punisher
01-02-2013, 06:15 PM
Hello everyone.
First off I've been a member of this forum for several months ( i think six to be honest) i joined up because i was interested in rotary tattoo machines but wanted to ask rjdaddio a few questions about the Neotat. Mainly possibility of switching out the cam bearing to change the throw on them. Then kept coming back reading more and more posts so I figured it's about time I introduce myself and let everyone here know who I am then hopefully start interjecting my two cents here and there.
Okay so about me I started out in the industry the wrong way but i feell most of us started out that way. I'm an executive pastry chef in Boynton Beach, FL. My trip into tattoos actually started out as cake design. then people started saying "that would make a cool tattoo" next thing you know it was a tattoo then more people came to me asking me to draw up designs for tattoos. Now being a chef and not ever really being artistic i figured out a pretty ingenious way to design celtic knot crosses by folding the paper .and tracing the design trough. After design about ten pieces that became tattoos. My assistant at the time said she was going to a tattoo convention and said I should go since i was designing these pieces and the money was going else where at least talk to some artist and see some of the work they were putting out tattoo wise. So off to South Beach we went. At first I went booth to booth just looking at portfolios afraid to talk to anyone just looking at art work. I then started talking to machine builders ran into Baltimore Street Irons turns out they were across the street from my favorite music store where i grew up in Hanover, PA. He quickly stopped me from calling machines, guns. Then proceeded to show me the differences between a liner and a shader. Then off to the next booth I went. By the time I left the convention I was feeling confident about what I was going to do next. Although I knew the right step I took the wrong one. I ended up buying a cheap ebay tattoo kit online. Used up the practice skins and started stabbing myself and friends. Although I don't condone this method at all i was smart enough to go get a blood born pathogen certification and resort to disposable tubes. despite buying an autoclave. After eight months of this I decided that definitely wanted to tattoo. So I took my portfolio out into the world to see what they thought of what i was able to do on my own. Overall there thought weren't bad at all I expected a full beat down by the whole industry. In the end they nitpicked a few lines but were very supportive which blew my mind and ended landing me an apprenticeship with empire tattoos. To pay for my apprenticeship i ended up trading the supplies i had purchased over the previous eight months. Which was gallons of green soaps, medacides, needles, tubes, and obviously the autoclave. Also gave up a set of alla prima ink and a set of starbrite ink. Still had to prove myself so i get set on a series of drawing a assignment every week i had so many drawing i had push out i guess to prove my dedication. However in the end I was spending my evening sweeping mopping and taking out the bio waist. I moved up quickly maybe it's because i had been in a manger position since I was 18 also had done a plethora of research on my own i had read every Erik Avalone book about tattooing and also owned all the machine gun magazines. So with in short order i was setting up and breaking down stations and even tuning the artists machines. After a few grape fruits and a couple pig skins one fateful busy night i was approached and asked to tattoo a few easy pieces because we were really busy. They knew I had some experience and that was it i never looked back I was a not so young but young artist in the world of tattooing. I then got shipped off to another shop the owners got in a tiff with each other and I ended up working for the Blood Brother Tattoo half of the company. There's no bad blood between the companies the artist are good friends so I am still known to drop in at Empire when they need a hand to help out.
As far as machines are concerned I started out with cheap Chinese knock offs. Then bought an Ozark Irons shader (still own). Then bought two pre 2000 micky sharpz one microdial and a t-dail (recently sold and regret it). Then I picked a Danny Fowler g shader and a flatliner (still own). Then picked up a set of three Joshua Carlton's (still own). I then picked up my first rotary a cheyenne Hawk i was afraid of it used it once and sold it didn't like that a i couldn't thumb the armature bar to check the speed. I then bought a stealth rotary (still own)through world wide tattoo. Instantly fell in love with it love how fast coloring shading went in. I then picked up a two neotats a C and a X (still own) although i definitely would like a longer stroke. which brings me to the latest purchase a bishop rotary 4.5mm (still own).
This brings us up to date with who I am and how I got to where I'm at now. Which is currently ironing out the details on opening our own shop based more on community out reach doing cover ups and removals of gang tattoo and jail house tattoos so people can move on with there lives and reintegrate back into society. With youth art development classes which are being removed from school systems.
I hope this intro wasn't to long and boring for anyone reading it. I'm looking forward to posting in the future and getting to know a lot of the artists and builders on this forum. Also very interested in building a few machines in the future.
thank for taking the time to read this
Jon (punisher)
First off I've been a member of this forum for several months ( i think six to be honest) i joined up because i was interested in rotary tattoo machines but wanted to ask rjdaddio a few questions about the Neotat. Mainly possibility of switching out the cam bearing to change the throw on them. Then kept coming back reading more and more posts so I figured it's about time I introduce myself and let everyone here know who I am then hopefully start interjecting my two cents here and there.
Okay so about me I started out in the industry the wrong way but i feell most of us started out that way. I'm an executive pastry chef in Boynton Beach, FL. My trip into tattoos actually started out as cake design. then people started saying "that would make a cool tattoo" next thing you know it was a tattoo then more people came to me asking me to draw up designs for tattoos. Now being a chef and not ever really being artistic i figured out a pretty ingenious way to design celtic knot crosses by folding the paper .and tracing the design trough. After design about ten pieces that became tattoos. My assistant at the time said she was going to a tattoo convention and said I should go since i was designing these pieces and the money was going else where at least talk to some artist and see some of the work they were putting out tattoo wise. So off to South Beach we went. At first I went booth to booth just looking at portfolios afraid to talk to anyone just looking at art work. I then started talking to machine builders ran into Baltimore Street Irons turns out they were across the street from my favorite music store where i grew up in Hanover, PA. He quickly stopped me from calling machines, guns. Then proceeded to show me the differences between a liner and a shader. Then off to the next booth I went. By the time I left the convention I was feeling confident about what I was going to do next. Although I knew the right step I took the wrong one. I ended up buying a cheap ebay tattoo kit online. Used up the practice skins and started stabbing myself and friends. Although I don't condone this method at all i was smart enough to go get a blood born pathogen certification and resort to disposable tubes. despite buying an autoclave. After eight months of this I decided that definitely wanted to tattoo. So I took my portfolio out into the world to see what they thought of what i was able to do on my own. Overall there thought weren't bad at all I expected a full beat down by the whole industry. In the end they nitpicked a few lines but were very supportive which blew my mind and ended landing me an apprenticeship with empire tattoos. To pay for my apprenticeship i ended up trading the supplies i had purchased over the previous eight months. Which was gallons of green soaps, medacides, needles, tubes, and obviously the autoclave. Also gave up a set of alla prima ink and a set of starbrite ink. Still had to prove myself so i get set on a series of drawing a assignment every week i had so many drawing i had push out i guess to prove my dedication. However in the end I was spending my evening sweeping mopping and taking out the bio waist. I moved up quickly maybe it's because i had been in a manger position since I was 18 also had done a plethora of research on my own i had read every Erik Avalone book about tattooing and also owned all the machine gun magazines. So with in short order i was setting up and breaking down stations and even tuning the artists machines. After a few grape fruits and a couple pig skins one fateful busy night i was approached and asked to tattoo a few easy pieces because we were really busy. They knew I had some experience and that was it i never looked back I was a not so young but young artist in the world of tattooing. I then got shipped off to another shop the owners got in a tiff with each other and I ended up working for the Blood Brother Tattoo half of the company. There's no bad blood between the companies the artist are good friends so I am still known to drop in at Empire when they need a hand to help out.
As far as machines are concerned I started out with cheap Chinese knock offs. Then bought an Ozark Irons shader (still own). Then bought two pre 2000 micky sharpz one microdial and a t-dail (recently sold and regret it). Then I picked a Danny Fowler g shader and a flatliner (still own). Then picked up a set of three Joshua Carlton's (still own). I then picked up my first rotary a cheyenne Hawk i was afraid of it used it once and sold it didn't like that a i couldn't thumb the armature bar to check the speed. I then bought a stealth rotary (still own)through world wide tattoo. Instantly fell in love with it love how fast coloring shading went in. I then picked up a two neotats a C and a X (still own) although i definitely would like a longer stroke. which brings me to the latest purchase a bishop rotary 4.5mm (still own).
This brings us up to date with who I am and how I got to where I'm at now. Which is currently ironing out the details on opening our own shop based more on community out reach doing cover ups and removals of gang tattoo and jail house tattoos so people can move on with there lives and reintegrate back into society. With youth art development classes which are being removed from school systems.
I hope this intro wasn't to long and boring for anyone reading it. I'm looking forward to posting in the future and getting to know a lot of the artists and builders on this forum. Also very interested in building a few machines in the future.
thank for taking the time to read this
Jon (punisher)