Maverick ZINE — Tattoo Culture, Art & Artist Stories

Authenticity I think the the upside to doing that is figure out who you are and I feel like from playing music and expressing myself and then having to do that it was like well more often than not you're in a band with people and they don't want to do that stuff like I want to do that stuff I want to look cool and make cool things that look cool so for me it was like that attraction was always there I'm Mason the tattooer how do I brand that without my name all over it that was like my whole goal what's happening this is Austin from MAV supplyco I am super excited today to be sitting down with Mason chimato that's how you pronounce it right that's what I thought okay so anyway we're going to go over some things so today just get a little history of feedback of where Mason came from and how he ended up to where we're at today so anyway um thanks so much for taking the time to come here yeah dude I'm still thanks yeah yeah yeah it's like shuttle service the best Vegas taxi I've ever had yeah it's not too bad I hope my review is good yeah I mean the Uber I didn't bring you a coffee I should have brought you a coffee or had some water or something in there some mints we got some Min for you day okay Red Bull guy yeah so like um let's get into it I just kind of wanted to like get a little we you know we're so used to I guess kind of the only stuff that we get to see out of people these days is like what we see on our Instagrams so I just kind of want and for me it's usually just

a picture you get a video usually yeah I want to dive into that a little later too cuz I think you're fantastic at the way you like brand yourself and the importance of that and yeah I think fun to hear that's awesome no I think you do good man all your merch and everything so cool but uh let's start out with like um just a little bit of like history of like where you started tattooing and how you ended up in Florida maybe other places and stuff so yeah I'm from from Florida originally yeah yeah I was born in Hollywood which is Fort laal basically oh okay yeah everybody get confused by that Fort La and then we moved to Tampa when I was pretty young so I've been in Tampa for a long time and then uh 2015 I moved to Houston in 2018 2019 I moved back to Tampa yeah and then I moved to Charlotte North Carolina yeah all right end of 19 right right before Co like literally like a month before Co and then we just recently less than a year ago moved back to Tampa yeah and now and went straight to opening up your private studio and yes yeah yeah yeah from yeah so we went I went from well Bill's shop changed so originally it was Cherry Bomb which is in Newport Richie okay he decided to move to Tampa and then it became um momentum so we went from that to momentum and then around the time that momentum was opening is when I went to to Red dagger so I flew red dagger yeah how was like so you did you mentioned that like red dagger was your first like kind of solo job away from your

Apprentice right like yeah yeah I had worked for bill for 5 years at that point yeah um and then yeah I went there and that that's when it like was like oh man this is for real like oh it was like I got a car payment I got my own place like I don't know anyone here like I'm the worst tattoo that here was like like I had a desk a bed and uh an iMac that's all I had yeah like so it was literally like I had a desk with my computer on it with like art supplies and the only paintings I had I put on that wall and then I had a bed in the other room that was no distractions it was bad gr I think it was just scared you were solo Mission out there like just by yourself I didn't have any family nothing like I knew um Sean and Abel and and eron well but like from them guest spotting at Billy shop that was it you know so it's like couple weekends here and there I hung out with them and I was like damn this is it's just me here this is crazy I love like you know just I mean that just sounds like a fun adventure putting yourself out there vulnerable as hell you're surrounding yourself by all tattooers I'm assuming you looked up to and and had a g respect for you know was all so good and I think too the the creativity level is what was so exciting is was like I I feel like this is a little lost now but you used to go to a convention and you'd be like holy I have to do the best tattoo I've ever done because every single person around me is going to do the same yeah and that was every single

day at Red dagger it was like if I don't do the best tattoo ever I am going to solidify myself again as the worst tattoo here yeah that's fantastic dude that's the only way to get better that's grinding yeah and then I had again I had so many different perspectives of help you know like Compton his hands down probably the most creative person I've ever worked with yeah and then Aaron is so locked into how he works and what he does and why he does it and then Sean was like far more loose and like open to like trying things oh okay yeah so Abel is like the most like mechanically like perfect like every getting tattooed by him like every mag stroke felt the same oh damn so it's like I had all these different things and I had access to all of them every day and were they all pretty diverse Styles you know different styles yeah that's great at the time Compton and arum were pretty similar um and then Compton kind of started getting I don't I hate saying more creative but more more trial and error he was like I'm going to try this and see what happens he was like kind of early into the anime stuff okay like kind of before anyone else was doing that and like um I actually have he did like a Mike wasowski from Monster t for for me okay and he's like got like a lean cup and he's like doubled like he's blurry yeah and um has some Houston influence there yeah I was like I want a Houston tat but I want to be like a Houston tat you know and that's where we got to that but then he started

doing stuff like that where it was like funky and weird and then you know Aaron's on this kick of doing like really fat animals right now all right it's hysterical if you haven't seen they're like these bees and they're like super thick it's so Ador like their head is sunken in they're so thick I love awesome how was the like the vi in Texas like interactions with other shops and everything well so like a healthy environment you know I think yeah I was so overwhelmed by being there that I think it was just like trying to keep your it yeah and then Aaron and I were traveling like twice a month if not three times a month oh okay good at that time so it was like genuine chaos like it was just like times where it was like I came home I did my laundry and put it back in the suitcase and the next day I was going somewhere else and it was like a lot of that for a few years which is so good like anytime you're pushing yourself and get in these environments like that's just every time you travel it's like this new odd environment you're can't you know you don't have all the proper tools and all that stuff set up it's great well then it was like weird being home I got to the point where it was like dang my stuff is in the dresser this is weird and you were still such a young tattoo right yeah like two two or three years in or something like that or uh red dagger I was year five I moved there so like year 6 S8 was there um which I think couldn't have gone any any better it was I was

like technically good enough that if they suggested something I was able to apply that yeah whereas like it wasn't like the information was too overwhelming I didn't know how to use it yeah I was like oh we'll try this I okay which is your grow time like that's so great yeah after those first couple years of just making like all the silly mistakes and then you start to at least well and you obviously know this too but you've got now like your base layer of like security you're like I know if I'm struggling with a tat I can take this machine out I can set it up in this tube with this needle and I am going to tattoo really well with that yeah yeah so you got that now you're like okay yeah I'll try this I'll try that you know because now you've got this security blanket of okay well at the Baseline I can always pull this out and save this you're like if it's not working I can just pick this up and I can save this t right yeah speaking of like not know how to use your equipment was there you got any like fun stories go back to like you know when you're going through those first couple years of tattooing and you're like I don't know what's going on trtic you're stressing I mean there's always the Dan of like Street shop where you misspell something or but stick out that I was like I had an apprentice like put together I had to put together my tattoo machine you know or had an apprentice I was The Apprentice you know but I put the Capac on backwards and I was tattooing like

leaning in on my like sixth tattoo and the capacitor blew up in my eye and I remember it go pop and I was like um I had one eye closed and I was like what is going on dude and I just need to put down my machine and act like everything was cool it's always the worst scariest things oh my God it stressed me out so much dude and you're just terrified and you're like what about those like stressful moments when you're in the shop and you got all these fantastic T around you and you feel you're feeling really confident about what you're working on and then the dude in the next Booth over comes over and he's just standing over silently got those like those those sweating it moments when other artists that you look up to well I think again like what we were talking about in the car it's like I I was so close with Timmy so it was like I was working conventions with Tim when I never in a million years should have been allowed to be there like genuinely should not have been there so I was used to like people standing over me to try and get to Tim like bumping into me while I'm tattooing people at a convention trying to see what Tim's doing so I kind of lost like that like whatever I'll just figure it out like you know whatever um my favorite is um Steve Martin he work black 13 his was not not even in that regard he would come over and he would you know be sitting like hey what a what machine is that and before you could answer he was gone he like look over and he'd already left and I

think about it all the time still like I it's so funny it was always so funny cuz I would be like oh this Steve's asking what I'm using you this is exciting and then I would look over and he' be gone and oh dang that's awesome yeah like back more to your uh traveling it looked like you were doing some you had you you mentioned you had a friend that was a tour manager and he kind of lined you up to T shout out Lloyd Williams all right um yes so in it had to have been in the red dagger era 2016 maybe um Lloyd asked me to tattoo the band he was working for band called against the Kern yeah like a girlfriend rock band The Sweetest nicest people ever and they've since taken me absolutely everywhere which is sick they're the best um but yeah Lloyd and I had never met Lloyd had worked with my brother at Disney World in the past oh okay he like took a break from touring they worked at Disney World they met each other they became friends he started touring again he's like yo this the band I'm working for wants to get tattooed you know whatever um I was in Tampa guesting I was like I'll just come up to Warp Tour in Orlando tattoo you guys that day and then I'll kick you know get out of there and um it was like the craziest day I showed up at like 9:00 I tattooed till like 4:30 4 45 every time I die was playing and then right next to them against the current played right after so I went Lloyd got me grilled cheese and French fries from catering and I stood side stage I watched every

time I die eating my grilled cheese I walked down one stage onto the other stage watched current and then I went back and I tattooed till like 2: a.m. damn so it's just like on a bus you know massage table in the middle of the alley like people crawling under over slamming the door and you're like partying their asses off too all around your work environment well they they were young then they were um I want to say like 18 19 20 like okay at I think I think Chrissy maybe Will's the oldest and I think will was 20 at the time so they weren't even like old enough to drink in public and we were there so like they were more just like this is crazy we're on warm tour this is the greatest day ever you know and so you know I go and I do that and then we had a good time whatever I go Lloyd calls me like a few days later he's like hey they want you to come back out and I was like bro that was way too much like if have me out for like a week and I can you know kind of make it a little easier on myself and do a couple tats a day not you know 10 a day that would be awesome yeah and he was like all right I'll call you right back literally 4 minutes later he calls me and he was like come out as long as you want so then I flew to San Diego and I picked up Warp Tour with them there okay so you were on a Warp Tour which is all just within the states right yeah so I did Warp Tour with them yeah for pretty much all of California um and then I flew home from Vegas oddly enough yeah my last day

was in Vegas and the funnier part is Lloyd and I had to go out by ourselves in Vegas cuz the kids in the band were not old enough at the time to go out drinking oh so they couldn't be in the casino after a certain time it was 21 so fny yeah lloy and I went and had drink so then I flew home the next day that's awesome it's so funny but yeah that kind of like created that option for me yeah because I had always seen people like Jim Sylvia and you know people like that that had done it but like Jim was in a band previously and then he was going out with um TI and all those guys and like doing sleeves on people and wasn't like Oliver Peck and stuff he was cruising through doing the war T back in the day too yeah I always thought that was sool did it for a long time too yeah she she's a good friend of mine as well she just opened um Fade to Black in Charleston okay um that's North Carolina Carol South Carolina okay yeah she got me linked up with a lot of people as well like she introduced me every time I die guys and some other people in the music world cuz she had done that for a long time so there people feel like that's more challenging than just getting your feet wet in a walk-in shop I mean you're you're in a different space every time and you got day new people and they are already most of them I'm assuming are kind of in a party mode or at least they vacation yeah or it's like I mean Warp Tour is rough because it's 100° every day yeah so a lot of people are just miserable

they don't want to leave the bus there's nowhere to go like you're just kind of like so you go to warp T you're all excited you're like this is so sick and then like everyone that's there is like no dude it's 105 today Vegas like our shoes are melting to the I remember hiding yeah hiding in the bleachers like this everyone's like stuffed in some sliver of shade there whatever California was great cuz it was nice it's just beautiful like the first day was San die and I was like oh this is awesome it like 75 I was like this is awesome yeah I had a hoodie on I like this is crazy this yeah I can't wait I'll be there all night sweet yeah that's my favorite place I have my P I know yeah flying on Friday nice yeah it's great how was um the Carolinas you were back and forth between the Carolinas or just in just in North Carolina I went from working for bill again I after red D I went work for bill again like I said for about a year and then um I had met Brandon um who is the shop manager of made to last okay um I met him at a convention with Ryan Ryan Thomas yeah he introduced Ryan yeah he's the best best my tat Dad yeah um yeah so Ryan was going to guess it made to last and Brandon's dad lives in Savannah okay so he was down seeeing his dad he came and saw Ryan at the convention Ryan introduced me and Brandon Brandon and I hit it off he invited me to come to the shop I had guested there a few times and then they're like yo you should come work here and I was like you know at

the time it was like you know obviously Chris Stewart Matt skinny those two alone you're talking about like almost 40 Years of tattooing collectively between the two of them damn like Matt work for Ruben do and um a king's Alro oh wow yeah that's awesome and yeah I mean just so much to learn there Chris is you know him and Tim Hendricks are super close and Dan Smith so there was a lot of people that I've been in the room with the other side of tattooing it seems like you know with the Timmy's and the Ryan and those guys and then it was like whoa I can be in a room with you know those guys that's crazy I didn't even think that was possible you know and now it's cool cuz I was able to work there and then get introduced to all those guys and Justin weather Holtz you know all those guys are so cool man and um yeah made to last was was such a good experience for us cuz it was cool it was kind of that same feeling that I had in in Houston like well I don't really know anybody here like I'm kind of on my own and um yeah and then Jess and I had just started dating before we moved there yeah so it was like I just moved there Jess and I had been on like two dates and then Co happened oh then it was like at the time Chris's wife was having U she was pregnant and she was dealing with like breast cancer so it was like okay let's just close the shop let's get ahead of it we'll close the shop everybody was like yeah cool we don't want to risk this let's go we closed the shop but it was

like two and a half months we were closed and I just moved into my apartment and I was like I'm just going to go home like I'm going to go stay at my mom's like yeah cuz Brandon was like the only person I was close to with at the time cuz I hadn't even been there long enough to get to know everybody super well um so I go back and oddly enough Jess and I were like let's just live together let's just try it see what happens yeah if it doesn't work you don't have to move or I don't have to come back like we can just try it and see what happens and now fast forward however many years we got a dog and we've been together the whole time um but yeah it was cool cuz we were able to go back and then it was like I got to make a bubble a bubble with like my family and Jess all that and we had a really good time in that time for how not great of a situation it was we had a really really good time you know my nephews were there and it it was cool um yeah and then I got to go back and then um like eight eight or nine months later Jess then moved up um so then it was like then Jess was there and then we got to live there so it was cool it was like for us it was like a a cool thing like we found our dog there and rescued her there and so it was like a cool yeah cool experience and you know they they were so good to us like Brandon took such care of me I stayed at his house for I don't even know how long so it was cool we had a really good experience and then from there you you went to back

to Tampa yeah back to Tampa and but you went straight to the your private studio now right yeah yeah so I I had talked to my friend Matt well Matthew he prefers okay um he owns um piercing only Studios called Bloom Bodyart they're absolutely beautiful he's one in St Pete one in Tampa and I believe one in Orlando coming sometime soon sweet and I was like look I want to do my own thing I think I'm ready to do that I don't know what to do I'm not too sure I was like you've done this successfully multiple times now like so I reached out to him he was like Yo dude I have like a room in my Tampa shop that I don't use he's like I don't really want to spend the money to build it out right now to make more piercing rooms whatever he's like just use it try it okay get settled see if you like it if you don't like it then you just yeah yeah you know you just leave and go work somewhere you know and I was like okay you know that's not a bad idea I continue to kind of look for spaces to see if I can find something that I could really you know have it be my own thing um and he's like don't be silly just try that so that's what I'm doing now so we're like kind of like as a like a suble inside of their Co so if you know it's there you know it's there if you don't there's no signage on the wall like you wouldn't know it's there you and Adam what's his last name I forgot Adam Dunning Dunning yeah incredible the nicest dude on the planet you guys just clicked and got yeah we've been friends

forever we have um we have a bunch of mutual friends um yeah Adam tattooed one of our mutual friends and was like kind of having like struggles with it and was like Yo dude like hit up Mason see if he he can help me figure out why this is happening yeah so then our mutual friend text me he was like yo Adam's like tattooing me and like he's had an issue like he's asking if you can help him so then I was like texting back and forth with that I'm trying to help him through it and then that kind of like started our like open communication of like oh this guy's cool this guy's cool like we have this dud like our friend David he's the nicest dude ever and he like kind of like brought us together so now we've been friends for quite a long time now

sweet but it's funny cuz I I had a a short list of like people in the area that I was willing to work with you know and I was like I'm going to call Adam first and see and ad was like wait seriously yeah dude let's go like I'm in and I was like oh really really yeah are you sure yeah you sure he's like yeah that's good yeah his works too is so it's like so different but just as clean and pretty and well executed it's really cool yeah and it's just knowledge endless knowledge he's not just not just doing it he's learning how to do it and continuously doing his research and he's studying that's great yeah how's the networking and um like in Tampa with the tattooers and the the vibe there like it's it's actually it's awesome it's funny how it's changed like now just in Tattooing in general like everyone's a little more free to share things which is cool um but like Matt shop and and Bill my mentor shop are six blocks away from each other sweet so I see them all the time and vice versa and and then Adam came from a big shop called electric gold in St Pete um and um I think they have like 12 people there yeah and so like all of those guys were kind of all like in that same group group now like and then Steve O's down there so him and his Steve what's up yeah Jonathan are all they're great I just did their podcast last week okay I know tats all folks I want to go do it well if I make it out there to Florida I'm going to try to come get a handful of few things yeah which I will

I'll make it out there I promise I want to take the kiddos out there and but yeah so it's It's cool cuz it's tight you know and it's I mean Steve and I worked together when I went back to Tampa after Houston as well cuz he was at Bill shop as well Okay so we've kind of had a lot of crossover and Matthew who I'm renting from he was also there okay so Matthew was piercing at Bill's shop Ste tattoo in there I was tattoo in there Bill's like the Godfather of your network he is truly yeah yeah I'm super fortunate because um I had absolutely nothing to offer him when he gave me apprenticeship I didn't draw I had nothing to bring to the table I was a piercer at another shop and he needed a piercer oh so you pierced first yes I didn't know about that yeah um was that like a way to get into the industry at the time or was completely on accident oh okay yeah more on accent yeah um so my brother and I were stage hands for a company called thei okay so like the guys in the black shirts that move all the off the stage and bring it back on the stage we were those guys we got paid next to no money but it gave us the freedom to play music as much or as often as we wanted and that's what we did my brother got a job as a drum Tech with Gavin de gr oh W so then he left and was like I'm on tour like and I was like well this is not that fun anymore like I'm doing this by myself like bunch of old heads are just bullying me remove all this crap you know and the shop that we hung out with um Jim

Galloway Chopper scosi Dedra it was just this cool group of people and they took good care of us I don't know J Jim was an apprentice and he started tattooing my brother and I for cheap cuz we saw him all the time his shop was like right across one of the venues we always worked um you know we hit it off came friends he would tattoo us and you know he would be like hey I want to try this and we like okay yeah we'll find a spot you know whatever and then that kind of got us in that group and then we started playing like a like kind of like a fun like shitty punk rock band with them to like play t conventions just cuz it would be fun and then um they're like dude you should work here and I was like I don't think I want to do that and then the

restaurant I was working at like everything was weird and I was like I think I'm just going to leave here and then I didn't have a job for like a little while and um they talked me into it like two weeks later I was a piercer and I was like yo this is crazy I don't know how I got here justum and then fast forward later and they were like yo you're going to be a piercer forever you going to learn how to tat I was like bro I don't even know how to draw what do you mean am I going to learn how to tat really you weren't illustrating back then no I wanted to play music and absolutely nothing else damn that's that's impressive that's really cool well that's why it takes me so d damn long now because I'm still you know okay I'm still trying to figure out how to do that which is cool cuz it there's no easy way to learn how to draw you just have to draw yeah that's it put in work man yeah so it's cool but yeah so that happened and then around that time Bill needed someone and our bands were playing music together so we we' cross over and my girlfriend at the time was getting tattooed by him Timmy was there still okay um so we had a lot of crossover and he was like should come work here and I was like you should teach me how a tat he was like no like I you don't even know how to draw like why would I teach you how to tat you know I was like well you need a pierer and like where I'm at will teach me now so like I might just stay here and then you know we went back and forth for a

while and kept telling me know and then finally he was like look dude I need someone yeah and then it was we kind of had more of a conversation like dude I don't know if I know how to teach someone at a tattoo but if like the shop is willing to all kind of collaborate on yeah that's great and then it was like you know all those guys really who made it possible you know I think Ray Dyan was there at the time Mark the drizza he like the cool I have him literally tattooed on my leg all right it's hilarious um yeah I had him tattoo him as a wizard on my leg okay it's hysterical cuz he's like he's got big long beard zy top style ni he's the coolest dude ever um but yeah so it was him and then um yeah him race Dyan I don't I don't know Joe lir was there at the time that I started um and then Timmy was guessing there all the time and then Bill obviously um so it was like a solid group and then um yeah it was just I got all the help I could have possibly needed and some how was your apprenticeship experience like compared to maybe what you heard them back in the day for I think it was to me it was great um I definitely was treated as the little guy and that was cool um but at the same time I knew I knew how to work hard I was young and I was willing to work he wanted I wasn't that young I was like 22 23 um well yeah I was like 21 34 now yeah I was like 21 um but so I managed the shop certain days and I was piercing every day that I was there that's great so there was days where I

would be answering the phone while doing an apprentice tat while you know taking piercings at the same time so I think too like Bill was way kind to me than he probably should have been because I was doing all the other we were doing so many things that was like um and then on the weekends we had two piercers you know and then we had shop help so it was like the the weekends were a lot easier cuz then I was just a piercer and I could do tats and then if I wanted to tattoo I would just let John do the other stuff be like I'm just not going to pierce today just take all of them you know so it's was cool in that regard you know um but yeah I was and again I was just so fortunate cuz Bill then introduced me to Keith and Timmy which Timmy introduced me to like black 13 and Ryan and and it just kind of was like holy I'm around all these people that are way better than I am really early on you know yeah yeah I think that's awesome unfair Advantage for sure yeah very advantage that's awesome that's great dude that's cool it was fun it's been fun it's still fun I guess yeah right I it's like that's the beauty of it like if you look wake up every single day and you feel like this is this is a fresh new start and you're just trying your hardest to try to be the best we talked about that earlier every single time you sit down to do something not just your tattoo but your branding or your you know the way you approach any of anything you're doing and you put it all in there and it's

and you learn something from it and you get better the next day and the next day and the next day it sounds like you're extremely hungry and that's obviously why uh you're so talented these days it's cool as man it's like I'm like I was doing like a deep dive on your Instagram and it was just it was so I thought flattering from your standpoint and not I mean you deserve it obviously but like it's cool to see your your peers like I think we all when we go into something we hope to just hear those Praises or those nice things from the people that we looked up to in the past or still look up to today and your like Instagram is like every fantastic tattooer I feel like that's in your genre because I talk to them all about sports that's why they

just cool just cheer for him that's greats or whatever but he's really cool it was cool man it was really like wow I I don't know I just just I would imagine that feels so good so I think too Bill and Tim and those guys like taught me how to be good at tattooing and then I had like people like Ryan that taught me how to be like a a good person and have like the balance of all of the stuff cuz I don't I mean you you know Ryan well Ryan's the most disciplined person I've ever met in my entire life so awesome you know like so structured and so like when he's with his family he's with his family when he's in work he's working like super efficient like no wasted time eats the same meals every day he's just so that was so cool for me because I've

never been like that I was just not that type of person I was like ah we'll figure it out when we get there I was just kind of like free flowing yeah and then it was like I started meeting people like Ryan that was like oh if you are intentional you can 10x that and I was like wo this is crazy yeah so that I think I I had too many good things that it was like oh okay I just have to take a little bit from all these guys and kind of learn how that can make me 10x just whatever whatever it was I wanted to do yeah yeah when you called him your tat dad I was like I feel that same way about him like I don't yeah I just like you said like he was I feel like I was kind of a hot mess when I was out there doing conventions and stuff just like partying and like drinking a cor light in the shower before I went to go work you know like he was always you weren't going to feel too good to do your tat you had no choice but he was always just so pleasant to be around and always he felt like that Guiding Light too so smart yeah he was so smart very smart yeah on business aspect too and all the stuff that he's involved down in Nashville is like yeah yeah Rachel too his wife power power Duo I know I miss him I I kind of want to go down there um let's see let's let's like do you have any like advice like I said I really like the way that you put yourself out there I like the you know your branding and your I guess like there self-branding these days right I mean now you your studio do you

have any advice for like younger tattooers on how to kind of approach that and authenticity like I think the the upside to doing that is figuring out who you are yeah you spend all this time like you're like oh man Bobby's tats are so cool I want a tat like that it's like okay well figure out why Bobby's tats are so attractive to you and then see how you draw and try and find your own space you know um and I feel like from playing music and expressing myself and then having to do that it was like well more often than not you're in a band with people and they don't want to do that stuff and I was like I want to make t-shirts I think that's cool like I want to do that stuff I want to look cool and make cool things that look cool so for me it was like that attraction was always there so then when it was like oh well now I'm I'm Mason the tattooer how do I brand that without my name all over it that was like my whole goal was like I want someone from wherever to see a hat and be like yo who made that hat that thing's cool yeah cuz that is what I I would do you know it's like you see a supreme hat and you're like oh it's a supreme hat cool and you might like how that looks but it's like so straightforward in what that is yeah I remember walking through the airport and seeing you in Austin Texas and you had your on and I was like I think you gave Brian or Brian bought one or something but I was like I like that you know and I just love that like I don't know I love when people are

out there kind of pushing themselves and and like you said it's not at that point in time it's not so it's not about you really you're building this like this this brand this experience for people that are coming in to deal to not deal with you but you know no 100% like maybe somebody likes your work and they want to get a tattoo but they can't really afford it or something or they just want to watch you and be a part of it they could pick up a hat and be a part of your another big thing that was so interesting to me is like well I'm traveling all the time and I'm meeting all these people and these people are getting tattooed by me all these different places but like what if I only go to Detroit once a year yeah and I only have 3 Days To tattoo there at a convention what if I can't get to everyone in Detroit that I met well what what about people that don't have $300 or you know whatever so it's like what can I offer people that from 0 to $300 you know yeah or even $100 Z to $100 what can I offer people that's not you know yeah something um but your initial question was advice that I would give and I think kind of figureing out what you like is is the the most important part yeah you know cuz to me like even like when it comes to tattooing being inspired by tattooers is good because that you've seen it successfully you know but like I I like all kinds of other stuffff you know yeah I'm a gamer I like sports you know I like all these different weird things that make me who I

am and then it's like tapping into that and figureing out um Dave Bru I feel like is the absolute most authentic person in all of tattooing like his color palettes his everything like he is just this embodiment of himself and I feel like you see it so visually in his art that that Dave tatto look the way they do CU he is Dave and he's doing that tattoo I think that's so cool and I think that's what you know I think we all want yeah it's you know kind of hard I mean it's obviously harder cuz there's so many more people in tattooing these days to stand out yeah everyone's so good I always try to push that individuality and like just you know I know this may be trending right now or something you're real popular but you can take your take a little bit from it put it into whatever the you want and choose and build your own light like yeah I was talking about this in my class the other day because I'm a Minnesota Vikings fan purple and yellow I'm a Lakers fan purple and yellow I absolutely hate purple and yellow too it's such a punishing colorway so now I've set out on this journey to figure out how I can tattoo in a color way from those okay but um make it not so sports team looking yeah I don't know if you saw that like witch hand I did with like the sun in the background but I found like this purple gray combination to neutralize the purple so it's still purple but it's kind of gray yeah and then I have the ability to use like the bright yellow with like more of like a brassy

tone yeah to look like that colorway but not be that colorway and be like oh it's kind of fun like now but that's my that's me as a failed athlete that still watches the NFL combine you know and it's like oh man I love this game like how do I like put that part of me into tattooing so then it's like okay cool you know yeah but it's like Padre's hat I I've been to two games there I can't tell you a single person on their roster currently the coolest Stadium the coolest colorway brown and yellow it looks so cool so you're like oh yeah I like that I might steal it I want to do some Maverick stuff do it you should you should it's so cool um oh you mentioned your uh seminar we were we were super excited to help you out or be a part of it um do you tell tell us a little bit about the seminar you put together yeah chaotically I tried to do it all in one day which is terrible idea U it was way too much for one day um but it was really fun because um I think I had 14 people 15 people I didn't charge them anything yeah yeah and it was in our tiny little shop our one little room inside a mat shop and um yeah it was it was cool because I a it helped me go so far into my own stuff that I was like wow I'm in shambles I got to step this up but I pulled my stuff apart so far that it was like oh I need to like refocus on this and this and this and then you also kind of get the idea of like oh this kind of nice I don't really think about this anymore I just am doing it like these things and

then um yeah it was cool I I had everyone kind of email me with what they were struggling with um so that I could gear what I was teaching to the things that they were having issues the first time you've done anything like that I'll get her done um I had taken Bobby's class at Eden de shop which oh god oh so they did the winter symphonium which is even crazier yeah I did just Bobby's his solo one um at the shop um but their winter SYM bonium was sick I'm sure it was amazing I didn't get to go to that I'm sure it was great some yeah oh my God they're doing crazy stuff but yeah so I my Kmart version of that was me doing my little thing and um it was cool again I broke down my stuff super far and then I had Steve was there Steve ochre Steve oer has been tattoing longer than I have 17 years 18 years so like I had to teach Steve ochre something and some other tattooer that was been tattooing 6 months so figuring out how to get enough information that Steve leaves with like oh yeah cool I didn't really think about that maybe I should try and focus in on that and then not overwhelming Harrison my six-month tattoer with like holy this is way too much information I don't know what to do you know obviously certain things cat a great way to do it and I had everyone in between you know like Susie and um Taylor were there and they've been tattooing for like six seven years each um and it was like so it was like a wide range of how long people have been tattooing that were there and then

obviously I had the information that they had given me of what they were struggling with so it was cool to like gear everyone like I made sure that I had something that everyone had on their list and then seeing stuff that they all had crossover a lot of them were like you know saturation with certain colors and then we talked about that and then it was like figuring out you know again we were talking about this right before we started how many needle configurations are out there and how daunting that can be and how stifling it can be you're trying all these new things cuz you see all these things and it's like well now you've not created any consistency to to have that safe like that's tough bro I can do the Lord's work with a n mag yeah you know I know that 100% flat n mag put that in my hands I'm going to make a good tat so now if I want to try you know whatever anything beyond that I keep that as like my base layer of I've got this in the bag let's try this you know yeah we should I need to do like a lot more informational type stuff like that to help everybody especially younger tattoos I mean even older tattooers that are transferring over to cartridges and you're like it's a whole different world you know going from yeah how would you know that three options on bar to yeah what the I mean Timmy said to me he was like he's a tight three a tight 9 and a n ma yeah in the same same machines he's like buy three machines yeah and I use the same ones every time and he's like

just keep doing that and he's like when you are comfortable with that and you're making nice tattoos then try something else yeah he's like cuz then you'll know what you don't like he's like you'll know if you're you know cuz you have all those issues your rubber bands might be too tight your you know your paper towel grommet might not be doing the Lord's work you know so you've got to figure out all these things and it's like well if every day you set up the same stuff and the same tube everything you know when something isn't working yeah and then it's you know factchecking that and then you're like okay well these work every day for the past 6 months I've done good tattoos yeah with these machines let me try something else and then you try something else that's great yeah that's great but I I only got that info from Tim like I wouldn't have heard that otherwise or I wouldn't have figured that out otherwise now you go like you we were saying it's like you go on a website and it's like they've got long taper short taper medium taper textured not textured oh it's overwhelm and you're like this is crazy it's like bro I just wanted a tight three I don't care what any of the other things are I just wanted a tight three yeah huh yeah keep it simple keep it something yeah but that was like my biggest thing is like if you can figure that out then when you have an issue you know what the issue is and you can sort that so you don't have any worries and you know um hopefully that hit

home it did for me so yeah what guys so I don't know how's how's the future of tattooing looking for you or like what what kind of stuff you got it keeps getting better which is crazy to me it genuinely keeps getting better like um I don't know yeah do bigger tattoos or that is what I have been doing which is crazy I've started a bunch of backs recently okay that's a big deal big commitment it's hard to get clients to commit they I didn't think I was that good you know the Imposter syndrome of just being like damn you want your whole back Happy by me that's crazy you know but it's cool now because um again like I'm able to ask all of these people we talked about in my corner like such like um precise questions yeah you know that's great like I I was just chatting with Chris Prim the other day about backs and I was like yo are you lining these like as is like how you're going to do the lines and he's like no he's like I'm great lining them cuz I'm going to need to line them again later so why would I do it twice so he just rips through okay okay yeah so like a like a lighter gray wash you know kind of put everything there and way you can kind of fine-tune and adjust in and build like that's great I know and I actually justed it the other day okay I did dudes like back to back knees which is crazy um and yeah I did it that way and it was super smooth I got him through it I think a lot better too where time frame wise you know to out of back like two full five six yeah it

took me like five okay U just like what like a loose n or or like gray wash and no I I just did like um those those black claw um fours four TI fours okay so just really likely yeah with like a light but it's just present in it I still make it clean you know and look nice and you know obviously certain areas you know you're going to make black so just line it in Black yeah then I'll get a second pass on but instead of going and switching back and forth to like a big line then a small line big line small line it was like just a small line the whole time and I could work more efficiently and he was then like oh this doesn't hurt more or hurt less or there's not this constant pause and start and stop um but I had never thought to do it that way you know okay and from that and then I have another the first back I did um on my buddy Tim I lined it like for real the first time and he was dying and it was like almost an hour and a half longer it was like six and a halfish hours it probably took me to line his back and butt and it was like bro like how much worse it probably was for Tim just because I didn't know to ask that I was so overwhelmed by doing it I was like w this is crazy and you know I spent all this time on the drawing like 50 hours I think I spent on his drawing you know and just kept like trying and trying and trying and you know I would send it to Bobby Bobby would send it back to me or you know I would ask Ryan you know this or that yeah I just kept you know cuz I

was so nervous it's like I've never done it back before what if I it up and no one's going to get it back for me ever again you know so it was like the pressure you know the probably personal pressure of that just stressing myself out that's so great but it was cool that you know like I said now I have the ability to ask those questions so directly yeah I can be like well why are you doing this why you know I saw you did this why did you do that cuz and then I can take that and tie that into what I'm doing that's beautiful which we're lucky cuz like you're were saying the future of tattooing is more open to sharing that information you know it's we're more keen to be like hey I tried this and it worked for me you should try it rather than being like yeah you know I love it like I I I kind of came from a more of the old school environment where I I unfortunately didn't I had people around me and they were willing to share until I went out and did my own shop and then nobody would talk to you you know I was like okay you know so um I don't know I I love that you're using the resources you're genuinely in love with those people too which is and they feel that that's why they're willing to share and feedback to you you know they know your purpose is good even now like I'm tattooing like I'm doing now because of Bobby yeah like Bobby and I were guesting at Bill's shop at the same time he was working on Bill's back and I was just like I was doing really really nice more

traditional Neo stuff and it was like a moth it looked like a zero machine made it like a sticker you know it healed perfectly fine it was really like loud like Reds and yellows and very like harsh like intense colors and I was so bored it was like every day was like oh today I have a moth a moth a moth and flowers and I would do three four a day and you know they were this big they would take me 2 and 1 half hours they would be as good as I can make them you know and it was just like I felt like I was just rinsing and repeating rinse and repeating and I wasn't doing bad work no yeah so still doing a really nice tattoo and Bobby was like well what do you like and I was like well I like your stuff and I like you know lars's stuff and you know we started going down the list of all the people that I got excited to to see when they posted a tack like Lars Loop yeah touched by him in Berlin that's so cool like The Godfather dude The Godfather I don't know think I don't I feel like nobody knows about him really he's like a Chris Khan they just it's like for some reason it just is like and it's like which Cur is tattooing again which is cool c yeah okay I have I have a handful of prints that I bought way back in the day with when he was retiring yeah yeah I've got something too um but yeah so you know I'm having this conversation with Bobby and he was like man you just seem not into it and I was like I'm just I don't know what to do like I'm really good at this I'm doing really

nice tattoos Everyone likes them you know the most interaction I was getting it on social media was then and you know y y y all of my favorite tattooers were like holy this thing's dope and I was like damn this is not fun anymore yeah you know and Bobby was like bro just tat like us yeah and I was like what do you mean he's like do like we're doing that you're saying you like I was like well you guys are already doing that like yeah he's like yeah but none of us can do it the way you would I was like he's a sweetheart you're not wrong and then it was like I mean even until it's still now I still will send him drawings and it'll scrible on it and send it back to me whatever which is sick about the iPad era yeah as much as we want to dog the iPad era it's made me so much better I dog it for a second I love be so much better I had a younger tat show up one day in the shop he was like two years in and he had this iPad and I was like what the what are you doing over there man I'm over there stressing on my giant sketch pad my Sten you know whatever he like so you do like this and you can do like this I up went out B one the next week and never look back like it's so great so great good oh man so that's like a lot of your process obviously is all through and the fact that we can just take pictures of our clients so they can text us pictures and then draw right over them and then everything flows and fits well and if it doesn't you just stretch a little bit yeah yeah and then it

fits FL or something in a dead spot yeah do you have any advice actually uh uh about kind of like what we're um completely rainart what I was talking about there um oh about pushing your clients to get those new tattoos that you want to do you know you like you were in that rut there for a second you can do what slaying it but you want to progress obviously so how like I think it's just like introducing it like people don't know to get that from you if they've never seen it yeah if you're really good at doing portraits and no one's ever seen you do a portrait cuz you don't post them on Instagram or post them to your blog or whatever you use your email list yep we should talk about that we everyone should have incredibly important yeah Instagram was down yesterday or the day before and everybody was like just like bro dude diversifying your your Outreach 12 seconds I can send an email to everyone that's it's so incredibly important you don't even need a website I I push a website but like um I yeah you can use that as a tool that's instant reach yeah and so you put out those new drawings right so you're like I want to do these new drawings no and then you put them out in your email list yeah or even like um I got these available like I I obviously I I don't share a lot of my personal life on my Instagram so for me I made a close friend's story of available drawings okay um it kind of cheats the story algorithm and those people will see your stuff more often because

there's only certain of people on it so it will be shown to them more often um so that's a little kind of I don't want to say it's a hack it isn't 100% but it does help you know you could just make a post and be like hey if you want to be on my close friends list I will be posting available drawings and blah blah blah and then you just it's a absolute pain in the ass to add people to it really um yeah so like I did it that way I made a story and I was like respond to this and then that way I could go to the message I could click on their profile and then add them my close friends okay then it also get comments in your profile stuff too which boosts up your your whatever but yeah so you know you draw some stuff you throw it up on there you email it out or you say hey I'm looking for a client to do this and if you do the drawing you render it espe again with the iPad you can take the colors that you tattoo with and Port them into your iPad and be like here this is exactly how I want to tattoo it yeah you know like color for color line for Line This is it like if you want it so when you say important are you what how how how's what's your process on that um I have the um like the Eternal ink sheet which I don't use solely Eternal but um it's very close and helpful there range is like I roughly know what the other colors from other brands will be okay based on what those colors are so I'm like oh I want hazelnut from Fusion well that's roughly X from Eternal you know whatever

that color is you know so then I know and then I can use a digital you drop in your procreate and then you just click and then you build your palette from there and then go yes it's sick but too you could um Mike stockings has put out so much free helpful information about the iPad he I'm trying to watch those right now okay he has one where he shows you um you can take a photo with the iPad and import that straight to procreate and it'll pull all the colors in the photo yep so you could that one the other day I thought that was great you could lay out a dental bib pour the colors that you want out on it take a photo of it and it will import them that's dope yeah or just like any like t-shirt design or something that you see or billboard where you you're like that color combination catches your eyes pull it build that yeah I I love that and you can use the little eye dropper if you don't want to get too techsavvy you just hold your finger on it and it'll tell you what color it is yeah I I I'm like I need to like yeah I love that late late nights like yeah get back in there yeah I still just use it just a sketch it only really like I mean for the most part mine is I you I Ed one layer I do a drawing I make another layer and I do a line drawing yeah you know and now I'm I'm rendering because I'm getting more time on my drawings now that I can schedule myself not as busy you know I'm down to like 4 days a week now okay um and I'm drawing two days instead of one okay so

typically when like when I was at made to last um I was doing all my drawings on Monday and then I worked Tuesday through Saturday and then Sunday Jess and I did whatever yeah and then Monday I drew all day okay so then it was like okay now I know when I'm done at 7:00 I'm going home I'm making dinner I'm not thinking about my drawings cuz I've already done them I'm and if I wanted to look them over and be like I fresh eyes I haven't looked at it in two days maybe I want to change something I have that freedom to do that the night before yeah that way I'm not like oh my God I haven't finished this I have to get up early ah you know how much do you share with clients prior to them show I don't usually um the bigger stuff I do now um mostly because um I have an influx of people traveling to me which is crazy as well um but I think too I've bounced around so much that now I've have like a lot of Charlotte clients flying down so I'm a little more lenient in showing that now and two I'm tattoing a lot of tattooers now yeah that's what I kind of noticed I would call you I personally would call you a tattooers tat which to me is the most flattering thing like at show I cry around that like oh my God aw that's what I was trying to get to earlier was like I like obviously like I'm not afraid of like collaborating with a tattooer they might see something that I didn't see and be like hey what if we try this I'm like oh that's a great idea dude it's so cool and I've never personally

experienced it so I don't know like I know you're going to work on one today like tell us maybe a little bit about that process yeah it's it's cool um it's cool because you're you're getting involved in someone else's process yeah manel's super fluid like so fluid in his drawings his drawings have so much action and they all look like he did them there's no like Aaron Springs him and I did a collab ages ago same thing like Aaron was like why don't we try this you know like kind of cuz I wasn't really there yet where I should have been involved in that like and he was like well let's do it together and I can help you and I was like cool whereas now it's like man was like yo bro just draw me a dagger and draw them off and then we'll put him together what ever and you know he did like we've done two sketches now so we did one and he like kind of did like a rough sketch of all of it yeah and then he sent that to me again the iPad sends it over procreate file uploads into my procreate I draw on top of it I email it back to him he gets it like exactly how I had it you know and then we're spending time like messing with the colors trying to figure out colorways and things like that so it's It's cool cuz especially like with him he's got like that graffiti stuff style background color-wise I don't do anything like that my stuff's a little more neutral and maybe I have one exciting color he's like let's do neon green with a gray purple snake and like orange and I'm like oh I didn't

really think of that you know and then it's cool cuz now we're like blending those together you know so it's cool to experience that um and it just is more learning that's the most intimate learning process right there I mean you're not just drawing together and then going off and doing your own tattoos I you were literally having to work together stuff catch your flows like all got to be working Randy and I did the same thing it was like I I I drew a bird and then I send it to him and then he sent it back with like flowers and all this other stuff a snake and then it was like oh I worked on this and then he sent it back you know we just kept going back and forth and then you know here we are the design and now we' got to tattoo it it's inspiring dude I'm like I'm stoked to talk to like yeah it's so stressful it's like cuz we obviously being a tat you get one try you know can't if you it up you really can't take it back yeah laser is good now but it's painful you know it's still a terrible experience for them you know so it's like then the added pressure of like well now I'm trying to impress the person I'm working with on this that was willing to collab with me so I don't want to let them down I don't want to let the client down yeah and now this is the only chance there you know maybe hopefully not but maybe this is the only collab a Manuel and I ever do that was the only collab you know me and Randy did or me and uh you know Aon did that's crazy to think that there's a

chance that maybe we don't ever do another one and that's the only one ever that's kind of crazy yeah for sure as far as like everything that we're experiencing and our consuming things limited but everything you know that it's kind of like crazy to think and like so for me it's trying to like enjoy the process as much as it is like not it up you know I'm trying to be like oh this is so fun you know and then still trying to be like oh I I I have to be the absolute best tatto ever today I was dude how crazy is it right now I don't know if this is just me but like how are clients getting tattooed for so long back to back more than ever these days I can't get tattooed for 20 minutes dude I watched you guys get their whole sleeve done three days back to back to back and like you're they they're physically I don't even know if they're they're physically there but they're mentally not there their arms are swollen sausages like having some good is doing like three days on people convention it's so crazy I don't want to get tattooed at a convention at all 6 hours like and you're like this is incredible and then it's healing perfect I don't yeah so every I was always taught that you were never allowed to go back and on a tattoo two weeks two week wait between you know and now everybody's just like no you just just work on up to8 hours 8 hours and then they're so beautiful and oppressive it makes sense to me though you got to get it down while the flows I just can't believe the

clients can s that long yeah I I've done two days in a row on Tim's back um and the first day I worked like on the love handle area and then the next day I worked on his shoulder so they weren't close to each other yeah um and he seemed to be cool with that both sessions were shorter than if we had done one long day I think like sobered think we did like four show yeah dude my buddy Brian um he works at M to last Brian Le brick um LeBron broke the alltime scoring record so I had him do LeBron's JY number on me like on my leg it's literally maybe this big yeah dude I was laying with like my hoodie over my head and he's like trying to talk to me and I'm like bro I this hurts so bad he's like dude what like I'm just I don't think I was ready you know it took him like 20 minutes you know I like terrible I do horrible I don't know how people do it I don't know I've been I've been motivated to get some more tattoos lately and I luckily I saved a lot of like my Prim real estate throughout my career so now I'm like going to choose it wisely I have no good spots left really yeah are you pretty and my torso my front and my ribs on this side um and my neck and like oh yeah my butt yeah you didn't do your neck or yeah yeah I got a little little something from my hands like yeah 25 years of tattooing and didn't have my hands or my neck done that's tight this is the coolest experience this was Tim H Yeah Tim hands down is the most like captivating person person I've ever met he's

beautiful he's talented God just swaged out of his mind you know he's so I want and he's you know he's got his legs crossed and he's like you know doing this Tad you're like oh you're so cool dude and uh yeah dude but I mean he could have been telling you a story about shoveling you're just like huh that's hilarious just the best Storyteller the most fun you know everybody in the room is like you know you just can't he's so energy I'm going to get out there and knowled it's so cool yeah yeah I want to go to the shop cuz he came to ma the last okay um so we got to experience him being there but I would like to see the shop and was heble experience you know like that's what's sometimes you see people like that you know you're like is that even possible I'm I'm chatting with them about what I want you know and he's you know he I'm not joking you this was just like one line and then another line and then he drew like a weird little shapes you know for the leaves and then just a circle and he was like what do you think about that and I was like trust you my I promise it's going to look just like every other Tim Hendrick Ros I've ever seen so yeah that's great and um you know I I'm chatting with him and he's like man your hand huh and I was like yeah I didn't really have intentions on getting my hands tattooed so I'm just going to probably do some smaller stuff on them so it doesn't feel so overwhelming he's like oh well I'm nervous now and I was like sure you are you know

you're just saying that to be nice and he's like yeah no this this is crazy I'm tattooing another Tattoo's hand well you save that you know but I remember watching New York Inc to watch him tattoo no okay you know like going and like watching those episodes just to see Tim tattooing and you're like wait this is crazy or like watching miam in to see Garver you're like Chris garver's on that show holy you know like this is before like you know yeah what was the what were those uh so how old were you at those times when those shows were coming out um cuz you're you're 34 34 yeah that must have been like 1920 21 some not tattooing and not tattooing yet yeah that's so wow that's so cool yeah yeah crazy crazy to think yeah cuz those shows kicked off like right when we opened up our first shot so um the boom I was like 2021 and just like where are all these people where are all these people coming from they're like lining up in front of shops to get tattooos crazy right really cool I remember Dan was on cat show yeah so I remember watching those episodes to see Dan tattooing yeah it's so crazy and now it's like I see him every time I go there you're like this is crazy yeah that's cool I'm I'm absolutely in love with where tattooing is right now I think it's so cool and I think you know I'm so happy that it's like this it seems like an open book now and it's friendlier and um just it's just so much of a more pleasant experience yes so um but you I I think we'll wrap it up you got to

go get some tattooing going on yeah yeah yeah I just want to thank you man for taking the time to do this really cool I had a really good time doing it and I don't know man it just it means a lot to me and like you're very inspirational dude Stu do I appreciate it I let's let's connect I'm like a podcast guy all of a sudden it's like two in a week that's fun I want to get out there Steves and then John Mesa invited me to do his oh yeah yeah so I'm going to try to get do a little touring and maybe go hit some other and they inspired me to do this yeah theirs is beautiful too they do a really good job with it yeah yeah John's like the most like Charis talking about charismatic dude like would do just like one of the Tates I'm pretty sure in the world always always for as long as I've known him at conventions just always had a different single to SM why are you so pretty bro yeah he's a good dude yeah that's cool well I appreciate it man thank you so much and uh make sure that you guys check out all the Mason stuff uh where can we reach you out and stuff um and stuff seven rers.us oh