Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

77 The Tattooist
in her kitchen. Everytime I got into some situation I didn't
know about I would call long distance to the supplier in New
York. These guys would tell me what I was doing wrong. When
you first start you don't know how fast to run the machine or
how far the needles should stick out. Greens and blues don't go
in as readily as the reds do and you wonder why, things like
that. One of the machines wouldn't run because a wire was
shorted out on the frame and the guy told me that happened
all the time. I blew a fuse on the power unit and we had to run
down to a truck stop and buy a fuse for a CB radio. It was a
Sunday and nothing else was open. Numerous things like that
would happen. All in all it came out pretty well. This guy had
drunk qUite a bit and smoked quite a bit and he was half out
when I was doing this anyway. It was kind of funny when I look
back on it. I didn't realize what a mess the pigments make. I
didn't know how to wash the pigment off his arm or anything.
There was pigment allover the kitchen. It was a horror show, a
real mess. I didn't have the opportunity to go through a
traditional apprenticeship. It would have been nice. I usually
had to phone long distance to someone who was in the
tattooing industry. There was another supplier in California
that I started to do business with who was rather helpful.
My idea with tattooing was not just doing it but getting my
own designs out there. All that I had seen at that point were
the traditional designs-skulls and little red devils. And I
looked at those designs and said, "Yuck. Come on, there is so
much more you could probably do:' So my first tattoo was a
little demon in space. It was sort of a gargoyle kind of face. We
put it on (my friend's) leg. The outline went down fine. When it
came to putting in the color, I went over and over it and it just
wouldn't go in. I couldn't understand what was wrong. Then I
started to get upset. Here I was with the machine and a
problem and I had no one to ask. So I took a ride up to
Spaulding and Rogers, laid my eqUipment out on the counter
and said to (the owner), "It doesn't want to work:' So he asked
me to do what I do and I set up the machine and he told me I
had the needles in backwards.