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About Phineas X. Jones

I'm Phineas. I run this beast. I live in Chicago and work as a printmaker/designer/drawer/maker. I've always made stuff, and since I got laid off my last job I've been attempting to turn making things (and selling them) into a way to make a living.

Rather than get into more obsessive detail here, allow me to direct you to my Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr feeds which collectively should give you a fairly clear idea of what I'm about.

About The Octophant

The Octophant started, for me, as a sketch I did while being dead in a game of Werewolf. I did not know I had just created my own totem.

Not too long thereafter, I decided on a whim to take a screenprinting class at Screwball Press. And I needed an image for my first print. The Octophant drawing was still fresh in my mind and seemed as likely a subject as any for a first attempt, so I ended up printing this. Then I found myself with 50 Octophant prints. So I thought I'd ask the internet if it would like to buy any of them. Turned out the internet wanted to buy all of them. So then I made more prints of other things, including new and different Octophants.

Then one in 2009 day I found myself without a proper job and making and selling prints has turned into one of the ways I attempt to keep myself alive and that's why we're all here now.

As to the creature the Octophant itself I am aware that I'm not the first person to coin the term nor the first person to make a picture of one. I just like mine the best of any of the ones I've seen, that's all.

Questions. Answers.

Have a pertinent question about the site, my work, or buying stuff? This section is still being developed, so you can ask via electric mail or with this Tumblr form.

How are shipped prints packed?

In most cases prints are shipped rolled. They are ever so carefully slipped into a polybag, and then put into a sturdy Uline tube with the greatest delicacy. They are then commended to the tender ministrations of the United States Postal Service. Only in the rarest of cases are prints damaged or lost.

In the case of smaller prints such as 8x10s shipped by themselves, they are shipped flat in cardboard photomailers.

What shipping methods are avilable?

As I am my own shipping department in addition to all the other departments I head and staff here at headquarters, shipping options are streamlined to USPS Priority Mail for domestic orders, and International First Class for elsewhere in the world. If for some reason other arrangements are needed for your order, get in touch and I'll do my best to try to accommodate you.

Can I commission work from you?

I encourage you to do just that. My availability for such work is highly variable, especially on tight deadlines, but if you have some room to maneuver in your schedule and a budget, we should talk about that. Email me.

Can I get a tattoo of your designs?
tattoo

Well, as you can see (from the photo to the right) you wouldn't be the first.

But I will be honest about my feelings on the issue… My primary business model is to draw things, turn them into prints, and sell those prints. To date, none of the tattoo artists who have been paid to permanently embed an image of mine in someone’s skin has turned around and paid me a licensing fee. And none of those people who have paid a tattoo artist to copy my images have paid me for its use either. And in most of the cases I'm aware of the tattooed party hasn't even paid for a print.

I am naturally baffled the idea that someone who likes my work enough to pay to have it permanently etched onto their bodies would think that I wouldn’t want to be compensated for having originated their tattoo design. (my landlord has stopped accepting ‘exposure’ in lieu of rent)

But you still want one, don't you? Yes, of course you do. So here are my terms:

  1. Buy something. Even if it's not the thing you want a tattoo of. If you really don't want a print (why are you here, again?) I would politely ask that you pay me some reasonable amount proportionate to the amount you're going to spend getting the tattoo. If it's worth you wearing forever, the person who originated the image should be compensated a bit, right?
  2. Please get it done well. You won't be doing either of us any favors if you get bargain basement work done. Neither of us deserve that.
  3. When you get it, send me a photo. I may have issues here, but that doesn't mean I don't want to see what people are doing with my drawings.

Of course I realize these terms are completely on the honor system. If you go get a tattoo and don't tell me, I will never find out. It's up to you.