Sat Dec 31, 2011 5:02 am
The new guy
I enjoy reading other people's bio 's, so here is some info on me. I guess I have a unique tattoo education history. First off I'm a 38 year old guy with a wife and a 10 year old. I've been a union plumber since 1994 ( my whole family is involved with union pipe trades) it's a great job, and certainly pays the bills. I've been drawing and skateboarding my whole life. And like a lot of other guys, I discovered India ink and a thread wrapped sewing needle when I was a rebellious 14 year old. ( still have my fishbone tattoo on my leg, and a tiny skateboard on my wrist you can see if you look hard) so ive loved tattoos since I can remember. One day back in the 90's ( boy do I miss the 90's) I met a friend of my dads who was a tattoo artist in Rhode Island ( it didn't become legal in MA till August 2001) he was a great guy and got my juices flowing when he lent me his copy of Huck Spaulding''s tattooing A to Z. He said he would apprentice me at night and weekends. Unfortunately he died of heart failure before we could start, I was crushed. So fast forward a few years and the word is MA is guna legalize tattooing( finally !) I got lucky again and found out a couple guys I went to high school with are opening a shop the day it's legal. So I hooked up with them, and they agreed to apprentice me. I learned a lot of the basics between scrubbing tubes and sweeping. The guys were great in the beginning, but unfortunately making a lot of money led to substace abuse, and then the shop closed down. So I took it upon myself to find any info on tattooing I could find ( via books and DVDs) i built a nice shop in the basement of my new house( real nice, waiting area and bathroom) so lately I've been into realism, teaching myself with Nate beavers and Mike Devries DVDs, still learning.