Hard Times for all?

Dude, you are CLOSING on a new house! Life is good, think of those folks down south that have houseboats now!

 

Things stay pretty steady in the tattoo world. I have a steady, devoted clientel that I tattoo out of a private studio at home. Almost no overhead at all. The more I look around, the more I see that California does not offer me as much as I would like for the amount I pay here. I grew up in the Adirondack Mts. near Lake Placid, NY...just went home to visit my family and saw what I took for granted growing up. I would like to buy a house in a nice, peaceful mountain town on the AuSable River and have my clients fly in. Albany, Montreal, and Burlington are close...a lot of people fly in to get tattooed now, anyway. I think the tats and rods would be a shocker to a lot of the people there, though. Not sure where I was going with this reply to the thread, but I started daydreaming and got sidetracked. Regardless, no hard times here...feel very blessed.

Adam

 

Yeah, i didn't say life was bad, just business! I'm just happy I'm gonna have a tiny little shop of my own to do my building in, once I get the bigger shop and my own booth setup I'll be golden. Good thing the wife is a teacher so we have "decent" income & benefits coming in so I can try to get on my feet.
But first I have lots of painting, cleaning and assembling of furniture to do.........

 

We're just now entering slow season for tattoo work in Ohio. We just started our new shop in Columbus (www.highstreettattoo.com). I need to tell my roomate to stop leaving every light on in the house and quit turning the AC down to 50 every day. And I have $150 in the bank. I had so many plans this winter but I think they may be going to the wayside.

 

^ah, I remember the slow season when I tattooed. Lots days spent playing playstation and watching midget porn in teh back room of the shop. Always had to save up enough over the summer to make it through the winter.

 

Bitch Bitch Bitch... I'll be in or around Bagdad driving or gunning on convoys trying to stay live in a week or two. What are you (in general) doing this year for public service. Lots of folks like to talk about how fucked up things are but few actually do anything about it.

Zeke

 

Who are you speaking to exactly?

We do as much as we can afford to for the community, helping out with a pre-school that takes care of homeless kids and kids whose parents have severe drug problems. We wouldn't be scraping to get by right now if we'd NOT spent a decent chunk of money on one of the girls from there this month, buying her school supplies and clothes so she would have new clothes to start kindergarten in!

 

Don't take it personal it's directed to everyone (in general) I'm an ass and love to direct my thoughts at anyone in perticular if needed I would rather folks just step up to the plate and do something for their community than complain how bad life is. Trust me I know the feeling. cash I would have loved to have spent on buying me extra gear and other goodies before I ship out went toward the family instead. Life is what you make of it.

 

This is a very interesting subject, and I have read all the replys. I guess I am the minority here. I am doing pretty well actually. My wife and I have great paying jobs, and we have a wonderful home. I do feel very blessed with the life I lead right now. Every chance I get I lend a helping hand to those less fortunate than myself. None of this was given to me. I had many many years of hard times to get here. 2 career changes, and a move across the country.

Zeke,

Things are pretty fucked up over there right now. You say 'but few actually do anything about it'. I want to tell you something, I proudly served my country as a Marine. I was ready at any given moment to defend my country's freedom with my life. I love all of my armed forces brothers and sisters, and I appreciate the sacrifice they are making to defend our freedom (right or wrong over there). 'What are you (in general) doing this year for public service' it's comments like that that make me want to bend someones fuckin neck back! There is no draft, there is no one that made YOU sign on the dotted line, no one made YOU swear or affirm that YOU would defend YOUR country against enemies foreign or abroad. This is the shit you signed up for in peace time. With that said, thanks for your service to our great country, don't lose your gear, and come home safe after 1 tour.
Semper Fi & Gods Speed bro.

 

What or who is the "economy"? The economy is the people going about their business ,buying and selling. The lamestream media never mentions this,they talk of the economy like it's some mysterious thing which only the gubment has control over and not us.BULLSHIT! NPR is a fountain of misinformation.

 

My Dad grew up as in a sharecropper family in OK., during the Depression. I learned well from him,how to fix things,rather than replace. I remember going to high school,and work on tires we scrounged from dumpsters behind gas stations(before they started cutting the beads) I think most of us here are of that mentality. We are the career recyclers,and will get by through this temporary ressiscion. Hard times? Yes,but we ARE doing better than most.Sparky

 

Yep, you are correct sir there is no draft and I'm damn thankful for it I have enough shitbags in my unit as is. Military service isn't the only way to serve ones community.

The way I should have phrased it: Instead of bitching ask yourself, what are you doing for your community?

Lots of things can be done. go visit a nursing home, work a soup line, get involved with Houses for Humanity, give the Shriners your loose change. That sorta thing. Public service should start at the hometown level. If people spent as much time lending a hand as they do bitching (myself included) things could be a lot better. And when I get home I plan on doing what I can too.



Zeke

and Thanks for your service.

 

Well if anybody with a trade is looking for steady work, good money and a change of life style, you might want to consider comming down to New Zealand or Australia for a couple of years. Theres a huge demand for skilled people right now so weve got work comming out our ears. The problems been brewing for the last 10 or so years because all the under 20s didnt want dirty finger nails so all went to work in IT. Now the trades are creaming it

Of coarse if you come down, dont forget to bring your cars!!!

 

That's exactly what I've been working on for the past months. Show you jerks what a custom's supposed to look like........So Cal style!
xxx
Brandy

 

when you come down can you pack a rear quarter body moulding for a 50 shoebox coupe....you can sort of just slide it down beside your seats

cheers

Andy.

 

Things must be somewhat O.K. They keep building (and selling)these giant houses around here. SOMEBODY is making money!

 

I'm a 2 income household and I'm having a hard time right now. I work in the pre-production auto industry ...we never know what's next. I'm a skilled trade metal fab fucker. I guess that's why I avoid the "black friday" lay offs we've seen in the last couple months.

cob...that pie in the sky shit takes a man only so far. zeke...glad yer proud of who and what you are, you earned it.

I'm a pretty easy goin pragmatic guy, pride myself on my optimistic general attitude. But when my fuel costs rise almost 100%, my electric another 20%, now my natural gas costs for the season are going who fuckin knows where, well blue birds and sunshine don't pay the fuckin frieght kids.

Yeah I'm pissed off at how things are. EVERYONE on this board should be pissed. Is it the elected officials? At some level, yes. I said on another board, the dog's gettin wagged and we're gettin shagged.

Ok so my dogs and family love me too. Think we can lobby DC for some tax cuts for the generally positives? Get a credit for one less angry outburst at trivial things cuz we're under subconcious pressure?

Ok I have to wake up now...

 

I'm Rich BOYS, I have LOTS OF THINGS:
Our Son woke up today- healthy
My wife woke up today - healthy
I woke up today - healthy
Our dog came running with his tail wagging for his morning scratch.

My wife loves me. My son loves me and the dog loves everybody.

yes sir - I am a very wealthy man.

Does the other stuff matter - na
We'll find away to stay warm and eat.
The other stuff...well..... It isn't quite life or death now is it ?

Hope you all can find some riches today too.
It's all how you look at it boys.

Sincerely,

Cob[/QUOTE]





Absolutely right on! That's all that really matters.

 

A few years ago my wife and I were faced with the choice of upscaling the shop, taking on employees, actively promoting and hitting the swap meet/show circuit etc. What we decided to do was pass on all of it and buy a house that's zoned commercial/residential. We cut back on everything that traditional businesses do on a medium to large scale.

My commute is from my back door to the garage. The only time I buy gas is every 2 weeks for the family car, and a little here and there for the chop or the wagon.

I have 1 to 2 customers at a time who dig the fact most everything on their projects is actually done by me. They are welcome to drop by anytime and usually stay for dinner. Neighbors and kids wander over while I'm working. Cops drop by on patrol just to check the stuff out. My current "employees" are 3 high school kids who trade shop cleaning and frame molding for help on their lowrider bike projects. My little 50 year old neighbor Gail holds stuff while I tack weld it. She brings fresh baked scones over every once in a while made with bourbon. My wife brings our baby daughter out to see me whenever she feels like it. I make significantly less money than a big shop, but I get to keep more money than I ever have before.

After being directly involved with all the big time stuff, it helped me make the decision to do it this way. It still ain't easy, but I have a lot more freedom to create what I want and less pressure to go mainstream. Honestly, the only down side is too many "big money/big project" guys feel more comfortable with a high profile pro shop. So far though, there seems to be some folks around who dig the accessibility of a bad little garage.

This situation is a good way to weather economic climates, conserve resources and keep that good DNA that makes a custom shop thrive. Unless you need to go Hollywood, I highly recommend it.

Solar power and hybrid technology is really interesting me lately, and a slick stripped down panhead chop gets about 35 m.p.g.! A well tuned flathead in a lightweight stick shift roadster seems like a really good daily driver. How does one of those do on gas?

I have a neighbor who actually gets PAID by PG&E because his solar powered house contributes to the power grid some months. This is in California, where I've had 600 per month power bills. I'd like to see what some of our geniuses in this culture could do with eco-friendly home/shop construction, a hybrid powered hot rod (Honda has one with 250 horsepower) or ?

When I was a kid in '74 lots of guys were putting Pinto 4 bangers in old cars, but they didn't seem like hot rods. There's GOT to be some cooler way to do it. And one other thing...WHY are all the american car companies lagging on hybrid technology? Is it our fault for loving all those ESCALADES? Deep thoughts...fathomous even.

 

That container will be cleverly loaded with all sorts of fun stuff! BELIEVE that!
xxx
Brandy

 

Thing have been wierd here at crushproof.the basic 29.95 repairs dried up for about 2 months (before we had to hire two guys just to stay on top of it all)but the big dollar custom stuff kept rollin in. The only problem is the custom stuff take alot of TIME to make the money, and my hired wrenches really aren't up to that task. what it has broken down to is I have two of the highest paid parts cleaners in town. I refuse to let anyone else go at this point. My guys are worth too much to me. It looks like things are lookin' up a litte,though.