Recently Phil, with the help of a few great artists, created the tattoo art project Two Dollar Tattoo. Here’s a description:

All artists participating will be expected to create unique works of tattoo art executed with only a single needle (as in single-needle configuration, No cheating using a round or a mag for any of the tattoo!). Line-work, shading, colour…all must be executed with the same needle! The size of the final product will be expected to fill the space of a “toonie”, a Canadian two-dollar coin (approximately 28mm or 1 1/8” in diameter). The artist should utilize all of the space within the circle since in this case its not just size that matters. The Two Dollar Tattoo Project is expected to be both a game of camaraderie as well as a professional courtesy for artists and industry people. The only monetary exchange for the tattoo is to be a shiny Canadian $2 coin, which can be used for sizing of the drawing and final stencil, and MUST be utilized as proof of compliance with the set parameters.

Of course Phil’s not one to create without participation, and so he got his own Two Dollar Tattoo of Ebisu – one of the seven gods of fortune, but more specifically the god of fishermen.

via Two Dollar Tattoo

It’s been rather difficult finding fishing partners here in La Paz since Clive left for BVI. I’ve found many people willing to go, until they find out we leave Fishermen’s Fleet at 5am. Not many people seem interested in waking up at 4am, but I managed to con two great guys, Mike Brum and Philip Barbosa in to giving it a shot. Promising them an unforgettable experience, the fury was upon us.

The alarm goes off, it’s 4:20 am October 5th, 2005. I made sure to find out how much time they needed to get ready since I’m generally awake and out the door in 5 minutes. To my surprise everyone was sticking to the plan, I thought for sure I would lose at least one of them since there are only two chairs in the panga, but they were both awake and ready in no time. When we arrived at Fishermen’s Fleet we headed upstairs for some coffee and breakfast. Upstairs was the largest group I’ve seen, in total it would take four huge vans to shuttle us to La Ventana.

In the van it was the usual conversations you find on these trips. Where are you from? What do you do? Etc. One of the guys kiddingly refers to us as “the new guys”, but I explained to him how I’ve been living here for a while and have gone out plenty of times. Since I don’t know this fellows name, we’ll just call him “the weekend warrior” since he later admitted it was his first day fishing on this trip. We’re joking back and forth, and before you know it, the ability to catch fish comes up. He makes a funny comment about our ability, and I kindly replied. “We’ll be looking for you on the beach.”

By some strange occurrence of beginners luck and being dubbed “the new guys”. Phil, who has never actually caught a fish in his life, was our lucky charm.

Continue reading Beginners Luck; Gracefully Out-Fished by a Novice