A mark to remember

3 weeks ago, I went forward with a taboo of the modeling industry. In the ever going effort to keep a clean slate (untainted body in this case) agencies everywhere ask to hold off on getting body art, or tattoos I should say. For years, I had been planning on doing this, deliberating on what, where and how big.  After all this time and a serendipitous invitation from a friend I began to move forward.  

Why now though? Well a few reasons:

•  I am in a warm humid environment. This provides a great place to allow the tattoo to heal.
•  I feel like I moving forward with my life into an as of yet undefined career but still a significant change.
• Slight rebellion against the plain white canvas this is a model.

Flash back to beginning of May, my friend Babs (who claims to have a bad influence on me) mentioned she would be meeting her tattoo artist to discuss her next tattoo. Light bulb! I asked about tagging along and began to put my best efforts onto paper to demonstrate what I wanted. With artistic skills aside, you could begin to get the jest of what was in my head for years.

Paper in hand, Babs and I met up with Moon of Moonstruck Tattoos. He had done a number of her pieces and they were all impressive.  I began to describe what I wanted. Starting with a Canadian coat of arms, removing insignificant parts to me, and adding others.  The union jack and fleur des lis have little significance in my life, so I dropped those flags completely. Moving to the crest I decided to use symbols significant to me, mountains and a sheath of wheat to signify my prairie roots and love for being in the mountains. Icelandic Mjolnir (thors hammer) and Ukrainian Tryzub would highlight my ancestorial roots with the Scottish thistle below. Lastly I would replace the lion and unicorn for deeper meaning. Dreki the Icelandic dragon was a protector from the particular region my ancestors set sail from in the late 1800s.  Lastly the gyrfalcon is a symbol of Iceland, Ukraine and Canada.

My significance came together into an image that Moon created. A far cry from my original drawing I was impressed. Off to work we go.

Normally I am not one to get nervous, I am actually someone that tries to be so prepared that nervousness is the last thing on my mind. Even still waiting for that first contact of needle on skin did leave me a little on edge. I was prepared though, having a large healthy breakfast of eggs , apples and oatmeal, with cinnamon to give that longer lasting glycemic effect, I mean for flavour of course.  Packed with me was my 1L Nalgene and a recent discovery of Stephen James organic energy bar (mmm so good, sushi flavoured). 

With the stencil on, we decided to shrink it a little bit and restencil. For those of you that are still wondering, yes this will be big and no its not on my arm or lower back. I decided to go with my thigh.

One of my other big concerns was how to I keep myself entertained for 5 or 6 hours. Well moon had me covered on that, besides being a great conversationalist (which you kinda have to be), he had a tv set up for me to watch Hansel & Grettel, Vikings and a little big bang theory to round things off. 

Naturally curious I wanted to watch as that hum of the tool began to scrape and etch ink into my skin. As the day began it was a dull scrape, different but not uncomfortable.  With the inking progressing to scratching a sunburn then about 6 hours in feeling like a cat was scratching your sunburn for you.  Final details being drawn in I was nearly biting my fist, but came out with a smile.  

The healing is now done and I have shown my family and friends in Canada.  Cheers everyone, I hope you like it.

The day that never ends

After spending nearly the past 6 months in SE asia…again I find myself trapped in a time capsule sending me back in time. Of course I am referring to the plane that sends me across the international dateline.  And what would this trip be without a bit of adventure and reflection.

Fresh on my mind I thought nothing better than to sum up the adventure of my work experience since I departed Canada in January. Reviewing my tally’s I completed work for:

•        2 tv commercials
•        5 magazines
•        2 billboards
•        more fashion shows than I could imagine have ever doing around 8
•        1 advertising campaign
•        6 ultra luxury events
•        5 lookbooks

There is possibly more but that’s about as far as my memory serves me with this regard. It’s been a relatively productive experience, but as that goes I have also managed to grow more as a person.

Last year around the same time (possibly a week later), I wrote a post called, reason, season and lifetime. (Reason Season Lifetime Post)This was related to an outstanding email I received from a past client. To prevent blatant repition I thought best to just some it up before continuing to my next point. 

People are introduced to your life in many ways, each person serves a purpose in some respect or another. For some the role is small, and others it grows to serve a larger impact in your personal development.  Without placing people into specific boxes you naturally discover where someone sits in that scale of reason, season and lifetime.  Using my past adventures as examples I thought I may enlighten you:

Photobomb Success

The reason: The easiest example for this would be a client on a job. Maybe a photographer or stylist, While sometimes you get along great and others its an oil and water separation you work together for the purpose of completing a job.

A season: I will continue with a model example again. A seasonal influence on your life is frequently a roommate or classmate, maybe someone that you work on a project with. For the month, 2 months or an extended amount of time, you help each other out. However, at the end of that period, lets say a modelling contract, you essentially stop communicating. The relationship provided what it needed during the season, but no longer is something that has extended influence. I find many of the people I meet slide into this category whether it was university, modelling or otherwise.

Lastly, a lifetime. As you travel about your daily life or around the world there are people you connect with on a deeper level. These people, make extended efforts to maintain a line of friendship and you do the same. Sometimes its that gym rat buddy from university, a roommate from travels abroad or even just a happenchance encounter that blossomed into something more than a passing of shoulders. These are my favourite obviously, at the same time they are also rare. 

As I go back and read this I can name specific people who each sat into a particular category I mentioned above. While some influenced me more than others each person is very important in my life and I thank them for it. My travels have extended my friendships far beyond the reaches of Canada’s vast boarders and interestingly enough introduced me to some amazing people on my global doorstep.

Oops, almost forgot about the adventure of the day. The genius I am booked a 7 am flight out of Singapore to come home. Silly and smart at the same time, I realized that by pulling an all nighter with a friend and a few coconuts would help me crush 8 hours of the 20 something of travel time.

In standard fashion I arrived 2 hours early for my international flight. Upon boarding we sat waiting on the plane for an additional 3 hours while one of the doors was not closing properly. Eventually we were all deplaned. The good news is, the plane was safe to fly, the bad news was the door would be inoperable and safety standards stated that rows 18-38 needed to board a different plane. Guess who had lucky seat number 34C.

As luck would have it I missed my connection towards SFO almost instantly, so I felt no pressure to get anywhere ultra quickly. I obviously wanted to get home, but the few empty seats I would rather surrender to someone on business or travelling with children, and that I did.  Alternatively, I was rebooked for a 12:45 flight to Hong Kong, then through Vancouver and finally making it back to cowtown. The downside I wouldn’t be flying on United’s old school fleet. Gosh darn it.

I seriously have to commend all the customer service and everyone from United, Cathay and Air Canada for their efforts. This messed up door created quite the shit storm, and while some passengers reacted poorly, these staff managed to stay calm and get shit done.

Unfortunately with all that commotion, my bag is sitting somewhere. As of this exact moment, I have no clue, and neither do the airlines. But they are seriously working hard on it and I have great appreciation for that. Lost baggage claim is all ready, and despite it originating with United’s issues all the 3 airlines have put in a diligent effort to find it for me.

I am a lucky person to be honest. My flight is taking back home, where I have most my clothes so a few days without that suitcase isn’t going to hurt me (unless I want to play squash) and despite a large delay, I am only arriving home 5 hours later than originally scheduled while following a vastly different route.

I am always listening to music as I write my blogs, one of the few times I listen to music (its usually audiobooks and podcasts). As I pitter patter across the keys I can see fingers rattling off the ivory keys to the tune of Mozart (concerto of two pianos and orchestra in e flat).

A wealth of experience

Much of my writing lately has been more insightful and less about modeling. I have been bouncing around SE Asia for the past almost 6 months now and feel like sometimes its good to understand what’s going on in my crazy little head. Between the outrageous puddle building boxing sessions, my rants about models and everything else I hope to have provided some more insight into who I am. 

Last week I had the opportunity to live a life I otherwise would never live. I feel so incredibly blessed to have been raised the way I have and create a respect for money and avoiding the outrageous. Singapore is a country full of outrageous. Brazen spending is evident by the 5 Louis Vuitton store and 10 Coach handbag stores. Basic automobiles cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and real estate prices blow your mind.

Myself and a few other buddies attended an event in Sentosa Cove. The crème de la crème of Singapore residences located on the southern tip of Singapore. The ultra prices ranging in the 30 million range, create a very exclusive environment to call home. Not to be outdone driveways are filled with Ferrari and Bentley, with countertops christened by bottles of the finest single malts imported from Scotland. 

Can you feel me getting into character? Representing Zilli, a very high fashion brand from Italy, I became increasingly aware and concerned with having as James Earl Jones once put the best of the best. The softest silks, the most pristine leather, were essential for my taste. Of course a pallet designed elegant Macallan single malts never hurts as well.

3 others and myself mingled as though we were actually capable of affording said 30 million dollar house or thousands worth of clothing.  Personally I had a blast, and it rubbed off on the attendees of the event as well. Clinking glasses with CEOs, CFOs, CCOs and inevitably a UFO tossed in for good measure. My complaint of modeling sometimes is that I struggle to find interesting individuals that can carry an intellectual conversation; fortunately this wasn’t the case that evening.  It was also refreshing to see that the individuals I spoke with were all down to earth. Not one had the stereotypical arrogance associated with wealth.  Which goes to show, no matter where you sit on that food chain, humility can be found.