Happy New Year!

It was a good year here at Stay True, despite to floundering economy we managed to come out on top.

Here’s a recap of how the year went:

On the home front, the year started off strong with guest spots from such artists as Bryan Renyolds, Oz, and Dave Meek. The Mesa Tattoo convention was a blast, and our Lucky 13 Grand Opening party in February was a huge success.

We unfortunately lost three very talented artists at the shop in 2009. Melissa Zimmer in the spring, who is blessed this year with a healthy new baby, Patrick Fordyce in the summer, who moved home to be closer to his family, and the most tragic of all Jesse Zinga, who passed away Thanksgiving eve. (For more information on Jesse, please click here).

Fall also gave us cooler weather and Stay True’s 1 year anniversay, and our November Lucky 13 party, where we launched not one, but THREE clothing lines, raised over $400 for Breast Cancer Research, and generally set ourselves up for a slam dunk ending of 2009, with an article published in the Arizona Republic New Years Day!

Brando continued his national success, with 2 guest spots in Las Vegas, a ten day collaborative tour of Florida with Oz of Ozmosis Tattoo, and another FL appearance at the convention in Tampa. He contributed to the “Keep a Breast” foundation, painting up a paper mache bust, provided by the foundation, with his signature style. (www.keep-a-breast.org) For Brando’s clients 2009 was the year for gettin’ shit done! Josh celebrated the completion of a 2 year backpiece, while Jason, Jen, Rochelle, and Katie all finished up full sleeves. Yet another Jason completed a very bright, very large, (and probably very painful) rib piece.

Siege hit the ground running in his second year of tattooing, his first fine art paintings sold, starting his own artists group online,and taking the reins as our shop manager. Siege is known for his many beautiful paintings displayed prominently on our walls at the shop.

Mark was also promoted this year, moving from working apprentice to full time artist! He continues to expand and drive himself artistically and has carved out a niche for himself in the shop with his bold designs and bright colors.

May May spent the year both behind the scenes, and in the lime light alike. Also in her second year of tattooing, she was pictured in “Tattoo” magazine, and was the cover picture for the New Years day story in the AZ republic. Her tattooing was also pictured a local biker publication called “Thunder Roads” two months in a row.

Siege, May May and Mark also tattooed for the “Music as a Weapon Tour” at the Dodge Theatre, featuring Disturbed, Killswitch Engage, Lacuna Coil, and Chimaira, and all three also participated in a charity auction for Autisim, known as “All Decks on Hand”, where each artist was given a blank skateboard deck to paint and return. For more information, please visit:  http://alldecksonhand.tumblr.com/.

*Whew!*

Thanks to everyone who made 2009 a great year for Stay True Tattoo, for all the support and love we received this year, we look forward to living’ it up in 20-twen twen!