December 12, 2011

story time with famous gabe, new interviews and more

My newest Tattoo Artist Magazine blog just posted, this one is about my good friend Famous Gabe. Thanks again to TAM for giving me this opportunity.

Here is a short exert:

“It’s been almost 10 years since I got some of the greatest advice I’ve ever been lucky enough to receive. I was getting tattooed in Pensacola, Florida at a beautiful shop called Hula Moon. Famous Gabe, a name he received from Bob Montagna, was tattooing me, a little skinny 19 year old. I had just received news that I was going to start my apprenticeship at Aerochild Tattoos, and was so excited that it was all I could talk about. While I was going on and on about it, Gabe said something that stays with me to this very day, he said, “Some people want to be rock stars in tattooing, ya know, but fuck that, I would rather tattoo the blue collar working guy and give him the best tattoo he is gonna get.”. Years later, I found myself in a situation where I felt like I completely lost touch with my roots and where I had come from, and those words rang in my head. In Gabe’s words, “You took the road less traveled, the strange road, and you came home.” Here is the story that comes from my home, about a man who has changed my life, and how he got into tattooing.

First, a little background about him. Famous Gabe Smith has been tattooing over 20 years now and is the owner of Hula Moon in Pensacola, Florida, which has now been open for over 10 years. He’s traveled the world, done enough paintings that could line 10 shops, and put in more hours of tattooing than that of 10 tattooers careers combined. Gabe has traveled the world tattooing and has a good story about every place he has been. To me, Gabe truly is tattooing at it finest, storyteller, artist, and honest. Without further ado, here’s how Famous Gabe Smith got into tattooing, in his words.

Famous Gabe:

“It seems like yesterday all this started but it wasn’t overnight and now I look back at a road traveled and it has been such a long road, over many mountains, and rocky steps. There were the ups and downs but that’s life. I learned from a crazy native american guy called Captain Billy. He taught me a lot not just tattooing but becoming a man too.”

Check out the rest of the story at here at TAM blog

Also, I recently did an interview with skin-artists.com. They just posted it, and I was really happy with how it came out. Check it out here at skin-artists.com

and as always, thanks for reading.

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September 28, 2011

For the Love of Tattooing…

Recently I was fortunate enough to have Tattoo Artist Magazine ask me to keep up a blog on their site.
Here is a small exert of the blog I started doing for them,

“There is nothing like the sound of a solid, in tune tattoo machine. The thick buzz, the pop as the needle first hits the skin, and the feeling as you pull a clean, solid line. Any tattooer will tell you, “that’s addictive.” The feeling of tattooing, it’s like nothing else. That is why I tattoo. All I can think about day in and day out is that feeling. It’s like when you first fall in love and nothing matters but you and that other person. That is tattooing… It’s a passionate love affair that found me in a small town in south Alabama over 15 years ago, it has taken me half-way across the world, and brought me right back to the same small town…

I wanted to write something for the TAM blog that showed the positive light of tattooing, something that all tattooers could identify with, and something that people who were interested in tattooing could also find themselves in, and what better than the love of tattooing.

The first few of these blogs are going to be about how certain tattooers got into tattooing, how their passionate love affair began and where it is taking them today. I am going to talk to friends of mine, people who found tattooing and realized that it is something they could never live without. First, I’ll tell you how it grabbed hold of me…”

Check out more here at the Tattoo Artist Magazine blog.

Thanks again everybody at TAM for asking me to be involved.

In other news, have you heard about the Occupy Wall Street Protest.
Read more at occupywallst.org

And lastly, check out this video, it’s pretty awesome.

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