New York Anime Festival

So we spent the weekend in New York City at the Anime Festival that went on there. It was pretty cool, met some great people who loved our stuff. Hopefully some new devoted fans that will follow us for a long time. We went to a great All You Can Eat Sushi Buffet on Friday night. The sushi buffet's here in Montreal ask you to preorder your choices on a sheet, then they bring it to you and if you can't finish what you ordered they will charge you for what you didn't eat. But this was like an actual buffet that you just went and stuffed your face at. Awesome.

There were some really great costumes at the show. The last photo I've posted is a guy on what must have been stilts so that he was 7-8 feet tall within a Transformers Bumblebee costume. Great work. We're going to be back in New York in a few weeks for our final US show this year. So come by and check us out, I'll let you know when and where.

Awesome Thai Commericals

I was looking for reviews on a Thai hair dye. One thing lead to another and the next thing I knew I was laughing unstoppably at one Thai commercial after another on YouTube.

Let me share these with you:

This is a beer commercial. There's 3 within this one video, the acting is brilliant in the second one. Asian men crying of joy is my new favourite thing:

This is amazing!!! Marc, Jason, if you're reading this you will love this one! Especially when you find out what the ad is about:

We're on CTV?

Last night was brutal. I pulled an all-nighter in order to et all our shirts out for the New York and Vegas show we're doing in the next fee weeks. I had stayed up for a little more than 30 hours straight. When I tried sleeping last night my body was so exhausted that I couldn't even fall asleep. Crazy what our bodies are capable of.

Also CTV is a Canadian television station that went to the Toronto convention and liked our stuff enough to include us in their blog. I came across this by searching 'akumu ink' in google images. Pretty cool! Here's the link to the post and a pic they took of Dora holding up the Starved tshirt. Where the hell was I?

The Secret World

I've probably mentioned this before but I'm not into video games. But I do follow a 3D blog that sometimes throws in some great video game trailers. And this is one of those trailers that caught my eye. I don't know if it's for a game that's coming out soon, the website doesn't give much detail. But I love the atmosphere and character designs. Check out the dark hooded bird guy with the swords...genius! Keep it coming!

New Stuff.

So first off thanks to Tshirts Around the Internet blog for posting about our Possessed V-Necks yesterday. If you are waiting for the price of the Vnecks to decrease let me warn you that they will remain at this price, also we will be adding SOME of the other designs in this format. We've only purchased a limited amount of the Vnecks, so if we sell them out at shows we will not be ordering more. We'd like for it to replace the raspberry colour so hurry before those run out as well.

Also if you've found us through a website called Etsy.com or know of the site that specializes in all things handmade. They have an article they put out a few times a month called "Quit Your Day Job" and on Monday September 28 2009 we will be featured! So put it on your calendars, if you want to read it when it's posted, otherwise we will post a link when it comes out.

Exciting!

And lastly today we've just added a NEW size to our women's hoodies. Women's XS! check out the size chart here to see if it'll fit you. Also if you're looking to get a cool gift for a younger child this could be the closest thing we'll get to doing children's clothes. It's a quite petite size. So go check it out you know we have plenty of designs to choose from.

Inception

I'm sure I've made this clear that I'm a big fan of Dark Knight, and so far director Christopher Nolan has yet to disappoint with his winning streak of movies. The Prestige and Batman Begins were great pieces. So here is a new one he's working on with Leo DiCaprio. Looks amazing already, can't wait to see it in theatres.

Some Updates

Always love getting love from tshirt blogs that give a shout out to our new products. Thanks Andy from Hide Your Arms tshirt blog for the nice post about our Possessed V-Neck. Maybe we'll be seeing you in the UK next year if we hit the London tattoo convention.

Also if you're browsing through the akumu ink store check out some of the new images I added last night and today. Slowly updating and working on making the overall website look better. Here's some of the new pics:

New Purple V-Necks

So we've added a new colour and style to arsenal. Purple V-Necks for the Possessed image for now. I think it's a great addition as well as a move forward into a new colourway for our current line. Size chart for the V-Necks are available on our FAQ.

New ETID Track

Not sure how I feel about this song yet. The video definately isn't selling it to me. Love ETID and the last few albums took a couple listens. I'll give it tons more chances as I've always done in the past. Hopefully the rest of the album is as insane as the reviews have promised. I guess we'll surely see soon.

Danny's Painting

Remember Danny? The guy that got our beloved "Death's Embrace" Tattooed on his arm? Well it doesn't end there. Danny comissioned us to work on a monstrous 30"x60" canvas painting. So here's the process we used to create this intricate beast.
















I sketched out in pencil onto the canvas how I wanted the image to look. Then while I was printing for the last set of conventions, Dora would sneak in and paint the large blocks of colour.































Then it was my turn to come in and paint in the details. I would keep a "Death's Embrace" tshirt next to me while I painted so to make sure I could get the details as exact and if not add a little more to some places.













































Here are some shots of the 98% finished product, just to show you how massive it is in our living room compared to Dora, as well as compared to our own "Of Horror I" painting we did this past winter. Hope Danny likes it!

A Story To Tell You.

I want to share a story with you guys from this weekend. At conventions we charge the same price for a shirt as on our website minus the shipping cost of course. So one tshirt will cost 28$CAD instead of the 21.99$US + tax + conversion rate + shipping. So there was a guy who came by our booth on the first day and was like "I'll give you 20$ for a shirt." I was insulted but Dora handled the manner and told him to think it over and come back Sunday for we might be able to offer him a better deal. Sunday came along and this guy showed up again with his 20$ for a shirt or no deal offer.

Now I know there was another tshirt company selling tshirts for 20$ on white one-size-fits-all Gildan shirts. I saw the prints and they were terrible! Totally worth 20$! But compared to our tshirts printed on quality American Apparel fabrics, with quality prints. (I pass the ink enough times that you don't see the colour of the shirt. I even paint brush in detail if need be as though every shirt we put out was the only one we put out.) We put our blood, sweat and tears into this company so that you will have a great experience and hopefully come back for more.

So when this guy asked to get a shirt at two thirds the price we sell it to everyone else, I exploded and pretty much told the guy we didn't want his business. Dora and I are building this company around the idea that we are like a family. I don't want to sell our stuff in Walmart, and I don't want people thinking they can pay Walmart prices to be part of something that has so much more heart in it. I want you guys to feel like you're exclusively in this with us, I don't want to let someone who doesn't even have the courtesy to pay the cover charge gain access.

So yeah, we got your backs ;) Here's a pic of me high off my Tim Horton's Iced Cap. Ready to punch out anyone who doesn't belong in the Akumu Ink gang :P

Montreal Tattoo Art

Hey guys, I apologize for not posting more often. I know I said once I would quit my job I'd have more time for you guys and to update more often. But what seems to have happened is that we've taken on alot more conventions than we originally planned. We're trying to spread the word of Akumu Ink all over the land before winter time. Weve also found that our actual setup wasn't enough. I'm printing on what could be known as a 'hobby' screen printing machine. So we're upgrading to something a little more serious. I'll still be printing all our shirts and offering you superior shirt quality, the only difference is I'll be producing it faster than before so that I can have more time to spend on updating the website and the blog.

In other news we will be coming out with a new item soon. Time has not been on our side to allow us to take photos and photoshop them to be ready to post on the web. So hopefully within the next 2 weeks (or sooner) you'll be able to purchase those new items. Anyways here's some pics from this weekends local show, Talk to you sooner than later.