Marked For Life; The story of blood, sweat, tears and tattoo needles! Part 2

Well, it's been hectic times lately but I've finally found the time to write the next chapter... this is where it began for me as a tattoo artist...

One day a friend came to me and asked if I could design a tattoo for him, and of course, I graciously complied! The thought of someone wanting a tattoo of something that I drew up myself... Well, that was just awesome! So we sat down and drew out a design that consisted of a dragon and some skulls and the remains of an old jailcell that had broken walls. It was a cool concept at the time and a very typical jailbird design. When we were done, he ran off to the nearest parlor (again, at least an hour away) to get it done. Apparently, the complexity and size of the tattoo had added up to quite a price so he came back to me and said that it was a little rich for his blood. Then of course, he came up with the idea that since it was my art, I should do the tattoo. 

At this time, another friend had turned me on to some tattoo magazines that she had laying around. In one of those magazines was an article about a man named Jack Rudy. There was a few pictures of some portraits that he'd done. Among them was a portrait of Jack Nicholson from the movie "The Shining". It was "f@cking amazing!" For what we were seeing in our area, it gave a new outlook on what one could do with a tattoo machine if one had the talent to apply. As for my friend wanting the tattoo from me, I told him I would look into the cost of a tattoo machine and some supplies. Since he'd sat in a bit, he said "Oh don't worry about that! I'll show you how to make one!" In which he did... we didn't have any ink to use for it, and when he was supposed to come back a few days later with some... well he never showed up, and that was the last I'd heard of him. I can only wonder about what ever happened to him.

Needless to say, the little home-made tattoo machine got put away in a drawer for about a month until one day when another friend came over. We were piddling around with something and needed a screwdriver so I sent him to the "junk drawer" to find one. He came back with a little contraption in his hand and said, "Is this what I think it is?" And indeed it was. "Have you tried it? You got some ink? What about needles?" A flood of questions came out of it. To which the answer to all of it was pretty much "no". He ran off and about half an hour later came back with an art pad and some india ink. "I want to do this on my arm!" and he showed me a drawing that he did that consisted of a large flaming skull surrounded by a group of smaller skulls. We had no idea how a stencil worked, so I freehanded with an ink pen... which started to disappear after the first few lines. In the end, the design ended up nearly all freehand with the machine (which by the way, was a really slow piece of shit!). I'm not sure how long that thing took, but time didn't seem to matter.

I ended up doing about 6 or maybe 7 tattoos with the "contraption" as it was affectionately called. It was difficult, as I had to make a new needle and tube setup for each person I used it on. And I must say that my friends and I were very lucky that we were so stupid yet so fortunate as to not end up with infections or worse. 

After those 6 or 7 tattoos, I decided to go to a tattoo studio, (or parlor, as it was called then) and talk to them about an apprenticeship. I drove to Houma, Louisiana and there, I found only one.

American Tattoo: Houma, Louisiana

1989

When I walked in, I was greeted by a tall, slim, biker-looking type... his name was Adam West (like the original "Batman" and the mayor of Quahong on the "Family Guy", believe it or not:P) He was just a guest artist, passing through. I asked if the boss was there and he told me to wait and he went out the back door. When he came back in, he was followed by an older, scruffy biker gent who was wiping motor oil off his hands. He introduced himself as "Mr. Buzz". I told him that I wanted to be a tattoo artist and I was looking for an apprenticeship. I also told him that I'd done a little work with a home-made machine but I wanted to learn to do it with the real deal. He told me "First off, if you wanna learn it right, bring me a thousand dollars, an art portfolio and ten sheets of hand-drawn flash. And if you insist on still using that home-made shit, here's a stack of business cards to hand to your customers. Then they'll know where to get it fixed! Second; you can just come and get a lot of work done and maybe you'll learn something... or maybe not? Either way, it'll cost you around a thousand dollars." He smiled and went back to whatever he was workin' on out back. In an effort not to be discouraged, I stuck around to check out the portfolios of those who were working there and look at all the flash on the walls. After a little while, Adam finally came over and asked me what kind of stuff I liked to draw? "Whatever people ask me to!" was my reply. He asked if I had any tattoos, and at that time I only had three, which I had done myself... He took a look at them and told me he was actually impressed (by at least two of them... The third, is being covered by Vilde). 

A month or so later, I had come back to get my first professional tattoo. This time, there was another guy working there alone. His name was Mick Nickles. As I was talking to him, a guy that I went to school with came in and asked for a custom design. He asked Mick if it was ok that I try to sketch something out for him and it was fine with Mick since it was less stress for him. The design was a "sailor's crucifix" which consists of a cross, anchor and ship"s wheel. Mick was blown away that I pulled that off in 15 minutes and gave him a tattooable design. It was simple, clean, and all you had to do was shade it in. I let Mick do the other guy first and when it was my turn, we got to talk about tattooing and I got to pay close attention to what he was doing. That was about the time that I had just gotten a set of "actual" tattoo machines, a sterilizer, inks, and some tubes and needles. I was working on tug boats at the time, so I worked for 2 or 3 weeks at a time and then had a week off in between. Which I usually spent in the tattoo shop, hanging around and drawing for Mick. Buzz came in from time to time and seen some of my drawings and didn't seem to mind that I was there... He still handed me more business cards and told me "You know what to do with them!" :P

Meanwhile, Mick and I were getting to be quite good friends. I didn't drink at the time, so I didn't mind going out with him and driving him from bar to bar. As I was also learning at that time, that "barhopping" was a tattoo artist's favorite passtime activity! ;) The only real problem was that Mick drank a lot... which was usually followed by a bad case of "diarrea of the mouth" on his part. He'd get drunk and couldn't shut up, so I'd always have to talk "our" way out of a fight, or fight "my" way out of a bar... whereas Mick was already waiting in the car when the talking or fighting was done. :P

Whatever the case, I got to hang out where I wanted to be, and Mick gave up lots of secrets. And all I had to do was draw (and drive... and occasionally take one to the jaw)! :P

Stay tuned for more action and adventure..!

Rock out and keep on rollin? on!

Q