Tatts Out, Rockabilly Style!

Now, this 'ere blog of mine isn't really a diary type affair. I don't share what I've had for dinner, and only tend to show my outfits within the context of a self-stitched challenge or if a garment's fresh from the sewing machine. And I don't post amusing pics of my cat in a potentially off-putting quantity (but that is only because I don't have a cat, yet). Not that there's anything wrong with those subjects as blog content. Sometimes seeing someone's dinner (like Jen's) triggers in me a new obsession or reinitiates an old one. Outfit posts can also give tips on how to combine garments, which is an area I don't think I excell at. And as for funny cat pics, I truly believe there can never be a sufficient number. Plus, if I blogged my regular goings on, you would soon get bored of hearing about my love-hate relationship with ANTM and seeing pics of me drinking cheap white wine. Yet, I will post my comings and goings if I deem them to be of a sizeably signicant nature (like my 30th), and loosely related to topics I like to cover here.

All of which is a very round-the-houses way to introduce the subject of what I did yesterday. Which in turn is little more than an a flimsy excuse to share these awesome pics we took.

So, my beautiful best mate and her boy (pictured above) came down to B-town to attend the Brighton Tattoo Convention with us. She hooked herself up with an incredible Limerick-based artist who did truly one of the top three bestest tattoos I've ever seen (FYI, the other two are my mum's and my swallows). She had been fantasizing about this tattoo for so long she was having dreams in which she had already had it done, then would wake up and be pissed off that it wasn't there yet.

This was the second tattoo convention I've been to, the first was in Barcelona in 2009, (the day I took these pics, incidentally) where there was a fair smattering of girls at that one dressed up in rockabilly and pin-up styles. That had a real impact on me at a key moment when I was starting to become really interested in those style elements. True to my expectations, the Brighton convention had a very decent helping of rockabilly and pin-up ladies looking incredible. My aim for this Brighton convention was to take heaps of awesomely inspirational shots of these women. Totally didn't happen. I didn't take my camera, and Pat's is too big to take sneaky shots with and I just don't have the lack of inhibitions required to casually go up to strangers and ask to take their photo.

So, later that night the four of us got stuck into some Pat-made mojitos, played an excellent game of YouTube Challenge ©, and got done up to go to Born Bad!, a Rockabilly night that Pat and I have been wanting to go to since we moved here. Three words: SO. MUCH. FUN.

Sporting Zoe-styled hair and 75% handmade garments (my skirt and blouse and Vic's skirt), let's hear it for the laydeez! Vic looked so incredible with her red rose theme: new rose tattoo, rose buckle belt and rose hair decoration. I went for a (predictable) nautical theme pairing my red Beignet skirt with ship shape blouse, two garments I made ages ago but inexplicably never wore together. Plus anchor necklace, anchor tattoo and old school tattoo design tights (which feature anchors, in case you were wondering).

Not to over-look the arm candy, of course:

Unfortunately, no photos were taken during the night out either, but then I do question how much fun people are actually having when you see them out in clubs taking photos of the themselves and their mates for the majority of the night. Put the camera down and get your arse to the dance floor, people! (Ooh, maybe there's a T-shirt slogan in there somewhere.)

I know what you're thinking: 'So, remind me why you're telling us about your night in/out, wearing clothes we've seen in a squillion MMM or SSS pics, Zo?'. Shut up and look at the pictures, ok?!