seven hour tribal sleeve where I am just packing black, endlessly making little tiny circles with my machine and staying on task was where I learned to sit down for 4 hours to get out a few thousand words on an 80,000 word manuscript.
I am thoroughly enjoying both of my jobs now. See?
I frequently come across as an asshole, However I very rarely intend to.
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Nice post, James! How great that your day job meshes so well with the writing gig.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and nice body art, James. This probably sounds weird, but what you said about doing the 7 hour black black black ink reminds me of crocheting. Endlessly making tiny circles with yarn. For me, it's the best time to work out sticky plot points.
ReplyDeleteCool post. In some ways, I envy you your job. You get to talk to fascinating people, and take your time doing something that results in an artistic end result. Tangible.
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