Holy Nola!

A good friend of mine and fellow tattooer, Austin England, hit me up about being a part of a project he was working on with Fernet Branca.

Tales of the Cocktail is an annual bartender convention held every year in New Orleans. All your favorite companies shop up to show out and throw one hell of a party.

Fernet is no exception making a very unique space on Magazine Street with merch, custom embroidery, and tattoos designed by Austin himself.

Austin and I first met in 2011, just before he ventured out to Los Angeles to start his tattooing career. I’ve watched him progress over the years and make a tattoo look like an “Austin tattoo” very early on. He has a unique style and works harder than you and me put together. When he asked me to join the event, the answer was “when do you need me there!?”

Austin had his custom neons shipped over to really light up the place.

If you’re out in LA be sure to check out his space LOWKEY. He may be working on anything from a back piece, to a neon sign. The man can do it all, and efficiently, and most importantly, very well.

Jeff Kubasak was on site all week adding custom chain-stitch embroidery to those LOWKEY x Fernet pieces. He makes some bad ass stuff and helped pump out a ton of work. You can find Jeff on insta @commongenus and in LA working/neighboring LOWKEY.

Thanks for the beignets, Jeff!

Jeff to the left and tattooing was Austin, myself, and Mike Burns.

Mike had worked with Austin in LA early on in his career. Mike is hilarious and taught me a couple of things on this trip whether he meant to or not. He can make one clean tattoo as well.

If you’re up in Nevada City, CA area he has a private studio Dark Water Collective where you can find him.

The day I drove in was the day that the airlines went to hell and everyone found themselves stranded at the airport or grabbing a rental and hitting the road too. I never mind a good drive. We had a couple of days of set up anyways so that worked in favor of the flight crew.

Piece of cake.

This was my first time getting to really experience the city for more than one day and immerse myself a bit. I can’t tell you enough just how welcoming and hospitable everyone was. The Louisiana accent is music to my ears.

As for food, my first meal was breakfast at Mollys rise and Shine with my friend and local tatter Bobby Caruso.

Bobby works at Ace Tattoo here in New Orleans.

They had some wild biscuits and gravy.

Bob is #1

Bobby comes to Atomic Tattoos to guest spot whenever he is visiting Tampa.

A little Ybor chicken head I did for him the last time he was in town. I’ll collect my half of this trade someday soon.

We met up in the morning at Parasite skatepark for a bit before the rain. This park is so much fun. It’s been years since I’ve been here. My knee is far from letting me skate yet so I’m just hanging and getting iPhone clips.

The rain eventually ran us off but I had to get back to work anyways. It was good to meet you Diego and Adrian.

Someone had recently made themselves some jorts. It’s hot down here ya’ll!

The first day we got straight to it with a room full of folks.

They kept the Fernet flowing the whole time.

It did not take long for word to spread and the line just kept growing throughout the day.

Lil color in ya life.

Fernando is the name of Fernet’s mascot. He was the most popular design.

The fish was a close runner up for most popular design.

This was his first tattoo I do believe.

Well hell yeah.

This thing stayed parked in the prime spot the entire time.

The boys knocking em out.

Jeff’s rack stayed stacked!

After a long first day, me and Mike met up with Bobby and his wife Amy for one of my favorite meals of the trip.

Miss Shirley’s Chinese was worth the 45 minute wait for sure!

The second morning driving in, I passed the shop to see we already had a line up the block.

We opened the doors at 10am and immediately had a multiple page list of names to get tattooed.

Everyone was super patient and very friendly.

Could have been the Fernet helping keep them happy.

Some serious camera equipment in the room.

Tons of people documented the event, but I’m most excited to see what Eric Robbins comes up with.

This was a fun design to tattoo.

Ran into a bad ass Julio B. tattoo

The event was at 2028 Magazine St in the Lower Garden District. All of the surrounding businesses were very unique and ran by people who care.

This is Aidan and his wife. They own Aidan Gill For Men barber shop right next door. He has a real passion for cutting hair. His shop is a literal museum. If you’re planning a trip to Nola, let that hair grow and make his place your first stop.

Right across the street was some amazing Vietnamese food at Pho Tran. I made multiple trips to this spot over the week, including having some bánh mì delivered while we worked.

After a long second day we all went to Cochon Southern Cuisine for a big meal. I had rabbit dumplings and some bacon unlike any I’ve ever had.

My wife, Julie, flew into town early and got to hang for the final day of tattooing.

Ain’t she the sexiest!?

She got to make a custom bucket hat with Jeff. Julie + Casey = Jusey

Oh and we had to get in this interactive Fernando Gator thing.

The final day was the busiest with tons of new people who had caught wind and made their way over.

Peep that Grandma boxing Club shirt.

Just the lines? No problem

This is Skip. He showed up out of nowhere telling us stories of his tattooing past and sold Eric an old machine he had.

By the end of the third day we had tattooed so many people.

The fourth day we had off but I decided to come back in the A.M. and tattoo some of the Madwell crew who helped hold it down behind the scenes.

I didn’t get to tattoo this design until right at the end.

Then I got to do it back to back.

After a handful of tats, it was off to meet Julie and go wander around French Quarter.

Duhhhh…

If you skate, it’s a must you visit Humidity. New Orleans skateboarding is lucky to have it.

We swung back by Magazine St one last time to check out the Alligator Museum. They had some old Gator Land memorabilia from Orlando Fl.

One last meal at Molly’s with Bob on our way out.

Time to hit the road back to Tampa.

A very big thanks to Austin and the crew at Madwell and Fernet for an amazing week of southern hospitality. I hope they invite us back next year to do it all over again.