Did you see my new stuff?

Custom season is DONE. I am supremely grateful for all the trust, love, and support.

—

HUGE round of applause for these last two banners. The first for Makenzi Ink, a local MD artist! Her banner was probably the most ambitious one I’ve EVER made.

And last, but never least, Maggie Rapier, Author with authority. I mentioned this but I feel single layer banners are really like the essence of banner-ing. Can’t explain it, just how I feel.

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We are also officially two(!) posts into convention prep. I will NOT make the same mistake I always make - hemming-and-hawing over posts. Because then, the convention is upon me, and I have a dozen backlogged posts.

You are gettin them hot and fast.

THE SAFEHOUSE is a new classic. It is a very, very difficult banner to make actually! A technique I have only used a few times - and only on full-size customs before this.

EL HUESO BANDITO is maybe my new favorite banner. It’s a showstopper and meant to be. I threw a lot at this one and will be asking a lot for it.

FOG ON THE HORIZON

August 28th-30th, at the Colorado Springs tattoo convention with my good friend Happy Camper Tattoos!

After that, October 10-11 at Hocus Poke-Us Tattoo Convention in York, PA again. I absolutely LOVED this convention last year.

Otherwise, there are IRL places with my merch around the MD area. As always, Brewing Good and the coming-soon Flour Fable Baking Co!

And NOW at the blessed chapel known as Nowhere Thrift in Richmond, VA.

OUT OF OFFICE

I spent a large chunk of this month in Colorado, where we all saw the mountains and got sick.

Together, as a family.

FOGJUNK has the
FOG Junk

• USE CODE CHEAPJUNK20 FOR 20% OFF •
• PINS, PRINTS, KEYCHAINS, STICKERS •

Got Bookslut pins, Support Your Public Library pins, and Stupid Girl keychains back on the site again! Scoop em up!

OBVIOUSLY LIBRARY MERCH

Green is IN!

New color dropping at the Colorado Springs Convention. Online afterwards.

The rest of the stock is on the site. BUY IT NOWWWWWWW.

FOG Skincare

I had to get new exfoliant and it’s some “for men” garbage.

Called “DOVE MEN + CARE Body and Face Scrub Eucalyptus.” First of all, too many words.

IT’S SO LIQUIDY. It gushes out of the tube like … y’know … I genuinely don’t have a simile for this one haha.

Also its face + body??? What is wrong with men? I can handle more tubes! It smells nice, but overall 4/10, max.

FOG AOTY 2026

Album of the Year is FINALLY heating up. We got some actual contenders! As always, these are Spotify links for ease. Don’t use Spotify.

Late to Set by Alex Cameron jumped immediately into the top. He has flirted with being my Favorite Artist for nearly a decade. His live shows are incredible, his lyricism is razor-sharp, he is Australian. I think five of my last six songs of the year have come from either him or Jpeg Mafia.

He has divorced himself from the fake “Alex Cameron” persona of his early career entirely by now (google it? it’s a deep hole). This album is lean and linear - and all the better for it.

Stand-In Man is the Song of the Year thus far, hands down. I will write more about this in December.

—

A friend recommended Opus Kink to me, I forgot who. I followed the band, and then forgot about that too. A month or so later, The Sweet Goodbye drops and immediately shoots to the top of the AOTY list.

It’s such a strange, groovy, curveball record. Touchstones like Viagra Boys, Murder By Death, Blackmidi, and IDLES are all over it. I love it, for all it’s ugly corners and rough edges.

Come Over, Do Me Wrong is a solid idea of what the record is aiming at … kind of.

—

I asked the FOG community for some reccs and I think the one I liked the most was Emotional Junglist by Nia Archives. It’s a great late-90s sounding record and I LOVE the track Vertical.

—

As always, I heavily spin any new DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ releases. They are very excellent background music. She dropped like 4 hours(!) of music this month lol.

Whatcha Readin?

YOU KNOW DAMN WELL I”M STILL READING THE USRULA K. LE GUIN EARTHSEA HEXOLOGY.

I started the sixth book last night. It’s an amazing series, spanning a massive 33 years of her incredible career.

CRIPPLING THOUGHTS ABOUT MORTALITY, LIFE, AND SMALL BIZ

So, this isn’t supposed to be so much of a downer as it is a simple reality. Art and being an artist is hard.

I’ve been doing FOG for an entire calendar year full-time. As of August 17th, that is (whenever this goes out is tbd).

We recently traveled and I remember looking over a beautiful landscape … and a massive wave of dread and anxiety crashed over me.

That’s fun!

Did you know about this? Did you know that, like, every artist has these awful burdens of stress?

I thought about Forum of Goods and my life. I thought about the struggle and deadlines and the meager money. Cyclical thoughts that lead nowhere but down.

What am I doing with my life? What sort of future does any of this secure? It’s a good, honest life. I should be happier!

And it’s easy to fall into these thoughts, back and forth. It’s normal. I know many, many artists and makers, and they surely think this stuff every day too. It sucks.

I will be fifty in ten years!

Am I doing this for another decade? Fifteen years of FOG? Twenty-five? That seems impossible. It seems irresponsible.

But maybe it isn’t? I love this shit.

As the landscape of the western Colorado mountains draped in flowers under a sunny sky sort of just stood there … I sort of just stood there too. Just feeling the feelings.

I get to make art, and things, and products. It’s incredible. I try not to forget that. It is - frankly - something that would have made my younger self proud. Excited. Assured.

But, I cannot explain to you the anxiety. The expectations put on yourself at all times. Every single thing is a high-risk investment. Sometimes I wish I had a normal job just to have the illusion of a safety net.

(I understand that these normal jobs, especially in today’s upside-down world, don’t mean a guaranteed safety net at all. I lived that too, don’t worry.

Also an immense shout out to my wife who shoulders an even-more-immense burden: me.)

I could fill this entire newsletter with answerless questions that race through my thoughts until you get tired of them.

What happens when people stop buying my stuff? What happens when I can’t afford to make stuff? What happens when I can’t go on?

It’s endless! And I don’t have a way to tie this up neatly with a bow. I would just echo the words you see every day: be an active part in your community, check in on your homies, support your homies.

I’m just gonna keep on going one step at a time.

Love you.

So what do we think?

I hope you reach out and let me know what you’d like to see!

Thank you, I love you.