My Racquel Natividad Experience Part 2

It's a crisp Wednesday morning and Coco and I are on our way again to Rakel Tattoo Shop at Sta. Cruz, Laguna. We've already considered the shop one of our new found homes because of how welcome we felt coming from the hospitality of Ms. Racquel and Sir Macus. So, the 3-hour trip from Manila wasn't so bad.


After checking out the outlines from the previous session, Ms. Racquel and Sir Macus set up the familiar station that was to be my hot seat for the next 12 hours. Ms. Racquel began tattooing the upper half of my sleeve, starting with the pine tree. She told me that in order for her to get all the color combinations right, she has to tattoo the colors in layers which means that she was going back to some spots and tattoo them all over again. I didn't even think of the pain that will cost me because I have committed myself to this project and hence would gladly accept everything that it entails. 


While I was being tattooed, Ms. Racquel talked a lot about her career. She told me the story of how she got into tattooing, how she started, and the likes. Like most great artists and their careers, hers came unbelievably naturally. I admire the way she talked about her dedication to her art and profession, that in tattooing, you never stop learning how to improve your techniques. It's one thing to improve in the skill of tattooing, and it's another to never stop learning.


Just like in all aspects of life, there also exists the element of ethics in tattooing. Being ethical in one's professionalism in tattooing is vital in the longevity of a tattoo artist's career. There's cleanliness and sanitation that one must take into the utmost importance to avoid the risk of cross-contaminations. There's also the professional relationship between artist and the client as well as amongst artists themselves. All of these I learned from Ms. Racquel. So as I was sitting there listening to her talk about all these things, I felt so lucky to be able to grab all of these first-hand. It was like reading an interview of her in a tattoo magazine. It all the more made me feel so lucky to be able to work with her, to get my very own Racquel Natividad sleeve.


The whole tattoo session lasted for 12 hours, the upper half of the sleeve already done and me getting strength from 1 liter of Milo and 4 tablets of mefenamic acid. I didn't mind the killer pain because whenever I looked at my tattoo in the mirror, I can't help but smile at the sight of a new masterpiece on my arm. I didn't think it would look this beautiful, all of my expectations exceeded exponentially. I cannot wait for my sleeve to finish, but with all things created in perfection, my artwork simply cannot be hurried. Here are some pictures from second session, enjoy!

work station/area

media center

ink and supplies station

My Racquel Natividad Experience Part 1

It's November 2nd, 6am and Coco and I are on a bus to Sta. Cruz, Laguna. It's a cloudy day which is a good thing because I didn't have to worry about the sun getting on my arms. We didn't get much sleep the night before probably because I was hella excited of my first of three to four tattoo sessions with none other than the first female professional tattoo artist in the Philippines, Ms. Racquel Natividad. 

Ms. Racquel Natividad

Finally we arrived at Sta. Cruz and headed straight to Racquel's shop after having breakfast. When we entered her shop, I could not stop staring at everything because the entire room was beautifully decorated with a lot of cool stuff, cool merchandises, cool artworks and the coolest plaques of her winning different sorts of tattoo competitions. The shop was a huge room with a mezzanine that creates a second floor. Downstairs is for purchasing merchandises and for bookings while upstairs would be the main tattoo area where all the magic happens. 

Rakel Tattoo, Sta. Cruz, Laguna

Finally we were called upstairs to start the whole process. We met Sir Macos who was Racquel's husband/manager/assistant. Both of them worked on the design that was going to be my tattoo. The design contained nature-inspired bio organic artworks from both Racquel and Macos and from a drawing that my cousin, May Ann Licudine, made for me. 

From my previous tattoos, I was used to having the design stenciled onto my skin before tattooing it but in this case, the design is, er. . .designed to follow the contours of my arm to make it flowy and beautiful. Meaning, Racquel freehanded the design onto my arm using pink and blue ballpoint pens. It took about more than 2 hours to draw the whole thing onto my arm.

Once I heard the buzzing sound of the tattoo machine, I just felt that natural high of getting a tattoo. It is painful but you don't think about the pain specially when you dedicate yourself to the art. And this type of commitment is vital in the valuation of the art of tattooing. The first session was just to finish all the guide lines or the outlines and then the following sessions would be to fill in the color and other important details. Can't wait for this tattoo to be finished. It will surely be a masterpiece! 

EVEN

As most of you may very well know, I am the vocalist for the band Even. But I don't think that most of you may very well know the history of my band. This is just to answer the most common question a musician is frequently asked: "How did your band form? Why the name Even? How did you and your band mates came to be?" So for our friends and everybody else out there, this blog entry's for you. 


Way back in 2003, I met Jam Bumanlag and Jerich Mojica in a place called Feedback, which was informally the music blender of Baguio City during that time. Even though the place wasn't that awesome when it came to the gears, amps and whatnots, it was the only place that musicians felt welcome, made tons of friends, and started pairing up for band members. The three of us formed an alternative band (which lasted for about 4 years until we finally called it quits for several reasons). I met Coco Saupan during college and we've been together ever since. However, he played bass for another band.


It's 2007 and fresh with new ideas, Jam thought of forming a different kind of band that included Jerich on drums and Coco on bass. They wanted, for this band, a male vocalist so I was out of the picture. But it wasn't successful because they had difficulties in settling who would be the front man so they had to go for another plan. 


The four of us went drinking one day and we decided to give it another go but the music is going to be a whole lot different. We were searching blindfolded in the dark for a music direction and we started grounding on a path by covering "Mother Mother" by Tracy Bonham. After that, it just came naturally. We started making originals and trying to experiment on the music and Jam thought of adding an electronic element to it. Using his laptop, he would punch in samples while playing the guitar. I know, it was crazily difficult. Jam decided to get Ghe Guerrero to play the part of the DJ, and so Even was born. We now banked our influences upon the likes of Tool, A Perfect Circle, Karnivool, among others.


While thinking of a band name, we thought that it should be short and catchy enough so that people are going to remember it easily. We were hanging out at Jerich's place and while thinking of a name, I took a small dictionary and started randomly flipping through the pages. If I pointed to a word and somebody laughed or smirked or reacted in that way, it wasn't for us. But if nobody made any sound, that would be the name. I went through about 3 to 4 words before pointing to the word EVEN. And because nobody reacted, it was decided that we would call ourselves that.


Most people are wondering which genre we would be classified under. Some would say we're metal, some say we're progressive, and some would even say we're alternative. But even we ourselves are having that kind of difficulty. Being called metal or progressive garners several criticisms specially from the purists. I mean I know for a fact that we're not purely metal nor purely progressive so it's difficult to explain sometimes. Whenever asked, we just say that we're experimetal electronica. It doesn't count as a standard genre but, hey, to each his or her own, right? 


Even is now 3 years old, with a debut EP album with 6 tracks plus a bonus acoustic track, still under Red Horse Beer, with some other unofficial endorsements. I hope this blog gave you guys clarity, at least, haha. We hope to still make tons of songs for everybody to enjoy, get inspiration from or even criticize in the next 50 or so years. We will continue to make music until our ethereal river of passion runs dry. :)

Welcome!

Hey there. This is the first time I'm ever going to write an online blog. A good friend of mine convinced me into doing this and I thought that it would be fun to write about everything  I see, experience and whatever else my mind cares to spruce up. I remember a movie I saw when I was young, it's about this young girl who wanted to be a journalist and so she writes everything she sees in a notebook. This blog is going to be just like that, and I'm going to be as honest as I can be. I hope my notebook stands the test of my ability to commit to this and my responsibility to write as often as I can. Right now I feel that my mind is polishing its cog wheels and I feel like I'm ready to do this, so help me God. Haha. Okay here we go.

Living Curious

The National Geographic Channel's new slogan "Live Curious" sparked in me a new inspiration of how to look at things. They're right in saying that to live is to keep on looking for answers to questions and questioning those answers that starts a whole new endeavor altogether. It's a simple philosophical path that allows us to look at things more closely. I'll never forget what my sister told me when I was a little girl. She said: "Don't stop asking questions because it keeps you young." Some of us may think that because we are older and somehow wiser we already know everything, or at least a lot. But we are wrong. Nat Geo says "The more we know the more we know we don't know." And it was the wisdom of dear Socrates that said "As for me, all I know is that I know nothing." Now because of that, I just realized that we don't give much importance to the little things anymore probably because most of us don't have the time to do so. I wish all of us had the luxury of time and make our minds work by asking little questions and wondering how, why, when, what a thing is. 

Right now, the thing that I'm most curious about is: do multiverses exist? 

What are you curious about?