Maverick ZINE — Tattoo Culture, Art & Artist Stories

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:03:07 Austin Surviving in the woods. You only know how to catch a fish and there ain't no fuck.

00:00:03:07 - 00:00:07:04 Nixx Yeah, there's no fish. You got to kill a bear to kill a bear.

00:00:07:06 - 00:00:09:01 Austin And he still said I had.

00:00:09:01 - 00:00:13:00 Nixx A lot of fun. I don't know how to do anything. I just had to catch a fish. Oh. You're fucked.

00:00:13:00 - 00:00:35:15 Austin Totally fucked. Yeah. Today in the podcast, Nixon, Sabina Kelly, husband and wife entrepreneurs, creatives and co-owners of Smiles and Cries in Las Vegas, a tattoo studio, lifestyle brand and creative space that blends tattooing, art, lowrider culture, photography, fashion and streetwear under one roof. You have had a huge history and influence to me. You were like the first person I saw on the cover of a magazine that was covered in tattoos.

00:00:35:17 - 00:00:36:18 Nixx Before social media.

00:00:36:19 - 00:00:38:21 Austin Yeah, I don't want to, like, date you too much.

00:00:38:23 - 00:00:40:06 Sabina Hey, it's all right, Jean.

00:00:40:08 - 00:00:41:00 Austin The industry.

00:00:41:00 - 00:00:41:18 Nixx Owner.

00:00:41:20 - 00:01:00:23 Austin Literally done some really cool shit. We get into Nix's journey from tattooing in Australia to life in Las Vegas. Sabine. His rise from pinup modeling to television and how they built successful careers. One of the most unique creative spaces in Las Vegas. I'm Austin Spencer, and this is Support your local tattoo. Her. When I first came across you, I was like, well, what the fuck?

00:01:00:23 - 00:01:05:12 Austin This dude has a rich ass accent. You think he looks like he's straight from East L.A.?

00:01:05:14 - 00:01:20:22 Nixx Yeah, well, you know, like people come into the shop and like, they're like, yeah, you know, bet your back, like, because, you know, a lot of it's just pictures and stuff that I see. So. Yeah. Like they haven't heard you talk it. Yeah. And then I'm like, did I hear you going no. What the fuck. You know. Yeah.

00:01:20:22 - 00:01:21:22 Nixx What's going on here.

00:01:21:22 - 00:01:27:15 Austin Yeah. It's like like seeing the Asian person with it. I don't know. Yeah, exactly. Chilean accent. Oh. Me off. Yeah.

00:01:27:17 - 00:01:38:09 Nixx Exactly. So that's pretty funny because yeah, most people do think that I'm from L.A. because of the the culture that I'm into, you know? Me. Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah.

00:01:38:09 - 00:01:45:03 Austin So like, let's let's kind of start with that. Dude. I think that's really awesome. So, like, you learn how to tattoo in Australia from what part of Australia from,

00:01:45:08 - 00:02:13:08 Nixx The Gold Coast. I grew up in a little country town called Toowoomba and then moved to the Gold Coast in my late teens, out of school, moved to like it's a little bit bigger city, beach town, you know, beautiful spot. So I moved there because the the best tattooer in Australia at the time was living there and I just, I wanted to be his apprentice.

00:02:13:13 - 00:02:36:01 Nixx No shit. Ever since I was like, little like we used to go to the Gold Coast. Like a lot of people go from the country to the beach for the holidays. Yeah. And I go up to the tattoo shop, like when I got old enough to, you know, know what tattooing was, you know, like in my mid teens and stuff and yeah, walk up into the shop and like just, just stare and be like, oh man, this is like the pinnacle of tattooing in Australia.

00:02:36:01 - 00:02:57:19 Nixx So no shit. Yeah. That was like I was like, I need to be in this shot. So, yeah. Which I ended up there. Yeah. It's called skin effects. Yeah. The whole, the whole thing's called Gold Coast tattoos. Paul Braniff and the Brown family, him, his wife, two sons, they all tattooed. It was a full tattoo like tattoo family.

00:02:57:19 - 00:03:06:09 Nixx Okay. Awesome. Like, just really cool. He was like, Paul was hands down one of the best portrait artists in Australia.

00:03:06:10 - 00:03:08:21 Austin Okay, so he was Art you black and gray portrait. Yeah. Yeah.

00:03:08:21 - 00:03:29:03 Nixx Yes. So he he was known all around the country for his black and gray work. He traveled in the US. He was in the Beatniks Car Club. So he was like, you know, one of the big dogs of Australia tattooing. So no shit. Yeah. And he's only had a, a handful of apprentices, so I was lucky enough to be one of them.

00:03:29:09 - 00:03:31:02 Nixx Yeah. So amazing.

00:03:31:02 - 00:03:34:03 Austin And you were, you weren't even in high school yet when you started kind of or around high school.

00:03:34:03 - 00:03:50:08 Nixx You said when I started taking an interest in it, you know, like walking up and like looking in the, in the through the window with, like, what we call the fishbowl window, where you. Yeah. Looking through the window and all the tattoos are in behind there and, you know, just geeking out on it.

00:03:50:08 - 00:03:53:20 Austin So that's fun as fuck, man. So you knew from like early on that you were just. Oh yeah.

00:03:54:01 - 00:03:55:04 Nixx Yeah. I was like.

00:03:55:06 - 00:03:57:05 Austin Did your parents have tattoos or anything or not?

00:03:57:05 - 00:04:19:20 Nixx Yeah, I was the rebellious one. Yeah, yeah. My parents were like, my dad was, he grew up on the farm. He he builds farm machinery. Oh, like, so far against tattoos, like, you know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Just hated it. Not so much anymore because he's seen, you know, what can be done in tattooing. But it was a different time back then.

00:04:19:20 - 00:04:25:16 Nixx It was a late 90s, you know what I mean? So, like, tattooing wasn't cool to the normal people. Yeah.

00:04:25:16 - 00:04:26:18 Austin Was like household like.

00:04:26:20 - 00:04:47:13 Nixx No, I'm not even close. No one cared about tattooing. Like, if, if, if you had tattoos, you would. You know, I looked at as, you know, against the grain. You went like a member of society. Yeah. You know, it's some sort of group or something that wasn't playing by the rules. So it was a different. Yeah, different thing.

00:04:47:13 - 00:05:09:06 Nixx You know, it's attractive. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what I tried to, you know, I was a, I was a rebel kid, man. Like doing some really dumb shit with some shit. Yeah, but it was like, that's who I was. Yeah. And I started with piercing, actually, first right out of high school. Okay. So I was 18 when I started piercing, and that just led into the tattooing.

00:05:09:06 - 00:05:18:02 Nixx From there, I knew that would lead into tattooing, you know? Yeah. Savage magazine, all that shit. We were all, like, geeking out on that, you know? That's,

00:05:18:04 - 00:05:27:02 Austin That's fun, man. So you started weaseling your way in there with the piercing, and then just, like, slowly got introduced to. Or you were able to, like, start having. Well, I got to learning.

00:05:27:02 - 00:05:45:16 Nixx I got hired by Paul and his family to. I'd made must made a bit of a name in the piercing industry. So I got hired by them to, to then train their guys into doing that because I was doing like surface piercing in that we, we started doing all that sort of stuff, you know, so it was like none of their guys were doing that.

00:05:45:18 - 00:05:54:03 Nixx So they hired me to come in and teach what I knew to all that pierces, because I had pieces in every show.

00:05:54:05 - 00:05:55:20 Austin They had a setup down there like, oh.

00:05:55:20 - 00:06:18:09 Nixx Yeah, he had four shops, him all in the same sort of areas. You know it back then it was a territorial thing, like we own this city. And if you got to try and come in, you got to, I went to some crazy meetings, bro, like. Yeah. Oh, shit. Like when I was an apprentice, like, I had to be the guy that followed him into the shop and lay down the law of the land, you know what I mean?

00:06:18:09 - 00:06:34:03 Nixx Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I wasn't that big guy. There was you. I was just like, well, what are we doing? Like, yeah, but, but yeah, that was how tattooing was made. And, you know, if you weren't around and I mean, how long you've been in the industry?

00:06:34:05 - 00:06:38:07 Austin 26 years. So you say. Yeah, I worked, you know, by groups.

00:06:38:08 - 00:06:49:00 Nixx Yeah, exactly. You've seen what it was like. And like the kids these days, they they wouldn't even have a clue how hard we fought. Yeah. Just to stay that open, you know? Yeah.

00:06:49:06 - 00:07:05:17 Austin Like, I was just, like a little, little skinny white kid from the burbs, too. But like, my I grew up, my dad had Harleys and shit. So I were always around that stuff. So then and. Yeah, so like I said, you know, like you said, I was just like, oh, this is cool. I never needed to be a tough guy or anything, but I just fucking like hanging with people like that.

00:07:05:17 - 00:07:08:03 Nixx And what I needed. People like us.

00:07:08:03 - 00:07:08:14 Austin More level.

00:07:08:14 - 00:07:17:06 Nixx Headed. Well, yeah, they were tattooing most of them, like, you know what I mean? So we had to be the ones that the tattooing and bringing the money and it's, it's money.

00:07:17:06 - 00:07:20:08 Austin Yeah. So you learn a lot about, like, I learned a lot about that.

00:07:20:08 - 00:07:20:14 Nixx Oh, yeah.

00:07:20:15 - 00:07:23:13 Austin I like surviving in these, like, really intricate.

00:07:23:16 - 00:07:34:19 Nixx Which means we opened our first tattoo studio. It was the same for years. We fought, you know? Yeah, just to keep the doors open and keep everyone away and, you know, earn our spot there. Yeah.

00:07:35:00 - 00:07:40:16 Austin So you focus on black and gray and then, like, right out of the gate. And that's just what your, the whole trajectory your.

00:07:40:16 - 00:08:06:04 Nixx Career, you know like I mean back then you had no choice but to be a walking. Yeah. Tattooer. Yeah. Yeah. Like that wasn't really custom. That's true back then. Like there was guys obviously that we're doing it. You had to add hotties and you know, guys that were like really setting the standard for that sort of stuff. But as far as normal tattoo shops, when it was like you had to learn to do everything on the wall.

00:08:06:04 - 00:08:18:06 Nixx Yep. So because that's all we had, we had the racks and we had the books. So you walk in and you pick one of those and that's what you got. Like there wasn't Google, there wasn't anything like that. People couldn't bring in a picture and go, hey, I want this.

00:08:18:06 - 00:08:19:20 Austin I got you a tracing paper. That was some.

00:08:19:22 - 00:08:43:01 Nixx Some and some of them wanted like, a lion. You had to go to the library and find a fucking Nat Geo book with a good photo of a lion and, like, photocopy it and try and, like, you know, it wasn't the access to to pictures then that was just not there. Like, yeah, we didn't have that. So it was like, you come in, you get something from the wall if you want to change the hair a bit, we can like mess with it.

00:08:43:01 - 00:08:46:10 Nixx But it's like what you see is what you get. Which pushed you.

00:08:46:10 - 00:08:50:13 Austin To grow as an artist. Like, right out of the gate. I feel for me. Did you know?

00:08:50:13 - 00:09:09:19 Nixx Oh, yeah. I mean, the the best thing about learning that way is that you can do anything, which now we've gone full circle, we've gone through the Renaissance of custom tattooing. We're back to having to be able to do everything. Now, if you want to put food on the table. Yeah, like you have to do whatever comes in the shop.

00:09:09:19 - 00:09:17:19 Nixx So all the guys, he never learned that, just sitting around going hump man. Like, what do we do? Like, you know what I mean? Yeah.

00:09:18:01 - 00:09:30:01 Austin Or, you know, you just let their ego get in the way and they're just. Yeah, not willing to fucking do it. Which is so weird to me that they're willing to go get an AC job, but not fucking willing to do a tattoo like a breast cancer ribbon on a fucking soccer mom. Like just it.

00:09:30:02 - 00:09:31:11 Nixx Bro, would be a tattoo. Yeah.

00:09:31:11 - 00:09:37:04 Austin Just being like, I'm in love with this shit. I'll do whatever the fuck it takes to e to pay a bills to, you know, get shit done.

00:09:37:06 - 00:09:59:15 Nixx But yeah, I said, I'd say to Sabina, like, I'll do anything and I can do anything. Yeah, you know what I mean? It's not a fact that I'll just try it like that's how I came into the. Yeah, the industry like everything from tribals to full custom pieces, you know what I mean? So it's like, that's how when I have an apprentice, that's how I try and teach him.

00:09:59:15 - 00:10:16:13 Nixx Because I'll teach all the techniques. And then you choose your style. Yeah, but you have to learn how to tattoo first. Like. And that involves every aspect of tattooing, not just, hey, I want to be a portrait artist. I'm just going to learn how to do portraits. Yeah.

00:10:16:18 - 00:10:20:15 Austin You know, survive in in the woods. If you only know how to catch a fish and there ain't no fuck.

00:10:20:15 - 00:10:25:12 Nixx Yeah, there's no practice. You to kill a bear. It's like. Like know how to kill a bear.

00:10:25:14 - 00:10:26:07 Austin You still said.

00:10:26:11 - 00:10:33:12 Nixx I had a lot of fun. I don't know how to do anything. I just I had to catch a fish, you know, like, oh, you're fucked, I totally fucked.

00:10:33:12 - 00:10:50:23 Austin Yeah, that's really interesting. You brought that up because that is where it's at right now. You know, I'm watching some of the greatest tattooers in the world and, like, kind of step back from tattooing right now. Yeah. Because they were kind of. We were we've been spoiled, bro, for a long time now, you know. And I saw that coming personally.

00:10:51:04 - 00:11:10:00 Austin It's kind of ironic. I saw that coming. I was like doing heavy illustrative color work. I was just all my clientele wanted color. And they were all all of a sudden one day started going to this other guy to get a black and gray sleeve. Yeah. And I fucking suck at black and gray. So I was like, I've kind of fucked myself.

00:11:10:00 - 00:11:16:20 Austin I kind of did the same thing, you know? And I my clients kept showing up with these black and gray pieces and, and then all of a sudden then they weren't showing up and I was just like, damn it.

00:11:16:23 - 00:11:19:01 Nixx Yeah, yeah.

00:11:19:02 - 00:11:31:00 Austin It was like, it was fun. It. Well, it's fun now, but I was a little like, what the fuck, dude? Like, I need to, like, recalibrate what I'm doing here. Yeah. I was like, losing my clientele to you guys. Yeah, okay. Especially locally, I probably did.

00:11:31:02 - 00:12:07:11 Nixx Yeah, well, I mean, but it's. So my transition into black and gray came probably 2009, probably about ten, maybe not ten years in, maybe eight years in, I was a huge fan of, you know, the lowrider culture. Yeah. And that's what really made me transition. Like I started, you know, I was collecting Lowrider magazine, and obviously guys like, cartoon who was one of my biggest, inspirations.

00:12:07:13 - 00:12:19:18 Nixx He was in nearly every magazine that come out at that stage. So it was like I was seeing the work they were doing. I'm like, oh, fuck that is really cool. And no one in Australia was doing it.

00:12:19:20 - 00:12:26:08 Austin No. See, as just kind of wondering is like physically, what was it like? Were you did you have access to lowrider shows? I mean.

00:12:26:10 - 00:12:50:08 Nixx They're not in like there's a at that point that was a very small, very small, like, you know, culture in Australia and whole reality. But, I went straight for that, you know what I mean? And I was like, watching the guys out here doing what they did, and I was so laser focused on being good at it.

00:12:50:12 - 00:13:17:22 Nixx Eventually, you know, years down the line, I started coming out. I got into business with cartoon. I was hanging out his studio, learning everything I needed. So it was kind of like I imagined it. And then I focused on it, and then I got to it, and that's fuckin. It just built like a whole thing and like, for a long time, like, I was the guy in Australia that people were traveling to to get that style, built like my own little stall around it.

00:13:17:22 - 00:13:19:08 Nixx And I had to.

00:13:19:10 - 00:13:21:11 Austin Do it all the more. And everything you were living.

00:13:21:15 - 00:13:49:03 Nixx Like I was still. It was my whole lifestyle. Yes. It's fucking beautiful, dude. So obviously now there's a lot more guys doing it. So it's like, yeah, it's not so much of a niche thing. But at that point, yeah, it was like very niche, like, you know. Yeah. And it was in that Renaissance period where it was like, I just got in, in time and built this, this brand that, you know, attracted a certain style of person, you know what I mean?

00:13:49:07 - 00:13:55:04 Nixx So I kind of had that whole thing to myself for a long time.

00:13:55:04 - 00:14:02:16 Austin Rad. Yeah. So you were traveling back and forth to LA and there, and you were building, what was the brand again?

00:14:02:18 - 00:14:28:23 Nixx Or back then it was rebuilding in Australia. Well, basically, just like building the culture, I guess you would say. Oh yeah. Lo riding and tattooing. That's fucking LA street culture, let's say. Yeah, yeah. As a white Australian. So that's like, you know, so it's like it's fucking really cool. Yeah. It's it's not like, I mean, I couldn't have done I'll be honest, I couldn't have done the same thing out here.

00:14:29:00 - 00:14:51:11 Nixx Yeah. At that time because it existed here. It didn't exist out there. Yeah. So I took it back and there was there was a lot of people interested in it, but no one that really was doing the whole thing at once, you know, involved, like the streetwear, the the tattooing, the all of the, the aspects of it, you know what I mean?

00:14:51:11 - 00:15:05:18 Austin So it reminds me, I met a, and through the car culture, a lot of these Japanese guys that come over and I remember we were walking home late, we were in San Luis Obispo or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I read that, what was the big car show they had up there?

00:15:05:18 - 00:15:07:19 Sabina And then the the next one.

00:15:07:20 - 00:15:08:21 Austin Yeah, yeah.

00:15:08:23 - 00:15:09:06 Nixx Yeah.

00:15:09:12 - 00:15:23:07 Austin So we came back to the hotel. It was like 10:00 at night and there was like ten. What it looked like from me, like big ass show dudes, like, right at the steps that I had to go up to my room, and I was like, I was used to being around dudes, you know, of all different kinds. I was just like.

00:15:23:09 - 00:15:37:13 Austin But a little like, oh, shit. Okay. Hope they're cool, you know? Yeah. So I just walked up. I was like, hey, what's up, guys? Like, you know, I just got to get up these stairs real quick. And then I realized, like, wait, you're not, you know, Hispanic dudes, like, you're little Japanese guys.

00:15:37:16 - 00:15:38:10 Nixx Oh, really?

00:15:38:10 - 00:15:47:21 Austin Covered in the fucking finest LA Chicano culture. Like, fucking gorgeous. Like black and gray tattoos and living the culture, you know, like, they.

00:15:47:22 - 00:15:50:14 Sabina Go, dude, so cool. They love.

00:15:50:14 - 00:15:52:04 Austin It. So I love rad. Yeah.

00:15:52:10 - 00:15:53:06 Nixx Japan's the shit.

00:15:53:11 - 00:16:07:09 Austin Get it? Yeah. That's what kind of reminds me of. And later on, like, they went up to the room or whatever. And then I was like, it was just my dad and I in there, and we get in bed and then I'll send something knocks on the door. And I was like, that's fucking weird. So like, peek opened the door and they were all out there.

00:16:07:09 - 00:16:22:13 Austin They could we couldn't speak a lick English. And they gifted us all of these, these, like, handmade leather goods. No shit. Like they were just sharing with us, like, oh, that's so cool. Because we kind of got to the point that we were all covered in tattoos, and we had something in common and shit, you know?

00:16:22:13 - 00:16:34:05 Austin And anyway, I thought that was pretty fucking rad. And like, just the the love of this other culture and the see the you can like, fully adapt to it and bring it to a whole entire new fucking country. Like, that's so rad. It's really cool.

00:16:34:07 - 00:16:35:23 Nixx That they do it so well.

00:16:36:04 - 00:16:42:04 Austin Now I see your husband, that dude, the babe over here doing cool shit.

00:16:42:06 - 00:16:42:22 Sabina Yeah.

00:16:43:00 - 00:16:50:19 Austin That's really rad, man. That's fucking awesome. So then. So that kind of brings me two to like. How the fuck did you. You guys mean, like. I mean, we got that one.

00:16:51:00 - 00:16:52:15 Nixx Yeah. Yeah.

00:16:52:17 - 00:17:11:12 Sabina Well, I was working in Australia a lot, going out there hosting like the tattoo conventions over there and, doing modeling over there and writing for one of the, hot rod magazines over there. And so we actually had a bunch of mutual friends, and Nyx was coming over to the States and tattooing and, and that whole, you know, culture.

00:17:11:12 - 00:17:19:03 Sabina So I was friends with his friends out there, and he was friends with my friends out here, but we didn't know each other. Yeah. And so we actually,

00:17:19:05 - 00:17:21:02 Nixx We knew of each other, but we.

00:17:21:03 - 00:17:36:17 Sabina Eventually we did. Yeah, we knew of each other. And then, Yeah, we he was in town one day and soon as we met was like love at first sight, you know what I mean? Like, we just knew. We knew from the beginning. And so it was really cool. And it was just like we were inseparable from there.

00:17:36:17 - 00:17:50:05 Sabina But it was like she lived in Australia and I lived in the States, and I was like, yeah, oh my God. So you knew it had had to be right. If we were both, we did everything we could to be able to make it work or were together because we had everything against us. So yeah, it's good.

00:17:50:06 - 00:18:03:03 Austin And so like for everybody that doesn't know, like you have had a huge history and influence, like from my perspective in, pinup modeling basically like modeling for women with tattoos.

00:18:03:04 - 00:18:04:01 Sabina Like, yeah.

00:18:04:03 - 00:18:08:03 Austin To me you were like the first person I saw on the cover of a magazine that was covered in tattoos.

00:18:08:09 - 00:18:09:21 Nixx Before social media. Yeah.

00:18:09:21 - 00:18:15:05 Austin Thank you. Yeah. I don't want to, like, date you too much, but you're right. Yeah. You're in the industry.

00:18:15:05 - 00:18:17:13 Nixx Is what I'm trying to say. I mean, like, you.

00:18:17:15 - 00:18:29:17 Austin Literally done some really cool shit, and I think I. I've always been into cars too. And then being in Vegas, like, I just learned about you through that. And you have a rich history in so many actually different things, you know?

00:18:29:17 - 00:18:47:20 Sabina So I do a lot of different things like, you know, from pinup to fashion, all of that. But yeah, I just when I first started out modeling, girls were not allowed to have tattoos. Yeah. And photographers didn't want to shoot you if you had tattoos because it just wasn't acceptable. So there is probably only about five girls.

00:18:47:20 - 00:19:05:05 Sabina I'd say that I knew that were somewhat modeling, that had tattoos. And, I kind of just made my own little niche of things, and I was really into pinup. And so I just ran with it, you know, and half of the photographers, you know, for the first part of my career would make me hide because I only had one sleeve.

00:19:05:09 - 00:19:24:12 Sabina Yeah. So they would angle me so you couldn't see my tattoos or we'd have a had makeup artist cover up every single tattoo to do a shoot. And it got to the point where, I went to do my other sleeve and all the photographers like, if you do that, we're never shooting you again. And I was like, well, I'm going to do what I want to do.

00:19:24:12 - 00:19:42:14 Sabina You know, I've always loved the look of having full sleeves, so I did the other arm and it kind of it went the opposite direction, like it made me even more unique at the time because there weren't a lot of girls that were at that time that was considered heavily tattooed. And so I just ran with it, you know, and I was like, well, if I never get to model again, then I never get to model again.

00:19:42:15 - 00:19:55:11 Sabina But instead it was like, then the TV show came after that and, you know, all kinds of other stuff, dancing and headlining shows out here and being the first heavily tattooed showgirl out here. And I actually did bestie besting.

00:19:55:12 - 00:19:56:04 Austin Yeah, yeah, yeah, I.

00:19:56:04 - 00:19:59:05 Sabina Was on the tattoo competition show that was in LA.

00:19:59:06 - 00:20:00:17 Austin So you it on there?

00:20:00:21 - 00:20:17:22 Sabina I was actually one of the celebrity judges on it, like a permanent judge on it. And, Pete Wentz was the host of the, the season, so. Oh that's cool. Yeah. There was a free show. Kappa Bianco was one of the other judges and Hannah HSN. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah. Okay. That was I loved it. It was such it.

00:20:17:22 - 00:20:36:21 Sabina The only thing that was so difficult about it was that I wasn't a tattoo artist. So to judge and critique tattoo artists was like, oh my God, like I would. Yeah. I just didn't want to, I'm really careful what I say. And I never wanted to hurt anyone feelings. And I definitely didn't want to like you know, say stupid stuff that I, you know, I'm I'm a tattoo artist.

00:20:36:21 - 00:20:57:07 Sabina So actually, I would go and check these tattoos out, and I would write myself notes, and I would sit down with Hannah and Joe, and I'd be like, this is what I want to say. Is this like, does this sound legit? You know, and I'd always try to talk about it and not a reference is like, you know, the, you know, technique of it and stuff like that.

00:20:57:07 - 00:21:15:19 Sabina It was more about how it flows with the body and like how it'd be something that I would say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And how it said on my notes, ambiguous, cannot say anything about what I'm talking about. And and so then. Yeah, and then I would, you know, would I check my notes and sit on my notes to make sure I said everything properly?

00:21:15:19 - 00:21:36:15 Sabina Because I never wanted to offend anyone in the industry and, like, tear someone apart if it wasn't legit. But I be honest, I'd be like, this looks like this, or this is how I feel. But again, I, you know, own tattoo shops and been tattoo removal, you know, artist and you know, been in the industry hosting conventions and all that in magazines for so long that I did know a lot about tattoos.

00:21:36:16 - 00:21:45:06 Sabina But it that was the hardest part. That's I just didn't want to I didn't want to destroy my name on that. But I loved it. I love doing the TV show, though. There's a lot of fun.

00:21:45:07 - 00:21:50:14 Austin It helped a career out as a as a as a model, even more obviously, or just,

00:21:50:16 - 00:22:06:17 Sabina Honestly, I don't think it really helped my career as I'm all the only thing that it did differently was I wasn't allowed. I used to dance as a showgirl out here in Jubilee, and so that's cool. You can't have tattoos to be a performer out here at that time. You can. Yeah. And so I thought I was never gonna be able to perform again.

00:22:06:17 - 00:22:22:16 Sabina And then after I did the TV show, all of a sudden I was, it was okay for me to headline a show, but I didn't have to look like all the other girls because I was a headliner. And I'm like, this is so dumb, you know what I mean? Just because I did TV, now I can do this so that was the biggest bonus of it.

00:22:22:16 - 00:22:29:08 Sabina I think it's I it kind of put me in a whole nother category that couldn't be touched. So yeah, that was.

00:22:29:12 - 00:22:34:14 Austin It's funny how similar your stories are to. Yeah. You know just it's cool putting it.

00:22:34:16 - 00:22:36:05 Nixx Creating a nation. Yeah yeah.

00:22:36:05 - 00:22:37:17 Austin Yeah yeah. And not being afraid I mean.

00:22:37:19 - 00:22:51:04 Sabina I was never yeah. No I was never even trying to do that. Like I wanted to be a model or anything like that. It was just doing what I love to do and what I enjoyed doing. And I'd never, ever thought it would get to where it was. I it just kind of snowballed itself and just one step.

00:22:51:05 - 00:22:53:12 Sabina I love it. And you literally. Yeah. Yeah.

00:22:53:14 - 00:23:00:12 Austin Are you still doing much of it? Yeah. Okay. I'm hoping to like a, like a, an agency right. Or. Well, I'm.

00:23:00:12 - 00:23:03:19 Sabina Not doing an agency right now, but I'm doing, model coaching.

00:23:03:19 - 00:23:04:11 Austin Yeah, yeah.

00:23:04:14 - 00:23:24:01 Sabina So that's kind of it's been a lot of fun because it's a way for me to kind of give back to girls. And I never had somebody I could look up to to, like, ask questions or learn from. And I feel like for doing this for 24 years, I've learned so much about the industry, and I've never been one of those girls that's like hating on other girls competition like that.

00:23:24:01 - 00:23:41:07 Sabina It's like, I feel like I can give back to these women and make them feel good, build their confidence, teach them the tips and tricks I've learned, because it's it is no competition to me, you know what I mean? It's like helping these girls out to be themselves and, you know, give them a chance to grow and be a good model.

00:23:41:07 - 00:23:44:00 Sabina Yeah. It's awesome, I love it. It's a lot of fun thing.

00:23:44:02 - 00:24:00:02 Austin Yeah. You guys have such a rich, like, showmanship to everything that you do, which is, you know, I, I was super excited to sit down and, like, learn from you and talk to you guys about, everything that you've experienced. And then it's like you guys came together and are building smiles and cries, and it's fucking cool.

00:24:00:02 - 00:24:13:11 Austin Like you're putting together such a unique space. Like, I was super sad. I was going to try to make it by yesterday and I didn't get to go. I got a shirt. I think it came in. It's in the mail right now or something to me. But, I really want to come by like, I love that you built this space.

00:24:13:11 - 00:24:24:11 Austin That's like. It's like a sneaker boutique, collectible, kind of like it's kind of like what? All the cultures that you were in love with. Like, smashed into. One thing you got. Yeah, it's cool as fuck.

00:24:24:12 - 00:24:51:11 Nixx I mean, when I built it, that was like, in my back of my head. I wanted people to walk in there and see that there's a part of my soul in there, if that makes sense, rather than just another space with pictures on the wall. And it's in a boot shop. Yeah. It's like, you know, the everything that we both enjoy, like the car culture and like, obviously, as well.

00:24:51:11 - 00:25:17:01 Nixx And then on the other side of that, there's photography and like, all the things that, you know, both of us, interested in, in the space and, and then also, like, I mean, if you can, if you come over and have a look, it's like I've built little areas of the shop that are like different. So it's like one area is like a back alleyway and the barbwire and the yeah, the bricks and all that sort of stuff.

00:25:17:06 - 00:25:18:12 Nixx And so yeah, like.

00:25:18:12 - 00:25:20:16 Austin All obviously like Chicano, like he's stuff.

00:25:20:18 - 00:25:43:12 Nixx That's right. Yeah. Right. I saw the store like and it's just like, I don't know, I guess when I was designing it, I was just, I've, I've built probably 5 or 6 tattoo shops now, but this one was the first one. I did everything I wanted to do as far as design wise went because I. Yeah, she's my business partner.

00:25:43:12 - 00:26:03:04 Nixx Yeah. So it's like she's not going to tell me you can't do that, you know what I mean? Whereas when you got another tattoo or someone that's a business partner, they're their ideas not won't directly align with yours all the time. So it's like they want their flavor in there and you want your flavor and you have to make a compromise where there was no compromise in this one.

00:26:03:08 - 00:26:04:14 Sabina I got one pink wall.

00:26:04:18 - 00:26:04:22 Nixx And.

00:26:04:22 - 00:26:05:18 Sabina One green wall.

00:26:05:18 - 00:26:06:07 Austin That was.

00:26:06:07 - 00:26:10:02 Sabina Wondering, oh, that's about as much as I got to say on it.

00:26:10:04 - 00:26:12:09 Austin But luckily your interests align and it's.

00:26:12:09 - 00:26:13:01 Nixx Like, yeah.

00:26:13:03 - 00:26:13:12 Sabina They do.

00:26:13:14 - 00:26:29:14 Austin That's cool. And it creates a lot of character. For especially you're like your social media and stuff too. And like, I know that you have a rich history and building brands and stuff too. Is that like in your right now? Like continuing to build like a merch brand to, to coincide with the. Yeah.

00:26:29:14 - 00:27:00:15 Nixx So we got Sidious in, which is obviously a take on the Sin City thing for for Vegas. Yeah. Moving from a different not just city country. It's like it was a massive undertaking, like basically starting from scratch. You know, I had a little bit of, I had a following out here for what I was doing, but it I didn't grow up here, I didn't have I don't have that whole, you know, support base that I had at home.

00:27:00:15 - 00:27:32:02 Nixx You know, me so is basically starting from scratch and, and building everything from the start again. So, so yeah, we just, it was kind of like an ode to Vegas. Like, this is my home now. You guys have embraced me. I'm going to embrace you. And, like, you know, try. And I saw I saw a gap where there was no one was really like, all about like, you see other cities like LA and Detroit and all the, like, everyone's wearing the gear, you know, like they're like huge.

00:27:32:02 - 00:27:42:21 Nixx This is my city, you know what I mean? Yeah. And there's a lot of people that live here that I wanted to give them something that wasn't just like an airport brand, you know what I mean?

00:27:42:21 - 00:27:45:09 Austin Like Las Vegas, the world's largest gift shop or something.

00:27:45:10 - 00:28:02:00 Nixx Yeah, exactly. Like something that was, like, cool. That we were like, hey, this is our. This is our jam, you know what I mean? Like, we're an alternative, you know, company, doing stuff that's from Vegas. It's not necessarily just touristy stuff, you know? Yeah.

00:28:02:00 - 00:28:08:10 Austin And the whole front of your shop is going to set up, like, a more or less like a boutique for that. That's right too. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool spot. Yeah. Yeah. You did a good job.

00:28:08:10 - 00:28:30:05 Nixx So yeah, that's where that brand originated from. So yeah, that was a cool. I really like the brand. I think the name is great. Like. And it can, you know, every city. It's. And it's not only just Vegas. I mean, Vegas is full of degenerates and like, crazy people, but every city has that aspect to it. Yeah.

00:28:30:06 - 00:28:44:23 Nixx Like, every city has the sinners. You know what I mean? That where we're all part of it, you know what I mean? Like we're living against the grain and that's that's where it originated from. And that's where, the idea grew from. So. Yeah. Yeah.

00:28:45:01 - 00:29:01:19 Austin It's cool. I'm just real passionate about, like, people building more than, like you said, just like, especially in the tattoo world. Like, I love, love it, love it. I grew up in all these tattoo shops, but they all started to look the same. And it's really fun to see people come together and really put their all into it.

00:29:01:19 - 00:29:17:19 Austin And express who they are. And the cultures that they're fascinated with are a part of them. Just make something that's fucking memorable, right? Like you want your clients to show up, be in awe and be impressed with all this shit that you absolutely love, and then sit down and have a great service.

00:29:17:22 - 00:29:30:10 Nixx Where you got to give them an experience. Yeah, because I there's so much competition. You have to do something that's different to everyone else. Otherwise it's why are they going to come back? Why are they spending their hard earned money with you? Like, yeah.

00:29:30:10 - 00:29:34:13 Austin We're going to fucking see of like it just like an endless sea of competition.

00:29:34:14 - 00:29:35:19 Nixx Seems, you know. Yeah.

00:29:35:20 - 00:29:38:05 Austin So you really have to, like, level up. Yeah.

00:29:38:05 - 00:29:48:08 Sabina We get a lot of a lot of compliments on the shop. I think that's one of the biggest things. Like the shop's beautiful. And it is. It's a beautiful shop's. Not the nicest area, but it's a beautiful spot.

00:29:48:10 - 00:29:49:07 Austin Where you guys are right now.

00:29:49:13 - 00:29:52:00 Nixx Where? Vegas Valley.

00:29:52:00 - 00:29:53:07 Sabina In Maryland Parkway.

00:29:53:11 - 00:29:55:12 Nixx Right. Sunrise hospital. Okay.

00:29:55:13 - 00:29:57:01 Sabina In that red car parking lot.

00:29:57:02 - 00:29:58:10 Austin Oh, okay. Oh, shit.

00:29:58:10 - 00:29:59:04 Nixx Oh, fuck.

00:29:59:04 - 00:30:00:05 Austin That's wild. Yeah.

00:30:00:07 - 00:30:01:03 Sabina Yeah, exactly.

00:30:01:05 - 00:30:18:08 Nixx The city doesn't want us to be anywhere good. Like. Yeah, we. It took us 12 months to find real estate in this city, bro. Like. Like. Yeah, everywhere we went, if we find a nice spot, then we'd be like. As soon as you said the word tattoo on the phone, I like. Oh, okay. Yeah. Not even to.

00:30:18:08 - 00:30:29:15 Austin This day, Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because, I mean, we've been in our location for 20 years, so we fought that fight in 2003. Yeah. And then we fought it again in 2006 when we moved our shop. But but damn, like, that's pretty wild.

00:30:29:17 - 00:30:57:14 Nixx Yeah. Yeah. So they want, you know, it's so weird. Like, I was thinking about this this morning. It was funny because, like, before the era of the we're in now, no one cared about tattoos like we weren't. There wasn't a a zoning for us. So it wasn't like anything, like nothing said tattoo. Yeah. It was all like, oh, you guys are just like hairdressers or something, like, you're going to be retail or you're going to be this and that.

00:30:57:14 - 00:31:20:21 Nixx Like there wasn't like a service industry set up for us, like the IRS. Like no one had. Tattooing is as an actual form of of employment or business or anything. Like no one gave a fuck. No, no corporations were interested in doing anything. Not like we were just like out there doing their thing, you know what I mean?

00:31:20:21 - 00:31:49:20 Nixx And like, so now they're starting to clue on, obviously, and like get in and have their $0.02 worth in like, but they still want us. We found like with the zoning because the zoning is the biggest part of trying to find a shop. Yeah. All the zoning was like out near the strip clubs or like industrial areas or like, you know, place not not in nice little strip malls, in residential areas and stuff like.

00:31:49:20 - 00:32:00:18 Nixx Yeah, you had to be a certain of, you know, certain away from like, houses in residential areas and all this because I still think we're just a bunch of.

00:32:00:20 - 00:32:02:07 Austin Which is, it's so weird.

00:32:02:09 - 00:32:02:11 Nixx To.

00:32:02:11 - 00:32:09:14 Austin Think we're doing in there. Yeah. It's like you'll let an Asian massage parlor go in there and have human trafficking and all this fucking weird, suspicious.

00:32:09:14 - 00:32:31:01 Nixx Shit, and we come in, we spend $200,000 building this beautiful spot. Yeah, you know what I mean? And, like, we got to be in this shitty area like, we're building better businesses, and most people are building these days. You know what I mean? That's still the shit ones. But, like, we had, like, this, this full on plan of how we were going to do it, you know what I mean?

00:32:31:01 - 00:32:45:08 Nixx So, and I was showing people I was like, look, this is what we're going to build in your shop. Yeah. Like, it's not like we're just going to have, like, people drunk and bikers and shit and like, you know, like all the things that they think of us, you know, that means.

00:32:45:08 - 00:32:46:09 Austin Like, fucking even.

00:32:46:10 - 00:32:46:18 Nixx Number.

00:32:46:20 - 00:32:48:08 Sabina 20. So.

00:32:48:10 - 00:32:50:09 Nixx Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I did.

00:32:50:09 - 00:32:50:22 Austin Ride my bike to.

00:32:50:22 - 00:32:51:09 Sabina Work with it.

00:32:51:10 - 00:32:54:13 Nixx Yeah, I am on my Harley today. But like, yeah.

00:32:54:15 - 00:32:57:18 Austin It's going to be shitty. Yeah. It's nice.

00:32:57:20 - 00:33:04:05 Nixx We're not going to be shooting each other in the street and shit like you know, but that's we still get put in that same. But it's.

00:33:04:05 - 00:33:17:03 Austin Really weird. Yeah. I mean yeah, I haven't well I got to oh, I hooked up with like a real estate guy when your lease is up or whatever, if you ever decide to move. Yeah, I got some good buddies. Had been around for a long time, and they can like. Yeah, I know they get to know me or at least renew my lease.

00:33:17:03 - 00:33:26:16 Austin And we almost got booted out of our shit because they wanted to raise our rent fucking almost twice what it was. And I was like, this is not a good time in tattooing to randomly double my answer to.

00:33:26:16 - 00:33:27:19 Nixx The same shit. Yeah, yeah.

00:33:27:19 - 00:33:34:09 Austin So we just got our life saved, like by a good buddy of mine that helped me out so nice. Yeah. So if you ever need anything like that, let me. Yeah. Yeah.

00:33:34:09 - 00:33:35:05 Sabina Right.

00:33:35:07 - 00:33:41:00 Austin Yeah. Hopefully we'll, you know, it would be cool as fuck if we could buy, like, a whole bunch of these small buildings and then all be in a row. Yeah.

00:33:41:03 - 00:34:14:17 Nixx So like, it's like a cool space. It's our turn to be the guys that, I mean, that's that. It's funny because that's why I don't know if you've seen, but I do the Monopoly man in, like, a lot of, Yeah, a little things, but he's got, like, a baseball cap and a tattoo machine, like. Yeah, but that's, you know, like, there's some of us that, entrepreneurs, you know, like business owners, property owners, like, that's like, hey, we took this spot we were doing and we actually built a good life out of it.

00:34:14:17 - 00:34:43:12 Nixx Yeah. I mean, where it's like, you know, a lot of and a lot of guys I've worked with over the years, I just spend their money on drugs and alcohol and like, you know, kind of get their whole life guys in a separate party direction. Yeah. Where there's, you know, some of us that built, you know, little empires around, like what we were doing, you know, focusing on, you know, putting our money into property and investing and all that sort of stuff, like, the business side of things.

00:34:43:12 - 00:34:55:10 Nixx So, the little monopoly man's kind of like. Yeah, you know, it's good the the edgy monopoly guy, like, you know, they're trying to do something better. Hey, a quick pause.

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00:35:18:08 - 00:35:35:14 Austin Now back to the show. It's funny, I just did this little video the other day, just about like a little advice to to younger Tattooers right now is like, stop fucking balling out. Like just because like we're all watching this shit on Instagram, but everybody's fucking rich and everybody's doing this and they've got their these tattooers are driving all these fancy cars and stacks of cash.

00:35:35:14 - 00:35:57:18 Austin That's that's a bunch of fucking nonsense. Like 99% of those motherfuckers don't own their Bentley. They don't fucking. They lease their their house and they lease all that. Like, not no offense, but like, you should, you should be playing the long game right now. Stacking your chatter, dude. Like I know, because like I said, when I started losing my clientele, the black and gray guys I saw hit my pocket hard and I was like, oh fuck, okay, I need to level up.

00:35:57:18 - 00:36:13:14 Austin I need to figure out, you know, another maneuver here, maybe focus more on growing my business, teaching people in my business to, like, be better at who they are, at what they're doing, and how to treat their clients and everything. And I don't think there's enough of that information being put out there for young tattooers.

00:36:13:16 - 00:36:39:11 Nixx I mean, I try and tell everyone I can, and try and point them in the right direction. Hey, do this, open this, transfer this every week, just, you know, like it's, you know, a coffee every day. Yeah. Just put it in this savings account. It's going to take 30 years. Yeah, but that money will grow, as you say, and at best, it will stay in front of inflation.

00:36:39:11 - 00:36:58:00 Nixx That's. And that's all you got to do. Sure. It's better than having that sit somewhere and lose value with inflation, you know. So if you've got it somewhere that it can grow at the same rate as inflation, then you 100,000 is still going to be 100,000. You know what I mean. Even nine. It might grow to 2 to 300.

00:36:58:01 - 00:37:01:06 Nixx It's still going to have the same value that it did when you were.

00:37:01:08 - 00:37:15:19 Austin Yeah. Hopefully one in the line. You took a little piece of the pie and invested in something else. Exactly like it's certain that your house grew in value. My, my, remember my wife, she's in finance. She yelled at me so hard when we first got together and I was like, I walked her over to. She's like, well, we started merging stuff.

00:37:15:19 - 00:37:29:17 Austin And I was like, I don't know, have this like 80 grand. And she's like, what the fuck? Like it's just sitting there in a box and I'm like, I don't keep that around me anymore. I was like, she's just started drilling me about it. Like, what the fuck? You could have bought a house has more houses or what?

00:37:29:17 - 00:37:31:09 Austin I own my house. So I just thought I was a.

00:37:31:09 - 00:37:32:22 Nixx Divided into 300 by now.

00:37:32:23 - 00:37:51:01 Austin Yeah. My parents are really good at teaching me how to save, but never really like. What do we do after that? And it's a whole different ballgame. Yeah. There. You know. But the more time and energy you put into it to try to learn about it and it's it's not really super complicated. It's not. I got some straight hillbilly homies that are like very wealthy and very successful just by doing the same simple thing over and over.

00:37:51:02 - 00:37:54:23 Austin There's a levels to something. Save up, buy something, slip it, buy some more shit.

00:37:55:01 - 00:38:12:00 Nixx Yeah, yeah. And everyone can do it like it's it's not, it's not a thing. You know what I mean? Like both our families, in real estate, like, so we, you know, we both grew up around the investing business. Yeah.

00:38:12:02 - 00:38:16:05 Austin It's the mindset of, like, understanding. Like we need to put in more on. Yeah.

00:38:16:05 - 00:38:19:18 Nixx We're doing. Yeah. Just put your money somewhere. It's going to grow while you're asleep.

00:38:19:18 - 00:38:20:23 Sabina Don't waste it, you know.

00:38:21:00 - 00:38:24:00 Nixx Yeah. That's great. I mean, enjoy your life. Totally.

00:38:24:00 - 00:38:31:20 Austin Because I do like a little flex. I think we all have nice things and fun things and, you know, you know, shiny things, but like, yeah, find a balance. Yeah. That's.

00:38:31:22 - 00:38:51:03 Nixx Yeah. But you have to have that rainy day thing, you know what I mean? Like, and you have to have some sort of plan for the future. Yeah. And I think that's what a lot of tattooers don't do. And I really like, you know, we're getting older, our generation of tattoos, you know what I mean? And it's like, holy shit.

00:38:51:03 - 00:39:13:07 Nixx Like, we don't really have anything. We've had this great life. And like, the photos look awesome. They doing all this shit, but it's like, you know, then we hit a wall and the industry went, hang on, like, you know what I mean? And now it's like you kind of get to the point where you don't think that that that flow of income's ever going to stop.

00:39:13:09 - 00:39:35:14 Nixx Yeah. And it did. Yeah. Yeah. You know, to me it didn't stop, but it didn't put the brakes on real hard. You know what I mean? And now that's when people are starting to feel like oh man. Like I probably should have saved some or invested some, you know what I mean? So, I think education around that is, is needed in the industry just so that it's the same.

00:39:35:17 - 00:39:55:10 Nixx I mean, you see it in big time in the sport industry. Yeah, yeah. Like, you know, kids come from the hood. They don't know anything about money. Yeah. At all. Yeah. The parents didn't know anything that grandparents didn't know. Most of us don't know. This is my day. Yeah. They hit a massive lake. They get fucking 50 million.

00:39:55:12 - 00:40:18:08 Nixx Everyone comes out of the woodwork. They gotta support everyone. They finish the, you know, their career, and they're left with nothing because no one told them. Hey, take ten of that. Buy some real estate, invest in a mutual fund, do this, do that and forget about that money. Yeah, spend the 40. Take that ten and like invest it.

00:40:18:08 - 00:40:20:09 Nixx Yeah. So you've got something at the end.

00:40:20:09 - 00:40:30:10 Austin You know I think people too don't think that like tattooing isn't necessarily hard on your body. But if you've been after you've been tattooing for a long time, it's fucking rough. It's a you're she's gonna.

00:40:30:10 - 00:40:35:07 Nixx Have to put up with me, like, yeah, some sort of hunchback gland. I feel like like, yeah.

00:40:35:07 - 00:40:53:21 Austin You never really know what's going to happen to your body and your mind. You know, it's it's it is difficult to tattoo for 20 plus years. Like, you, you go through those highs and lows, your confidence up, your confidence is down. The fucking like you said, the clientele just disappears or now we've we're deal. Everything seems so volatile with social media to like trends come and go quick.

00:40:54:03 - 00:41:08:16 Austin So if you're like doing really well right now like and you get that sense of like, I don't know, it's like doing a bunch of cocaine or some shit, you know, just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, well, you need to fucking slow down. Like you're like, humble yourself about, like you.

00:41:08:16 - 00:41:13:14 Nixx Just put some of that away. What it is like, hey, you going to have a couple months where that's quiet? Like it's a.

00:41:13:14 - 00:41:14:20 Sabina Roller coaster for sure.

00:41:14:22 - 00:41:16:02 Nixx Yeah. I mean, she's.

00:41:16:02 - 00:41:20:00 Austin Beginning to, though, like, touch it now. It just seems like it's more amplified, you know. Yeah, I don't know.

00:41:20:01 - 00:41:47:19 Nixx Well, there's more people to share. And now like, yeah, there's a million times the amount of tattooing. So it's like the quiet times are really quiet because like and then you see this war of prices where everyone's just dropping their prices and yeah, it's on social media. So like back in the day we never I've talked about this like it was a fight to be the most expensive because it was like like minimum charge was $80.

00:41:47:19 - 00:42:05:16 Nixx Well homie, down the road just put it to 90 and it's like, why the fuck is he get $90 minimum? We're going to go to 100. Yeah. But now it's like you're 80. I'm going to go to 17. I'm going to steal all your clients. Oh he's 70, I'm going to go to 60. And it's a race to the bottom instead of a race at the top.

00:42:05:16 - 00:42:06:06 Nixx It's a poor.

00:42:06:06 - 00:42:21:23 Austin Mindset because like really like if you're trying to chase a client that wants to save $10 on your tattoo, that's not your goal. I mean, that's not the client I want, you know, like you should you should want the ones that are patiently coming in, consistently coming in and willing to pay for your service and respect you for what you've done and built in the industry.

00:42:21:23 - 00:42:22:05 Austin Yeah.

00:42:22:08 - 00:42:44:19 Nixx And it's it actually, it does a lot more long term damage, which people don't think about. Not a lot of people think about past today. The long term damage is you're now reducing yourself to building a client base around your new price. Yeah. And when things get good again and you want to go back up, well, you're going to lose all your clients.

00:42:44:21 - 00:43:04:04 Nixx Yeah, because no one's going to pay what you were worth when they're paying what you've now dropped your price to be just to fit some sort of norm that you think is happening where it's not what's happening. You know what I mean? You just got to sift through and get the people that really want to get tattooed by you.

00:43:04:06 - 00:43:19:03 Nixx They're going to pay what? What you're charging. You know what I mean? So it's I think, it's always been there, but it definitely is amplified and with with social media and, you know, because people can see it now.

00:43:19:05 - 00:43:34:20 Austin Yeah. They smell it, dude. Like sharks in the fucking water too, though. So if you start putting out that energy, then you're just going to attract that type of shit. And it's like, like I said, it's just not if you want to charge whatever you want to charge, do it. But know that you have to build a brand around that too.

00:43:34:20 - 00:43:51:02 Austin And the way you present yourself through your photography, through your videography, through your personality and the way that you're sharing that all is a part of your brand. And if you're brand, all of us. And if somebody like that is willing to pay, that sees you like on Wednesdays, you're doing it for 50 bucks and you're doing it for a thousand.

00:43:51:02 - 00:43:55:05 Austin Like, it just cheapens your fucking whole entire existence. Yeah, it's not good.

00:43:55:05 - 00:44:15:05 Nixx Yeah. All you got to do is get people showing up on a Wednesday. Yeah. That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And all the rest of the days are going to be nothing because you put your shit at 50 bucks, you know. Yeah, yeah. I mean it's the same as with Sabina. Stuff like she come up in the industry when there was a time where people hired models and paid them.

00:44:15:06 - 00:44:15:22 Nixx Yeah.

00:44:16:00 - 00:44:20:19 Sabina But now everybody's a model. Everybody's Instagram is a photographer. Everyone's a tattoo artist.

00:44:20:19 - 00:44:33:07 Nixx Yeah, the photographer thing, like, everyone's got a phone. So it's like now everyone's a photographer. Whereas before though, you would have to go out and hire a photographer. Yeah. Now you can just take the photos yourself.

00:44:33:12 - 00:44:34:22 Sabina Now you can get an AI model.

00:44:35:00 - 00:44:35:23 Austin Yes.

00:44:36:04 - 00:44:43:16 Nixx That's the next thing I mean, yeah, tell them about like, you know, you've seen that now with some of the photographers. You. Oh, I've.

00:44:43:16 - 00:45:03:12 Sabina Had a photographer. He's been a photographer for a long time. Decided to do just like, the little test and put, like an AI model on his page, like, you know, three photos and he got more likes and stuff on that AI photo. And he was so heartbroken. He's like, what? He's like, how am I getting more likes on this one?

00:45:03:13 - 00:45:20:06 Sabina Yeah, you know, something else. And then even as like a model, I, you know, there was this one model that showed up on, social media and everyone's like, oh my God, I quit. Like, this girl is stunning. She's gorgeous. He's perfect. She's everywhere, you know? And, like, seriously, all the models in the industry, we're just chit chatting about it.

00:45:20:06 - 00:45:35:20 Sabina Like, who is this girl? Like? None of us have seen her. Long story short, we all found out she was an. It's an AI fake model's not even a real person. And girls are like, I'm. I'm done. I quit because you can't compete with that. You know what I mean? Like this girl is just, like, perfect, everywhere and doing everything.

00:45:35:20 - 00:45:42:20 Sabina And we're just like, you know, and you just kind of get like, oh, damn. Like, how am I ever going to be up against that? And it wasn't even real.

00:45:42:22 - 00:45:47:07 Nixx What I and plus like, girls are doing shit for free now I got it.

00:45:47:08 - 00:45:57:09 Sabina Yeah. Doing stuff for free. And I mean, even I've had companies hit me up trying to buy my buy, like, have me, like, record me and, you know, take pictures.

00:45:57:09 - 00:45:58:14 Austin Of me to make.

00:45:58:14 - 00:46:00:00 Sabina Me as an AI person.

00:46:00:00 - 00:46:02:01 Austin But I was going through that right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:46:02:03 - 00:46:20:23 Sabina But I was just. And they offer you a big chunk of money, but it's like there's nothing you could do. Like, I couldn't even imagine there being an AI model of me. And then her videos of me that are just made up and it's like, oh, Sabine is doing porn now or something. And then like, you know, my husband's like, this guy said, you're talking to him or this or that.

00:46:20:23 - 00:46:31:08 Sabina You know what I'd be like? What? Like I couldn't even imagine the the craziness and stuff you'd have to go through with having AI models like that. Like. Yeah, real people.

00:46:31:10 - 00:46:56:17 Austin Hopefully will see like, from the, the ones that are true creatives and really have the grit to push forward. You'll see, like a renaissance of creativity like, and as creatives push through that and yeah, come up with something fucking new and unique and weird. It seems like we're already kind of seeing that as like from, like all the social media content being super polished and overproduced to gritty and fun and like.

00:46:56:19 - 00:46:58:09 Sabina Sitting in the.

00:46:58:11 - 00:47:03:12 Austin For and all this anymore. People just want to see you just like, snap a picture of you, like in your natural state.

00:47:03:12 - 00:47:20:06 Sabina And it's the hardest thing as a model is that I grew up where I wanted the perfect hair, the perfect lighting, the perfect photographer, all of that and everything being polished. And I wouldn't put it out unless it was polished. Yeah, and nowadays they want the raw, gritty. Like Sabina just woke up, you know, as in brush your hair.

00:47:20:06 - 00:47:42:06 Sabina Yeah. You know. Yeah, they want that content and, the horrible lighting and the just the rawness. And I get that they want. They want real, they want raw. And I get that. But it's so hard when you've built your whole brand on things being polished and clean and top of the line. Yeah. And then to have to like, okay, let's just turn this on, you know, because it's not something once you've put something out on the internet, it's there forever.

00:47:42:07 - 00:47:58:09 Sabina Like you can't take that. You can never take that back. And that's why I mean, I've always told that with girls doing nudity and stuff, it's like once you put something out like that, you can never bring that back so you don't know what you're going to. If you do something when you're 18, you don't know when you're 30, that that's going to bite you in the ass.

00:47:58:09 - 00:48:11:15 Sabina You know what I mean? So for a job, you want to. Yeah. Opportunities are someone you meet later in life that you want to marry or whatever. Then they found out you did this or a job, you know, corporate job you want. You can't do it because of this. So yeah, it it's pretty crazy.

00:48:11:17 - 00:48:14:01 Austin Yeah. Like Pamela Anderson's kind of doing that big push right now. Right.

00:48:14:01 - 00:48:14:11 Sabina Like so.

00:48:14:17 - 00:48:16:04 Austin Pam. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty fucking cool.

00:48:16:05 - 00:48:33:00 Sabina Love that. Because I looked up to her a lot when I was a kid. I was like, oh, she's the most beautiful woman ever, you know? And she was like, full glam hair and makeup and sexpot, you know, doing Playboy and all that. And now she's gone. The complete opposite. And I think she's even more beautiful now, going out with no makeup.

00:48:33:02 - 00:48:46:03 Sabina Yeah. And just being more about, you know, her plan for her family and being herself. And it's it's so cool to see her be like, now I finally feel like myself, you know, like before, it was like she was playing a part. Well, yeah.

00:48:46:03 - 00:48:47:21 Nixx And I put a mask on all the. Yeah.

00:48:47:21 - 00:49:03:08 Sabina And I see that so much, as a model, like, I don't like wearing makeup unless I'm doing shoots and stuff, and I love getting all dolled up for all that and and for events and all that. But I'm like, in real life, like, I just want to, you know, just fucking relax. I just want to run.

00:49:03:10 - 00:49:04:14 Nixx You know, put on your sweat.

00:49:04:14 - 00:49:23:15 Sabina So and so. It's really cool to see her take it so far. You know, the other way. And people are talking so much shit on it. And I'm like, no way. This is so cool that she can just be herself. Because they put women especially when you start to get older at such like high standards. Oh, you got to be young, you got to be young.

00:49:23:20 - 00:49:38:09 Sabina But I feel like things are starting to change where like they're starting to hire older models now for things because they're saying old. I was just reading about it yesterday that like women that are in like their 50s and 60s and stuff, they're the ones with the money. So they're going to be the ones buying all the fashion.

00:49:38:09 - 00:49:52:05 Sabina So why aren't there women that look like that on the runways? You know, and it makes sense because like, you're not going to have some little 20 year old on the runway and then you're some 50 year old to be like, I want that. No, no, it doesn't really work like that, you know?

00:49:52:07 - 00:50:00:07 Austin Yeah, maybe. Pam, I mean, Pamela's kind of like what I was saying. Like that creative push like that. Not being afraid to, like, stand out in your community and take all the fucking heat that's coming.

00:50:00:07 - 00:50:01:04 Sabina She's gotten a lot.

00:50:01:04 - 00:50:05:21 Austin Yeah, but isn't that kind of. Yeah. Like you said, it's a beautiful fucking thing. It's awesome. It's like.

00:50:05:23 - 00:50:06:08 Sabina It.

00:50:06:10 - 00:50:08:02 Austin It it makes her. Yes.

00:50:08:04 - 00:50:10:09 Sabina Reinventing her and like a part of her brand.

00:50:10:09 - 00:50:14:05 Austin And she's getting brand deals through like all these other, like, kind of skincare.

00:50:14:05 - 00:50:21:22 Sabina She started her own skincare and I use it, I love it, I think it's amazing. And so but like for her to show up on a red carpet with no makeup.

00:50:21:23 - 00:50:22:01 Austin Yeah.

00:50:22:03 - 00:50:28:13 Sabina That's huge. When she's Pamela Anderson and she used to have like makeup. Absolutely perfect to the T. It's like.

00:50:28:13 - 00:50:29:04 Austin It's gangster.

00:50:29:04 - 00:50:47:16 Sabina I love it I love it so much. Again. Yeah I am a big fan of her. Like. And it's because of you know how strong she's been on that and she's taken back her power. You know everyone kind of took advantage of her and stuff is just being a sexpot. And now she's like, no, this is me and I'm going to run with it.

00:50:47:16 - 00:50:50:09 Sabina And she's killing it. No, it's so I love it.

00:50:50:13 - 00:51:09:05 Austin I fucking love it. Yeah, yeah. So don't and I don't know. Yeah I mean that literally comes back a full circle to everything. Like being not being afraid to stand out in your community. One thing I see and like this, and I guess it's human in general, most humans are terrified of, like standing out. They want it, but they're not willing to put in the work.

00:51:09:05 - 00:51:21:11 Austin They want to be the entrepreneur, but they're not willing to put in the work. Like it's really takes that grit and that soul in that fucking relentless. Like sometimes crying at the end of your bed type night and, you know, we're just like, I'm going to figure this out.

00:51:21:11 - 00:51:38:21 Nixx Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're still doing it. You got to just get up and show up like, yeah, as soon as you give up, everything crumbles like the there's no back up there. Isn't that you're not getting paid by anyone. Yeah. Like you can't just, like, have a shitty week and still get your check, you know what I mean?

00:51:38:21 - 00:51:58:13 Nixx Like, you gotta you have to make your own money. Yeah. Like where our own boss sweet. Like no one's saving us. So, if you if you take your foot off the gas, then all you've got is a break. You know what I mean? And that's what's going to happen. Everything's just going to stop. So it's. It's a tough, tough thing to do.

00:51:58:13 - 00:51:59:04 Nixx Yeah.

00:51:59:06 - 00:52:15:10 Austin I like those moments to where I make those changes, those incremental changes in my life where I just click forward and something is better and I'll be like in the shower just thinking about it. It's like, I'll never go back. Like I just will never, fucking probably ever get a job. I will if I have to, like. Yeah.

00:52:15:11 - 00:52:28:13 Austin And that's like, I got no fucking arms. I like washing cars with my mouth. Yeah, yeah, I like whatever I have to do. I'll do it to support my family, to make sure that I. They know that I'm there for them and willing to, like, risk it all and just do whatever it takes to get the job done.

00:52:28:15 - 00:52:32:08 Austin But like, in my head, like it. I'll never fucking go back. Yeah. You know.

00:52:32:08 - 00:52:55:00 Sabina And I kind of feel, yeah, I kind of feel like you just you follow, you need to follow. Like what you love. Like what? What you want to do and what your, you know, you have your heart is willing to do and wants to do. Because if you have that and you run with that, you can't really go wrong because it's something you continuously, you know, you want to keep doing because you enjoy it and you love it.

00:52:55:00 - 00:53:04:04 Sabina And I think, like so many people are like money, money, money. And yes, you do need money, but I feel like you've got to love what you do to to make it. Yeah. Super successful.

00:53:04:06 - 00:53:25:14 Austin I reposted this quote from like iced tea. He was like, any time I ever see anybody or I feel like I'm chasing the money, it's it's a fucking dead end. It's a reckless, like abandonment of, like, everything that I stand for if I constantly and focusing on what I genuinely love. And I'm not worried about fucking getting anything else out of it other than just like, expressing myself and going for it, then, I don't know.

00:53:25:14 - 00:53:29:16 Austin You just can't help but win. Like there's nothing better than feeling good when you finish.

00:53:29:16 - 00:53:35:17 Sabina Up a fucking like, forget about all the noise. Yeah, people from the outside, you know, I just do what you love.

00:53:35:17 - 00:53:39:11 Nixx But even doing that still you have to do it every day.

00:53:39:11 - 00:53:41:07 Austin Yeah, you have to work through the fucking.

00:53:41:07 - 00:53:56:09 Nixx Yeah, yeah. I mean, you have to, like, you can be passionate about something, but you have to be passionate every day. Yeah. Like you can't just be like, once a month. You're passionate about it because that's what are you going to get paid for is that one time, you know, like at the end of the day and we all got bills, you know what I mean?

00:53:56:09 - 00:54:04:04 Nixx So like you have to be passionate, but you have to be hustling on that passion every single day. Yeah. And that's the biggest part of 1%.

00:54:04:06 - 00:54:04:23 Austin Better like.

00:54:05:00 - 00:54:06:02 Nixx Said like it's just.

00:54:06:02 - 00:54:06:12 Austin Like anything.

00:54:06:12 - 00:54:15:05 Nixx You do, you just have to do something every day. Like, because the world's moving so fast, you got to try move faster. If you want to stay ahead, you know. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

00:54:15:07 - 00:54:24:00 Austin It's constantly feels like it's like two steps forward, one step back. You know, it's like it is like that like life in general on anything we're doing parenting or fucking dance. You want to.

00:54:24:03 - 00:54:25:19 Nixx Like,

00:54:25:21 - 00:54:27:00 Sabina Yeah.

00:54:27:02 - 00:54:41:01 Austin It ain't no joke. I'm minor, pretty young, but I'm like constantly, every day having to reevaluate myself and the way that I approach, like my kids is that, you know, it's like, fuck, dude. If like, that didn't work yesterday. So, like, keep going, keep trying harder.

00:54:41:01 - 00:55:00:19 Nixx In a different world. And we got to wrap our heads around the fact that they're not living in the best time of the we grew up in the 90s is the fucking best time the world has ever seen. And that's that's not just because we were there. That's because it really was the best. There was a pinnacle of all our generation.

00:55:00:19 - 00:55:15:15 Nixx So like, it was such a great time to be alive. But it's not that world anymore, you know what I mean? Like, it's it's a totally different world. These kids grow up on their phones. Yeah, literally.

00:55:15:15 - 00:55:16:10 Austin Yeah. I feel like.

00:55:16:13 - 00:55:31:12 Nixx That. Is that, bro. That is their world. Like they don't know our world. Yeah, they know that world. So if we try and, like, take it off of them and go, go and do something. Yeah. They don't know what to do I because I didn't grow. Yeah. Yeah, I.

00:55:31:15 - 00:55:32:16 Sabina Know your kids.

00:55:32:18 - 00:55:35:06 Austin My kids are only five and seven. They just turn.

00:55:35:08 - 00:55:35:12 Sabina Their.

00:55:35:12 - 00:55:50:21 Austin Stuff. So I'm still like have an ability to control them a little. Yeah. Yeah, I live in the house, but but like, as far as the technology and watching it, like I, I'm sure you do it used to is like everyone's like, you're not everyone's mom. I like daily you pick up the fucking phone, you completely forget what you were doing and you go into a whole.

00:55:51:00 - 00:56:08:10 Austin Yeah. And then you're, like, inspired, but then depressed, and, you know, all these emotions are hitting you, and you got to learn how to, like, get through it. But I'm also watch it just like it's such a, it's a fucking, nasty drug. It can be really, really bad if you don't have that determination to control it and not let it get the best of you.

00:56:08:15 - 00:56:26:04 Austin I watch it like my kids like it. They're not allowed to watch TV after 7:00 am. If they get up at fucking six, they can watch a little TV. But at seven we're listening to records, we're drawing, or we're fucking, making beats or doing something and they're instantly engaged with you. Yeah, you know, but the second that TV's on, they're fucking gone.

00:56:26:05 - 00:56:45:03 Austin Yeah, I watch my tattooers sit at work the second they pick up their phone. If they're not tattooing, 45 minutes goes by and they're just fucking in the zone. TikTok and or whatever. It's like, bro, you could have drawn like two more pieces of, flash or just illustrated anything, whatever the fuck you want, and then shared that on social media, more or less like yourself.

00:56:45:04 - 00:56:50:00 Nixx Yeah. Fucking creating the content yourself instead of just consuming it all. Yeah.

00:56:50:02 - 00:56:56:07 Austin It's like create more than you consume. If you can kind of follow that basic concept, I think. I think it will be better.

00:56:56:07 - 00:57:08:12 Nixx Yeah, yeah. I mean, I live in Italy right now. Get inspiration, but don't forget about real life. Yeah. Like don't just sit there being inspired forever doing anything.

00:57:08:14 - 00:57:09:07 Sabina Yeah.

00:57:09:09 - 00:57:11:02 Nixx Everyone's looking for the secret.

00:57:11:02 - 00:57:11:10 Austin Like the.

00:57:11:10 - 00:57:20:16 Nixx Easy way. The. There is no fucking easy way. It's like hard work, but, like, you know, like I've seen that's.

00:57:20:18 - 00:57:22:19 Austin They'll slide right past because they don't want to fucking hear.

00:57:23:00 - 00:57:41:22 Nixx They don't want to hear that. It's like, put your phone down and go and do it like it's like, nah, I'll just keep scrolling till I find the person that says, hey, here's the secret. And you know what I mean? Like, yeah, forget hard work, do this one thing and your life will change. Like, that's what they are waiting to see.

00:57:41:22 - 00:57:43:23 Nixx And I'm like, you never see.

00:57:44:00 - 00:57:51:11 Austin This shit in every single aspect of your life. Like, yeah, you can't fucking get fit without fucking. Nah. You put it in the way. Like, yeah, you know, you can.

00:57:51:11 - 00:57:57:23 Nixx Watch as many fitness videos as you want. Your muscles are still going to be tiny if you don't put it in the to all the fucking ice plungers.

00:57:57:23 - 00:57:59:14 Austin I just I just want to bro.

00:57:59:18 - 00:58:20:00 Nixx Like, I just want to have this one person come along and go. I found the perfect drink that you can take. Yeah, every day. And you're going to be massive. Like that's what they waiting for. Yeah, yeah. But they'll they'll scroll forever and not find it. You know, they go to put that shit down and show up like and just do the hard work like.

00:58:20:00 - 00:58:31:22 Nixx Yeah it's tough. It's really tough. Like. And that's you know, you see it a lot in the younger kids that it's harder for them to put the phone down and actually.

00:58:31:22 - 00:58:33:13 Austin Communicate all these.

00:58:33:15 - 00:58:34:02 Nixx Things.

00:58:34:06 - 00:58:35:05 Austin Themselves in the mirror.

00:58:35:09 - 00:58:55:14 Nixx Well, go back into real life. Yeah. Like the reality of real life, which is where we live. Yeah. We don't live in here. We. But people are starting to. Yeah, yeah. They're just getting comfortable being lazy. Like it's. Yeah. And that's never going to get you anywhere. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's a shit pill to swallow.

00:58:55:14 - 00:59:19:07 Nixx But yeah, you know that's what the reality is. So like like I said, be inspired. Follow these pages that are like, you know, people can make a whole living off just inspiring others. And they might be some lazy piece of shit, you know what I mean? Like, I read like, yeah, you know, but they still have to make the videos every day, so they're still putting some work in, you know what I mean?

00:59:19:09 - 00:59:31:18 Nixx And if you want to do that, well, do that. But don't just watch. Yeah. Like make the videos start today. Day one. That's your job. Now, you know I like you I like you.

00:59:31:18 - 00:59:48:06 Austin Know that I like I would look back like I've only been making videos and stuff for the businesses like for like a year now maybe. But like if you look back at the very first one, I'm like, hey, I'm Austin, just, this is myself. And I'm fucking, like, rambling, like, I don't know how I'm supposed to be, you know?

00:59:48:06 - 01:00:03:21 Austin Which is so weird because you just be your fucking what? Like, once you get to the point where you're comfortable, you realize, like. And plus at our age, like, we're fucking grown. Like, at this point in time, I don't give a fuck about what you think. You know, like, I showed up today. I have a giant pimple in the middle of my fucking forehead, and I'm like, fuck it.

01:00:03:21 - 01:00:17:17 Austin I guess I'll still film my podcast. Yeah, but you know who gives a fuck? Like, as soon as you can get that message to yourself and get it out there and just know, like once your plate gets full of shit to do to you, like, you just it's even easier to get rid of that because you're just like, no, bro.

01:00:17:17 - 01:00:26:07 Austin I got like fucking. I get up at five and I got to do this, and then I got to get the kids, and then I got to get to work. And then I'm going to go do a podcast to help promote our businesses. Yeah. And then we're going to go to work and they're going to clean the shop.

01:00:26:07 - 01:00:37:11 Austin And then we're going to go fucking help somebody solve a problem, you know? Right. You're like that personality that like, if there's a fire, you're the one that runs or that helps put it out. Like entrepreneurship is straight, putting out fires like.

01:00:37:11 - 01:00:39:01 Sabina Oh, all the time.

01:00:39:03 - 01:00:57:03 Nixx Yeah. Like and you can't ignore them. They'll just burn your whole fucking thing down. They will. So you have to be extinguisher in hand. Yeah. Every day just spraying that shit around, you know? I mean like, yeah, you can't you can't decide if you just like, oh no, I'm not going to deal with that. Then you come back and it's all gone.

01:00:57:03 - 01:00:58:11 Nixx Like burnt to the ground.

01:00:58:14 - 01:01:13:02 Austin And I don't have to keep like a positive attitude about it too. Yeah. You know, cause it's, it's as a leader too, like if you're just fucking grumpy and angry, like nobody wants to be around you, no one wants to be around you, and you're fucking mad that this guy, you know. So yeah, like, that's a art form in its own dude.

01:01:13:02 - 01:01:14:21 Austin It's it's not fucking easy.

01:01:14:23 - 01:01:16:06 Nixx No, it's.

01:01:16:08 - 01:01:16:23 Sabina Not.

01:01:17:01 - 01:01:39:09 Nixx I said this to a good friend of mine the other day. Like, tattooing has been everything in my whole life for my whole adult life. But it's also been one thing that's slowly killing me, you know what I mean? It's like such a it's like such an amazing thing that it's like such a damaging thing at the same time, you know what I mean?

01:01:39:15 - 01:01:50:20 Nixx And it's the people that learn to put those together that actually survive it these days. Yeah. You know, because it's, it's like you can easily just be like, you know, this is too hard.

01:01:50:22 - 01:02:06:07 Austin I think it's our duty right now to like, just to continue to push through it. And it's like our souls are going to push us that way, and we're going to watch all these people fall off and in tune, like, you know, I wish they wouldn't. I wish they would push through too. But I'm not going to fucking stop.

01:02:06:10 - 01:02:10:06 Austin No, I'm going to figure out any way, shape or form I can do to be a part of tattooing.

01:02:10:08 - 01:02:49:01 Nixx Well, we've seen the magic of it. Yeah, we've seen the era where it was where no one cared. Like I said before, like no one gave a fuck. Like there was no corporations trying to come in and steal all the fucking businesses and take down everyone that has tried their whole life to build something that isn't, you know, like, we we do it for passion, you know, so we have to like, remember why we got into it and remember what it felt like when it was at its best just to push through the hard time to try and get.

01:02:49:03 - 01:03:07:04 Nixx It's the people who like the Covid tattoo and all the people that came in within the last ten years that have come into a different industry. It's the same as the kids. Like what we were just saying with the kids and phones, like they don't know what it felt like to be a tattoo, 20 years ago. Yeah.

01:03:07:05 - 01:03:29:22 Nixx They don't know that industry. They only know what they know, what they part of now, which is completely different to what we come up in. So it's, you know, you can't blame them for the way some of them act, but it's like we have to as much as we try and educate them and say, look, you know, this is what tattooing can be.

01:03:30:04 - 01:03:54:15 Nixx We're kind of getting steamrolled at the same time by like people now thinking like, we kind of fucked ourselves really. Like by having great lives and then showing it on social media. And now you know what I mean? And then the corporations are like, oh, wait, let's get a part of that. You out of me. Like, yeah, yeah, we're trying to we're making Tattoo Hollywood.

01:03:54:15 - 01:04:12:23 Nixx We're making it like all this magic thing, like. Yeah. And they're just like, oh shit. Like, we didn't know it was like this. Let's let's fuck this up, you know? I mean, like, yeah. So it's kind of like, now it's like we kicked our own ass, but we just have to wait for the full circle moment because everything does a full circle.

01:04:13:00 - 01:04:22:02 Nixx You know what I mean? So let them come in and do their thing, and then we'll just be there to, you know, sweep it up and build it back up. You know what I mean?

01:04:22:02 - 01:04:28:22 Austin Yeah, maybe. And maybe they'll need a job later on. Yeah, yeah. Rejoin. Rejoin a good positive job.

01:04:29:00 - 01:04:29:18 Nixx Yeah. That's it.

01:04:29:19 - 01:04:35:16 Austin They push through and hopefully our brands will grow and prosper and yeah you know but right now it is, not fun.

01:04:35:17 - 01:05:08:12 Nixx Not it's not fun right now. Yeah. It's it's it's very, very, you know, confusing. Yeah. Frustrating. You know, we get frustrated and I think it's because we know how good it can be. Yeah. You know what I mean? So, like I said, we just have to wait for that full circle moment where we get that back and and do our best to be the best tattooer we can be in the time that we are in, and, and push back through to that, that next period, you know.

01:05:08:12 - 01:05:20:14 Nixx Yeah. Keep our fingers crossed. It, it it does go backwards. Yeah. As much as you never want it to go backwards, let's go backwards back to when it was like what it was. You know what I mean. So yeah.

01:05:20:14 - 01:05:36:08 Austin Yeah I think with the with also with us being keeping an open mind and being ready to pivot and stuff like maybe there's some new beautiful shit on the horizon that we don't even know about. You know, maybe we will find our new, unique path and, place in this, like, just beautiful game.

01:05:36:09 - 01:06:00:00 Nixx Yeah. You know? Yeah. No. That's it. Just got to, you know, keep doing what we do. The best that we can. Do it. Yeah. And that's, you know, that's with anyone that's just not tattooing in general. That's any creative. Yeah. That's out there. That's feeling the the frustration. And, you know, I feel bad for graphic designers and people like that who have like put their whole life into that.

01:06:00:00 - 01:06:21:14 Nixx And now these big companies are building these platforms. It totally just wipe them out, you know, like you can create something from prompts that is fucking three seconds and ten bucks instead of, you know, $1,000. Yeah. And to create something that's.

01:06:21:16 - 01:06:23:02 Nixx Pretty good, you know, like.

01:06:23:02 - 01:06:23:14 Austin Yeah, it's.

01:06:23:14 - 01:06:34:01 Nixx Yeah, it's it's it's tough. Like there's a lot of people that like are so great at and a creative that are just getting steamrolled by this shit.

01:06:34:01 - 01:06:55:11 Austin Yeah, yeah. Hopefully we just learn how to use those as tools and, like, jumping gets, you know, something that pushes us to do more or or I guess, you know, just back to, like, I don't know, I'm like a firm believer the creatives will fucking win. Like, we will figure it out. Yeah, yeah. We'll be pushed and pushed and pushed until we just burst into some wild shit and hopefully something awesome will come.

01:06:55:12 - 01:06:58:12 Austin Yeah. You know, well, we all lose our fucking minds. We're not that.

01:06:58:12 - 01:07:19:06 Nixx Kind of ground or something, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like tattooing was back in the day when it was illegal and yeah, in New York and shit, like with the tattooing underground, you know what I mean? Like, it's, everyone else is doing their thing, but we've just pushed back into this little secret society again that we were back in the day, you know?

01:07:19:07 - 01:07:21:12 Nixx So, Yeah. Hey. Nice.

01:07:21:14 - 01:07:35:20 Austin Well, you have any you guys have any, what's any, like, big ideas or dreams or what? You like what you would like to see out of smiles and cries? Like. Like, you know, on those days where you're just staring off into the sunset and you're like, this is.

01:07:35:20 - 01:08:08:15 Nixx What I want. I think, I think I used to do that a lot. Like I used to wake up and dream big all the time. I think right now it's very cloudy. It's like it's hard to dream that big when things are so hard. And there's not the momentum that you always had. So for me right now, it's like learning the small things that make a big difference, if that makes sense.

01:08:08:15 - 01:08:28:09 Nixx Like, you know, we were talking earlier about the the whole internet marketing thing, you know, like as much as, as tattoos, we fight that. We've never been businessmen. Like we weren't businessmen back in the day. We just fucking tattooed like, you know, there was no you didn't have to have a business. You had a shop with a name on it.

01:08:28:09 - 01:08:29:12 Nixx It wasn't a fucking business.

01:08:29:16 - 01:08:30:02 Austin Tattoo.

01:08:30:05 - 01:08:49:07 Nixx The money came in. You pay the bills like it was just, like, done whatever. Like it wasn't like a business where you had teams of people doing this and that and like all this other shit, like, now it's like you have to run it like it's an actual business. You have to focus on marketing. You have to have, you know, just stay up with the content.

01:08:49:07 - 01:09:19:18 Nixx You have to have someone in the background of your website making sure that every fucking word catches an eye, sees all this stuff, you know what I mean? Like, it's it's like and that's what we been working on the last couple of years is making sure that we've got someone doing all that in the background so that every caption we put in, every photo that's on our website has the right wording around it, so that when someone searches it, we're going to come up and, you know, all that stuff that happens in the background, no one sees it.

01:09:19:21 - 01:09:41:20 Nixx Yeah, but if you've got someone within a certain radius of your shop that searches tattoo, if you've got the right people working for your shop's gonna come up first, you know what I mean? So it's like they're the little things that you got to understand about the tattooing business. Now, that make a big difference if you're trying to keep those alive.

01:09:41:22 - 01:09:42:11 Austin Yeah.

01:09:42:13 - 01:10:07:01 Nixx So that's what we've been working on. Just trying to keep that, especially as a new shop. You know, we we're not a household name in this. In a certain area of the city, because we have we've only been there three years. Yeah. You know what I mean? So it's trying to find the people looking for, for something.

01:10:07:03 - 01:10:15:06 Nixx You know, you draw a driver, and I look at all these people, I'm like, how can I just have a handful of these people? Not who. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean?

01:10:15:06 - 01:10:16:08 Austin Like, do I get this? Do I have.

01:10:16:08 - 01:10:33:05 Nixx To do, like, you know, like it's it. That's the thing that frustrates me on a daily basis is like, hey, like, we can post as many posts on Instagram and all this as we want, but there's there's other things that you have to do to get that recognition. You know what I mean?

01:10:33:07 - 01:10:38:07 Austin It's endless. Yeah. No. Like. Yeah. Yeah. I, I don't.

01:10:38:07 - 01:10:41:06 Nixx Know, I never thought you'd have to have someone on a computer like.

01:10:41:06 - 01:10:41:20 Austin All the time.

01:10:41:20 - 01:11:06:03 Nixx You know what I mean? Like doing, like, making sure that you Google business thing is attached to this keyword, and this not a thing. Like, it's just like it's. Yeah. It's insane. Yeah. And if you're not doing that, chances are you, unless you got a super strong foundation. You just won't survive. So that's, that's the that's our survival tactic right now.

01:11:06:03 - 01:11:13:05 Nixx So I think back to your question. The dreams are just to survive. Yeah.

01:11:13:07 - 01:11:39:17 Austin Right now I'm in the exact same place. You can't. It's just it's the hardest I've ever seen tattooing, from every aspect, from supplies, you know, to tattooing. It's it, I don't know, I just I just talked to my wife about it the other day. I was like, I feel kind of lost. I feel like I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing, but I, I, I, and I always had a very clear vision.

01:11:39:17 - 01:11:53:14 Austin And right now my vision is, like you said, you you said it really well too is it's cloudy. Like, I don't know what the fuck to do. I feel like I'm trying to do a million things and I'm never one to, like, sit around and cry about it, but at the same time it's like, fuck.

01:11:53:14 - 01:11:55:04 Nixx Like it's sad.

01:11:55:05 - 01:12:10:16 Austin Yeah, I like an hour long meeting with my Google person and like, I'm not, you know, there's no crybaby shit in there. It's just it's not the fun stuff. Yeah, that you have that you get to do right now or do you have to do to survive? Yeah. So I don't know.

01:12:10:16 - 01:12:20:11 Nixx Not I liked it better when I was tattooing six days a week and there was no gaps in my book, like it was just fucking full. You know what I mean? And like.

01:12:20:11 - 01:12:21:13 Austin Fun, because.

01:12:21:13 - 01:12:44:03 Nixx Tattooing is what we love to do, you know what I mean? And it's it's tough when you're not when you get those, those gaps, like, you just like. I mean, she knows she can testify to me being crazy when I'm not being creative like I. Yeah, yeah, I'm, I get stir crazy like I need to be creating and not only creating tattooing.

01:12:44:05 - 01:13:10:08 Nixx Yeah. Like, I just love tattooing because, you know, after 25 years of putting ink in people's skin, I still learn something new every time I tattoo. It's so weird. Like, it's so weird that people think it's so easy, but it's just one little thing you're do and you're like, oh shit. Like that. Black went in way better that time just because I move my hand this way or something like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:13:10:08 - 01:13:13:18 Nixx So small. But I mean it's yeah, it's, it's.

01:13:13:18 - 01:13:19:02 Austin That might change from the next client because the next client skin's completely different. Yeah. You know, it's a wild different.

01:13:19:02 - 01:13:45:01 Nixx Yeah. And and you know coming from Australia where a large percentage of the people are white, a lot of people attend, but a large percentage of people at white. And the the skin is different. You know, that's all I tattooed for a long time. You come out here and you got like different races, different, you know, melanin, all the things that happen inside the skin that you do not realize.

01:13:45:01 - 01:13:46:18 Nixx It's it's different. You got to completely like.

01:13:46:18 - 01:13:48:16 Austin Adjust and re approach. Oh yeah.

01:13:48:18 - 01:13:52:09 Nixx It's completely different. Completely different technique.

01:13:52:09 - 01:13:56:14 Austin Less fading, more black higher contrast. Like I'm using the more.

01:13:56:15 - 01:14:19:05 Nixx Yeah. And even the way the skin reacts as the skin gets darker, it swells more quicker, like so it's like, yeah, you got to adjust to that. Like, you know, like, you know, like it's like the skin swelling very quickly, you know, and as it gets from white to dark, that's that time period gets quicker. You know what I mean.

01:14:19:05 - 01:14:26:14 Nixx So it's like all those little things like that you had I had no idea about that until I moved here. Yeah. And now I'm just saying Holy. Yeah.

01:14:26:16 - 01:14:27:08 Austin Yeah. That's really.

01:14:27:08 - 01:14:39:18 Nixx Fast. Like from start from all over again. You know what I mean? Like trying to learn how to tattoo different people. So, you know, there's, there's a new thing to learn every day, every time you pick the machine up. Yeah.

01:14:39:18 - 01:14:53:08 Austin That's what also keeps us alive, too. You know, the constant challenges, the shit being thrown at us. You know, and. Yeah, figuring it out and, it just kind of makes it like. Well, my day wasn't boring today. That's why I always tried to look at it. I was like, oh, a bum threw fucking poop at me.

01:14:53:08 - 01:14:58:20 Nixx You're like, yeah, but every day, yeah. Oh, she's got some great stories.

01:14:58:20 - 01:15:03:20 Sabina I think I'm going to start an Instagram with just all the crazies that we have outside of our shop.

01:15:03:20 - 01:15:05:20 Austin And yeah, it's it's ridiculous.

01:15:05:22 - 01:15:23:02 Sabina And I'm the one that has to deal with them because they're tattooing. And so it's like now I just, I just keep the door locked because I was like, I can't even deal with it anymore. It's so ridiculous. And the stuff that I have to deal with is like road bananas, completely bananas. Like, yeah, making people, you know.

01:15:23:08 - 01:15:24:00 Nixx Yeah.

01:15:24:02 - 01:15:25:09 Sabina Shitting on the building.

01:15:25:09 - 01:15:26:08 Nixx Like.

01:15:26:10 - 01:15:30:08 Austin That's like the, the theme lately. The last like, buddy from Downtown Tattoo.

01:15:30:08 - 01:15:32:09 Sabina He was, I'm sure he sees it free model.

01:15:32:09 - 01:15:37:04 Austin So he was like, why do they shit on the wall? Like I get that.

01:15:37:06 - 01:15:38:21 Sabina I don't get it either.

01:15:38:23 - 01:15:42:02 Nixx I don't know, they're just like, oh, I need to know something about that.

01:15:42:03 - 01:15:45:21 Sabina Yeah, she's amazing, like in there, but on the wall or something. Yeah. No idea.

01:15:45:21 - 01:15:55:20 Austin I don't like literally just had a meeting this last week. I was like, I think I need to buy a pressure washer. Like, I don't know what that is on the wall, but that's me fucking gone and I can't get it off with a bucket. I fucking.

01:15:55:22 - 01:15:56:18 Nixx Sponge.

01:15:56:20 - 01:16:11:14 Sabina We have people that come out of the bushes and like, medical gowns and stuff because the hospital is right there. And so we find, like, we find all kinds of crazy stuff, and there's wheelchairs left in front of the shop all the time, and, it's there's overdosing all the time.

01:16:11:15 - 01:16:30:15 Nixx Tattooer in the apartments near us. You just be shot twice because the dude who was tattooing was on meth, and he fucking took a hit while he was getting tattooed and lost his mind. Become a whole fucking different person. No. Well, it was like a whole thing. Like the swat came. It was like a standoff. They had him, like, kidnaped in there.

01:16:30:20 - 01:16:48:04 Nixx He got shot twice in the leg like. And then he was like in the hospital would come in. He's trying to sell me his medical supplies. I'm like, dude, I don't let's get the fuck out of you. Like he's all fucked up. I'm like, dude, get the fuck out of here. Like, don't touch anything. Yeah, just get out.

01:16:48:06 - 01:16:59:21 Austin When I was younger, I felt like those, interactions were a little more entertaining than, like, stressful. But then older I got and and it was just the. So consistent. You're just like, shut the fuck up. And, you know.

01:16:59:21 - 01:17:00:22 Sabina Patients.

01:17:01:00 - 01:17:16:18 Austin Are getting substantially more like violent and crazy. Oh yeah. And the drugs are there now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now I like my new method is I approach them with a bottle of water. I'm like, hey man, I'm trying to open my front door. It won't open if you're fucking sleeping in front of it. You know, like, I know this is cool.

01:17:16:18 - 01:17:22:10 Austin You built a house, you like all this stuff, like, well, I was gone today, but, you know, I need.

01:17:22:11 - 01:17:24:16 Nixx You to move. You been evicted, motherfucker?

01:17:24:22 - 01:17:28:18 Austin Yeah. And they're just like, oh, this are yelling at you. And it's.

01:17:28:19 - 01:17:30:12 Sabina A closing. And I'm thinking.

01:17:30:14 - 01:17:36:07 Austin This is biggest stars, craziest dudes to. And I'm like, oh fuck. Are like, are the women even or like really?

01:17:36:07 - 01:17:37:07 Sabina While like.

01:17:37:08 - 01:17:47:23 Austin I always joke around, I'm like, Vegas is the only place where the homeless girls have huge fake boobs. Like, I've seen it twice in my parking lot. I'm like, what the fuck is happening?

01:17:48:01 - 01:17:52:10 Nixx I started as a stripper and they ended up being a method. Yeah, yeah.

01:17:52:10 - 01:17:56:10 Austin Streets with yeah, we're in a wife beater. I'm like, it's so weird.

01:17:56:12 - 01:18:01:23 Sabina We have cops in our parking lot in our neighborhood every day for every dude. Yeah, yeah.

01:18:02:00 - 01:18:03:15 Austin We have a mini person, a small.

01:18:03:20 - 01:18:04:05 Sabina No.

01:18:04:05 - 01:18:15:19 Austin Small person. There is a female and she rides a children's bike around and smokes fucking crack or whatever she does. I don't know the drugs, but she just rides around in circles and then she just takes off and like, just some, like.

01:18:15:21 - 01:18:16:20 Nixx Space.

01:18:16:22 - 01:18:28:05 Sabina Opera music up at the 7-Eleven, by our place to keep them all away from hanging out. And so you, they'll put it so loud that you can hear all the way down to our tattoo shop, because they're just trying to get rid of everybody.

01:18:28:07 - 01:18:47:22 Nixx Push them all down. So it's us. Well, I used to, you know, I used to, like I said, I used to spend a lot of time with cartoon, and his shop was on Skid Row. Yeah. You know, Skid Row area. And I used to go home with all these wild stories. Man, I never thought I'd be in the fucking same situation with it, you know what I mean?

01:18:47:22 - 01:18:54:13 Nixx Like, I did, I thought that was like this. Some weird, like, little thing that existed in a bubble, you know, like.

01:18:54:13 - 01:18:57:00 Austin But it wasn't like that when I was here growing up.

01:18:57:00 - 01:18:57:23 Sabina No, I was.

01:18:57:23 - 01:19:09:23 Austin Two homeless people, and, like, I knew them. And one was the Indian lady. She had these long braids we call her. I was a little kid, you know, super tan. And. And then the one was a crazy guy that was out on rainbow. And then that was it. It was.

01:19:09:23 - 01:19:23:13 Sabina Never crazy. Crackheads all over the street and homeless people out here at all like the city was. So the city's turning into L.A. Now. I feel like it's wild. It's so different. It's not like what it was at all. Like it's sucks.

01:19:23:15 - 01:19:31:22 Austin The traffic is tough. I'm like, now I have to drive. It takes an hour to get here to, you know, like, wow. So, like, especially on the way home. So I do a lot of audiobooks, like.

01:19:31:22 - 01:19:32:06 Nixx Yeah.

01:19:32:07 - 01:19:33:12 Austin Try to keep it positive.

01:19:33:14 - 01:19:53:09 Nixx I've only been here Nelly. Well, seven and a half years or something like that. And just in that time it's changed. Well, I mean yeah, Covid changed everything. Like, let's not, let's not be here and the bush, like, changed the way that we live. You know, it changed the way people move. It changed everything about life in general.

01:19:53:09 - 01:20:02:19 Nixx Like so yeah, that I sort of got here just before that time and then watched it completely change while I. Me yeah.

01:20:02:21 - 01:20:19:03 Austin I love it. I was watching podcasts. Another one of you the other day and I love how in love and with Vegas and the history of Vegas that you got and you infuse into your brand, it's it's really cool. It feels good to me because I just grew up here and I absolutely love this place. And I'm like traveling around the world, like always.

01:20:19:03 - 01:20:23:11 Austin Like Las Vegas is the best, you know? Yeah. And then it's cool to see people like, share like, well.

01:20:23:11 - 01:20:45:17 Nixx It's funny because like the research I did and then like, you know, I travel around the city and seeing the different areas and stuff like that. And then you like, talk to people who have lived here the whole life and they don't even know the story. Yeah. You know what I mean? Of, like, how Vegas actually started, how it got its name since city, like the block 16 stuff, all that sort of stuff.

01:20:45:17 - 01:21:13:13 Nixx Like, a lot of people haven't been, you know, told about it or. No, they just. Vegas just appeared, you know what I mean? Like, it's. But there was an actual really fucking cool story on how it came about, you know? I mean, so, yeah, that's all I, I, you know, I did get a slack from people who have been here the whole life who thought I was just trying to come in and, like, use the city's name and make money.

01:21:13:13 - 01:21:16:10 Nixx And I was like, man, that's not what it's about. You know what I mean? Like, I.

01:21:16:15 - 01:21:18:23 Austin Always be fucking haters, dude.

01:21:19:01 - 01:21:29:10 Nixx That's the last thing I was thinking about. Like, I just wanted to embrace this. I moved here, I moved my whole life here. Yeah, like I moved everything I know here. Yeah. So it's like.

01:21:29:16 - 01:21:31:03 Sabina Because I told him is the best place.

01:21:31:06 - 01:21:45:03 Nixx Yeah. And I had to embrace that, like, yeah, I, I couldn't sit at home and fight it. I had to embrace it. Like, if you don't adapt and overcome, you just going to become better all the time. You know what I mean?

01:21:45:03 - 01:21:59:08 Austin If you're not happy here, you won't be happy there. You won't. You know, it's you're you're just going to repeat your cycle. If you don't just try to find the light in whatever the fuck you're doing or whoever you're surrounding yourself with. Sounds like you keep yourself around like good, positive people too, you know? Yeah. And like, don't waste time with fucking.

01:21:59:08 - 01:22:22:05 Nixx That's that's one great thing about moving here was I never had as bad as it sounds. I never had time for many friends when I was in Australia because I was so busy all the time. Yeah, and it wasn't just tattooing like I've always had at least one other business going at the same time, sometimes up to three other ones, like, damn, you know.

01:22:22:06 - 01:22:43:16 Nixx So it's like, I never as soon as I finished tattooing and busy as fuck, like all the time. So every night after tattooing, I would then start on a business. And that's why I've never really been a big drink or anything, because I never had time to do any of that shit. Yeah, the downfall of that was losing a lot of relationships.

01:22:43:19 - 01:22:53:06 Nixx I could never hold a good relationship. I could never have friends or anything like that because I just didn't have time. And you can only say no. There's so many times before.

01:22:53:06 - 01:22:54:08 Austin You reach out to you and.

01:22:54:09 - 01:23:19:00 Nixx You don't get those invites, you know what I mean? But moving here and starting from scratch and having that time, I've developed some really awesome friendships, you know, with some really great people. Which to me feels like a bit of good karma coming back. You know, I like having some people in your life that are really good and, you know, have the same, you know, mindset.

01:23:19:00 - 01:23:45:02 Nixx And, you know, these are successful people that have helped push us, given us more help than anyone, ever, without even asking for and with nothing for them in return. You know, like, there's no they're not you know, these people are just helping us build our business and do all these things, without asking for anything, which is like to me is like, it's mind blowing.

01:23:45:02 - 01:23:51:17 Nixx Yeah, that's it's mind blowing that there's people out there that will do that because it's very right, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:23:51:19 - 01:23:56:02 Austin Just gotta be positive. Surround yourself with the right fucking people and just keep pushing, you know? Yeah.

01:23:56:03 - 01:24:18:20 Nixx It's true. I mean, if you hang out with losers, you will be the next loser. Yeah. That's it's, you know, it's a cliche thing, but it's so true. Like, if you hang out with people that, positive and doing great things and pushing themselves constantly, then you're gonna find that you want to do that. Yeah. Hang out with a bunch of losers like you can try and bring them up to where you are.

01:24:18:21 - 01:24:28:02 Nixx Yeah, but they gonna drag you into their shit like it's. You're not gonna ever bring them up to where you're trying to be. So you have to kind of go.

01:24:28:06 - 01:24:43:19 Austin Level up to get to get up and change your friends over the years, too. I found like being an entrepreneur is pretty fucking lonely. You know, it's like, yeah, yeah. And and right now, even, like, I'm like, always have an excuse not to go hang out with somebody, you know, like, oh, well, I could do this or I could do that.

01:24:43:19 - 01:25:04:10 Austin And, I'm trying to like, switch that up a little bit, like take time to network with people that are doing similar things. So I don't know, I kind of want to start like buddy had as a little group of buddies or that's, that's known as friends, successful friends that own tattoo shops. And he said sometimes they get together and they go for bike rides or some shit.

01:25:04:11 - 01:25:07:11 Austin I'm like, I want to. I kind of want to be invited to that.

01:25:07:13 - 01:25:08:20 Nixx Like, yeah.

01:25:08:22 - 01:25:14:07 Austin That sounds cool. Yeah, he invited me. Yes. But, but yeah, it would be cool. Maybe we can get us all together sometime, you know?

01:25:14:09 - 01:25:15:13 Nixx Yeah. Yeah, sure. Yeah.

01:25:15:13 - 01:25:19:00 Austin Just learn from each other and help each other out. It's like, I think, incredibly important.

01:25:19:01 - 01:25:36:23 Nixx Yeah, well, I mean, we just. We just got a Harley. Because we got to friends that have, like, five couples in their little group. Oh, cool. And they do overnight rides, I travel, I go to Sturgis, I do all these things and, you know, we've been talking about the RV thing and all that for a long time.

01:25:37:01 - 01:25:57:18 Nixx I think the Harley's a next step where we can actually just get away, pack the bike up, jump on, go for a ride, see some really cool fucking landscape because it's so much the landscape, you know what I mean? And just decompress. Like, yeah, you can find the time to do that and you to do really like.

01:25:57:18 - 01:26:02:18 Austin And then after me, like two weeks or something, you know, just an afternoon to go out to like Boulder City or something, you know.

01:26:02:20 - 01:26:06:07 Nixx And it's been great. We've done a couple of rides so far and we love it. You know, it's.

01:26:06:09 - 01:26:07:12 Austin Red Rock we have.

01:26:07:13 - 01:26:07:21 Nixx Yeah.

01:26:07:22 - 01:26:10:16 Austin So endless areas within a, you know, an hour from there.

01:26:10:17 - 01:26:14:11 Nixx That's all good. So you guys ride and like push bikes down town.

01:26:14:13 - 01:26:21:10 Austin Is that what he does I haven't gone yet but yeah because you can try this. Like I have a big report. Two PJ rippers. All right. Yeah. And you, you have them or whatever.

01:26:21:10 - 01:26:22:22 Nixx But yeah, we've got a few blocks.

01:26:22:22 - 01:26:27:07 Austin Yeah. So yeah, we have a couple of those that we ride or like around, like Boulder City and stuff, but.

01:26:27:11 - 01:26:29:10 Nixx Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you live out that way?

01:26:29:14 - 01:26:40:22 Austin And I, yeah. So with my wife and I have, like, invested in an old ass house there, we've been redoing it for the last couple of years. All right. And we're just finally able to hang out there. So yeah, we'll be out there. So if you guys ride the bike out there on the weekends or whatever, come back and say hi, it's not.

01:26:40:22 - 01:26:45:17 Austin So. Yeah, just text me like, I know it's like a big bike thing to go out to, like the cup of coffee.

01:26:45:21 - 01:26:47:17 Nixx Yeah. So we'll be okay.

01:26:47:19 - 01:26:48:23 Sabina I mean. Yeah, yeah.

01:26:49:00 - 01:26:51:22 Austin Oh, bro. Text me. I'm like, literally like, walking distance from.

01:26:51:22 - 01:27:00:20 Nixx All right. Yeah. Last weekend we did the big Valley of Fire loop and. Oh, yeah. How did you ended up in in Boulder City for lunch and then. Oh fuck. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool.

01:27:00:20 - 01:27:14:21 Austin I just want to thank you guys so much for taking the time to do this. I really I just wanted to reach out to you because I do love what you're doing, and you guys are doing a fantastic job, and I think we all need to fucking hear that right now. We need about each other on the back every once in a while because it's fucking hard right now.

01:27:14:23 - 01:27:22:22 Austin But you guys are fucking doing it and it stands out and it helps, you know, it brings a positive attention when we're doing things like that. So appreciate you having us.

01:27:22:23 - 01:27:25:20 Nixx Thank you Rachel. Yeah it's awesome. Yeah.

01:27:25:20 - 01:27:31:06 Austin It's very nice to meet you. And I think when we judge the tattoo contest together, for Viva Las Vegas.

01:27:31:11 - 01:27:32:11 Sabina For so long, I.

01:27:32:11 - 01:27:36:01 Austin Guess, we were doing a lot of work with Celia Taylor.

01:27:36:01 - 01:27:36:06 Sabina Jerry.

01:27:36:11 - 01:27:42:08 Austin And they had, like, a car built on that stuff. And then we were doing, like, a pop up event with them or something. Yeah, that's like, kind of the only time that we.

01:27:42:08 - 01:27:43:01 Sabina Know.

01:27:43:03 - 01:27:51:18 Austin That it was just on stage for two seconds, right? Yeah. But thank you guys for coming by. Be sure to check them out. How can we find you on Instagram?

01:27:51:18 - 01:27:59:20 Nixx My Instagram is nyx underscore SNC. And we have the shop one at Smalls and Christ Tattoo.

01:27:59:20 - 01:28:04:11 Sabina And mine is at Sabina Kelly, it's Sabina, Katie Lillywhite.

01:28:04:15 - 01:28:06:17 Austin And then you guys have a YouTube two right view for your.

01:28:06:18 - 01:28:08:16 Nixx We we try and do that. You know I.

01:28:08:18 - 01:28:11:20 Austin I started it like ten years ago and now I'm trying to get back into it. Yeah.

01:28:11:20 - 01:28:23:03 Nixx It's it's it's hard. Like I think finding content is the hardest thing in like constantly you know keeping it up. Yeah. We try. Yeah. We got YouTube and Tik-Tok and all that sort of stuff. So cool.

01:28:23:06 - 01:28:29:11 Austin Yeah, well, if you're ever in Vegas, please stop by, check them out. They do a fantastic job. I'm going to try to get over there this next week.

01:28:29:16 - 01:28:30:18 Nixx Right on.

01:28:30:20 - 01:28:41:04 Austin So thank you guys. Please, subscribe to the YouTube. It's, it's it's growing slowly, but we're having a good time doing it. And I appreciate you guys for tuning in. Thanks, everyone, and have a good night.

Who were you drawing back there like when you first started getting into tattooing? I think just all the same shit that I'm doing now, but just shitty versions of it, you know what I mean? Skulls and snakes and flowers and all that stuff started doing weird skulls and funky looking stuff. And I just kind of do the same version of that now, but better. Today on the podcast Brett Rose Pilar, Las Vegas born and raised tattooer, muralist and co-owner of One Block Las Vegas. being inspired by tattoo artwork, has gone back pretty far for me. just looking in magazines, Having the right people behind you and also having, the right crew of friends and family around you to to support you and keep you grounded is really important. And all those guys are that.

Yeah, we talk about what actually makes a tattoo shop work, why most shop owners fail before they even get started, and how Brett built one block by focusing on the right people, the right culture, and a shop that actually feels good to be in. I'm Austin Spencer, and this is support your local tattooer. dude. Thanks so much for coming by. Thanks for having me. We got Bret Rose Tyler in the house. Welcome to support your local tattooer BPP beer, which we need, like a little soundboard. Yeah, maybe we should have some some some awesome bits.

So what's up, man? How's things dude? Everything's really good, man. Everything's been great. Great. Yeah. You've had, like, some, some big changes. You were like, well, a couple of years, and now.

Right, you open Yeah, yeah. Huge changes. I opened up one block with DJ Tab here in Las Vegas. Just been, you know, nurturing that for the past two and a half years. We've been open now, and, like, it's going really, really well. Time flies. Dude. time fucking flies, Yeah!

Whoo! Some interesting changes going from a tattooer to shop owner. I wouldn't say too many challenges or. You know what I mean. DJ and his wife make it really easy to like, you know, maneuver through owning the thing. And, you know, she's super organized, so she keeps us, you know, on the level. And. Yeah, it just works really well.

I couldn't say that we've had many challenges yet. It's like everything's just kind of manifesting exactly the way I thought it would. Honestly. Yeah. Yeah, it's been great. Yeah. No complaints at all. Honestly?

good, because having having the right people behind you is everything, dude. Yeah. Having the right people behind you and also having, like, the right crew of friends and family around you to to support you and keep you grounded is really important. And all those guys are that. Yeah. like you guys really have, like, a very good, healthy culture that Yeah. Yeah. And extremely motivating.

I'm. I'm assuming. extremely motivated. Yeah. I mean, I have the best tattooers in the world tattooing right next to me. So, Yeah, it's a it's a big deal to me. Yeah. For sure.

I don't, you know, take it as I don't take it very lightly. It's like very, very important to me. Yeah. No, not not a bit. So you've been in Vegas for a while, right? Yeah. Well, I was born and raised here. Born and raised.

Damn. Oh, then I kind of want to reverse back to, like, when the, like, shit. When were someone, like, the first, like, inspirational. Like like tattoo things that stood out to you first inspirational tattoo things. you even just seeing I mean being being inspired by tattoo artwork, has gone back pretty far for me. I mean, just looking in magazines, you know what I mean? Yeah. Right out of high school was when I, when I found tattooing and started doing that.

So, you know, back then, you kind of had to work to find that contact. You know, you couldn't just jump on social media and see all the best tattoo work and artwork out there. So you kind of had to know, you know, where, what mediums to find, you know, the cool stuff and like the really good tattoos and, you know, that's that's that's what I did. I searched pretty deep to find like, what I liked. And once I started really getting inspired by certain people's work, I think it kind of jumped me into enjoying tattoo art more and and kind of more focusing on that. Yeah. Yeah. Were you like me?

Did you kind of emerge from, like, just watching graffiti and then seeing graffiti guys get into tattooing? I think that was probably a little bit later for me. I started seeing some of the guys that I was watching doing graffiti, kind of come into tattooing, and by that point I was already tattooing too. So I'm feeling like I was part of that, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so you're a little bit older than me. Do you ever go down to, like, Tower Records and, like, dig through, like, all the graffiti magazines and and, tattoo magazines at the time?

The big one on Sahara Tower Records. Yeah. Tower records, big B's, Odyssey Records. I was, I was frequenting all those places. Yeah, tower records had a good, good selection of magazines, so I was always in there stealing them, for sure. My dad was into Harleys, too, so we just had, like, a lot of tattoo like culture Yeah. Yeah, that was some some of the first magazines you could see tattoos in were, you know what I mean, like the book and Easy Rider or whatever it was. Yeah.

thing. Do you remember, like, what was it I still have a lot of those. I still have some of those old, old magazines. Some of the first like tattoo content I had, I still got Who were you drawing back there like when you first started getting into tattooing? I think just all the same shit that I'm doing now, but just shitty versions of it, you know what I mean? Skulls and snakes and flowers and all that stuff I've always kind of been into. Like, I started out tattooing what, the same shit I'm doing now. Yeah.

You didn't go through, like, I like tribal phases and stuff I didn't have like, a huge, like a many year gap of trying to, like, find myself. I kind of right when I jumped in, I started doing weird skulls and, and and funky looking stuff. And I just kind of do the same version of that now, but better. polished. Yeah, yeah, Dang. So all. Who are you like first? How'd your apprenticeship go or how did you get into tattooing?

I kind of fell into tattooing just looking for an art form that I could, you know, take and be career driven by. Yeah. I was, I think, in high school, probably looking more to do, like a graphic design gigs. And I think I got a little bit of experience, like watching other people that were already established in that, and they weren't really doing, like their own personal creative projects there, or working for a company or a thing or not necessarily doing their own personal work. And that, I think, pushed me more into tattooing where I seen, like creating from your own personal, you know what I mean? Bank was is way more important and unique than most other art careers out there. Yeah, We get spoiled. I mean, most of us, as long Yeah.

As long as you're making cool stuff continue to try to push and you're consistent. Yeah, you're going to be doing that for a long time. Probably. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Tattooing you saw you saw stability in tattooing even back then I seen like strong stability in tattooing. Even though we weren't making the type of money that we are now, it's still worked. And I was out at the shop every day and I was motivated.

And, you know, I convince all my friends family to get tattoo by me and anybody who was willing to sit down, I'll tattoo them, you know. So I think that kind of persistence does go a long way. to showing If you hold on to it, you should fucking show up. Just show up. You don't have to be the best but you fucking show up every day Something's going to happen. Something good is going to happen quote he said the other day He was like I don't know what the fuck I'm doing but I'm going to show up but I'm there. Figure it out. Well, I fucking still there, dude.

And you just and you progress better and better every single day As long as you're putting that time and energy and that love into it Correct. you're seeing it dude You're seeing I mean, I'm seeing it for me Thank you. It's it's fucking fantastic, Thank you. I was like diving deep on your Instagram and your progression and your style, your color palettes unique. Thank you. you have this unique, in a world where light of neo trad female faces, you have your own unique kind of this, like Gypsy, you're kind of going. It's like, almost like Gypsy makes. I mean, yeah, it's just it's it's hard to stand out nowadays because a lot of what you see is copy and paste and filtered through the same things over and over again So to have any type of uniqueness in your work at all is really special Yeah.

You and I see in your tattooing I see the way you kind of like posterize your like flat image like the shapes of your color and everything Yeah. do it in your murals too So like yeah, I try to keep things pretty simple and easy to understand easy to read Well, for longevity two for tattooing I mean, it's not like a bunch of heavy blends that could be potentially like torn up or Yeah, yeah, yeah. I try to keep it pretty simple Yeah, yeah. Easy to understand. Easy for me to execute to. Yeah. Yeah. So you kind of.

You're like, all map it out to where it's almost like, color by number, Yeah. You know, it's like. Yeah. Just so simple and bold. And it looks like it's built to last, Yeah, yeah. I, you know, I push like more detail and, you know, more color blends in certain pieces that I feel like needs it. Yeah. You know what I mean.

But for the most part I try to keep it as simple as possible. For all those reasons that you just said. Yeah, it looks great, dude. I'm right. I've really enjoyed it. And like, I'm a huge fan of, skulls and anybody that's illustrating skulls constantly, you know. Thank you. Yeah.

like, you're real like, your reapers are some of the fucking hardest reapers out there, thanks to OG. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks. Yeah. real cool, man. Pride. You know, pride myself on good Reaper.

You know, that's, He's inspired me. I want to sit down and do some reapers or I need to get a reaper from you that would, you know, yeah. So everything like you been keeping keep it inspired. You guys do quite a bit like convention wise. You guys I would say, you know, when you say we, as the shop, we just did a convention all together. Everybody showed up in Iowa two weeks ago, and that was really good. I had a great time doing that. That was the first time we've done, like, a whole shop trip where we all.

Yeah, where we all showed up. But, I'm only doing maybe a couple conventions a year. Yeah, yeah. Right now I'm not really, you know, I mean, I'm not really out there that much of, you know, I like being home with the fam and the dogs and, you know, stuffing the plants and make sure everything's good. And yeah, that's really peaceful for me. So You kids are older. You've toured, I yeah, I have two daughters, 117 and one seven. Oh okay.

Yeah. Yeah. It's about a ten year gap there. Yeah. That's awesome. I Enjoy being a dad. I love it at the best. Yeah.

At ten years old I started over and I was like let's have another one. You know let's do this again. I had my first one when I was 24. So you know, I was, I was really trying to, you know, create some kind of stability in my life. So I was really focused on, you know, career and doing all those things when she was young. So I feel like I did like, you know, miss some things. And in with my new daughter, I'm trying to, like, get that back and really, you know, like, you know, appreciate these these young years, you know, while she's little because I see my oldest daughter get old and that's it's hard. it's it's awesome to see her, you know, grow and and be her own person.

But at the same time, I miss, you know, her being a little nugget too. Yeah. It's the best time ever. Minor, just turned five and seven, Yeah, it's the best. So this you come home the young daddy. Daddy said oh, it's the best, best fucking feeling ever. I want to record it when you're just. When you see me and you come running to me every day, I'm like, fortunate enough because because of our flexibility in what we do, I'm able to pick them up every day.

Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah, it's it's important. It's really important. You feel like you're finding a good, like, work life balance. Yeah. Balance is super important to me. So.

Yeah. Yeah, I feel like, You know what I mean? It gets wonky here and there, and, you see, you have to prioritize certain things, you know, over family sometimes, but that's just part of living, you know? So you make up for it when you're when you're in your downtime. Right. What's your work week like you do four days a I'm usually five days a week in the shop, Tuesday through Saturday, noon to six or something like that. Yeah. not terrible.

You do a lot of your drawing and everything there. Do you I do most of my drawing at home. Yeah, yeah, Okay. yeah. Usually a couple days before the night before I'm like in bed watching Netflix and drawing for hours. Yeah. I mean, I used to be in my office just at the, the drawing table for hours and hours, hunched over on my chair, you know, yeah. but now it's like with the iPad, kind of just take it wherever through the house and, you know, work on things as you move around, do stuff.

It's it's pretty incredible. Yeah. lot of your illustration just on iPad For the most part, yeah. I do a lot of just like sketching and just roughing simple stuff out of my head on paper and, you know, little sketchbooks and things. And sometimes I'll take that stuff and take picture of it with the iPad and then, you know, I'll run that. It's hard But but mainly it's sketching on the iPad. And that's so easy fluid for me. I the second I touched it, I don't know, I really.

It took me some time to get used to like the plastic on glass feel. Yeah, because it doesn't have that gritty pencil to paper where you can really feel it. You know, Well you know, I, I struggle so much with, I work with like tracing paper and light tables and color and colored pencils forever. And I was, oh, I just draw, like, real hard. And I'm just going through a pencil like, every, you know, 30 minutes and you're drawing. And so I don't know why. It's just like I found this ability just to, like, be loose and like, not. It's almost like I could fucking relax with it or something.

Yeah, well, I mean, and you have every application, every tool out there to be successful. You just have to find the shit that works for you, too. Yeah, Yeah. So that's like, I don't know, I mean, I fucking like, like I don't want to jump all over the place, but that kind of leads me into like, your murals and stuff too. Was like, do you do a lot of all of that through the iPad too? And yeah, the mural stuff is now all iPad driven. Yeah, yeah. That's cool.

Yeah. and stuff. So I tend to use a projector if I can. A lot of spaces won't allow you to if you're, tight. Yeah, if you're a tight space or there's too much light or you can't back up far enough to get a big wall or, you know, whatever it might be. But if I can. Yes, I'm using that projector to get it on there. do it.

And for the listeners, like it. If you don't know, you got to get in and check out Brett's, murals. Like you, I don't even know how many times during, like, just going out in town, I run across your murals here in Las Vegas. It's like crazy, Thank you. Yeah, it's, it's like everywhere. I got a lot of them out there. Yeah. eat, like, Greek food the other day, and I look up and I was like, okay, America.

Nice. Good. Good spot. Really good spot. Yeah, I they have a ton of locations. I probably done 7 or 8 zoos for them now. Yeah, Centennial one. yeah, yeah, All right.

Dude. Great guys. The guys who own that place or they're awesome dude. Shout out to them. And that's been like, a like a big I don't want to call it a side hustle, but it's, it seems like it's almost like half of your workweek, Yeah, I mean, I think we could probably call it a side hustle. Hustle. Yeah. But, you know, it's, it's it's pretty pretty lucrative for me.

So it's. I call it a side hustle. Seems to kind of downplay it a little bit. It's definitely something I do less than tattooing about the shop every day. But, yeah, the mural stuff stays pretty consistent Yeah. So I've always got a job I'm working on somewhere doing some Yeah, I love it. oh yeah. And you're fucking good at it Thank you.

I really really enjoy seeing your work You scale things so well and back to, like, just your style like crosses over into tattooing and back and forth on the murals But just the color palettes and everything are so strong dude. And I feel like. Thank you. I feel like I learned a while back that, I needed some some consistency between my tattoo work and like, the mural work that I was starting to do because a lot of people were starting to like, you know, connect the two. Yeah. So I realized that, all right, I have to make my stuff really noticeably. Me. Yeah.

So, you know, you might see a mural out there of a giant hawk or something, and it might look just like a tattoo that I might have made for somebody. So, you know, I feel like that's a really valuable thing to. You know what I mean? To be noticed like that, has that been a challenge to, like, always get clients on board with that same style or not necessarily. I think most people that are hiring me already know the type of work I do and are familiar with what I'm going to provide them already. So yeah, I just do that, and I most of the time I get the best response from like doing what I think is best or doing what I think is, you know what I mean, the right way. Or what if I if I'm really into something, I feel like that's when I'm going to get the best response from my client or whoever's hiring me for that job.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I mean literally seeing your stuff like in from alleys downtown to Allegiant Stadium, like, Atomic Golf, like doing massive murals and in highly trafficked, like, really cool places. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, you can find my work anywhere from, you know, the Raider Stadium to down in the tunnels underneath the stadium. So, I'm willing to do the thing. did you have, like, a long history of, say, you know, the illegal graffiti I'm always been really, I've always. I've always been really intrigued by graffiti and involved in it in, in a way.

But it's never been my, my focus, you know what I mean? It's just something that I enjoy. I, I like watching the scene. I like knowing the, the the guys and you know what I mean? It's just something that I like. So I keep in tap, you know? So I partake here and there, but I'm so busy with life and work that, you know, that's like something I do for fun here and there. Yeah, loose a little everyone.

So yeah, that's fun to get out there. Explore, you know what I mean? Get around and, you know, just get out in the streets with your friends and, yeah, you know, make some art somewhere. It's fun. Yeah. Very liberating. You know, doing something not for you. You know what I mean?

For monetary gain or anything. Just just have fun. Sculptures and paint on the walls. Feels good. Yeah, I don't know, I was just downtown recently. I saw some, God, what am I brain farting the fucking the the rapper, the mask, the The MF doom. Doom. Yeah, yeah.

Just like, as soon as it came out of my mouth, I'm like, yeah. It was like, right now. And there are those. MF doom yeah, I did last right before Christmas last year and got a great response from it. Just like I said, like one of those things you do for no monetary gain. No, you're not doing it for anybody specifically, just for myself, you know what I mean? We had an older one there that got, the yeah, it just got tagged over by other graffiti artists. So, you know, I went and did a brand new one because it was one of those pieces that just was like, loved by the community over there, you know, even though it was just a quick throw up, you know, kind of tribute to my man after he passed away that year.

Yeah. And, you know, when I redid is probably one of the best responses I got from a mural painting ever, like on, on social media, which was unexpected. You know, I was not expecting that. I mean, it's like, obviously another like, reflection of your style is just so bold and clean and just, I don't know, I love it because it's just very everything you do is very legible, Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That that one. I feel like that one struck because it looked really classic like I kind of took a few different album covers and ran right, right in between all of those and created something new So, you know, with seeing that mural, you might think like, oh, that's something I seen before, but yeah, it was my creation. Yeah, yeah.

And then know I was digging to you. I didn't realize you did. The giant rocket ship on the side of the area. 15. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like 90% of the big murals that are on the outer facade and, like, inner facade of the new area, 15.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where the universal horror is, it's totally open now. Yeah, yeah. I think there's a few businesses that haven't quite fully opened all the way, but universal horrors open. There's another thing over there called the Ark, which is like a 3D immersive experience ride, kind of like a universal thing, too. And then they got some like little restaurants and they're going to open a selfie museum right there and some other cool stuff. Hey, let me ask you this. Have you noticed that the better your tools are, the smoother everything feels in the shop here?

Maverick Supply Co we're serving a community that we're actively a part of. We want artists to have access to gear they can trust from people who actually understand tattooing and what it takes day to day. So if you want the tools that make the most sense for your tattooing business. Scan the QR code on screen or hit the link in the show notes below. Now back to the show. Any projects coming in town that you're like, you think you might be able to want to work on? I got some really big, important projects coming up. Stuff that I'd really like.

Don't want to discuss. You know what I mean? Just because I don't want to fucking ruin it before it even, you know what I mean? Secures itself. Yeah, but. Yeah, yeah. Big things coming. Yeah.

Big things coming. Always is. There's just I don't know, I mean, it seems like every major venue in town you've been able to, like, somehow fucking got in there, I don't know. Yeah. I got in there. Just, you know, just trustworthy guy. Yeah, you you show up and you put in the work, and and it's fucking good. And it's.

That's all. It's all they can Yeah, I'm there. And I give 100% every time. You know, I try my damn hardest to do you do much, collaborative work with the murals. Yeah, I do a lot of collaborative work. You know, I work with, one of my good friends, Dana Anderson. He has a group called the ISI group. Yeah.

And he has a ton of artists on his roster. And a lot of the projects we do, involves more than just me. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, I do a lot of, collaborative. Yeah. Mural work.

Yeah. you do much too. Collaborative tattoos. here and there. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we have like, a ton of collaborative tattoos going on at the shop. Yeah. I've gotten in on a couple of them, but, yeah, I'd like to do more.

Yeah, yeah. I never even really done one before, That's fun. It's fun. It's fun working with your friends, doing anything. You know what I mean? But you know what I mean. Getting to getting to do a big, fun tattoo on, like, you know, a fun client with your with your bud. How's it get better than that?

You know, You seem to like, keep yourself pretty, like, low key as far as putting yourself out there, right? I mean, I am. Yeah, I'm not very good at social media or. Yeah. I just, you know, I just kind of do stuff how it feels right that day, you know what I mean? I'm not I'm not really that great at, you know, managing myself as a business. You know, I'm just good at creating every day. Yeah.

Maybe I should hire an art agent or something. One of them is out there. Yeah. Contact me. know, sometimes I wish I was, like, a little less entrepreneur driven Yeah. just let it out. You know? Yeah.

I always have to have a reason nowadays to, like, book time to paint and stuff So one of the reasons why Dane is so valuable to me, you know what I mean? Because he fulfills that, you know, part of my personality that, you know, I'm black and a little bit, you know, I'm just I'm the creative guy. I just come through and I just make stuff. Yeah, yeah, I make the stuff. And then I show up. Yeah. I mean, it's it's a it's a very, very fun to watch you work and stuff, but, so before you, before you were at one, like, you were you with. You were with Aaron That was an acronym in at at Heritage Tattoo on Sunset and Sand Hill in Las Vegas for 11 years, I think.

Yeah, 10 or 11 years. I was there. Yeah. Over a decade for sure. And I and I worked with Aaron before that at Pussycat Tattoo. I worked with them there for about four ish years or something. And he's the one who vouched for me to to get hired over there and them. Yeah, yeah, a lot.

I love that guy. Yeah. So did you open up heritage with him or. I mean, Well, he when we when he decided to start heritage and open up the shop. I stayed at Pussycat for, I don't know, I was a handful of months, maybe an extra 8 or 9 months or something, just to kind of smooth out everybody leaving because, you know. Yeah. Air and left and, you know, the the boss. Dirk.

He knew that I was planning on leaving too. And then Aaron took his apprentice. So that was three people essentially that he was losing at one. So I tried to hold a little bit of loyalty there and stayed at the shop for a little bit. And, you know, I basically just let those guys build it all out. And then I showed up when it was all done. That's awesome. How did your relationship with DJ get built up and how did you guys end up coming together.

J. is just a mutual friend that, you know, I've had in town for here for ever since I can remember. And, you know, he's just a huge inspiration for me. So, you know, he's always just somebody that I've valued their friendship. And, you know, we've talked about open in the shop for years, and at some point, like, I think it just finally came to be the right time to do it. Yeah. Yeah. So it was good.

You know, I was in a good place and, you know, he was ready. So we did the thing seems like just a real nice, like steady, like Yeah, he's very grounded and down to earth for being such a superstar. Honestly. You know, it's funny because I always forget I've never even seen Ink Master before. You. You should. You should watch it. It's a show about tattoos.

You like tattoos, right? don't really watch too much TV, but yeah, like so I, I just never even think of him as that. I just think of him as the dude that is super talented. There was that bad apple for years, Yeah. I've just really always enjoyed seeing his work and his illustration and stuff come Yeah. Like I know he's that and yeah, I see it every day, but I don't really, you know, I don't treat him like that. Guys treat him like It's funny. Yeah.

the homie you know. I'll watch it sometime. check it out. There are some good seasons man. The season the season that Bobby was on was really good. Bobby and Freddy, James. Tex. Yeah.

James Tex and his son just ruled that season. That's a good one to watch. You know what I mean? Yeah, there's a lots of good seasons with tons of great artists Over the years, they they really did bring in so much talent. And it was cool to see, like, the stubbornness of the tattoo to give in and then actual Yeah, you know, but I think the stubbornness kind of gave in because the show got more quality, too. Like it started off, I would say a little cheesy and maybe a little misunderstood. And then as they got better judges and better tattooers and kind of figured out how what they were doing a little bit, you know, everything became a lot more organic. And I think Tattooers appreciate that.

Real Tattooers. Yeah. And we see like, how it can change your whole career Oh, amazing. Yeah. Oh, I yeah, trust me, I had the I get the front row seat. Yeah. Of how it can just boost your career trajectory up into the it's it's top tiers. Yeah.

It's amazing. Yeah. And it's. What a cool thing that. What a cool thing to have, right? Like. Or would we rather have it or not. You know what I mean?

I think Ink Master has done a lot for, for tattooing industry in general. Yeah, lots of positive things. I mean, we can probably talk about a few negatives, but yeah, more positives and negatives for sure. Are you pretty good these days about staying away from all the negative shit? I've never really seen you as much. I'm. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I'm, No nonsense, no drama, no bullshit, no negativity kind of person. So you can bring that to me, but it'll it's going to fucking bounce right off of this. You know, I just, I can't I can't do it. Yeah. It just doesn't vibe with me. Yeah. Yeah. Anybody who knows anybody who knows me knows that I'm very even keel.

I'm the same person every day. I'm always in a good mood. I'm always super positive. And I try to push that on. You know, anybody I come in contact with? Yeah. It's too easy to get caught up in, in negativity. And it definitely doesn't help you or the people around know.

shape or form. So in a world full of hate and negativity. Like you have to bring as much love to that. Yeah, as you can to balance it all out. And you know, I'm more, more, more, more about balance. So yeah, I'm like some sometimes like, unfortunately a little too nice. And I have let like certain people kind of like let that shit in around me a little bit and then I just. But I'm pretty good about not, you know, letting it stick, Yeah.

Once it starts affecting you, you realize, like, oh, I have to do something about this, or it's because it's affecting me negatively. like, dude, I can't you got to go, bro. Like, I mean, It only takes one person And it just spreads like wildfire Yeah, it takes one person and fuck it all up. So it took me a lot of years over the years of like managing people and then in our peers and friends, finally being like, yo, I like being able to deliver the message in a good way. Like, Yeah. And you just to move on. Like, I just can't have that shit. Yeah.

You attract to the people that fit you best. You know what I mean? yeah, yeah. And I always just, you need like, ten Dos Franks in the shop, right. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Just people that are just, like, smiling and like that just, you know, it brings in the better vibes for the client too.

And everybody like overall it's just Yeah, way healthier just to stay fucking positive. If you feel shitty or you're negative, like go for a fucking walk, dude. Yeah. Good. Yeah. Having good good having good energy is is key. I feel like there lately there's just like too much, you know. Oh well there's a ton of.

Yeah there's a ton of bad shit going on. So it's like yeah you can really get caught up in that, you know what I mean. Or you can recognize it, be aware of it and then move on. Yeah, yeah. Try to focus on some more positive shit. you deal with some haters and stuff over the years. always. Yeah, yeah.

Putting your heart out there. Yeah. You got to have fucking, you got to have people that hate you. You know what I mean? Like if you don't, if you don't have those people then like, yeah, you're just not doing it enough. You know? Yeah. Yeah.

Kind of people are fucking just don't like you and they don't even know what. Yeah, you know, it's all right. So they'll figure it out them with a smile. I say, yeah, sometimes I'll even send them product or something like that, you know, just Yeah, just you overcome that, you know what I mean? It's like, who cares? Cares So I don't know. Yeah. Overall you do.

You like, like where you're at with tattooing and everything. I mean, it's fucking. Yeah. I feel like right now, you know, right now, you know, like we kind of already talked about. I have all these amazing artists working at the shop, it's incredibly inspirational. Like, it pushes me to just want to be, like, so much better, you know what I mean? Than, you know, how you get into this comfortable space where you make your stuff and everything's cool, and then, you know, someone comes around that really blows your mind, and it makes you go like, fuck, I can do better. Yeah, that's how I feel.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even though I'm really confident with what I'm creating, you know what I mean? I'm like, oh, I can do better. Yeah, yeah, there's always room for improvement and I'm trying to like, improve right now. Are you good at not being too hard on yourself, though? Now I'm super hard on myself. Yeah I know I'm super hard on my self. Just like I feel like we all are.

We're artists. We're like. You were incredibly sensitive about our work, and we only want to hear, like, the best things. But, you know, we're also students of the game no matter how long you've been doing it. So as I think as long as you stay in that mindset, you're going to keep growing. You know, once you once you say fuck it like, this is fine you then you plateau and know, I there's no reason to really even try any harder at that point Right? Just you're supposed to be. Yeah I don't think it's a very healthy place to be Want to always be growing you you ever growing small amounts You know, it's not like we have to fucking scale the whole mountain today I just want to, like, make a little bit of progress each day I love the shop that you guys put together too Like like the esthetics of it and everything It's kind of like this fine art gallery but it's got it's still got some great to it Thanks.

You know. Yeah. What? How did that come about? How did how did one we. What's the name? we decided on, I think, before even looking at any units that were available, We decided on opening up a shop that looked more like a art gallery. Yeah, because it does.

The esthetic that I think worked best for both of our personalities. Something really clean with bright artwork and like still being a comfortable place where you could get tattooed. But I don't think there's, you know, a ton of shops out there that really look like that. So we're just trying to do something a little different, you know, all the shops that I've ever worked in, I've been taxidermy on the walls and a ton of clutter, and not that I don't enjoy that. I love it, you know what I mean? What? It's what I've always been comfortable in. But, this new shop, we just wanted to try a little bit new esthetic, something a little bit cleaner and brighter.

Yeah, it's clean, it's bright, it's fun. But like I said, like, I mean, it's still just like the level of artwork. I mean, the amount of artwork in there is awesome. And they do the giant sculptures in the middle and everything. Thank you. Yeah, want to come by and do like a little video you should. Yeah. He said, please do.

Yeah. You guys got some great, like, art, like, it's like a lot of, like, reader one stuff and Yeah we are. Yeah. We got a lot of Michael Rieder stuff. J. have like, the same kind of taste in style of, like, you know, fashion artwork. So it was really easy to, like I had a lot of work, you know, a big collection of artwork that we put into the shop before we opened, so we didn't really have to, like, buy a bunch of artwork and get it in there. But since we've opened, we were like constantly switching out a lot of the paintings and a lot of art in there and trying to keep it fresh and new.

Yeah, yeah, Yeah, it's cool. Mean, I was even a DJ was giving me a little tour the other day, and, there was some beautiful work in there that he said was a client of yours. There was an electrician Yes. on the side. Yeah. His name is Nick. His Instagram is art at Wicked or Wicked Art. I forget exactly what, but he's, one of Emmanuel Sacred Crows older clients.

When he was working with us at the shop. And he's an electrician, he was, you know, he was off of work for all of December and I think part of January. So he was just at the shop with this painting for like four weeks straight. He did. He did, like, two giant paintings. He did a painting for TJ to paint for me. I think he did another small painting for Emanuel, and we have 2 or 3 of them up at the shop right now. They're incredible.

It's amazing that this guy's a fucking electrician when he's banging out art like this and so effortlessly, too. It's like, well, I watched him like, you know, sketch and draw a bunch of stuff. And I'm just like, this guy's got so much talent. Like, Dude. It's cool. He's, you know, why is he fucking, you know, wiring up No, I know, but at the same time I like that he's got this, like, consistent, like, that's not an easy career, you know. But he's doing his thing. He's Yeah.

He is creating like stellar artwork on the side. Is pretty bad. yeah. And he's not really like posting it either. Like I think a bunch of the paintings that he did for us, he never even put online or I'm just like, wow, this guy is incredible. And he doesn't show anybody. that's that's a shame kind of though crazy. He's so good.

Yeah, we love him. Nick, shout out to you. One block started. were looking sponsored over here today. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, doc. One block started at the first, unit that we looked at.

It was over. It was over off Fremont and Main Street or something. And it was one square block, like it was its own freestanding building. Oh, yeah? Yeah, yeah, And I think we were just out in the parking lot chopping it up, like talking about names. And one block popped out of his mouth out there. I don't remember, but it was just like, oh, well, that sounds that sounds like certified. You know, it's like, I don't know, it just sounds like stable, you know what I mean?

That's fun. So, yeah, I mean, we just kind of stuck with that and we took it to the to the new shop. We didn't end up getting that building. Yeah. That, that it it fell through and it was a real old shitty building anyways. But it was in a cool area. It was like a block away from Fremont Street. And Oh, it was sick right there.

downtown. Yeah. Yeah, it would have been a mess. yeah, yeah, It would have been a mess. It would have been a terrible, terrible, terrible thing. But but yeah, like the inside of the building was really cool. It was like, you know, an old funky building, you know, all open on the inside. And it was right down in the mix of all the fucking chaos over there.

So we were like, oh, this might be fun. You know? Yeah. But yeah, our location, I was like, perfect. But that's where one block came from. It was that one block and I think just the name, just like I said, like, sounds like a solid foundation, you know what I mean? Like the first block, the first block you build with or, you know. Yeah.

It doesn't ever have to make sense either. Just Doesn't necessarily have to make sense. Yeah. Just like everybody asks us where the name comes from, just because it's different. It sounds cool. Sounds like came from somewhere. But yeah. You guys been having fun with your merch lately?

Yeah, yeah. We've been trying to, like, consistently drop merch. Yeah. Right now we did this like bootleg. Yeah. New balance rip. So that's fun. Yeah.

five panels or eight rooms. Five panels. That's Yeah, yeah. Five hours. So you can is the goal goal to continue to grow that. And, Yeah. We're just trying to drop merch every couple of months just to keep things fresh and, you know like just keep, stuff cool. you guys plan on doing, like, putting on that online or is it you have it on site?

No. Or really, right now we're just doing local pick up, and you know what? We will ship out. Yeah, but but we just do it through DMs on Instagram. Like, we'll throw a shirt up, you know what I mean? And if you want one, DM us. And and Jenna J's wife will get you on the books. Take your payment, send out your package and do all that stuff.

if you ever have any questions about e-commerce, let me know. Yeah I will. Yeah. Once we scale up, once we scale up, complicated as it I'm sure mean, to get it I know we could make it probably a lot easier on days y if she didn't have to bag and tag and send and ship and receive all the things. Yeah, I think that's that's probably something we'll be looking into. Yeah. That's cool. So overall though, people can just stop in the shop and, yeah, you guys, if you guys have like consistent hours, I mean, I know it's mostly by appointment only, right?

Yeah. Like I said, I mean we all kind of we all kind of shop for the same schedule. m. m. Oh, okay. And then you shut down Sunday. Monday. Unless for the most part.

Yeah. I mean, we have like a lot of guest artists coming into town. So they might be there on a Sunday, Monday, or we might be pop in on Sunday, Monday, do some tats or whatever. But for the most part, yeah, we probably won't be there Sunday ever. And then Monday it's it's a maybe, you know, you. But like most of your guest artists just kind of let's it's all just word of mouth through friends and everything. Just pop into town and. Yeah.

Yeah. I think for the most part, it's word of mouth. I mean, since we're a pretty new shop, like, we're not getting a ton of walk ins and stuff yet. So, yeah, I mean, if you're coming to the shop to do a guest spot, you definitely need to drum up your own clientele and bring somebody. Is that something you would ever want to do is evolve it to where it was more of like an open spot where you could have, like, other artists or something, you know, take walk ins. I mean, I think that would be great, but just this is the quality of artists that we're hiring right now. Just can't. can't do that.

Yeah. You know. Just So yeah, it's great. We love when when people walk into the shop and want like a small town makes us feel great even though we can't do it, Oh, even though we don't have time to do it. We love it. Yeah. Please come into the shop and ask us if we do walk ins. We probably won't be able to.

It feels nice. Yeah I mean, that's fun, you guys. Yeah. I mean, you guys have, definitely have an opportunity to do whatever the fuck you want. You know, you have, like, such a great, healthy crew there that seems to all have such a good following to you. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, we've got a great crew right now. And man, like, just like I said, like being born and raised here.

We have all the resources and all the things that we need to for to, to to succeed. So yeah we're in a really good position. Shit. What else you got planned for tattooing? man, I don't know, like I said, like I'm just trying to, like, just focus on quality and kind of like, you know, just bumping up my designs and and just feeling a little bit better about what I'm doing. Yeah. Other than that, I mean, I don't know if I have any, like, long big grandiose plans for tattooing. Yeah.

I just want to keep doing the same thing I've been doing now, you know, as your mind and body holding up though? I feel. I feel really good. Yeah. Yeah, I feel really good. Bodies. I, you know, I wake up tight sometimes tight shoulders and, you know, my, my back starts getting sore after a long, you know, long hours in a week. But other than that, I feel really good.

You know, I do my little yoga here and there. Yeah. Yeah, I do my stretches and, you know, I stay active doing the mural stuff too. So. So that gets me out of the shop and not so hunched over every day. And it gets me, you know, like climbing up ladders and reaching and doing all the things. That helps out, too. But, yeah, I feel really good.

Your eyes are good and everything. Yeah. my eyes started taking a shit big time. And, like, I got my fucking readers now so I can see, Really? hate it. Yeah. I mean, old. are good.

I've always been. I think it's what? Far sighted. Where I can't see. Very good. Far away. But I can see really good up close. So I'm good.

I'm good. Yeah. For now, I'm good. Yeah. So yeah, I look up and I can't see shit. But you know what I mean? Like, right. That tatt in front of my face, I can see really well.

Okay. I don't know, you got any, like, inspiration or like, like favorite artists outside of your shop right now, and you have so many people coming through, but anybody out there that you're some of my favorite artists right now, filthy art tattooer. Yeah, yeah, he's, he's he's, one of my favorites. He's killing it. We got Jack Gox. He's going to be at the shop, I think, mid June. Yeah. He's killing it.

Who else? Man, there's so many great tattooers out there. I mean, I'm so inspired by some of my best friends. Aaron Riddle. Yeah. Emmanuel, sacred crow, those guys. come out and do guest spots again or, He hasn't been out since he left the shop last year. But, you know, he's just trying to get back in the zone over there in Columbus.

I'm sure he'll be doing a guest spot with us soon. Here. I need to hit him up. I asked him to do one of those trains Yeah, his trains are sick. They're so cool. Yeah. He has, I think one of the best styles out there in tattooing right now. You know what I mean?

Like, if we're going to talk about the most unique style in tattooing, you know what I mean? I think Emmanuel's probably on way up there on the top of my list. Yeah, he's great. Our good kind too. I don't know why he just Yeah, yeah. Sick love looking up shit Sick kind of, like, real, really animated style, but it's, like, so polished and fucking It's great. I love me of his stuff too. love it?

yeah. I don't think we kind of have, like, talked about, partnerships too, and, like, having good quality people behind you. I think you asked me one time at a convention, you were like, do you think you'd be where you're at today without your wife? And I was like, whoa, I don't know. That was kind of an interesting question because like, I, you know, I feel like I was pretty successful before her and, you know, and happy and solid and then you like you ask that and I'm like, yeah, but I don't think, like all this shit that we have right now, like, me personally, sounds like wife's the same. It's like so good to have a more level head than I've ever had, ever, you know? And it sounds like that's where you're at, too. And having somebody behind you is just like, the most healthy thing I think you can possibly do, Yeah.

it is. It's so good for you for your, your mental health, physical, fucking everything. Like, 100% definitely give my, huge amount of credit just to having somebody that's there that can push you through those hard times and not somebody that pulls you down. And I just been around so many tattooers, unfortunately, that I've watched and just have not good spouses. Yes. not a good thing, man. It's like Once you find a person who really, you know, uplifts you and motivates you to be the best version of yourself that you can be, I think a lot of things click, and especially if you're like working into that every day, does, you know, you're having a strong female behind you. Is that really.

best you. yeah, yeah. It'll push a man to do but and conquer anything, you know what I mean. But if there's nobody there, you're kind of just going off your own willpower. But if there's two people manifesting the same thing, it's going to happen faster for sure. Especially if you have somebody who's like, Bright or Die Strong right behind you, understands you, fills in the gaps, does the things you know. brutally honest with Yeah, you need that. think we all need that brutal honesty more than anything.

Yeah, yeah. people. I've watched this with Tattooers for so long, like, get gassed up from their clients, always telling them their their shit and blah, blah, blah, you They start to get this false like sense of, you know, this giant Yeah. Your clients are going to tell you the honest truth. No, but your fucking wife. Well, you know what I mean. Like, I've shot I've shown Diana the drawings, you know what I mean? Plenty of times.

And she's like, what the fuck is that? Or like, what's that thing? And then I look and I'm like, yeah, you're fucking right. I can specifically think of a tattoo that I actually followed through on and didn't really think, like I thought I was nailing it. Yeah. And then I was at lunch with my wife one day and I showed her, and she's just like, the fuck do you do there? fuck is that? Yeah, it's like, still, I could feel it.

Yeah. It's like, but it's a good, you know what I mean? It's a it's a very healthy, like, jab to your fucking, you know, ego. yeah, it was like so fucking melted all day. I was The good it. Well, it makes you step back and go like oh yeah I should, you know, look at things with a more critical eye or you know. yeah. Because I think I was like, I thought I was nailing it to, And sometimes you're doing it and like, even things like this, like getting yourself like just constantly pushing my me personally, pushing myself to do things like this.

This is not something that's natural. Like to sit down and No, no, I'd rather not. Yeah I'd rather not. But you know and I'm sure I yeah it's, fun and I but I do like have this new, like interest and passion and to be able to like, sit down with artists like you that I've admired like throughout my career. It's cool now it's like a new platform and I'm just trying to learn and do better and figure out where it can go, Okay. Do you're doing a great job. Oh, kudos to you. I'm excited about, like, I don't know, it's fun because we have these like, like, conversations at conventions or in passing or something.

To sit down, like, I've sat down with, like, Jen and like a handful of your other Yeah. Oh John's the fucking. He's the funnest person to talk to about anything because he's just so animated. He's just Like an, an incredibly smart dude too, you know what I mean? For being so like, you know what I mean? Fucking cartoon character. He's smart. It knows what he's doing.

Like, yeah, this is a great guide in be himself. And I think that's a, you know, that in itself is a challenge for us and as artists too, because like, Like we all just kind of as artists like are naturally kind of introverts Yeah, an extent, you I would say so. Yeah, I would say most, most artists are, in some type of sense introverted, you know what I mean? yeah And it does. It takes a little something to pull you out of that. tattooing. I mean, did it for me, Yeah. You have to be so personable.

Yeah, you have to be so personable. And you have to be, like, pretty locked in with people, or else you'll be disconnected and, you know, that's not a way to form relationships with with clients. like a huge I can't handle, like the, the headphone kind of like aspect to tattooing. I feel like unfortunately those people are like those tattooers are missing out on building all of these great relationships. Like, Yeah, like the people that I want to, like, reach out for, like mentorship or even, you know, any advice or anything. Now in my life are people I met through tattooing that I created those bonds with. And Yeah, call just to talk to and a lot of things that will benefit your personal life, too, if you get in to talking to somebody and, you know, it's I've met some of my favorite people, it's just like getting to know them while I'm tattooing them.

And then I realized that I really like this person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think I learned a lot too. Real quick through tattooing about not being judgmental. Like, it's real easy to obviously, like, judge each other when we first meet each other. But then you sit down with somebody and then you see them from our standpoint in this state of vulnerability, where they're going through hours and hours of pain with you on your ribs or something, you really get to learn about that person, like who they are and they open up to you, they always open up to you for me personally to like someone will open up to me within the first two minutes of me tattooing them or whatever. And then like, I'm, I'm interested to. Yeah.

And I'm, I'm quite a bit nosy, dude, you know what I mean? So I start asking questions, you know, respectfully, I start asking questions, you know, because I'm curious, No for sure. And that's I think one of the, my most favorite things about tattooing. And so now it's like fun to kind of do this because I'm like oh okay. Well now doing it with like other tattooers. And then we all have Yeah. common and, and it's really fun to just get down in there and learn from everybody. Totally.

There's a lot to learn from each other. That's cool. I wanted to know more about your murals and like, how that all came about, your tattooing, where you want to go with tattooing. It's like Dude, I just want to move up, you know what I mean? Whatever that means to me. I just want to just keep moving up. Yeah, like I said, if it's gradual, if it's at a high pace, as long as I'm moving up and not stay in too steady or moving down, you know, that's where I want to be. Yeah.

Yeah. Just keep this consistency going in. My life is really my goal. I'm seeing it, man. And watching it. It's like it's it's really cool, man. Thank you. I'm like, just likewise.

fan, so it's cool, Yeah, dude, I want to just continue to watch you grow. It's really cool. And, I just thank you for coming by and hanging thanks for having me. dude. And, hopefully, we'll see you again soon. Yeah. We'll do another podcast where we talk about aliens and, yeah, government conspiracies and mermaids or some shit. he doesn't want to talk about tattooing at all.

Yeah, yeah, let's do that. Let's bring Bobby in and we'll just have a line of things that we're going to we got to get Levi in here too, man. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, he is. You're going to have to have a whole. Yeah, I can have the whole itinerary ready for him. Yeah. Levi's the best do talk about talent, Oh man.

want, like, every time I look at anything he does, I'm just like, what the just incredible. Then just the amazing tattoo where everything he does that's another thing too, is, like, the same with you. Like, I read this in when airbrushing was big in the 90s. I used to read the airbrush and this guy wrote a he was just saying in an article about how if you can get really good at drawing female faces, you can be so incredibly successful in your career. Like, I don't know what that is about. Just us as men and women Yeah. to, like the beauty of a woman Yeah. I think just nailing a female face is incredibly difficult.

It's very you can anybody can jump on. Anybody can jump on, the internet and grab a beautiful lady's face and trace it. Yeah, but it doesn't work. And is that something that you've always like? I mean, you've you've been doing them for a while and you, do you still just fully sketch everything from scratch and you I do a little. I do a little combination of everything. sketches over a All rough sketch over a face. If that doesn't work, I'll just rough sketch out a face.

Sometimes I'll have something in my head that's very particular that I want to get on paper and, like, I don't have a reference for it or I can't find one, so I'll just. I'll rough that and I'll rough that until it works. Or, you know, I mean, there's, there's not like a, an exact process that I follow. But just so you know, whatever is organic in that moment. Yeah, It was the like the makeup in the hair is always like super intimidating. Thank you. Yeah yeah yeah. It's it's hard dude.

Yeah I try Yeah. And and you put you pushed through and progressed like so. Well is that I don't know. You got any advice for like, younger tattooers that are trying to jump in and and attack that stuff? Yeah. I mean don't try to emulate anybody else Just try to do whatever you feel is right and not what you think somebody else got success from doing Yeah, Yeah. because that's what's ultimately what's going to you know, make you into your own artists That's what's going to create some type of uniqueness in your work That's personal to you And that's what people want to see They don't want to see the the chopped down version of like, the other guy's stuff That's really good Who's already established you know. So feel like there's a lot of like very similar stuff out there do take the risks and you do take the chances of trying to do something unique and that is kind of the only way you're ever really going to stand out there's like a feeling to something.

You know what I mean that like feels cool and feels right. And when something's a cheap version of something that feels cool and feels right, it's just that, yeah, you know, I feel like we need to get off the internet, too. And like, seek other inspirations as far as our art from, like, different cultures or different, you know, Yeah, I to bring that into your styles, like, I think tattooing needs that right now. Yeah. Maybe breaking out of the boundaries of what everybody's just been doing, you know what I mean? For the past ten years, over and over and over again, trying some new shit, which I do see happening. And, you know, when you see it, you're like, wow, that's like cool. You know what I mean?

We need more of that. But that takes that also that that also takes clients to like understand that like new and unique stuff is not like, you know, scary and it's cool. Yeah. You know, it's not weird. It's fucking being weird. It's cool. do you feel like you ever had had to really, like, try to sell your clients on newer stuff? You were pushing totally.

Oh, I sold clients all my shit for my whole entire career. You know? And do you do do it more with like a combination of your words but plus like just literally showing them. both. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, showing a client a piece and then being able to explain that piece to them in a way that makes sense. Is is it.

Yeah. If you can do that, then you'll probably be really successful with you know what I mean? Showing people and being confident about showing people your designs. Because sometimes it is hard, especially when someone comes to you for not something super specific and you have to kind of judge their personality and judge them as a person, while maybe not ever spending more than ten minutes with them before, you know. So do you spend a decent amount of time trying to, like, if it's a newer client like that and you, you're not 100% sure on their direction. Do you more time talking to them and drawing for I might yeah, I might spend some extra time just kind of feeling out them as a person. And I usually doing that, I can kind of, I can grab on to something that I feel is you know what I mean.

Important to those people. Yeah. And I run with that. I think that's But yeah, have to be good. Kind of really like listening very well and and judging that person, like, in, in a way that is going to be helpful for you later, you know what I mean? But if you're only focusing on just the consultation details, you might miss out on those subtle, those subtle things that kind of go like, oh, this guy likes this, or he's going to be into this, or you know what I mean? I'll ask people other questions that don't even have to relate to, you know, the designs that we're talking about. Because I know that these questions are going to lead me to something, you know what I mean?

Gets gets to know that person just a little bit better enough to where I can navigate designing for them in a way that I know is going to hit. I think that's like I just simple lesson of just like it's all you you got to be willing to go above and beyond if you really want Yeah, that. And you really want to push your art to that level and get somebody to purchase it and pay you what have to be willing to sit down and talk to them longer and try to figure it out and or just give them like a really, really thorough, rendering and stuff to, Yep. that they not most people can't see what you, what you're doing. Nobody can see what you're doing, you know, but like being able to, like, go that extra mile to get that artwork out and show them is and not worry about like, maybe this guy fucking won't feel it, but yeah, least you have it for the next client or something Yeah, it is important if you can key on in in on that person's personality right away, then you'll be able to create better for them for sure.

Yeah. I just, really appreciate you, man. Coming by. Dude is real cool to sit down with you, and, I'm just excited to see, Yeah. Any time I'd like, I'd like to come back and do it again. Yeah. dude. Let's get, like, one of the other guys in here.

To me, we can. I can set up for people now, Cool. Oh, really? Yeah. Let's do that. I can get a big one in here and get everybody rapping about whatever the Yeah, that'd be fun. Yeah, yeah. So I'm, I'm really excited about doing this and really, like, looking forward to reaching out.

Also like if you have any female tattooer friends, like I don't have, I haven't had a whole lot of female guests. And we Oh, really? Should get Kelsey laid on here, cause she's the best. And she's so fun to talk to. Yeah, she's my favorite dude. Yeah, I can execute them down there. Yeah. Also, I, I spoke to, was it Liana Arquette?

I don't know if I pronounce her name right. She's at downtown. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. She's awesome. Yes. Yeah. Her tats are sick.

I love her, that is like, how to describe that style of stuff that I don't know, just super fun. Traditional. Yeah. Bright colors. And like illustration styles. Cool. Yeah. She's great.

I love her work. And then actually tattoo her over, painted lady like Oh, ash. Yeah. She's incredible. I was trying to stop in there today and say hi to Yeah. You should. Yeah. She's sick.

draw, like, talk about putting on, like, women's faces. just draw a gorgeous dude. She's and then just fucking tattoo She's killing it. Yeah. Love her work really, really fast. We have so many fantastic tattooers in Las Vegas like, it's pretty crazy. yeah. At first I was like, oh, I'm going to try to get Tattooers from all over the country.

And I'm like, I don't know, man. Like, I don't think I need to right now. Like there's you got quite a few that you got to run through first. Yeah. Las Vegas, and it's so cool to just see all different kinds of styles, too. Yeah. Tons of people guesting out here too. Vegas has always been one of those places.

Easy for someone to fly into and have a good time for a few days or. yeah. If you ever know of anybody that want to stop by, I just send them my way. For sure? Well thank you guys so much for tuning in, man. This is support. Your local tattooer. This is Brett Rose.

Pilar, where do we follow you at Just my first and last name, Brett Ross. Epic LA at Instagram. Yeah. And check out one block. Got some. Like, honestly, one of the craziest line ups of Tattooers in in the country. Yeah, well, one block Las Vegas that we're on, Dean Martin. In between Russell and Sunset we have Bobby Johnson, Glendale boy, Levi Murphy, Freddy Albrighton and John Cali soon.

So John comes oh like so soon or soon. Coming soon and then and then and then DJ Hamby. Yeah. Yeah okay. So yeah. And also DJ yes. Dude. Well thank you guys so much.

So yeah. Thank you so much for having me. in touch, dude. Let's party. all right. Party on. Party on. Wayne.

Oh, you know what I fucking forgot before we go. Yeah, I saw you in the bathroom at the Anderson I went to go get a vinyl, and you were like, pick me one. I told you. Yeah. I was like, buy me one. And I jokingly, I jokingly said, grab me one because I didn't want to wait in line for a one, but I wanted one. I got plug in good. Thank you.

Yeah. What a one of the best tiny desks. Yeah, definitely up there. Yeah. Might be the best, might be the top for me. But yeah. This is an incredible album man. Thank you.

Thanks. Preciate it.

These two girls walked in and my mom had like, just come in after her day job and we were like, what about a piece of this? And just lifted up her shirt and just butt naked in front of my mom? I was like, what the fuck is happening? And they always whoop about two feet up Lena on the wall and just shit and like, what do you do to the ground? That was it. All right. Today on the podcast Buddy Holiday from Downtown Tattoo. Having worked 25 years as a tattooer, he opened up Downtown Tattoo on Fremont Street in Las Vegas back in 2008.

He's built one of the most covered character smoked American traditional tattoo shops in the country. You go to, like, open the back door and it just smears. Poop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, man. We get into some wild downtown shop stories, Fremont Street chaos and what it's really like tattooing in some of the craziest environments Vegas has ever seen. Most of the time they lie and they say, I'm going to go travel for a bit. Yeah. And then next week they're posting on the street up the road and you're like, why can't you just be honest?

Like, we're not having sex? No, I know you don't need to lie to me. You're breaking up is hard to do. Yeah, right. Plus, we are joined by my dad, Charlie Spencer, as we break down old Vegas tattoo culture, how the industry has changed and the reality of building something that lasts. I'm Austin Spencer, and this is support your local tattooer. What's happening? Everybody, welcome to sport local tattoo where I'm Austin Spencer today.

I'm super pumped, man. We got my buddy buddy suit that came out on that. Sounds like, Buddy Holiday in the house. And, we are. I don't know, man. I've just, like, been dying to talk to you. And we got my dad, Charlie Spencer in the house, so. Yeah.

What? What do you got? This is is this. How many podcasts have you done there, buddy? Have you. Yeah, yeah. Are you getting more comfortable with the whole process for more comfortable? No.

Yeah, I was, I was watching your episode on Skin Deep. Okay. Yeah. With Josh, like. Yeah, it was great. He did. He did a good job. Yeah.

Yeah. He didn't like he made me look better than. Yeah. Than I usually do. You know, I think a lot of us is like, obviously we're just we just been tattooing and we've been all tattooing way before social media and having to talk to the camera type shit. Yeah. It's weird. So now it's like a weird thing, but I think this setup is like a little more comfortable.

Like, once you kind of sit down and relax like it gets a go in there. But one thing I do is I always, like, touch my glasses, you touch my face, I'm like, what am I doing? I can't watch, I can't watch any of them. It's like a wheelchair. Oh. Like what? Yeah. Yeah.

He's like, I don't know what to do with my hands. Yeah. Today I'm excited easily because I'm getting over the flu. But yeah. No worries. Well, I'm glad you're healthy. And thanks for coming here, dude. Yeah.

So, I mean, we've owned tattoo shops in the same city. We've tattooed, you know, a lot of the even some of the same people and stuff over the years. It's super fun just to sit down and bullshit and rap and I'm like, stoked to learn about more about you and, share with everybody. Like my passions. And like, I'm super excited to talk to you just more about like, dude, your shops, like you have two shops now or hands down, the coolest shops, like, I'm probably, I think like, I, I really, really love going to your shops. There's like, there's just so much soul and so much energy and history behind everything. And I was like, watching this video the other day. It said that you had like 1300 hand-painted sheets.

You think roughly around, like way more than that. Way more. Yeah, yeah, we're probably Fremont Street, I would say like over 2000 and then Water Street we got now we just we're almost done with the ceiling. So we probably have like close a thousand there. Yeah. All of you. So like the flash racks we sort of like I got flash racks and we started filling those. I need a I'll have the shop.

Can I count them okay. No exact number because now I'm now I'm curious. Yeah. For sure. I mean, we used to count I used to count like, oh there's like a little thing that we painted on the side. I'm like, I'm not even gonna count any of that. Like, that's just. I just want to like the sheets.

Like the angle. Yeah, yeah. Your shops. Right. And all the sign painters that you've had come through over the years and different illustrators and stuff do all sorts of cool shit. Like, have you been in the, the flash racks like the old days? Yeah. The stores, they're hard to find now.

Yeah, yeah, we still have our fun. Amused or something. Yeah, ours are somewhere. They're in the back closet. I've been going on to sell them. Let me. No, no, I was just thinking that when you hear me in my. I want to keep them now or, like, pull out.

Like I pulled out all this like old Bill Canal slash and yeah, I'm like, Aaron delivered just a lot of, like, San Diego guys that I follow it over the years, you know, so I have a lot of their stuff and shit we picked up from, like, Mike Bozell and, oh, you know, just like a lot of random stuff, but I, we didn't really, like, collect a whole lot because when we came on, we were trying to be custom shop, you know, so it was like that we had that time when flash racks, though, maybe we did. Yeah. Yeah. You know, for the first like 4 or 5 years at flash and I don't, I don't remember all the names, but yeah, I was one that I always enjoyed. Perfect. Had great flash. So you have two shops. You, one in old.

Old, what do you call it? It's like Henderson. Like old Henderson. Yeah. Downtown waters and water Street. And then you have got the OG one on Fremont Street. Yeah. And that's your second location of the Fremont Street one.

Like. Yeah, we were on seventh and Carson and then, when Zappos moved everything down to, say, the owner of Zappos, he started buying up all the property down there. Yeah. And it seemed like he just thought everyone that was in the area that was already there or just garbage. Yeah. You just kicked everyone out. There was like 2008, like, during the recession or some shit, right? Like I opened in 2008.

So that had him in charge. Okay. 12 to 13. Okay. So my lease came up for renewal and they wouldn't renew it. So I did two years and I renewed the first two, and then after the next two they wouldn't renew it. So and the building was just sold and I was like, okay, ours was in the process of selling. I was like, get what's going on here, here.

And then they like kicked us out to put a restaurant. But it just worked out where I'm at now. My landlord, he didn't want to rent 30 shops because he had like these, like two different shops right next to where, like I'm 1106, who's 1104. He had two different shops in there and they just like they were like one shop was running girls out of there. Another one. Oh yeah. He's like bad, you know, so bad set up for him. And then so I was like, no, please just come check out the shop I have now.

So he came in and we talked and he's like, he's awesome. You know, he's all, yeah on old cars and stuff like this. Like and you know, and I had my Merc at the time so. Yeah. So I he was jazz on my car is like. And also my wife was around so you could see that I wasn't like, yeah, I was being a jackass. Yeah. Well that neighborhood was pretty rough too.

I mean, yeah, yeah. Oh, man. Yeah. And like, you know, that guy kicking everyone out was bad for a lot of people. It was so, like, all those motels were like. I mean, there was like, a lot of old people living on those, like, the only option, you know. So that sucked. But then like, yeah, some of the shitty people got kicked out too, you know, that word came up, but, karma's a bitch.

Yeah, and deal with it still, you know, like he did. Yeah, yeah. Fucking. Damn. So you been in yours? You said since the new, newer. Yeah. The new one.

So 2008 to 2013, we were there just like exactly five years. Yeah. And from 2013 to now. Yeah. Do the not owning the building thing is like to any younger tattooers that are getting super excited about opening their shop and everything and you start getting in there, you start putting so much time and love and energy and investing in that property. And then the fact that you could just lose it at any point in time is pretty bummer. The same painter to paint the windows. Yeah.

Those with you. Yeah. But I did get the door. You did when they remodeled. The construction workers brought the door. Oh, yeah. The glass from the door. And so now at home, I had it on my tiki bar.

Like, I like, built the bar. It was like a, like a shadow box. You know? And then when we moved, I disassembled all that. And now I had someone, a guy build a desk for the front of the shop, and it's. Oh, that's okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the other day.

Yeah, yeah. That's cool. Yeah. It's so cool. Been in there. Oh, man. I went by your, your older shop and, for some reason you were closed or something. You know, to visit one time and, and don't get downtown much, so I haven't been.

Yeah. Down here. New shop. And were you living down there for a while? I did, I lived at the Newport Lofts. Okay. Yeah. Which was quite a trip.

Yeah, yeah. J j swarm telling me they go there, run like, laps on the roof or something. Yeah. While we were drunk. Yeah, yeah. Throw fireworks at the bums and shits in the on the sidewalk. I looked down there and there. Hookers are down there walking around.

And I had these poppers that I bought in San Francisco. Yeah, they sound like fireworks. I mean, they're they're not like the little ones. The kids pop. They were, like, twice as loud. So I get a bunch of drug dealers and hookers down there, and I just toss a few down and the streets just cleared. It was a areas that nobody thought to look up and see where they were coming from. The 17 floors up, you know, it was that was great living.

Now I enjoyed it. Yeah. Yeah. You were a spectacular I know that and nonstop you know entertainment from above. There's. Yeah. There you been you've been downtown for that long like you have seen it get better. But there's also still an incredibly large amount of just wild ass shit and reminds me, like, I don't know, there's something I love about, like, wild and a tattoo shop being in a wild ass neighborhood.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. As long as it doesn't come into the shop too much. Yeah. And usually they learn pretty quick. Yeah, yeah. They're not welcome there.

Yeah, yeah. They know where they stand with you and everything. Yeah. You had some pretty wild stories up there. I'm sure you got some wild walking in. Oh yeah. Yeah. So.

Wow. Yeah, yeah. Some regulars that come and go or Yeah. As far as. Yeah. And then they like, they'll disappear and you're like, oh do they die? And sometimes you'll see them like years later and they're like even worse. Or they're like the rare occasion they're better.

Oh, come by and then you're like, wow, I'd never would have guessed that you. Oh that's awesome. Yeah. It's not that often I get. Yeah, that's kind of like the stories from our first shop down there. Oh, yeah. We were right by the the tunnel was a mile long tunnel where there's a whole city of people living under there. So they'd come out of the tunnel and introduce themselves to us, on a regular basis.

Sure. Yeah. Have you seen those documentaries about the people that live under there? Yeah, yeah. Our city. It's one, two, two. Yeah. So we were right there.

Like, that was one of the main entrances and exits. Was like, right at the base of our shop. So the amount I remember I was sitting at the front counter with my mom one day, and these two girls walked in and they were just I could tell they were kind of like working girls, you know? And then they were like, asking about a quote or whatever. And my mom had like, just come in after her day job and was just standing right next to me, and they're like, well, what about a piece of this? And just lifted up her shirt and you butt naked right in front of my mom. I was like, what the fuck is happening, dude? I'm like, yeah.

And the bums like shitting out in front of your shop. I'm sure you know where you wake. Yeah. Do you go to, like, open the back door and it just smears poop? Yeah. He was like, oh man, I remember Cain. Our piercer, Cain Friesen, came in one day and he was just really upset. He goes two, two.

Just pulled up our dress and took a shit right in front of me. And right in front of the shop. And I said, well, good, I don't know, go spray it down. Yeah. I thought, I don't know what to do. And they always like, they always poop about, like, what, two feet up they like. Yeah. Lean on the wall and just like, what?

What can you just do in the ground, you know, is it all right where you can't get your door open because someone sleeping in front of. Yes. Like, so many times you're like, I don't want to, like, ask this dude to move, but like, bro, you got to move. I got to open up shop today and they get all crazy on you when they get up. Yeah. You ready? But you tried to fight. You walking in the thing.

Yeah, yeah, I did it. Well, I don't help the situation, you know, just, like, kind of mess with them. I've calmed down a lot. Yeah yeah yeah. Yes yes. But you know, you're, you're messing with them and then they like papa and you're like, oh yeah. I thought you were strung out and like, you wouldn't be able to stand up and try to fight me. You stand up and you, you know.

Yeah, yeah. They're like two feet taller than you and a lot more aggressive than you. And I have nothing to lose. Yeah. Them. So your shops you've been focus on on American traditional. You know all your films American traditional and do you didn't start out tattooing like with your love for American traditional, right. Yeah.

Yeah. It was like it was like, how do you fall into that? Like when I started, all the stuff I liked in the magazines was new School. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was what was going on in the 20s, late 90s. You know, that's what I, you know, in high school I messed around with graffiti and stuff. So. Yeah, drawn to that. But then trying to think, well, during my apprenticeship, you know, Mike had Mike Stevens, my mentor, he had a bunch of flash on the walls, and I seemed to like, like the traditional more.

Yeah. And the black and gray stuff, like the Corey Miller stuff was awesome on the walls and. Yeah, yeah, no. But like, out of all the stuff, it seemed like the traditional was really cool. And I really understand it, you know? But then Ryan Downey, when I started hanging out with him and. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we let it put his pussycat.

Were you over there? Yeah, I ended up that pussycat. Yeah. Okay. I think that's where I first met you. Was. It was. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You would come by and participate in our art shows and style. Yeah. Which is awesome. And a cool thing to do in that community of tattooing. It's like, oh, especially like we're so competitive and yeah, we different shop. You're like, it's cool. You were always like open to like participate and stuff.

And as like sometimes when people all of a sudden take on that title of shop owner, it's like almost like they distance themselves up to feel like insecure or something. And you're like, dude, we can all still be homies and like, work together and help each other out. And it is weird though, right? It's almost like you become like shop owners will become like North Korea, you know, like the hermit kingdom. They don't want anyone to like, you know, they don't want their guys to associate with. Yeah, yeah. It's weird, especially old school like, oh, you know, my mentor was like that. Yeah.

I'm sure the younger shop owners are still maybe like, they believe too, that, you know, there's always hard feelings no matter what you do. Oh, yeah. They never leave on good terms for some reason. You try. Yeah. I remember Austin walking in one day in the back room, and, I don't remember who he was talking to. I just picked up on the conversation. As I walk in, he goes, I really like you.

He goes, you're going to hate me when you leave. But I really like you right now. And I don't remember who that was, but that's pretty funny thing to say. But it's very true. Yeah. And like how? Like dishonest a lot of guys can be when they leave. So it's like a two in town.

You almost guarantee you're not going to be friends because like a lot, most of the time they lie and they say, I'm going to go travel for a bit. Yeah. And then next week they're posting online that yeah, they're up the road and you're like, why can't you just be honest? Like I would have been I would have been annoyed. Yeah. But at least like you didn't have like we're not having sex, you know? I mean, you don't need to lie to me. You know, some chick I can.

It's hard to do. So true, man. I had so many, like, face to face conversations with somebody. Like, I just want to make sure we're cool or, you know, everything. Good. Like, I'm stoked to have you here, blah, blah, blah, two seconds and, like, literally like two days later, they're like, oh, yeah, I'm starting over here. And, I already have my own logos. And I did all my own stuff and you're like, okay, bro.

Like, so you already knew about all this? Obviously, two days ago when we had that conversation, you looked me in the eye and said, you're totally stoked and you can't wait to. I'm like, fucking fuck. And then like some of that, I wonder when that was going down at those particular times, if it was me, like like because like how I like, they probably saw how I reacted when other guys left. Yeah. You know, so maybe it was like, yeah, like, why would I be honest with this guy? He's going to be a dead no for sure. We.

Yeah, yeah, I was responsible for a lot of that too. Yeah. Yeah. I had no patience with lazy artists. People showing up late. Yeah, yeah. Which is pretty much every tattoo. Yeah.

I show up early. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I was like, you can't get here at noon. Are you kidding me? Yeah. You know, the week I worked in the work there before I did that, and I had to be at work at five in the morning, and I'd work from 5 to 1. And then I went and I apprenticed at Pricks Tattoo from one till 11. And then I got up and did it every day over and over, and it was like, how can you not get here at noon?

The crack at noon? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. You got, you have like I've heard. Do you have a relationship or I mean a reputation for running a pretty tight ship, right. I mean, your expectations for your artists are you have a kind of a nice. Yeah, that's probably why I said that. Like, I know of it was probably me, you know, but but but that's a good thing though.

Yeah. I, I don't know, treat it like a job. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Feel like a career that because it is you know, you've been so good to about you like it's obviously this culture that you built within your shop is, if you have downtime, like, you don't have downtime essentially. Like, if you're not tattooing your painting. Yeah.

That's a part of your culture that you built in your shop too, right? Yeah. Which, yeah, ours used to be real strong like that too. IPad kind of threw things off. But you've been able to, like, stick with this niche, this American traditional niche and keep all these great tattooers coming to you. It's really impressive. It's it's cool. And you've kept that same formula since day one, right?

Yeah. Like, I have a rule where, you have to initiate a flash every week. It doesn't have to be for the shop, you know, get be for yourself or whatever, but you have to paint a sheet of art because you need to say product. And you like, what are you selling? You know, hey, you know what? What you're up to. So you got like a studio for hours when they come in and like, show them or you know what? The internet, you know, put it online or whatnot.

And. Yeah. And so that's built up all the flash you have in the shop and everything. And I don't know, I just and I just give, give back to tattooing, you know, like if I could paint two sheets a week, someone gets paint one like I'm busy tattooing and running two shops and yeah, I'm a home life and all that, you know. Yeah, I would just sit here and you say just about everybody painting one sheet, and then you have these older sheets of people that maybe you cross paths with and maybe aren't, have the best relationship anymore, but you still take pride in having that sheet there because it's a part of the history and the culture of your, your shop. And, you know, I like that. It was it was cool. Yeah.

So I have sheets up of guys that I don't get along with anymore or whatnot. Yeah. Well but then as time goes on, those relationships. Yeah. Man did. Yeah. No. Like I have probably like 100 sheets of Ross Henry, you know, flash on the walls.

And for a while there, we didn't care for each other, you know. Yeah. Because he quit. He went on to do his own thing, which is like, no, you need to do. Yeah. I mean, at the time, I didn't understand it. And so like, we've, we've mended things since I still have all those sheets and they're really cool. Yeah.

So and we get the tattoo of them. So it's like you have like a even more of an, intense relationship with them because you've seen the ups and downs with that person and stuff. Yeah. And then like, they're still cool designs and people come. So. Yeah. And he's and he's cool too, you know what I mean? Like I just said, you know, you get hot headed and someone will wear emotional people or, you know, tattooers, I mean, we're artists and, you know, yeah, it just it just comes out.

So yeah, we're not all the best communicators. You. And sometimes it's like, it's not even that guy. It's the it's like the 20 people are left before them and they're just getting all of it because you, I don't know, got you on the wrong day or. Yeah. You know, like going into a relationship sour because you're actually I that quit before him was like a super tough guy and you couldn't yell at him. So this guy you're yelling at, you know, it's like, you know, just like the guys like men when they did, you know, doing for a guy, the Puerto Rico guy. Yeah.

Managing friends, relationships and in the business is a very difficult thing because, like, you fall in love with the people around you, you know, you can't help. But then you also, like, we're all have these strong personalities and where sometimes they start veering off on a different path. And yeah, that doesn't rub. You know, it doesn't. It's just not right with you. And then it's like you're trying to figure out how to like, jump in there and keep it together. And. Yeah, and then sometimes there's nothing you can obviously do about it.

Like they're just never trying to get on, keep my mouth shut and not say what was on my mind. So I would notice that I'm not talking to this guy for two weeks. Yeah. So he knows he's probably on the outs. You know, he I won't look at him. I won't talk to him because I don't want to cause a fractious in front of everybody. Yeah, well, I wasn't very good at that, but. Yeah.

Yeah, I've done that. But you give someone the cold shoulder and it's like, that's no way to work, right? No, no, you go to work. It's also like they're making a drop at the end of every day. So how how like horrible is effort that that guy, he's like, man, I could give this guy money when you fucking talk to me. Yes, I know for. Hey, thanks for checking out today's episode. If you're watching and listening, the chances are you're a tattoo artist who lives by their gear.

And if that's the case, doesn't it make sense to buy from people who actually understand tattooing? We built Maverick's Supply Co for this reason. Gear supplies, essentials built by Tattooers for Tattooers to see what we do. Scan the QR code on the screen and hit the link in the show notes below. Now back to the show. You said you used to, like you used to drink a lot more, and now you've been sober for seven years. Yeah. Is that something that you think has helped you out?

You know, you mentioned. Oh of course. Yeah. That in therapy. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like I show up fresher every day. Yeah I show up like early instead of late.

Yeah. Now we get mad at people for being late. But I was late all the time. So there's like, almost like, have you later than me? You're in trouble. Yeah. You know, what the heck? I was, like, hung over.

Yeah. And. Yeah, but, like, I'm more productive. I, you know, come out. Oh. How many books since I think, ten books out, but I think I've come out. Nine of them since I quit drinking, so. Yeah.

Damn. Well, good for you, dude. You gotta focus your energy on something. So it's really impressive, right? Yeah. The goal is extra time. What am I going to do and know for sure? It is pretty wild how it.

Yeah, I haven't been sober for more than like two weeks. Maybe, but yeah, but you might not have a problem, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It's drinking every day and way too much and it just it progressively got worse. And you know, like in the beginning it was like, you know, we early 2000 tattooing in Vegas. There was what, 20 shops. 30 shops.

Yeah. So that you would go out to a bar and you were almost like a to say it sounds dorky, but almost like a celebrity or a rock star. No, I know who I remember it, yeah. And then, you know, your party. I'm fun. And then I don't know, at one point, it just. So I stopped going to the bar. I just kept drinking at home, you know?

Yeah. I don't know when that happened and. Yeah. No, I remember those days. You walk into any restaurant and you, like, someone knows you or you know, the bartender or the manager. Food's getting sent over. Cocktails are covered. It was like a small town.

It was. It was like you were in a small town. Yeah. It was really hard to not go out to. Yeah. And and justify it by being like, well, this is how I meet people and this is how, like, people get to know me. So I'm constantly giving out this job. It did push my business for a real long time.

And then I noticed, like once I had kids and I didn't go out, then I'm like, oh shit. Yeah, now we have other tools. We have a social media. Totally. Yeah, you can do it all on the toilet. Yeah. And then how weird was it when you knew of a good tattooer but you never saw them out? Yeah, like Victor with mill.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, he was like a never met the guy. Yeah. Think. And, like, you know, his tattoos are great, but you never saw him out. Yeah. Can't Kelly like you would never see him out? No.

For sure. Oh he would run into him getting tattooed somewhere I like. That's how I watch him get tattooed by Chris Trevino at like a San Diego show one time. Oh, really? Oh my God. Yeah. It was like, fucking cool. Yeah, yeah.

You've worked with all of, like, the old school Vegas Tattoo works. A lot of them. So many fantastic tattooers came out of, Pussycat to. Yeah. Like, how was your experience over there? Who's amazing? Yeah, yeah, Dirk was awesome. Is still awesome.

Yeah, yeah. Dirk. Like he just when he hired me, he said, do good tattoos and pay your rent on time. That's so cool. And they're like. Like, can I go? I guess maybe like a salon where you just come and go, you pay rent and. Yeah, his thing was he just wanted to be able to have a custom shop.

That was good and not have to worry about, you know, people stealing from him and all that. And he just. Yeah, dude, that shop was like a breeding ground for all the good shops and down, you know, thousand percent. Yeah. Like Aaron Neiman has a shop. He worked there. Yeah. I mean, yeah, he a bunch of other people, you know.

Yeah. Friends. He was good to having, like, group art shows. And his band would play in that little tiny lobby and shit. That was like my first exposure to going to a tattoo shop, and it was just so much more than just a tattoo. The gallery. Go go go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, those are fun.

Yeah. You go crazy parties. Everybody was involved in the art shows. It was. Everybody signed the doors mirror. Yeah, yeah, the door in there with this pussy cat girl. Yeah. I started having people sign our door in our shop because of that.

Oh, cool. Like a lot of fans and doing the art shows and to was like, oh, wow, this is fucking cool, man. Like, I really want to do this. Yeah. You guys been doing event. You do events at you're like, you do your annual. Yeah. The shop on the anniversary party.

Yeah. Every year our fucking art show is on the same exact day this year. So we didn't get to go hang out of each other's things. Yeah, yeah. You've had an extensive amount of, like, guest spot artists to come through over the years. Oh, yeah. Like you're good at that. Yeah.

I don't I don't know how it happened. It just it just happens. And I'm very like loose with everything. I'm not very organized. So like I see these shops or they're always like promoting the guys on online that are coming in. And I'm like, sometimes they show up and there's a guest and I forgot that they were there to come in or, you know, especially if it's someone that's come through a bunch. Yeah, there's reach out to, you know, just a nick. And then he's like, yeah, come out or yeah, yeah, it's cool though.

It's I love it. And it's like it makes it to where all of us. It's like we're really motivated, like I guess like going and doing a guest spot, but we don't have to leave. So we got a new we can like feed off of and all that. Yeah. And and it's more connections, you know, it's like first you go. Yes. So their shop.

Yeah. Yeah that's cool. You doing both rental and you're sure you're. Yeah. We do the regular commission. Yeah. Yeah. You know I guess it's six one half dozen the other.

It depends on how you want to run it. You know, like you're saying. Yeah. Or like doing it that way. We just didn't ever want to want to do it, though. I mean, either I feel like I do a lot of merch, I do a lot of promoting and all that and like, yeah, then you make it where you probably wouldn't be able to do any of that. No, totally. You do great with your merch too.

It's always yeah, you always have like a good fun, like not what we would think of like tattoo or something. You know, you just have a lot of fun with it. Oh, I can't say I hate, but I really don't care for these days. The standard tattoo shirt where it's like they did it on Coke. Heel. It's one color. Yeah. You know, you can't tell what the fuck it is.

Yeah, yeah. But you got. Yeah, I do like more graphic design stuff for sure. It's stuff that reads well and actually sells. We spent so much money over the years designing our own shirts because we felt we were supposed to, and we had to, and they just never would sell and they would just look like shit. Yeah, I don't think, you know, well, luckily my mom like any of that, and she was I had a graphic design background, so she would bring in a lot more high quality, like more like readable or she's good looking. It's always so. Yeah, yeah.

I feel like if I wasn't a tattoo or a probably like, own a t shirt company or something. Yeah, yeah, I just love it. And I just it's it's art is fun. Yeah. My my iPad, I have a whole folder, probably like 300 designs of t shirts that are didn't make the cut or. Yeah. Do you design. Well, like most of them a lot of them.

Oh no shit. Okay. That's cool. Yeah, yeah. Well you, you work with like, blaze and like that blaze. I'm a handful. Yeah. Oh that's cool.

And other artists who I. Yeah. But, yeah, I just like, Well, I like bootleg stuff, you know? Yeah. I mean, like, I tell, I'll take some of an old matchbook and then turn it into a downtown shirt or something, you know? So, like, I just, I know I'm never not on my iPad, I guess, you know, I'm always, like, doodling or coming up or something. When you get into the iPad thing. Do you, do you remember, like, resistant?

Yeah. Yeah for sure. Yeah. It's. Yeah, it took me forever. I was the last guy on the iPad. Really? Yeah.

I remember we had this younger tattooer in there and he was like over there drawing on that thing, and I was like, what the fuck are you doing, man? Like and he's like, oh, just zoomed in and traced over and did this. And then I redid it. I was like, that's lame. Yeah. And then like two weeks later I was like, well, how did you do that? Like, you know, and then as soon as you play with it, it's fucking awesome. You know who got me into it was J swarm.

Oh, okay. So yeah, I originally got the iPad just so I could digitize my books and have them all in one spot. Yeah. And then J. We were, Oh, coming up with think it was just like a sticker design, and he was showing me he was helping me. And then I was like, this thing's actually useful because, you know, like, you come up with a design, you give it to the graphic design guy, and he always gets it wrong. Yeah. Because he doesn't, you know, he's nodding your head.

Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah J got like showed me the ropes on it and I started messing with it more. And now I just it's I just drawn I don't even have paper anymore. Yeah yeah yeah. You still paint a lot too. Yeah. Just like print out some of your drawings and then you'll hit them on your light table for painting.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. That's right. I never have gotten used to doing just rough sketches on there. I'll take a just a notepad and do my rough. Oh, yeah. Take a picture of it, put it on my. Yeah.

It in. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. It's like now that works for me I yeah it's the rough sketch on the iPad for some reason. Yeah. Yeah. My hand doesn't want to. Yeah. It's it's like the tooth of the paper I guess.

Yeah. You know, just the texture of the paper when you're working on. Yeah. And then those, like the little film you could put on, I like, feels like that doesn't work. I tried that one. Gets a scene, people cough. Drop it. Yeah.

I'm not. So, like, back to, kind of your first kind of inspirations and getting into tattooing you, who who's your mentor? Is it Mike Stevens? Yeah, and he was a local dude. I remember that name, but I don't know if I can remember him. Yeah, I can't really name too. I know I was. Yeah, him when he first moved out here.

He worked at is either statues of us or Sin City. They change names at some point. Remember that. And, then he opened a shop called Tattoo Asylum. Yeah, it was originally Imagination Station, I believe. Or I actually think it was originally Star born on the East Side. Okay. 95 then I think it was Imagination Station and then.

Yes. Okay, I'm doing that. Shop's been so many things. Yeah. My, Frank black was a guy that only. Yeah. Spent a lot of time in prison. He had, like, his whole.

I was the first person I saw. His whole body was covered, like, really any. Yeah. No, no. Like bare spots. I remember talking to all those guys would come in and talk about about working at studio 21 at some point. Yeah. And so I interviewed a lot of them but never saw him again, but I yeah.

Oh he opened up after he came. They came in you know. Yeah. Damn. Yeah. I don't know always I heard you got like some tattoos by magic. Oh yeah. Yeah.

He was like, was he had a tattoo. It was a tattoo asylum. Was there a second location that was like on the Las Vegas Boulevard? Was that there was star born? Was there star born? I was getting tattooed. I got tattooed by magic. Had tattoos, were us originally.

And then he left there. I went to, Star Arbor. Okay. I got most of my tattoo that's around it. Yeah. Yep. Was your dad a tattooer? No.

I've sorted out here. No, I don't know, because he was. He was like, a little bit confused with. Someone told me a story about their dad. I can't remember who he was. No shop with, but that was somebody got shot in the leg accidentally. Oh, shit. Yeah, I know your dad for some reason.

Oh, somebody else I know whose dad was a tattooer. Oh, I never met. I don't like. Who was that guy? My dad had frozen food at Vons. Oh, yeah. Oh, shit. Yeah.

Oh, tattoos. Okay, well, that was a totally different story. Yeah, like if you were a young tattooer right now getting into it, like, is that what were you what would you do? Like where would you want to work or pussycat, I mean, yeah, no, I mean, if you think about it like, I don't know, is there like a, a place there that you would like to start around or something. Yeah. Oh, I kind of think about that sometimes. Yeah. You got so much deep roots in Vegas.

But I remember at one point in time I threw a fucking dart at a map and I was like, I'm going to move here and I'm going to be a tattooer here. And I ended up in Miami and I was like, I don't fucking, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. That's a that's a tough one. Yeah. Any city like yeah. When you tattoo people from all over the world, which we do, you do. Yeah.

You talk to people from everywhere. And many times I've had people go, I come here, I want to open a shop in, you know, Salem, Oregon. Oh, well, there's a lot of towns I can open your mouth. Why? Because I've never even been there. I think about it like spending a lot of time in San Diego. You know, there's so much great tattooing that came out of San Diego in the early 2000s. And like that just seemed to me like the most amazing place, like the way Aaron Dellavedova set up guru and stuff.

He would had a surfboard rack in the back so you could go down and surf in the morning, come in, draw and then do your tattoos. And then he even had like an apartment right above the shops where like he would rent that out to artists and I'm like, that always just seemed like, well, fucking that just seems like tattooing by the beach sounds nice. Yeah, that's a go. Yeah. I would work at Avalon when I first went in there and met them and I was like, oh, I'd like to work here. Oh, you're so nice. Yeah, it's just such a cool spot. Yeah.

Rest in peace, man. She just passed away. Did she? Yeah. Yeah. And flip is looking for right now. Somebody that went into her house and stole a bunch of, like, really, classic tattoo machines and pieces of art that found out that she passed. Oh, my real fucked up dude.

That's fucked. If anybody knows out there robbing that Dan lady, that's fucked up, dude. Yeah, terrible. Yeah, yeah. But that question, I don't know, I think it was Vegas, man. I know. Right? Like, I can't think of a better city to have learned tattooing.

I mean, yeah, I'm sure, you know, like San Francisco or like. Yeah. Yeah. But like, I don't know, I'm, I don't know, I just like how it all played out for me for sure. Dude, the I mean, even the location of the your Fremont Street shop, it's, it's, it's cleaned up so much nicer around there too. But it still has such a just a rich Vegas culture like, yeah, you know, the the fucking cool ass old motels all around there, the way you painted the front of your shop and the neon and everything, and it just. You built a good home. Yeah, well, you're going to be surprised when you go by there next.

Because all the motels. Because she just got demolished. Oh. What? Because I just was at the going to do that to Ferguson's there. Okay. All the, all the boarded up ones. Oh okay.

All I released. Oh they're all demolished. Yeah. Tony Shay by all those did nothing with them. The junkies got in there, stripped all the copper, caught them on fire. Oh. Damn. Oh, there's too far gone.

And isn't all that shit in probate right now, too, because, like, all that property, he died and didn't leave a fucking will. So there's a shit ton. But then they discovered a will. Really? Yeah. Discovered a will, like six months a year ago because his, like, his lawyer was so old, he didn't he forgot he did it or he didn't know that. Like he didn't know he died. Oh it's like was like someone mentioned it to him.

He's like, oh I have his will and so fucking. Yeah. So then now there's, it's a whole dude. The story of that whole thing of like Tony Shay coming into downtown and buying everything and then getting kind of strung out and like, losing his life was. That's a I always felt like he wanted to be Howard Hughes. I just felt like. But he was, like too dorky to really be Howard Hughes. And he was like, trying too hard.

Yeah, like it was. And then he was like, oh, I live a modest life. I live in a tiny home. Yeah, in a tiny home in the middle of downtown that you bought everything. Yeah. And like 42 other tiny homes. Right. So all your friends hung out?

Yeah. Like you like you're hoarding all kinds of stuff, like property and everything. Like you're so modestly. Yeah. Fuck, yeah. There's always some guy coming in from out of town and seeing downtown Vegas thinking they're going to. Yeah, revive it. You know, Bob snow, I don't know if you remember him, but he's the one that built the the station, the cement station, the main street, main Street station.

Yeah. Oh, and he it was a pilot. And he would drag the banners and fly around town. This was back, I don't know, you guys were a little kids, I think, and he would fly, you know, Main Street station and that he was a big promoter and he but he did everything himself. And I thought that was a really cool property. Was really fun to go in there and have dinner and a train car and stuff. But it failed. I mean, it just seen so many people come in there and put a bunch of money in and then leave.

They just, yeah, go with them. Leave the way Tony left the house down. Whippets. Yeah. Well, his thing was like when he was buying everything, I would, I would read every article that would get published. He was like interviewed and everything was like, we're gonna do this like the Bay area. We're gonna do this like San Francisco, my vacation zone identity. Yeah, yeah.

You cannot replicate the Bay Area in Las Vegas. You want to be like the Bay area, actually. And it's like what the container park was, Oh, this outdoor mall. I mean, are you an idiot? Like. Yeah, it's like a 525 degree, you know? So these people. Yeah, they're all steel boxes, full sun exposure.

Nobody seems to learn that building things in Las Vegas. Like you need fucking shade, man. Like, here's the face. East. Yeah. If you have some face in West, You're screwed. Yeah, you're you're French. Whereas when we look for a shop location.

God, Becky and I would drive and drive and look and look. And we always wanted to corner, you know, try to find a nice corner every time you did find a corner. So. Yeah. Me either a black CVS would be there or whatever, but, just trying to find that perfect spot. But you didn't want anything facing west because hot as shit in there. Yeah. When you pay, we go to.

I don't even go there in the afternoon. Yeah, yeah. Because it's too hot to get. You have to wait for my first location. We were facing the window. We were on a corner and it was like west. Yeah, yeah. And if, like, you know, like that certain times a year where you, like, kick the AC down in the evening.

Yeah. Well, I tell the guys, crank that shit up before you leave because the next day it would be so hot. He would never keep up. You were literally in a glass box. I remember that you had east and, south facing windows. Right. So the sun was all day long. All day.

Well, you're in a good spot now. Facing north. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's it's really nice of you. Yeah, yeah. Somebody on both sides.

You with air conditioners? Yeah, exactly. And, oh, I was I think two is just the first location. The restaurant next to me moved out and there. So their air conditioning wasn't like, well, no one's running the air conditioner. I had this, like, candle. It's like one of those, like, you know, like a hand like that. Yeah.

And it was on a shelf. And I just watched all summer long, I think, just slowly melt because it was like next to that wall. Yeah. You could touch the wall. It was hot. Dude. Tattooing when their AC is out is no joke. Brewing in the summertime is here.

The sweat just dripping off your nose and you trying to like, do everything you can. Like first time making. I took a trip with the kids after we moved here in 89, and, we had a she she, you know, decorates those candles everywhere. Took a trip, came home, we turn the air conditioning off to leave. I didn't think about that. You don't turn it off when it's 120. Outside came home. All the candles like this, the.

Yeah. Everything in the house was melted. Droopy shit that. We won't do that again. So, you know, I took it to 85 or 90 or something, and 9090s. Cool. Compared to what it gets. If you, if you turn it off, you know what it is.

I don't know why I was randomly thinking about this. I started to look up like your Yelp reviews on your shop and your responses are fucking funny, dude. You bite back. And that's something that I didn't stop doing that really good. Yeah. So, like, for a long time, it was just your shop. And my shop were top rated on Yelp. Yeah, I think you were hip to it.

Right. Like, for me and then. Yeah. And like, because we was closed. So when we first opened in 2008, the recession. Yeah. And then Yelp called in there like, you know, trying to pitch me on. And I was like, I don't know.

I was like, oh, I have 300 bucks left. Yeah. So like, I'll advertise for 300 bucks. And like, we were really close to like, really? Yeah. Because it was just dead, you know. Yeah. And then you started getting all these, like, little tattoos come through, or these women or you guys that wouldn't, like, normally get tattooed.

They came in, they would leave us reviews. And so I, oh I was always watching Yelp. I always knew you guys were like, yeah, there was. Yeah for sure. But then like being the, you know, I don't know young jerk. And I was, I would, you know, someone leave a bad review and I would just talk shit. And it was funny for, you know, to read, but it wasn't funny when some lady left us a bad review because she, like, supposedly got an infection. Oh, God.

Yeah. What she did. You know, you're in the hospital or whatever, but I it wasn't from the tattoo. I think she just blamed it on the shit tattooed and then go fucking swimming on our ankle. Yeah. So I see you touch it. Yeah. I think it was the only time I can think of that.

We had somebody contact us that had an infection. They got tattooed and they walked down the street all day sweating and, you know, kicking up dirt on it, and, they got an infection. Fortunately, she was a nurse, and we didn't have any kind of issues. And she called just us. Tell us it happened. And I really appreciate you, but we're talking about responding to. What did she. Yeah.

Did she come back? So I looked at her review. So she's she's that to you know. And I looked at her other reviews. She got an infection from pedicure. So part of my thing was like, it looks like you're prone to infection as a total jerk to her, right? I should have just, like, called her. I think she ain't even called the shot.

What? Oh, wow. And I was out of town, so, like, just total dick about it, right? And then she sued us. Oh, get the fancy one. Yeah. So, like, our deductible was 500 bucks, but she won. I think her settlement was, like, 40 grand.

Whoa. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Wow. Damn. I'm okay. So then you just straight stopped with the responding.

Yeah. I was like, I'm going to be nice to people. Come here. Oh, yeah. That's just what I used to do. I if I saw a bad review, I would find out what their email address is because you can. Yeah. Backdoor to their email address.

And I would send them an email and go, hey, I'm a owner. I'm sorry that you had a bad experience. What can I do to make it better? You know, and nine times out of ten, that review was gone. Yeah. Just for responding. Yeah. I didn't have to do anything.

I think once I had to get somebody in Seattle to, fix somebody's tattoo. Oh, yeah. So nice. But it was like, you know, you just call them up and go, hey, I got this client. I'll pay you to fix it for them. Yeah, so they don't have to come. They're not coming back to Vegas. That's actually smart.

Because if. Yeah, that's that happened. So that was our what was the grounds of suing like the in fact like she claimed the infection and then what. Yeah. But like I yeah I, I'm, I 100% confidence in the guy that did the tattoo. Yeah. He did not give her an infection. Yeah for sure.

You know what I mean. There was well her claim I might I said you know, was. Yeah was ridiculous. And so, like, there's no way he did what she said he did. Yeah. And to give her an infection and like, having seen that her other views, like with a pedicure, she had an infection. Think she might have been prone to it, but yeah, I don't know, like even our you went back and looked at her reviews and she was writing bad reviews on other people. Yeah.

Oh that's right. That's usually how it works. Like the people that are leaving the bad reviews, that's all they really bad. Our first bad review, the I never forget her name. Sure. Her name was Miss Good Katie. She was from Southern California. Oh, she just ripped us a new one.

If she wouldn't. And I've tried, you know, solving the problem with her, right? Never, never would take it. That was always a first, first review that shows up, you know, terrible review. Oh, and then she didn't even get tattooed at our shop. She came in and she said she had an appointment, but she hadn't made an appointment. She had just talked about making an appointment. So she comes in, doesn't get to get tattooed, says we're in the ghetto and we're just writes all this shit about us sharing a tattoo there I to.

Yeah, of all of our our reviews was a customer who never got a tattoo. I had one of those where the gal showed up and everyone was tattooing and was annoyed that she had to wait a couple minutes for that. But we always acknowledge people. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Yeah. Oh, they they said they'd be here and it took two minutes to get to me or whatever. We they didn't have a counter version as like, so I was obviously was a smartass.

Yeah. I read that one just this morning. Yeah. Yeah. So you don't know what. Yeah. So I'm better about that. Yeah.

Yeah. My favorite one was the white tattoo one. You were like, I don't know what she was bitching about. She just wanted to get a white tattoo and they wouldn't do, I don't know, something like I think she got it, but then they like what we didn't do her skin, like, totally. Yeah, like a white. Had to. But she left a bad review and but she gets on there. It's like once you grow the balls enough to get a real tattoo.

Was black lines at the rest of the world can see it. So I don't know. I just thought it was fucking funny. And now I have to go on a Ranger route. And those are lies. Old as fuck. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're still on it, but they'll they'll allow a battery of you to stay up there. But then they filter all these.

Good one. Yeah, yeah. Oh it's such a fucking silly. I mean yeah. Weird like. Yeah. Because we didn't pay any advertising ever. Really.

With anything. Yeah. We just the. Well, it seemed like a card to me. A conflict of interest for y'all to be using you. They're using. Yeah, yeah. You're business and they want you to pay them.

Yeah. It just I could never. It's ridiculous. But then they just started pulling some mafioso shit and they just, like, pull all your reviews back and funnel you down to the bottom. And then once you pay, then it like, puts you out. You're like, you have all this time and energy put into those reviews and there's like a huge value there. But then now you have to pay them to fucking get people to see it. It's real frustrating, but I don't, I don't pay, I haven't paid them in years.

Yeah, yeah, I heard that. Like was it Google tried to buy them and they refused. Really. Google came out with their own reviews and then that's what everyone goes on Google reviews. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah we do way better off of Google reviews. Yeah actually. Yeah. So Yelp is like kind of nothing now seems.

Yeah, yeah. We still we still it's almost like the, the second level of checking in on your business. They go they see the Google and then they'll jump over to Yelp and then even Google though now it's like we have I think more we got on that early like you said, like I went to San Francisco and I learned about Yelp and like the the review culture even thing, you know, and then I so I built all that out for a shop like right when I got back and then we, we got on and it started getting a lot of work off of it, you know, like you said. But yeah. So you haven't paid and you don't advertise at all. Right. No. Because it's it seems pointless at this point.

Yeah. Like you're paying a company that used to be big. Yeah. You know, like, what are you going to do for me. Like. Yeah. Are you going to help my Google reviews? Because yeah.

Yeah. It does seem like Google reviews took over. Yeah, I still use Yelp when I travel and stuff I like I do for like, I mean for the restaurants. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, almost 100%. You can count on those. But I don't know about tattoo shops.

I love sitting in your shop though, and watching all the people walk in like you're in such a great location. It's so cool. We don't get like that walk in traffic anymore, like we used to back in the day. But I mean, we we do, but it's not like as hours as they're dropping them off, you know. Yeah. Like bring people up or whatever. But they're walk ins but they're not I like this, I like to use like on the street corner and you're like, you can sit out front and watch people walk by. It just feels I don't know, it's just it's awful.

And like I said, that's a nice vibe to. Yeah for sure. And you get the keys to walk into in the fucking weirdos and shit. That's a fun part of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, you know, you can kind of tell pretty quickly, like if they're there for the right reasons and stuff. Oh it's fun. It's they're wearing a backpack.

They're they're not, they're, they're good. Oh good backpack. So shit man what do you got. You got some like, ideas. You want to just continue to do books and build shops. You ever going to do three shops? No no no no I'll chop. Yeah.

You got a good formula right. That's what I want anymore. Yeah fine. Any more investments? Maybe I'll try like a rental property or something. Yes. That sounds like anything they ask to. Yes it is totally more book.

So eventually. But I think it'll be more like historical stuff. Like. Yeah, yeah, like the Grimm book you put out was more like their name in. Yeah, that was great. Mainly our collections and then a few other people contributed. That book was was awesome. That's cool.

So everything in there is actually out of your your collection. And yeah, you when you look at the book like in the beginning gives credits to who? All consumers. Yeah. Yeah. But like most of its majority Aaron they're me and then yeah everyone else contributed like dang do you do you ever think you would want to like, kind of put some of your collection together in a place where people can view it? Yeah, yeah, I have it at Fremont Street. Oh well, yeah, I guess, yeah, that's all the stuff.

You have it up and now everything. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. I, there's so much to look at in there. Yeah. Recently went to the Salt Lake City Tattoo Museum, so. Yeah, Fishburne owns, No shit.

Yeah, he just turned his shop into a museum. Well, he opened a second location. In that location is a museum that they also tattoo other. Really? It's beautiful and, like. So I was getting ideas. Yeah. I just don't know, like, my whole collection is just flash and acetate stencils.

Yeah. It's kind of making a comeback right now in good time. Charlie. So he just opened a shop and it's a museum basically. Yeah. That's cool. You got all this. Like, now we have just this rich history and now the idea that you can display it.

And then so many people are into tattooing now and educated about it. And to come and learn and view is cool. I wish I had grabbed all of Phil Luxe stuff when he was selling. He has so much like all that stuff back in the days I never ever seen. But like he got rid of them all. I think he sold them all thing. Well, that's cool though. Yeah, yeah.

So what do you have to do to call your place a museum? Well, I was talking. Was he. He's like, unless you want like, the tax benefits. I think you just call it a museum over here for your personal collection. That's cool. But I don't know if I'd have to, like, restructure and, like, display more of it in the front or. So I'm brainstorming.

Yeah. Is there museum police to come in private and. Yeah. Yeah, I know you can get grants and stuff, but that seems like a lot more work than I'm willing to. That's the deal with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just would. It'd be cool to be able government. Yeah.

You don't want to deal with the government. Yeah. It'd be cool to say like downtown tax you home of that last year. That's amazing. But yeah you know I have no idea. I would like to, but yeah, you should. I'm not going to know. I heard ChatGPT is super good at building grants or writing grants.

Like, I was interviewing the principal of this school that there's like a charter school the other day, and he's like, I'll just use GPT to write all my grants. Like, what the fuck? That's it might be something to look into. Yeah, I'd like to help you out, but I would probably have to move a lot of that vintage stuff toward the front of the shops. Yeah. You know, so that's a and then label things. So yeah. Because I don't think I would want to like have to stop every time someone came in and like totally explain everything.

Yeah. Yeah. You want to get, you know, put a little nametag on and just stand there with a little Mike Tyson volunteer docents or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I need to, like, also expand my collection more too. Yeah, I do have do you have room down there to expand if you, if you want to know. No. There's a wedding. Yeah.

You can either side. Yeah. But also like we have some which is great for business right. Yeah I do it. And he says he does good. Yeah I bet. Yeah I would think yeah. I mean people come to Vegas, get married and get I lived right above that.

Some of those wedding chapels when I was down there. So you know. Yeah it fun, fun to watch them too, you know. Well, I love that they're always out there taking pictures in front of a shop. Like, there's so many people that are getting their wedding photos, like, just even a couple shots out of their collection. Yeah, right in front of a shop. Even if they don't get tattooed, they're like, our shop is still because we have the neon. Yeah.

So they do take pictures there. I and they walk in and we're all well trained on it too. Like we you could tell if they want to take pictures so. Well I'll come take pictures and we'll move out of the way. Oh cool. Yeah. That's like always tagging us on wedding flash in there at all. We do?

Yeah, but you do? Yeah. We have, a lot of bills and that sort of thing, like some deals with them too. Yeah, because like the the chapel next door, they have like a whole kind of theme going on. And, we've painted designs around that. Yeah. Of course. Yeah.

That's cool. Yeah, yeah. What's good, like working with your neighbors to, you know, good neighbors to have. Yeah. Yeah. We always try to set up near a good kind of a bar. Our first one with a royal frog. Wait, I remember that.

Well, which is like the craziest place ever. And, turned out it wasn't really a bar. I found out later on, but I'm more totally, Okay. But, anyway, it was, interesting. So that's why we we set up next to Jackson's over there. Oh, are now super nice guy who. We've always had a good relationship with him as a neighbor. Yeah, ours are the best to be.

That's cool. Yeah. It's good to have, like, community, too. And, like, network with your other small businesses around there. Yeah. You have your parties to. You have to send everybody over there. You ready to go home?

Go to law. Yeah. You still host your anniversary party in the whole back parking lot? Yeah. The cars. It's all private now, right? Yeah. So you have a lot less, like, weird traffic coming through because they gated it all up?

No. So the landlord did that because we were like people as things are been developing downtown. Yeah. People park in our parking lot and go walk up to the other businesses. So we tried to strike a deal with, with, downtown project, where, like, you pay X amount, and that helps, like, me maintain the lot. And it was nothing. It was like 300 bucks. Yeah.

He was I think that he was asking them and they refuse. She's like, well, sure, I'm gonna put up the the pay parking and we all get we all validate. Yeah. So we don't have to pay, you know, professors we have to pay. But yeah, they're like instead of paying him 300 bucks to like, help him clean up the garbage at all, the people leave. They screwed themselves. But yeah. So now when we have our event, he just makes it to where you can't open those gates to where the school.

They'll leave. But no, no new cars could come in. And he's he's awesome. So good idea. How long you been tattooing now? Next month will be 25 years. They come I you you you know more than me. Yeah.

I've been, like, light on my tattooing this last year, but, yeah, I started tattooing in 2000. Okay. I was 2001. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. So why I teach art at the same time. Yeah, yeah. So he didn't start tattoo until he was, like, in his 40s. That's awesome.

Yeah. Sorry. Like crazy. Right? Right. It's basically six months behind him. I finished my apprenticeship and. Yeah.

Cool. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't start. I had a full career before that. Yeah. So what'd you do? Land surveyor or civil engineering? Oh, cool.

Yeah, it was so totally different, you know? Yeah. Super corporate thing is, I still have dreams about being a land surveyor and working on these projects. But I never have dreams about tattooing. It's. Yeah, I don't know what I do. That's just very strange. You ever have nightmares?

Like, I think it might be nightmares is like, I don't want to. Yeah. When I was working a whole lot, I remember, like, having these nightmares of me, like, all of a sudden realizing I didn't have gloves on while I was tattooing or. I don't know why. It was like, you know, sometimes these dreams are just so real. But feeling how awkward it feels like to touch a steel tube without any fucking latex in between you, is just like the strangest feeling of you're not used to it. And I remember like, having these nightmares of, like or just like realizing like it you're talking about. I just said I never have dreams about it.

But I do think I do have dreams about tattooing without gloves and gloves on, and or I just get a line and, you know, it's like it's just fucking going and it's like you're trying to fight, but your arms are just like water, you know? Yeah, yeah. I just remember having those dreams a lot like you. I was just working six, seven days a week and just trying to, like, deal with, when you first started with your first business, did you work seven days a week? Yeah. So should we. We. Yeah, yeah.

Our goal, we did seven days a week, 12 hours a day, and we made it seven months. And we finally decided it went to six days a week and rotated one day off for him and then one day off for me. But that's how we hit it. We just hit it hard, you know, hard for the first couple of years and then. Yeah, but like when you open any business, like, you should want to do that, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, I feel.

Yeah, actually, I don't feel like I've worked since I got out of the engineering business after that, I've basically been retired. But yeah, I just had fun, been doing what I wanted to do. Yeah. You know, I think I always wanted to have my dad didn't have a business or anything. He worked for a big corporation and when he finished up, they shit on him after, you know, 30 years of working for him. And I was like, I don't I don't want my kids to have to. I want to have a business with my family. And so that's what we're doing.

That's how we can I mean, that's part of how that happened. Originally, I got my first tattoo. Austin was he was ten years old with me, two daughters. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Boulder highway to G dude. Yeah. We he went out there with me twice, and the second time he watched the whole process and everything, we walked down the parking lot.

I go, we should tattoo together. He was ten. Yeah, I was 19. We started tattooing together. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It was it was already in our head that far back.

That was like maybe an 89 or 90 when we started thinking about wanting to get into his awesome, almost wish. You know, sometimes I think, I mean, I could have done it any time, right? I could have done it in Houston before we came out here. But had I done it in Houston, I probably would have been finished way earlier and gotten out of it or killed myself doing drugs or something. Yeah, that's possible. I feel that way too, because, like, when I was 18, I got offered an apprenticeship. Sincerely tattoo. My friend Nick, who got me ended up getting my apprenticeship at tattoo.

So I'm. He said I could get you in, and I, I was like, I had done, I'm out of my house in high school, and I hated it. It was so frustrating. I was like, no, you know, blah, blah, and then worked some real jobs and realized and then hung out and tattoo shops enough. I was like, I kind of want this, you know? And then I got in, but if I would have done it, then I like first of all, like some of the guys I would have been exposed to, like, I'm some of those dudes. Rougher crowd. Yeah, it was a rougher crowd.

And some of the dudes died. They overdosed and stuff like that. And like, I wouldn't have been exposed to the the tattoos I was exposed to. And so I'm kind of grateful or very grateful that I didn't jump on that. I think we got into a perfect time. Yes. Really. Actually, I think I would have, I definitely, especially because when I was young, it was a good time because prior to that, the tattoos were pretty rough and.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, there wasn't shit for competition really either. You know, like when we open, you know, you opened a little later than us, but like, when we opened, like, there was only a couple people our age learning how to tattoo in town. And then when we opened, it was like I was the tattooer for all of my friends circles and their friends. You know, it was a and then it's progressively more of like my acquaintances and friends got in and started infiltrating my circles. And then it was just like, dude, you did it. Now it's like, I don't even know who tattoos in this town.

Sometimes it's really difficult. We feel there was a point where we knew everybody was into the cooler community, too. I always say cooler, but like it was, you know, you knew everyone that that tattooed and the or you knew of them. Yeah. Those, those rare guys that didn't go out there kind of hermits. They, you knew of them. You saw that work around and you could tell too. But yeah.

Like it it was cool. Like being able to experience, like less shops. Anything. But it's still cool. Yeah. It's like feel like I love. I think it's cooler now. Yeah.

Well, yeah. Yeah. You will. You see, you got some, like, some deep roots in it too. You know, the way you're doing it too, you know. Yeah. The way you're doing it is cooler. That's what makes it cooler, I think.

Yeah. I think it's cool. Like the three of us started, like, at a, like a time where it was like, we got that experience, you know, and like, the guys are getting to now are getting a different experience. It's going to be cool. They're gonna, in 25 years, be sitting there talking with each other and thinking, man, that was so cool. Yeah. These guys, you know, these guys don't know what they missed out on. It's going to just keep happening.

Yeah. And the guys 25 years before us, we're saying the same shit about us. You know. Yeah. Yeah I remember we were in Washington and Austin and I went up to, Vancouver, Washington, and I. Somebody contacted me to do a convention up there and City of Vancouver. C.. I haven't been there in a while.

And she sends me, you mailbag. She goes, I'm sorry. We're in Vancouver, Washington. Are you still coming? Yeah. I was like, fuck yeah, we're still coming. So we came anyway. Li'l turtle was there, and I had, I don't know if you ever saw our penny smasher.

Oh, yeah. We have three designs on there, and I thought, this is pretty unique. I've never known a tattoo shop that had a penny smasher. So when in Vegas, from a lot of people smash penny let it's a out of money. But it's a funny thing I love I've always got your pennies. Yeah, I've always collected the pennies. I still like how I talk Becky into it. I said, you know, have you ever seen a business with a penny smasher go out of business like the Grand Canyon or Disneyland?

And she's like, no, that's a you're you're right. That's so great. Know, with Grand Canyon still in business. Surprising. Can it be a business forever? So. But, Lyle came up to our table. I used to spread those out at the convention.

That smash hundreds of and just spread them out. Yeah, and people were just amazed that there were free. They would come out and look at them and. Are these free and like, yeah, take one. You know, take a couple of whatever. And, you know, they got and it said World Famous studio 21 tattoo. And in my opinion, we were world famous. We were people from Las Vegas tattooing beautiful and had been for a long time.

Lyle comes up and I knew he had a penny smasher. He had a story about his penny smasher, but he didn't say it. Picks his penny up. It looks at it, looks around, throws it back down like he's mad and looks at me and walks off on his cane and I walk over to excuse me there, Mr. Tuttle, I said, I see you didn't. You didn't like my penny? Yes. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you with that.

Anyway, he stops and starts talking to me about it. So somebody had stolen his penny smasher. Come to find out, Phil Luck knew where it was. It was in New York somewhere. And, so that's what he was mad about when somebody stole his. He was the first guy I tattoo show up to have a penny smasher. Oh, shit. And so he wasn't upset with us for coffee and his idea?

I didn't know he had Penny's measure. I was still got one anyway, but, It was. It was pretty funny just watching his face, and I was like, wonder what? Wonder what pissed him off about the penny smash? You just passed away a couple of years ago. Why did they just. Oh, must be there, like an anniversary post or something. I don't know why.

I'd. Yeah, because I like total. Yeah. Someone's running his, count. Okay. Yeah. I makes it look like he. Sometimes you wonder if he's like.

Yeah. Like, how's your body doing with tattooing over the years? You rest. You were having issues with your carpal tunnel and then his elbow. My. Yeah. My hands always ache. That's never going to stop my ass.

My hands right back hurts right now. Yeah. No doubt. I should I should be switching to those, like, pen. Yeah. You know, I just can't really. Okay. Yeah.

I can't get the hang of them. Yeah. Dude, I got one of those little skinny pens I guess it's awesome. Found them. I just bought some because it was weird. Yeah, it was like a Chinese manufacturer. I'm a skinny. It's a it's a tattoo machine.

Only like this fucking big. It's so weird. How is it? The tattoo on the fucking wrist due to three hours, just nonstop. It has the little battery pack. The plugs are. You know, you can get any RCA plug in the back, and then you wrap it and. And the damn things like just the battery pack kind of rests right here.

It's unbelievable. It's pretty weird. It's it's it makes no noise. Yeah. I don't fucking even the rotary machines are anywhere. I went straight from coil machine to this little pin. No, I tried one other, I use them like the Blitz rotaries and, neo tat rotaries and the shag belts. I'll use those for years, and I really like those.

That was my first kind of step away. You know why I didn't use those? It made me mad when I'd walk into the shop and it got quiet. Yeah. Fucking hate it. Still this day we have one guy that use coils, and I just like, a warm blanket feeling. You know what I'm like. And thank him every.

Yeah, I walk through there, I'm like, Josh, I love the sound of the. Yeah, I fucking hate when it's slow or it feels slow. Everyone can be tattooing and it feels fucking dead. I'm like, yeah. Or. And then people got their headphones on. It's just like the newer kind of thing. I'm like, that's artists.

But the, you know, like even the clients, like they'll come in and put their headphones on and look at their, I don't really like, sound like a tattoo convention when you walk into the shop. And it was. Yeah. Oh, from noon until fucking midnight. Know. Yeah. All that. Pretty much everybody in the shop still use coils, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I occasionally get, like a guest that'll come through on how they use the pen. The old dildo you like. You almost like you're cautious because you don't want to bump into their table or whatever. Because you don't you forget to their tattoo. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You don't know if they're pulling a line right. I did I do have a pen that I tried a few times and I worked on this dude's back the other day. But they're like, got quite a bit of work with this. With them. Yeah. Look, it's just a man. Yeah, yeah, it you just fuck the car. It was the.

I was giving it. Yeah, just doing it. It's like I don't feel like. Because I was just packing solid. Yeah. Was fast. So that was. That was easy.

And I saw I healed recently like oh that actually worked out. Yeah. But like trying to whip I can't get the hang of that. And line work is fucking I don't know every time. Yeah yeah I do, I do took right to it. I love that thing. Yeah I didn't I want to try it on anybody. So I have this, guy that I'm an attorney that I tattoo in exchange for legal work.

You know, and I called him up and said, hey, you want to own a free tattoo? I want to try this machine, and I don't want to try. I've tried it on myself, but I don't wanna try it on anybody else until I, you know, try it out. So he had this rocket piece. Real cool. Traditional, but not the. The piece was. I did a traditional, but I with the thing out did it in about two hours.

Pretty good sized piece on his thigh. And I looked at it. I was like, that thing looks awesome. I wonder how it's going to heal. Yeah. I said, okay, let me know, you know, send me a picture in a couple of weeks. So when it heals four days later, it's frickin healed. And he goes, this thing is unbelievable.

It still looks just amazing. Weird. How does it how does it work? Did you ever get into building tattoo machines? No, but I did. Even with Ryan, I helped, down in the in our garage. Yeah, he was building machines. I've.

I think I've touched, like, helped make every part of a machine. Yeah, but not the whole. Just something that never really boils and. Yeah. Yeah, that's a fun process to go like that. Yeah. For a couple. Right.

The. I never build machines, but, Travis. Travis in Florida. Yeah. Crazy. I don't know how to pronounce this cage machines again. We had this fight. Fight?

Ring bell. I don't know if you've seen it in our shop, but it's a, you know, it was in a in a school or. Oh, okay. Yeah. At the boxing ring bell. They kind of like one of these. But yeah it was fucking huge. It's pretty run.

I found it at an antique store somewhere or something. And Travis goes, let's, let's rebuild that thing and make it run. Let's look. Yeah, that'd be cool. So I helped him do that, help me wrap the coils and stuff on it. Giant coils. They're like this big around this layer. And, but I have a little button under the counter in there.

You can just push the button and ring the bell. That's awesome. And it just is way cool. Yeah, yeah, it was fun. A fun little project. That's my only experience with wrapping coils of what people do. But I never did it myself. Yeah.

Shit, man, I don't I don't want to keep you all day, but, I'm just like, I was just real pumped to sit down with you and, thank you for taking the time. Yeah, thanks for having me. And, I don't know, man. Anything else you want to tell us? He will drop some knowledge on some, young tattooers. Have fun. Yeah. Be my only advice.

I wouldn't I wouldn't do anything different enough. Yeah, and a lot of fun and tattooing and everything. I guess the vice, I would say is what Roger says. Take care of tattoo and tattoo will take care of you. Yeah, because, you know, none of us deserve this. It's so great, dude. You just take care of it, and it'll. It'll take care of it.

Yeah, yeah. If you're doing something you like, it's like being a musician or whatever. You're doing something you like. You probably could do it forever, you know? Yeah. The hands may be given out. I don't know, my hands hurt, but not as much as when I was tattooing older. Yeah, they still hurt.

Yeah. I figure maybe, maybe start shading with that. Yeah. Weird ass you should try doing just. Yeah, yeah, I'll bring mine by and let you borrow it if you want. Yeah, yeah. You could do his tattoo with it. Yeah I know, yeah.

So. Well, shit. How does everybody find you? Were, just on Instagram, buddy. Holiday? Yeah. It's downtown tattoo Las Vegas. I think it's all I have is Instagram.

So. Yeah. Downtown tattoo, Las Vegas, downtown tattoo. Henderson. Yeah. Instagram. Yeah. So you have three different Instagram.

So you can have mine and then the two shops. Yeah. Yeah. Well thank you dude, I appreciate it. You're somebody that I've always admired in our city and just I absolutely love your shops. And I can't wait to come back down there. I want to do some, like, video stuff walking through and everything. Thank you.

Yeah. Really cool time. Yeah. I'll actually have to show you all the the old flash. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you've seen it, but it's probably just blends in with like, everything else. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Well, thank you guys for tuning in. Really appreciate all the support. Everything. Like jump on there, subscribe, do all the things. If you could have greatly appreciate it. We, we're not having a good time doing this. And we're coming up on almost, like 20 episodes of 20. Something episodes.

So, we're trying to fine tune it and put a little more out there and, just so grateful that, like so many fantastic tattooers have been able to come by and sit down with us. So thank you guys and have a good one. All right. Peace.