movies or TV. They’re not the villains. They’re actually nice guys and nice
women. Now I see families coming out. I see promoters catering more
towards the families and trying to up the game even more. Troy Timpel
is a perfect example. That guy is like Rain Man when it comes to a fuckin
convention. If there’s anything that needs to happen he’s like click, click
click…this will work. He’s cutting like. Like solar branding is a new thing
now. Nobody really does it at shows so he’s going to start doing it. He
knows a guy who does it and does it very well. We’ll start marketing that.
He’s done the midget wrestling, live painting, suspension and sideshows;
so all that goes on at conventions now. When I first started it was just a
room full of dudes tattooing and me. If you wanted comedy it was me.
If you wanted a sideshow it was me telling a joke. I see a lot less respect
now too. A lot of these new guys that come in don’t have any respect for
the old timers or the industry in itself. I see a lot more cry babies.
It seems like in the music industry for instance, a number of the younger
musicians will pay homage to artists who paved the way for them.
You’ll hear them talk about how they love Zeppelin, Black Sabbath,
Motörhead, Journey or whomever.
What do you think makes it so different with the tattoo industry and
why it not similar?
It use to be because again you use to only get exposure from the maga-
zines. You saw these people’s work in magazines. You read about them
and there was a little bit of mystique to them. You didn’t get to see them
on TV. It’s no big deal to see someone like Ryan Ashley Malarkey or Emily
(Elegado) of Ink Master of Justin (Coppolino) of Tattoos After Dark after
you’ve seen them a couple times because you see them all the time on
TV. TV makes them a different person. Artists don’t have the same respect
because they didn’t read about them or didn’t look up to them. They saw
them on TV acting a fool. Some of these guys see people tattooing on TV
and are like “I can do it” and learn in a kitchen instead of watching Paul
Booth, Bob Tyrrell or Marshall Bennett. They use Youtube videos or some
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