So, you are a painter and a tattoo
artist. Lately, more than ever, every
tattoo artist in town is painting. You
have had your foot in both worlds
for a while, and you have friends that
are tattoo artists and friends that are
painters. Now, tattoo artists want to
get closer to the painters so they can
learn certain things from them, does
that come into play in your life?
I think that’s an accurate observation.
Tattooists painting now, is more common. Way back, you were a tattooist,
not a tattoo artist. Now there’s a trend,
it’s been a trend for quiet a while, for really developed artists and people who
have innate abilities, people who have
an art background, to pick up tattoo
equipment and really take it to new extents. I think it’s a natural progression
and it will continue to go that way.
Tattoo artists are opening up shops
that have galleries in them, there’s
just more and more of the combining.
I think that’s an awesome thing. I have
been making art my whole life, long before I started tattooing, and that’s probably the only reason why I approached it at all.
Had I not had an art background, had I not been doing this since I could hold a pencil, I
probably wouldn’t have approached it at all. Because it’s such a heavy thing, it’s permanent, everyone you touch, your affecting their lives; whether it’s positive, or it could be
negatively if your not approaching it with respect and consideration. But that’s besides
the point, I think there’s defiantly a big trend for art and paintings on canvas, to be made
by tattoo artists, and I think it’s awesome.
When did you start drawing? Did you have any training?
I’ve been making art my whole life, in one form or another. Ever since I could hold a pencil or a pen, so probably since like three or four. I didn’t have any real formal training, but I
was always in gifted programs in school, because they noticed that I was always making
art, so I had that in public school and then I put myself through a few years of college,
and I say it that way intentionally, that I put myself through it, I mean I don’t lament it, but I
didn’t get my degree. I was making my own art, for myself, throughout the whole process
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