What do you think of the quality of work that’s been coming out over
the last several years?
I think the quality of work that’s been coming out is incredible. I really do.
There’s just a lot more people in tattooing than there ever was, you know
what I mean? I get people all the time ask me can I do traditional. I go, traditional is tattooing to me because twenty-five years ago traditional is what
we tattooed. There was nothing else. There are so many styles now and so
many people killing it. I have a kid that’s worked for me a year and a half
who won two trophies this weekend. He won a first place trophy and a second place trophy. The kids are out of control, man. There’s a lot of us old
folks who don’t like that too much, but you have to love it. God bless them. If
they have the heart and the drive I think it’s awesome. And the work is sick!
The respect in this industry is definitely not where it was twenty years ago.
BUT hopefully that’ll change. That’s just something we all gotta work on. You
should always show respect. No matter how good or bad they were, respect
the people who came before you because if they weren’t you wouldn’t be
here doing what you’re doing. There’s a lot of young guys that don’t get that
although there are a lot that do get it. There’s a lot that just don’t understand
that. That’s the only problem I see in tattooing right now.
Final thoughts:
I’m good, man. I love what I do, I love my life. It’s funny because I don’t only
think of tattooing, a lot of us do. If people just treat everybody around them
with the respect that they expect to get from everybody around them we’d
all be fine. That goes for everything, not just tattooing. I show everybody
that I meet respect until they show me a reason not to show them that respect. Usually if you show it to them you never get that reason. There’s not
a person in this building that I’m not friendly with and there’s a lot of people
here. Everybody should just go out there and respect everybody. When you
respect people you can demand respect. Respect’s the most important thing
to me.
IG: @joeytattoo
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