Doom

So since there's not much news to report let me tell you about some bands I discovered. Impending Doom (Christian Death Core) very delicious. Just click on the link to see their youtube video. And Suicide Silence, which I might have also mentioned. Check out the videos, let me know what you think. If you know anything similar I want to know about it! I love blasting this on my car stereo, so hook me up. Oh, if you're interested there's a record label called Compton Records that have a bunch of DeathCore bands on their label, worth checking out. I wonder if any of these bands would wear our shirts?

We now have 3XL

Tonight is my night off. It's honestly the first one I've had over a month and a half easily. Tomorrow is a Quebec holiday, and I was looking forward to it until I found out my sister's moving out and that I got to help her move... lame. But tonight Dora and I are celebrating all that we've done so far and our awesome job in Toronto with some sushi. It's been long awaited. I did get a bunch more orders since last night, and our first (furthest) buyer from New Zealand. My list is already piling up, so I'm gunna have to start printing again. Also gotta start preparing for Calgary, which is a go.







I want to let you know that latest by tomorrow night you will now be able to purchase men's XXXL tshirts black only off of our site. We're test running it, if we get alot of buyers we'll keep them and add the army. If no one buys we'll have to take it down. Also got to let you know there's no extra charge on our 2XL and 3XL shirts.

So enjoy, hopefully we have something for you.

...Not Impressed...

So I checked out Norma Jean's Myspace cuz they're working on their upcoming album Norma Jean VS the Anti Mother. The photography at the top of the page is amazing and completely inspiring. I scrolled down a bit to view the studio videos...what the hell are they doing? I understand a band or even a person wants to grow and explore sound, but why are they growing into the Deftones? What happened to Bless the Martyr and The Aftermath?? Those were powerful albums, their last work was like if Atreyu made a good album...which isn't saying much about either band. I don't expect music to stay mad forever, or be hardcore forever but why do bands assume that alternative rock is the next step forward? For example Dillinger Escape Plan's last album....I don't even want to say anything else about the decline of what use to be an awesome genre.

On the up side I did discover at NIX a guy mentioned a band called I Declare War. Insane.

NIX tattoo convention

So we're back from a weekend of long hours and hard work. We seemed to be a big hit, we sold out on many of our designs within the first 2 days. The biggest hit seemed to be our newest Death Embrace followed by the Black Rose, and Impaled. Everyone was so very nice, we made alot of friends and really enjoyed the experience. Thanks to all our new happy customers, we're glad you've found us and we will do our best not to disappoint you. Here are some pictures from the show:

Tattoo Convention tomorrow...We now take Money orders.

So tomorrow we are getting on the plane and heading over to Toronto. We got a booth at NIX tattoo convention. We are so tired from preparing. The last 3 weeks we've printed over 200 items for the show, we don't have awesome machines or conveyor dryers, we have a hardcore 4-colour press, a flash dryer and a heat gun. Last weekend was the hottest day I've ever experienced in Montreal, we didn't have an air conditioner, and we didn't even indulge in a nice cold beer just to make sure that we got done what needed to be done. We will update you when we get back on Monday as to how it went with pictures.





Also we have a new thing. For those under 18 or even those who just don't have a credit card, or don't want to put your CC info on the net. We now accept money orders, personal cheques, and interact money transfer. If any of these interest you, or you want more info on these options please don't be shy to check out our faq. We have the "Don't have a credit card?" icon on every page. just click and it'll bring you directly to the spot in our faq. if you still don't get it but really want a shirt, email us and we'll help you figure out which one is right for you. Just understand please don't send cash. We don't want to be held responsible if we never receive it.

Behind the Scenes

I'd like to thank Andy and Kat once again for reposting about us on their blogs. This is twice in less than 2 weeks. Really awesome, and we really appreciate the exposure from you both. We gave them both an exclusive look at what happens behind the scenes here at Akumu Ink. So exclusive we didn't even post it ourselves until today (2 days later). So I'll post the pics here but if you want to check out their posts just go here:
Tshirts Around the Internet
Hide Your Arms

Weekend Photos

Damn it was hot and humid this weekend, I think the temperature went up to 32C which is not something my thick Canadian blood is made for. Especially since Dora and I have to work with a heat gun and a dryer that stays at 350C right next to us during the entire printing process (which was basically all day). Oh, and we don't have an air conditioner so we were seriously dying.

Ok, let me show you some pics we took this weekend. If you check out the Akumu site you'll see images of the shirt's front and backs. Well there at the bottom corner you can see the shirt on it's white background that I used to take the photo. Tiny was directing the photoshoot on our very narrow and rickety balcony.















This is a pic of one of the pallets we used. It's our first pallet that we had to throw away due to it warping from the heat of our dryer. This could be seen as something sad, but it's really pretty exciting knowing we printed that many shirts that we warped a board. Also considering this is one of 4 different sized boards. Therefore we printed a lot of shirts so far in the last 4 months.















This is Tiny. He's panting like crazy due to the extreme heat. He must be so warm in his thick black coat. Do dogs sweat? He never seemed wet when I pet him.















Here's our screens drying in the sun. UV light affects the drying process so I left them out for a bit to bind them properly.















Well that's it. Hope you enjoyed these pics.

Birthday presents

I'd like to post pics of the gifts I gave to Dora for her birthday yesterday. I found them all through Etsy, and even more specifically in Montreal, Quebec. I wanted to support local artists like ourselves who are starting out. I'd like to thank all these wonderfully talented artists for making such beautiful creations. It was great to meet and talk to you all. I enjoyed buying from you I hope you will all have equally great success. So here's what I got:





















The stained glass ring was from Catherinette Rings.


















































































The soaps look almost edible are from MookaSoap.






































And these gorgeous glass beads are from BleuVerre.

The Devil's Rhythm

First line of business today is it's Dora's birthday today. Happy Birthday!

I want to start off by saying thanks to Kat from the Tshirts around the Internet blog. She has been supporting us since the beginning. We really appreciate her kind comments and her love for our designs. She's bout two shirts from us already. So Kat thanks, good luck on your blog and keep up the good work!

Lastly I wanted to share something I discovered. I like scratchy sounding recordings of old music that is so full of life that it's almost demonic. Like old Mississippi blues that talks about how their soul was sold to the devil at the crossroads.

There's a memorable scene in the movie that features Harry Belafonte's song Banana boat Song (Day O), and Jump in the Line. It's so messed up I love it. Anyways this is leading to a new song I found out about, it's a track that Kanye West produced for Jay-Z back in 2003 called Lucifer. The original track that he sampled is from Max Romeo called I Chase the Devil. It really sticks in your head.

If you got any creepy songs about the devil or devil related let me know I want to listen, or if you got a link to a youtube video that's even better.

Hide Your Arms

Over the months we've been reviewed by Andy of the HideYourArms tshirt blog. The first time he reviewed our Of Horror I shirt he pretty much just wrote a paragraph to fill up space on his page. He seemed to like the design but was to afraid to commit to liking it.

The month after he reviewed our black on black Nevermore tshirt. He pretty much shrugged at what we did that month.

In May he posted both Impaled and Shattered. Still going on about how emo our designs are as if it's a bad thing (Although he does admit to liking the designs anyways). I thought it was funny when he wrote about how surprised he was that we seem nice in our emails.

But behold Andy's June 2nd entry. Let me premise by saying we sent him a free tshirt, not because we wanted to get him to post about us but because we wanted to thank him for blogging about us without asking for anything in return. It was funny to read how people noticed his shirt enough to tell him they liked it. So far this is what everyone who owns an Akumu Ink shirt has been telling me. Go out and you'll for sure have people ask about your tshirt.

And about the back logo that Andy mentioned might turn off some buyers...This is the beauty of us screen printing our own shirts after you've order yours. We've been asked to not print the back logo before and we've done so. Dora and I are totally approachable so just email us and we'll figure something out together.

I'm posting below some of the photos that Andy posted on Hideyourarms. They will also be on our Facebook page. Thanks for featuring us every month so far, hope you enjoy your own little feature on our blog.

Finally...they're here.

Hey, I'm completely dead this morning. I'm so happy for coffee it's keeping me sane. Finished the new website last night, you can find our new stuff as well as old stuff on different colored shirts now. Here is the new designs below: "Death's Embrace" my very stylized piece, I really hope you like it cuz I really want to continue in that direction. "The Black Rose" a very graphic tattoo inspired illustration of a black painted rose. Hope you like the new look and feel, there might be a couple dead links but I'll fix those up by this weekend for you but the important thing is new designs are up and everything is ready for you to buy.

I'm running late

I've missed the deadline haven't I... This weekend was insane. I think I worked more this weekend than i have in the last week at my actual job. Preparing for the show while preparing the new website is killer. I'm redesigning the site to be ready for this new months designs and choices of shirt colors. I hope you'll like it, cuz I've put alot of sweat and blood into making this work. Let me know if you like how i redesigned the site, give me a heads up if theres things you like or dislike so i can fix it up.