Graffiti Ducks and Ink Spots

Alright, I'm not crazy. Well, I am indeed crazy, but for nothing having to do with this post. I've been seeing these ducks graffitied all over Miami and I want to know where the hell they come from. They're on signs, billboards, buildings, well mostly buildings I guess. Anyway, they're very simple, just a basic cartoonish outline of a duck w/random words written inside. My favorite which has now been painted over was a duck with "crack" inside it. Nothing else, just "crack". That one became affectionately known as crack duck whenever the man and I would discuss the little buggers. There was a "grow" duck, too, but that was painted over and then the building that it had once adorned was torn down. There's a "non" duck and there used to be a "blank walls" or "hank wall" or something on this building on the way to the Design District, but it's been painted over and now we can't read it. It's very sad.

I love the ducks. There are newer ducks that are sitting on top of hearts. They're pretty cool. I want to know who is painting the ducks so I can talk to them and possibly collaborate with them on a future tattoo. I've posted on craigslist asking for duck info and no one has any info about them or their creator. I wish the duck creator would reveal him/herself to me. Oh, I wish.

Which brings me to the ink spots portion of this post... tattoos. They're cool. I like mine a whole lot and I think that some others that aren't mine are pretty rockin', too. Have you seen the show on TLC Miami Ink? If not, you should. First of all they do awesome work and they're a riot to watch. Ami (sort of the ringleader) is a bit of an ass (well, a lot of an ass, but I'm sure there's creative editing to enhance that), Yoji (the apprentice) is cool and totally nuts about his wife which is cute, Garver is the older wiser version of all the rest of the guys (and man, can that guy lay down some ink), the other guy (I'm blanking on his name at the moment) is the sweet nice one, and Chris Nunez (the man calls him "Greasy") is the hot one. Yeah, I said it - he's the hot one. Anyway, their shop is in South Beach and I want to go have a consultation with Nunez about my next tattoo. He specializes in art reproductions and a major portion of the one I want is a reproduction of an old catalog illustration. Plus, I like his personality. Well, I like the edited-for-TV personality that I watch every week. Then again, Yoji needs a break thrown his way, being the apprentice and all... they give him a tons of shit all the time, but they do it out of love I hope. It would be cool to walk in and be all like, "Hey, I need some special ink done and I need a skilled hand. Is Yoji around?" Stay tuned for tattoo pictures as soon as I can land a j-o-b and pay for it. Ah, the trials and tribulations of being in a new city...