Quite a few important folks in my life are joining the “dirty 30″ club this year; today’s inductee is Brian.
Over the last 9 years Brian has fulfilled many capacities under the blanket title of “my consigliere”, some of which I don’t even know about (and I was there for them).

Claire pointed out that I normally post photos of him in some state of undress, so I dug out this Atom Moore shot from Scarwars2 of B relaxing in the Standard’s pool after a long day of work.

Happy Birthday, buddy- I’m looking forward to our next decade of good times!

Sorry it’s been so quiet here at the SW blog; my life has become very busy lately and regrettably the blog is one of the things that’s had to suffer in the face of not having enough time for everything.

Things are finally slowing down and hopefully I’ll be able to get back to a daily SW update.

Tonight we have our old friend Brian (photographed in ’06 at SWLA) apologizing for the lack of picture updates. Brian and I will be traveling a bit soon;

Easter weekend we’ll be in Dallas, TX for the SusCon.
May 2-8 we’ll be in Las Vegas for the APP conference.

So expect much more of Brian in the coming weeks!

More new old SW photos!
I love finding discs I had forgotten about; these were taken by my good friend and consigliere Brian Sowden. There are hundreds on the disc from the first and second events. SO many of our guests took pictures, and so FEW ever sent me discs of their images (that’s guilt-tripping, people… it’s never too late) but it’s always nice to see an event from another person’s perspective.

This shot features Dave Gillstrap, Ron Garza (back to the camera), Jesse Villemaire (on crutches), Johannes (aka Jo-hotness) Sammi (back to the camera) and in the distance Ryan Ouellette and Brian Decker cutting the first two pieces of the event at SW1.

Brian has been one of my best friends for going on a decade; The Dr. Gonzo to my Raoul Duke, if you will; the Ricky to my Lucy… the moral compass that always points to “do it if it’s funny, don’t worry, we’ll clean up the mess” and more.

He’s been instrumental in holding together all three SW events (as well as smaller events that we throw here on the East Coast) and always goes out of his way to make sure that, at the end of the day, everyone goes home happy and that all the loose ends are tied up.

Happy Birthday, buddy!

Portrait of Brian from SW2 by Rachel Zimmerman. Special birthday princess photo by Atom Moore following the break.

That’s why love looks like.

Dear Brian Decker;

For your contributions to the Scarification (and Modification) Community, we decided to get you a stripper for your birthday. Due to the economy and cutbacks, the only stripper we could afford was you. We hope you have a wonderful birthday despite this turn of events.

With love,
Scarwars.org.

PS: We’ve thrown in Brian Sowden at no additional cost. No need to thank us, the smile on your face says it all.

Photo by Atom Moore.

He’s also a man of rather… extreme tastes… so when I can, I try to give a little back for all that he’s given me.

Hopefully we’ll be seeing more from Brian soon!