I’m a tattoo artist in the greater Sacromento area. I enjoy doing a variety of styles of tattoos. My main goal is to always take a clients idea and try to make it interesting and fun to do, and with a result they are looking for. I’m currently working out of 2 shops, Buckaroo Tattoo where I work mainly as a walk in artist on Thursdays and Fridays. As well im a resident at the Victorian Collective in midtown Sacromento where I work only by appointments.

I have been telling my family that I was going to be an artist when I grew up since I was about old enough to hold a pencil. I truly did not think tattooing was the art I was talking about (and neither did they haha…). But some things just work out better than you can plan for. I have been obsessed with making art since around birth or so. Unfortunately, I didn’t find out that tattooing was art until about 18. Growing up I had absolutely no interest in tattoos or tattooing until my best friend basically twisted my arm to get one with her. It was a heart with tribal thorns behind it that we picked right off a sheet of flash on the wall, small enough to fit under a quarter and placed on our hips so we could easily hide it if need be.  That tattoo was definitely nothing mind blowing as far as art work goes, but it seriously changed my life. I know that sounds dramatic but as far as defining moments go, there aren’t many bigger ones I can think of so far in my life. I watched the guy tattoo for the whole 15 minutes it took to complete it and I was convinced that I could do what he was doing. I also had my next tattoo planned before I left the shop. (I’d like to say though something that I am happy didn’t occur to me at the time- of course, anyone in the chair should think that what we are doing looks easy. That comes, as it should, after a lot of practice!) After that experience it took a while for the idea to really solidify in my mind that I could get serious about tattooing, be good at it and really love what I was doing with my life. When it finally did, it took all of one day to gather my artwork into a portfolio and go find an apprenticeship.  I did my first tattoo in October of 2004 at DV8 Tattoo in Concord, California. At that time I was working full time at a hospital doing clerical work to support myself, which I continued to do all throughout my apprenticeship.  Sometime in 2005 I realized that tattooing is not a part time job and if you want to be any good at all you have to dedicate your life to it. So I did that. Since then I have broadened my perspective to keep Art as the center of my life at all times. When I am not tattooing, I am most likely working on art either for an upcoming tattoo or just for personal enjoyment and learning. I also travel all over to tattoo conventions and guest spots, because it keeps me inspired and keeps me on my toes. In addition to that, I continue to get tattooed by people in this industry who I admire and respect. All of this keeps me progressing and interested. I really do love what I do.

What started you off and got you into artwork?

Art is something I’ve always done. I got into tattooing in my teens. There was a biker shop in town we used to go to, to get our weed, and they knew I could draw, so I started drawing designs for them. They were offering to teach me, but they SUCKED, I figured it must be really hard to do, because these guys were so bad at it. So I avoided it and when I hit 20, 3 days after my 20th birthday, I was living on the streets and I went into a tattoo shop just to sell my drawing book. I wanted 10 bucks for it and the guy ended up hiring me right there on the spot. So I said fuck it, I’ll give it a try. So I slept in the shop that night, and eventually got me into the hotel down the street. They paid me 200$ a week and 10% in the beginning, in 3 months I was running 2 shops for them in Toronto doing like 15-20 tattoos a day. The shop was always completely packed with people and I had to take care of everything by myself. Keeping everybody in line, who came in first, who wants this, who wants that, that type of shit ya know, control the fuckin drunks while the owner was off at his other shop. Every other week we traded off, so I’d be in Mississauga one week and Toronto the next. That was a total learning experience because he taught me everything I needed to know, he had me in the chair and I was fuckin bangin it out. These days the apprenticeships are basiclly moppin floors and scrubbin tubes for 2 years, back then it was someone to pick up the extra work that they can’t handle. Now there is just too many of them, they’re floodin the market with them. Everybodies lazy, they don’t want to scrub their own tubes, or clean their own shops, so bring in the apprentice. Now this guy is all of the sudden tattooing, so I can’t tell him what to do, so bring in the next apprentice.

Like a certain tattoo television show, they have what around 8 shop managers now?

Yeah, the shop manager thing, I never got that. It’s like, don’t we all know what we should be doin anyway? We’re all handling our own crap, we don’t need to be managed. Maybe a desk girl that can answer the phones, deal with the walk-ins, and tell her we’re out of paper towels so she can order more, other than that, ya don’t need managers.

So you were born in Canada?

Born in Toronto, grew up just outside of Niagra Falls, and then back to Toronto for tattooing and I lived there for quite a few years. I came to the States in 93′ I was just kinda hanging around checkin it out and officially moved down in 94′. I stayed in NY for 3 years and then off to Cali. I came to the States because all my buddies were goin to British Columbia, and I knew somebody here that talked me into movin, so I said fuck it I’ll come down. My plan was south, to Florida, I left Canada to get away from the snow, I wound up southeast in NY. Then I said fuck, I gotta get outta here and ended up in Cali for 12 years which was really nice. They’re a lot more artistic out there. Everybody in the shops during any down time is sittin down drawing or painting something, trying to get better. There all all different styles out there, ya got the Mexican style, lots of blackwork, faces, pin-up chicks and that type of shit which is really cool and fun to do. Lots of Aztec stuff.

Were you working out of your own shop?

I worked out of a couple then had my own for 7 years. I just got sick of owning it because I work by myself, I generally like to work alone, I don’t like bad work coming out of the shop, I don’t like having to deal with someone elses bullshit. There is nothing worse than looking over someones shoulder and see them fucking somethin up, and it’s not like you can tell them to stop and say no, no, no, I’ll finish from here. You have to walk away and just let it happen. I can’t stand that. It’s frustrating as hell. I need to work with people who are good so I can keep bouncing off of them, everybody gets to absorb my shit, I never got to absorb what they did. I was always handing my work to them and they’d give me somethin of theirs and I’d be cringing at what they were doin. So workin alone was good but again, I had to do everything on my own. It was a fuckin huge shop, so I had to keep an eye on the people, answer the phones do the tattoos, all the ordering, everything. I was competeing with shops that had like 13-14 people working for them. These shops even had volunteers. I was lookin at their websites and some people would be listed as volunteers, it was just strange. Those are just the people that love the rock star side of it, to be able to say yeah, I work at this shop, or I’m with these guys. They don’t realize that they are the ones that are watering down the process. I hate the business now, it’s nothin like when I first started. When I first started tattooing I thought, this is somethin I can do for the rest of my life and make a pretty good living. Now, Jesus Christ, every time I turn around everyone knows a tattoo artist or is a tattoo artist. My cousin, my brother, my father, my uncle, this dude who just got out of prison is gonna tat me up, fuckin everybody does it. When I first started tattooing it was like, I’d meet someone and they’d say, I do tattoos, and I’d be like REALLY?! Holy fuck, wow where do you work? I’ve never met anyone else! Now it’s like, yeah of course ya do, I don’t even want to fuckin hear it. As soon as they see you have tattoos they start talkin about who they know. Oh Yeah! You know that guy?! Let’s hang out! I’m just like fuck off. Yeah, that guy who you know, I just covered one of his pieces up. The worst is when they show me their work that their buddy did and tell me how good he is. It’s like, I’m looking at it, I can tell YOU how good he is.

I was out at a club, and I started talkin to this person, and she ended up being an appretice, go figure right? She started showing me all of her work, and I was thinkin to myself..what is that supposed to be?

Hahaha, I know who you’re talkin about, it’s the same girl I spent half an hour tellin her how much I’d like to smash her kids heads in with a fuckin hammer, hahaha. You have to look at the guy who is traing her, because he is BAD, so yeah, she thinks she is getting good because she’s catching up with him. I saw his work, the lines were destroyed, none of his lines connect, they’re blown out, the shading is horrible, but it stayed permanently, it stayed in the skin, that’s how they look at it.

What’s your favorite style of tattooing?

Black work, realistic, I like doin faces things like that, portraits, anything kinda “collagey” I like to do. Anything with a lot of shit goin on in it. I’m not into the old school so much, no tribal. I mean I can do tribal but it’s just not fun for me.

You do any new school type work, pieces blasted with color or anything?

Naa, I think a lot of tattoos that come out these days are over-colored, they put way too much color into some of these things and it’s like..it’s over-worked. A lot of these guys don’t know what their stuff looks like in 10-15 years, and it’s a big difference when you can see that. The old school stuff holds up nice, but it’s just not my style. It’s cool though, I have my blackwork, that’s all I want to do, and the other guys here are into color, that’s all they want to do, so that’s cool you can have that. I’ll check out your work, you can check out mine, that type thing. It sucks having to do everything, ya know? Like.. a tribal is comin in now, I gotta do that, now a portrait, then an old school, now a heart with mom in it, it fuckin sucks. I want one path I can go down and get just really good at that instead of goin from Japanese style to portrait work to old school and constantly jumpin around from needle styles and techniques and things like that. It fucks up the flow.
I like knowing what people are bringin in, everbody who knows me know I don’t like doin certain things. Don’t come to me if you just want your baby’s mammas fuckin name, take it somewhere else.

I see plenty of incredible artists workin on people doing just basic tribal stuff, or Chinese symbols and it has to be frustrating to have to sit and do something like that.

Once in a while I don’t mind doing it, but they have to be one after the other, I don’t mind spending a whole day doing it if I have like 30 in a row, because there is a lot of money in it. There is nothin more disappointing than wanting to get into something nice, and somebody brings in some rinky dink, poor drawing, poor fuckin idea, just weak design. Like someone bringin in a picture of their babies foot, as soon as somebody pulls that shit out, I’m just like…fuckin really? Is that the best you can come up with?

People generally are pretty limited with their imaginatons and ideas.

YES! And that’s what I used to have on my business card, Your imagination is my only limitation, and stop limiting the fuck out of me. Jesus Christ, give me an idea and let me go with it, any direction I want to go. Once I get rolling and people stop me sayin, I don’t want to go that direction with it, or I’m not into that idea really…fuck it makes it tough. I tell people Picasso would have never have been Picasso if some asshole was standing over his shoulder goin, could ya put a little more green in that area? I think yellow would make it pop! Fuck off, you’ll see it when I’m done. I always wished they could slide their arm through a glory hole or some shit, different holes in the wall for arms, legs, neck piece..you can have it back when I’m finished. That’s the way the Japanese do it. You sit down and plan out your whole body suit, what story you want to go with, and the tattooer takes over from there. That’s the best way to do it, because he’s gonna know what works and what doesn’t. Half of these people over here pick all these Japanese things and nothin goes together. No clue on what the imagery should be, or the meanings.
They had a Japanese tattoo convention a few years back, I was reading the article on it, and there were no contests. I was like yes! I fuckin love that, because they don’t want to put one old school style against another old school style and say this ones better, cuz that’s dangerous fuckin territory over there. Here, the only way you can have an actual contest is if you pick 10 people, and said you 10 artists are going to do this eagle on a person. You’re all doing the same eagle, but we’re going to see who does the best one. These days you got portraits goin up against these dragon back pieces and Japanese versus old school American, it’s like, how do you gauge it? They’re completely different fuckin styles. It’s aggravating. At the conventions someone has to win anyway, so the award thing is meaningless to me. Say you have a portrait category, and nothing but horribly done portraits show up to the event, they’re going to pick the best of the worst. He’s gonna win first place, he’s gonna get the write up in the magazine, and the guy who did it gets to put that up on his wall and people are fuckin thrilled. Like, my guy won awards! Yeah, but ya don’t know what he was up against or if anything else was even there! He was the only portrait that showed up, of course he won. It doesn’t matter. A lot of times I’ve been in the conventions where I know the people putting it on, or I worked at the shop that was putting it on…and they’d come up to me and say, what do you want to win? What categories do ya want? I don’t want to win anything, if I happen to win, I’ll take it. Two years in a row I airbrushed a hearse for a give away raffle, and both years it was like, ya want it? No… I don’t want it, OK, we’ll raffle it then. They were just going to give me the winning fuckin ticket. The whole business has just been raped and pillaged. Now you have Cunt Von D, that douche bag on television being the fuckin queen, I never ever heard of this girl ever until she got a television show. Now she’s the big name, she shows up in all the magazines and everything. She had her own tattoo convention where she stayed in a little roped off area signing autographs, not tattooing, just signing fuckin autographs. Who the fuck are you? This business you used to sign an autograph on skin not a fuckin 8×10 glossy. She’s pullin in a million bucks for every ten episodes of the TV show for pretending she’s a tattoo artist. I got a good look at her portrait work, they’re middle of the road, they look like the person, but they’re no Jack Rudy, Tyrell or anyone like that, not even close.

Bob Tyrell is fuckin SICK at portraits, because he does nothing but portraits and ya get real good at them. I’d love to throw some shit at him and see what kind of loop I can throw him into. Like some Hindu style, or lets see a Japanese sleeve, see if he can pull it off, hahaha. Because Paul Booth, I know he can’t. His original shit that he was doin from back in the day, he started off a little while after I started out. I saw his stuff start showin up in the magazines and it was all color, it was all big and goofy in the style of Dave Lum, very old school looking but very characteristic, it was nothing like he is doing now.

You do other art work, besides tattooing, like oils too right?

Yup, oils, airbrushing, bikes and cars, I was doing a couple Hells Angel bikes when I was on the other side. That was always a pain to do, because they have to be just right, ya have to match the Death Heads perfectly. I did one, I painted the Death Head on the side..they never want the head as is, these are all the younger guys, they always want super viscious teeth and the wing done different. So I did the one on the side, I didn’t really like that, sanded it off, redid it, flipped it over and did the other side. I measured this fuckin thing out perfectly, Then I looked at it from the top…and they were off. So I said Goddamn it, I sanded that off. I did those fuckin things 4 times! In one day! Then the next time I did them, I measured, measured, and measured everything out..I nailed them absolutely perfect, I was so fuckin shocked. I get that knot in the stomach when I’m puttin it down. Airbrushing’s a bitch cuz, the last one I did he had super long jagged teeth, ya have to cut out one tooth, then spray it, then the second and spray it, then the third. So every little piece is a stencil, what a headache. I just want to go to town and freehand a bunch of shit.

What’s your favorite medium to work with?

Right now I’m diggin the wood (the Carried Away Coffin plaques), I figured now I can draw on wood for a little while. I have this big canvas at home, and I can’t think of what to do on it, I’m kinda blocked. I wanna do somethin that just grabs ya, and that always ends up slowin me down because I don’t want to do just….it’s gotta be good, so I don’t stick it aside forever ya know? Plus I like doing those scale models, I do them up like they are old junkers. I put dents in them, make them all rusty, filthy. I take rolling papers and crumple them up to make them look like newspapers and throw them in the backseat and shit like that. I love doin that type of shit, making it look as real as possible. I have the rust technique down really good. I guess as long as it’s “painty”, as long as I’m applying paint to somethin, that’s where the models are nice. If I’m doin a hot rod, I can airbrush the shit out of it, or hand paint a real detailed paint job on it.
Artwork is all I do, as soon as I go home. Like last night, I didn’t draw or paint cuz I finished my angel (pic below), so I just sat there lookin through magazines tryin to find some ideas and shit. Next I want to do some crazy warrior, just some massive demon dude. Giant fuckin muscles and veins, with a shield, helmet and a sword, just sick.

Modern Body Art Chris Reynolds Art

17 Howard St

Albany, NY 12207

518-426-8282

The views and opinions of the artist and interviewer are not necessarily those of Skinpoison.com

I started tattooing in 1996. I’m self taught with no formal apprenticeship (not  recommended!) I also opened my first studio in 96′. After a long, slow learning curve I feel I’ve finally reached some sort of acceptable level of professional tattooing.

At this point in my career I try to focus on larger custom pieces. I work by appointment only. My style tends to lean towards realism, though I don’t restrict myself to that genre. I always try to put a little something in my work to identify it as my own. I don’t try to emulate one artist, instead just trying to do my best on every piece and let the tattoo take on a life of it’s own.

Along with myself, my fiancee’ runs the studio and my other artist, Chris Chubbuck, handles just as many clients as I do, also focusing on custom design. We will be looking for another artist soon and I’m hoping to open a second studio in the future. Please check out our website and look us up on Facebook.

I want to thank Steve for the opportunity of this brief write up and the chance to show all of you a little bit of my work. Thanks to all my customers who give me the opportunity to create artwork on their flesh. It’s the ultimate compliment.

Chad Chase

Venom Ink Tattoo

www.venomink.com

Dan has been drawing, painting, and writing novels since he was a little kid. In high school he focused on art and creative writing and was accepted to the art school of his choice. He was all set to start his art career when he was kicked out of his house. After about 8 months of being homeless, he ended up in a food service job. One bad job led to another but art remained constant. A year and a half were spent doing political cartoons for Madcap Magazine, not to mention various art for local clubs, bands, and a cover illustration for Maximum Rock and Roll.

At 23, he decided to take it a step further and attend art school. He was in 3 galleries, received a lot of support from teachers and students, learned plenty, and decided to leave school early for a career in NYC.

Album covers, band art, even published paintings in books brought plenty of compliments, but not regular work. Then a friend of Dan’s brother, a tattoo artist at Ink Addiction in Carlisle, PA named Chad Divel, offered to teach him how to tattoo. He turned down his first apprenticeship offer at 19, when his perception of what could be done with a tattoo was much more limited. People like Guy Aitchison, Aaron Caine and Tom Renshaw had really opened his eyes. Dan accepted the offer.

The friend got Dan his first machines (Time Machines), and a full set of Starbrite Ink. He then proceeded to practice on his girlfriend and friends. Almost ten years and way too many shops later, it’s all worked out into a happy medium between commercial and private work.

He’s still pursuing fine art, in fact he’s been in 20 something gallery shows and has plenty more coming up. At any given time, at least one gallery is usually exhibiting his work. Dan also just completed writing a novel, By Demons Driven, and a few publishers are already interested. The front and back cover, and possibly some of the interior will feature his art. More to come, time is the only constraint!

dan@danhenk.com

Erin, who wants to be a crazy cat lady when she grows up, is a self professed geek, into gaming, comics and cheesy horror movies. Expanding her talents from painting and drawing, Erin got into tattooing in 2006. She travels most of the time doing expos and conventions, from Australia to Canada refining her skills. Her execution of eerie zombie realism, portraiture of all kinds, Asian influenced work, and her old and new school pieces are making her a major contender in the industry. When not traveling and doing her thing, she works full time out of Sacred Tattoo, Auckland, New Zealand. She will be working the Sydney Tattoo & Body Art Expo, March 6th-8th in Australia, so if you’re in the area stop by her booth, check out her work and tell her Steve said what’s up.

I had the pleasure of meeting tattooer Ryan Thomas at the 2010 Am-Jam Tattoo Expo and was blown away by his great personality and exceptional artistic talent, read up on this guy and expect more great stuff from him in the future.

Ryan Thomas was born and raised in southern New Hampshire. Born with an interest in art, Ryan has been pursuing a career as an artist as long as he can remember. Starting out in grade school by drawing his classmates sports cards all the way up to working in a local mall drawing portraits in a kiosk during High School, Ryan has been a professional artist practically forever.

In the days following September 11th 2001 Ryan joined the Army giving up college scholarship opportunities to many highly regarded fine art colleges. After graduating as an infantryman Ryan was injured and received an honorable discharge from the military. Following his return home he soon discovered the scholarships were no longer valid and soon became a structural truss engineer. Although making a comfortable living Ryan was not satisfied with the lack of creating art in his life, enough so that he quit his job and began pursuing a career as a tattoo artist.

With portfolio in hand Ryan began the task of finding a suitable shop where he could start apprenticing, and as luck would have it he found the opportunity at a tattoo shop in NH.

Ryan began an apprenticeship and after two years he made the move to Body Creations Tattoo in Rochester NH. At Body Creations Ryan learned and developed even more as an artist under the direction of another talented artist, Nick Filth.

While at Body Creations Ryan traveled doing Tattoo Conventions and Guest spots at other shops scattered throughout the country. Becoming friends with other artists in and out of the industry, Ryan’s artistic abilities began to evolve and mature and although thrilled and humbled to be treated as well as he was at Body Creations, he decided to make the move to New Hampshire’s largest City, Manchester, to explore new artistic endeavors and challenges.

Ryan now tattoos full time at Tattoo Angus in Manchester NH with an amazing group of artist who push him further along every day, and he also works on an appointment only schedule at Venom Ink, an award winning custom tattoo studio, in Sanford Maine.

Always accepting new clients with new challenges and ideas Ryan is available for your next piece of body art. Leave an email or stop in to the shop anytime. Tattoo Angus in Located at 1279 South Willow Street, Manchester NH.

Jamie Henderson’s style of black and grey has taken on a life of its own in the short 5 years that he has been professionally tattooing. Intense horror imagery and tattoo portraitures ranging from peoples kids to the ultra demonic have become a specialty of the self made shop owner.

After a rocky 2 year apprenticeship, and some issues going on in the shop he was working out of that were beyond his control, Jamie decided it was time to open a shop of his own and set a higher standard for the area he was in. In his new shop for nine months, the landlord saw that Jamie and his crew were doing extremely well and decided that he could afford a hefty rent increase and some more bills. With that, he said it was time to go again, opening another new shop bigger and better than the last, where he has been flourishing for the past 3 years.

While tattooing is his main focus, when he’s not in the shop or traveling around the U.S. and Canada working conventions, his passion for art overflows into his house/studio. Using charcoals, pencils and pastels as his preferred media, he has covered almost every part of his home with his work, which has many in progress drawings and paintings still waiting to go. If you’re not lucky enough to catch up with Jamie at a convention, give him a call or stop by his shop and make an appointment.

Forsaken Ink, 5 North St, Bloomingburg NY 12721   phone 845-733-1119

A fan of realistic style tattoos, Don will put a portrait on ya that will make a digital camera jealous. Combined with his talent with old school black and grey work, and new school color pieces, Don is a force to be reckoned with at any tattoo convention he attends, and has the trophies to prove it.

His shop Full Effect Tattoo has been in downtown Troy, NY for the past 5 years, but now with the shops ever growing following, he has felt the pressure to expand. Come Dec. 1st of this year, the shops new location (235 N. Greenbush Rd, Rt 4, Troy NY) will have five 10ft wide booths to accomodate their old and new clients. With a busy college down the road, and a major roadway coming into play, guest artists are more than welcome to join the ranks of Full Effect at any time. Walk ins’ are also welcome, but appointments are recommended.

Full Effect Tattoo

235 North Greenbush Rd, Rt 4, Troy NY, 12180

(518) 328-0077

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