Where were you born and where are you from?
I was born in Cape
Town , South Africa
How did you get introduced to the tattoo culture?
I was introduced to tattooing, as a five year old on a trip
into Cape Town
Do you remember the first tattoo that you did?
The first tattoo that I ever did was on a friend of mine. I
was about fourteen; we were in his room
at his parent’s pub. We used a burnt sewing needle and the ink squeezed out of
a Bic Pen refill. I tattooed the “Triumph” logo on his arm, then he tattooed
“motherfucker” under my navel. It was all for a laugh but my mother didn’t
think it was funny!
What were you doing before you got into the tattoo business,
and what made you change?
I got into the industry in my mid twenties after doing
airbrush work, pencil portraits, sign writing, mural painting, and designing
business cards. I spent a year traveling around France
and Spain Greenwich ,
London
What influences your artwork?
I am influenced by life in general, textures, shadow
highlights, compositions, to name a few. I find that my photography makes me
look for shapes and forms and compositions. I am influenced by all the artists
that I am impressed with and my own style of drawing, I have always thought, it’s
a culmination of all of their influence….or at least I would like to think so, heehee!
What advice would you give to someone looking to get their
first tattoo?
The advise I would give to someone getting their first
tattoo is not to get anything that they might be embarrassed about…ie…names of
boyfriends/girlfriends, anything that is popular/ trendy….ie stars!
Don’t “try it out” by having a tiny tattoo to see what it feels like. In
over seventeen years I have never-not finished any tattoos, and at over a
thousand tattoos a year, that is a good percentage! People are usually
pleasantly surprised as to how little it hurts.
If you are determined to have something tiny for your first tattoo, then
choose somewhere on your body where it can be hidden, not bang smack in the
middle of an area where you might want to get something a bit more ambitious in
the future!
Do you see your self doing anything other than tattooing?
I consider myself to be an artist who happens to tattoo, and
I more than likely always will, but I most certainly would like to take more of
a back seat in the future and do more painting, sculpture and also woodwork. I
am in the process of learning digital painting at the moment!
Do you have a favorite quote?
A
man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes. Gandhi.
Only
one of thousands of quotes that I like!
Where do you see the tattoo culture 10 years from now?
I believe that with the new found availability of tattooing
equipment, it is going to get more and more popular with countless people
wanting to become tattoo artists…so it will without a doubt reach a saturation
point with huge amounts of people doing poor to average work, probably cheaply,
and the cream will rise to the top, with the more discerning customer following
them. There are also more and more extremely good artists getting involved, so standards
will also get better. However as hard as it is to believe they can get better!
Anything else you would like to add?
On a personal note, I would like to thank Rob Sutherland
(Living Image), Steve Coulson (Styx Studio), Mick Cope…an absolute diamond of a
man, Tom Ptolomy(Silver Needles), John Slack (Classic Ink) and anyone else who
has been instrumental in my artistic, tattooing development.
Thank you all!!
Oh yeah, and thanks to my Mandy for believing in me and
putting up with me over the years xx.