InkSpired Magazine Issue No. 45 | Page 11

The first competition Jim entered at the fiesta was “Best Japanese.” While the basic population would have gawked over the simple fact that he was the only contestant to strip down to a fundoshi, the judges and tattoo enthusiasts that convened saw a man fully dressed in the most intricate finery a person could have. With bold and colorful grace, Jim left the stage with a first place award. The next day, as Aaron put in the final four hours of work on Lauren’s arm piece, I sat with my voice recorder on in the convention-like party full of dozens of zapping machines, yapping tattoo culturalists, and a few bumping boomboxes. Aaron turned the volume down on what sounded like Public Enemy and lent an ear for my questions on Jim’s piece. “You get to know a person pretty well when you see them every two weeks for four years,” he said. I began to congratulate him for Jim’s recent win, thinking we’d reach the point of mentioning that he had eight 1st place wins to date, as well as two 2nd place wins and a “Best of Show” on Jim’s piece alone. Aaron casually remarked, “I don’t like contests. I never keep my trophies. I always tell the people who win them to keep them. I think that art is completely subjective… What one person thinks is the greatest thing in the world, somebody else might think is an ugly piece of shit. I don’t think you can judge the amount of work and pain that someone goes through and say that their shit is better than somebody else’s.” InkSpiredMagazine.com 9