247 Ink Magazine (February/March) 2016 Issue #7 | Page 28

been watching but that’s not how it works here because it takes like 50 hours to get it done. It’s not like what you see on TV all edited down. On the other hand it has made tattooing mainstream. It’s a double edge sword. You’re a black and gray artist. Why don’t you do color? Back in the 90s the colors didn’t hold and soon after it looked like shit so I couldn’t get the results I wanted so I just didn’t bot her. With black and gray, even if it fades 20% over time it all fades the same so the tattoo still hold up without colors falling out. Now there is a revolution in the industry and color inks have come a long way, but I was already set and learning more and more about tattooing in black and gray. So what can you tell me about your inks that I will understand? (laughs) I’m really proud. Inks have two very important jobs. One of them is safety. They shouldn’t contain any heavy metal or carcinogens. Second is to satisfy my picky artist taste so the shade must be the same as I expect. We hardly have regulations in the United States when it comes to tattoo inks so it’s not a challenge to enter the market but as a conscious tattoo artist, I wanted, we wanted, to make sure the product is safe. We went to Germany where they are the most strict about tattoo ink safety and went through all of the tests so we have peace of mind and we can sleep well. We have all of the certificates and are one of the very, very few companies that aren’t blacklisted and can sell on the European market. That’s a very big selling point. The second is we were sending it out to be produced with our specifications and they would fuck it up, so we bought our own machines and equipment to produce it ourselves to insure it is of the highest quality. 26