report card , she would take me to the village and see all the guys tattooing . So every Saturday we would hop in the car and go to St Mark ’ s Place because that ’ s where all the tattooers were and check them out . Andromeda , that was the first shop I went into . The owners Jason and Carmen , said “ hey shorty , you ’ re young , I can ’ t have you in the shop , you can ’ t be here ” so I sat outside on the porch . I drew and I drew until he said “ damn shorty , you got skills ” so the deal was if anyone liked my drawing and they used it , I would get 8 bucks .
Wow , That ’ s great ! Then I noticed every street , and Brooklyn , the Bronx , Queens all had different styles in every shop . There was like he ’ s good at names , at Andromeda they were punk rock , in the Bronx there was Tuff City where there was the projects and every shop I went into there was a different style and after a while I could master every style and put it into my style . Over the years it kept me so intrigued and my mother was so supportive about it . It was part of her deal if I could keep getting A ’ s and B ’ s I could keep tattooing . When high school came along it just opened up . Then college opened up more . History class kept me intrigued because of art history and science class taught me about the body which I needed for tattooing helped me out . Math helped me out and language , so everything I learned helped me out .
So what ’ s meant to be … I got doors slammed in my face . So many doors got slammed in my face . Let ’ s be realistic here , I ’ m glad we got on this subject . There ’ s not too many black tattoo artists in the industry , not at all , and honestly I ’ m cool with Caesar , I ’ m cool with Dutchess , and everybody on that show is like family to me , but the stereotype we get isn ’ t what I ’ m trying to reach out to . It was harder for me in the early 90 ’ s because tattooing in New York was still underground . In 96 is
report card , she would take me to the village and see all the guys tattooing . So every Saturday we would hop in the car and go to St Mark ’ s Place because that ’ s where all the tattooers were and check them out . Andromeda , that was the first shop I went into . The owners Jason and Carmen , said “ hey shorty , you ’ re young , I can ’ t have you in the shop , you can ’ t be here ” so I sat outside on the porch . I drew and I drew until he said “ damn shorty , you got skills ” so the deal was if anyone liked my drawing and they used it , I would get 8 bucks .
Wow , That ’ s great ! Then I noticed every street , and Brooklyn , the Bronx , Queens all had different styles in every shop . There was like he ’ s good at names , at Andromeda they were punk rock , in the Bronx there was Tuff City where there was the projects and every shop I went into there was a different style and after a while I could master every style and put it into my style . Over the years it kept me so intrigued and my mother was so supportive about it . It was part of her deal if I could keep getting A ’ s and B ’ s I could keep tattooing . When high school came along it just opened up . Then college opened up more . History class kept me intrigued because of art history and science class taught me about the body which I needed for tattooing helped me out . Math helped me out and language , so everything I learned helped me out .
So what ’ s meant to be … I got doors slammed in my face . So many doors got slammed in my face . Let ’ s be realistic here , I ’ m glad we got on this subject . There ’ s not too many black tattoo artists in the industry , not at all , and honestly I ’ m cool with Caesar , I ’ m cool with Dutchess , and everybody on that show is like family to me , but the stereotype we get isn ’ t what I ’ m trying to reach out to . It was harder for me in the early 90 ’ s because tattooing in New York was still underground . In 96 is