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
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