Maverick ZINE — Tattoo Culture, Art & Artist Stories

What's happening [screaming] everybody? This is Austin from Support Your Local Tattooer. I'm here today with one of my personal favorite. He's my one of my personal favorite tattooers. Extremely impressive, just focusing on a largecale Japanese mostly a traveled man, shop owner, an inspiration to your peers, I think. So, I'm stoked to be here with you. This is Manny Fernandez. Yeah.

Hello everybody. What's up? We'll try to keep these mics kind of close to these mics today. Make sure our audio is on points, but um yeah, man. So, we we uh we want to we want to know more about you. We want to know a little bit of like where you came from and stuff. I love like, you know, I always we always kind of start out the show with just a little origin story of how we got into this crazy industry or inspirations and little trials and tribulations. Sound like you came from like I think we spoke about graffiti was like a big community that you were a part of when you were a youngster, right?

Like most of us that are our age, you know, and then you ran into some some some [ __ ] fun people that taught you some [ __ ] I remember. Didn't you say you started like just by hanging out with them and like tattooing out of or you had homies that tattooed out of houses or something? And yeah, my graffiti homies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tattooing in the backyards trying to like figure out the what is what website they got Google or whatever they were using to buy.

So what year roughly was that? Like eBay. Oh, okay. You were popping [ __ ] off of eBay to get a get supplies. I don't remember. I don't think Amazon was a thing back then. Oh, yeah. Something from online.

Probably like 200 six 2007 something like that. You count that as kind of like when you started tattooing or like do you have like a professionally? For sure. It's like when during those times is when I started realizing what tattoos were. Yeah. I had some homies that like went and got tattooed at shops and stuff and I went and seen that. " You know? " Yeah.

Those were You remember like some of your first experiences and feel those feels of when you rolled into like a real shop? Were you intimidated or or just more excited and intrigued? Yeah, I don't I was just excited to be there. It was different. It was a different world, you know. Yeah. Not intimidated because everybody was pretty welcoming back then or at least, you know, there it was. We're customers, so they treat you nice, you know.

It's not like you're in there trying to learn. Yeah. So, they'll treat you different if you're in there trying to get an apprenticeship, but like Yeah. You you didn't go in there. Give them some money. Yeah. They're like, damn. Yeah.

Those first like experiences I always thought were super fun. Like I feel like I could like smell the green soap and cigarettes. Yeah. One of the first dudes that tattooed one of my friends like came from t came from graffiti too. Oh, okay. Cool. So they were like that's probably why it clicked up and like ended up Yeah. So that's like my first look into a shop or anything like that.

Yeah. Graffiti through the homies. That was all in Los Vegas or No. Yeah. All here in Vegas. Yeah. I was wild when I was young. Do you remember some of those shops names?

Uh, I don't remember their names too much. Like I'm thinking I think it was Last Chance. Oh, okay. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. It was on Rainbow and Flamingo. Rainbow.

Flamingo. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was right up the street. That's what it was called back then. It was little though.

It was like a little like there was like three stations. I remember. It was like a short. It was when Ryan Downey owned it, you think? I don't know. Yeah. Well, that shop's changed hands like a lot over the years. That place has grown.

Yeah. So, yeah. Back in the day. Yeah. It was like a tiny little thing. There was like three artists, dude. It was in the backst. I remember.

Yeah. My homie got a Wuango. Rest in peace. Yeah. No [ __ ] Damn. So, then you got in you got in like uh I think you mentioned like how hard were you into graffiti? You were like Yeah. got like pretty obsessed with it.

Yeah. Yeah. I dropped out of high school because I didn't have like a good I didn't have credits because I came here when I was young. So, English was my second language and Oh, okay. I was doing bad in school because of that. Yeah. So, I just like dropped out. Just started painting every night by myself.

Yeah. He eventually caught up on me and I got in trouble for it. [snorts] And Yeah. What? Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that. [laughter] I never got caught. I ran but never got caught.

Yeah, pretty much. You got caught. I ran and I got caught and [laughter] and I was like I think I was like 16. So like they just took me to Jubie and I had to go to court and eventually they sent me to JobCore. Yeah. Which is it's a school in Reno and that's pretty much how I learned to be a maintenance man. And so before I tattooed, I was a maintenance guy. Yeah.

Just like fixing [ __ ] at apartments. Yeah. It was a good gig though. Yeah. It was It's a cool job. It's chill, you know? But like Yeah. I got bored.

I was like, I want to do something else. I was doing art. I wasn't like doing graffiti how I used to, but I was like involved in it and like doing art and paintings and trying to do First Fridays. Yeah. And Yeah. So basically I was like, I want to learn how to tattoo. Did you have anybody like, you know, that was really influencing you in art and early days? Like were your parents artists or anything or No.

No. No. Just kind of like came out of My dad later on I found out my dad went to art school. Oh, okay. Cuz my dad was a barber. So I he kind would, you know, kind Yeah. Yeah. So he was always around people and like cutting hair and stuff.

So I just knew him as that. Okay. But when I was young, he drew a really cool picture once on like a poster boy poster board size, you know? Yeah. Of like a superhero dude from this cartoon I liked. " Yeah. You can just like create [ __ ] out of nowhere and make a poster. Yeah.

[laughter] Yeah. Sick. That was the only time I ever saw him draw something. Yeah. After that, I think like his job was just to take care of us because like we left Cuba like when I was young and like it was like a one day to another decision that was made and like we were in the storm hurricane and like almost died and like Yeah, dude. You spoke a little surviving that like was crazy, you know? Like my mom prayed to God a lot and like we survived that. So like that was like you were a little guy too.

Yeah. And his job was kind of like to figure out how to take care of us here, you know, dude. Yeah. That's some real [ __ ] So they were not like ever influencing me with like art or music or any kind of hobbies. Like sometimes I'm like, man, I wish it would have been like, hey, look, you kind of draw something here some, but it was just busy trying to survive like working. But just picked up on hobbies on my own, which you applied that I'm assuming you pick up that work ethic from them then, you know, and you just apply it to your creative world and you're one of the hardest working dudes I know. Yeah. " It's like, kind of like put your batteries on, you know?

Oh, okay. [laughter] I like that again. Pontil. Okay. I need to say that to my [ __ ] kids. Yeah. So, it's like kind of like Mexicans are like get [ __ ] done. Yeah.

So that's for sure. Dang. I learned. So when I see an apprentice, you know, I'm like I feel like when I was an apprentice, at least the cleaning part of it, like I was like I came in there and I tried to do it quick and I was like and I want to see like other apprentices do that, right? Like look like you're in a race to go draw. Yeah. Don't just come in, oh it's just like I'm going to clean this floor because it's it's nice. This is the easy part of the day.

No, just get that [ __ ] done. Like you want to do something else, you know? How was your apprenticeship like? So, you went from graffiti, you started meeting guys that were tattooing out of their houses and stuff, but like did you have Yeah. So, yeah. How did that lead to like an actual a professional apprenticeship or Yeah, through meeting people, you know, and like ended up feel like being like I want to get an apprenticeship. I had a friend who had an apprenticeship. So, I was like I kind of knew what an apprenticeship was kind of like what the word was, you know, like Yeah.

through through that. " Okay. I always like learn how to do everything on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. " Right. So, I found an apprenticeship at a shop called Blackwolf, which back then was like a good shop.

Yeah. And like I was there for like seven months apprenticing. I did one tattoo on myself and I I was living on my own. I had a car payment. I worked as a maintenance guy from like 8 to 5. Yeah. And then I went to the shop on my days off. I just be at the shop full time, you know?

Yeah. But apparently like I didn't have what it takes. I wasn't dedicated enough. Yeah. So I got fired because I couldn't be full-time. I just in my mind I didn't understand like how was I gonna be full-time when you were working full time. I was taking care of myself, right? So like but that like pushed me and I'm and I'm like grateful that that happened.

I'm happy for that journey because it like pushed me to be who I am today, you know? So I'm like grateful that all of those things have pushed me and I got a job back there again like six months later. Yeah. With the same dude. He took you back. Yep. back at the same shop. So, you obviously didn't like burn the bridge or anything, you know?

You just kind of kept a good relationship. " Yeah, that's great. Just did that. You were drawing a lot like at that time like Not really. Like I just like or just trying to understand. I just made art. Yeah. You know, like like I just like like saw a canvas and I was like, I'm just going to draw for this canvas.

" Like, I didn't learn about that till I got into tattooing. And the more serious it got, the more important I realized drawing and like that's how you become original and like Yeah, that's like a whole different field, right? But in the beginning, like when you're new, you're just like, "Oh, like do a traditional rose and Yeah. " thing when we were grow into it. It was like that was available that you were still supposed to do. And then once Instagram came around and I started learning about other artists and seeing what's possible, I'm like, whoa, like how do I do that and how do I like make the stuff that not so many people are making, right? How do I cater towards trying to cater what the people I look up to are catering Yeah. towards, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I'm grateful for tattooing because it's definitely like given me like more than I can even like more than I dreamed of. Yeah. At times, you know, where I'm just like, man, like I'm grateful for the people I met and all the things I learned by being around artists I met and getting tattooed by them and seeing how they have gone through the same troubles that I gone or I'm going through. You know, it's it's cool to see that. Yeah. What What are some of those artists that like picked you up and really like I don't know, maybe lit a fire under your ass to like start pursuing like similar type of things that they were doing or styles or you know.

Yeah. I think his stars for sure with Philip Blue. Yeah. Like number one, you know, like he was like the first one and then she gay. Yeah. You know, like those two dudes were like the first people I like saw that were doing like good color and good black and gray and it's huge. Yeah. Was like large scale work like something that really stood out to you right off the bat?

I mean, and and want you wanted to pursue it like got a young No, I think it took it took me like maybe like three, four years to start kind of liking it and then really learn figuring out how to pursue it. Took more time, you know. Yeah, but in the beginning like I thought Japanese was like played out really. Yeah. I was like you have a koiish sleeve like you know and you know now I'm like dude Japanese is a style that will never run out of style you know. Yeah. It's timeless like traditional you know but being new to it being so innocent. I didn't know it's like oh it's all about the new stuff and like Yeah.

All your graffiti influence and stuff too is like pushing you probably. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. When you first started trying to draw Japanese, was it was it all like animated like 90s style [ __ ] or [clears throat] did you I don't know. I think it just happened like organically.

Yeah. you know, like just like I'll do a lighthouse and try to do waves and somehow there were like finger waves and you know, like organically like it just kind of happened like just drawing different things and then I think like going to conventions, starting to like bring more Japanese designs with me and then going to like Japan and Taiwan like changed my whole outlook on everything life, you know, like it's a culture shock going there. Yeah. So, like how much time did you get to spend over there or were those two separate trips or Yeah, I was in So, I went to Japan. I was there for a week and then I was in Taiwan for another week and there in Taiwan I did the I Love Tattoo Convention. Oh, yeah. Which was like in 2019. Okay.

And that right before Crazy. Yeah. Right before CO it was like everywhere I met Philip Blue there. Damn. Okay. And like Mike Dorsy was there. He had an exhibition. I got a painting from him.

An original. Oh, dope. The one that's like with the gay show. It's like the cover of his book. Yeah. Was that the one that you're you had [laughter] the issue with? I don't want to tell that story. I thought it was a [ __ ] terrible funny story.

Yeah, going to that convention for sure was sick because like I got to see bodysuits and I got to absorb all that and I went home with like a different mentality. Yeah. And every tattoo I did in that convention I hated. " Like, but that pushed me like that changed me a lot. And then COVID happened. So it just like put everything on pause, but it like helped me focus on my drawing and like where I wanted to go with it. Yeah. And then I had to finally hang that painting I got from Mike Dorsy, right?

It's a big one, right? Yeah. Real big. It was Yeah. It's like It's like 4 foot by six foot or something. It's like as wide as this. Yeah. It's like four by six something like that.

Like beautiful watercolor. Yeah, I paid 2400 bucks for it. That's awesome. It's like the most I ever paid for a painting. Yeah. At the time. And like I was like, this is like my most precious thing. Yeah.

I went to lay it out. It was like on a very thick watercolor paper, so like it would just like roll back up, right? So I laid it out. " And then later on you can iron it. Oh. So I was like, "Okay, cool. Whoa. I put I had some turntables, right?

So, it's like a like a black like a flat thing, right? And it's heavy. Yeah. So, that like one on each side like made it flat, right? Okay. " So, I go in the room where I was flying out the painting and my dog is in there and apparently like he like went in and that door shuts closed so he couldn't get out. Yeah. And I must have not closed it all the way when I left.

So, he bumped it open. Right. So he got stuck in there and like ripped like a corner of the painting, ate it, and then ripped it like all the way almost like right into almost like her face. Oh, he was like straight in there just tearing at it just hungry. I think he was actually pretty good for like the amount of time he could have been in there, you know, like. [laughter] So yeah, he I almost cried that day. " Like I was responsible for this painting and like now it's like Yeah. And then this [ __ ] up.

[laughter] So I like send Mike Dorsy a picture. I was like, "Hey dude, like what do we Dorsy was like looks like your dog didn't approve of it. " Like I kind of built a small friendship. You know, he's given me a lot of advice on like paper to use. brushes and things like that. And he took the painting, fixed it. Dude, that's crazy. Went in it, cut it, went through the back of it, put a piece of paper on it, like put letters on it, like send it back to me.

Didn't even charge me for it. Damn. Super cool. He's like one of the coolest dudes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got some other He's so busy, too, you know?

Like, yeah, he paints so much and he's tattooing, too. And he still has time to like respond to your DMs, you know what I mean? It's like, dude. Yeah. [ __ ] cool. Yeah, that's great. Did you do you ever get tattooed by him or No, no, I never been tattooed by him. Okay.

Who are some of your favorite people you've been? I do want to go visit him though. Yeah. Like Yeah, it's something I always told myself I want to do. Like I forget where he comes in the Pacific Northwest or where's he at? I think it's I don't want to say the wrong place. Yeah, [laughter] it might be like Ohio or some kind of like Midwestish northern middle. Yeah, something like that.

Idaho or Ohio. One of those two. Well, Idaho be like right above us. I'm not sure. Yeah, [laughter] my geography is not the best. Damn. So, what else is going on in your world? You got a lot um you had some recent fun projects that you had to keep secret.

You got to participate [clears throat] in the the seasons inc master, right? So, you're on it live right now. Yeah, pretty much. So, I know you can't talk about it much, but uh I personally have had like uh a lot of friends that have been on there and that can be some pretty stressful [ __ ] Like, I've gone and tried out and filmed pilots and stuff and it has the ability to get into your head whether you like it or not, you know? Yeah. Especially with tattooing because we take our job so serious, you know, that like you go in there and like you're getting critiqued for a long time and you're absorbing all that, but you also never been told those things about your work and like you take it so serious that you like have nightmares about it. Yeah.

[laughter] Yeah. I dude, I can't even imagine. So, yeah, I know you can't talk about it too much, but uh you had some fun running or you you've had like multiple people on the show that you kind of lightly knew, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. So, you were semicomfortable at times. Yes.

Around some buds or Everybody was really fun. Oh, that's good. Everybody's like super cool. Yeah. You know, so like it wasn't like you have beef with people and people are making you feel awkward. Like it's it's a fun cast to be with. Like everyone that works there is super cool and like they help you out with what you need. So it's it's a really fun process.

Yeah. And everything is real. Like you know the first couple days we're all like kind of like nervous and trying to feel each other out laughing with each other because we have to be competitive you know but then we start realizing okay like this is a competition and we need to be serious about it right. So it is serious you know. Yeah. And like I love that personally because I love like challenging myself and putting myself in like a competition setting. Yeah. That's why I like doing conventions.

Yeah. And trying to do a back piece in two days and enter it in the competition cuz like that drives me, you know? I go home and I'm like I could have done more, but like I also learned a lot and I learned what to do, what not to do, right? So like putting yourself in that situation, it's like important for me. So for sure that's like one of the best things I done in my career when it comes to like a challenge. Yeah. You know, cuz it's really like it's like you're outside of your comfort zone when it comes to like preparing for your tattoo. You have to do it on the spot, you know, and the time there goes by really fast.

" Yeah. No, it's just like flies, dude. Yeah. So, like, and you're not doing it on your own time. It's like whenever like it has to be done and like it's like things like that are like challenging. Yeah. When you're used to like your routine for like 10 years, you know? Yeah.

Yeah. That's great though. That's all good exercise. like all of the the repetition and exercise of tattooing that you've done in the past. All those challenging moments with clients all kind of just led up to this, right? And then connects. Yeah. And then you're just in there [ __ ] getting it.

Yeah. And it was I mean going back on like people I look up to, you know, like through Instagram and things like that. I found James Tex, you know, and like I have my back tattooed by him. My Yeah, dude. You showed me that last time. It's beautiful, dude. So he's a big inspiration [clears throat] of yours, too. And yeah, I like to say big inspiration and a friend, you know, and like he's welcome me to his house and I've been tattooed there and like he's a good dude, you know?

So when I found out we were there together, I was like, dude, like those are the moments where I'm like telling you that tattooing gives you things that you don't even you never even dreamed of. You know what I mean? because I'm like now I'm like here with my hero. Yeah. And like he has my back. That's cool. You know, like we're gonna It's a cool experience I got to experience on top of being with like people I look up to, you know? Yeah.

So things like that are really cool. That's cool. I'm I'm excited to see it and uh see how it unfolds. But I'm sure you'll I think it's gonna This is one of the best seasons made just cuz like Yeah. the whole like OG's versus Young Guns and like that's cool. Everyone there is really good. So like we all didn't know each other. So when we did got to meet each other, we're like looking at each other's work and we're all like damn.

Yeah. Like everyone here is a monster. Like if I got to go up against you with what you do, I'm I'm gonna have to make some magic happen. Yeah. Yeah. Pulling pulling all the tools out the box. [laughter] And that was fun, you know. Yeah.

Yeah, because like I mean that's the whole point of going there like showing that you can do everything, you know? So like I like I had fun doing it. That's good. You feel like I don't know. Um obviously it turned out great no matter what. How like where to where to now? Do you do you feel like you take any of those experiences and apply it to anything kind of coming up or I I guess you can't really talk about. Yeah.

Like I like just like trying to sometimes do things more like on the fly. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like pushing your styles. Like two days ago I had a client come in for a consultation and I was in tattooing that day and he was like I want you to like fill in this gap and ra and I was like I don't know what to do on that.

Yeah. And as soon as I like was gonna draw whatever idea I had, like another idea came to me and I drew it out on the fly and I was like, "It looks cool. " Yeah. [ __ ] it. So like I feel like that's almost like a walk-in, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's great. I like I want to push myself more like that as an artist. Yeah. Even though I believe is important to like be very prepared. I'm also like when I'm doing a big piece like recently I've been doing like two three versions of it and spending like three four days on making those versions and then commit looking at them and I'm like asking people which one they like more and then from there I'm like okay like I'm gonna commit to this one you know and then really refine that. Yeah. So I believe in like preparation is important as well too, but also sometimes like seeing what you can pull out of your hat, what what you have there is it's a fun exercise. Yeah, for sure.

And it it builds cool uh reputation or uh relationships with those clients, too. Like when when they see you just pull some big random custom [ __ ] right out, you know, of your ass and they're you guys just sit down and do it. The energy is so strong there and fun and it's cool as hell. And it happened like I don't know like I feel like it hap I when I was doing that I was thinking like for me drawing on people or like drawing sometimes is like singing in public like sometimes everyone's just literally staring sometimes you're like I can do this and then sometimes you're a little shy and embarrassed right? Yeah. And like you got to like just kind of rem remind yourself like but you did this thing really good the other day and it just came out of nowhere.

So it's like it's in you. So just have some confidence and like keep working on that, you know, cuz sometimes I feel like you can get in your head and like people can be watching and like you can freeze, you know? Yeah. Which was something I was scared of about going on Inkmaster, right? Like am I going to freeze and feel like that? But like luckily I didn't have that. I was like good focused the whole time. It was I had a good a good time.

Yeah. Damn. Good. I don't know why that just reminded me drawing like I was working the Calgary convention back in the day and I I don't know if I already told this story or not but I was sitting there drawing this dragon on somebody. It was just same situation. Walk up and he's like I want this whole my whole forearm I'm done right now but this dragon and I don't draw traditional Japanese dragons. I draw them all weird and funky. But I was sitting there drawing that thing and I just felt this presence of somebody standing over me and I turn around and it's [ __ ] James Tex and I was like I just felt like I just peed in my pants, you know?

[laughter] I was like, "God damn, man. " It's like you see all the mistakes in your tattoo immediately. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just all stressed out. But [laughter] so I can't imagine doing it on TV with cameras all on you. Cameras make people freeze up too.

They make us all kind of like second guess what we're doing and saying and honestly like for me the easiest part was tattooing. Yeah. Like tattooing like the cameras none of that really mattered. Yeah. Yeah, it was more like the you live and breathe other parts like getting critiqued and things like that that I was like there was times that I was like cold and there was times where I was like sweating bullets. I was like now I know what sweating bullets means. [laughter] Was it a big studio setup kind of you know get in there and there's a lot of Yeah. Like I used I used to think it was like in this like tattoo shop building or something but no it's like an actual real set you know and like Yeah.

impressive. Yeah, I heard a lot of good things about the people behind it and everything these days that they're really really passionately into tattooing. Obviously, they're curating these groups of people uh and just that the groups just keep getting better and better. So awesome. Yeah, everyone's cool. Like it's it's hard job, you know. Yeah, it's crazy how many ties of Vegas has to it repeatedly, you know, like DJ and there's been a lot of Vegas artist used to live here. you you know um I don't know there's a whole bunch of them you know that have been through there and that have had shops here or moved on or whatever but it's pretty wild I don't know if there's any city that has cool watching DJ too you know because dude I grew up pretty much looking up to him you know I got my chest done by him so whole front panel and if you told me that or not even when I was on the show I was like dude like it's like an honor to tattoo like with James and Anthony and like you here like you guys are like all my favorite tattooers like I'm [ __ ] stoked to be here, you know?

Yeah, they they're there for a [ __ ] reason. And you're right. And every time I'm like around those guys like at conventions and stuff, I'm like I get like I want to show them what I can do. Right. So be like I want this, you know, this I want to be on your level one day. [laughter] That's great, man. Dude, I like I was digging through your Instagram. Did you like have like some sort of app or something?

How the hell do you get your Instagram so well organized with all I don't Oh, cuz it looks great. But yeah, I just you have like the full body suits and like nine panels on a grid or whatever or more. I don't know. Yeah, I just think about like I don't know. Like something told me like to do things in threes, so I just started like just like always posting things in threes. I don't know. It probably like [ __ ] out my algorithm and [ __ ] but like I don't really care. I just like I like the way it looks like that.

So, I just like try to keep it organized like that. Did you go through and like reprep anything or rebuild your personal website or anything before you went on your master and try to get you already had all that pre? No, like I just I have a website made just for my prints and my art. Yeah. If you want to book an appointment, but like I'm easy like you just send me a DM and I'll respond through there, you know? Yeah. Like the Instagram thing it's like to me like that's our like portfolio, you know? Like I like in my shop, we don't have portfolios.

Like we have a little board where you can scan it and see people's Instagrams and that's people's portfolios. Okay. Right. Cuz like Yeah. It's constantly being updated. Yeah. The new generation doesn't make portfolios. They never like been like I never seen one of them be like, "Man, I really want to like print out these pictures.

" You know, like that doesn't happen anymore. But it's cool. " Yeah. You're going to follow them and they're like know what they're doing, you know? Yeah. So that's kind of like important to keep in mind. Do you feel did you have you seen like an influx of traffic or people DMing you and stuff like from the show already or is that kind of slow? There's been like people like people randomly popping in the shop the internet you know people are weird people are cool people are friendly people are but mostly people have been cool and supportive yeah I would think so following saying they like the tattoos that's great you know I did try to do like the tattoos I done like they're different like I didn't do exactly what I do all the time but my whole goal was to like push myself to do something different.

Yeah. That I never done before. So like I'm happy with what I did and I learned some things from it that I'm now evolving into like a new style I'm creating which that's the whole point of art, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What do you Yeah. So tell me a little bit about that.

Like you got a clear vision on where you're going or you just Not not really like just messing with some I think like I like doing different stuff, right? So, I don't really like it's hard for me to just choose like one specific formula of how to do a tattoo cuz there's different ways to do it, you know? Yeah. So, it's mostly just like when I see that client, what they want, what they let me do, right? And like how I'm feeling about it. if I want to go like a more illustrative way but like keeping it with traditional colors and more flat or if I want to do like more illustrated and shade it more neotrad with like more black shading and like different color blends and [ __ ] like that you know. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So I guess like I don't really have like I like to bounce around and see what Well, yeah. And that's kind of fun part about your clientele can can push you in a positive way to try new things and still keeping it like Manny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Manny sprinkle on it. You know what I mean?

But like what's kind of you do use like a lot of digital tools and stuff too I noticed. But you still are real great about painting on paper and stuff too. So you you tell me a little bit about your process. Like how does someone get to the point to do so much largescale work? Obviously, you got to get some out there to show them, right? And yeah, I think because I was never thought I just do everything the way I think people do it. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I'm like, why would this guy do it, right? So, yeah. And I and I'm thinking like that's what Michelangelo was doing, you [laughter] know, like fake it till you make it kind of, you know, right? I'm going to pursue what these guys are doing. So, I just like try to Yeah. do what I think people are doing. And then I don't have a formula. Like sometimes I'll do it on the iPad.

Sometimes I'll do it on a piece of paper this big 10 times and then blow it up. Right. Yeah. Right. Or some some days like normally I just been liking like looking at shapes. Mhm. And like trying to find a dragon inside that shape or a claw or something. Right.

Like this shape right here. Like try to like what do you see there? I see a snake. you know, really, you know? Okay. I mean, that's so like I'll try to like draw stuff on top of that and get inspired by that or like I like to sometimes come in the shop and just like doodle random [ __ ] Yeah. And then one of those might look cool and then I'll put that on the iPad and work on it later and turn it into like an up for grabs. So sometimes I'll do that.

When it comes to bigger stuff, I always freehand something on the body during a consultation so I can see like where the muscles land and understand the shape of each person. So then that way I can like draw to the body. So you'll you'll have them come in consultation sit down rough [clears throat] sketch and then take pictures and then fine-tune from there. Yeah. Oh, okay. Hey, that's normally when I do that, I always sometimes I might look at some pictures Yeah. beforehand or if they show me what they want, I'll like put that away and I'll try to just draw it from my head. And like it's not a very good drawing either.

It's like I tell my clients it's like a stick figure drawing of your tattoo, but like I'm understanding the size of how the face should look and like if this guy has a crazy bone or whatever, you know? Yeah. Some people have like big butts, some love handles, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I think about all those things and then that's what helps me draw for them. I can't just get a drawing from my sketchbook and put it on them. Yeah.

All the time. It can be done sometimes. Just depends on the shape of the person. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's awesome. So then you'll come back and then you do you test fit them again and they come back again? No, I just like I get I draw it on them.

I measure everything when they're there. Okay. And I have measurements of their body. So then when I make the drawing, I'll make my my paper size on my iPad, whatever measurements I have from my client. And then yeah, when I print out the stencil, I have a before I will have to make it in pieces, but now I have a a large printer that prints stencils straight from the printer. So I can print a whole bodysuit stencil. Oh, okay. Widthwise from the iPad.

Why? That's it. So that saved me a lot of time and it's actually made me better, too, because I've been able to like have different stencil size. Okay. you know, and that's help me like kind of be like, okay, like okay, giving me more options makes you more better, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You don't ever do like the old school like big pieces of tracing paper anymore and highlighter kind of the edges or I used to do that, but it's just like a waste of paper. Yeah. And like it's still crumbly and then I got to carry that [ __ ] around. So, like with this formula I got, it's worked out good because I just get exact measurements and I make my iPad size those measurements. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. And then that way I know like when you say when I print it out, it'll be exactly that measurement. Yeah.

And if I want to stretch it or make it a little bit extra, I now I know like, okay, I need two more inches. Be like, yeah. Print it out. Damn. Are you printing like inkjet style print but with the stencil material in? So it's an Epson printer. Okay. And it's like inkjet stencil liquid stuff and then just comes out on a roll of tracing paper and I use a thin tracing paper that works good.

It's harder than what we use but it's better for me. In the beginning I was having a hard time getting used to it but now I like it more because I can control it more. It's not as flimsy. Oh, okay. Okay. You do probably like a handful. I always did those like Yeah, there might be some spots where like for sure, but it's like such a hard paper that I can just like push on it and it doesn't it doesn't rip cuz sometimes when I use the regular Thermopax paper and I wipe to put the stencil on, it rips because I'm used to the the harder one now. The [ __ ] is very delicate.

Okay. Yeah, that's rad. And then you'll come in with markers and kind of fine-tune everything. And then sometimes, yeah, if I have to around the butt area, sometimes I'll freehand the background, you know? Yeah. Then Oh, man. That's I have a YouTube channel that I'm kind of like working on here and there. It's Manny's Revolution.

Okay. So, if you go on my YouTube, you can see a video on the printer, and I pretty much made a video on how to set it up and how to feed the paper into it. And that's cool, things like that. So, you can get an idea of like what you can do with it. Yeah, that's awesome. Because you can print out realistic stuff on there and like do portraits and it's an inject printer, but it prints 24 inches wide, but however long you want. Okay. So, you can print out banners if you want.

And like it's pretty it's pretty cool. Oh [ __ ] Yeah. You were on some new [ __ ] too, like with your lighting setup last time I was over there. You said like Fibs had walked you through some stuff on uh that crazy lighting. Like he seems to be the king of lighting. Yeah. Like before the iPad I used to use the Wacom. Okay.

And I like I got into it like probably like in 2014. Yeah. I bought one and I just I don't know. the iPad came out and that was like game changer. Dude, the second like the the Procreate and the iPad came out, I was that was it clicked for you. It was so user friendly and so easy to then there was like just a pen machine, right? And then it was wireless. Yeah.

Yeah. That's rad. The lights. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a $500 light. Yeah. But it's bright.

Yeah. It's crazy bright. You tattoo like kind of in a tight corner, [clears throat] dude. I don't know. Like you're doing all this huge work and you're all like I like that Japanese type vibe, you know, like when you go to Japan, everything is tight and like it's just what you need and I don't have to walk around far to grab my things, you know? Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I always had a dream of being in the middle of a warehouse.

Like I always just feel like I just need tons of space. " But yeah, I can't I can't cozy. I used to be in the front and it was like more open, but then I like made that little spot in the back. Yeah, I mostly made it so I can I was like, how am I going to put all my paintings in my station because I had all these paintings that I had made. So, I figured it out. Yeah, put it in there. Your shop is beautiful. I like I really love it, dude.

And I know this was the this was the original. No, this is the your second shop because you had two shops at once, right? Yeah. So this one was the first I had to build three shops. The first shop I had like only I was in that location for one year and it didn't work out. So then I moved into the shop. Oh, okay. That I am now and that's been like 10 years already.

Yeah. And like eight like in 2019. Yeah. In 20 in 20 February of 2020 I opened the Oh my god. Yeah. the shop. I took over the shop where I apprenticed at originally. Yeah.

Yeah. So, I had that shop until December of last year. So, like three years I had the shop. Yeah. And I like took over it, rebuild it because I thought like I didn't want it to close down and like it had a lot of history. Oh, okay. You know, people in Vegas have worked there and like I learned there. So, it's like before co things were great, you know, so it's like, yeah, we can do this.

And then I did it and it was a fun journey. Yeah. And you we kind of talked about that too like you kind of reached the point where you were like you wanted to focus more on your tattooing than running multiple shops is it's a lot to handle, you know, like a lot of relationships, a lot of personalities in two different places. And did you ever I don't know what what are kind of like some of the big things that led you to like making that difficult decision to like shut down that that second shop? mostly like just I really wanted to be in the shop every day with the people I work with. Yeah. You know, like and then it felt like one week I was over here and one week I was over there and then one week I'm like, man, I wish this people knew this or I missed this and Right.

So, and like going to conventions and guest spots. Sometimes I wouldn't be there for like a month, you know, three weeks and then it's like everybody thinks you're off just living the best life ever and like nothing. And and the shops were running good. people were good and doing their thing, but it was just more like me personally. Like I wanted to be there and I wanted to like show up every day and like draw with people and like vibe and like grow as a team and like having two shops. It's like now you have to be a little bit more of a businessman and it's like if if you want to be an artist is hard and I like I love doing art. Yeah. More than I like being a businessman.

So it's just like Yeah. you know, like given my run, I think it's healthier for me to grow. Yeah. Yeah. With like a tight circle, how I originally thought of, you know? Yeah. And like that's been a good move cuz like the shop has a good vibe now. Every day I'm there and like we're inspiring each other and like we do things together and like we do little like drawing challenges together and like that's fun, you know?

Yeah. I'm constantly trying to find my balance there with the same issues, you know. Uh the one one thing I always enjoy every time I go into your shop, I see like everybody if they're not tattooing, they're creating art. Is there is there some sort What's the secret there if you don't keeping your team I [clears throat] mean motivated, you know, to be creating and not negative when they're not busy. And I don't know, you got any secrets share with us? I think a big part of that is like positivity, you know, like being positive, being grateful for tattooing is something that everybody forgets about every day, you know? Yeah. Like we have no idea like how good we have it.

We're we're spoiled. Especially in America. Like I traveled and done conventions all over the world and we get the most money. Yeah. You know, when it comes to charging, like we're spoiled, you Yeah. So, like that's one thing, you know, having all these nice things like having a shop to work at. Like we live a lot of people's dream lives, especially in other countries, you know. So, like because I came from that, I'm constantly every day thankful to God and for like tattooing because he's given me everything I have.

Yeah. And it's my passion. I love it. Right. I love making art. I love being creative. just the same way I am with music. So like I'm grateful I'm in this country where I can do that every day and get paid for it.

Yeah. You know, so like why am I not gonna like worry about doing a good job and giving back to tattooing? Yeah. That's giving me everything, right? And all I have to do is like make paintings. Yeah. Which is part of the job. And it's going to get me tattoos and like it all like adds up and you get what you put in.

So, like that's what I try to tell people at the shop. I just try to remind them of that. Like, hey, like, you know, you're going to get what you put in. Yeah. And if you want to be great, you will be great, but you're just going to have to like follow these steps. Yeah. And expect nothing other than just continuing to be humble and grow to enjoy it. You know, if you're like painting and you're stoked about doing this design you just thought of, like you're not going to be worrying about like, man, no one hit me up.

No one sent me a DM because I couldn't book an appointment or no one's hitting me up to book an appointment after I posted five of these up for grabs. Yeah, who cares? Just like worry about making the next up for grabs. Yeah, post [ __ ] five more when you have 20 of them. Maybe, trust me, one of those will be done and you're going to be a better artist instead of being a negative artist, [laughter] which gets you [ __ ] nowhere, right? It's not. And then, you know, like this country pushes depression. They like like to like sprinkle that [ __ ] on people.

So, people start telling themselves that's what it is. And like, dude, if you work hard, you're not going to be depressed. going to be too worried trying to like focus on what you love and the rest is going to take care of itself, you know. It really does. Yeah. You just got to you just got to stick with it. There somebody out there has it worse than you do, you know? Yeah.

So, and somebody has it better, you know. So, it's just about That's beautiful. Yeah. It's true. It's like being positive with what you have, being creative because it's giving you everything you have. Yeah. And it'll take care of you. You know, because you're putting in when you're gone, what do you want to leave behind?

Your tattoos on Instagram or like a couple books that other people can like buy and like download and remember you for your drawing that now somebody else can learn from that, you know? Yeah, that's true. Damn. I like that. Um [ __ ] man. I know you got a busy day today. You got you you got some guests in town. Andy Foe's in town, right?

He's going to be working at your shop this week. That's exciting. Uh, do you guys plan on you guys? Do you ever do collabs with like guest artists and stuff? Yeah, I I never done one before. Yeah, I did one with Anthony Tex. Oh, what? Started a back piece.

Really? Yeah. Okay. Two Hanyas on a Las Vegas guy or where was he at? One of my clients. Okay. And I had another friend from Costa Rica, Dan. Yeah.

He came when we did a dude's chest piece in one day. Okay. Damn, that's fun. Yeah, those have been good collabs. Damn. So, if anybody wants to do a collab and guest spot Yeah. hit me up. Yeah.

Locally, from out of town, whatever. Dude, that's what beautiful like thing about Las Vegas is like even if you're not local, everybody seems to come through here at some point in time. So, it's fun that we have like a good community locally. So many talented tattooers, and then we have all these different guys and gals coming through. It's cool. But, so, uh, yeah. What's your shop again? Revolution Revolution Tattoo Parlor and then shop.

How do we get a hold of you if we want to collaborate? Guess spot. Stop in, say hi, root for you on Inkmaster. Manny's Revolution on social media, Instagram, YouTube. Yeah, mostly on Instagram. You can send me a DM. Cool. Or just hit Revolution and I'm sure my website will probably pop up.

You've got all your convention dates. Uh, well, on your social media and your website. I'm not that good at doing that. No. " Or like sometimes I'll just tell my clients through DMs like that. I already have. Yeah. But yeah, pretty much.

I really appreciate you doing this, sitting down, taking the time. I know you're a busy man. I'm excited. Uh, always excited just to get to know you. You have a funny story for you. Let's do it. All right. I like funny stories.

[laughter] So, like they were telling me to uh like a client that's came in, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had this client come in once a walk in, right? m. This dude's like probably 50, 60 years old. Yeah.

" So he sees a picture of a Bob Ross portrait I had painted. Okay. And he's like, "Oh, you got Bob Ross over there. " So it's like I actually met Bob Ross in one of the shows I was doing. " Yeah. " So they finish the show and he takes him to the parking lot and he's like walks up to this like big white van that looks all creepy. Yeah. And he like slides the van door open and pulls out a big ass joint and lights it up [laughter] and pulls out a painting and it's like this big titty girl riding the dragon.

Nice. [laughter] The [ __ ] epic fantasy [ __ ] Yeah. And it's like I was like did it like [laughter] like what are the odds of like Bob's random dude just comes in here today and like [laughter] makes my day [ __ ] memorable. Tell me about Bob's titt. [laughter] That's awesome. Dang. And now I always think about like I wish I could see that Bob Ross painting, right? Like I wonder if any of those are out there.

I was like I bet you it was really good. Yeah. [laughter] Some happy little trees in the back. Yeah. Dang. Well, dude. Yeah. Uh I don't want to keep you too long.

I'm super super grateful for uh having you hang out today. So, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I had a great time talking to you. I know it's already maybe one of these days we can do a collab. Dude, I'm down. I'm miss I'll be completely honest with you. I've been so busy.

I'm missing tattooing and I don't think my my like I don't think my attention span can handle doing all of the big work that you do. So, that's why I admire it so much. But uh I'm down for some little jams, some little, you know, little anything I can start and complete in one afternoon would be fun. So I'm gonna Sometimes you feel like you need that like it's good to like take that break sometimes and miss it a little bit. Yeah, I'm genuinely missing like with more with more energy, you know? I did a couple little tattoos like in the last like a couple weeks ago just on friends that were passing through town and those [ __ ] they want these difficult little tiny tattoos and I'm like I was stressing it's so funny how you just like tattooing is so humbling always like through your whole career there's always moments that just kick you in the ass dude but it motivates you to keep going and you know how do you get that motive a good tip for young tattooers and old tattooers get your ass out there.

Go to conventions, meet people, network, because you're going to meet people and see tattoos that you don't see every day. And that's going to motivate you, and you're going to go home and have this fire under your ass, and it's going to go away in two weeks or a month. So, you got to get your ass out there again and and search for that. Thousand%. You know, get out there, get tattooed by the people that you admire, too. Yeah, for sure. That's always been my favorite thing to like get my foot in the door, start a conversation with people, learn from them, build to, you know, relationships that can last your life. " Yeah, that's awesome.

I Dude, I still have I saved my back my whole entire career and now I feel like I'm like such a wuss. I'm like, I don't know. I'm I'm having trouble getting motivated. But when we were in Austin, Texas, I saw you there. Uh I was watching Chris Prim like shoot this whole entire Grim Reaper he did on this girl's leg from hip to to like literally tip of her toe. And I was I don't know, man. I'm like now I'm like, "Oh [ __ ] I got I got Let's just [ __ ] do this. " You know, I still I haven't tried numbing cream, but some artists don't mind it, you know?

So, it's I I tried it on my clients, but not on myself. Yeah. you know, cuz sometimes if there's a client that I know they're not going to they're not going to come back and they're going to cancel on me, like I'm like, dude, I rather numb you and like it takes a little bit longer, but at least we're getting it done. Yeah. So, sometimes I'll be lenient. But I try to tell them like you you got to earn it a little bit and like go through it so then that way you know like Yeah. what it feels like. If not, you forget you have it.

Yeah. Good, dude. Yeah, man. Thanks again, bud. I appreciate it, man. I'm looking forward to continuing to Thank you. hang out and get to know you more and more. We have our 21-y year anniversary party coming up if you're interested.

Congrats. We're gonna paint uh some vinyl records and we're auction them off for charity. I think I actually did that for your for You guys did that before, right? Yeah. 10 years ago. I have I have the I have the vinyl in my in my bathroom, I think, still. What? I did a shark.

Okay. It was like a shark. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. That was like my That was like probably like a year, two years into tattooing when I did it. Yeah. Okay.

Well, yeah, we're going to bring uh we're try to bring back our group annual show. Ever since COVID everything just got weird and we just got lazy, I guess, but um every December we're going to try to do something to raise money for charities. We donate 100% of the proceeds to uh this year we're doing it for uh for the city. They raise money for food banks for kids and uh families in need. So, we're bring a bunch of talented artists together. When are you doing it? Uh on December 21st. Uh due date is December 7th.

Oh, so this we got this whole month. Yeah, I'll probably do a little dragon for you or something. Oh, dude. I I greatly appreciate it, man. That would be really cool. So, yeah, I'll give you all the info. So, all right, guys. Thanks so much for listening.

I appreciate you guys so much. Support your local tattooer, man. Get out there, become homies with your, you know, peers. And don't ever think that the person across the city doesn't want to talk to you because most likely they do. They're sitting around just like us. One love. All right. Bye.

Bye, guys. Peace. Brought to you by Maverick Supply Co. Boy.

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:03:09 Austin Spencer And that's where you run your design studio. Great sex.

00:00:03:09 - 00:00:04:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Great sex studios.

00:00:04:13 - 00:00:07:00 Austin Spencer I love that name because that's like the best fucking name.

00:00:07:02 - 00:00:24:19 Blaze Ben Brooks I did a really big job and coming right, right out of Covid, I guess, the advertisement guru in my head said, like what sells? Yeah, great. Who doesn't like it? And when I do a year like a bank account like that was like, really crazy. Like Bank of America was like, we can't give you a bank account with that name.

00:00:24:21 - 00:00:28:23 Blaze Ben Brooks That's really. That's crazy.

00:00:29:00 - 00:00:49:20 Austin Spencer What's happening is Austin from supporting local tattooer. I'm super, super fucking pumped to sit down today with with somebody that I'm truly a big fan of. Mr. Blaze, Ben Brooks. He's a fantastic illustrator, graphic designer, painter all around good dude, creative monster. I'm I think, Well, thanks for coming down.

00:00:49:21 - 00:00:51:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Thank you. That was really kind.

00:00:51:18 - 00:01:10:09 Austin Spencer I appreciate that, man. I was telling you yesterday on words. I'm trying to like, really just be more picky about who we work with and who I get to, like, sit down with and make sure that I'm just genuinely fucking fans and I really am. Do like. It's fun to like, see, I look at your artwork all day, every day.

00:01:10:11 - 00:01:14:18 Austin Spencer Hey, that work you did all the branding for Maverick, so thank you for that.

00:01:14:20 - 00:01:36:05 Blaze Ben Brooks Of course. No, do thank you for supporting me and letting me, be a part of the ride. I feel like it's, pretty rare to, like, have the trust of someone to, like, kind of give them their whole maybe identity for whether it's their business or their, their baby that they've saved up their whole lifetime to, like, finally have a business.

00:01:36:06 - 00:01:39:10 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. So it, means a lot. Thank you.

00:01:39:11 - 00:01:55:13 Austin Spencer It's. Dude, it's wild because, like, I don't, I don't like I. We started studio 21, like, in 2003 or whatever. My mom is a graphic designer, so I grew up around it. Like, I, I feel like I have a real good eye for design and like, what's just works are clicks. You know, I don't know what to call that.

00:01:55:14 - 00:02:10:12 Austin Spencer You know, it just or just feels right for me. And, so my mom did everything, for the shop the whole since the very beginning. So this is the first time I stepped away and, like, let somebody else do it. And it was, it was it was cool. Is exciting. And, like.

00:02:10:17 - 00:02:14:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Was that scary? Or had you only use your mom or any, like, branding.

00:02:14:14 - 00:02:28:16 Austin Spencer Wherever it's ever. Yeah. We kind of talked about this yesterday too, is like as a tattooer. Like I felt like since we were artists, we had to do everything, but luckily my mom had the graphic side of things, you know? So we also talked about that, how it's like a there's a balance of that and like.

00:02:28:16 - 00:02:46:07 Blaze Ben Brooks Kind of had the guidance, I think, to come from a parent. Yeah, my parents were not and they were redrawing. But like it was never like, I could go and ask them like, hey, does this look like how yeah, it should look. And I think to them it was always like, oh, the fact that you made that was it was great.

00:02:46:07 - 00:02:51:09 Blaze Ben Brooks But like, almost wasn't enough, clarity for me. I needed someone else to.

00:02:51:11 - 00:02:57:18 Austin Spencer Yeah. Kind of give me a little dude. She would just be like, that's that's not, that's not good. Like. And. Yeah. And we just. Yeah. Which is great.

00:02:57:20 - 00:03:00:11 Blaze Ben Brooks But what I was looking for,

00:03:00:13 - 00:03:07:10 Austin Spencer But. Yeah. So you, like, I kind of caught you. I feel like, at, like a younger time almost, you know, like, I was wondering.

00:03:07:11 - 00:03:13:15 Blaze Ben Brooks That was like, where where where did where did you first ever, like, maybe share of me or see my name, like, took it to where? Like you reached out.

00:03:13:15 - 00:03:31:21 Austin Spencer Yeah. I'm trying to remember because it was like, first of all, I didn't know you. And you were from Vegas. You were. You were in Brooklyn at the time, and I think just threw I got maybe it had to be in like the, the business card project. You did. So like, I feel like you probably did something and it clicked and I was like, oh shit.

00:03:31:21 - 00:03:48:09 Austin Spencer Like that's I want to I want to see this person and like, follow them and, and start getting into that. And then years later, realizing maybe like a couple years or a year, I don't know, but, we started the work on the Maverick Project and I was like, dang, who? I don't even know who I should do.

00:03:48:09 - 00:03:56:04 Austin Spencer And then I was like, fucking yeah, you. So it was it was cool. Then. I don't I don't really fully remember, honestly.

00:03:56:04 - 00:04:13:09 Blaze Ben Brooks Like, I know I feel like that whole town was kind of a blur. I remember just, like, take it. I was taking on projects like Hannah. So it was just kind of like, auto mode is like, as long as I can, like, knock out two business cards or like one and a half in a day, I was like, on track and just like, okay, yep.

00:04:13:09 - 00:04:42:11 Blaze Ben Brooks Next, let's go next. And then. Yeah. And then randomly, I'd probably throw in like a bigger project for the month to like, fill in the extra time. Because if I, if I was knocking out the cards that quickly, usually I'd probably have a couple days off in between. Yeah. And that's where I'd fill it with something like a brand new project or like, yeah, I'm working on like a logo and maybe like a full, like, brand guide for something like Maverick or, a T-shirt design for a shop.

00:04:42:13 - 00:04:59:20 Blaze Ben Brooks Because those end up taking a little bit longer because there's a whole like layout process and there's there's so much more to it than just, you know, hey, I want, a clown riding a train car on my business card, and here's all my info on the back with that stuff. It's for me. I can kind of.

00:04:59:22 - 00:05:02:21 Blaze Ben Brooks I turned it into a really quick process.

00:05:02:21 - 00:05:21:05 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah. So, okay, we'll just jump into the tattoo card project, which I love for everybody who's listening, who doesn't have or any idea what we're even fucking talking about. You started doing, you were asked to do like, two. You were a graphic designer, obviously an illustrator. If you were asked to do, like a business card for a tattoo or one time, right.

00:05:21:05 - 00:05:24:06 Austin Spencer And then it just started to literally.

00:05:24:08 - 00:05:31:04 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Like I think like one of the first ones, I'm really like, I'm kind of forgetting the name and I'm sorry, but we did.

00:05:31:04 - 00:05:34:16 Austin Spencer Over 150 business cards for tattooing specific just like.

00:05:34:16 - 00:05:58:11 Blaze Ben Brooks But the the other, the first one was kind of like the super simple like like it was like a wizard or like a witch, like with some, like, dark background. And it was a he wanted something very simple. But it was like out of the scope of, like, what? Like a tattoo artist would maybe have like. Yeah, it was a bit more like graphic centric instead of, like tattoo centric.

00:05:58:13 - 00:06:09:15 Blaze Ben Brooks I remember doing it and was just kind of like, okay, like that was just a quick little thing, I'm sure. Here you go. And then I think I remember, like, posting it. I was showing a friend, Claudia Cutter. We both know.

00:06:09:15 - 00:06:10:09 Austin Spencer The odd client.

00:06:10:11 - 00:06:31:04 Blaze Ben Brooks Odd Club. Yeah. She asks for a card, and that I was like, oh, yeah. Like, let's. Then I that one felt a little bit more collaborative because it was a friend and I really wanted to, like, nail it, that I didn't want to nail the first. Like, yeah, yeah, I think this one was more like, oh, like, I know knowing this person going to see them, I want to make sure that they're like always happy with the work I've done.

00:06:31:06 - 00:06:56:09 Blaze Ben Brooks Not that one out. And then I think I had posted again, I think from there it was like I was saying earlier, the tattoo world is so interconnected. I think everyone kind of has eyes on what everyone else is doing. Yeah, yeah. I think that's what, like, pushes it to like, it's, it's depth and like also like it's peaks.

00:06:56:09 - 00:07:23:15 Blaze Ben Brooks I think everyone's kind of sharpening each other in a way, whether it's like people hating on each other or people, you know, loving each other. Like, I think that culture really, inspires me. I think that's why I try so drawn to it, like from the get go. But once I started posting about the cards, and then had the artists who I was designing for posting them, it kind of like, spread like wildfire.

00:07:23:15 - 00:07:41:01 Blaze Ben Brooks And I was just like, yeah, one after the other. The I like the names of the Tattooers are getting bigger. But the pricing never change. It was also just like I was excited to, like, actually get to talk to these people that I've always really admired, but I always thought like, oh, I'm never going to get to.

00:07:41:03 - 00:08:02:07 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. You know, that that random city or, I'm not going to have a chance to travel to wherever they're, to get tattoo or, instead I was able to maybe even do a trade where, like, if they're going to visit New York. I was in it being in Brooklyn at the time, it was really cool to like, have them come through and redesign their business card.

00:08:02:07 - 00:08:10:04 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, it was already on the books for when they came into town. And, that's kind of how I like, got most of my collection of tattoos.

00:08:10:05 - 00:08:26:01 Austin Spencer I know, I love it. You were you were kind of saying yesterday and felt like, you had this, like a key to the city, almost as, like this past, like, every time you do a card, it was like, okay, cool. Like, I feel a lot more comfortable reaching out to them or just dropping in to say hi and checking them out and like, just like that was fun.

00:08:26:01 - 00:08:49:09 Blaze Ben Brooks It was like it felt it was nice. I think one thing I noticed when I first started getting tattooed or like being in tattoo shops, was there was this like notion of if I had just been there, if not me. But, when I talk to other tattoo artists, like they felt, inadequate to like, be in the same room or presence of other tattoo artists who had been doing it for ten plus years or.

00:08:49:09 - 00:09:13:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, there's this like, I don't know, just intimidating. Like, I like, like a social class system, right? Where it's like, oh, that guy's a legend. Like, I like, I don't even know if I can get tattooed by him. Like, I think I think being, like, humbled and honored to be in someone's presence is great. But, like, I also saw a lot of, people being almost, like, afraid to, like, have those conversations or talk.

00:09:13:12 - 00:09:40:02 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, yeah. Or even almost too much humility. Right? It was like it would keep people from, reaching out or talking to, you know, some artists, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I felt like, because I wasn't, like, I guess a direct competitor and, like, being a tattoo artist, it was, it was it felt so normal to, like, just, like, talk to whoever who was in the industry, whether I knew who they were or not.

00:09:40:04 - 00:10:05:02 Blaze Ben Brooks But especially the ones that, like, I looked up to for a long time. It felt like there, there wasn't that weird it stigma or vibe. It was just kind of like, oh, hey, I can make you something because I'd love something for me as well. Yeah. It was like a just a simple trade. That didn't really have all this, tattoo shop etiquette.

00:10:05:05 - 00:10:30:00 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Yeah. I really appreciated that because I think, I had seen a lot of that being someone who, like, was interested in tattooing and, had worked in a shop and, done the whole kind of like research of being tattooed and seeing how others, I guess, being an observer in the space and the industry of tattooing.

00:10:30:02 - 00:10:39:10 Blaze Ben Brooks I'm glad a lot of that stigma and, I don't know, weird vibes of it didn't cross over into you doing work for other tattooing.

00:10:39:12 - 00:10:44:22 Austin Spencer And you weren't pursuing tattooing? Well, at the time where, like, when you first started doing, I.

00:10:44:22 - 00:11:05:07 Blaze Ben Brooks Think I was always, like, serious about it. I think being curious about tattooing and also being, very interested in, all the history in the lore, behind certain trials, behind certain artists. I didn't write out in my head that, like, I couldn't or wouldn't want to tattoo. So I always kind of kept that open and was like, oh, you know what?

00:11:05:08 - 00:11:25:01 Blaze Ben Brooks I think the reason I like, worked at a shop in Brooklyn for a little bit was because I was like, still open to. Yeah, like apprenticing. I was like in line for the next apprenticeship. Like that was never it wasn't until I actually had a machine in my hand and like, played around with it, even just on myself.

00:11:25:03 - 00:11:36:08 Blaze Ben Brooks I was like, oh, you know, I don't know if this is like clicking as much as my work as, like an illustrator or a graphic designer or, you know, just, an artist on paper.

00:11:36:09 - 00:11:39:04 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah, you've been doodle and ever since you're a little kid.

00:11:39:06 - 00:12:05:08 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, I probably started drawing when I was like 4 or 5 paper early, you know, getting the crayons on the paper. But, I remember just having a lot of, like, time, like, see, my, my parents owned, a hair salon. Yeah. Growing up. And we, we were kind of like the, the kids who had had to, like, come along with dad, like, all the meetings and, like.

00:12:05:08 - 00:12:29:01 Blaze Ben Brooks And then they were a full time salon all the like every day, seven days a week. And so there's a lot of, like, downtime where, like, we were just kind of I had to sit there and not do anything, or just be along for the ride. And I feel like having a notepad and paper, or notepad and pen or, you know, having some art supplies with me was always like a great way to, like, fend off the boredom.

00:12:29:06 - 00:12:29:13 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah.

00:12:29:18 - 00:12:33:16 Austin Spencer And and escape and just. Yeah, like your own worlds and I.

00:12:33:18 - 00:12:57:16 Blaze Ben Brooks I feel like it it clicked for me really early that I was like, oh, this is a way to not be bored. Yeah, yeah. And I and and learn like how to draw, anything was like almost like, I really like the idea of design being, problem solving activity, like a puzzle. Yeah. I think I, I look at Mozart as, like, this puzzle that needs to be solved.

00:12:57:18 - 00:13:22:05 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Or like, hey, here's a problem or here's a space that if you if you move these shapes around in the right order, it's going to it's going to make the space feel better. Like a white piece of paper. You know, he had this all white rectangle. What do I put and, you know, in the right order to maximize the I know or have an effective like a.

00:13:22:07 - 00:13:25:17 Austin Spencer Like a finished product. Yeah. Yeah, it sounds very graphic designer.

00:13:25:18 - 00:13:32:21 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. You know, I know I would I probably go I go too crazy. Well I just short circuit and just out. What words come out of that. But no that's.

00:13:32:21 - 00:13:48:04 Austin Spencer Funny. That's like you were the way you were thinking about it. Even then, that is 100% graphic design. You know, you have these parameters and then you've got to come up with some. You have to, like you said, solve the problem. You have a certain type of information you need to get in there, and then you need to make it attractive.

00:13:48:04 - 00:13:54:23 Austin Spencer And you know, like, appeasing to people's eye or. Yeah, yeah, please people. That's. Yeah, that's pretty interesting.

00:13:54:23 - 00:14:16:16 Blaze Ben Brooks I think I always work well with like, limitations and I think like that's another reason why, like traditional tattooing, at least the style in general was, very appealing to me, I think, like only getting to use 4 or 5 colors. And also in a way, for me, like if you had to put this on skin, like, what can't you do?

00:14:16:18 - 00:14:42:12 Blaze Ben Brooks And using those rules as I draw was, was really nice to keep things in line or. Yeah. And it was such a great guide for, you know, balancing strokes or like keeping a balanced tattoo, I think like that was or at least just a design in general, like you're not losing certain details or it's not too clogging in certain areas.

00:14:42:15 - 00:14:55:16 Blaze Ben Brooks I mean, yeah, yeah, I think studying it for so long, you really start to find what is right and what is wrong. Just when it comes to the principles of a balanced tattoo design.

00:14:55:19 - 00:15:06:17 Austin Spencer When you were, like, started working with so many tattooers that did tattooing kind of like in the community, help kind of boost your career and give you like a good direction to go in for a little bit. You know, when you were.

00:15:06:17 - 00:15:38:18 Blaze Ben Brooks Absolutely. Yeah. Like, I feel like I, I've met so many incredible entrepreneurs and I mean, each tattoo artist I've met is like their own business owner itself, right? Absolutely. I think being a freelance artist is so, what I mean, maybe one of the same, but also so different. And getting to, have a lot of tattooers a tattoo artists as mentors, but also as peers and also as something completely opposite of what I do sometimes.

00:15:38:18 - 00:16:14:22 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. There's there's so many similarities, but then there's also some spots that I like I can't even relate to. Yeah. But I think getting to connect with both sides of that spectrum, has helped me grow as a businessman and artist. And I'm probably just like an overall, like, well-rounded human being at that. I. Yeah, I've, I've met some people who were super aggro in the tattoo community and like, I've also met those people not in tattooing.

00:16:14:22 - 00:16:31:00 Blaze Ben Brooks And I also met the sweetest, kindest people who are willing to give anything and everything. And those people have shown me life. I think seeing both sides of that spectrum is like, let me decide where I want to land. That's cool.

00:16:31:02 - 00:16:39:20 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah. And I just like how it just seemed like I maybe it's just when I kind of caught on to you guys, like you were like in your early 20s then, like when you.

00:16:39:20 - 00:16:44:03 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, I just turned 30 this year. Oh, okay. Cool. Or last year in November. Yeah.

00:16:44:03 - 00:17:04:13 Austin Spencer And then I just watched you go from this is one interesting thing I think we that I really like to like about what you do is you get really into something, you go super hard, it seems like you fine tune it and then you have the like, self-awareness to be able to say or just self control to just stop that project, like, and then like, how does that work?

00:17:04:14 - 00:17:04:19 Austin Spencer You know.

00:17:04:19 - 00:17:24:13 Blaze Ben Brooks Like I feel like it's also, in a weird way, a flaw because I get once I feel like I've figured something out, I get bored of it. Yeah. Not to once I like once. It feels like I've I've done it. I don't feel like I'm pushing myself any further. I feel like, that was one thing with the cards I once I did like overly 100, 150.

00:17:24:18 - 00:17:47:02 Blaze Ben Brooks I like at this point where I was like, I have this. So down the it unless something and, you know, really crazy came through in an email or like someone wanted to do, hey, I want to do like a, I want to do a 100 card project, and I want you to do all 100 or whatever. Yeah, like but just doing another card, one after the other.

00:17:47:02 - 00:18:06:15 Blaze Ben Brooks I felt like I had, I had done it enough to the point where I wasn't, I wasn't learning anymore. I wasn't learning much more from myself. I wasn't learning much more from, the projects. And, it didn't feel like I was pushing myself. I think when I, when I sort of feel that, that stagnant feeling.

00:18:06:15 - 00:18:25:11 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, it's that's my sign to, like, turn it off and. Yeah, not not it's not I think it might be a little extreme of me to like, fully cut it, but it also gives me, I think, fully cutting it allows me time to find out what it is, is going to push me to the next thing or what?

00:18:25:13 - 00:18:32:08 Blaze Ben Brooks Just find the next thing. Yeah. I want to tackle and conquer was the little bit of time that we have here. Yeah.

00:18:32:08 - 00:18:39:06 Austin Spencer I just like how you also didn't see, like, kind of, maybe become dependent on the income of those specific tasks.

00:18:39:06 - 00:18:43:09 Blaze Ben Brooks Well, I guess that's, that's kind of the scary part of, like, stopping it, too. Yeah.

00:18:43:11 - 00:18:52:03 Austin Spencer That's kind of more where I was getting at is like, dang, dude. I mean, I get it as an artist, but it's pretty cool to just see you follow through with like, no, I'm going to start working on this now.

00:18:52:04 - 00:19:16:02 Blaze Ben Brooks It's scary doing it. But I think, because even before I did that project, like even just, being a illustrator, or someone or being a graphic designer for a company and, and then taking the leap into freelance. Yeah, that was probably like, the scariest moment I've ever had in my career, where it's like, you have to now do it on your own.

00:19:16:04 - 00:19:51:22 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. And not having, someone to, you know, give you a project list every day and almost kind of cutting all your resources and having to gain the confidence that, like, every day you're waking up and you're going to have to, like, fend for yourself after doing like that. That felt like the biggest one. Now when I do it on like a micro scale or like just changing what kind of style art work or what kind of projects I want to take on that feels more micro than yeah, or I maybe because I did the the biggest, jump that all the other ones kind of feel like hops or skips or.

00:19:51:23 - 00:19:55:22 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Hey, I got the next one. Let's just let's try it out.

00:19:55:22 - 00:20:16:06 Austin Spencer You told me yesterday you were work. It worked full time as a graphic designer for a church. Yeah, yeah. And then you started working remote. So you moved out to Brooklyn, right? And then that's when you really started getting into the tattoo world and stuff. So you were doing like, all all these side projects on top of your, like, how long did you do all your side projects on top of your full time career?

00:20:16:06 - 00:20:43:11 Blaze Ben Brooks I guess the far side in the beginning, I'm like, I went to high school out here for web design, at a magnet school. And so they added like an extra couple classes to teach you, web graphics or web design. Yeah. On top of your regular six classes. And so that was like my intro into graphic design and learning how to, like, code a little bit.

00:20:43:13 - 00:21:20:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Okay. And then and when I was like, I think I was like 16, my mom got me an internship over the summer, this church called Central Christian Church had grown up, in the church, and as I worked in, it kind of like, really just like fell off of the religion thing. And then it was more so like, I was like, I think I just started treating it more as, like a business, like, hey, how do we looking at as more like an industry standard thing, like, how do I grow within this thing and treat it more so like, I want to be on the same level as a lot of

00:21:20:14 - 00:21:42:12 Blaze Ben Brooks these larger scale companies that are at the size of this megachurch that I'm working at. So from high school to about when I was like 20, I worked there. And then when I was 20, I had a friend of mine in New York, we went got coffee when I was visiting there for, like a long weekend.

00:21:42:14 - 00:21:59:20 Blaze Ben Brooks And she asked me if I really loved it out there, like, hey, she hated her roommate. She was like, I can grab two other people from Facebook or something, and we can, like, go get a cool apartment. And if you do, all you have to do is bring your stuff. Yeah. And you rent money out there. All right.

00:21:59:20 - 00:22:17:11 Blaze Ben Brooks Cool. So it was like one of those moments that for me, I was like, it's like too easy to get out there or is, is it. It's it's it's so set up that like, if I say no, I'm probably gonna regret it. Yeah. And so, checked with the church, they're like, yeah, you can, like, work with us for like another year.

00:22:17:11 - 00:22:33:11 Blaze Ben Brooks And as long as you work for another year, you get to keep all your, your laptop or two screens or. That's everything that you're working with, so. Oh, cool. So I get. Yeah, you know, I have my setup. Everything was like the perfect little mix. I get out there, I can move there in, like, the middle of February was.

00:22:33:11 - 00:22:34:01 Austin Spencer Like one friend.

00:22:34:01 - 00:22:46:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Well, yeah, with one friend, I had one. I had one other friend from high school who was also going to college out there. It was really the time where, like, all my friends left for college. And so I was like, this is my leaving for college. Okay, cool.

00:22:46:18 - 00:22:49:09 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah. Because you get out of art school and everything like that. Yeah.

00:22:49:11 - 00:22:58:16 Blaze Ben Brooks And then and then most people like, stay on the West Coast. I felt very it felt like, very like against the grain to go all the way across the country for.

00:22:58:16 - 00:23:01:16 Austin Spencer New York to go to New York like a rom com story.

00:23:01:18 - 00:23:27:18 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. You know what? New York I can do? New York. That's right. I remember getting there in February. I was, like, cold, as cold as shit. And it was like, just having only two friends there, and they're like, full time students. Yeah. It was pretty lonely for like, the first, you know, I'd say six, seven months. Like, it was just really gnarly, I think, especially not having a place to, like, socialize.

00:23:27:20 - 00:23:50:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Like I wasn't going to school to, like, meet new people. Yeah. When I was even when I was like, here in Vegas, like, I would always. And I still do, like just hop into a coffee shop and become a regular there. And that kind of, like, gets me at least enough to where, like, if I bought a cottage from you for like 100 days straight, like, yeah, you we're going to know each other at least a little bit to have some rapport.

00:23:50:17 - 00:23:58:05 Blaze Ben Brooks Or we hate each other. Yeah. Hopefully. Boring. Just like that really annoying weird guy who comes in and works for, like, six hours and then leaves.

00:23:58:07 - 00:24:00:11 Austin Spencer Takes up the fucking table. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:24:00:16 - 00:24:18:20 Blaze Ben Brooks But sometimes it's even, like buying origami shop. But, Yeah, like I remember, like it was coffee shops and then kind of traveling and walking around town looking for the tattoo shop that I wanted to get tattooed, I guess, like, now that I was out of the house, is that I parents are, like, not psyched on me getting tattooed.

00:24:18:22 - 00:24:29:15 Blaze Ben Brooks It's not like now I can, like, go get whatever tattoos I want. I can, like, go to whatever shop I want. Yeah. Finally having my, independence. Yeah, I was an adult, I guess.

00:24:29:15 - 00:24:33:09 Austin Spencer Yeah. First time, like, live moving out of your family's home or zone two? Yeah. Okay.

00:24:33:14 - 00:24:52:00 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, yeah. It's I it was like, first time me out of the house was like, I was 20 years old. That's cool. Yeah. And takes me to Brooklyn. And I think the first shop I like committed to was, Allied Tattoo. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. There's a guy, Ian Drake out there. He had some really cool flash on the wall.

00:24:52:00 - 00:25:25:03 Blaze Ben Brooks It was just, he did a great job at, like, only using, like, green, yellow, red. And black for, like, these, like, nine sheets in the shop that I was like, oh, dude, this this guy has it all laid out. Yeah, perfectly. It's all it all just super cohesive. Yeah. I think when I see cohesion like that, that gives me a good idea of, like, this person understands what and I static is and what, what they, they see it very clearly.

00:25:25:03 - 00:25:41:05 Blaze Ben Brooks What is and what isn't their style for it. Even if it's just. Yeah. Like, I like, like nine sheets or. Yeah, it's their whole catalog. I like seeing that another artist can understand. Yeah.

00:25:41:07 - 00:25:51:11 Austin Spencer Yeah. There's an art form to that big time, you know. Not beyond just the illustration that just the way, like, like you said, like a seeing it as a finished product, as cool as fucking. It's something I've always struggled with.

00:25:51:11 - 00:26:17:19 Blaze Ben Brooks Like I think I think as artists we're like, so, encouraged to make whatever is on your mind and like, just do it all art until like, you meet like a mentor, someone who, like, really understands, the feeling they want to evoke or like, really dial in a body of work. Yeah, there's parameters to what is and what isn't in that body of work.

00:26:17:19 - 00:26:33:16 Blaze Ben Brooks And when you set those parameters very tightly. Yeah. Or even very loosely, like you get a theme. And I think being able to like set that theme and keep true to it, that is pretty masterful. It's as an artist.

00:26:33:16 - 00:26:48:06 Austin Spencer Yeah. As an artist, it's also like, we we fucking hate structure, but we need it so bad, you know, like it's so healthy for us when we have it. I fought every type of structure my whole like basically until like in my 40s and I had kids, you know?

00:26:48:08 - 00:27:01:07 Blaze Ben Brooks Well, I punk in us is like something like like screw that. Like. Yeah I'm not I don't I want to get out. I want to break the rules, I want to yeah, get out of that. But it's the rules can come in all shapes and sizes.

00:27:01:07 - 00:27:06:04 Austin Spencer So. So you jumped in with him and were like, you just start getting tattooed by him and learning.

00:27:06:04 - 00:27:25:13 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. He like, did, this math, these cherries. And, like, this mandala on my arm. It was kind of. I think the mask was, my dad went surfing in Bali when, he was, like, in his 20s, and he brought back, like, these pictures of, all these masks. Yeah, that they had up on the walls and.

00:27:25:14 - 00:27:47:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, the different bars and spots like that. And then my roommate, when I was in New York who had got me to move out there, had one of the masks, was this mask in her room. I like that would be circuit like, but in his style. So it was kind of, it was my first time. Also like bringing, reference in the area reference or just.

00:27:47:14 - 00:28:03:03 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, images and, and saying, hey, can you, like, do this and then your style and yeah, even getting it was, it was really nice. I think Ian was great at telling me no in a way that like, I can understand and yeah. Was it like,

00:28:03:09 - 00:28:05:14 Austin Spencer An educational approach more than.

00:28:05:16 - 00:28:24:10 Blaze Ben Brooks Well, I, I think I think too a lot like being in a lot of, shops out here, like there was such a, I guess that stigma. But, a almost a rule as, like, if there's someone walking in, you don't turn away and you just say yes and do the tattoo.

00:28:24:11 - 00:28:27:07 Austin Spencer The shops here and and on the West Coast you were enthused to go to.

00:28:27:08 - 00:28:47:19 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. I remember all shops I've been been in or even even tattoo artist tattoo artists that were just starting out. Yeah. Or even like the OG ones, like, yo, you never turn my client. Yeah, that's how I raised. Hey, if they bring something, then you do it. Yeah. And it was nice to hear no while also saying, but we could do it this way.

00:28:47:19 - 00:29:01:18 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Like, yeah. Just change the direction a little bit or, you know, that's a bad idea as a tattoo. Just tell me why. Yeah, yeah. I think getting to see that for the first time was, it cleared a lot of things up for me.

00:29:01:19 - 00:29:02:17 Austin Spencer Yeah. You're open.

00:29:02:17 - 00:29:15:07 Blaze Ben Brooks It also taught me, like I can. I'm allowed to do that, too. When it comes to my work. Like, yeah, if someone brings me an idea that I don't like, I'm a I can say. I can say no, but say yes at the same time. Learning that was kind of.

00:29:15:08 - 00:29:40:00 Austin Spencer Like the art of collaboration. And, you know, it is it's not easy for some people, but for some reason, I've always I think if you truly just really enjoy what you're doing and then when people are bringing you stuff and you're like, yeah, no, I want to do this. But it has to be like this. Like, that's it takes a while to like, learn that sometimes and gain the confidence in yourself as an artist to like work with the client, tell them kind of more, tell them how to collaborate.

00:29:40:02 - 00:29:54:01 Blaze Ben Brooks I think sometimes as artists we are such visual, people and, speak in a language of visuals. Yeah, that trying to like, tell someone with words.

00:29:54:07 - 00:29:55:17 Austin Spencer It's fucking hard sometimes.

00:29:55:19 - 00:30:11:05 Blaze Ben Brooks Oh, I probably already had it like three times during this conversation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They like lose the last word that I'm, like, trying to say because I wish I could show you what's in my brain, but, like, it's just it doesn't come out in my vocabulary a lot of time I, I.

00:30:11:07 - 00:30:31:14 Austin Spencer I think that's why I like tattooing so much is I, I, I didn't necessarily have the confidence maybe to articulate and share how I felt through my words, but I could I that's the first thing I did with a client was always just like, can I just show you? Like I just draw right in front of them, give me a piece of paper, like, you know, just it doesn't have to be perfect or anything.

00:30:31:14 - 00:30:50:23 Austin Spencer It's just, it just it gets me, like, my message across so much faster. Yes. And most people aren't visual people, you know. So. And it's, it's actually like you could tell me something, but I'm going to think something completely different. If I'm if I am a visual person, then I'm like going to go off in my own vision and it could be totally opposite, you know, that was it.

00:30:51:00 - 00:31:06:05 Blaze Ben Brooks I think that's another aspect too, is like, I can sit there and write emails all day, but I'd rather just sit in front of you with like a piece of paper and really just draw it out for you. Yeah, the way I'm seeing it, because that's that's going to be the clearest version.

00:31:06:05 - 00:31:20:21 Austin Spencer And sometimes artists stand in their own way in their. So they won't give that up because they feel like there's so much value in it. And it's like, nah, it's like it's if it takes you to the starting point A to point B, like, you know, like you said, just a quick sketch and the more you do it your whole career, the faster you get at it.

00:31:20:21 - 00:31:24:22 Austin Spencer So and the more polished you are. So you're a I don't know, I just.

00:31:25:00 - 00:31:34:18 Blaze Ben Brooks And the value isn't in just the you know that it's more so the values in the whole process front to back.

00:31:34:18 - 00:31:36:20 Austin Spencer You're selling yourself. You know what.

00:31:36:20 - 00:32:00:05 Blaze Ben Brooks You're I think I think when you do get to sit there and like draw a quick picture for someone, you just wowed that person, especially if you're good at it. And yeah, and do it quickly. You also just gained so much trust with that person that you can change something on the fly or, if something's not exactly how you pictured it or how you want it, but you're working with the client to get it there.

00:32:00:06 - 00:32:20:08 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. And you're doing it intentionally, and and you're, you're willing to just make that quick change or, just slightly, alter it to fit that perfect spot on. You know, I've gone into spots where, you know, I have, like, a really weird, blank spot that they broken up, and.

00:32:20:08 - 00:32:23:21 Austin Spencer Yeah, which is so fun to try to. Yeah. Still and problem solve, you know?

00:32:23:22 - 00:32:44:06 Blaze Ben Brooks See. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see it as a problem. And I think I brought those spaces to some artists and some are like. Yeah, like we can just do this really quick. But then I've also brought it to others where they're like, oh, dude, we got to like, you know, I'm gonna put a mermaid there, but we're going to have it look like the tail goes underneath the into the water, and then I'm back out the other side.

00:32:44:07 - 00:33:06:12 Blaze Ben Brooks I'm going to snip this off there. So I like that way more open to a collaboration. And of course that comes with like extra funds and get it. Or if you're not charging enough, charge the right amount to where like that collaboration is worth it to you. Yeah. I've been in certain jobs where it's just like, oh man, you're like doing the least to like, work with me.

00:33:06:12 - 00:33:16:07 Blaze Ben Brooks And maybe that's just also a sign where it's like, hey, this isn't like the right fit. And maybe I'm looking for something. Yeah, or with someone else. But what.

00:33:16:07 - 00:33:35:08 Austin Spencer Kind of go off on, like, I just like the idea of, how in common we have with all artists essentially have to sell themselves at some point in time. Tattooers are doing it too. Well. We were just talking about your you've had to do it in your career. And if you're just willing and open and ready to to share, especially if you have the fucking time.

00:33:35:08 - 00:33:45:21 Austin Spencer If you're a newer artist, like, can you just put in more time, just put in as much as you can, even if unfortunately, they might ghost you or not like your image, at least you like tried.

00:33:45:21 - 00:33:46:17 Blaze Ben Brooks You know.

00:33:46:19 - 00:33:47:13 Austin Spencer Learn something new.

00:33:47:13 - 00:34:12:04 Blaze Ben Brooks Trying is not going to hurt you like you're you're you're like, yeah, your space and you being in this industry, in this space that, you want to be in. Yeah, it's going to take your effort and somewhere rejecting that collaboration with you shouldn't affect how much you're going to try with each and every person or the next person.

00:34:12:04 - 00:34:24:12 Austin Spencer Yeah. Because you take that time that you put into that illustration and, and essentially apply it to the future to sell to somebody else, just put it on the wall behind you, put it, you know, use it as a pitch for your next client for, you know, illustration or whatever.

00:34:24:14 - 00:34:43:20 Blaze Ben Brooks I think that was another aspect of like, tattoo artists that I was, or just like being in the tattooing industry that I was kind of jealous. I was like, gaining, like, reuse artwork, like. Yeah, that was something that it was very like. Oh, yeah. Because you heard of. Yeah, I like I don't get to really do that as a.

00:34:43:20 - 00:35:03:05 Blaze Ben Brooks That's true. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like I think if, if I reuse something unless, unless it is in the tattoo industry like even that, like if it's, if it's something that's like an old piece of flash, like that's always great. Yeah. I'll maybe reuse it. Also be a delay. I'm not going to sell. I'm not going to sell it as my own.

00:35:03:07 - 00:35:08:10 Blaze Ben Brooks Like, yeah, there always felt like, there's certain rules that apply to tattooing.

00:35:08:10 - 00:35:10:18 Austin Spencer Yeah. There's a lot of gray area in tattooing, you know.

00:35:10:20 - 00:35:12:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Like, people are in legality.

00:35:12:16 - 00:35:24:01 Austin Spencer You know, just like a tattooing, like a Mickey mouse logo on somebody you could get away with, but you can't know the mouse logo in any of your words, like, you know, so that's that's kind of fascinating.

00:35:24:01 - 00:35:42:18 Blaze Ben Brooks But I also like the punk aspect to that. Like, I feel like I'm breaking the rules either way. I don't. Camera. Yeah, whatever. And I'm going to put it on whoever's body, but I do take it out their skin. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But I don't have that privilege. But it was, it was cool to see that that that was happening.

00:35:42:18 - 00:35:53:03 Blaze Ben Brooks And so that's another I think that's another aspect of tattooing that I really appreciated, I guess was jealous of. Oh, man, I wish I could do that. That's that's sweet.

00:35:53:07 - 00:35:56:11 Austin Spencer Let's go back to like you started getting tattooed by was Ian. Yeah.

00:35:56:11 - 00:35:59:00 Blaze Ben Brooks And then Ian at, Ally Tattoo and.

00:35:59:00 - 00:36:01:09 Austin Spencer Then other tattooers you kind of started, buddy. And.

00:36:01:10 - 00:36:20:16 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. So I think after, going to Allied for a little bit, I think I started, like, looking for a lot of, like, guest spots coming to town. I think being in Brooke, being in Brooklyn, I knew there were a ton of artists coming to New York just to take the trip and then would probably do like 4 or 5 tattoos, while they're here to make some money to travel to the next spot.

00:36:20:16 - 00:36:42:19 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, I just started following a lot of those that a lot of the people that I really admired and like, there was, I do is still I am a big fan, Gary mentioned. So I was big, big Henry was, already working at Greenpoint Tattoo. That was probably the next place that I remembered. I wanted to get my stomach tattooed, like, so bad because I was like, I'm like, young.

00:36:42:19 - 00:37:00:23 Blaze Ben Brooks I'm like, in my prime. I'm ready to like. And not like I had a if I were more so like, I'm ready to, like, take any pain. Like I was so into. Yeah, I was like, what are like the more painful spots on my body though. Let's like, knock it out. Yeah, yeah, because I didn't. Now I do not want I have like my ribs left and I'm like, I you that's the last thing I want to do.

00:37:00:23 - 00:37:10:14 Austin Spencer Oh, dude. I didn't do my back when I was younger and I saved it, you know, for some back. And then I just was so busy in my career that I'm like, fuck. Now I'm like,

00:37:10:16 - 00:37:33:10 Blaze Ben Brooks No, it it sucks. I just had, Ryan fellows over at Downtown Tattoo doing back, I guess, like last year, the year before, and we just kind of, like, pieced it out. Yeah, but no, dude, I have a whole new respect for people who get tramp stamps. Oh, dude. Yeah, that was so much worse than I expected it.

00:37:33:10 - 00:37:37:03 Austin Spencer Yeah. Yeah. Only thing I have on my backside, ironically, is my butt cheeks.

00:37:37:06 - 00:37:39:20 Blaze Ben Brooks I remember, like, that's got to be pretty bad to the.

00:37:39:22 - 00:37:54:21 Austin Spencer Barrel, dude. Yeah, my ass just clenched up. Like, as soon as it's up to them, like. And it didn't help that my sister tattooed me. And she doesn't tattoo, so. And then here's another one. Was a drunken girlfriend back in the day. So dude, I just got a few bumper stickers. Oh, butt cheeks.

00:37:54:21 - 00:38:05:15 Blaze Ben Brooks And hey, bumper stickers. Probably better than like, I think I saw I was doing my back tattoo. I saw someone getting like two huge, like, flowers on each. Yeah, but a chick. And I was like.

00:38:05:17 - 00:38:07:22 Austin Spencer Oh, murder dude. Like, man.

00:38:07:23 - 00:38:12:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Oh yeah. Full color. Yeah. Bullshitting. I was like, dude, this is serious.

00:38:12:12 - 00:38:16:05 Austin Spencer I know, I'm like, I'm I'm trying to like, regain the steam. Yeah.

00:38:16:05 - 00:38:33:13 Blaze Ben Brooks So that's all I, I want to get my stomach down. I had drawn up this, like, piece to, like, bring to him. And so I, I went to Greenpoint Tattoo. All those guys there. So great girls and guys, the whole crew. There they are. So like.

00:38:33:15 - 00:38:36:21 Austin Spencer Art forward all focus on, like, American traditional stuff.

00:38:36:21 - 00:38:58:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, yeah, but but but also like the even stuff adjacent like I feel like that's the quote though, like the cool thing about that shop, I didn't just feel like you had to do traditional style tattoos, like, I think they have, they have maybe like 4 or 5, like traditional people in there, but then they got a few people who I haven't been there a while too, but they've got a little bit of everything.

00:38:58:20 - 00:39:23:22 Blaze Ben Brooks And people just who have very, unique personalities, especially when it comes to their art, and very varied. So sometimes kind of niche. There's this guy like David English who worked out there who, like he would just do this really crazy, almost like gory medieval, like the only black and gray ibis stuff.

00:39:23:22 - 00:39:26:22 Austin Spencer The kind of 90s biker ish almost. Or like.

00:39:26:23 - 00:39:51:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, yeah, I the kind of but like, also had its own. It was his own. Yeah. And that's I think like they really at that shop promote individuality. Yeah. And like, there's a guy, Ryan Metz there who also does, like, a ton of sick paintings. And his, his artwork in general, like, it just is like a he does a little bit of everything.

00:39:51:14 - 00:40:12:13 Blaze Ben Brooks And I do like, that's the person that's a great fit for, Greenpoint for one out. From what I'm seen, like, anyone there is just they're on their own path, and it's more like a collective than, like, a shop that you had to adhere to their rules. Yeah. That's cool. But Henry was, his name's Enrico.

00:40:12:13 - 00:40:24:03 Blaze Ben Brooks But, I think everyone just calls him Big Henry. I brought my drawing to him, and he was like, hey, do you want me to do it exactly like this? Or do you want me to do it my way? I was like, I'll do it. I'm coming to you. I want you to do it your way. Of course.

00:40:24:05 - 00:40:59:13 Blaze Ben Brooks And that kind of just became our thing. And so I. We knocked out my stomach in, like, two separate sessions. Hurt. But it was also like, it got me, like, fired up to do, Now I'll do my chest. I like how I want to, I want him to start. He did my cuffs next. And I think what I loved about going to Henry was every time I'd come down with an idea, he had this very, direct translation and his own way of drawing things, and it felt traditional, but it also, it felt like it was just Henry.

00:40:59:13 - 00:41:18:13 Blaze Ben Brooks Traditional. Yeah. He felt like a machine where, like, I had the. If I had this idea, bring it to him. It's going to come out the other side completely like Henry five. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The filter on each time it was, it was almost like better until I get it. It also like, inspired me. Of course, I'd like, go to him.

00:41:18:13 - 00:41:38:05 Blaze Ben Brooks There are certain things on the wall where I was like, oh, dude, that's like perfectly his. His own work in general is just so solid. And I think he's another one of those people who I feel like his body of work is so cohesive. Working with him on anything has always been great. And even, though the last time I went in there, I think it was after I had moved away.

00:41:38:11 - 00:42:07:04 Blaze Ben Brooks We hadn't talked in a long time, but, he just always makes sure to take care of me. And he's one of those people that I feel like after being in, you know, tons of shops and going and getting tattooing and playing around cities, he was someone that I feel like most tattoo artists should strive to be like, yeah, yeah, and put in that extra effort, and you'll, you'll build a clientele that you can trust, you can love and, they'll love you back.

00:42:07:04 - 00:42:30:14 Austin Spencer I like the idea of just not being afraid to push the limits on adjusting your style to things like if you're not putting in, like, whatever, just kind of naturally comes out of you into whatever you're doing. I feel like you'll never really stand out, you know, and you got to push the boundaries a little bit, and you do have to break the rules and, and to really come up with something that's super unique and, and stick with it consistently.

00:42:30:17 - 00:42:48:03 Blaze Ben Brooks I think if you don't do that, you're not leaving your mark. You're leaving. You're leaving someone else's. You're leaving someone else's mark. Or like if you look back in time, it's like, oh, like I, you know, if you see something that reminds you so much of someone else. Okay, so that guy was just doing a version of that stuff.

00:42:48:03 - 00:42:52:22 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's it's also tough. It's it's tough to be original nowadays.

00:42:53:04 - 00:43:12:11 Austin Spencer Well, yeah. And especially two if, if you're concerned about what your peers think, you know, like it's if you're smart, if you're around a bunch of people that are constantly telling you that you can't do this or you can't be like that, and I don't know me, and that's why I kind of sometimes I've always like, just did my own thing because I couldn't don't like fucking anybody telling me what I'm not allowed to do.

00:43:12:13 - 00:43:13:19 Blaze Ben Brooks I think.

00:43:13:21 - 00:43:18:11 Austin Spencer Especially if I know my intentions are good and healthy. You know, it's like I just want to create something like the.

00:43:18:11 - 00:43:40:19 Blaze Ben Brooks People who have listened to others or haven't, broken out of the rules. They didn't last long or they didn't. Yeah, they they didn't make anything that really mattered or. Yeah. That's probably a little harsh, but, just. Yeah, just just just didn't make anything that stood the test of time. I think.

00:43:40:19 - 00:43:44:15 Austin Spencer And sometimes time takes you a long time to pick up on your style or.

00:43:44:15 - 00:43:51:20 Blaze Ben Brooks Whatever. Finding yourself takes your whole life. Yeah. And I don't think you ever truly find the. I don't think to be the exact. Yeah. You.

00:43:51:22 - 00:44:04:03 Austin Spencer Yeah. There's this old tattooer, Diamanti, and he said, he did these, like, really odd skulls that people talked a lot of shit about. And he goes, well, you do it wrong for long enough. It's going to turn out right. Someone's going to get on.

00:44:04:03 - 00:44:05:15 Blaze Ben Brooks No, it's, you know, okay, well.

00:44:05:15 - 00:44:20:05 Austin Spencer It's great because I remember, like, getting so much shit for the way that I drew my skulls in the beginning. Like, people are, like, vulgarly, like shit talking, you know, like, I fucking whatever, but, like, I don't know, that's just what comes out of me. So I'm just trying, you know? So I stick with it, and.

00:44:20:08 - 00:44:33:19 Blaze Ben Brooks It's so much better to just be doing what naturally comes from your brain or your perspective. And it's all hard to say, oh, I don't like that. Okay. You don't like that, but that.

00:44:33:21 - 00:44:34:22 Austin Spencer Doesn't mean it's terrible.

00:44:35:00 - 00:44:50:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Also doesn't mean that. Who knows? I don't know if I even like, you know, totally like, it's just what I'm making. Like also when it comes from someone who's not making anything. Yes. That's where it's like, yeah, everyone's got an opinion. Everyone's got. Yeah. It's all as we don't want to spoil everyone's. You know.

00:44:50:15 - 00:45:08:06 Austin Spencer I learned that in art class one day I was I caught myself, I was young, I was like 16 or 17. I was kind of making kind of poking fun at what this kid was doing. And he looked at me and goes, where's your version of it? And I just was like, fuck, you're fucking right. Like, I'm sorry.

00:45:08:08 - 00:45:18:23 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I'm making fun of you for doing something that I think I could do, but I've never done it like. And I still remember that kid's name, Steve Haven, to this day. Like he was.

00:45:19:05 - 00:45:20:03 Blaze Ben Brooks Steve.

00:45:20:05 - 00:45:40:09 Austin Spencer Yeah. He was doing these mini truck in being the 90s. Like mini truck graphics from the back windows were like a big thing for your car club. Like you should. I don't know if you ever looked into a barrel reference like a mini truck, hand-painted graphics. They're super 90s and fine and shit. And, like, I messed around with airbrush and everything and painted in the garage, but I just.

00:45:40:11 - 00:45:54:22 Austin Spencer I never did it. I also never had the balls to get a mini truck, and I wanted one, but I just, I don't know, I just didn't do it. And he had a fucking mini truck and he'd hand painted that shit and it was like pretty rough. But he fucking did it and he did it himself. So I don't know, there's just little things like that.

00:45:54:22 - 00:46:01:05 Austin Spencer Like, yeah, like you said, like, don't be fucking poking fun at people that they're doing shit that you don't. You can't fucking do or you know.

00:46:01:07 - 00:46:11:03 Blaze Ben Brooks You're gonna like, try to do or certain, critiques, you know, you just they gotta come from the right place or or just or don't listen to them.

00:46:11:08 - 00:46:33:22 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah, it's it's not easy, you know, it's art. It's so sometimes I get so frustrated with art community because we are all or most of us are very vocal about what other people are doing. And like, I feel like the second you just fucking get rid of all of that, just focus on yourself and I don't know, you're also not going to say anything that's going to piss people off to where it closes doors and opportunities for you in the future, you know?

00:46:33:22 - 00:46:49:23 Blaze Ben Brooks And it all comes down to just like your self-expression. And it's like, that's what people are doing. They're just expressing themselves and they're expressing themselves without hurting anyone. Let it be. If you don't, if you don't connect to it, don't connect to it. Like just continue to express yourself your way.

00:46:49:23 - 00:46:55:02 Austin Spencer And yeah, cause hopefully they're working through getting to the point to where something starts to click for them.

00:46:55:02 - 00:47:12:14 Blaze Ben Brooks You know, it almost sounds like, they just need to be more open. Like, I think, yeah, people who want to hate or have issues with other artists or other people like creating. It's like, did you have some learning to do? And you just. Yeah, like close your mouth and listen more. Yeah. Yeah.

00:47:12:14 - 00:47:31:17 Austin Spencer Right. My wife and I love this quote. Be, be curious, not judgmental. Yeah. It's just a simple thing is from a Ted Lasso show. I've never, ever seen it. But yeah, this whole scene about it and it just if it if you just think about a simple way like that, the second you catch yourself starting to be negative or poker prime, why don't you ask instead?

00:47:31:19 - 00:47:41:09 Austin Spencer Why is that like that? Like, why is it that I'd feel this way and then hopefully you can learn from it and maybe that person's fucking awesome. They're just doing their own, their own, their own weird wavelength thing.

00:47:41:09 - 00:48:25:14 Blaze Ben Brooks You know, I, I was talking to my friend yesterday. I said, the person who is quickest to say some things is probably the last person to be listening. Yeah. And the person who's in the corner not saying anything the whole time, that's probably the perspective that you want to hear. Yeah, yeah. When it comes to like reacting so quickly and the first person to say something and the first person who has something to say usually didn't listen to what was going on, you know, or they had they have the, emotional capacity just to react immediately to whatever was said instead of, you know, really taking everything in.

00:48:25:14 - 00:48:26:02 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah.

00:48:26:04 - 00:48:51:13 Austin Spencer Yeah, some wise shit. What's it? Yeah. We were dropping knowledge. Do you have anybody that over the years like that you do you guys I don't know. Yeah. I feel like you're, I feel like you're definitely a, like, a tastemaker. And what you do and, over the years, I think sometimes artists get offended if they see other artists, like, kind of copy or whatever.

00:48:51:13 - 00:48:59:05 Austin Spencer I mean, is that something that, like, you've learned? It's I don't ever pick that up off you. Like, you would take it as super offensive or anything.

00:48:59:05 - 00:49:01:10 Blaze Ben Brooks But that someone has picked up on me. Yeah.

00:49:01:12 - 00:49:21:22 Austin Spencer Yeah. Not necessarily like that person, but just like those moments where, like, it hits you, you're like, oh, dang. Like, okay, that was my stuff that you're doing now. Is that maybe more instead of continuing to do that? Like, I feel like you're the type of person like motivate you to change direction and just reinvent the wheel, almost like instead of being sour about it.

00:49:21:22 - 00:49:33:14 Blaze Ben Brooks I don't know if I see someone maybe like, encroaching or like, or like my style is starting to be or whatever. I'm doing it. I don't, I want, I don't want to call it my style. Yeah, it's.

00:49:33:19 - 00:49:35:14 Austin Spencer Whatever you're doing currently.

00:49:35:14 - 00:49:59:22 Blaze Ben Brooks Working on starts to do like, others are doing a similar thing. That feels like an immediate challenge to push it. Pivot like, yo, plant that foot. Next. Next thing I think I had, I just had the confidence. And I know in myself that, like, there's so much more I can do and there's so many other different looks, esthetic styles,

00:50:00:00 - 00:50:02:10 Austin Spencer That you can pull inspiration from and art forms.

00:50:02:11 - 00:50:23:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Me yeah, that like there's enough out there to, to switch it up. Yeah. And I believe in myself that like, I can learn something new. I think I think you're great at that as well. Like, you're you're someone who, if you don't know it, it learning it is. Yeah. Is like the only logical next step to doing the next thing.

00:50:23:19 - 00:50:50:17 Blaze Ben Brooks And seeing you take that on in business. Respect, art, respect. Relationship respect like. Yeah, I think I, I look at it a bit similarly. Yeah. If I, if it's not me learning something new, it's me maybe even picking up a different version of what I have already done in the past and, adding to it in a way that feels brand new.

00:50:50:21 - 00:51:13:04 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. So, yeah, I think sitting there and, trying to create some legal battle over it or trying to like, yeah, start some, start some drama around someone coming for my design or something. The amount of energy that I put into fighting it, you could be. I could just be putting it into, like, the next thing. Yeah.

00:51:13:05 - 00:51:24:21 Blaze Ben Brooks And already be 2 or 3 steps ahead of whoever that person is trying to like, use what I've done to bring them up. I'm like, yeah, I'm the dude.

00:51:24:23 - 00:51:27:14 Austin Spencer They'll always be behind you no matter what. Like if you if.

00:51:27:17 - 00:51:28:10 Blaze Ben Brooks You long as you.

00:51:28:12 - 00:51:34:09 Austin Spencer Focus on that mindset, that person will always those people whatever. And who gives a fuck honestly and.

00:51:34:11 - 00:51:41:01 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, yeah. You know and if anything, I probably like be really good friends with whoever's doing that. If they dig, I'm like, yo.

00:51:41:01 - 00:51:44:18 Austin Spencer Like, they obviously genuinely have a lot of respect for what you do. They just don't know how to.

00:51:45:00 - 00:52:10:13 Blaze Ben Brooks When I was like, when I was like 18, 19, I was such a huge fan of this artist. Diego Ziegler. Still in here is literally like, he is the artist for me. She's, he's a fine artist, is a painter. He's a sculptor. And for the longest time, like when I was like, kind of. I was in this space of, like, not knowing how to be, an artist or how I was going to make money doing art.

00:52:10:13 - 00:52:28:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, I was ripping his stuff so hard. Yeah, like I was just drawing the way he drew, and I was even, like, publishing on Instagram to the point where he was probably like to get this kid. I think you're like, yeah, he's like, what is going on? Yeah. And so the admiration really does fall into a place. Sorry, Ezio.

00:52:28:14 - 00:53:07:04 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. It falls into a place where you learn your own way by recreating others. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so half the stuff I was BuzzFeed professor, you had been posted more so just like it was for me to learn how to do my own. Yeah, way. Like how? Like. And then try by recreating you find your hand or your brain, moves in its own way or to shit shows you this other route or forks off, you know, at certain points in recreating others.

00:53:07:06 - 00:53:17:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. That eventually if you keep following those forks, you usually have now found your complete own original original spot.

00:53:17:17 - 00:53:35:23 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah. It's just super true, you know, you look, but the problem is that you got in that problem. But the key is to keep going and never look back. That's what I think, you know, was like, if we're looking back on somebody that maybe like in copied us or whatever, like, I, I don't know, I just it's like you're just wasting your fucking time.

00:53:35:23 - 00:53:48:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, yeah. Like if you stay there, like, there's no way that's positive energy. Yeah. And so if you're just sitting in that negative space for however long it's going to like debilitate you from even being able to create anything new.

00:53:48:14 - 00:53:51:18 Austin Spencer Yeah. It makes you sour and sad or some shit or like, but.

00:53:51:20 - 00:53:56:02 Blaze Ben Brooks It also ends up looking like you weren't creative enough to make.

00:53:56:04 - 00:53:56:14 Austin Spencer More.

00:53:56:19 - 00:54:16:01 Blaze Ben Brooks But you're screwed. You're so tied to that one thing you made. Yeah, yeah, yeah that you. Well, you can't make anything newer better like the. No, JP, it should be a challenge. Like go make the next best thing. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. When, when they, when the person who didn't take that route show them that you that this is a way you can do it.

00:54:16:02 - 00:54:18:01 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Lead by example.

00:54:18:01 - 00:54:34:06 Austin Spencer You know Jay-Z has some quote too I like I always love like I always refer back to hip hop. But he said something like, somebody I can't even fucking remember the quote, right now, but it's like basically along the lines of like, oh, you you like what I do. You copy me? Like, oh, you think you can do what I do?

00:54:34:06 - 00:54:38:15 Austin Spencer Then go make a new Jay-Z or something like, I butchered the fuck out of it. But it's like.

00:54:38:18 - 00:54:40:00 Blaze Ben Brooks He's just basically saying.

00:54:40:02 - 00:55:00:00 Austin Spencer Okay, you said you could do it and then go fucking do it. Like, but I'll be over here doing new shit. And I don't know, I just feel like that's the super power that artist has is like, it is this beautiful thing that we can wake up every day and make something from absolutely nothing. Take the blank white piece of paper and make it valuable, or, you know, and make it, attractive to people or.

00:55:00:05 - 00:55:21:09 Austin Spencer And that's like, it's just a cool ass fucking thing that I feel like, I think all of us have it in us when we're young, but most of us just are trained or choose not to just keep going because it's fucking hard. It's like being an entrepreneur. It's fucking hard. Not everybody's built for it. Being an artist and constantly being like having to recreate yourself.

00:55:21:11 - 00:55:30:20 Austin Spencer You don't have to, but you should and you should be driven and motivated to constantly be just fucking throwing shit out there, you know, and just see what sticks and have fun with it, like you said, and choose the forks from there.

00:55:30:20 - 00:55:57:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, I think continuously throughout your life whether, it's monthly, weekly, daily, like asking yourself who you are and then answering that question, whether it be through your art or through your journal or through through your actions in the way you like, treat others in your relationships or every aspect of your life like that should be done often enough to the point.

00:55:57:17 - 00:56:23:21 Blaze Ben Brooks Like you, you know, these different versions of yourself. I feel like there's there's some people in my life that like, don't ask that question off here. And, it makes me sad as like, yeah, I it bums me out when, I not that they, I don't think, I don't think the answer is ever super clear and I because I don't think it's supposed to, but, it can be clearer when you do ask.

00:56:23:21 - 00:56:29:23 Austin Spencer Keep an open mind and. Yeah. Do you read do you read much like self-help type stuff or anything like that, or is it.

00:56:29:23 - 00:56:30:23 Blaze Ben Brooks Oh, I know not.

00:56:30:23 - 00:56:32:16 Austin Spencer You seem like an old man and.

00:56:32:18 - 00:56:33:23 Blaze Ben Brooks Like, you know, you're like.

00:56:34:01 - 00:56:36:01 Austin Spencer 16 years younger than me, but, like, you know.

00:56:36:04 - 00:56:58:19 Blaze Ben Brooks I think, so I lost my dad way. So I was the reason I moved back from Brooklyn in 2021, after five years in Brooklyn, my dad passed away. Yeah. And him and I were super close. We didn't get to, like, reconnect after he had moved away. And, like, was kind of on his own journey for a bit.

00:56:58:21 - 00:57:19:17 Blaze Ben Brooks And I saw him, like, once again, before he passed away, after, like, maybe we had, like, way 4 or 5 years there. We were only FaceTiming like once every few months. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I, finally got to go see him for, like, a little bit. And then, I think, like, the next year, around the same time he passed away randomly.

00:57:19:17 - 00:57:41:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Hard time. Yeah. Shattered my world. I moved back from New York, and, it was like a it was a kind of an I was like, just defining moments for me that, like, my life, my life motto went from like, I just want to have fun and, like, be a fun guy in this life to that's not enough anymore.

00:57:41:14 - 00:58:07:07 Blaze Ben Brooks And what else? What? Like, what do I do? I think when you when you lose something like that or you lose someone like that, who, was part of your creation. Yeah. It really just opened up my, my brain and my, curiosity to, like, my purpose. And, I guess searching for a bit more of, like, these self-help.

00:58:07:07 - 00:58:08:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Ideas.

00:58:08:16 - 00:58:09:17 Austin Spencer Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00:58:09:19 - 00:58:44:05 Blaze Ben Brooks And so, like, tons of podcasts. Yeah. And listening to others cover, you know, ideas of grief or ideas of time. Ideas of how to spend, your, your your time, your energy. And be in a place that helps you and others as one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the the whole spectrum of self-help, but also like the, the whole, idea of all of us, you know, kind of.

00:58:44:07 - 00:58:45:13 Austin Spencer Being kind and just.

00:58:45:16 - 00:58:47:03 Blaze Ben Brooks Being kind and open.

00:58:47:03 - 00:59:09:06 Austin Spencer And it's really not that complicated. You can just boil it all down. It is right. I'm just fucking being open minded, kind person and patient with others, you know? And like you, you were kind of talking about earlier, the reaction is there's the kind of like a true sign of some people, and this is the way that we deal with these problems, is kind of ends up being who we are.

00:59:09:06 - 00:59:12:04 Austin Spencer And how that makes much sense, you know?

00:59:12:05 - 00:59:13:09 Blaze Ben Brooks But like it does, it.

00:59:13:09 - 00:59:37:13 Austin Spencer Means like a true sign of like who you are is when you really, like, get down to these like rough and tough times and how you treat yourself and others around you through those times makes you who you are, and hopefully you look at it in a more positive light. Take something that's that tough and help it like, I don't know, take time to heal and everything else.

00:59:37:14 - 00:59:59:16 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, I, I think that process of grief for me, it took me away from her and oh, almost like I felt paralyzed because I was like, yeah, I got like the I always tell people, well, a weird way to say it, but I got like the head of, like of drawing, like I couldn't sit down and draw anymore.

00:59:59:18 - 01:00:15:20 Blaze Ben Brooks Like it just was like a full on mental block. And I think I see it as, my, my brain was more and like a survival mode. Yeah. I think being in a survival mode, you really they did you you can't tap into that creative the part of your brain comfort.

01:00:15:20 - 01:00:17:12 Austin Spencer Of being free, you know.

01:00:17:12 - 01:00:38:13 Blaze Ben Brooks Yes. Yeah. There's there's no sitting down and feeling like, oh like like everything's all right I can. And so now, now I can draw. And so for a long time that I was actually really worried about my, my work out. I remember, like, distinctly wanting like, 9 to 5, or I could just go clock in and just like, oh, let me do, like, the very cool stuff I want to do.

01:00:38:15 - 01:01:08:06 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Just so. Yeah. So, a equals B type stuff, like it was getting through that really taught me to like, okay, like you need to you need to learn and go through this because if it happens again is you need to know how to, like, continue to work. Yeah. While this is going on or take the time, like, know what kind of time and what kind of, process this is because you're going to this is just the first loss.

01:01:08:06 - 01:01:27:01 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Of, of of many. Yeah. And I don't think it was even my first. It was just my probably just like the most significant. Yeah. And I guess I coming out of that, I was like, okay, now I'm living back in my hometown. It doesn't feel as inspiring as Brooklyn. Okay. What can you do about that?

01:01:27:02 - 01:01:28:14 Austin Spencer And I fucking yeah.

01:01:28:18 - 01:01:56:22 Blaze Ben Brooks I think that was that was my next motivation was like, okay, I'm going to like I want to beautify Las Vegas. I want, I want when I walk into businesses here, I want to have a hand. And whether it's my hand or the next person, I just I want the standard of design and illustration and merchandise and logos branding to be up there with New York.

01:01:57:00 - 01:02:22:10 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, or with LA, because I think the city has the means to do that. But also like it falls in the hands of designers and, creative companies and, yeah, creative people, willing to bump that standard up. And I think, like, I was like, you know what? I'm going to take it on myself for as much as I can.

01:02:22:10 - 01:02:37:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. And I think if I, if I do enough businesses, they're not going to resort back to an artist who isn't doing it right. Yeah. If anything, it's going to it's in a bump the standard up to where like those designers or those artists have to like.

01:02:37:15 - 01:02:39:02 Austin Spencer Raise the bar. Yo, yo, let's, you.

01:02:39:03 - 01:02:56:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Know, guys, we're we're lifting it and I, I like looking at it that way. I think there's probably people out there who really like, like that's a maybe a selfish way of looking at or selfish way of doing it. And it's not the show. It's it's it's the design in Las Vegas show. I want that to be elevate up there.

01:02:56:14 - 01:03:14:05 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, I want to live in a place that is pretty. Yeah. I want to live in a in a beautiful space. I want to go to a coffee shop that looks beautiful. I want to buy a t shirt from my favorite bar and wear with pride and, take it to somewhere like Brooklyn. Or take it to somewhere like L.A..

01:03:14:09 - 01:03:39:18 Blaze Ben Brooks Or take it to somewhere cool and have them be like, damn, what? Where is that? That's in Vegas. Where, like, I, I, I want it to feel that way. And I think, to bring it back to tattooing. I think that's the cool thing about, traveling and collecting is a lot of tattooers all over the world kind of also do that, but like world wide.

01:03:39:22 - 01:04:03:00 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. It's kind of crazy that, like, there's someone in Indiana, there's someone in, like, upstate New York, and places are super hard to get to that like, are probably doing like out of this world next level raising the bar tattoos. They're beautifying their little their little space, their little city, their little town. And as much as you know, Vegas is not one of the larger cities.

01:04:03:01 - 01:04:25:13 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. To me, being from here and being raised here still feels at least socially like the small town. And it I mean, we still have a small town vibe. You got at least when it comes to our peers and the people who have been here for, you know, ten, 20, 30 plus years. I have pride here. I'm right in the city and I have pride in being from here.

01:04:25:15 - 01:04:45:07 Blaze Ben Brooks I think coming back from Brooklyn, it was like I was really upset to leave Brooklyn. But then I also could shift gears or shift my perspective and say, yo, you're going back to a place that you get to, like, actually, like take pride in and own. Like when people say, where are you from? Vegas. I'm from, I am from Las Vegas.

01:04:45:09 - 01:05:16:13 Blaze Ben Brooks And I guess I'm really from Henderson, but that's even not even even cooler. Like, oh yeah, that's a good little talk. Yeah. I guess with that it also feels like gained aware that on my chest or wallet on my back, I feel even closer to the design work and the artwork I'm putting out for, my peers, my friends, my family, my, community that, serves me and the people I care about.

01:05:16:15 - 01:05:34:19 Austin Spencer I love it, dude. It's, I was like, teared up almost, because, like, I just fucking love. I feel the same way about this fucking city. And I get so tired of, like, back in the day traveling around. And I remember standing in line in Portland at this donut shop. Voodoo donuts, the original one. Yeah, yeah. This girl, we just started talking and it was late at night and she's like, oh, where are you from?

01:05:34:19 - 01:05:48:12 Austin Spencer As I go from Vegas? And she goes, oh, you poor soul. And I was just like, oh fuck you, dude. Like, I know I threw a donut at her head. Later that night, she asked me to. She just didn't know I was gonna throw it extra hard.

01:05:48:14 - 01:05:50:09 Blaze Ben Brooks But I just I hated that energy.

01:05:50:09 - 01:06:06:12 Austin Spencer And I had friends, too, from, like, Chicago, New York. And they would kind of always talk shit about Vegas. And I'm like, this place is fucking rad, dude. And like summit, there is a culture of people here in a small community, like they are the most some of the most creative people in the world. You look at like the Cirque community, they.

01:06:06:12 - 01:06:08:20 Blaze Ben Brooks Come from here. God, you know what you started?

01:06:08:20 - 01:06:09:19 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah. Like we.

01:06:09:19 - 01:06:22:11 Blaze Ben Brooks Performers. Yeah, yeah. I have some performer friends who are just the talent and blows my mind. What they can do with their bodies is, yeah, an art form unlike any other.

01:06:22:11 - 01:06:40:04 Austin Spencer And then they'll turn around and, like, play the drums too, or fucking you, you know, paint. And you're like, what the fuck? Like, dude. Yeah. And so I just have I've always been I don't get offended easily, but I definitely do take offense to shit talking my city, which I think everyone should have that level of pride where they're from, I get it.

01:06:40:04 - 01:06:42:08 Austin Spencer But don't bash other people's cities. You know.

01:06:42:10 - 01:06:49:18 Blaze Ben Brooks Sir, I think coming up I don't understand. But it was like it was just like, they probably what, we're here for a second or a trade show. And they were like.

01:06:49:20 - 01:06:51:20 Austin Spencer Between one, you didn't see you.

01:06:51:20 - 01:06:57:08 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. You saw the trade show version? Yeah. Of you do that anywhere? Yeah.

01:06:57:08 - 01:07:12:14 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah. Man. Woken up in a fucking hot car in the desert after a long party and hearing the birds and smell of the sage and the fucking sweat running down. You see, these are just like, you know, coming out of a strip club at five in the morning or just all these different little fun things that I've like experience in the hikes, in the fucking.

01:07:12:16 - 01:07:33:14 Austin Spencer It's just it's a gorgeous fucking city and it's wild. And yes, it grew very fast and it was very cookie cutter, you know, and all of our shopping centers. So yeah, I'll give it that. I it was like also it's like I've always just looked at it as like okay, well that was like it's teenagers, you know, it's like when I moved here in 89, I was in fourth grade and rainbows, the walls, the.

01:07:33:16 - 01:07:56:17 Austin Spencer That was it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The road, you know, but it was, it's just grown so much and it's so cool to see it come. But it's, it's more importantly, like, it's cool to see someone like you take the pride in that simple approach to putting your all in on your community, instead of being an artist that sits around and just like there's no culture here, I'm moving to Portland and you're like, well, that's how it bro.

01:07:56:18 - 01:08:21:18 Blaze Ben Brooks Like when I was young, I was about to move to Brooklyn or I mean, even before that, in high school, new middle school. I do remember the feeling of like, again, that small town vibe of like, I'm going to get out of here and make something of myself. Yeah, yeah. And that, like, stayed with me even, like till I was about 20 when I moved to Brooklyn, I was like, I, I, I'm going to get out of here.

01:08:21:18 - 01:08:46:10 Blaze Ben Brooks I'm going to go make myself something on myself. Yeah. Somewhere else. Because this place doesn't have what it what it what I need yet. Yeah. And I think coming back to it second, I think I was, I was worried that my, my, my perspective hadn't changed, or that I would feel the same going back. I was like, oh, maybe I just hop in for a little bit and I go to the next spot, but yeah, no.

01:08:46:10 - 01:09:09:16 Blaze Ben Brooks Instead it was, oh, this now has enough for me. Or maybe now I have enough to to give it. Yeah. And stop expecting of it. And like hey if you, if, if you see something wrong go. You can do something about it to make it to change it. Don't sit there and complain about what it does it have for you.

01:09:09:16 - 01:09:17:06 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. So add to it. Yeah. Or just be in there. Get in there. Do. Yeah. Do something. Yeah. Instead of.

01:09:17:06 - 01:09:17:23 Austin Spencer Point fingers.

01:09:18:01 - 01:09:37:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Yes. It's like oh it's not cool because they're not doing anything or they're. Yeah it's it, it needs more of all this. And it's like I think to with age it, it really shows you like you, you have to do that or no one's going to. Yeah, yeah. You need to be the inspiration for the next or else it's always going to stay.

01:09:37:12 - 01:09:46:19 Blaze Ben Brooks How how it felt when I was, you know, in middle school or high school saying to myself like, dang, I wish this place had more of this, or more murals.

01:09:46:19 - 01:09:47:12 Austin Spencer Or more fucking.

01:09:47:12 - 01:09:53:20 Blaze Ben Brooks Like, dude, now I now I am in a position to be able to do that. So like, let's do it. Let's do it.

01:09:53:20 - 01:10:02:21 Austin Spencer Yeah, I love drive. I like I drive around town now, you know, I've been following you for a long time, so it's cool to see and I'll literally find myself go to businesses because I've seen you do the branding.

01:10:02:23 - 01:10:04:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Oh, like, I literally like.

01:10:04:15 - 01:10:19:05 Austin Spencer Learned about silver stamp, you know, by going, I'm not downtown a whole lot. I got little kids. But then, like, with love always, you know, I haven't got to go there yet, but I want to go there. And the ice cream spot I gotta take my kids to ice was ice cream. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Not sorry. Yeah, yeah.

01:10:19:07 - 01:10:39:04 Austin Spencer But just, I don't know, it's just fun to see you, like, do that and put your mark on it, like so. I grew up, my mom did the logo for Meadows Mall. Like, Yeah, she did a lot of logos that are still running around town and I remember seeing that. So it's like it's a very special thing to me to to know it's a you're tattooing the city essentially.

01:10:39:04 - 01:10:40:11 Blaze Ben Brooks You know, it's like, yeah, you're.

01:10:40:16 - 01:10:42:01 Austin Spencer On your mark on the city.

01:10:42:04 - 01:11:00:20 Blaze Ben Brooks That was that was another way of maybe seeing or, you know, seeing the, commonalities in the tattoo industry was like, businesses are my clients. So as, as people getting tattooed are a tattoo artist. Yeah. I it's it's.

01:11:00:22 - 01:11:21:00 Austin Spencer A responsibility to them. It is their business. Look good because it's I mean, especially your business too. You know, it's like branding can help carry a business to an extent, you know, and like and and get people to remember a, get people to feel a certain way when they go inside and they see the colors in the fucking logos in the illustrations that make them remember that brand.

01:11:21:05 - 01:11:30:10 Austin Spencer I mean, literally, my buddy was like, I had lunch with him the other day and he had this shirt on and I was like, with love. It was like when they very first opened. I think you did their very first shirt too.

01:11:30:10 - 01:11:34:01 Blaze Ben Brooks Oh did I yeah, yeah, yeah, I did their branding. Yeah. They're like, that's.

01:11:34:01 - 01:11:47:01 Austin Spencer A fucking handsome ass shirt. I'm like, I'm pretty sure blaze did that, dude. But yeah, it's just fun to see that. And I grew up seeing that my mom did billboards and stuff all around, and she would just always be like, oh, I did that. You know, just driving.

01:11:47:02 - 01:11:50:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Along like, I see your mom's, like, catalog of work I would.

01:11:50:14 - 01:11:51:12 Austin Spencer Love. Yeah. You got to come on.

01:11:51:13 - 01:11:54:09 Blaze Ben Brooks Got it. Like, check it out. Barbecued sounds legendary.

01:11:54:09 - 01:12:13:01 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah, she's she's dope dude. She's like, so I, I just have this even more like, kind of special relationship with, like, designers and stuff, you know, like I grew up like, looking through books of paper from paper shows and stuff and like, just learning about textures and colors and everything. And although I didn't go that direction myself, I definitely am aware of it.

01:12:13:01 - 01:12:22:10 Austin Spencer And I know that I can look at something and know, like why it makes me feel a certain way, you know, and and you're just so good at, like, translating that. It's fun.

01:12:22:12 - 01:12:47:21 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. So cool. I think that's a that's a big part of what I get to do. And what I like to do within design is, really get to know what, like vibe or energy or feeling or emotion that someone wants to convey in their space. Yeah. And trying to get that out of someone is actually really hard.

01:12:47:22 - 01:13:03:10 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. I feel like for the most part, a lot of people, when they're starting a business or a brand, they don't know what they want, but a good question, when they don't know what they want is asking what they don't want.

01:13:03:12 - 01:13:05:21 Austin Spencer Yeah. That's great. That's that's like hard no's.

01:13:05:21 - 01:13:22:21 Blaze Ben Brooks Yes. And that usually leads me so much closer to what they are. That's really good edging towards or getting at because the hard no's I'm able to like almost find like the antonyms of that. Yes.

01:13:22:21 - 01:13:24:19 Austin Spencer Like your gutters and your lane. You just stay in.

01:13:24:19 - 01:13:41:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Yo. Hey, hey, we're we're staying clear of these things now we've got though we're at least building a road somewhere. And so now in this road, do we like this, this, this, and with those, you know, I get this feeling. I get this feeling. I have this feeling.

01:13:41:18 - 01:13:45:16 Austin Spencer Do you have, like, a structure like that? You kind of go through that process, like, not.

01:13:45:16 - 01:14:05:02 Blaze Ben Brooks As, like, cookie cutter as you would think or like. Yeah. Not like I have it all right now. I have, I have my process down a little bit. I have, I have this little, you know, the, you know, the, the gambling, hotline pamphlets that you guys as one of the ones on the fun stuff.

01:14:05:02 - 01:14:27:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, yeah, yeah, I, I took that rather that I took my own photos and I remade it as one. The fun starts. Oh, okay. Cool. And when you open it, it's my process of like, for my commissions. Yeah, yeah. So I put that on it. If you go on my Instagram it's, it's it's in my highlights. It's called when the fun starts and it's commissions.

01:14:27:15 - 01:14:41:21 Blaze Ben Brooks And then when you go you can check that out. But that was another little ode to. That's cool being in Vegas you know. But yeah. Yeah. If you're if you're sitting at the, you set the bar and there's a little video poker spot, look up in the corner. Yeah, I'm one of the.

01:14:41:23 - 01:14:50:18 Austin Spencer That's so funny. So when we do and I have so many more things I want to ask, you know, but, yeah, no, I fucking I, I lived in the Arizona Charlie's when I first moved here. No way.

01:14:50:19 - 01:14:54:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Like, so you live in a casino? Which was what they always said from.

01:14:54:14 - 01:14:59:12 Austin Spencer We moved here from Houston, and everybody's like, what are you going to do? Is your mom going to be a hooker and your dad going to be a a dealer?

01:14:59:12 - 01:15:08:06 Blaze Ben Brooks You know? Yeah, I don't know. I'm that was the big one when I moved to Brooklyn. Tell one from Vegas or, like you live in the Luxor. I'm like, why did you pick that one?

01:15:08:08 - 01:15:23:22 Austin Spencer I remember getting walked out in the middle of the night because they were testing the fire alarms, and it was all smoky, and everybody's fucking, and I'm walking my pajamas out of the casino, wait for like 20 minutes and then come back in and, we eat at the sourdough cafe downstairs, and 99 cent all you can eat pancakes and a glass of milk.

01:15:24:00 - 01:15:26:21 Austin Spencer So my dad is like. We just smell like so.

01:15:26:21 - 01:15:27:16 Blaze Ben Brooks Long for.

01:15:27:22 - 01:15:33:02 Austin Spencer Only like, two weeks. But it was like, because our house wasn't ready when we were supposed to be. We were renting.

01:15:33:04 - 01:15:35:04 Blaze Ben Brooks A little vacation staycation.

01:15:35:07 - 01:15:44:09 Austin Spencer But I always want to get an Arizona Charlie's, old Arizona. I hate that they rebranded. It's so bad and like. But I want to get that. Maybe, like, on my chest, like some. I don't know if.

01:15:44:14 - 01:15:51:06 Blaze Ben Brooks That's a sick one. Yeah. Just reminds me of, like, it's like Western. The male version of that, Danny Trejo tattoo that he has. Exactly.

01:15:51:06 - 01:15:53:14 Austin Spencer That's how I was trying to remember his name while saying that to.

01:15:53:16 - 01:15:54:07 Blaze Ben Brooks Go.

01:15:54:09 - 01:15:57:09 Austin Spencer With my. With the big hat. Yeah, I just got this badass chest.

01:15:57:14 - 01:16:00:10 Blaze Ben Brooks But, dude, there is sick one.

01:16:00:10 - 01:16:13:11 Austin Spencer Yeah. So. Yeah. Anyway. Oh, also, I want to get I want to know, like, it seems like you're obviously really good about putting yourself in these creative spaces. You know, you've got this cool space downtown called Fourth Street Casino or.

01:16:13:11 - 01:16:38:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, Fourth Street Hotel, casino and Resort. Yeah. So it's it's a little Adobe style building on fourth Street. It's in the Arts District just south of Charleston on fourth. You probably haven't driven down it because there's a one way street. Yeah. And it's like it just breaks off of Las Vegas Boulevard. Yeah. And, we found the spot, actually, from, Nico Rosen.

01:16:38:19 - 01:16:41:22 Austin Spencer Okay. Yeah. Tattooer and, awesome. I don't it's like.

01:16:42:00 - 01:17:01:21 Blaze Ben Brooks He doesn't like your rules kind of geometric pattern. I want to totally him. I'm like, yeah, yeah, you should be on here. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. She is also one of the kindest people I've ever met. Yeah. Really cool dude from. I think he's from France. Yeah, he's he's for sure. French. Yeah. Him and his wife's,

01:17:01:23 - 01:17:27:05 Blaze Ben Brooks LOL. And er, it's a piercing. A tattoo shop. Yeah. It's that one's on. Like, I think it's also on Colorado and Commerce. Our friends from the Good Wolf, Lisa and, Sean, I reached out to them because I was looking for a space. I think it was like it was my. It was my second birthday after living back in town, and I was like, I can't I can't keep working at these coffee shops.

01:17:27:05 - 01:17:47:22 Blaze Ben Brooks I just I need my own space to, to work. Had just got our relationship to I was like, down in the dumps. And I was actually like, we had we had the two days prior, I had searched for a spot on my own, couldn't find anything. And some of the, some of the people who were like, who we were dealing with were also, like, not too kind.

01:17:47:22 - 01:18:05:06 Blaze Ben Brooks And so I was just like, not having a great birthday. Lisa and Chantal's check out where Miko was working. And she has a tattoo, spot. He actually just redid it with, linear pastel she used. Oh, yeah.

01:18:05:06 - 01:18:06:15 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah. Left downtown. Yes.

01:18:06:15 - 01:18:42:16 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really cool spot. I haven't been up there. Yes, I did it, but it looks sweet. And Nico was like, yeah, dude. Here. Just my landlord. I hit them up. Me and my two best friends went and checked it out, and, it was just it was such a big spot. Like, it was also like it used to be like, it looks like it used to be like a a doctor's office, like they had the the front waiting room, and then the middle room was kind of like a break room just to, like, eat or something, or like, have, like a receptionist back there and then, the back room

01:18:42:16 - 01:19:02:07 Blaze Ben Brooks was like the doctor's office, okay? Had, like, all these shelves or where there's a doctor or like a lawyer or something like that. And so when we were checking it out, I think this is like a lot of space for one person. And my two best friends, Jane Cole, were like, dude, let's do it together. Yeah. Like jail.

01:19:02:07 - 01:19:23:22 Blaze Ben Brooks Take the smaller room because he just needs more of, like, a recording space. He's a singer songwriter. Yeah, I just met the other guy was here. Yeah, he's. He's. I have too many words. He's an incredible artists and incredible friend. And then shameless Cole Curtis, he is a photographer here in town. She was going to take the front room to.

01:19:23:22 - 01:19:49:12 Blaze Ben Brooks And we're, we're going to make that, photo studio. And so we, like, demolished the whole, like, front, counter and, like, completely redid the space to feel just more like a blank white slate. Yeah. Or a studio. I took the back room and it is now, and then. And then it's it's our studio. So once we once we kind of set it up to, to work there.

01:19:49:14 - 01:20:07:20 Blaze Ben Brooks In my head, I had my, my branding head goes, we need to, like, call this place something. We need to, like, make it. We need to give it some lore. And we love the idea of like, because the building is like this, like, full on Adobe style building. Like it looks. It looks like it's straight out of, like, Arizona.

01:20:07:21 - 01:20:33:04 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Which also kind of gives it this, like cheeky, like, like California culture, like just it's it's a weird little spot. So I was like, this is probably was at one point some like weird casino. Yeah. That like had its own like Adobe theme to it. Yeah. So I was like, let's call it four Street hotel, casino resort.

01:20:33:09 - 01:20:54:11 Blaze Ben Brooks We'll tell everyone that this place used to be an old hotel and casino. Like Aztec themed or inspired or Adobe themed inspired. And I think it was a little bit of a brand, like a 70s style branding. We have a bunch of like, so great. We have a bunch of different, like, like, walnut and wood, 70s style stuff.

01:20:54:13 - 01:21:10:11 Blaze Ben Brooks Decorated. Yeah. Throughout the whole space. And yeah, it just kind of like, turned into it and transformed with our vibes throughout the past, like three and a half years, like in November. It's going to be four years at that spot.

01:21:10:11 - 01:21:16:11 Austin Spencer It's cool. And so you guys are just all creatives in one place. And dude, does you feel that energy?

01:21:16:12 - 01:21:18:00 Blaze Ben Brooks I mean, yeah, it's definitely a.

01:21:18:01 - 01:21:21:13 Austin Spencer Tography and you get to help him with graphics and then music coming into.

01:21:21:14 - 01:21:44:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, like we all get to, collaborate when, we get time to. Yeah, plan different events or, you know, it's colonies help like setting something up graphic wise, like he's he's so photo that like, there's there's some comments or like, hey, do I need to type on this? Can you like, you know, work your magic on this.

01:21:44:12 - 01:22:21:15 Blaze Ben Brooks And there's a lot of times where like, hey, I get like, I knew I heard that comes out. I want to like, I want some good photos of it. And he comes in, we set it up and we knock it out and it's cool. Yeah, too is one of those people that, you know, if I need some type of music or sound, worked into a video that I'm working on with or, if I, you know, need him to, be in a video, like, he's also such a high energy, super talented and, singer and that he gig and he can make it work for whatever we're.

01:22:21:18 - 01:22:23:20 Blaze Ben Brooks That's fine. Whatever project we're working on. Yeah, just.

01:22:23:22 - 01:22:25:02 Austin Spencer Add some individuality.

01:22:25:02 - 01:22:39:19 Blaze Ben Brooks To it. And I get to work on his show posters whenever he does a show. So it's also like, we, we, we all get to, like, intertwine and, when that, when the time strikes, it's not all the time, but when we do, we really soak it up. Yeah. That's it. It's it's it's really fun.

01:22:39:22 - 01:22:43:17 Austin Spencer And that's where you run your design studio. Great. Six.

01:22:43:19 - 01:22:46:04 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Yeah. Great. Great. Great Segue Studios.

01:22:46:05 - 01:22:48:22 Austin Spencer I love that name because that's like the best fucking name. Like.

01:22:49:00 - 01:23:10:04 Blaze Ben Brooks I, I think I did a really big job and like, it was like coming right, like right out of Covid. And I had all this, like, extra money laying around, and I was like, I feel like now with this chunk of change, I can, like, actually start something new or start like a business that, you know, inside of me.

01:23:10:05 - 01:23:34:18 Blaze Ben Brooks And I guess, the advertisement guru in my head. So, like, what sells. Yeah. Creates, who doesn't like it? And I was like, I'm sure this is gonna, like, come back and bite me in the ass one way or the other. And when I want to do your, your bank account like, that was, like, really crazy, like Bank of America was like, we're not like we we can't we can't give you a bank account with that name.

01:23:34:18 - 01:23:37:20 Blaze Ben Brooks We that's really that's crazy. And or or or, but.

01:23:38:02 - 01:23:40:00 Austin Spencer But it's a your registered LLC or whatever.

01:23:40:00 - 01:24:05:17 Blaze Ben Brooks It is so. Yeah. So but my registered LLC is great. Great sex. I think it's great sex Studios LLC. Yeah. And with that, their whole thing is they won't get bank accounts to, like, anything in the pot industry. Anything in, like, the porn industry. Okay. Anything that's high risk for them, they, like, won't give yards or accounts, too.

01:24:05:17 - 01:24:30:22 Blaze Ben Brooks Okay. So I had to, like, kind of like, I was like, well, this is just graphic design. And also within that graphic design, like on our store, like, we're not selling anything. That's any risk. There's no risk. Any anything. Yeah. I think with that name also, I knew that going into it was like, we can't do anything that's like crossing a line or you almost everything needs to be like, PG.

01:24:31:00 - 01:24:32:16 Austin Spencer Yeah, I like that. Yeah, yeah.

01:24:32:18 - 01:24:53:11 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Because with that name, if you, if you, if you lean into that, it just, it loses its, it loses it the fact cheekiness. Yeah I yeah like I think I think with that name people immediately assume that like I wanted to break the assumption that like it's going to be anything like it's like it's written on the walls.

01:24:53:11 - 01:25:21:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. And so yeah, I first it started out as this full blown like I wanted it to be like a clothing brand. I wanted to be, like, I, I, I wanted to have, like, a brick and mortar store and then, as the for the further I got into it, the more I realized that, my design career was suffering and my, with the things that I was already good at or doing were like, I, they weren't the forefront anymore.

01:25:21:18 - 01:25:48:18 Blaze Ben Brooks And I was diving into this and to be immoral. Yeah. Like I was like a fashion art clothing designer. Yeah. Then a, you know, artist. Illustrator. Yeah. And kind of had to dial it back and. Yeah, let's, let's, let's, let's reconfigure this so that it works. I'm still working and being and doing the things that I, like and want to do.

01:25:48:18 - 01:25:54:10 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. And not just focusing on this thing that is outside of my scope.

01:25:54:12 - 01:26:06:13 Austin Spencer Yeah. I think it's easy to get into that too, where everyone on Instagram or stuff, you know, we see everybody just builds their own brands out of every single thing they're doing. And then it becomes this whole entire business and it really does. I mean, I'm fall victim to it all the time.

01:26:06:14 - 01:26:29:01 Blaze Ben Brooks I fucking yeah, I felt it. I felt it diluting me. Yeah. And it was like, okay, are we just going to do this or are we just going to do me? And then I kind of just had to find this nice, fine line of, like, stupid symbolism. Yeah. If anything, I just, I now I just use, I use the LLC as, like that is my that is my business.

01:26:29:03 - 01:26:34:21 Blaze Ben Brooks My yeah, I was me but a great learning.

01:26:34:23 - 01:26:57:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Experience. I feel like I learned so much about myself doing that. I learned so much about the whole process of starting a business and doing it legitimately, especially here in Vegas. And, yeah, now it, is also just, I guess, kind of synonymous with me. Yeah. And, yeah, I'll probably be like doing a few more releases with.

01:26:57:15 - 01:27:19:18 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, here and there. But yeah, just try to also find time for it, I think. Yeah. I think since moving back, I've been very busy and working with a lot of these, like, new businesses that open up here to the point where any extra time I do have, I try and, give it to myself, give it to my friends, give it to my girlfriend, my family.

01:27:19:20 - 01:27:21:08 Austin Spencer Finding some level.

01:27:21:08 - 01:27:22:22 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, yeah. You know, it's it's.

01:27:22:22 - 01:27:27:18 Austin Spencer We actually stop and smell the fucking roses. Like, enjoy life for a minute. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

01:27:27:18 - 01:27:33:03 Blaze Ben Brooks Because it it's a little bit more. I still have a lot of travel to do. Yeah, yeah, it's something I've been to Europe, dude.

01:27:33:04 - 01:27:36:03 Austin Spencer Oh, yeah. You gotta go. Yeah. That's that's some crazy fucking.

01:27:36:03 - 01:27:42:13 Blaze Ben Brooks And I went to Japan and, January, February and that was. Yeah, nine once.

01:27:42:17 - 01:27:46:21 Austin Spencer My 40th birthday, I was supposed to go to Japan. We had the trip and Covid hit.

01:27:47:03 - 01:27:49:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Dude. Yeah. No. Yeah. You gotta go.

01:27:49:17 - 01:27:53:09 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah, we went to China last year, so. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that was awesome.

01:27:53:11 - 01:27:56:12 Blaze Ben Brooks I feel like I'm just like, I only want to travel to Asia for sure.

01:27:56:13 - 01:28:11:17 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah. Like that. Japan right now is awesome. I think we're gonna try to go. My mother, in-laws from the Philippines. So we're going to go over there, too. And then maybe we want my wife and I want to go get tattooed in South Korea, because there's, like, a ton of fantastic tattooers over there doing some super wild shit.

01:28:11:17 - 01:28:32:18 Austin Spencer But, and, yeah, you got to, got to travel. I was super land and got this that Lars Lu guy. Yeah. He's like, yeah, fucking godfather of, like, neo trad, essentially. I don't think these days too many people even know who he is, you know? Then how much influence he had on all of Europe, Australia and the States, like all of their neo kind of trad style stuff.

01:28:32:18 - 01:28:41:02 Austin Spencer Dude. That's legendary. That dude was all wild humans. Yeah. Wildest human I've ever met die. I could go on. I could do a whole podcast. Just about all the stuff.

01:28:41:02 - 01:28:42:19 Blaze Ben Brooks You get him over here? Yeah.

01:28:42:21 - 01:29:04:14 Austin Spencer He is a really fascinating do or bring this untamable human like, really. I've, like, hands down the wildest person I've ever met. Like, I had such a good time, I spent to. I fucking flew over there with the appointment to get tattooed by him, and then he just kind of looked at me like, oh, yeah, well, we could talk and see if we want to do it.

01:29:04:16 - 01:29:20:11 Austin Spencer And I was like, luckily I didn't react, you know? Yeah, I was just like, okay, cool, man. I would love to take you to coffee and see if we could come up with something. You know, I already had like a full description of everything I thought he was going to do. I went there to get a giant skull and some flowers.

01:29:20:13 - 01:29:40:02 Austin Spencer I collect, like different skulls from different people. And he was like, no, I coffee? Yeah. Two days after my appointment, which I still didn't get tattooed, went to coffee with him. He was like, talk to me. And we just sat down like this at lunch and had coffee and fucking chilled. And he was like, you're a bird, you're going to get a bird.

01:29:40:03 - 01:29:41:13 Blaze Ben Brooks Wow. Which is a rat. It is like.

01:29:41:13 - 01:29:49:13 Austin Spencer Energy. Yeah. And then he was like, we're gonna get along with your mother looking up at you and keeping an eye on you and all this stuff. And I was like.

01:29:49:15 - 01:29:51:05 Blaze Ben Brooks Oh, he okay, you did a reading?

01:29:51:05 - 01:30:01:20 Austin Spencer Yeah, you did in full on, like, then there's like the German, like, what do you call it? It was like a, like a thread or something that went around the brooch and held the brooch on. I was like.

01:30:01:20 - 01:30:02:10 Blaze Ben Brooks Wow.

01:30:02:10 - 01:30:06:19 Austin Spencer Okay. And I just fucking did. It was awesome. His best tattoo experience I've ever had.

01:30:06:19 - 01:30:21:06 Blaze Ben Brooks That's so sick. I think like that. Like like you couldn't come up with that yourself either. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like that. That's one of those things where, like, someone had to bring that back. He had to bring that to you and say, yo, this is what I'm feeling you need right now. I talked to him for, like, being open to.

01:30:21:07 - 01:30:29:23 Austin Spencer Almost two hours, like just there, just. And he was just telling you about my life and everything. I'm like, I don't know. I was like, that's the craziest tattoo. Extra hits forever.

01:30:29:23 - 01:30:35:10 Blaze Ben Brooks I kind of wanted to be like me so much more than just they, hey, can you do a scroll on me?

01:30:35:10 - 01:30:37:07 Austin Spencer Yeah. There's it's there's so much more. I'll tell you.

01:30:37:07 - 01:30:39:13 Blaze Ben Brooks Later. What? Oh, my God, it's really wild.

01:30:39:19 - 01:30:59:06 Austin Spencer But, Yeah. So, I just kind of want to touch base to like, some of the cool. These, my family is a huge Tom petty family, so I grew up like, I smoked weed with my dad for the first time at a Tom petty concert, and, so I just thought it was so cool when I saw you do some work.

01:30:59:06 - 01:31:02:05 Austin Spencer You were. What was it you were doing? Like rebranding of something so new.

01:31:02:10 - 01:31:22:14 Blaze Ben Brooks That was actually the big job that gave me some of that extra cash to start. Yeah. It's like studios when it comes to Tom petty. I've always been a fan, but also was not like a, like, super fan. I was it was. Yeah. Yeah. But was, you know, in the rotation with all my other stuff.

01:31:22:15 - 01:31:59:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. With that I think. Oh, well, I guess we'll just start from the beginning. In 2019, Adria Petty, his daughter, took over, the like a state and was with our, our family. And they wanted to rerelease wildflowers the album. Yeah. The way her dad wanted it to be released. So the whole story with that album was there was an extra 15 songs left off the record because.

01:31:59:21 - 01:32:24:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, because the record company didn't want, they didn't want, they weren't willing to take the chance on a double record. Oh, okay. It was going to be too much money. Who's going to be too much to like, get out? And they were worried that with all that content it would just kind of fall into. Yeah, oblivion. But Tom was very adamant like dude, like, I stand by these 25 songs.

01:32:24:14 - 01:32:51:05 Blaze Ben Brooks I want it like this. And they will. They weren't willing to make it happen. So, before he passed away, you, told Adria like, this is my dying wishes. I hope wildflowers will be released the way it was supposed to. And so she took that project on headfirst and was like, we're going to make it happen. Or for the record company, I think it was.

01:32:51:09 - 01:33:00:12 Blaze Ben Brooks It was through Warner. Yeah. To get that whole project going. So it was pulling all those songs out of.

01:33:00:14 - 01:33:01:08 Austin Spencer Okay. Yeah.

01:33:01:08 - 01:33:28:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Wherever it wherever they were. Yeah. Because I know, in the beginning or when they first were cutting the record, Rick Rubin helped him dial it back. Oh, okay. So they hired him to, like, work with. Yeah. And work with the band, to, you know, what can we take away without taking away the album?

01:33:28:17 - 01:33:49:15 Blaze Ben Brooks And that's what the first release is. So the second, or what with the rerelease, it was going to be all the bonus features. It was going to be all the demos. And AJ was looking for someone to illustrate, a piece for each song. Oh, shit.

01:33:49:15 - 01:33:51:18 Austin Spencer So which is like 30 fucking.

01:33:51:20 - 01:34:16:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. They came to me and they were like, we need to at least from, like, just bare bones. We need 25 illustrated pieces for my cat. And they loved it. And so, so they love all the design work I was doing for tattoo artists and for tattoo cards. Yeah. And they loved, like, the, the, the paper textures that were on there.

01:34:16:19 - 01:34:27:03 Blaze Ben Brooks And all that kind of came at like the perfect time aside from Covid hitting. So Covid hit like while I was making that deal. And thank God I like took the deal.

01:34:27:03 - 01:34:29:06 Austin Spencer Oh yeah. Because that just.

01:34:29:08 - 01:34:46:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Because it was all set up and everything was like, we did like a couple test illustrations just to make sure that they liked it. And after two they were like, all right, let's, let's run it. And so I signed up for 25 and then whatever else was going to be, actually, we were gonna figure out along that way.

01:34:46:18 - 01:34:59:20 Blaze Ben Brooks And so I was busy during all of Covid. Yeah. I was like, I was so blessed and lucky and thankful to like, be able to I know a lot of friends, like, were not doing well during that. Yeah, yeah.

01:34:59:20 - 01:35:01:22 Austin Spencer A lot of people were not fully got shut down like.

01:35:01:22 - 01:35:04:21 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. And I had a newborn. I know it was.

01:35:04:21 - 01:35:06:00 Austin Spencer When we started Maverick.

01:35:06:02 - 01:35:07:13 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, yeah.

01:35:07:15 - 01:35:11:10 Austin Spencer Two months before Covid. So all the fuck. And then you just were.

01:35:11:10 - 01:35:18:21 Blaze Ben Brooks So busy all the way through. Yeah. Dude, I did like I did. I did the whole, like I did the illustrations for each song.

01:35:18:23 - 01:35:20:22 Austin Spencer No distractions either, really.

01:35:20:22 - 01:35:30:04 Blaze Ben Brooks I mean, I social media or I feel like I feel like it was more of a distraction to stay home with my roommates and like.

01:35:30:06 - 01:35:31:10 Austin Spencer Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

01:35:31:10 - 01:35:32:22 Blaze Ben Brooks There was a lot of, like, drinking.

01:35:32:22 - 01:35:34:11 Austin Spencer And in my head I'm living alone.

01:35:34:14 - 01:35:44:06 Blaze Ben Brooks So. Yeah, yeah, I'm like, oh my God. If anything, it was like more distraction of like, where's the world going like this is kind of scary. Instead of being able to, like, hunker down okay.

01:35:44:07 - 01:35:45:00 Austin Spencer Yeah.

01:35:45:02 - 01:35:50:17 Blaze Ben Brooks I got to put my head down. But yeah, again too. Yeah, there was a lot of that. Like just being like, hey, I have nothing else to do.

01:35:50:19 - 01:35:51:17 Austin Spencer Like, I'm going to work.

01:35:51:18 - 01:36:14:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, I'm just going to crank this up. And so yeah, then after the after the 25 were done, it was okay. Now we got to put together the box, and we want you to, do this and this and that, and, it was, it turned into even more huge projects. Yeah, yeah.

01:36:14:15 - 01:36:18:03 Austin Spencer And probably your biggest project ever or, you know, like, I would collectively.

01:36:18:03 - 01:36:30:03 Blaze Ben Brooks I think so like, I think when if we're talking like in regards to one project, having the most amount of pieces and like, yeah, separate art works within one, it was probably what it probably is that.

01:36:30:06 - 01:36:31:15 Austin Spencer Yeah, I would think so, yeah.

01:36:31:19 - 01:36:46:03 Blaze Ben Brooks Because we even did I worked with the animator, Aaron Himes, to do we did a video for the demo. I saw that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What's a song? You don't know how it feels.

01:36:46:03 - 01:36:48:01 Austin Spencer Yeah. Dude, that's so.

01:36:48:01 - 01:37:05:06 Blaze Ben Brooks Cool. And the demo, like, it got to the point to where I was listening to all this. A lot of the music for the first time. I was more of like a like a like a hit of Tom petty. You can you have listener versus. Yeah. Full albums. Yeah. And I think that also helped me in the artwork.

01:37:05:08 - 01:37:27:15 Blaze Ben Brooks I remember there was there was cabin down below is one of the songs. Yeah. And because there's two songs on the album with the word cabin in it. Okay, so there's cabin in the Woods and Cabin down below, and not knowing some of the context. I remember, like for the first like version of Cabin Down Below, I drew like another cabin, like in the woods.

01:37:27:19 - 01:38:00:11 Blaze Ben Brooks Oh, sorry. A cabin like an actual, like log cabin. Yeah, yeah. And so, like, I got, like Adria rifts upon me. Like, this is actually like like the A camera boat. Oh, oh I like like there were things like, oh yeah. That's where I didn't know exactly what she was writing about or singing about, but. Oh yeah. And I think that also helped have like a just a fresh take or a fresh instead of someone who was super like Tom petty super fan.

01:38:00:11 - 01:38:07:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And coming from maybe like, like get more of a tattoo. Yeah. Background.

01:38:07:15 - 01:38:09:23 Austin Spencer Like they might take it too literal or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:38:09:23 - 01:38:17:00 Blaze Ben Brooks So yeah, it was, it was nice to be able to. And there it sounds like go through my filter I guess.

01:38:17:02 - 01:38:19:10 Austin Spencer And sound like they were awesome to work with and stuff too.

01:38:19:10 - 01:38:39:20 Blaze Ben Brooks So so cool. Yeah, it's a whole other set. Me and me and Adrian actually became, very close songs. It's fucking cool. In, that time and towards the end of the project, she invited me out to her house in Connecticut, and we had this day together. It was so special. It was like we had we had just finished the house.

01:38:39:21 - 01:39:10:22 Blaze Ben Brooks We had witnessed the project, and all that had rolled out the rollout. Like when better than planned. Everything was so solid. And she had, like, talk about a new project. And she was a car to the house. We drove out to Connecticut, and, it was so cool to, like, actually meet her in person. Yeah. Even crazier to, like, walk through a house and see, like, family photos.

01:39:10:22 - 01:39:36:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, I'm done with, petty in, like. That's why I like, with everyone. She's a daddy's girl, too. She has. She has this, jukebox in her pool. There's usually a pool room with a pool table. I remember we walk into this room, she's like, hey, let's have a couple beers. This being a Budweiser. Yeah. We crack unbreakable Budweiser's.

01:39:36:16 - 01:40:04:02 Blaze Ben Brooks It starts down pouring rain like, so hard I'd never seen it. Yeah, we're seeing that hard in New York. Are we? W were in Connecticut. Then she starts playing these unreleased, records of her dad playing at the Fillmore. Wow. Over like these sick, like, high end speakers. Oh, I bet we're playing pool, drinking beers, and then she just.

01:40:04:04 - 01:40:28:08 Blaze Ben Brooks She points out this jukebox in the corner of the room. She's like, this was like a gift from my dad to me before he passed away. I want I'd like to show you. She put all the songs that remind me or remind him of me. Oh, or he wrote in their handwritten. Yeah, on the bottom of the jukebox, where you click the buttons.

01:40:28:10 - 01:40:55:06 Blaze Ben Brooks Dude, it was one of those experiences, like, kind of out-of-body, where you're just like, am I seriously? Yeah. Drinking beer, playing pool, listening to unreleased records. Yeah. Of Tom petty with his daughter right now and her. Oh, cool. And then, so her and her daughter comes in the room while American Girl is playing and asks, hey, mom, what was grandpa talking about in the song?

01:40:55:06 - 01:41:27:11 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. And Adria gives the full background of how he had given to his girlfriend. Oh so cool. You know, dude. Yeah, I was losing my mind. Yeah. It's happening. It really felt like the the cornerstone moment of the whole project. It was like, this is like the perfect, like, tie off. Yeah. To like, this whole experience. And I've done work with them set and there's some new stuff coming out, but like, yeah that was like the cool, project.

01:41:27:11 - 01:41:57:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Man. That's incredible moments getting to hang out there and then so and so another part of that was, you know, horribly expressing, like, her grief with losing her dad. And yeah, it it really like when I lost mine, she was like one of the first people I texted her called. Yeah, yeah. There's other than call, call has also lost his dad and lost him around, like, the same time as me.

01:41:57:17 - 01:42:20:14 Blaze Ben Brooks And so I had, you know, thank God I had that as, like, a best friend to, like, you know. Yeah. Talk to about that. And just live that with I think so it's not even about the talking. It was more so knowing that someone else has been through something similar or some of the similar feelings. Yeah. I remember Andrew gave me one of the, like, best little pieces of advice when, like, I felt like the most paralyzed.

01:42:20:14 - 01:42:45:09 Blaze Ben Brooks Like waking up every day, just like, with nothing to do. Can't I don't I don't know what to do. I can't like, I can't figure this out. And to just to do one thing right, wake up, wake up and do one thing. That's all you do. Yeah. And you did that today small. And then you can maybe add to it, but just find that one thing and it became the gym.

01:42:45:11 - 01:43:02:08 Blaze Ben Brooks So it's like good. Yeah. It was like it was like that was that was that one thing. Because lay on the couch and just being numb is not drinking or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or even if it's any of do I do the drinking and have that one drink and then move to the next.

01:43:02:08 - 01:43:04:03 Austin Spencer Yes. Yeah yeah yeah yeah.

01:43:04:03 - 01:43:23:19 Blaze Ben Brooks But like she is someone to me that is so special that I did not expect to be such a large part of my life, my career is so cool and was really. Yeah, it's. So when I was a Tom petty, I can't thank him enough, I really don't. I never got to meet him. But yeah, I got to meet a version of him through her.

01:43:23:19 - 01:43:29:03 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah. I have this huge Tom petty painting I did for my sister. She's a big fan. It still hangs in her house.

01:43:29:05 - 01:43:30:16 Blaze Ben Brooks You know, you got to show.

01:43:30:16 - 01:43:52:19 Austin Spencer Me. It was cool. It's a weird time when I didn't have any money. And we just started the shop, and, there was a furniture store next to us, and they would fill up the dumpster and we'd get kind of irritated at it. But then I started with, cardboard. Yeah. So I was like, fuck it. I took all the cardboard out and I started cutting it really nice and layering it, and then hand painting on it, and then building these three dimensional cardboard sculptures that were wall hanging pieces.

01:43:52:21 - 01:44:03:20 Austin Spencer And then I would paint on them with, like, watered down black ink and then black, and then it would like, run down and, and tear away the top layer of the cardboard and create these like, crazy textures.

01:44:03:20 - 01:44:06:07 Blaze Ben Brooks As I say, the texture on the sounds like, and then.

01:44:06:07 - 01:44:21:20 Austin Spencer Even do stamping with the texture, like with the black ink. And I just, I was like, I have a bunch of black ink and I have free cardboard and a hot glue gun. And my whole living room turned into this fucking phase where I went through making these giant fucking sculpture. I just gave some of them away actually, recently.

01:44:21:20 - 01:44:23:20 Blaze Ben Brooks Like, oh, I got to see these. Yeah, you got a.

01:44:23:22 - 01:44:24:15 Austin Spencer Friend so.

01:44:24:15 - 01:44:24:23 Blaze Ben Brooks Sick.

01:44:24:23 - 01:44:33:13 Austin Spencer But yeah. So anyway, Tom petty is like, definitely like, that's cool. And even weirder. My wife's boss grew up in a house next door to his parents.

01:44:33:17 - 01:44:35:19 Blaze Ben Brooks Oh, no way. In Florida.

01:44:35:20 - 01:44:51:09 Austin Spencer I guess they had a house. It was maybe a vacation house in Wyoming. Okay. Yeah, so I'm sure. I'm sure. Yes, you have to ask her about that. But anyway, he's like, yeah, I read a time out. Tom petty would roll up in his tour bus and get out and go into the house, and all the kids, neighborhood kids would run around.

01:44:51:11 - 01:44:58:00 Austin Spencer We remember him smelling funny. I was like, Maybe I'll get weed.

01:44:58:02 - 01:45:00:06 Blaze Ben Brooks To unfamiliar smell.

01:45:00:08 - 01:45:02:06 Austin Spencer I know that's funny, but yeah.

01:45:02:08 - 01:45:11:20 Blaze Ben Brooks That's another cool thing about, doing work for, you know, him and his estate is, everyone has a top story. Yeah, right. I mean, like, it was.

01:45:11:20 - 01:45:21:21 Austin Spencer Like, one of the greatest songwriters, like, ever in and, you know, and and I don't know what you call and it's just it was able to share that with so many people all over the world. It's really.

01:45:21:21 - 01:45:39:07 Blaze Ben Brooks Cool. Yeah. So just on a whole different scale, like, yeah, it's nuts. It reminds me of, when I was 16, my dad bought me a VW bus and we redid it together and driving around that thing, it was like, that was bad, but like, my dad's like, number one close. Like, dude, everyone has a story about a VW bus.

01:45:39:07 - 01:45:48:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, like, no matter what. Yeah. No matter where you pull up on a red light stop sign, you park it. Yeah, someone's got something to say about it.

01:45:48:19 - 01:46:02:01 Austin Spencer At some old Cadillacs. And I had some funny stories about, like, just all that. Like, here's this old lady at a gas station towing Toyota. Oh, I had a lot of fun in the back of one of those one time, I was like, oh, my God, lady was like an old lady, like, make you blush over here.

01:46:02:07 - 01:46:10:09 Blaze Ben Brooks Having a cool car is cool. Telling you start getting to me. Those stories are like, okay, I'm just trying to get from point A to point. Yeah, yeah.

01:46:10:09 - 01:46:32:14 Austin Spencer Yeah, totally. Oh, man. Right. I feel like I could talk to you all day long. I don't know how I know. You just don't even feel that you got to work on a lot of really cool projects. And it's just, I don't know, it was really, really impressive. And I just love your attitude and approach. I, I genuinely I'm like, so happy to have you in our city and leaving your mark, like you said.

01:46:32:14 - 01:46:53:10 Austin Spencer And I'm going to butcher another quote. I remember Dave Chappelle. He said something his dad said, you can't change the world, but you can sure as hell work on your block, you know? And it was beautifying your block and just basically putting your all into your community and where you are and including others. You just seem to be so good at that.

01:46:53:10 - 01:47:03:19 Austin Spencer And it's just it's just fun and it makes me feel good when I drive around our city. And I love the outlook on elevating the the esthetics of our city is really cool.

01:47:03:19 - 01:47:31:07 Blaze Ben Brooks So man, thank you so much for that. Good for you. Thank you man for saying all that you have and giving us here a platform to have these conversations. I don't think, a lot of us even, have the courage to start something like this or, even want to, like, take it on a station like this on a scale that is so public.

01:47:31:07 - 01:47:48:18 Blaze Ben Brooks But, like you were explaining to me, yesterday, not doing it is is just worse. Do you get it? Yeah. There's there's there's no, nothing's gonna happen unless you just take a step and hope for the best, you know?

01:47:48:18 - 01:48:01:18 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah, just you got to put yourself out there. You got to have. And just try to have fun and not take yourself too seriously. You know, it's like I stress myself out sometimes in the mornings, even before this is like, you know, try to nail it, you know, be the way you want to. Do you want to do good?

01:48:01:18 - 01:48:09:00 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I do think that there is obviously that's a very important trait as a human, an artist or whatever. And.

01:48:09:01 - 01:48:10:13 Blaze Ben Brooks Quality controllers. Yeah.

01:48:10:14 - 01:48:15:21 Austin Spencer You should be pushing yourself and especially pushing yourself in an uncomfortable position, you know, like.

01:48:15:22 - 01:48:20:18 Blaze Ben Brooks Tattooing that that comes with practice, like. Yeah, quality only comes with the more you do it.

01:48:20:22 - 01:48:38:23 Austin Spencer So I was thinking about the other day too, is like, with tattooing is so odd because like, you learn a publicly like so I, I see a lot of tattooers hesitant to put their selves out there, you know, with video and through social media and everything. But I'm like, bro, your whole career, you're learning and you're putting it on somebody.

01:48:39:03 - 01:49:06:13 Austin Spencer They're leaving and showing it to everyone. So you could look back, like, I look back at my tattoos and I'm like, oh, yo, you know, like I was going through this phase then, or I was trying this out and you have to. But that's kind of a even more extreme way of putting yourself out there. Like, these people are permanently showing your weird ass work, maybe because you got their more inspired for six months to do weird tattoos or something, you know?

01:49:06:15 - 01:49:23:15 Austin Spencer So why are you so concerned with putting yourself out there? Like, now? I feel like, also like, as tattoo tattooing taught me how to thicken my skin as an artist, you know, I could draw. We talked about, like, putting yourself out there and drawing in front of people and then then just going, nah, that's, you know, don't even say like that sucks.

01:49:23:15 - 01:49:41:11 Austin Spencer And you're like, oh, God, okay. Or, you know, you put all of your time and energy into building this portfolio back in the day. Reset portfolios, you know, and you look through a client would come in and just flip through like everything your heart and soul you put into and then go now and you're just like, shit.

01:49:41:12 - 01:49:51:17 Austin Spencer But you can't take it personally because it's just not for them, you know? And like, you just gotta keep putting it out there. You gotta keep speaking and singing or fucking taking pictures of dancing or whatever it is. Get it out of you.

01:49:51:18 - 01:49:52:21 Blaze Ben Brooks Keep expressing, you know.

01:49:52:23 - 01:50:07:03 Austin Spencer You have to and you'll get better. Like 1%. Like every time you do something, you get a little better. And I think that that's like, I just feel like I can't not do it. Like I can't not try something like, I just I have to, you know, it's. Yeah. And you have to.

01:50:07:03 - 01:50:13:09 Blaze Ben Brooks Not keep working, not following that inner voice is. Yeah. The start of dying.

01:50:13:11 - 01:50:27:08 Austin Spencer Dude is so intimidating, taking, cut back from tattooing and starting to just focus on these other projects. You know, I felt like a loser. But at the same time, I'm like, what? I'm trying. I'm, like, trying to do something new and put yourself out there. But I know it's I.

01:50:27:08 - 01:50:34:06 Blaze Ben Brooks Hear that I feel like, I do a lot less tattoo, related work nowadays. I know you.

01:50:34:06 - 01:50:36:04 Austin Spencer Got, like, a whole new, interesting direction.

01:50:36:09 - 01:51:03:06 Blaze Ben Brooks And there's times where I'm like, oh, man. Like, I, I hope people don't see it as like, I just went and did the cards, infiltrated and then dipped out. It's more so I see myself still following and getting to, what all my tattoo friends are doing. But for me, it's just like, I'm taking this step over here for a little bit, and, I yeah, I love it.

01:51:03:07 - 01:51:04:22 Blaze Ben Brooks I'll be back. I'll be. Yeah. I'm around.

01:51:05:04 - 01:51:14:08 Austin Spencer You're going very. That seems like a very just illustration heavy lady. You know, like, a lot of, like, really big, more intricate illustrations and stuff. It's cool to see you grow.

01:51:14:08 - 01:51:41:11 Blaze Ben Brooks And I think that's the challenge right now is just like doing heavy illustration and combating AI and like, trying to just like, do it in a way that the process feels unique and correct and like, therapeutic to me. And, doing it for the reasons I started it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:51:41:13 - 01:51:44:15 Austin Spencer Get the sketchbook out and just draw it. Yeah. Draw. Yeah.

01:51:44:15 - 01:52:08:10 Blaze Ben Brooks I'm like fighting boredom again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's also like, remind myself to, like, get bored. Sometimes it's harder as we get older because we have so much more responsibility. Yeah. As we and we started we gained spaces and we gained these things to take care of. But, I just, I think trying to remind yourself to get bored and then find ways to combat it.

01:52:08:10 - 01:52:24:23 Austin Spencer Like it's like sit down to and just sitting down to like, put yourself in the position to create is, sometimes difficult. But it's like one of those things, like going to the gym, you know? Yeah. Like once you're at the gym, you're like, okay, I'm fucking here. You know, once your feet hit the floor and you get out of bed, you're like, okay, I need to do this.

01:52:25:01 - 01:52:42:04 Austin Spencer I mean, and then you start to enjoy it. Yeah. I call a mental speed bump in our family. You know, it's like when you just kind of hit something and you're like, like, you got to shake that shit off, dude. And just, like, put one step forward, sit down, draw with your kids, paint, fucking go take photos at the park on a walk or whatever.

01:52:42:04 - 01:52:49:08 Blaze Ben Brooks You know, it's intentional about it, you know? Yeah. I don't I don't feel like something has to come out of that.

01:52:49:10 - 01:52:51:00 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:52:51:00 - 01:52:57:09 Blaze Ben Brooks The pressure of that, it can ruin the moment of it. That's another process of it.

01:52:57:09 - 01:53:16:01 Austin Spencer Yeah. Like an entrepreneurial spirit kind of sometimes is like I would constantly I'm like, am I wasting my time or yeah, yeah, yeah. But you, I, you just have to shut all that out. Like, I'm currently chasing these new, not new, but like, just yeah, just new paths and stuff. And I'm like, should I be doing this? And then I'm like, no, you know what?

01:53:16:01 - 01:53:19:07 Austin Spencer Fuck it. Just go for it. Dude. This is try it. Yeah.

01:53:19:09 - 01:53:36:11 Blaze Ben Brooks You know, do it for the sake of doing it. Yeah. Not for the sake of I need to sell this or. Yes, whatever comes out of it. It needs to do something for me. Yeah. Do you doing it is doing something for you. I think that's. Yeah, that's that's a big one. Yeah. The process is what's doing it for you.

01:53:36:12 - 01:54:07:08 Blaze Ben Brooks And I think that's what like a big reason why people have, you know, some I think a lot of us artists are like, we hate I really yeah, we hate this artificial intelligence, taking away our, our processes that are so therapeutic or so helpful to us because the process of creating or of making or of doing, like those processes are what is helping way more than the outcome.

01:54:07:12 - 01:54:37:19 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, the outcome or the, the art piece or whatever the finished thing is. I don't think people really realize that the process has just as much value as that, or even more value. Than we then we do now. I think they think especially with things that are just like creating the outcome. Yeah, it's really letting us reflect on how making the thing is the real kind of star of the show.

01:54:37:23 - 01:54:38:13 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah.

01:54:38:15 - 01:54:43:07 Austin Spencer Do you feel like the air and water, you know, how do you I don't want to open up the whole, I think, even more.

01:54:43:10 - 01:54:46:06 Blaze Ben Brooks But we could do a quick one. I do feel.

01:54:46:06 - 01:55:07:21 Austin Spencer Like I don't think that us as artists should be as afraid of it as we are, as a lot of people seem to think. I, I do feel that there is a there is something I feel like I is kind of like the guy who's emulating you, you know, they're behind you. They're only going to be able to be behind you.

01:55:07:21 - 01:55:24:01 Austin Spencer I, I feel, you know, if you're working your ass off to be creative, to really, truly find yourself and express yourself consistently and aggressively, you're all, you're gonna stand out and you will have this unique look and touch I like, I don't know you.

01:55:24:03 - 01:56:09:01 Blaze Ben Brooks I think people are worried about it beating them or. Yeah. Hey, at least timewise, like, yeah, the amount of time it takes. You try to, like, sit down and draw something. Yeah. Or make something or advertising purposes or anything in commerce. Yeah. People are worried that if a computer can generate something like that at 100 times the speed of you while they pick you, but I also see like there's there's tools within it, at least on the digital level or a coding level that like, you know, there's there's that I, I always see I like to be open to people's perspective on it.

01:56:09:04 - 01:56:21:14 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. But I think when it, when it starts to, take away from our, our processes and our, the value that we have in those things. Yeah. That's where I get a little.

01:56:21:16 - 01:56:23:19 Austin Spencer Like, nervous or angry.

01:56:23:19 - 01:56:50:08 Blaze Ben Brooks Or like, you know, afraid of the unknown. Yeah. And when you don't know how something you don't understand doesn't even works or you are worried that it's like, just taking from you without you knowing, like, yeah, that's that is scary. Yeah. Yeah. I think people are a lot like people should be afraid of that. I think it's, it's a even, like a privacy thing, but like, outside of that, it's just it's more.

01:56:50:08 - 01:57:00:13 Blaze Ben Brooks So is it. It's pulling us in a direction that is so far away from what progress really is.

01:57:00:15 - 01:57:13:06 Austin Spencer Yeah. You think it's just. I mean, do you think it's. Just like it'll create all of this slop and everybody will just be like, is that the term that everybody uses for it? Be like, it's polluting.

01:57:13:06 - 01:57:49:23 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, it's just for spaces that we go to for inspiration. And I think that really bums me out. Yeah. Like places that I feel or at once I felt, I could trust as being, a space for seeing artwork made by humans or I could trust that someone sat down and made that, or someone put their own ideas and thoughts into a process that was either made by hand, or they spent a lot of time on the software to work it out.

01:57:50:01 - 01:58:14:20 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. And, and solve the problems that are within it. Like, like I think I think when you take that little bit of, like, like I was saying earlier, my design process is so much around fitting and, working out the problems of all this text needs to fit in this space this way, and I want it to feel and evoke this emotion.

01:58:14:20 - 01:58:25:10 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, whatever is generating a piece that I am, if I were to write that out and it will prompt and making it, it's not thinking that way.

01:58:25:12 - 01:58:26:11 Austin Spencer No.

01:58:26:13 - 01:58:44:20 Blaze Ben Brooks It's just going to it's it's just it's taking that whole thought process out of it. And then in a way, yeah, I think that's why that's what we're calling it. Swap is yeah, there's no intention behind it other than the words that you were putting it putting into it.

01:58:44:22 - 01:58:54:07 Austin Spencer Yeah. I just feel like, I don't know, like it's never really is going to have soul, but I'm. I could be totally fucking wrong. I don't know, but I think.

01:58:54:09 - 01:58:59:16 Blaze Ben Brooks I think the, the issue there is you're, you're trying to convince people that it does.

01:58:59:20 - 01:59:00:23 Austin Spencer Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

01:59:00:23 - 01:59:23:08 Blaze Ben Brooks And when it starts to convince people that it does, that's where it that's where it's scary. Yeah. Because the like being able to go on to a space whether it be Instagram or gala, you know, like Tumblr or, Pinterest or these places, are known to be, inspiration.

01:59:23:10 - 01:59:25:13 Austin Spencer Yeah. Yeah. I, I yeah, if.

01:59:25:13 - 01:59:49:00 Blaze Ben Brooks You're going to these spaces with the trust that you're seeing things that other people are making or even Etsy, I've even heard that's a thing recently. Yeah, yeah. People like I go on these places for references sometimes. Yeah. And if I can't trust that, like, I, another human made it. Yeah. Or it came from the origin. Space is not a human.

01:59:49:00 - 01:59:50:00 Blaze Ben Brooks But I can't trust that.

01:59:50:01 - 01:59:51:12 Austin Spencer I've already seen a huge shift. And I'll go back.

01:59:51:12 - 01:59:52:20 Blaze Ben Brooks To books, man, I'm going.

01:59:52:22 - 02:00:13:10 Austin Spencer As that's what I was going to do too, is like, do you think that will just change direction? I mean, like, I don't know, like I grew up pre-internet, you know, like there was no inspiration on the internet at the time. It was. So I would go to the Sahara Library and literally like open books. And that's how I got the inspiration to draw my first tattoo on my, like, look at that library.

02:00:13:10 - 02:00:36:21 Austin Spencer But so maybe like younger people in my anybody Lego start going those directions or start. Yeah. Just finding other I fucking stopped using Pinterest because I go on there for like interior design inspiration. And I'm like, that fucking picture is not real. Like, I almost feel like when you go to Pinterest now and you type in what you're looking for, it generates images based off of what you're typing in.

02:00:36:23 - 02:00:48:15 Austin Spencer Like, I'm looking for modern desert landscaping, bungalow style and like very like particular with it. And then I'm like, I almost feel like it's like fucking making images live right there to fit.

02:00:48:15 - 02:00:52:05 Blaze Ben Brooks Naming me. Does that not feel like pollution to you? Does. Yeah. Which is.

02:00:52:05 - 02:00:52:16 Austin Spencer Why I.

02:00:52:16 - 02:01:01:08 Blaze Ben Brooks Shy away something I had to sift through. Yeah. To find the thing I want to trust. Yeah. The the or the real information.

02:01:01:08 - 02:01:14:20 Austin Spencer No, I yeah I totally agree I but then that's one of things to also like tangible things like the zine you gave me today. I'm like I used to collect, I still I mean, I have them all over, like I have books all over and I'm like, those are now so special. So there's this I'm.

02:01:14:21 - 02:01:17:19 Blaze Ben Brooks Adding value to tangible.

02:01:17:19 - 02:01:26:02 Austin Spencer I know that it keeps you. Yes, I know that. And the story of the printing and everything is like all just beautiful shit to me. So I think that they'll just this would be this huge analog boom, right?

02:01:26:02 - 02:01:29:05 Blaze Ben Brooks I agree. Yeah, I think it's it's going to push things like record sales are.

02:01:29:05 - 02:01:47:12 Austin Spencer Like tripling every year are getting bigger and bigger like younger kids are looking at 90s like you can't buy a fucking 90s boombox for less than a thousand bucks. There's some shit, you know, it's like all of those things. Like, I watch a video about a kid the other day. He buys fucking VCRs at garage sales and flip some for like 200 bucks on eBay.

02:01:47:15 - 02:01:51:10 Austin Spencer And I'm like, that's funny, because I need a fucking VCR. And I gave away all my fucking VCR.

02:01:51:12 - 02:01:54:17 Blaze Ben Brooks I have an extra one for you that actually, that's for. And like the,

02:01:54:19 - 02:02:01:10 Austin Spencer Little units with the tape and the TV in it, those are pretty fucking pricey, like on Facebook Marketplace, and they don't even work. And the hundred and 50 bucks, I'm.

02:02:01:10 - 02:02:01:20 Blaze Ben Brooks Like, yeah.

02:02:02:01 - 02:02:09:18 Austin Spencer But so I but I kind of like that. But then also it's like fucking expensive too. It's all makes all these analog stuff. And I'm like.

02:02:09:19 - 02:02:10:21 Blaze Ben Brooks Take some space that's.

02:02:10:21 - 02:02:14:09 Austin Spencer Getting that's kind of scary, you know, because I think to find something I would.

02:02:14:09 - 02:02:35:06 Blaze Ben Brooks Rather contribute to that than the opposite. Yeah, yeah, I mean, like, I think if you're artists out there, start thinking tangible, start thinking analog. Yeah. Because that's going to be what people can trust. Came from a source that is human. And well, I.

02:02:35:06 - 02:02:53:15 Austin Spencer Think also like more likely to find inspiration that's unique that everybody else isn't seeing on Instagram and stuff. So if you're digging through weird old books at garage sales and you see some weird, like I love fucking books printed in the 70s, there's a book, bookstore in Montana that has over 600,000 books in it, and they've been open since the 60s.

02:02:53:15 - 02:03:10:08 Austin Spencer And you could walk through that thing all fucking day and find, like, manuals from the 60s and 70s and, you know, all these just weird shit. And I just, I buy books just straight up and for, you know, the illustrations on the covers or, you know, so I think people will be more likely to kind of go that route.

02:03:10:12 - 02:03:12:17 Austin Spencer I don't know, I, I mean, I think it should be.

02:03:12:22 - 02:03:31:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, I, I hope, I hope that's the thing and I, I hope that direction are people starting to move that direction. We'll also wake these other like apps and companies and inspiration hubs to crack down on. Yeah. Yeah. Generated content like that.

02:03:31:17 - 02:03:38:03 Austin Spencer Yeah. Yeah. I noticed they start labeling it here and there. I don't know how they do that or whatever, but like on Pinterest it's not. It's just it's.

02:03:38:03 - 02:03:44:06 Blaze Ben Brooks Just like, no way to like go through all of it. Especially with that with the speed that it's coming out.

02:03:44:06 - 02:04:03:23 Austin Spencer But only weird thing I do kind of see is interesting on a, like the AI generated architecture through Pinterest is that you're seeing weird shit that humans wouldn't necessarily or I don't want to say humans, but like me, I've just never seen before. I'm like weird shapes and architecture and stuff that's like, well, that's kind of cool.

02:04:03:23 - 02:04:12:19 Austin Spencer So then. But that just inspires me personally to like, draw like weird shit that's like like that. So I kind I'm just try to think positive about it, you know?

02:04:12:21 - 02:04:27:10 Blaze Ben Brooks So I, we want to all like, say like, dude, screw I get out of here like, this is all lame. Like, if we're being honest, we've all seen a little bit of it. And been like, well, that's kind of cool. And then we realize that, say, I have to go, oh no, I'm not allowed. Like I'm not allowed to like that.

02:04:27:12 - 02:04:53:08 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. So I, I think, I think we can all admit in one way or another, we've seen something come from it that is new to us and. Yeah, or a little bit interested in it and go, well, like, yeah, that's kind of cool. But then I think, that after that, like quick little of inspiration, it's also kind of like, yeah, it still feels, it's still feels a little, disingenuous.

02:04:53:12 - 02:05:12:14 Austin Spencer Yeah. You know, but I, you know, like, this is kind of like my message lately that I've been thinking about and want to try to get artists to think about is don't even look at it as the picture in the general, the photo generator and all that shit don't get. I don't even use it for that. But I do use it for helping me understand how to build my website, how to make my website better, how to make it more effective.

02:05:12:19 - 02:05:31:22 Austin Spencer You know, so like if we are selling our prints and all this stuff, like it's now pretty awesome that you could go into like Shopify and use their AI, which is just like a personal professor at your fingertips. You know, I'm like, okay, well, how do I like how do I make this work? I, I don't know anything about coding.

02:05:31:22 - 02:05:40:09 Austin Spencer I don't know anything about fucking like, I don't know, you know, it just makes it to where you could use it to almost like, expand just your business side of your brain when.

02:05:40:09 - 02:05:41:08 Blaze Ben Brooks It comes to, like.

02:05:41:08 - 02:05:41:15 Austin Spencer

02:05:41:15 - 02:05:52:11 Blaze Ben Brooks Learning through data and numbers and, anything, I guess more computer related or, stats.

02:05:52:11 - 02:05:53:20 Austin Spencer Really strong suit.

02:05:53:22 - 02:06:16:22 Blaze Ben Brooks Is, is a, it can be a huge help. Yeah. I, I, it has its uses and then I also then on once I go through all of that and go, what kind of resources is this taking from our own like yeah. Environment. I'm like, is that is that worth it? Or like, do you like us as humans or as a collective as like a race?

02:06:17:00 - 02:06:27:21 Blaze Ben Brooks Like we could do this ourselves without and and and have way more water in our world and have. Yeah. And not have to take as a data centers. Can you find a different way to power yours up or like.

02:06:27:23 - 02:06:32:07 Austin Spencer Yeah, yeah, I it's really like I don't know much about all that complicated. You know, it's like a.

02:06:32:09 - 02:06:42:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Number two think that like, yeah, we could do this better. I think that was one of my big things about being in Japan was like, I feel like this place is doing a whole lot of shit way better than we are here in America.

02:06:42:16 - 02:07:04:01 Austin Spencer China too. Dude. Yeah. China was mind blowing. Like, I was like, they're living in the future over here, dude. Like, you don't go anywhere like, you could just walk around with your phone and get through your whole life. You just like I scanned my phone on a fucking bike. And at $0.25, I can ride this bike all the way across the city and then just drop it back off, and they, I can jump in a cab.

02:07:04:01 - 02:07:09:03 Austin Spencer I could jump on a train. Everybody's clean and kind. It's super weird there.

02:07:09:06 - 02:07:36:15 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah, the the intention. Yeah. Is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So spot on. Yeah. For, like, being efficient and taking our time and keeping things safe and, clean and just doing it the way that feels. The it feels good to do. Yeah. For ourselves and for others around us. Yeah.

02:07:36:17 - 02:07:48:00 Austin Spencer I definitely I definitely don't like the way it makes a lot of, like, artist friends and stuff. Feel insecure and like, we are almost like, oh, I'm going to give up because this, you know, and I'm like, no, I can't fucking give up. You've got to like, keep going.

02:07:48:00 - 02:08:09:17 Blaze Ben Brooks Like I think at the moment this week of like a little bit of discouragement and just like then there's because there's this whole idea of like, if you spend too much time on social media, you start to like, think that whatever the discourse is online is how it is actually in the real world. It's like even that is yeah, incorrect.

02:08:09:17 - 02:08:12:04 Austin Spencer Like I'm incredibly careful what I click on.

02:08:12:06 - 02:08:26:04 Blaze Ben Brooks Like, yeah. Or if you saw, you know, the same issue come up on like maybe 2 or 3 different posts and you go to the comment section, those three instances where you look through the comment section of a singular issue, you now think that.

02:08:26:06 - 02:08:27:05 Austin Spencer Everyone thinks that's.

02:08:27:05 - 02:08:38:02 Blaze Ben Brooks How everyone is seeing the world. And I think that that's what brought me back to the the person who is first to comment or first to say something is probably listening the least.

02:08:38:04 - 02:08:43:10 Austin Spencer Yeah, and those comments might be fucking fake to me. And I don't know what to believe. Yeah, it's super weird.

02:08:43:10 - 02:09:01:00 Blaze Ben Brooks And that's that's like sitting down and having it. I mean, it's also rare that we get to like, thought this long. Yeah, yeah. But talk to your friends, like, reach out to your friends. Talk to your. Talk to your block. Yeah. That's where it starts. And that's where it. It's okay. You're going to be. That's where you're going to be.

02:09:01:00 - 02:09:29:08 Blaze Ben Brooks Don't worry about how like what is going on in the whole entire world. You're not being unhealthy mentally. You're not going to do something about that. You, but you are going to do something as friends and gears and colleagues and in your circle. That's where you can make a difference, and that's where you can just keep it, keep it human, keep it personal and keep it real.

02:09:29:08 - 02:09:34:11 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Like that. That's that's my that's my send off. We're going to.

02:09:34:13 - 02:09:44:08 Austin Spencer That's a good send off. Fuck man. Yeah I think that's perfect ending to like, you talk forever. Yeah. We talked for like two hours yesterday. I got worried that.

02:09:44:10 - 02:09:46:22 Blaze Ben Brooks I don't know, man. We have a lot. We got a lot to cover.

02:09:46:23 - 02:10:01:16 Austin Spencer Yeah, we kind of went on a whole different direction, so. But, Fuck yeah. Dude. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Was really cool. It was really, really cool to work with you for so long and finally get to know you even more, you know? So you got to come over for barbecue.

02:10:01:16 - 02:10:03:23 Austin Spencer I'll show you. My mom's, like, portfolio.

02:10:04:01 - 02:10:04:16 Blaze Ben Brooks Hey, that's that's.

02:10:04:19 - 02:10:05:21 Austin Spencer Really impressive, dude.

02:10:05:23 - 02:10:07:17 Blaze Ben Brooks That's nice. Thank you.

02:10:07:19 - 02:10:10:05 Austin Spencer So obviously we know where to find you.

02:10:10:07 - 02:10:13:19 Blaze Ben Brooks Yeah. Blaze. Ben Brooks. Yeah, kind of everything.

02:10:13:21 - 02:10:15:01 Austin Spencer Great sex studios.

02:10:15:05 - 02:10:22:12 Blaze Ben Brooks Great sex studios, fourth street, Las Vegas. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You see me out and say hi.

02:10:22:15 - 02:10:45:12 Austin Spencer He's nice. Dude, he's very approachable. I know. So thank you guys for listening. I think I'm supposed to start asking you to subscribe or at least consider it. Think about the YouTube channel. We're trying to learn how to grow that and, just hopefully provide, like some fun, entertaining conversations and some shit we can learn from and and enjoy.

02:10:45:12 - 02:10:51:06 Austin Spencer Maybe. Yes, painting or tattooing or doing whatever, driving in the car on the train or whatever. So thank you guys.

02:10:51:06 - 02:10:51:22 Blaze Ben Brooks I appreciate you guys.

02:10:52:04 - 02:10:54:15 Austin Spencer Everything is awesome. I love you guys.

02:10:54:15 - 02:10:55:19 Blaze Ben Brooks Bye bye.

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.