904 Miles
A few months back I started following a tattoo artist on Instagram by the name of Matt Hodel. Little did I know who he is. I soon learned that Matt had started an online community for Tattoo Artists like myself. It’s called Jackpot and we meet weekly to discuss various topics related to the tattoo business as well as art. I made the decision to join the community and Matt reached out to me, he gave me a call as a matter of fact. We talked for a good hour or so and got to know each other a bit. In the weeks that followed we touched base again over the phone and the idea for a retreat was hatched. This past weekend was the retreat.
I drove down to St. Louis and headed to Ragtime Tattoo, which Matt owns. I arrived and was greated warmly by Matt and Ryan. Ryan gave me a tour of their space and showed me his project car. We went back up to the tattoo area and Matt, Ryan and I shot the breeze for a bit as Matt worked with his client on her leg piece. After Matt finished up, we set out to meet Billy. Billy is another artist in Matt’s shop that is also part of Jackpot. We picked Billy up in Arnold, MO and he hopped in my truck. Matt gave us the coordinates for our next stop and we were on our way.
Billy and I chatted and got to know each other a bit on the ride. We got to our destination, stopped and grabbed some food and supplies and headed to “the property”. We arrived at Matt’s land around 5PM and got busy setting up camp, chopping wood and getting the stove fire going. We’d be sleeping in a canvas outfitters tent with stove for the weekend. Fire started, we setup our cots and sleeping arrangements. Snacked a bit and started in conversing about life and such. As the hours grew late, Matt reminded us that we would need to add logs to the stove throughout the night. Got it. So, every hour or so, someone would feel the air chill and get up from their slumber and add a log, this took place every hour or so. Oddly enough, I slept well the entire night even though I was up every hour or so, either adding wood, or hearing the wood be added.
The sun creeps through the gaps of the tent, it’s almost 7am. Time to make some coffee and breakfast. We did biscuits and sausage gravy in the dutch oven and it was amazing! We set off to a State Park to check out some cool water features and then headed back to camp where a neighbor had shown up with his SXS. It was about lunch time when we arrived back at camp and we decided to head into town for some grub and groceries for dinner and the following morning. After lunch we ran down the road to a Beer-GUNS-LIQOUR establishment. May have picked a couple things up there. We headed back to camp, unloaded and headed down to the meadow to send a few rounds down range and have a little hill climbing fun in the SXS.
After the afternoon shenanigans we headed back up to camp and started a small fire as we split wood and chit chatted. Once the sun set and the temps dropped we headed back into the tent and hung there in the warmth of the stove talking for hours. Lateness hit, lights out, music off and heads on pillows. At least an hour or so at a time.
Sunday morning we woke around 7AM again, coffee, and biscuits n’ gravy take two! We got all packed up, cleaned up camp and headed towards home.
Can’t thank Matt and Billy enough for a great weekend of friendship and fellowship. #JACKPOT @Jackpot_tattoo_community
