About Me
well, technically, there IS NO ME. "all is without self, all is impermanent". buddhism makes no distinction between you and me, our separation is illusory. inseparable, we are the same reflection of the universe attempting to understand itself. but if you thirst for knowledge About that part of yourself that has my name, read on.
david ballard, tattooer.
"making criminals easier to identify since 1999."
I work at and co-own Fu's Custom Tattoos in Charlotte NC. My youth was wasted on too many comic books and an invention brand new to the world at the time, video games. The former is a large part of the reason I was drawn to artwork and I suppose at least partially culpable for my over-inflated sense of justice. I spent about 3 years as an apprentice under the tutelage of my now business partner, Joey Vernon. I've been tattooing full time now for around 14 years, which, as any seasoned tattooer will tell you, means that I'm coming perilously close to actually figuring out what I'm doing. Having said that, there's not really a particular style of work that I specialize in. Like most tattooers, I truly love doing any kind of traditional Japanese style work, but am happy to be able to work in a variety of different styles, from bold and colorful to soft tones of black and grey. The fantastic variety and detail work of rendering any of the pantheon of Hindu gods is always a great joy and welcome challenge to me, and as someone who feels compelled by the undeniable truths of Secular Buddhism, tattooing nearly any Buddhist imagery brings joy to my workday.
As a matter of fact, the only kind of work that I just will NOT do, aside from the obvious hate or gang symbols, or work that I can't warranty, like white tattoos, are any religious tattoos of the monotheistic, Abrahamic variety. That's right. I DON'T do praying hands, rosary beads, bible quotes, crosses, etc, so please don't ask me for them. If I can't put forth my best efforts into a tattoo, I'd rather let someone else who can, do it.
As a matter of fact, the only kind of work that I just will NOT do, aside from the obvious hate or gang symbols, or work that I can't warranty, like white tattoos, are any religious tattoos of the monotheistic, Abrahamic variety. That's right. I DON'T do praying hands, rosary beads, bible quotes, crosses, etc, so please don't ask me for them. If I can't put forth my best efforts into a tattoo, I'd rather let someone else who can, do it.
My new favorite machines
Meet the sigils of Baphomet and Lucifer..... my new favorite machines, custom made for me by Nathan dietsch of dietschVision.com. Aren't they fuggin sweet?!? they run like scalded dogs too. if you're a professional tattooer, and ONLY if you're a professional, and want a sweet Dietsch machine for yourself, check out the link below!
My Workspace
Wanna dig deeper?
Here's some shit that has NOTHING to do with tattooing, but some random shit that i like to do when i'm not inflicting trauma to the skin of the willing
I can't get enough of Racing Simulations.
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When i'm not tattoing, i LOVE me some Vidja games; especially road racing simulations. the more realistic the physics, the better. here's some footage of me putting some mileage on FORZA 5.
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and.... another one; this time a little more difficult.
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Of course, if you love road racing, how can you NOT love Formula One?!? here's some white-knuckle F1 action in F1 2013's classic scenario mode, as i drive an older williams around Brands hatch and try to beat the fearraris...
Roman History is endlessly fascinating to me
Here's another fun game i've been enjoying recently, RYSE: SON OF ROME.
My Little Big Planet Obsession
ok, i apologize about the audio quality on this next one, it's terrible. but it represents one of my biggest gaming OBSESSIONS since i first laid my hands on an atari 2600 VCS back in the late 70's, LITTLE BIG PLANET. it's a game about sort of making your own platformer-style video game, like giving you real physics to play with and enabling you to make your very own Super Mario style game. this was the 3 very first levels i ever built and is a tad rudimentary, but if you've got a Playstation 3, and a copy of LITTLE BIG PLANET 2, you can play through any or all of the levels i've built and uploaded to the PSN servers. just do a search for the Levels built by PSN username: PSWii60BigScreen . if you try em, be sure and leave me feedback, i'd love to hear what you think!
Here's another, much shorter level i built when i was first learning to use random timers to operate obstacles. always trying to keep it challenging. As a level creator, it's pretty much your job to try and kill the player. you can do it in a way that's easy or hard, in a way that's fair or completely cheap. sometimes it's fun to be cheap, but i at least warn the player up front. this level's called dICK MOVE. please to enjoy. (again, the audio quality on this one is even worse than the one above, i apologize. crank the volume up so you can hear it, and when i get a chance, i'll fix it and re-post. thanks)
this is another short level i built especially for a friend, using a running, double-jumping, wall-jumping sackbot, found in LBP2.
here's another level i built using sackbot tech, and to train the player to use it, but i wanted to give this one a sci-fi theme. i wanted it to feel like the player was navigating the corridors of a large spacecraft. also, this level was built after i began using "the grid" system to make level pieces more uniform and with proper right angles. it allowed for some interesting door mechanisms, among other gadgets that Were fun to build.
for this next level, i wanted the player to go through a haunted house. to climb up levels in within the house, each of increasing difficulty, and at the end, reach a giant, creepy boss for them to battle. and it is pretty creepy, if i do say so myself...
First Person Shooters?
well, FPS games are most definitely NOT my forte'. hahaha but what would a discussion about vidja games be if i didn't include the world's most popular multiplayer gaming genre? so here goes. this is pretty much my first time in a new game, in a genre i'm not especially good at, so here's me getting my butt kicked while i figure out what's going on in the new (as of this writing) multiplayer beta test for TITANFALL, a mech/infantry game for the xbox one.
