Build Your Own 2...

On October 16th we hosted the second "Build Your Own" workshop. The first was held at the Paradise Tattoo convention in September 2009.
http://pulsetattooblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/build-your-own-was-great-time.html
The first event was a great success and because of the limited amount of spots available, we have had several requests to "DO IT AGAIN!" After announcing the date for the new seminar, all 15 spots were filled in just 2 days! It's not that hard to believe when you think about what you get. BJ "SOBA" Johnson from Workhorse Irons flew in for the weekend, and every artist attending had a choice to build any of our machines or any of his. So you got to spend the day with us at Pulse learning all about how we do things here and how BJ does them back at Workhorse, build & tune your own machine and Katie and I served up a nice lunch! We had a great group of tattooers in here for the day, and I like to think everyone had a good time.

Here are some photos of the action...

Opening discussion with BJ from Workhorse as well as Joe, Tim and Brett from Pulse

A room full of artists ready to learn
Coil Wiring with BJ and JoeSpring Dynamics with Brett and Tim
Coil Winding with Tim Georgina was the only female tattooer to participate and one of the brave few who attempted to spin a coil herself. Go Georgina!

LUNCH BREAK! Katie and I made our delicious and now famous French Toast, Maple, Bacon Cupcakes. She did most of the work, as I am no baker, however I am a bacon connoisseur, so she left the frying up to me. We make a great team. I think they were amazing! The rest of our lunch was catered by a local sandwich shop, but I think we did a great job laying it out. Ha. Mmm... After lunch everyone got busy building and tuning their machines.

After everyone tuned their machines to their own specifications and satisfaction, we opened Pulse for our very first "Get It Yourself" shopping night. It was the first time we've had customers come into our building and browse and shop on their own. They actually had to form a line to check out. It was great.

I think the day was a success and I think we're going to do it again in the spring! If anyone who attended is reading this, please comment to let us know what you thought!

Inside the PI (Volume 6)...

The Pulse Pet. Meet Quincy the Pulse Dog. He's a grouchy old pug who spends most of his time sleeping on a pillow in my office.

Inside the PI (Volume 5)...

The Photo Studio... It's true. We take our own photos. Well, Brett actually takes our photos. For our catalogs, website, advertisements (right now we only advertise in Tattoo Artist Magazine) and any other printed promotional material, postcards, stickers etc. Because Brett does all of our graphic design work himself, he can really get exactly the shot he needs by taking the photos himself. He's collected quite a lot of legit professional photography equipment and I think during the slow season we should start shooting models. Head shots anyone?

He even took the pictures printed on the T-shirt he is wearing!

Inside the PI (Volume 4)...

The Customer Service Center. You call, we answer. Orders, questions, and concerns are all processed here. The Customer Service Center is actually in a secret location and is like our Batcave. OK, it's not really a secret, but it is separate from the main building and the noise of production, shipping & receiving. We are attached but removed from the main building, with an interior short cut through the warehouse. We have a ton of art and toys in here, more details on that in a future volume.

Lou Jacque stops by (usually with coffee and sometimes with beer) and bothers Melissa. Alex is just avoiding the inevitable.

Brett jumps in to help with some customer service.

Katie and Melissa doing their thing.

Brett "The Boss" paying and mailing them bills.

Katie from Pulse processing a web order.

Joe and Alethea Capobianco stop by.

Inside the PI (Volume 3)...

The Conference Room. Also known as the lunch room. Where we meet and eat. Sometimes simultaneously. This room is located on the second floor in our main building. It's pink because it used to be my office. I had a birds eye view of the entire lower level. The room gets lots of natural light from our sky lights. When we expanded and moved our customer service center into the building next door to our main building, I moved to my new office in the new space.

Inside the PI (Volume 2)...

The Flash Room. This is where we scan, proof and print almost everything we sell in our Pulse Flash catalogs. The room is fully stocked with all types and weights of paper, tools for cutting, inks, toners, and envelopes. Most of our flash is now printed to order, so when you order a set it comes hot off the presses just for you! Because of all the scanning we do, you will often find some interesting original art just "laying around" in here. A lot of graphic design work is done in this room as well.

Inside the PI (Volume 1)...

The Dirty Room. Where all the drill pressing, metal grinding, tumbling, and pop riveting goes down. I didn't pick the color, but I did put it on the walls myself. Here are some shots of Alex and Joe from Pulse's production dept.