August 2023

the mini-zine SUFFR by Ezra Rose, leaning on a replica of the Lament Configuration from the Hellraiser film franchiseALT
a drawing of the Female Cenobite from Hellraiser, drinking an iced coffee that's pouring out her open throat, with a dating profile reading "@bitchinbaldy1987 showing up 15 mins late to ur torture session w/ Dunks. no hair, don't care. soft-spoken hardass seeking soft ass. hit me up if u r: sensitive, adventurous, loud screamer, non-smoker.ALT
a drawing of the Chatterer from Hellraiser, posing cutely with peace signs held against its cheeks. dating profile reads: "@TOOTHYGRIN HIIIIII :D :D :D DO YOu LIKE BRuSHIng yOUR TEETH I LOVE BRUSHING MINE!!!!! :D LETS PRACTICe GOOD ORAL HYGieNE TOGETHER!!!!!!! :D :DALT
a drawing of Butterball from Hellraiser, wearing heart-shaped shutter shades. dating profile reads: "@bigbeautifulboy Let me butter you up! A gentleman in the streets & a full course meal in the sheets. If you're "too much" you might just be enough for me. Yes fats, yes femmes!ALT

SUFFR, a Hellraiser dating app mini-fanzine created for last year’s Hallowzine exchange with friends ♥ download it for free or pay-what-you-want & meet the other 3 (?) potential hookups!

(image descriptions under the cut)

1. the mini-zine SUFFR by Ezra Rose, leaning on a replica of the Lament Configuration from the Hellraiser film franchise.

2. a drawing of the Female Cenobite from Hellraiser, drinking an iced coffee that’s pouring out her open throat, with a dating profile reading “@bitchinbaldy1987 showing up 15 mins late to ur torture session w/ Dunks. no hair, don’t care. soft-spoken hardass seeking soft ass. hit me up if u r: sensitive, adventurous, loud screamer, non-smoker.

3. a drawing of the Chatterer from Hellraiser, posing cutely with peace signs held against its cheeks. dating profile reads: ”@TOOTHYGRIN HIIIIII :D :D :D DO YOu LIKE BRuSHIng yOUR TEETH I LOVE BRUSHING MINE!!!!! :D LETS PRACTICe GOOD ORAL HYGieNE TOGETHER!!!!!!! :D :D

4. a drawing of Butterball from Hellraiser, wearing heart-shaped shutter shades. dating profile reads: “@bigbeautifulboy Let me butter you up! A gentleman in the streets & a full course meal in the sheets. If you’re "too much” you might just be enough for me. Yes fats, yes femmes!

an ink line drawing of a black heart with four angelic eyed wings, over a ring of flame around it and the word הנניALT
an ink drawing of a pair of tongs, with flames wrapping around them that contain the words ועשיתם אתםALT
an ink line drawing of a hyena skull, surrounded by thorns with a pair of bat wings above it and the letter שALT
a vector drawing of a stylized tree with a torah scroll below it and the words עץ חיים היאALT

a collection of custom Jewish tattoo designs, 2020-2023

reminder: custom tattoo designs are for client use only. it’s disrespectful to get an artist’s work tattooed without permission, and incredibly so to steal a design that was made for someone else. if you’re inspired by these, you can commission me to create something for you!

descriptions & details below

as a Jew with (Jewish) tattoos, i’m delighted whenever someone commissions me for a design that speaks to some core aspect of their personal relationship with Judaism. the first of these is an angelic meditation on the phrase “hineni” (“here i am”) & its connection to fearless self-embodiment, the next two are illustrations for passages from the Talmud (one about being self-made, featuring the miraculous “first tongs”, the other about the life cycle of Jewish demons), and the last is a more traditional tree of life with torah scroll.

if i had the time/money for a tattoo apprenticeship, i would love to learn & be able to do this work myself - as it stands, i’m honored to be part of it as a designer & grateful to the talented tattooers who have inked or will ink my pieces!

image descriptions:

  1. an ink line drawing of a black heart with four angelic eyed wings, over a ring of flame around it and the word הנני
  2. an ink drawing of a pair of tongs, with flames wrapping around them that contain the words ועשיתם אתם
  3. an ink line drawing of a hyena skull, surrounded by thorns with a pair of bat wings above it and the letter ש
  4. a vector drawing of a stylized tree with a torah scroll below it and the words עץ חיים היא

Hiya! Do you still stock the Goth Jew patches/badges? I've tried looking on redbubble and couldn't find them.

hey! unfortunately, that’s because i deleted my Redbubble account after they updated their fee policies/structures to severely undercut small artists.

i’d really like to find a print-on-demand service that offers a better deal to creators - if any of my followers have suggestions or favorite companies, i’m all ears. i’ve considered Threadless (as most of my sales have been shirts) but i don’t think i know any artists personally who use it & i’d like to get some advice about their system before i start one. i’ve also been looking into (Tee)Spring but it seems very structured around heavy social media campaigning, so i don’t know if i have the following to make it work, especially now that Twitter has gone up in flames.

it’s an extremely frustrating time to be a creator! i appreciate everyone who’s been asking about where to buy things from me & i hope to be able to figure a new situation out soon ♥

fair print-on-demand for artists?

i’m making this its own post for more visibility - feel free to reblog, i’m primarily looking to hear from other artists rather than from customers.

quick definition: a print-on-demand service (POD) is a company that allows you to upload your designs (that you retain full rights to) and have them printed on a variety of products - usually t-shirts & other apparel, stickers, mugs, etc. - by the company itself or a subcontractor. the key here is that you’re not ordering a supply of products to sell yourself (or not) at a later date, you’re offering customers the ability to go to this website and select a potential product which is then printed on demand, and the company handles all the interaction with the customer (shipping, quality & returns, etc.). because they’re doing the manufacturing & shipping, they take a significant cut, but different companies have different pricing structures & some are more fair to artists in terms of profit margins than others.

TLDR: i’m looking for a new POD service to replace my Redbubble account, which i deleted after they decided to severely undercut creators (especially small artists). more details below, please read before you rec!

so the nice thing about POD is that it’s passive income - you made the work, you put it up & leave it, people buy things when they want & you get a bit of money when that happens. i also - infrequently! - run an Etsy shop where i sell things i’ve either handmade or ordered from suppliers (mostly stickers). i get more money from that, yes, and also it’s a lot more work on my end. i primarily work as a freelancer illustrator, i’ve started selling at (COVID cautious) in-person events again, & i’m disabled - this is why my Etsy has been empty all year.

i am very lucky to have enough of a following to be able to regularly sell all my stock when i do put it on Etsy, and (when I had an account) to have a smaller but steadier trickle of income from POD. i do not have enough of a following for it to make sense for me to order large quantities of apparel-type products & sell them myself.

it’s frustrating to see that many alternatives to Redbubble (like Bonfire or Spring) have moved to a “campaign” model where you release a design in a time-limited campaign with a selling goal, aggressively promote it on social media, & then all the products (shirts, whatever) are shipped at the same time. i understand why it exists - larger batches mean lower manufacturing costs & higher profit - but for someone like me who doesn’t have a massive social media following or really even a big presence now that Twitter is dying, i’m not sure it could work. for me the point is that i put it up, i leave it alone, i direct people towards my shop & the small handful of beautiful weirdos who vibe with my work can buy what they want on their own time (i adore you, weirdos! there are so many more of you than i ever expected, but i am not, as the kids say, an “influencer”)

i’ve been researching various companies & i keep finding that Redbubble, prior to their nasty fee restructuring, seemed to have some of the fairest profit margins due to the ability to set your own pricing above the manufacturing costs. what i want to hear from other artists is where you sell & if you feel like different systems (Society6’s 10%, for example, or Threadless’ artist cost-setting vs. letting them manage your shop & offer discounts to move more products) work or are ripping you off.

thanks so much for reading & solidarity to all the other working artists who are struggling to stay afloat as various social media collapses & corporate greed continues to cut our opportunities in half!!! for the love of fuck just let me make things & get paid

a pen drawing of a bandaged crescent moon with a virion floating inside, over two full moon faces. one face is biting the nails on the hand of a detached arm with multiple joints and spikes through the forearm. the other face is crying into the hand of a second detached arm that loops around the first. ALT

corona moon

revisiting this little vent from May 2020 & thinking about how much has changed / how little has changed / how difficult it would be to explain my current anxiety & grief & anger (as a disabled/immunocompromised person who has never stopped masking) to the version of me that drew this. i’m not sure i would have believed where we’d be in 2023. it’s not over & we’re not disposable.

[ID: a pen drawing of a bandaged crescent moon with a virion floating inside, over two full moon faces. one face is biting the nails on the hand of a detached arm with multiple joints and spikes through the forearm. the other face is crying into the hand of a second detached arm that loops around the first.]