The first time I got paid for a tattoo, I did a rebel flag on a skinhead in Dallas, Texas. I was stressed out because I saw some missing chunks of skin. It was a small tattoo, so they were small chunks of skin. But I was kind of worried because he was from a tight organization and the next thing you know I could have gotten my ass kicked. But it healed alright and he didn't even notice.
My biggest project so far was Julia Gnuse [1] - the Guinness Book of World Records holder for Most Tattooed Woman. Julia wanted me to tattoo her because she had a serious skin condition called porphyria, which caused scarring all over her body. She wanted to cover up the scars with tattoos. She'd already been through several doctors with different recommendations, all of which failed.
The first one was a medication the doctors prescribed. Pretty soon after she started taking it, things started to look pretty dim and blurry. She complained to the doctor and he told her that one of the side effects was blindness. So, she sought other alternatives like dermabrasions and chemical peels. That did nothing but leave her skin permanently purple. She gave up on that and just decided that tattooing was her remedy.
It was November 26, 1991 or 1992. She walked into a shop that I was working at with my brother at Newport Beach, California and said she wanted a full body suit. My first reaction was like, "Yeah right." Most people never follow through or they run out of funds before they can finish. But she came loyally every week, sometimes twice a week, even three times a week. She was constantly healing. I never encouraged her to come that much. It was all her call.
The amount of money that I made for the amount of work on her was probably close to $90,000. But you have to realize that was over a period of 7 years. She had a budget from a trust fund that she would spend on it. Originally it was my project, but when I moved up to Vancouver to marry my girlfriend, my brother took over.
I didn't do it for the money. It's still my biggest passion. At the end of a working day sometimes I feel drained because there's so much of people's energy that rubs off on you. But people always leave happy, and that's what counts. They love the store, they love the environment, the jokes and the stories. And I love the work. I love doing portraits. I love realism in art, painting and sculpture, and in tattooing, it's the ultimate art form. I'm not really into traditional tattooing, but I appreciate the symbolism. There's nothing I can't do.
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These days with tattooing there's so much ego. It makes a lot of people's image. They can go from being a delivery man or working in a bakery, they become a tattoo artist and all of a sudden they're a rock star. What do I think? I think everyone's a worker and I'm a worker. I provide a service. I'm no better than the guy who comes into my shop.
I come up against so many stereotypes because I have tattoos, I'm a skater and a punk rocker. People can't even believe it when we say we never got involved in drugs. Our album 'Crack the Safe' was described by one writer as a "heroin habit." Maybe he called it that because he couldn't stop listening to it, but it had nothing to do with us.
We watched friends drift away because of getting involved in partying. At an early age we figured out their priorities were not friendship, hanging out and skateboarding. It wasn't conducive with our lifestyle. People constantly think I'm full of sh*t when I say I've never had a drink, but it's true. My biggest high is tattooing.
People don't realize what we've done in the world of tattooing, skating and punk. This is sh*t we take seriously. We've crossed over so many kinds of lifestlyles. It's not a hobby.