cause it was different when I was
started. I started when there was
no need to wear gloves; we didn’t
wear gloves when were we tat-
tooing. There was using the same
needle over and over again. Now
I’ve seen it evolve.
Rotaries were just starting back
then with Huck Spaulding. It
never seemed catch on. Rotaries
have been developing over the
years to the point where most
guys, especially these young guys,
are using rotary machines. I mean
there’s a lot differences with the
rotary machines and the coil machines and the way they apply a tattoo.
There’s different schools of thought on it depending if you’re a young art-
ist or an old-timer. I majored in art in high school.
As a kid I was always doodling and drawing, building models, painting,
doing something with my hands. Carving at the kitchen table with my dad
on a block of wood with X-acto knives. I just liked art you know? So when
I got my first tattoo it really got in my head. It’s was really cool. The sites,
the sounds, the smells, the tools. That was in 1980. It took me until 1983.
There were no magazines, there was no media with it, no books on it.
When we were traveling, my wife would get upset, “Here we go, I’m pull-
ing over.” I’m going in, I’m talking to the guys trying to pick their brains,
wanting to get started. It took me three years. The only book she could
find in the library, at the time, was a book written by Spider Webb called
Pushing Ink. It wasn’t very technical. It just had some stuff in there; some
pictures of some artwork, his story about his fight with New York and the
legality of tattooing. But I got to see pictures, I got to see more tools and
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