August Moon

I'm Back....Well Sorta

2009-10-25T15:35:00.004-04:00

I will be in Middletown, Delaware for a short stint from November 7th till the 14th. I will be doing three appointments a day and a $30 deposit is required for you to hold a spot. If for some reason I cannot keep that appointment, your money will be refunded.

I will be off on Sunday.

Please call the shop today to get your appointment at (302) 376-6666. You must ask specifically for me if you want me to do your work.

I appreciate all of the support I have been shown up in the Delaware and Maryland area and do wish I could stay. If something changes and I can find a place to call "home" I would stay, but right now that does not seem to be in the cards....but you never know when you might find an Ace up your sleeve...so who knows.

In the mean time I have been busy in Florida creating machines. A fine collection if I may say so. Check them out and please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Interested? Email me at art-inker@comcast.net.

A tribute tat and some damn good chocolate

2009-06-25T18:11:00.005-04:00

A client of mine presented me with this drawing of a tribute for her grandfather. It is a WWII Bronze Star of which he received 3. She had no memorial of him, no place to go to pour that flask of whiskey, so she came to me with the below idea. I liked it and all I did was clean it up for her.
The rest are her words...

The early stages of my design and my aching fingers. I cannot draw by hand anymore like August can due to early onset arthritis and tremors since age 15. But I told August I had to draw this myself and then get his input and any clean up work it needed. He understood. This was my tribute to a man who loved me unconditionally and who lived life to it's fullest everyday, but cruelly had it slip away from him slowly over several years with flash backs from the very reasons why he earned these (3) and many other medals.

The stencil, from my view. August did VERY little to the original design. Tweaked the "J" in the font I chose, which I totally agreed with and opened the roses up a bit...damn he can read my mind. Yes, that is a paper towel shoved up my crotch to keep my skort/shorts clean. Deal with it.

The messy part. This is when you are adjusting to the feeling and looking at what appears to be mud and saying "what am I doing?!?"

Then like magic August cleans off the outline work and it time for his smoke break while you take a deep breath in amazement. OMFG! WOW! I mean really, it is coming to life. Damn. You get more cupcakes.

Ahhhhh, I am bleeding to death...help me....he has me tied down!!! Actually, there is just a lot of red in the ribbon. August is very well known for his brilliant colors and I was very anxious to see how the colors would play out on this one. This one I would be able to look at every day when I look down, unlike the collection on my back...which I kinda ran out of room back there thanks to him. Yup....all his fault.

Now this is a BRONZE star and I saw all of this bright yellow going on and almost (I said ALMOST) started to worry, but knew he would be blending it in with other colors.

Next photo below you can see how he worked that out, and as it has healed, the bronze looks more bronze and old....which it what we wanted. This is a WWII medal, not a gulf war medal.

All done from my view with roses...typically I am not a roses person. But I wanted this to have a more traditional flair to it.

Yeah I know, I still have a paper towel stuck in my crotch...goes with the territory. This is how everyone else sees it.....minus towel. Honestly the photo does not do it justice. I wanted it up high on my leg since this one is so personal and only want to show it off if I choose to do so. Like right now, to the whole world. lol! You know what I mean...I don't want to answer questions about it unless I am in the mood. Besides I already get a shit load of compliments of his work that is all over my back in the warmer months of the year as it is...ad a few blinking lights and I am a walking August Moon billboard!

It hurts sooooo good!

Find me another gal under the age of 40 with a WWII tribute tat on her....if you do...I wanna meet her and exchange emails!

I want to say a very very special thank you to August Moon for helping me out with what he knew was a very important, emotional and special piece that I will carry with me with pride the rest of my life. Thanks Gus...you got me this time, you really did.

And Pop Pop - I love and miss you so much.

- M.I.

Now get home to Jill and I hope we see you both back up here soon. And just in case and as promised, so you may return to this state (and you better, I cannot afford airfair!):
_____________________________________________________

Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes (So August may return to the state - please use and abuse)

1/4 pound of unsalted butter at room temperature (I always add a dash (dash = 1/2 tsp) of salt when working with chocolate this rich)
1 cup of granulated sugar (table sugar)
4 extra large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp balsamic vinegar (another one of my touches) It works!
1 (16 ounce) can chocolate syrup (recommended: Hershey's Syrup)
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour

(no baking soda, no baking powder and yeah, it's low in flour, but makes up for it chocolate syrup and eggs!)

For the Ganache:
1/2 cup heavy cream (we used 1/2 and then 1/4 for extra)
8 ounces (plus we added an extra 4 ounces ) of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 teaspoons of instant coffee granules (I just used store brand)
1 tsp, balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Lightly oil and line muffin pans cups with paper or foil liners. Preheat oven to 325 F.

Cream butter and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix in the chocolate syrup, vanilla and balsamic. Add the flour and mix just until combined. Don't over beat, or the cupcakes will be tough.

Scoop the batter into the muffin cups and bake for 30 min. or until just set in the middle. (Fill muffin cups to the top, there is no levening agent so they don't rise much, they are solid cupcake!) They are sorta part cupcake part souffle, but will be firm. Let cupcakes cool completely in pan.

For ganache, cook the heavy cream, chocolate chips, instant coffee and tsp of balsamic in the top of double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stiring more than occasionally. Not worth risking burnt ganache.

I made extra ganace in this recipe, so I piped a small amount into the center of each cup cake. Let them cook down more and spooned a gooey pile of ganache on top of each one. lined a baking dish with butter and placed finished cupcakes into dish, powered with cocoa powder and covered with wax paper and chilled till set in fridge.

OMG, chocolate for the Gods and Goddesses!

Enjoy! :)

August Moon on the move again...

2009-04-15T20:34:00.000-04:00

Limited time? Permanent? Do you really want to take that chance? August Moon will be working at:
Ambush Ink
710 Ash Blvd
Middletown, DE 19709
302-376-6666.

He will be there at least two weeks starting April 13, 2009.

Want some work done? Best hurry up and make an appointment today.

A Tale from the Realm of the Green Witch

2009-04-13T19:53:00.002-04:00

This is a posting from the Realm of a Green Witch. August Moon enjoys making old boo boo's into a work of art.
____________

New tattoo! I've been waiting to tattoo around some VERY heavily scarred areas for about seven years. I finally found someone I trusted in August Moon.

My leg before being tattooed. (yes there's a little stubble, as my artist told me he'd shave the area before tattooing.)

The darker and dimpled areas are skin grafts and scars from external titanium pins.

August worked with me and my "unique" issues. He mentioned that with the extent of the damage traditional stencils wouldn't work. We sat with the sterile markers used for piercing and drew what I wanted right onto my leg.

Three hours later I had a completed tattoo. I know that might sound like a lot for some work, but with the nerve damage, it was light years away from "normal" tattoo pain, and even though I wasn't asking to stop, the muscle contractions made it necessary to go slower than normal.

I'm THRILLED with the design, and look forward to adding to my leg.

Thanks!

Coming soon...

2009-03-26T16:23:00.002-04:00

Click on image to enlarge and print

August Moon is returning to the North East

2009-03-20T18:00:00.004-04:00

Show left, my August Moon Collection.

AUGUST MOON WILL BE RETURNING TO THE NORTH EAST IN WILMINGTON DELAWARE ON APRIL 7TH FOR A LIMITED ENGAGEMENT (UNLESS THERE IS ENOUGH INTEREST OR WE DUCT TAPE HIM TO A WALL.)

He is taking appointments now. Contact maliciousintently@yahoo.com and your request will be passed on to August Moon. Be sure to give your name and a phone number where you can be reached. This will be a first come, first serve situation.

Don't miss this chance to grab some fantastic ink from the one and only August Moon.

Parting is such sweet sorrow... Shakespeare

2008-10-12T09:07:00.006-04:00

August Moon finally took off at the end of September from Delaware back to Florida. His game plan for now is a bit of a mystery but it will be either he stays in Florida or plans on returning to Delaware in the winter or spring to set up shop here once again. I am hoping for the later because this gal loves his work, his smart ass way of doing things HIS way, his humanity and not pretending to be something he is not. What you see is what you get. M.I. greatly respects independent and creative folks like that. Makes the world a much more interesting and fun place to be.

Naturally I had to have one more piece from August before he left. (No not a piece of that..... talking about INK! Get your filthy minds out of the gutter....we only talked briefly about ball gags one time...OK maybe swapped some restraining techniques, but that was it!) My birthday was at the end of September and my beloved hubby was gracious enough to give me some new ink for this blessed occasion.

I wanted ravens, bad. I have Native American roots as well and Irish and Scottish. Ravens are my Native American Totem or like an astrological symbol which is very similar to my Libra sign. And it also represents freedom in the Celtic world. But I didn't know how I wanted to represent the raven. I went on a search for ravens and ideas on the web. It was a bit tough, as it is hard to get a lot of detail or a desired pose with something that unless stuffed and mounted constantly moves, flies and is completely black. Then I came across this picture above. I immediately loved the concept of the birds escaping the cage and their more abstract look. I sent it over to August and told him to see what he could do with it, but to ditch the bitch and explained to him the significance of all the symbolism it represented for me. This recent event and post on my blog explains some of it, if you are interested. How ironic it would all come up so harshly less than a month after receiving my ravens. And believe me, looking in the mirror at my ravens over the past few weeks has been helpful to me, healing...a reminder of how far I have come and the strength I still have in me.

Needless to say my master of pain delivered as promised. He replaced the girl with just a few small links of chain that was broken, indicating this was a message of freedom. And he went with the abstract birds except for the large one on the bottom that had more detail to it.

When I arrived he had all of the elements drawn up. He cut out each bird and we began (should I say he did cause I get spanked if I question his judgement!!!) :) He carefully placed each bird until it was "just right." And damn if he didn't get it just right. This was my largest commitment to skin I have made yet and he did an incredible job!

So here it is, the ravens for the raven haired one. I cannot begin to tell you how many compliments I have had bestowed upon me thus far. I have no problem in sporting a spaghetti string tank top whenever possible to show off the treasures on my back with pride.

I already mentioned the chain, which August threw in because he "gets" me. The abstract birds escaping one at time represents the many different oppressions in my life and that to free yourself you never get out in one whole piece, but in stages as we are much more complex than one bird, but many. Such as the common analogy of an onion with many layers. You cannot get to the next until you peel away the first and so on.

I should be hearing from August soon with his new location and adventures (trust me, everything with August is an adventure.) When I hear from him, I'll post the news. I just hope the move back went well and that things are starting to settle for him. It is never easy to move, especially with the way the world and economy is right now.

The plan is eventually to have August's wife to start feeding me information and desires for this blog and help to maintain it or whatever it is they want for me to do. It is my pleasure to do so. It is strange how you develop a bond with someone who permanently alters your body for life. He and his wife are very lovely and unique individuals who I do hope to work with personally again and not just through the Internet.

And Gus...I really do hope we see you back up here. I am addicted, and you are to blame. How can one settle for less now??

Meet the Web Mistress, M.I. (A very satisfied customer)

2008-07-14T18:07:00.009-04:00

Welcome to August Moon's new home on the net! I am Malicious Intent and will be serving as the Web Mistress or Goddess (pick yer poison) to the talented and colorful August Moon.

This blog is about August Moon, but I am sure you are going to be meeting some of his friends and clients (in some cases both.) This will be a place for him to share his thoughts, his art work, and his location, as he is somewhat of a traveling salesman or gypsy of sorts right now. I thought I would take a few moments to introduce myself and share the dreadfully boring story of how we met and how I ended up here, managing a blog for him and show off my new prized piece of artwork from August.

So, 38, re-married, mother of 2 boys (10 and 15) the eldest having severe autism. The autism part gives you a rather wicked sick and twisted sense of humor. Also makes you tough as nails. You sink or swim in this business of "disability" and I am not known for my wall flower skills.

I started to get ink when I was 36. I figured I was grown up enough to decide if I should make permanent marks on my body by then. Besides, the two pregnancies of giving birth to two gorillas already did the damage. I find it rather amusing when folks say, "Ain't you afraid of what yer tattoos are gonna look like when you are 80 years old?" SHIT! Do you honestly think I am going to give a cows crap what my body looks like when I am 80 years old? I will be amazed if I lived that long! Honestly, folks are so hooked on what is on the outside and not what is on the inside.

I am a graphic designer, and as my hands gave out years ago and I found the joys of computer graphics. I especially love to take photos and mutate them into something completely different. Photos are merely a canvas of color for me to play with. With that being said, I love art of all kinds. I especially love the surrealists, the rule breakers, the rebels. I like different and unique art and individuals such as August Moon fit right into my idea of "normal." (Whatever the hell normal is.)

So me and the family packed it up and headed to the beach for the 4th of July holiday weekend just like 300,000 other folks. We stay at my in-laws so we have a lot of freedom and move around more like locals than tourists on vacation. I read in the local paper about a new tattoo shop that opened up just down the street called Bewitched. Nice! I thought I would take a few minutes of time for myself (I know, I am a horrible mommy for doing that) and ask about a dragon fly on my foot that had faded and needed some sprucing up.

The owner John Minka was busy inflicting pain, er I mean art on another client when I walked in, but in the back was a unique looking gentleman who seemed available. Bright green crocs, an equally bright green Hawaiian shirt, hat, long white hair and beard and glasses loaded with rhinestones (which I secretly coveted.) I have a saying "If it sparkles, it is good."

Anyway, I started to talk to him about my foot. He advises me to go back to the original artist and gives advise on how to fix the issue. Well, I gotta tell ya. I liked the guy, he was easy to chat with and very interesting, and for some strange reason, I really wanted to get some work done buy this Moon man. I ran back to my in-laws, went to my site, printed out a photo of my original and first tat and doodled a few ideas I had been thinking about for some time. As I said, it was my first, so it was a bit conservative as I was new at making my own skin a canvas for art. Being a graphic designer I am use to handing in "ready art", so I work up the art and just hand it to the tattooist expecting him/her to produce as shown. (I know, major control issues....therapy takes forever!) Each part of my butterfly meant something to me, so I didn't want to loose those elements, but I definitely wanted to spruce it up. I really felt like I could just let this guy go nuts and do his thing and I trusted him. Believe me, that is not something that happens every day in my world.

I told him what I liked, he drew right on me. The first one didn't fly,but the second one did. It was just a matter of talking it out and him getting to know what I wanted. "Swirls, stars, color, I love the word Imagine, yeah I like water too!" Doesn't sound like something you could put together and make much sense of. So I sat in his
chair, pulled up my hair and let him do his thing, his way. I didn't look to much while he worked on me. I had a sense of peace and calm and my gut was telling me this was going to work out just fine. It was also telling me I was hungry but the bitter sweet pain of of getting tattooed subsided that for a while. After the first 5 or 10 minutes, this little freak actually likes the feeling of getting inked. I think folks just get themselves all psyched up about it and make it bigger than what it really is. An old saying is "The anticipation is usually greater than the event." and "Pain in inevitable, Misery is optional." I love quotes, in case you have not gathered that by now.

So this is the finished product. I stood up, looked in the mirror and I am pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. (Really sorry about drooling on your table dude.) Wow! I mean WOW!

So I go home, glowing. I post my photos and immediately start having folks asking me if they can see more of his work on-line and where do they go to see it. Gee, I don't know! I start looking around myself and he was a bit of a trick to find. Finally I give in and just call him. After a conversation or two this blog is born. So here it is and hopefully this will prove to be a nice home for August and his clients to talk, share, show and brag about the wonderful and often misunderstood world of tattoos.

Be sure to visit August Moon and shop owner of Bewitched Tattoos John Minka in Rehoboth.
19478 Coastal Highway (Route 1), Shoppes of Camelot, Rehoboth, DE 19971 (302) 260-9751

Thanks August!

An Introduction

2008-07-13T10:39:00.001-04:00

Aricle from Prick Magazine - 2003
AUGUST MOON the boldly clad gentleman
by Joy Treacy

I first met August Moon at the 2001 Meadowlands Tattoo Convention. We were at the hotel bar when this gentleman walked past us, almost glowing, wearing a bright mustard hat and suit. This boldly clad gentleman was August Moon. He wore a solid 14 karat gold tattoo machine necklace, that he himself designed.

Charismatic and a delight to talk to, I sat down with August recently and got to know him a little better. August started out in the tattoo business in 1993, working with Philadelphia Eddie. With his artistic background, he picked up the skill quickly and in 1995, he decided to branch out on his own, opening his own shop in Delaware. He has since expanded to a larger studio, one of the largest I have ever seen. In addition to being a well-respected artist in the tattoo community, he is also a very revered businessman.

The respect that he has gained does not come undeserved. His good business sense and participation in helping with the new rules and regulations that govern the tattoo business, have helped establish legitimacy of the industry as a whole. He has worked with the health department and shed new light on current tattoo practices and safeguards in the industry. He credits Cliff Raven and Ed Hardy for taking the first steps to get the tattoo business out of the basement and give it a better image. "The business is more about the art and not just about being a freak," says August. He attributes the success of the tattoo business in the last 10 years to the the collaborative efforts of the community as a whole.