Flashback Friday - 2008, when we hiked across the Great Wall of China

Flashback Friday - 2008, when we hiked across the Great Wall of China. Not the tourist part that’s been refurbished, the old part that’s crumbling and covered in vines. We accessed it in a residential area, we had to cut through someone’s back yard to get to it. What an amazing trip that was. It’s a different world over there. We spent an entire day in the Forbidden City and only saw a fraction of it. It was incredible. It’s right in the center of Beijing, which is HUGE. We were there for a tattoo convention. It’s amazing and pretty mind blowing where tattooing has taken me. I’ve been around the entire world, many times over. This particular convention was awesome, but it was the hardest one I’ve ever worked at. We were there with our buddy Damian McGrath (R.I.P) who organized the trip. With me were Paul Booth, Kurt Wiscombe, Dan Allaston, Peel, Jamie Izumi, and Jack Rudy (R.I.P). We had to be walked in by security. Our booths weren’t ready yet, so they put us all in one booth with security guarding the booth. A huge crowd gathered and surrounded the booth, everyone taking pictures, it was crazy. We felt like animals in a zoo. Trying to tattoo all weekend was stressful. Every time we took a break from a tattoo, there were a thousand people wanting to take a picture. I’d stand up, and see people in the distance looking and running over. It took a half hour every time I went to the bathroom. I managed to get two portraits done over the weekend, one on my good friend @popotattoo, who I first met at this show. I did a portrait of his mom, I think it was his first tattoo, if I remember correctly. He moved to New York City sometime after that, and is one of the absolute best tattoo artists on the planet. Check out his work. This was definitely a trip to remember. ❤️ @paulbooth @kurtwiscombe @j_rudy_gtc @jamieizumi @ta2peel @skynyrd #lynyrdskynyrd @dan_allaston_tattoos