Requiescat In Pace

This one is for Tony.

In Memory Of Tony

Today we had a couple of special guests.
Our friend Anco came by with fellow tattooer Darko and they brought us a surprise.

Darko made this here painting of Dikke Dennis a while back for an auction, and Anco, a good friend of the shop bought it.

Today they came by to donate the painting to the Bunker as a memorial to Tony.

Since it was for Tony, popping open a bottle of champagne was the appropriate thing to do.

Cheers!

Sakura For You

Mehdi had a special client today, Iris came by for her very first tattoo.

She got some beautiful sakura blossoms on her side, in memory of her late father, and our friend Tony.


The sakura blossom is a perfect symbol of life.
It's beauty is transitory, for it blooms only for a short period af time each year. The Japanese associate this brief blossoming period with life's fleeting presence.

Just like the sakura, life itself is beautiful, yet so delicate at the same time.
Remember to cherish it and enjoy life, for it is not everlasting and might be gone tomorrow.

Carpe Diem

You may have noticed that I had a week of silence here on the blog for Tony. But life goes on, as they say, and I will start keeping up the blog again as of this week.

First and foremost I would like to thank every single one of our clients who attended the funeral, it was great to see that so many people showed up. Your support to family and friends is greatly appreciated and didn't go unnoticed.

I will keep you up to date with unfinished works of Tony, that we will be finishing here at the shop.

As for now, Enjoy Life!

This One Is For You Tony

Still speechless of the tragic loss, we suffered this weekend. All I can say is that this post is for you Tony.
The last thing he asked me to do was to post a picture of the old-school leg he had just finished that Friday evening.
I promised him I would post it the next day, because I had already done Friday's blog post.

Little did we know, the next days post would turn out a little bit different than initially planned. Unfortunately I couldn't keep the promise I made to him due to circumstances. But better late than never, so here it is buddy! The last tattoo you made, just for you!



For all of those of you whom would like to pay their last respects and attend Tony’s funeral. It will be this Friday.

July 9th at 15:30.
Crematorium ” Rijtackers ”
Anthony Fokkerweg 150
Eindhoven

Tony Kuijpers You Will Be Missed

I am sad to announce too you that last night, our dear friend, Tony Kuijpers unexpectedly passed away. After being in a motorcycle accident.


We would like to express our sincere condolences to his family and friends. If you knew Tony or would just like to express your condolences, you can leave a comment, it would be greatly appreciated.

We will miss you Tony.

*Update

For all of those whom would like to pay their last respects and attend Tony's funeral. It will be this Friday.

9 July at 15:30.
Crematorium '' Rijtackers ''
Anthony Fokkerweg 150
Eindhoven

It Says I Should Enter The Title Here

Roger started a really bold old-school sleeve today.
You only get to see a little preview today, more pictures as it progresses.

Tony finished up a piece I posted on a while back.
It's the cover-up koi sleeve. There is a name under there somewhere, and the little butterfly you still see got rejuvenated. It got a little bit of butterfly Botox, and some saggy skin tightened around the eyes.

And yesterday besides being interviewed all day Mehdi also got some work done on the Yama back piece.

Tony Koipers

Because of the amount of koi sleeves Tony is working on, we officially changed his name from Tony Kuijpers to Tony Koipers.
Need I say more?

Free Willy

First off, I want to tell you guys, that we had to send Willem away.

He was starting to creep us out with his epic beard.
So we had to send him off to Berlin. I am not allowed to tell anyone about the treatment or his exact whereabouts.
All I can say is that he is in good hands and we hope he will be back soon, shaved and cheerful as always.

Furthermore, a couple of tattoos done this past Saturday, wich I was unable to post because of the 9 year anniversary post.

Ironically, Mehdi finished up the Maneki Neko sleeve, on the 9 year anniversary of the shop. As you might remember the Maneki Neko brings good luck and good fortune to your place of business. This can only mean good things for the future of the shop.

Tony started coloring on this here old-school leg, last week aswell.

Today he started this girly koi sleeve.

He wanted to keep it as feminine as possible, so he used more flowers and les hard background.

Last but not least here is yet another sleeve Tony started a while back.

You Are Never Too Old To Get Tattooed

About a week ago a girl walked in to make an appointment for her grandmother, who wanted a little butterfly. She wanted a tattoo for a couple of years, so her granddaughter decided that the time had come and gave her the tattoo as a birthday-present. Just as everyone who gets their first tattoo, the nice little old lady was a bit nervous.

During the session she said that she'd rather get a kid again than get tattooed. It had nothing to do with the pain tho', it was just the fact that she had a really nice, pretty midwife during her pregnancy, and now she ended up getting tattooed by our shop-beast Willem. Quite the difference indeed.

All is well that ends well, fly in peace little butterfly!

Not only did Willem have time to tattoo today, he also did a new painting for the flash folder. A bright koi to add to the family folder.

Tony and Mehdi both got to do some rib pieces.
Tony started a new one.

And Mehdi finished all of the shading on Dennis' koi front piece he is working on. He got a whole lot done today.

On the next session, after the summer, he will start by adding color. Once that's finished they will start on the other side of his body.

Always Judge A Tattoo By Its Cover

Judge this!

Tony "The Cover-Up King" Kuijpers, is still going strong on the cover-up train.


If you look close at this here koi sleeve, you can see an old prehistoric tribal underneath it, wich Tony is sending back to hell, where it belongs.
He's giving this arm a second chance at being beautiful. This just shows that it's not always necessary to be ashamed of your old ugly badly done tattoos. More often than not it's possible to cover old ugly tattoos by good ones. Without even getting laser removal before.


Speaking of old and new, Roger started this here rib piece. The skull and roses represent life and ever imminent death.

Originals

You know you have an original Le Mair when you have his name signed under your tattoo!

Mehdi thought it would be funny to sign this tattoo, as a surprise for a friend he was doing it on. And I must admit, it made me laugh after seeing the look on the guys face.

Tony did this lotus today, I really like how the colors turned out.



Tony has been nagging the whole week, for me to post a dragon he did a while back.



So here it is and while we are at it, why don't you add him on facebook. Tell him I sent you. Hopefully then he'll stop harassing me.

Have a nice weekend!

Happy Birthday Tony!

Tony turned 80 years old today, so why don't you all leave a nice comment and congratulate him on this beautiful day.

I made this delicious looking cake for him.

There was no way near enough space for 80 candles, but you get the idea.

Even though it was his birthday he still had to get down and dirty.

He started yet another koi sleeve.

Have you noticed the amount of fish that are being tattooed lately? And by that I don't mean actual fish getting tattooed, I mean tattoos of fish being done.
It must be that time of the year or something, because Willem also did a fish today.

He started shading on the trout leg he lined a while back.

Now before you leave don't forget to congratulate Tony!

Be Gone Ye Olde Tattoo

Willem has gone crazy! He is totally consumed by hell raiser, we might have to send him off soon.
He is starting to scare me.

Furthermore Tony the cover-up-king started yet another coverup sleeve.

The guy wanted an old name covered. It came with a little butterfly, wich was his first tattoo so Tony decided to keep that incorporated in the sleeve.

The butterfly will get some new color on it in the future aswell.

Here is the 270 view of the sleeve Tony did yesterday on Dennis.



So what did we learn today?
Don't get your girlfriends name tattooed on you! It brings bad luck to a relationship.

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

I just got the rest of the convention pictures.

But before you go and get all excited and drool all over your keyboard, there is something I have to tell you. They pretty much were the same exact pictures of the same exact people only made with another camera. So sadly, none of those will be included in this here post.

Besides like I mentioned in the other post there's nothing you really missed out on, except for the fact that Willem was asked to be in the jury and while he was on stage we decided to surprise him by running up on stage and wrestling him to the ground in our lucha libre masks. Other than that nothing special happened.

Back to the shop now, these two were done today.

Time flew when Roger was doing this one, more for him than the guy getting tattooed.
Bet you his time went really slow.



Tony finished up this bright koi on Dennis. He's the drummer of a local metal band.

Go check them out!  When All Light Dies

Special Delivery

Look at what we found in the mail.


A huge box filled with Bunker Tattoo stickers just for you guys.
So come on by and get yours.

Even better though, is that tomorrow we have an even better ultra-top-secret-goodie surprise in store.
But that's for tomorrow.
For now I will leave you with these two sleeves that were done today.

The snake sleeve Mehdi was working on got a bit more color done.


And Tony started a new Geisha sleeve.


If you come in tomorrow you might just get a sneak peek at our ultra-top-secret-goodie surprise. Otherwise you will have to wait untill the convention.

To Infinity And Beyond

Willems client, Niels,  came all the way from the other side of the universe, just for us. He was on his way for like 5 months to get here, lucky for him he had a really fast space ship. Nonetheless it's really amazing and shows how dedicated he is to get tattooed by us.



Got to have respect for him for coming all that way even if it's just for a small tattoo on his chest. It doesn't matter how small or large the tattoo, we still put everything we have into it to do it the best we possibly can.
Niels is even coming back in the near future to get two half-sleeves by Mehdi.

Tony did some coloring on a phoenix he lined some time ago, but it's still not finished, so you will have to wait to see the final result.

He also continued on a cover-up he is working on. And believe it or not! This time I actually have a little bit of proof of it being a cover-up.

Just like I said, a "little" bit of proof. He already did a large piece of it before this picture was taken, but you can still see some of the old tribal on top there and a pin-up in the background.

Slowly but surely it is disappearing into the koi, when it's done you will probably never know that there was another tattoo underneath it.

Ancient Artifacts

We are going archaeological on this post.

Mehdi tattooed an old friend today, whom just happened to have some of his first tattoos. Wich was really cool to see.

These prehistoric tattoos date back to over 15 years ago.


They're holding up pretty well after all those years.



Actually the one on top did not look like this when Mehdi first did it. It was a really young warrior, but years gone by and he got older, now it looks like an old chief.

More old skool action on Rogers side of the fence. Not so much the tattoo itself but the style sure is.


Lining and shading were done today, color still to come.

And this next tattoo by Tony could have gone well with the ancient tattoos theme, seeing that it is a cover-up, covering an old tribal.
Except for the fact that Tony never actually remembers to take a "before" picture, so we can not backup the claim of this being ancient aswell.



If you are reading this, you should really start to comment on my posts. It would be nice to have some feedback every now and then.

Family Matters

So today I finally got a change to make some photos of the whole crew.
It didn't come easy though, I had to hunt most of them down and force them to go on film. Except for Willem who loves the camera, couldn't get him away from the lens.

So let me start with him.

Willem "The Wild Man" Jansen


Florencio "The Ladies Man" Rojas

Tony "The Manly Man" Kuijpers
Mehdi "The Boss Man" Le Mair


Roger "The Testostorone Overloaded Man" Merling Meijer


Rutger "Comes With The Interior" Termohlen. Check his blog out in our links section.


Besides trying to dodge the camera all day there was also some drawing done.



Drawing happend on paper as well as on skin.


After the drawing some tattoos were done aswell, this time only on skin, as for that could not be done on paper.


Also a part of the Bunker family is Charly, he is an avid collector of Mehdi's tattoos. He has got almost his whole upper body covered already, so you will be seeing a lot more of him on this blog.

This Indonesian mask is on him aswell.



And finally, Mehdi started coloring this Maneki Neko today. Wich will bring the wearer good luck and fortune.

This is the legend of the Maneki Neko:

In the 17th century, there was a rundown and poverty-stricken temple in Tokyo. The temple's priest was very poor, but he shared what little food he had with his pet cat, Tama.

One day, a wealthy and important man was caught in a storm while hunting and he took refuge under a big tree near the temple. While he waited for the storm to pass, the man noticed a cat beckoning him to come inside the temple gate. This was so startling that he left the shelter of the tree to have a closer look at this unusual cat. At that moment, the tree was struck by lighting.

As a result, the wealthy man became friends with the poor priest, and the temple became prosperous. The priest and his cat never went hungry again.

When Tama died he was buried in the Goutokuji Temple's cat cemetery with respect and love, and the Maneki Neko was made in honor of him. A Maneki Neko in your home  is said to bring in good luck and visitors.

Maneki Neko is Japanese for "beckoning cat." The message he's holding says "Please come in. You are welcome!" and he is beckoning you with his paw . (In Japan, the gesture of beckoning is pretty much the reverse of the gesture used in the West.)