I don't normally post about 'the day job'. Truth be told, it's not really a day job at all, it's a 'whole life' that has no boundaries when it comes to personal space, which is why I don't give it much time here. That said, let me show you some work form my friend Noon:

While I get that a lot of people don't understand tattoo art or see it as something it's not, Noon ticks every single box for me. In fact, all of his work is simply beautiful. I'm not going to get into some huge discourse here about how people only see what they want to see, but the fact of the matter is they do. Most people only ever see average work done by average guys. Nobody ever really stops to study what's going on out there - if they did, they would see things like this and if they were smart, the big picture would snap into very sharp focus for them.

There are maybe five tattoo artists whose work I consider to be genuinely unique that I would happily let loose on me. Noon is one of them - he gets around the world too. You should check him out. Not least because he's one of the good guys!

•••

I raised my head for long enough today to hear about Iain Banks. Genuinely - the guy is a class act and how sad. One of the greatest living writers on the planet, I was so influenced by The Crow Road and Espedair Street back in the early nineties that even now, I'm still struggling to raise the bar to that standard. I never got on well with his sci-fi alter ego (Iain M. Banks for those who have always struggled with the difference in his work) but I know it's good even though I don't like it. Assuming that the media reports are true - as they seem to have come from the horses mouth - I sincerely hope whenever the inevitable happens that it's kind to him.

Strange days.

It's hard to remember most of the time that from the moment you're born, your body is busy dying of something. Our time here is so short. Don't waste it on things that don't matter.