How did you get
into tattooing?
I was actually going to college at the
time and I had drawn
some tattoos for
some friends. This
had to be back in
the early 90’s. I was
getting tattooed at
the time and this kid
Jerry Issel, who actually works at Stink
Monkey with Tony
Ciavarro, asked me
if I’d be interested
in apprenticing because he had seen
some of my art and
stuff. So he helped
me get my foot in the
door. So I did the apprenticeship out there in New Haven in Studio Z. That’s
where I got my start.
What got you into your current style?
Having kids. It evolved a lot. When I first got started I was really into traditional tattoos then I got influenced by stuff that Joe Capobianco and Deano
Cook were doing. I started doing color portraits of girls and stuff. Then I
started messing around with cartoons. When my daughters were born we
were watching a lot of cartoons at the time so then my work started to become more cartoonish. That’s what started getting me known; doing these
really creepy cartoon kids.
You also do realism as well?
I dabble in it but my heart was never in realism. I do it because that’s what
people ask me to do. But it was never my strength. So I can do it but it’s not
what I put my heart into.
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