and I like that a lot because that keeps things going forward and not backwards.
Have you noticed a progression in the quality of work?
Yeah, of course I have. That’s how I find artists that I hire now. I keep my
eyes and ears close to the street. People will start to talk about artists and
I’ll do some research on them and see how their style is. I’ll see artists now
doing styles that me and Tuki did as teenagers and evolving from it. They’re
actually tattooing better now than I was at that age. So it’s going forward
in the business; the equipment is better, the quality of the ink is better, the
artistry is better, the clients are smarter. I started in ’92 and people didn’t
know what a tattoo was back then. They were like, “What’s that?” “Can you
wash it off?” Or they were like “That’s devil related.” So if you didn’t know
anything about art you could do anything on somebody. You could do lettering on somebody and they would think you were the best artist in the world
because you could do a good name. But now in 2015 going into 2016 the
clients are smarter, they’re more educated. They’re class is changing. You
have doctors, lawyers and professionals getting work. You can’t do hood tattoos on professionals, you have to come with high quality. The same paintings that they have on their walls, they want that same quality on their skin.
There’s a young African American tattoo artist that I ran into who has
his own stencil and aftercare products. He’s working to get his product more known within the industry. He stated that he feels like if
you’re not a part of the “inner circle” that it’s harder to reach that next
step. Is that something that you would agree with?
Yeah, that’s probably the whole reason that City of Ink was created. We
separate ourselves from that. You have somebody “kumbaya” to be a part
of something? I don’t want to be apart if they don’t treat us equal. I’m not
one of those types of people. If they don’t want us there, I can start my own
shit. I’ve never been that type of person to force my way into somebody
else’s industry so I started my own industry. I didn’t want to be a part of their
stuff. After so many years of being ridiculed and having them not support
us, why keep trying. Just start you own thing. When people are like we’re
artist and it’s harder, they don’t want to put in the footwork or the business
part. The business part is the foundation, the part that’s seeding the culture.
They don’t want to do that part. They just want to jump right into something
150