Zuzu Fridays z07 – Ink in Omaha

I visited Omaha last week — you can see one entry from last Friday…Zuzu Fridays z06 – O! is for Omaha! and I’ll be adding one about THE Bemis next week.

The first day I arrived in Omaha last week, I hung out in my friend James Gilbert‘s studio while he worked.  He had an intern working along side him – her name is Claire.

Once it was time for lunch, we sat down and had pizza together in the studio.  I learned that Claire is from Omaha, is currently in university (interested in Anthropology and Museum Mgmt) and is interning at the Bemis — working with artists and exhibitions, among other things.  I noticed that Claire had a few tattoos so I asked her what the interesting studios were in Omaha.  She named a couple of places.

Then she tells me, oh and by the way, me and my girlfriends are camping out on Friday night so we can get a free tattoo on Saturday.  WHAT??!!  I love it.

Claire with her new ink.

Here’s the skinny…

Liquid Courage (custom tattoo studio) was hosting a customer appreciation day.  If you had been tattooed there in the last 12 months, you were able to show up on this particular day to receive a FREE tattoo.

You did have to bring a donation for the Humane Society which I thought was pretty cool.  So there were bags of kitty litter, dog food and the like.

And this is probably the most interesting part (and the reason that Claire and her girlfriends camped out) — once you arrived, you were given a number.  This was the order you were to be tattooed AND the order in which got to choose the flash that you then got tattooed.

Even though Claire was there at 10:30pm the night before, she was still #9.

So Saturday around noon, James and I made our way over to Liquid Courage.  There was Claire.  She had her flash picked out and was ready to go in.  Once she was in, she and her artist graciously let us hang out for a few minutes while she was getting tattooed.

Thanks for letting me crash, Claire!  xoxoxoxo

Here are some pics…

Liquid Courage

Liquid Courage

her choice…a good choice indeed!

the rules

Claire getting tattooed

Claire getting tattooed

the final product

Zuzu Fridays is a weekly post about all things weird, pervy, vampy, sexy…or just plain effed up.

Zuzu Fridays z06 — O! is for Omaha!

I arrived in Omaha yesterday morning!  A few days ago I wasn’t even certain where Nebraska was…I thought it was east of South Dakota.  What?!?!

My friend James is in a really fantastic artist residency program at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha.  So I decided to visit.

Upon arrival, James gave me the quick tour of the the Old Market area which is where the Bemis live/work studios are.  He needed to get back to work so I decided to go get a coffee and walk around.  Several blocks of the Old Market area have some pretty great antique shops.

This is one that I wandered into — The Fairmont.  It is an antique mall and a candy store.  I walked in and the candy store was a sensory overload with rows of candy, a hot pink car, things hanging from the ceiling, over sized stuffed animals….my nieces would have loved it.

Then as I walked through the antique mall, it was like walking through my childhood.  Themed lunchboxes, board games, cabbage patch dolls, pull-tab beer cans….it was great.  Here are a few pics.

More about Omaha next week!  xoxoxox

Zuzu Fridays is a weekly post about all things weird, pervy, vampy, sexy…or just plain effed up.

Lessons from Mister Gilbert

I got to hang out with my one of my favorite people (and artist) James Gilbert for the day on Sunday (check out his work here).  He was en route from Los Angeles to Detroit where he is working on shooting a video for a Dallas fashion designer this week.  I’ll be sure to keep you posted on this as I find out more…

It was a nice, Texas winter day on Sunday…with the temperature around 60.  Lovely!

We had a delicious late brunch at Bolsa (one of my Dallas faves for sure).  Bloody Mary, bruschetta tasting and flatbread with arugula, goat cheese (can’t go wrong) and grilled grapes.  Everything was so delicious.  And I always love the service there.  It’s almost as if you are just one of their friends…attentive but not too attentive and just…cool.  I like.  See food pics below.

Hanging out with James always means interesting and weird stories.  A dinner party invitation gone wrong in France, a strange and perverse moment on a movie set in L.A., a blue cheese covered pork chop that hits the ground and gets washed off (and eaten??  I’ll never tell.)…….

Along with these stories came some incredibly valuable life lessons (can you hear the slight tongue-in-cheek tone here?).

Lesson #1.

Speaking of grilled pork chops, how do you know how to tell the temperature of meat by poking it with your finger?  Let Mister Gilbert shed the light!

It should feel like different parts of your face.  Ok…follow James’s directions.

RARE.

MEDIUM.

WELL DONE.

Lesson #2

When you go the thrift store, how do you tell if those cute jeans are going to fit you without trying them on??

Take the waist of the jeans and wrap it around your neck…almost like a scarf.  If it comes together around your neck as a nice fit, then those jeans are for you!

Lesson #3.

When you are out surfing (as you so often are), how do you know how much daylight you have left??

Take your hand and put it between the sun and the horizon.  How many hands you can fit between the bottom of the sun and the horizon line is how many hours of daylight you have left.  Fantastic!!

Time to paddle in, folks.

Yummy….Bolsa.  By the way, I’m still exploring Dallas restaurants.  Anyone have any favorites they suggest??