- The Village Chronicles -: Blues & Tattoos

Blues & Tattoos
Monday, March 5, 2007

One of my Christmas presents this year was tickets to see Eric Clapton in San Antonio. Clapton was the only remaining of my living musical heroes that I had yet to see. Clapton's Unplugged album is among the top 5 albums of all time, and that is just a fact. I was able to check his name off that list this past weekend. There was a group of six of us that all had tickets, and so it was a weekend filled with awesome stories.

I had called Big B (pictured right) earlier in the week to make sure he was as excited as I was about seeing Slowhand live, and he informed me during the phone call that he and my brother Josh were going to get tattoos later that night. I convinced B that if he waited, I would get one with them when I came down. So, as I cruised into the live music capitol of the world on Friday night, I was still trying to decide what would permanently mark my body in a few short hours. I had some ideas at this point, but the details were a bit unclear. Nevertheless, I felt confident that I could make a quick decision under the impending pressure of the needle.

I arrived at Rufus, and the tattoo clan gathered in order to gain some much needed reassurance of our theoretical body art. Josh quickly solidified his plans and printed out his Hebrew lettering that would vertically decorate the right side of his rib cage. B simply needed to decide what font he wanted for his capitol letter "B" that was to occupy his left shoulder blade. I still had no idea, but I wasn't worried.

After picking up a few people who wanted to witness the event, we made our way to the parlor of choice, Atomic Tattoo. Josh decided to go first, and I calmly tried to sort things out while B was in a pretty frantic state, scouring through hundreds of font selections. I checked in on Josh, only to to find him riving in pain as if he was having his leg amputated. I told him to "hang in there," and I went back to work. I overheard an awesome conversation between The Ros and Eric (our tattoo artist) where Eric informed her that he recently moved to Austin because Colorado was simply "no place to raise a family."

After roughly 35 minutes, Eric was finished with Josh's tattoo (sorry for not having a pic, but The Ros had a brain-fart) and it was time for me to step up to the inking table. For a while now I have wanted to get the phrase "Dead to Sin" put on my forearm and I even had a font I felt comfortable with, but the placement was causing me much trouble and hesitancy. I simply could not reach a secure level confidence to move forward, so I decided to save that idea for later and move on to the backup plan. I had in the back of mind that if this situation played out as it had, that I would get a verse reference on my hand between my thumb and pointer finger. I proceeded to tell Eric what I wanted, after which he completely crushed my plans by telling me that he could not insure anything that he put on my hand. He said that if something were to go wrong with the tattoo, that I would have to pay to get it fixed. I was devastated at the news. I debated about whether or not to take the risk, but decided I was pressing a little bit at this point. Then I asked for Eric's opinion on my Dead to Sin indecision; hilarity ensued.

Eric proceeded to give me a sermon on the art of designing a tattoo. He was getting a little defensive thinking that I did not respect his profession by not planning to consult him on the design of my tattoo. Simply putting a phrase on your body was not art in his opinion. He told me that the forearm was "prime real-estate" for the placement of a tattoo, and it should be treated as a "canvas," with careful thought and planning. After listening to his rant and trying to convince him that, despite my shortcomings with this whole tattoo/art thing, I was still worthy of his time. I asked him of some possible things I could due to enhance the quality and dignity of my original idea. He got some tracing paper, placed it on my forearm, and proceeded to draw out his creation. I saved his art for the sake of the blog...

I almost lost it when he started to draw the clouds and bird-like animal above the cross with the rays of sunlight beaming down. I didn't really know what to say at this point or how to break it to Eric that, despite what it might seem, I wasn't really Mexican. Eric talked to B a little bit about the art of choosing a font, and then told us that he was closing the shop for the night and it was time for us to leave. I was a little disappointed that I was leaving without anything to show for my time, but I decided to put it behind me.

We headed to a little pub nearby Rufus that turned out to be a rather crowded pub with probably the greatest Hair/80's cover band I have ever seen. LC Rocks covered such hits as Pour Some Sugar On Me, You Shook Me All Night Long, Living On a Prayer, Paradise City, Enter Sandman, and many more tasty licks. One member of our entourage was so moved that he got up on a table and started "dancing" with a member of the opposite sex. It was awesome!

The weekend ended with a short hike down to San Antonio to see the legendary member of Cream rock it out. And he did. After a nice romantic dinner on the river walk, during which B downed a 60 oz. margarita all by himself, we cruised over to the AT&T Center for the show. Clapton sandwiched a 4 song sit-down acoustic stretch in between two full blues jam sessions. Some highlights included: a rendition of Hendrix's Little Wing, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out, Runnin' on Faith, Layla, and an encore consisting of Cocaine and Crossroads where he was joined by Jimmie Vaughan. I found the arrangements to be refreshingly soulful, and of course Clapton was magical. Even at a venue (actually stadium) as void and lacking of character as it was, it was a great musical performance and I might add...a sweet little weekend.

I would like to throw two shout-outs: 1) To the Kennedy Center for having such a good attitude, and 2) To Rachel -- You are welcome. Even though I almost died dodging falling tree branches, I feel that the home-front is a much safer place.

Labels: kendal

posted by Kendal @ 2:30 PM,

6 Comments:

: Kendal-First I have to admit that I am jealous that you got to go to that amazingly cool concert. Second, I think you should talk Ben into getting a tattoo because that would be cool and it may help me in the area of me wanting one and my parents shooting me down-repeatedly.
Posted by Anonymous | Mar 6, 2007, 5:04:00 PM
: Due to the facts that I am currently in good standing with both your Father & Mother and they both read this blog, I will decline to comment.
Posted by Kendal | Mar 6, 2007, 5:56:00 PM
: i forgot you were going to that show. i was there too and i agree that it was indeed a great musical performance. oh, and im relieved that you didnt get the cross/birds/beaming rays of sun tattoo...i was scared when i saw the pic thinking that it was adorning your body somewhere...eric however sounds like maybe the most awesome tattoo artist/therapist/mentor ever...
Posted by Kate | Mar 6, 2007, 9:05:00 PM
: Kaley, tattoos are trashy and you shouldn't get one
Posted by Anonymous | Mar 7, 2007, 9:15:00 AM
: The mental image of an indecisive B in a tattoo parlor trying to decide on something as permanent as a tattoo has me rolling in laughter. All he had to do was pick out a font? Outstanding! Thank you for this gift.
Posted by Anonymous | Mar 8, 2007, 10:10:00 AM
: As i read this blog and got to the part about the cross with the rays of sun, I wasn't even the tiniest bit afraid -- I LOVE YOU KENDAL!!!!
Posted by Dee | Mar 9, 2007, 11:03:00 AM

The Authors

Kendal Haug

Kendal is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin and most recently earned his Masters in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. He works for Bible.org and likes to think he knows how to play the guitar. His man-crushes include, but are not limited to: Ryan Adams, Donald Miller, Ray LaMontagne, Neil Young, Vince Young, and of course The Box.

Ben Box

Box, is a recent graduate of Texas A&M University and currently works for Medco Construction building hospitals and being important. Ben loves paying lots of money on broken down Jeeps and has a propensity for getting Kendal into trouble.

About This Blog

This is a multi-author blog devoted to the happenings of two bachelors living it up in Big D. We will record the daily nonsense that occurs when 2 life-long friends live together in the same apartment and have no shame, sense of fashion, or chance of meeting a girl in the next 10 years.

A Word on Comments

Ben and Kendal both highly encourage your comments. They look forward to hearing your thoughts and insights. No matter how harsh the criticism or if you just want to give them a good ole pat on the back and say "Way to Go!" or "Ha! That was a funny story!" or "That Ben sure does crack me up." And if you have a request of something you would like to see Ben and Kendal do or write about, let them know.

Disclaimer

Ben and Kendal are in no way responsible for stories that may worry, upset, or lead their parents to altogether disown them.

Contact Us

Kendal can be reached here
Ben can be reached here

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