Jes Strickler of Blackwater Tattoo

I interviewed with Jes Strickler of Blackwater Tattoo located at 750 Grand Ave, Schofield, Wisconsin, 54476. His new website is www.tattoosbyjes.com or www,facebook.com/tattoosbyjes.  They are open Monday-Friday 12-8 and Saturday by appointment only.  He is usually booked out 2-3 weeks, so he rarely will do walk-ins.

He got interested in tattoos when he was working in a warehouse, when he was 12 years old(under the table, and thanks to his dad!!). Anyways there was this guy named named Kevin who worked in shipping, and Jes thought he was the coolest dude that he ever met. He had a huge bright orange mo-hawk with a skull tattoo on the side of his head, full sleeves, and total punk rock!! Well, Jes went home one night and told his mom that he was gonna have tattoos all over his body. “The heck you are young man!”,his mom said (My mom says I have to wait until I am 18).  Needless to say she believes him now! He finally decided to do it for a living after him and a friend had been throwing around the idea of learning to tattoo, he had done a few already (He said they were badly done, hahaha) they both had a bunch and both had some talent in the drawing department so they went for it.  A friend of theirs hooked them up with this scratch-er (aka someone who tattoos out of their house) who opened a shop, they got jobs there, he was an apprentice for a couple of weeks. Then they gave him a machine and said pull straight lines and color in circles.  He knew this was not a good way to learn, but it got his foot in the door.  After about 9 months of working a full-time job, and at the tattoo shop he made the jump and haven’t looked back since.

Well, he didn’t learn any good techniques until he got tattooed by Jime’ Litwalk. Jes told him that he wanted a picture of his daughter and Jime’ looked at him like he crazy, like Jes was asking for a portrait.  Jes picked his brain the whole time Jime’ tattooed him. He really changed the way that he looked at his own career.  When he got back to town from the convention in Florida, Jes went over to the best artist in town and told him that he wasn’t learning stuff were he was, and could he sit down and watch him tattoo. He was still currently working with this man (who said Yes). His name is Jim Stevens, he is probably who Jes learned the most from.

He lives in Northern Wisconsin, so people still think it’s cool to get tribal and barbwire. Well pretty much he’s town is still suck in the 90′s.  The best part is he has a ton of cool clients who listen to his input and really good friends who let him do what he wants with their ideas.  He would say the stuff he likes doing most is Neo-Traditional or whatever they are calling it these days, Old skool ideas with new skool design and color.

He says to don’t start using big words on him now.
(I didn’t think I put any in the questions)

He would have to say a lot of other tattoo artists, everybody in the business is pushing themselves to new levels and he wants to be a part of that awesomeness that is going around.

He just recently switched to using a liner tattoo machine (Neo-Tat), he really likes the low maintenance and consistency that it has.  He also, just did his first color portrait, which turned out amazing.  As far as techniques or supplies, he is always trying new stuff to see what works the best.

The only tattoo that he won’t do is if someone brings him some horrible drawing and wants exactly that, he always tries to put his own style on things, so unless its some realism from a photograph, please let him redraw your awesome sketch.

He has a lot of work from tattoo artists.  The guys he works with do a lot of them. The whole reason why he got into this was because he loves to get them.  He probably gets tattooed at least once a month.  Actually he just got 4 in the last 2 weeks.  He has been tattooed by Joe Capobianco, Jime’ Litwalk, Josh Woods, Sean Herman, Taylor Cort, Brandon Bond, Justin Weatherholz, Big AL, Cool-aid, Mark Van Ness, Bunny, Kevin Starai, Jim Stevens, Jon Lafave, his daughter (AWESOME!), and a few others.  He is running out of room fast and still wants to get tattooed by a whole bunch of other people.

He would have to say what he likes most is making cool new friends, wither it would be clients or other tattoo artists.  What he hates is the arrogance, he is sure that I have met a couple of the guys, who either aren’t good and think they’re awesome or are awesome and won’t even talk to me (I have, my mom said they are just Haters!).  Mainly because all the hype that people make them out to be. (My Mom and Joe always tell me to stay Humble, maybe these people should try it.)

He has some already, good friends who get cool tattoos and let him do them however he wants, but he prefers some pale white skin if he/she has it.  Quit tanning ladies he says!!!

He really only draws the tattoos he is gonna do and maybe some for a convention, he just picked up some oil paints, and some water color stuff, so he is gonna try some new stuff soon.  He never really has any formal art training, he wishes he would have though. There are some people out there who has such a grasp on how to go about a painting or light sources, contrast etc., he really looks up to those people who know their stuff.

He actually does a lot, he has a 6 year old daughter named Kaiden who he hangs out with all the time.  They both like being outdoors and being active.  She plays soccer and takes karate, he plays softball, volleyball, and loves going mountain biking. They both love music so he is always going to show,he just saw Social D for the first time last weekend.  They both love being in or out of the water, too.

I had the chance to meet Jes in Miami at a Convention, Not only is he super nice (not a hater) he is a good dad, he had a Justin Beavers shirt on he bought with his daughter!!

Please check out his stuff and get tattooed!!!!

Duffy Fortner – One Cool Chick!

I did an interview with Duffy Fortner. She works at Red Octopus Tattoos, 1654 Solomons Island Road. Prince Frederick, Md. 20678. Studio number 410-535-9095. Walk-ins are welcome but for her, personally, appointments only.

Her parents actually started the business in 1992. When she was growing up in the tattoo world (like me ). She kind of knew she wanted to tattoo when he was growing up, but when she was getting close to graduating high school was when she realized that she wanted it to be her career.

She tattooed around the age of 8 (I tattooed my mom at 6 and 8). She hooked up all of her barbie and baby dolls with some pretty rad tattoos. At the age of 16 was when she started to learn for real, and she tattooed a lot of her friends. They didn’t care that she was learning, they were just happy to get free tattoos.  Between  her mom, Cousin Andi, and some other artists at the shop helping her out, was well on her way.

Right now her costumers are going big. Sleeves, rib pieces, whole backs and all type of designs. Flowers are super popular for her right now. She LOVES to do them. She is kind of known  for a lot of different things. She has learned a little bit of every type of style. So, she can make sure she can please everybody. Mostly, big, bubbly, and colorful is what she is super into. ( Just like MY mom is into!!!!)

The things that influence her work the most is the need to make everything look perfect. She thinks the most important part of tattooing is doing the best job every time, no matter what. Someone might come in and want to get a tattoo  that maybe she is not really into or crazy about, but is is not her tattoo, and that person came to her because  they trust her that she will do the best possible job. (Awesome!)

She is constantly learning things everyday. Whether she teaches herself or learn from other artists. She thinks it is important that no matter how long you have been tattooing, you should still be willing, and open to learn. She is also fortunate to travel and work with other artists from all over, and it’s from them she picks up most of her techniques.

She will NOT do gang related or racial/prejudice tattoos. She does NOT promote it so she won’t definitely doesn’t feel comfortable doing them. She also doesn’t do tattoo in the ear.( Personally to me I think that MUST be hurtful in the EAR!!!!!!!!!) She is not a fan, they never look that good once they have aged a little bit, and she does  definitely wants her work to look good over time. There are some other things that she personally like, but she will keep those to herself because after all, it’s not her tattoo, she is just the artist that is going to make it look good.

She gets most of her stuff done in her shop. She works with these people everyday, so she trusts them the most. But like she said before, she does travel around working shows, so it’s hard to resist getting by some of these people that she has admired through magazines for so long. The very first influence she ever discovered was Jime’ Litwalk. His style made her want to work as hard as she can to be that awesome too. This time in her career one of her biggest influences is Jeff Ensminger. She can’t wrap her head around his tattoos. The smooth, clean work. The overall design. They’re absolutely so ridiculously amazing it makes her sick.

She loves being able to create and original everyday. She loves making people happy. ( So does my mom!! Hey, would you take a look at that. My mom and Duffy have a lot in common. That must be why my mom raves about Duffy so much!) Duffy loves meeting new people all the time. Not everybody gets to make their hobby into their career. What annoys her the most about this business is that just anyone thinks they can be a tattoo artist. There are so many people just tattooing out of their house and messing people up. She just sits back, watches them come and go, and she’ll be there to fix their messed up tattoos when they’re gone.

Her ”dream” client is someone who sits and relaxes and lets her do her job with no issues. Someone who comes in with an idea and pretty much gives her free range from there. She said that she is lucky to have clients like that everyday.

She has never worked in any other art media, as a job. She does all other types of things involving art, mostly for charity events and things like that. There are other types of art training that she would love to have. She said that she is very interested in photography and graphic design.

For fun she said and I quote, ”What’s that??” ( She is just kidding, would you guys calm down because she does know what I mean by that.) She has business hours everyday. She has a boyfriend and a big family that she loves to spend time with them. Usually you can find her outside, when she isn’t working. She loves the outdoors.

World domination would be good for her but she said that being a tattoo artist is good enough for her. Well it might not be world domination but I think you Rule and so does my mom!!

Make sure you check out more of Duffy’s work at the link below!!! www.redoctopustattoos.com

Add her on Facebook :     www.facebook.com/#/profile.php?id=1302133052

Jesse Smith

I did an interview with Jesse Smith. He works at Ghostsprint Gallery. It’s at 220 W. Broad St. Richmond, VA 23220. Phone number is 804-344-1557. The website is WWW.JESSESMITHTATTOOS.COM. The hours are Tues-Sat from 12-10. They work by appointment only.

He met this fella who was tattooing out of his house in Newport News, VA. They used to hang out and draw a lot together. Jesse eventually asked him if he could teach Jesse how to make a ghetto gun, that he could do a tattoo. He said he wasn’t really on planning on becoming a tattoo artist, which I really don’t believe that but it’s the truth. He just thought it would be cool to put a piece of his artwork on somebody that would last for the rest of their life. After his first piece, he had people lined up at his front door waiting to get tattooed by me. Not because it was good, but because it was free. About a month later, he purchased his first professional machine. He spent about a year trying to put together a decent portfolio, and soon made his rounds to all the local tattoo shops to see if he could get a job as a professional. Initially, he got rejected by all them. But six months later, he tried again and eventually got scooped up.

He learned how to tattoo by spending a year and a half tattooing out of his house. During that first year and a half a lot of what he learned came from trial and error, but it wasn’t until he landed his first job in a professional studio that he really picked up solid knowledge. He learned more in 2 months working out of a professional studio, then he did in the whole year and a half working out of his house.

Lately, he has been lucky enough to attract some really motivated collectors. A lot of them are really open to letting him do pretty much whatever he’d like which makes his job a lot more fun. Most people tend to group with him in with the ”New School” style, however he really thinks a lot of artists who are grouped into that particular style have passed the stigma that, that particular style encompass’. He likes to think that he would be grouped into the Low-Brow movement.

When he first started tattooing, he was mostly influenced by the ”New School” movement. The artist who he most influenced by earlier in his career were Tim Biedron, Jime’ Litwalk, Chucho, Cleen Rock, and Gunnar.

He has been using a lot of rotary machines lately. He just picked up his Swashdrive about 3 months ago and he loves it. This past month, he was newly exposed to Neo Tat Machines and he honestly think that between them the Swashdrives he’ll probably never use a coil machine again.

He tries to stay away from Japanese theme tattoos, tribal, black and gray, traditional tattoos, and anything that require any sort Of reference. There are already a ton of artists out there who are awesome at these styles.

The tattoo artists who do his work are done by his good friend Jason Stephen and Greg Agner. As far as artists that he admires he has got a ton of them listed under his links section of his Website. But if he were to narrow it down to 10 then they would be:
1) Greg “Crayola” Simkins : Not only for paving the way for us character driven artists, but for also being such a great guy. Greg has opened my mind up a bit more and allowed me to feel confident in decisions I make in my art.

2) Gunnar: The way he captivates a, not so cute, situation in a cute way.

3) Tim Biedron: His bent perspectives on his characters as well as his original color combinations have really made me feel comfortable with the fact that I like to place eyes in places where they don’t belong.

4) Joe Sorren: There are no boundaries with Joe. If he feels like stretching one arm out longer then the other or squishing a face in the middle of a big head, he’ll do it. All while capturing a rather innocent feel. All his creatures/characters seemed deformed, but they carry themselves with confidence as if they aren’t concerned about how people view them.

5) Jason Stephan: Aside from being one of my best friends, Jason’s attention to detail and overall precision are unmatched. Not only is he an inspirational artist, but he’s also one of the realest people I know. Whenever I have questioned myself as an artist/tattoo artist Jason has been there to encourage me and keep my head straight. All of his goofy characters reflect his personality and he is one of the most solid artists that I know.

6) Jime Litwalk: Ultra clean artist with an uber cute style. I’ve always been sucker for simplicity.

7) Tony Ciavarro: Tony inspires me on many levels. Of course his art is precise and super clean, but his work ethic and business sense is impeccable. And to top it all off he is probably one of the most humble artists I know.

8) Michael Hussar: A super talented individual who captures the true essence of evil in all of his paintings. His stylized realism is something that I aspire to add to my art.

9) Scribe: Scribe creates these imaginary worlds/scenarios that at first glance seem to be kind of meaningless to the viewer, but as you look deeper, you see that the characters are extremely consumed by their situation. It’s kind of like a simple version of your everyday battles. His simplistic style, along with his ambitious ideas, have inspired the direction in which I have gone with my art.

10) Toast: Ever since I first started following his work, back in ’95, this guys kept me in awe. Everything he does is just mind blowing. His attention to light source and his ability to tweak just about anything, have truly laid a foundation in my mind on how to create an innovative character.

The best thing of being a tattoo artist is that it’s pretty laid back and you’re pretty much your own boss. The worst thing of being a tattoo artist (to him) is that it’s hard to draw a line between your business life and your personal life. He pretty much works all day everday.

His perfect ”dream” client is someone who comes in with super high ambitions and is willing to go as big as they can. He also enjoys clients who come in with concepts and cool ways to illutrate those concepts.

He said that he tried to get a little painting in a little last week. He mostly works in oil, but sometimes dabble in other mediums (spray paint, color pencils, and acrylic). As far as ”formal” art training, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts, with an emphasis in illustration, at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Free time is definitely difficult to come by however he really tries and make time for sports. He plays on a couple soccer teams and dabble in a little Jui Jitsu. He also likes to watch a bunch of movies and really loves to travel. I think he means to plays in the movies because I know that I do like to travel through time in.

Last but not least he would like to have world domination because it is at the forefront of his mind. He’s got a ton of art projects on the horizon. He said that if you’d like to stay up to date on that stuff you can do so by subscribing to his blog on his Website.( WWW.JESSESMITHTATTOOS.COM). He only has plans to work one conventions right now and that’s TattooLapalooza in June of net year. He is really trying to cut down on the amount of conventions that he is doing, so he can stay home and tighten up the business a little.

Jesse Smith is AWESOME and super nice! I love his stuff! Take a minute and Check him out!!!!