Brisbane Pop Culture Tattoo Artist Blogs // Life, Merch, Tattoos & Xmas

Heya!! Thanks for stopping by, I hope this season approaching treats you kindly as this can be for some folks, the roughest time of year, but also for others, very joyous ✨

Seriousness aside, I wanna share a bit here on my life as of late, my opportunities coming up and as well discuss my latest shirt drop, it's design, it's conception and my reflections.

I'm currently still in my early stages of creating garments and upskilling within this new  pursuit, so I'm keeping every design I put out on a merch item as an opportunity to develop my skillset in Merch design and printing. My last output was the Knocked Goose merchline (my condolences for all Knocked Loose fans currently grieving their last minute absence from the approaching Good things music festival 🙏🏻🖤).

With Knocked Goose, I wanted to create Knockout (in which the black of the design is negative space so the black of the garment can create the black of the design), this is paramount because this is what makes a DTF pressed garment comfortable is the level of Knockout. Minimal Knockout on a huge DTF pressing on garment would make a very uncomfortable, non-breathable merch item, while the same executed with maximum Knockout would make the merch item comfort increase greatly as well as it's breathability.

The problem with Knockout (until I have screenprinting up & running fully, fingers crossed that will be so by mid Jan 🤞🏻) on DTF pressed garments, is the under-base (in which makes the colours of the DTF pressing opaque on the garment) can sometimes be noticeable on the knockout areas of the press, which can be unsightly and a lot of effort expended for very little reward.

I've been keeping my practises in Knockout for my DTF pressed merch items minimal while I've been upskilling in this area as to work to my strengths rather than wing it with things I'm still learning to fully be capable of. My last merch item (Knocked Goose) was made as it was by design, in that; I knew the output I wanted (in terms of the gimmick of the shirt release and it needing to be themed as something relevant in pop culture & animal themed to suit the charity it was working with) and I knew that I needed the animal for this design to be mostly white, as that is what the colour of DTF under-base is.

This all meant, if my design (which ended up being Knocked Goose) was mostly white, the knockout I did would be super complementary, so I could use this design process to create what I thought would be an effective way to create Knockout for this garment and future garments

It turns out this all would work out really well in the end & succeeded my expectations, so I was ready double the amount of Knockout on my next merchline, to create not only an effective design with Knockout, but also create my most comfortable DTF pressed garment to date that would still be covering most of the garments front & back surface areas. Since Knocked Goose, I've foreseen the next shirt drop would be Christmas related, so considering how I'm establishing myself as an artist who keeps my process completely hand crafted, I did the only thing that made sense, I put life on pause and I pressed play on Jim Carrey's 'The Grinch'.

I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew it was going to be Grinch related and I knew it was going to be violent (Can we just take a moment to also reflect on how FUNNY Jim Carrey's The Grinch is omfg).

After I combined my feelings towards Government, with desire to celebrate a violent Grinch as my next shirt design, I landed on the idea which is presented to you now. I knew from there I wanted the Grinch to be holding The Mayor of Whoville's decapitated head, celebrating his heart being 'Down a size & a Half' , so from there I started my study of the elements involved. I practiced using shape language, constructing & studying The Grinch in the way of sketching. Then the Mayor's head, then the composition & idea of the Ribcage

To take a quick detour from my tale, life at this point (& to be fair, now as well) was hectic as hell. However, I'm firm on my journey as an artist & dead set on what I need to produce to continue me on my journey. I was ( and am) well aware that I need to create a rhythm of being two steps ahead so I can be just barely caught up, which means; Regardless of life, I need to make time to be ready for being in rhythm with the world as I present my art & myself as an artist.

With Xmas coming up, and the way printing & pressing shirts works, I had to have this conception process fully underway while it was still Halloween. I have to admit here (now that we're discussing holidays & how this is all related to Xmas while still in Halloween), I HATE commercialism, vehemently. I don't wish to participate in commercialism in the pursuit of profit, I am here rather as an artist developing a new process in a new medium that will only show yield with pressure. I truthfully have several art forms currently I am sustaining and deeply invested in, but were here to hyperfocus on my presentation as an artist creating violent shirt art inspired the wave of impact in shirt media from the Myspace era of Metalcore & deathcore ( as well as Grindcore and all other sub genres of the time) via my current Tattoo & Apparel brand, RBVG (Raised By Video Games)

My current pursuit in excelling & improving at compositions is to have my final concept sketch for a piece envisioned & sketched, all in frame on a single page of a small sketchbook. I've found with my neuro divergence, my best chance at success with these projects & art pieces, is to do a little every day, rather than a lot on sporadic available days. In particular for sketching & composing digitally, I've found my neurodivergence yields the best results for these if I do an hour of power at a cafe. There's something about waking up, waking & baking, then going to the closest coffee shop to lock in, put on a podcast (or three) and just grind until my coffee's consumed and I'm ready to celebrate what I've just achieved.

Once my final digital design was finished, my deadline was in sight, I pushed everything I could aside to get these shirts pressed, these photos taken & the product ready to be received before Xmas, to writing this all here now while in a pub surrounded by drunk uni students, for me to now finally take a breath and say; I did it, I'm proud, I'm grateful & I'm onto the next one 🔥

Thank you for reading!!! For real, I can't remember the last time I ever read an article this long, so thank you, sincerely.

My Grinch shirt drop is all currently available to be received before Xmas day & then some. Delivery & local pickup is available, custom sizes & fits are also available, just have your order in before December 10th, otherwise, you may get yours after Xmas 🙏🏻

Behind the scenes of what I present online, I am working an immense amount, still. I am doing so because some dreams & goals I've had are finally coming true, but they need all of me. My pound of flesh to everything I am manifesting is well & truly paid, I'm just on that grind until the New Year

As I write this blog, I've got roughly 7 days available left to tattoo in 2025 in which I'd love to fill. Please hit me up even if just for a consult to discuss your 2026 tattoo project, now is the time & I'd love to start the New Year fully focused on tattooing

Personally, this is a hard time of year for me. I've lost a lot in my life since 2020 in the value of lives of family & friends .. I can only imagine the weight more of you must feel this time of year. There's like several different Every Time I Die quotes I'd love to put here to put some kind of poetic catharsis as a send off, instead I just wanna close by expressing;

There's a lot in this modern world that is truly deficient of value that we all have to take part in as artists to stay relevant, so I'm really happy I've found the importance of words on the internet above all, Journalling it turns out is a beautiful form of therapy for me, so to take time out when I can to just ramble & share my thoughts helps me loads

Thanks for reading <3