1 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,160 Speaker 1: Ephemeral is production of My Heart three d Audi album 2 00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:15,480 Speaker 1: for Felix Vasure. Listen with that phones. The art of 3 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:19,080 Speaker 1: body decoration is as old as it is eye catching, 4 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:23,319 Speaker 1: and few of those decorative practices are as ancient and 5 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:28,600 Speaker 1: popular as tattooing. Today. Tattoos are everywhere. You can go 6 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:33,519 Speaker 1: into a shop ask for almost anything a symbol, quote, photo, 7 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:37,080 Speaker 1: realistic image, and an artist will almost certainly be able 8 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 1: to a fix that image to your body. It's a 9 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: poignant and permanent way to express oneself. To some extent, 10 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:48,600 Speaker 1: that fact has been true since the beginning of humankind. 11 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:52,520 Speaker 1: From then to now, tattoos have always told a story, 12 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:57,040 Speaker 1: sometimes the story of one person, other times the story 13 00:00:57,160 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 1: of an entire people. Today, a thermal producer, Trevor Young 14 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:05,600 Speaker 1: takes us through the rich history of tattoos, starting by 15 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:11,319 Speaker 1: getting a tattoo himself. All right, all right, here we go. 16 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:17,920 Speaker 1: I'm sitting at Southern Star Tattoo in Atlanta. My friend, 17 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:22,880 Speaker 1: entrusted tattoo confidant Josh May picks up shifts here. Not bad. 18 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:27,880 Speaker 1: He's been tattooing for decades and his work is incredible. 19 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:31,639 Speaker 1: He's now finished thirteen tattoos on me over the course 20 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:35,039 Speaker 1: of three years. Today I'm getting another one on my 21 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:38,240 Speaker 1: right arm, a simple black symbol connected to a band 22 00:01:38,319 --> 00:01:41,840 Speaker 1: I like personally. I've always found the experience of getting 23 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:45,160 Speaker 1: a tattoo to be exhilarating in the moment and intrinsically 24 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: fulfilling in the long term, more spiritual sense. In short, 25 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:52,320 Speaker 1: my tattoos have become a primary source of my outward 26 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:58,400 Speaker 1: identity away for me to tell my story. People committed 27 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:03,720 Speaker 1: the shop in the say I need this tattoo. It's 28 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: not that I want this tattoo or I'm going to 29 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:10,720 Speaker 1: get this tattoo. I need this tattoo, So there's something 30 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:15,240 Speaker 1: happening there. My name is Chuck Eldridge. I'm the co 31 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:19,240 Speaker 1: owner and operator of the Tattoo Archive, located in Winston Salem, 32 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:24,000 Speaker 1: North Carolina. The Tattoo Archive is all about discovering connections 33 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:27,640 Speaker 1: across different times and cultures as it relates to tattoo. 34 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:31,200 Speaker 1: Chuck has devoted his life to this research, and what 35 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 1: he's found is that tattoo is a time honored and 36 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:40,400 Speaker 1: universally beloved tradition. Tattooing it was practiced around the world. 37 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:43,480 Speaker 1: I don't think there's a tribe or a group of 38 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:47,639 Speaker 1: people anywhere in the world that doesn't engage in some 39 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:51,520 Speaker 1: form of body decoration. Now sometimes it's still body painting 40 00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:55,520 Speaker 1: in many of those esprecially some African tribes, and of 41 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:59,160 Speaker 1: course they get into scarification as well. But it seems 42 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:03,079 Speaker 1: like it's something in our nature. I don't know, it's 43 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:05,919 Speaker 1: almost like it's in the d n A of our 44 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: body to mark our body, to have that group identity. 45 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:16,400 Speaker 1: For Chuck, it's always been about community, and in his case, 46 00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:20,480 Speaker 1: that tattoo community came around very early on in life. 47 00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:26,359 Speaker 1: I was born in a little cotton mill town called Elkin, 48 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:32,480 Speaker 1: North Carolina, and my father, my brother, my uncle's all 49 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:35,680 Speaker 1: had service related tattoos, so I grew up seeing them 50 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:40,000 Speaker 1: my whole childhood, and UM really liked them. I love 51 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 1: the look of them. Um. I can remember getting my 52 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: uncle's to tell me the stories about how they got them, 53 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:48,680 Speaker 1: and at the age of eight I decided I wanted tattoos. 54 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:51,600 Speaker 1: And then it was a decade when I was in 55 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:54,200 Speaker 1: the Navy at eighteen that I was able to get 56 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 1: my first tattoo. I did boot camp in San Diego, California, 57 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:02,840 Speaker 1: and after team weeks, they gave us twelve hours of 58 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:06,040 Speaker 1: liberty and two hundred dollars and turned to slose in 59 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 1: San Diego. So I was able to get four tattoos 60 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:13,160 Speaker 1: that day in three different shops. The first one I 61 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 1: got with a little sailor girl on my forearm. So 62 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: that was kind of the start of my collection. After 63 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:22,680 Speaker 1: four years in the Navy, I came out in nineteen 64 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: nine and probably had thirty five tattoos maybe, so the 65 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:31,200 Speaker 1: collection had been growing. I was stationed in Texas, and 66 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:35,040 Speaker 1: then I was aboard ship into Hong Kong and the Philippines, 67 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:39,479 Speaker 1: and so I collected there. Chuck says the experience of 68 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:43,720 Speaker 1: getting a tattoo was very different back then. All the 69 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:46,720 Speaker 1: shops in San Diego then majority of more on Broadway, 70 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:49,159 Speaker 1: which is kind of like the main street in San Diego, 71 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:52,960 Speaker 1: and it's a sailor town, so the sidewalks are just 72 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:57,440 Speaker 1: full of sailors in uniform. They were literally lined up 73 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:00,800 Speaker 1: to get into the tattoo shop. And a lot of 74 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:05,360 Speaker 1: the shops were in kind of large bowlden alleys shaped buildings, 75 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:09,000 Speaker 1: you know, deep and skinny. It was noisy and loud, 76 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:12,680 Speaker 1: and all the tattooers were old men. They were all 77 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 1: from the Second World War, in the Korean War, there 78 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 1: were no young people tattooing, and there were no women tattooing. Stylistically, 79 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:27,560 Speaker 1: tattooing itself was also very different back then. There were 80 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:31,720 Speaker 1: all the specialties that we held now. There wasn't photo realism, 81 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:36,200 Speaker 1: there wasn't black and gray, there wasn't abstract, there wasn't watercolor. 82 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:40,840 Speaker 1: So tattoo was a tattoo was a tattoo. There was 83 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 1: a kind of a set group of patterns that have 84 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:48,400 Speaker 1: been reproduced for, you know, hundreds of years, so there 85 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:51,000 Speaker 1: was kind of a uniformity to it. There was something 86 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 1: familiar and comforting to those designs. There's a reason most 87 00:05:56,560 --> 00:06:01,440 Speaker 1: of the tattoo clientele were originally sailors. They came to 88 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:05,440 Speaker 1: the Navy more so than the Army and the Air 89 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:08,680 Speaker 1: Force and such as that, just because the Navy was 90 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:11,919 Speaker 1: going to these exotic places. They were going into the 91 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:15,839 Speaker 1: South Pacific, where tattooing was was popular and was normal. 92 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:20,160 Speaker 1: Whenever you travel, for me, certainly, I always want to 93 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: bring back some souvenir of that travel, and so sailors 94 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:29,120 Speaker 1: board ship, you don't have a lot of room, so 95 00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:33,240 Speaker 1: you can't bring back anything of any kind of physical size. 96 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:38,280 Speaker 1: So those tattoos worked as souvenirs. They could bring those 97 00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: back and they would have them, and they could tell 98 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:43,039 Speaker 1: the story about getting those, and so it was. It 99 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:47,000 Speaker 1: was a souvenir that you could carry with you. Chuck's 100 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:51,440 Speaker 1: path to professional tattooing after leaving the Navy was unique. 101 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:57,239 Speaker 1: I actually came to tattooing later than most people. Most people, 102 00:06:57,279 --> 00:06:59,680 Speaker 1: if they had had all that interest when they were young, 103 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:03,400 Speaker 1: they would have ended up hand poking their friends. That 104 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 1: would have been the beginning of their tattoo career. But 105 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 1: I took a different path. I ended up deciding out 106 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:14,240 Speaker 1: of the Navy. I had the g I Bill for 107 00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:17,680 Speaker 1: four years. They gave me free education, so I decided 108 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:20,679 Speaker 1: to use that. And I decided I wanted to build 109 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:25,280 Speaker 1: custom bicycles. So I went to a welding school in 110 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:28,440 Speaker 1: North Carolina and learned to weld um. I worked in 111 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:32,160 Speaker 1: bicycle shops to get my mechanic skills up, and then 112 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,920 Speaker 1: I traveled to California to try to get a job 113 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:40,480 Speaker 1: with a frame builder there named Albert Eisenrout. So I 114 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:43,040 Speaker 1: was pursuing that, I thought, Okay, I'm going to be 115 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:46,320 Speaker 1: a bicycle frame builder. That's my lot in life. And 116 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:50,080 Speaker 1: I was still getting tattooed through this whole period, collecting 117 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:53,080 Speaker 1: here and there as I traveled and owned my way 118 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:57,000 Speaker 1: from North Carolina to California. I had gone through Chicago 119 00:07:57,280 --> 00:07:59,960 Speaker 1: and I had gotten tattooed thereby a fella in Cliff 120 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:04,920 Speaker 1: Raven who was a really up and coming tattooer. And 121 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,400 Speaker 1: when I was getting tattooed by him, I mentioned that 122 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:09,640 Speaker 1: I was on my way to California and he says, well, 123 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:11,640 Speaker 1: you know, when you get out to San Francisco, look 124 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:13,920 Speaker 1: up this guy named Ed Hardy if you want to 125 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:16,520 Speaker 1: get to tattoo. So I just kind of filed that 126 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:19,880 Speaker 1: away in my brain. So once I got settled, I 127 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:23,200 Speaker 1: actually started looking for Ed. So I got over to 128 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:26,400 Speaker 1: his shop in San Francisco, and as soon as I 129 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: went in the shop, you just go, oh, man, this 130 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:32,839 Speaker 1: is this is something different. He had big Japanese style 131 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:37,160 Speaker 1: body pieces and full sleeve drawings and stuff. So I 132 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:41,400 Speaker 1: realized that this was the place to get all those 133 00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:46,959 Speaker 1: random tattoos tied together into a set of sleeves. So 134 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:50,920 Speaker 1: I did an apprenticeship there. Unfortunately, there was a fire. 135 00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:54,400 Speaker 1: The shock was destroyed. After actually even less than a 136 00:08:54,480 --> 00:08:59,560 Speaker 1: year I was living in Berkeley. I just decided to 137 00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:02,400 Speaker 1: open my own shop. I had my own ideas of 138 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:06,720 Speaker 1: what I wanted a shop to look like. In seventy nine, 139 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:12,119 Speaker 1: I opened that shop in Berkeley, and I kept anguishing 140 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:15,240 Speaker 1: over what am I going to call this place? Is 141 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:17,959 Speaker 1: it going to be Chuck's tattoo shop or I mean, 142 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:21,400 Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't know. And one day, I mean, 143 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:26,199 Speaker 1: I bicycled by this this store, the Pacific Film Archive, 144 00:09:27,080 --> 00:09:30,800 Speaker 1: which is an amazing film mark I've there in Berkeley, 145 00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:33,800 Speaker 1: and somehow that day that I rode by, that word 146 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:37,240 Speaker 1: archive just leaped off the side of the building into 147 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:39,800 Speaker 1: my face. So I said, at that moment, Okay, it's 148 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:42,840 Speaker 1: going to be the tattoo work. That's it. That's the one, 149 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:48,720 Speaker 1: the tattoo archive. The shop eventually became a literal tattoo archive. 150 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:52,880 Speaker 1: You know, with tattooing. It doesn't take a lot of 151 00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:55,640 Speaker 1: space to do tattooing, you know too con tattoo and 152 00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:57,880 Speaker 1: a tin by tin room, you know, and have a 153 00:09:57,960 --> 00:10:01,600 Speaker 1: nice space. So I denoted most the building the space 154 00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:07,200 Speaker 1: for historical stuff. I worked away there and vote newsletters 155 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:11,200 Speaker 1: and wrote for other newsletters and um would do slide shows, 156 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:14,640 Speaker 1: history slide shows at conventions and stuff like this, trying 157 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:18,320 Speaker 1: to keep those old time tattoos names alive. The reason 158 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:20,800 Speaker 1: we have such a clear view of what's going on 159 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:25,640 Speaker 1: is because we're standing on their shoulders. Eventually, Chuck started 160 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 1: to feel more inspired by his work with the archive 161 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:32,360 Speaker 1: than by his work in the shop. Tattooing was horrifying. 162 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:36,679 Speaker 1: There's there's no other way to describe it. For me, 163 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:41,200 Speaker 1: I never felt that I had it the thing, you 164 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:43,360 Speaker 1: know what I mean. You you see some artists and 165 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:47,360 Speaker 1: they can draw anything in an instant, and you look 166 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:50,560 Speaker 1: at it and you go, it's perfect. I never had that. 167 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:55,640 Speaker 1: So I've labored over all that, and it was stressful 168 00:10:56,240 --> 00:11:00,600 Speaker 1: preparing all that artwork in advance. It was easier to 169 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:02,640 Speaker 1: get it to where the customer was happy with it 170 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:04,600 Speaker 1: than it was to where I was happy with it. 171 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:08,960 Speaker 1: And my first tattoo was a little tiny ant I'll 172 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:14,679 Speaker 1: never forget on this guy's arm. I sweated, you know 173 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:16,880 Speaker 1: what I mean, it was it was. It was horrible. 174 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:20,120 Speaker 1: So that improved a little bit, you know, in thirty 175 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:23,760 Speaker 1: or forty years, but they were still always really stressful. 176 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:29,200 Speaker 1: After the archive grew, Chuck devoted himself almost exclusively to 177 00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:32,160 Speaker 1: his work as a historian. If you visit the Tattoo 178 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:36,360 Speaker 1: Archive website, you'll quickly see just how extensive his research is. 179 00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:39,320 Speaker 1: I asked Chuck to take us back to the beginning, 180 00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:43,080 Speaker 1: to the very origins of what we now know as tattoo. 181 00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:49,600 Speaker 1: Tattooing started as body paint, and he goes back to 182 00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:55,320 Speaker 1: the caveman. They would take dirt, red dirt, mix it 183 00:11:55,400 --> 00:11:58,880 Speaker 1: with water, paint their bodies. They would take clay, mix 184 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:01,800 Speaker 1: that and paint their bodies. And this would be done 185 00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:05,800 Speaker 1: in a ritual situation. Women would have their first child, 186 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:09,240 Speaker 1: when they could be buried, when men would go and 187 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:12,480 Speaker 1: have hunts and make their first kill, and all these 188 00:12:12,559 --> 00:12:15,240 Speaker 1: kind of things that would be celebrations around this, and 189 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:17,719 Speaker 1: the bodies would be painted and there would be specific 190 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:20,800 Speaker 1: images and shapes that would be painted on the body 191 00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:26,439 Speaker 1: to convey the specific ritual that they were celebrating. Once 192 00:12:26,559 --> 00:12:30,720 Speaker 1: the caveman had fire, then they actually had a pigment 193 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:34,440 Speaker 1: that they could push into the skin where they actually 194 00:12:34,559 --> 00:12:39,360 Speaker 1: could tattoo. And that's soit it's burnt down to a 195 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:42,680 Speaker 1: fine granular's form, and you mix that with water and 196 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:47,600 Speaker 1: you get a porcupine quill or a bird bone that 197 00:12:47,679 --> 00:12:50,560 Speaker 1: had been shaped in the shape of a needle, and 198 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:54,600 Speaker 1: you could literally push that sit under the skin and 199 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:59,439 Speaker 1: then create a tattoo. As a specific example, there was 200 00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:04,040 Speaker 1: one group of nomadic people who embraced tattoo before anyone else. 201 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:07,320 Speaker 1: If you really want to go back, you can go 202 00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:11,280 Speaker 1: back to the Scythians. They were a very advanced tribe. 203 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:14,680 Speaker 1: They were doing metal work. They would do really large 204 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:19,120 Speaker 1: animal tattoos. They would be basically just outlines because they 205 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:22,520 Speaker 1: didn't have color pigment, and you know, they had crewed 206 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:26,200 Speaker 1: tools for doing the tattoos, so they were mainly outlines, 207 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:29,640 Speaker 1: but they covered a lot of their body. And then 208 00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:33,160 Speaker 1: there are the Maori tribes in New Zealand. Many of 209 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:37,200 Speaker 1: today's popular tribal looking tattoos are directly inspired by the 210 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:43,800 Speaker 1: Maori people's work. Although the Maori's really only tattooed their 211 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:47,520 Speaker 1: face and their buttocks. That was pretty much where it 212 00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 1: was limited before Captain Cook and his crew got there 213 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:55,079 Speaker 1: in the seventeen hundreds into New Zealand. They actually had 214 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:58,880 Speaker 1: no written language, so their face tattoos would tell the 215 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:03,640 Speaker 1: story of that person life, their occupation, their tribe, their 216 00:14:03,679 --> 00:14:06,200 Speaker 1: family connections, and all this kind of stuff would be 217 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:10,560 Speaker 1: told in their tattoos. If you go back and you 218 00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:14,760 Speaker 1: start looking at ancient photographs of the Maoris, those tattoos 219 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:18,600 Speaker 1: were so ritualistic and so family oriented that when the 220 00:14:18,679 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: chiefs would die, their heads would be removed and they 221 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:26,920 Speaker 1: would be smoked to where they would preserve them. The 222 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,720 Speaker 1: heads would go on display in the mattle inside their 223 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:33,280 Speaker 1: homes so that the children coming up could read the 224 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:37,000 Speaker 1: story of their ancestors. They had an amazing culture that way. 225 00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:40,640 Speaker 1: If you travel in New Zealand, it's it's a tattoo wonderland. 226 00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:46,560 Speaker 1: Every place you go, every gift shop, bookshop, museum. Tattoo 227 00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:52,920 Speaker 1: culture is everywhere. The imagery it's amazing. Another region with 228 00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:58,480 Speaker 1: a storied and complicated history of tattooing is Japan. Japanese 229 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:02,840 Speaker 1: tattooing is a lot like American tattooing in the fact 230 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:07,240 Speaker 1: that there's a hundred and fifty or two hundred images 231 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:11,160 Speaker 1: or something that's kind of been codified in their artwork, 232 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:16,400 Speaker 1: especially in their tattooing, and these tattooers do these images 233 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:19,000 Speaker 1: over and over and over. They rendered them in their 234 00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:22,040 Speaker 1: fashion and stuff, and a lot of those images come 235 00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:26,480 Speaker 1: from a specific woodblock series, Warrior Prints, that was done 236 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:30,400 Speaker 1: I guess probably in the seventeen hundreds, maybe maybe even 237 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:33,440 Speaker 1: a little earlier. But there was a series of artists 238 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:38,480 Speaker 1: that specialized in doing tattoo related woodblocks and woodblocks. They 239 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:42,880 Speaker 1: were like ephemera. They were printed own woodblocks and on paper. 240 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:46,960 Speaker 1: They weren't considered high art. They were like pop art, 241 00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:50,760 Speaker 1: if you will, kind of pop culture. So those were fragile, 242 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:52,720 Speaker 1: and I mean a lot of them have survived and 243 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:54,760 Speaker 1: and sell for big money now, but they were a 244 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:58,480 Speaker 1: very kind of ephemeral kind of art form. But they 245 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:01,760 Speaker 1: influenced the tattooers, and I just bet some of the 246 00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:06,880 Speaker 1: tattoos were probably woodblock artist as well. The Japanese, of course, 247 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:12,120 Speaker 1: completely look at tattoos in a different set of eyes, 248 00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:16,040 Speaker 1: if you will. For an American, a small tattoo is 249 00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:21,120 Speaker 1: an ant on your arm. For a Japanese tattoo fan, 250 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:26,640 Speaker 1: a half sleeve is a start. They took the palette 251 00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:32,480 Speaker 1: and just enlarged it to an extreme degree, from wrist 252 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:37,520 Speaker 1: to neck two ankles. With the Japanese, they've definitely advanced it, 253 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:41,320 Speaker 1: and I think the Japanese tattoos are still on the 254 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:48,480 Speaker 1: forefront of spectacular bodywork politically and socially. However, Japan was 255 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:53,320 Speaker 1: very slow to embrace tattoos. Tattooing in Japan was looked 256 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:57,320 Speaker 1: at as an outsider art. Today it is connected with 257 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:02,040 Speaker 1: the yakaza, which is Japanese mafia, and I think that 258 00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:07,560 Speaker 1: has hindered tattooing advancing in Japan. At one time, you 259 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:11,720 Speaker 1: could literally be in Japan and walked by a tattoo 260 00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:15,000 Speaker 1: shop for years and never even know it was there. 261 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:18,679 Speaker 1: There was no signage. You had to have introductions to 262 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:22,120 Speaker 1: even get through the door of the tattoo shop. They 263 00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:26,000 Speaker 1: labored in obscurity in a way that has changed now 264 00:17:26,280 --> 00:17:30,600 Speaker 1: there are street shops in Japan, very often American looking 265 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:35,680 Speaker 1: street shops with flashy neon and strobe lights. The Japanese 266 00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:38,600 Speaker 1: had kind of a mixed feeling about tattoos. They had 267 00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:42,520 Speaker 1: advanced it to a high degree and was respected worldwide, 268 00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:47,440 Speaker 1: but the straight Japanese uh they saw it as bad. 269 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:51,120 Speaker 1: They saw it as gangster. You can only imagine where 270 00:17:51,119 --> 00:17:53,840 Speaker 1: it would gone if it had been more accepted, if 271 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:58,400 Speaker 1: that had been something that would have been less underground 272 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:12,320 Speaker 1: and less negative, how far would they have gone Most 273 00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:14,840 Speaker 1: historians will tell you that tattoo made its way to 274 00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:18,880 Speaker 1: North America from Europe, although as Chuck points out, that's 275 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:24,560 Speaker 1: actually false. All the native tribes in North America, long 276 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:28,680 Speaker 1: before the white men ever set foot on North America, 277 00:18:29,359 --> 00:18:33,639 Speaker 1: all had some form of body decoration. They had progressed 278 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:36,920 Speaker 1: that where that was, that was normal. They were already 279 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:41,400 Speaker 1: doing puncture tattooing by the time the white man got here. 280 00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:46,960 Speaker 1: But for professional tattooing, it was actually it came from England. 281 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:53,040 Speaker 1: In Germany. The early shops from the undreds and they 282 00:18:53,119 --> 00:18:57,240 Speaker 1: were initially in New York because that's where the immigrants 283 00:18:57,280 --> 00:18:59,560 Speaker 1: came in. They just got off the boat and went 284 00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:02,720 Speaker 1: to the bery and found the store front and set 285 00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:09,240 Speaker 1: up shop, and for probably a hundred years that continued 286 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:14,200 Speaker 1: in that fashion. Tattooing was mainly isolated to the coast 287 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:19,120 Speaker 1: where the ports were, where the navy was, and then 288 00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:24,159 Speaker 1: as America built more military bases in the middle of 289 00:19:24,160 --> 00:19:30,320 Speaker 1: the country, tattoos began to congregate around them. Generally, if 290 00:19:30,359 --> 00:19:33,000 Speaker 1: there was tattooing in the middle of the country, in 291 00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:35,760 Speaker 1: the middle of North America, it was around a military 292 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:39,160 Speaker 1: base because that was your bread and butter was tattooing 293 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:43,320 Speaker 1: the military. You would get a few civilian clients, but 294 00:19:43,760 --> 00:19:46,920 Speaker 1: not enough to pay the rent. You stayed alive from 295 00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:50,000 Speaker 1: pay day to pay day, and sometimes you would stay 296 00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:53,520 Speaker 1: open three days straight if you had the staff to 297 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:56,960 Speaker 1: keep the shop going. Now it's to the point where 298 00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:00,280 Speaker 1: if you're a young, aspiring tattooeder, if you've got ills, 299 00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:03,560 Speaker 1: you don't even need to leave your little hometown. The 300 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:07,560 Speaker 1: world will beat a path to your door. Still, in 301 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:12,000 Speaker 1: those early days, tattoo thrived primarily on the coasts. It 302 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:15,520 Speaker 1: was nautical. It was around port towns. Those sailors you know, 303 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:19,440 Speaker 1: had traveled into the South Pacific. Captain Cook's crew came 304 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:23,480 Speaker 1: back from the South Pacific in New Zealand and with tattoos, 305 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:26,760 Speaker 1: so they brought them back. Once those islands in the 306 00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:31,200 Speaker 1: South Pacific were charted with the latitude and longitude where 307 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:34,480 Speaker 1: people can actually find them again, you have to realize 308 00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:37,720 Speaker 1: that these islands were like little specks in the middle 309 00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:41,200 Speaker 1: of this massive body of water, so you could sail 310 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:43,879 Speaker 1: past it for hundreds of years and never even know 311 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:47,840 Speaker 1: that the island was there. But once Cook got that 312 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:52,560 Speaker 1: latitude and longitude in place, the next group of people 313 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:57,960 Speaker 1: to those islands were missionaries to begin with, and then explorers. 314 00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:03,960 Speaker 1: Those explorers would find tattooed people and bring them back 315 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:08,600 Speaker 1: to England and back to America to show them for 316 00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:11,600 Speaker 1: money to create the early side shows. That had a 317 00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:15,760 Speaker 1: big impact, especially in North America and in England, because 318 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,159 Speaker 1: people would go to these circuces and side shows and 319 00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:20,960 Speaker 1: they would see these tattoo attractions that had come from 320 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:24,360 Speaker 1: the South Pacific. Then they would go, that's cool. I think, 321 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:27,800 Speaker 1: what can I find one of those tattoo things? So 322 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:29,680 Speaker 1: I think that was kind of the beginning of that. 323 00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:33,760 Speaker 1: It was around this time that the first tattoo machines 324 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:39,000 Speaker 1: came around and they revolutionized the process. The electric machine 325 00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:42,680 Speaker 1: was invented by a fellow named Samuel O'Reilly mid to 326 00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:46,399 Speaker 1: late eight hundreds, and he was inspired by Thomas Edison. 327 00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:51,280 Speaker 1: An invention that Edison had called the stencil pen, which 328 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:57,040 Speaker 1: was a office tool for duplicating letters. And literally it 329 00:21:57,160 --> 00:21:59,880 Speaker 1: was a pen type machine that was had an electric 330 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:03,960 Speaker 1: motor and a vibrating needle and you would take your 331 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:07,040 Speaker 1: original copy of your letter that you needed to duplicate 332 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:09,360 Speaker 1: and put it on a little phone pad and then 333 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:13,120 Speaker 1: you would ride over that the needle would puncture holes 334 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:16,360 Speaker 1: into the paper. Then you would take that and put 335 00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:18,879 Speaker 1: it on a clean sheet and then take an inked 336 00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,760 Speaker 1: roller roll over that. The ink would absorb through the 337 00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:26,520 Speaker 1: holes and it would give you effects simile of the document. 338 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:30,000 Speaker 1: Of course, this is pre typewriter, so this is like 339 00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:35,080 Speaker 1: early office technology. It was eclipsed within a year or 340 00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:40,040 Speaker 1: so because the typewriter came O'Reilly was a Irish immigrant 341 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,600 Speaker 1: that came to America in the eighteen hundred. You saw 342 00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:47,600 Speaker 1: the Edison stencil pen and goes I could tattoo with that. 343 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:52,600 Speaker 1: The machine evolved along and if you were a tattoo 344 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:55,879 Speaker 1: in the thirties forties, you almost had to be a 345 00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:59,800 Speaker 1: mechanic because you had to maintain that equipment. Sometimes the 346 00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:03,960 Speaker 1: tours had a serious mechanical skills, and so they would 347 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:07,240 Speaker 1: just start building their own machines that have them cast 348 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:09,879 Speaker 1: and they would wrap the coils and the machine was 349 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:13,359 Speaker 1: a kind of a constant evolution. Although you look at 350 00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:16,080 Speaker 1: the tattoo machine a coil machine, and they all kind 351 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:19,960 Speaker 1: of looked the same, but there's subtleties inside that design. 352 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:24,400 Speaker 1: My analogy is the caveman invented the wheel and it's 353 00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:28,440 Speaker 1: still round, so the twin coil machines still looks the same, 354 00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:32,160 Speaker 1: but there's it's gotten more sophisticated, if you will. And 355 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:36,400 Speaker 1: many of these tattoos that had those mechanical skills actually 356 00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:40,600 Speaker 1: became tattoo suppliers. They would go into a business, and 357 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:46,000 Speaker 1: sometimes the supply business would begin to overshadow their tattoo business. 358 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:50,440 Speaker 1: So this became a whole industry in itself. As Chuck 359 00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:54,960 Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, American tattoo design became codified into a handful 360 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:58,560 Speaker 1: of simple, repeatable images. I asked him to explain, with 361 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:02,440 Speaker 1: that traditional tattoo design, it looks like it's a design 362 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:06,879 Speaker 1: with a solid black outline. There's enough black shading in 363 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,399 Speaker 1: it to make it hold up thirty years from now 364 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:15,640 Speaker 1: when all the colored dims, and then it's colored with 365 00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,160 Speaker 1: probably three or four basic colors, black, red, green, maybe 366 00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:22,679 Speaker 1: a little brown or yellow. To my eye, that is 367 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:26,920 Speaker 1: a kind of a traditional tattoo design. Obviously, the imagery 368 00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:30,600 Speaker 1: can be wild and crazy, doesn't have to be an 369 00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:33,520 Speaker 1: anchor or sailor girl. But it's the way it's it's 370 00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:37,879 Speaker 1: rendered it kind of makes it a traditional tattoo design. 371 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:42,399 Speaker 1: Then that design involves with the emersions of one of 372 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:48,320 Speaker 1: the most popular artists and styles Sailor Jerry. Sailor Jerry 373 00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:53,960 Speaker 1: was a Honolulu tattooer that actually got his start in Chicago, 374 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:58,120 Speaker 1: moved to Honolulu and tattoo. They're kind of off and on. 375 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:00,280 Speaker 1: He kind of took a couple of break because and 376 00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:02,879 Speaker 1: came back in the sixties as almost kind of a 377 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:09,600 Speaker 1: reinvented man and created this amazing volume of work because 378 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:14,720 Speaker 1: he sat there in Honolulu between North America, which had 379 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:19,000 Speaker 1: in the forties, fifties, sixties had a wealth of amazing 380 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:25,160 Speaker 1: tattooers working in North America in Japan. He took those 381 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:30,040 Speaker 1: two influences and blended them in a way that it 382 00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:33,600 Speaker 1: hadn't been done before. It was a good water colorist, 383 00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:36,919 Speaker 1: so he was able to take those images that we 384 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,879 Speaker 1: had seen, those codified images and reinvent them, and it 385 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:46,560 Speaker 1: was extremely attractive. It was kind of the classic folk 386 00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:52,240 Speaker 1: art style of tattooing. There was another style that developed 387 00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:55,199 Speaker 1: around the same time as Sailor Jerry, one that was 388 00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:59,720 Speaker 1: less commercially popular, but equally provocative and important, and that 389 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,480 Speaker 1: is prison tattooing. You have a group of men or 390 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:07,360 Speaker 1: women locked up, maybe they don't look at it as 391 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:10,400 Speaker 1: a souvenir of their time in prison, but it certainly 392 00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:14,760 Speaker 1: is a mark of their time in prison that they 393 00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:19,600 Speaker 1: want to have. Sometimes you're actually almost required to have it. 394 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:23,560 Speaker 1: You're gonna have to choose sides in there, and each 395 00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:27,000 Speaker 1: side is going to have their markings and their logos 396 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,959 Speaker 1: and their wording and their lettering, and that associates you 397 00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:34,600 Speaker 1: with that side. Not that far removed how the Marri's were. 398 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:40,639 Speaker 1: All the parallels are sometimes mind boggling actually how it works. Obviously, 399 00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:45,440 Speaker 1: they didn't have access in prisons to needles. I mean 400 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,800 Speaker 1: maybe they did sewing needles, but you know those those 401 00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:51,639 Speaker 1: were probably controlled once the guards found out that they 402 00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:54,480 Speaker 1: were tattooing with the sewing needles, then that they were issued. 403 00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:59,200 Speaker 1: You know, they didn't have pigment. They did have once 404 00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:03,639 Speaker 1: again came back to the caveman burning pages of a 405 00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:09,520 Speaker 1: book together. Sit They had all the makings, and you know, 406 00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:13,560 Speaker 1: sadly a lot of tattooers were screwing up and ended 407 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:16,520 Speaker 1: up in jail. So they had people that knew what 408 00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:20,880 Speaker 1: they were doing. It's impossible to say, oh, well, this 409 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:23,919 Speaker 1: guy in this prison got the first prison tattoo on 410 00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:27,399 Speaker 1: this date. I mean it's it's not possible to date that, 411 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:33,560 Speaker 1: but it's certainly evolved into a very high art form. 412 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:37,240 Speaker 1: Much like once again the Japanese. Here it is suppressed 413 00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:42,800 Speaker 1: as seriously as it could possibly be oppressed, but the 414 00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:48,400 Speaker 1: desire to have it is overwhelming the oppression. I can remember, 415 00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,639 Speaker 1: if you saw somebody on the street in the seventies 416 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:54,920 Speaker 1: with all this black and gray tattooing, nine times out 417 00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:58,600 Speaker 1: of ten they had gotten that in prison. Today, obviously 418 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:04,160 Speaker 1: that's certainly not the case anymore. Now it's become a genre. 419 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:07,760 Speaker 1: It's got its whole world, it's got its own series 420 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:11,440 Speaker 1: of tattoos, it's got its own series of pigments, which 421 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:17,240 Speaker 1: like almost a separate branch of tattooing. Because of its 422 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:21,160 Speaker 1: association with prison and many other factors, the perception around 423 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 1: tattoos in America for most of the twentieth century was 424 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:29,600 Speaker 1: less than warm. The old analogy was sailor's prisoners and 425 00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:33,320 Speaker 1: loose women, that's who got tattooed. They were just looked 426 00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:38,800 Speaker 1: at as as an outcast and suspicious, not good, not favorable. 427 00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:43,400 Speaker 1: Tattoo shops were isolated into adult entertainment sections of town, 428 00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:45,760 Speaker 1: where they had to be next to the titty boy, 429 00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:49,640 Speaker 1: you know, and it was negative, you were a troublemaker. 430 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:55,680 Speaker 1: Police kept records of certain designs that were gang related, 431 00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:58,200 Speaker 1: so that if they arrested somebody and they had this 432 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:00,520 Speaker 1: image on them, then they can make the connection of 433 00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:02,920 Speaker 1: you know, it's like it's just all that's just piled 434 00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:05,920 Speaker 1: up and piled up and piled up. It was not good, 435 00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:10,280 Speaker 1: you know. I think the connection there in North America 436 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:15,480 Speaker 1: is religion. The Bible does not have the word tattoo 437 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:18,880 Speaker 1: in it, but it does talk about marking the body. 438 00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:24,959 Speaker 1: I believe that that has stymied the public acceptance of 439 00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:30,680 Speaker 1: tattooing for ever and ever. Even today it still doesn't. 440 00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:36,280 Speaker 1: But as we all know, you can go into Starbucks 441 00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 1: now and you're barre stick and they have a tattooed neck. 442 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:43,720 Speaker 1: It's like, no matter how hard you push it down, 443 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:49,840 Speaker 1: that's still gonna rise up. That negativity started to diminish 444 00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:53,840 Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies and eighties once pop culture finally 445 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:57,800 Speaker 1: embraced tattoos. Some of means concerts and the major bands 446 00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:00,200 Speaker 1: are on the road. Alice Cooper doing three It's at 447 00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,680 Speaker 1: Chicago's Uptown Theater at the fifth, sixth and seventh. Music 448 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:06,760 Speaker 1: industry sources are also talking about the Rolling Stones tour. 449 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,600 Speaker 1: Yes it is happening, although Atlantic or The Stones have 450 00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:13,640 Speaker 1: not confirmed it. Tremendous impact on the popularity. The current 451 00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: popularity of tattooing was MTV came along in two man. 452 00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:22,640 Speaker 1: I can remember watching MTV and going, jeez, man, look 453 00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:25,880 Speaker 1: at all these tattooed people. Look at these people coming 454 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:29,560 Speaker 1: into our living room. They weren't gangsters or robbers, or 455 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:34,160 Speaker 1: prisoners or murderers. TV is virtualistic in this country. You know, 456 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:37,239 Speaker 1: if it's on TV, it's real, especially then. It was 457 00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:40,440 Speaker 1: maybe less so now, but that was the real world. 458 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:44,720 Speaker 1: Then led Zeppelin video would be shown every forty eight minutes, 459 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:49,280 Speaker 1: whether it needed to be enough, So you just start 460 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:53,240 Speaker 1: putting that into people's face. It's just going to begin 461 00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:59,560 Speaker 1: to wear down those prejudice. And then along with that 462 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:03,560 Speaker 1: came tattoo conventions. I mean they started in seventies. Six 463 00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,240 Speaker 1: people would show up, and everybody was amazing that there 464 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:09,960 Speaker 1: weren't more fist fights between the tattooers. You know, it's 465 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:13,280 Speaker 1: like it was still very underground. Getting a hotel to 466 00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:17,320 Speaker 1: even allow us to have a tattoo convention was like, oh, 467 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:20,440 Speaker 1: my god, the liability insurance that you had to pay 468 00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,560 Speaker 1: to even get a convention into those hotels. And then 469 00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:28,000 Speaker 1: the tattoo magazines came. It was kind of like, almost 470 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,240 Speaker 1: like a perfect storm. It had been building through the 471 00:31:31,280 --> 00:31:35,360 Speaker 1: sixties and the seventies, and so that just accumulated in 472 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:39,720 Speaker 1: the eighties and boom, here we are. We fear things 473 00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:43,040 Speaker 1: we don't understand, and once we understand something, it takes 474 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:45,320 Speaker 1: some of that fear away. So I think that that's 475 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:48,640 Speaker 1: a classic example of what happened with the tattoo world. 476 00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:53,960 Speaker 1: It became less fearful to people, and MTV, the conventions 477 00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:57,800 Speaker 1: and the magazines and all that helped relieve that angst, 478 00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:09,400 Speaker 1: if you will ye. Since the eighties, tattooing has blown up. 479 00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:13,320 Speaker 1: Most major cities now have dozens of tattoo shops, and 480 00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:15,680 Speaker 1: even small towns are sure to have at least a few. 481 00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:20,520 Speaker 1: And along with that increased popularity came new styles, new ideas, 482 00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:26,440 Speaker 1: and a wider palette of possibilities. Tattooing is certainly diversified. 483 00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:30,000 Speaker 1: I mean, back when I started getting tattooed, a tattoo 484 00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:34,320 Speaker 1: design was a tattoo design. It didn't have all that's 485 00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:39,000 Speaker 1: kind of specialty name connected with it. Nowadays, there's a 486 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:43,360 Speaker 1: plethora of unique tattoo styles to pick from. This water color, 487 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:49,640 Speaker 1: the super realism, this black and gray, bio mechanical, there's 488 00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:51,800 Speaker 1: more than I could even name off the top of 489 00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:55,440 Speaker 1: my head. I find that I like them. I never 490 00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:58,840 Speaker 1: were able to execute any of those. I was a 491 00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:02,560 Speaker 1: very traditional tattoo so they were outside of my skill set, 492 00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:07,600 Speaker 1: and I appreciate the skill that these tattoos do have. 493 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:11,200 Speaker 1: But it seems like every day there's a new term 494 00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:14,920 Speaker 1: for another style of tattooing. And I think in the 495 00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:19,240 Speaker 1: long run, it opens the art form to more people 496 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:23,440 Speaker 1: because traditional tattoos, which I love and there close to 497 00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:26,560 Speaker 1: my heart or not for everybody. Yeah, I mean, it's 498 00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:29,680 Speaker 1: just that I faced that fact. That's not a problem. 499 00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:33,560 Speaker 1: What it ends up doing, too is drawing interesting people, 500 00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:38,320 Speaker 1: really talented people into the tattoo world that maybe would 501 00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:40,920 Speaker 1: have never thought about that, you know what I mean. 502 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,800 Speaker 1: That was like too weird, you know, tattooing somebody's skin. 503 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:47,320 Speaker 1: But they realized that their style and their technique actually 504 00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:50,040 Speaker 1: can apply. I guess in the long run that's good. 505 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,200 Speaker 1: As with any sort of art media or fashion trend, 506 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:59,160 Speaker 1: there are pros and cons to the increased popularity. The 507 00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:01,680 Speaker 1: good thing is that that draws more people in. People 508 00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:05,040 Speaker 1: got to have more choices of what they do where 509 00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:10,320 Speaker 1: they're able to express that inner feeling that they're wanting 510 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:13,799 Speaker 1: to put onto their skin. The bad thing is that 511 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:16,680 Speaker 1: people are drawn into it for all the wrong reasons, 512 00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:21,000 Speaker 1: just to make money, be cool, be the hip cat 513 00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:25,160 Speaker 1: you know. Chuck says that back in the day, the 514 00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:29,719 Speaker 1: intentions of an aspiring tattoo artist were more pure. If 515 00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:34,520 Speaker 1: you go back to the twenties, thirties, forties and you 516 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:37,959 Speaker 1: were a tattoo artist, you had to have a day job. 517 00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:41,759 Speaker 1: There wasn't enough money in tattooing to support you and 518 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,759 Speaker 1: your family. Many of these tattooers were what I call 519 00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:47,960 Speaker 1: blue collar tattoos. They get tattooed for forty or fifty 520 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:51,000 Speaker 1: years and have a day job that would bring them 521 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:54,160 Speaker 1: a salary every week, and um they could have paid 522 00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:58,359 Speaker 1: their mortgage, and they tattooed evenings and weekends. Those blue 523 00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:02,000 Speaker 1: collar guys. I love those the tattoos because they felt 524 00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:05,200 Speaker 1: that they were there doing it because they did love it, 525 00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:07,799 Speaker 1: not because they could make it a living in There's 526 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 1: a real difference in mentality there that I kind of like. 527 00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:18,080 Speaker 1: Chuck also wonders if tattooing has gotten too popular. I 528 00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:20,839 Speaker 1: wish we could go back the weird tattoos were kind 529 00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:24,319 Speaker 1: of taboo. I actually liked it a little better when 530 00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:29,800 Speaker 1: tattoos were a little more outsider art. Any Time something 531 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:35,000 Speaker 1: becomes popular, it has a tendency to get overexposed, or 532 00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:37,840 Speaker 1: it just becomes popular and it kind of loses some 533 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,399 Speaker 1: of its magic, if you will. I know a lot 534 00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: of people that were big proponents of promoting really good 535 00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:51,080 Speaker 1: tattooing in the seventies and eighties sometimes now look back 536 00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:54,399 Speaker 1: and go, come, you know, maybe we created a monster here. 537 00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:58,080 Speaker 1: There are mixed feelings inside the tattoo business about that, 538 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:02,040 Speaker 1: and usually that comes from buddy that has enough experience 539 00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:05,360 Speaker 1: to know what it was like before. I asked my 540 00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:08,200 Speaker 1: tattoo guy Josh what he thought about the whole traditional 541 00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:11,640 Speaker 1: versus new debate, and also whether his style has changed 542 00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:15,320 Speaker 1: or evolved over the years. I've always kind of liked 543 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:20,200 Speaker 1: the roots of things, like more traditional things, so probably 544 00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:25,080 Speaker 1: it hasn't changed a lot other than getting way more 545 00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:29,360 Speaker 1: into you know, Japanese tattoo and a larger scale. But 546 00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:35,440 Speaker 1: definitely like the mindset of like kind of more simple 547 00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:40,480 Speaker 1: flat images, like things that look like it looked like 548 00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:43,200 Speaker 1: they were meant to be tattooed. Like. That's always kind 549 00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:47,120 Speaker 1: of I've always sort of had that mindset, but definitely 550 00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:52,520 Speaker 1: have evolved more into doing large scale thinking about where 551 00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:55,880 Speaker 1: it sits on the whole body instead of you know, 552 00:36:56,040 --> 00:37:03,520 Speaker 1: the American emblematic patch catch patching. Today it's easier than 553 00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:06,840 Speaker 1: ever to become a tattoo artist. I asked Chuck what 554 00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:11,040 Speaker 1: the usual path for an aspiring tattoo looks like. If 555 00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:13,440 Speaker 1: you really want to be what I think of as 556 00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:19,879 Speaker 1: a professional tattoour, you need some training, some background, if 557 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:24,040 Speaker 1: nothing else, just to teach you the level of respect 558 00:37:24,840 --> 00:37:28,799 Speaker 1: that you should be exhibiting for your art and for 559 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:32,640 Speaker 1: the tattoo art in itself and for your customers. Now, 560 00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:36,640 Speaker 1: how long that training should be, That depends on the person. 561 00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:38,399 Speaker 1: You know. If you can be a sponge, you could 562 00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:42,520 Speaker 1: learn all of that in a month. Traditionally, tattooed apprenticeships 563 00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:45,560 Speaker 1: were thought of as two years, and to open your 564 00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:51,080 Speaker 1: own shop straight out of an apprenticeship is sometimes fool hardy, 565 00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:54,320 Speaker 1: but it certainly happens. You gotta pay the utility bills. 566 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:57,200 Speaker 1: You gotta find the space, you gotta get the license 567 00:37:57,280 --> 00:37:58,920 Speaker 1: if the city has you know what I mean. So 568 00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:02,359 Speaker 1: there's these formalities that you kind of have to go through. 569 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:05,080 Speaker 1: Then you've got to build the shop, you know. I 570 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:08,480 Speaker 1: mean obviously some people put hundreds of thousands of dollars 571 00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:11,560 Speaker 1: in their shops. Some people work out of a trunk 572 00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:15,560 Speaker 1: set in the corner. So it's like, it depends on 573 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:19,759 Speaker 1: how you want to present yourself. There's no set formula 574 00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:24,600 Speaker 1: for that. Back in the seventies when the tattoo Convention started, 575 00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:29,400 Speaker 1: tattoos would not have shops. They were on the road tattooing. 576 00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:32,439 Speaker 1: That's how they would stay alive and and do that. 577 00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:36,720 Speaker 1: You don't need a lot of sophisticated equipment and stuff 578 00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:42,120 Speaker 1: to do great tattooing. It's a very uh minimal equipment operation. 579 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:47,040 Speaker 1: While getting tattooed, I asked Josh about his basic setup. 580 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:50,799 Speaker 1: He confirmed the general simplicity of it and explain to 581 00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:56,839 Speaker 1: me how the process typically works. Yes, basically, U two 582 00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:04,200 Speaker 1: needle machine power supply. You have a clip chord then 583 00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:09,080 Speaker 1: provides power to the machine from the power supply and 584 00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:13,480 Speaker 1: then foot switch then turns it off and on. Um, 585 00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:16,920 Speaker 1: So there's no like trigger on the thing. So a 586 00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:19,120 Speaker 1: lot a lot of guys have just a switch that 587 00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:22,160 Speaker 1: or it'll either turn it on or off. So if 588 00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:25,880 Speaker 1: either constantly going. But I just don't like to feel 589 00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:28,280 Speaker 1: if it constantly going, I feel like it's running away 590 00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:31,680 Speaker 1: from me. Especially if you're like doing something like cleaning 591 00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:33,960 Speaker 1: off the needle a little bit or something. You don't 592 00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:37,239 Speaker 1: like that thing going and going and going. Don't. But yeah, 593 00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:42,839 Speaker 1: usually foot switch clicking it on on you and then 594 00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:44,520 Speaker 1: they get the ink. You have it kind of like white, 595 00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:47,160 Speaker 1: like dip it like a quill or something, right, exactly 596 00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:51,680 Speaker 1: like a quiltin like there's nothing making the ink stay 597 00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:53,600 Speaker 1: in there or you know what I mean. There's no 598 00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:58,240 Speaker 1: apparatus like sucking up ink or or disperse the ink. 599 00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:01,960 Speaker 1: It's just like you're dipping it in the in the well, 600 00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:07,920 Speaker 1: just like a quilton. And then it's just your poking 601 00:40:07,960 --> 00:40:11,919 Speaker 1: holes in the skin and gravity is letting the ink 602 00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:15,399 Speaker 1: drip down into the holes. You know. It's that It's 603 00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:18,440 Speaker 1: that simple. There's nothing like pushing it in the area. Things, 604 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:24,480 Speaker 1: just the needle moving up and down. Chuck doesn't tattoo 605 00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:27,320 Speaker 1: as much as he used to, but the tattoo Archive 606 00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:30,600 Speaker 1: is bigger than ever. Well, you know, I could like 607 00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:38,960 Speaker 1: paper posters, postcards, photographs, business cards, catalogs, flash sheets. If 608 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:41,880 Speaker 1: it's on paper, I like it. I think if I 609 00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:46,200 Speaker 1: had my collection to start over again, could be exclusively 610 00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:50,839 Speaker 1: business cards. I think that business cards give us the 611 00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:57,160 Speaker 1: biggest indication of that person's sense of humor, their professionalism, 612 00:40:57,760 --> 00:41:03,799 Speaker 1: their spelling abilities, and their artistic ability, more so than 613 00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:07,920 Speaker 1: any other single item that's around the tattoo world. I 614 00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:10,520 Speaker 1: think the business cards are fascinating and and they're easy 615 00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:14,680 Speaker 1: to store. First of all, they may have a locator 616 00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:18,319 Speaker 1: next to the Greyhound bus station. They will give you 617 00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:21,160 Speaker 1: an indication of how many designs. Oh, we have a 618 00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:24,640 Speaker 1: hundred thousand tattoo designs to choose from. We work in 619 00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:30,200 Speaker 1: fourteen colors, we use English needles. The card just kind 620 00:41:30,239 --> 00:41:33,920 Speaker 1: of spiels out what the person was saying, if he 621 00:41:34,040 --> 00:41:37,280 Speaker 1: was describing his business to you, and it's all there 622 00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:40,360 Speaker 1: on that three and a half by two inch little 623 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:43,160 Speaker 1: piece of paper. And then then sometimes on the back 624 00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:48,080 Speaker 1: there's a cartoon that's clever. They're just full of information. 625 00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:52,880 Speaker 1: Throughout the archive you'll find a vast collection of tattoo styles, 626 00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:56,640 Speaker 1: spanning across different time periods and distant parts of the globe. 627 00:41:57,160 --> 00:41:59,839 Speaker 1: I asked Chuck what he thinks is the common link 628 00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:05,160 Speaker 1: between all these tattoo traditions. Tattoo pigment under the skin, 629 00:42:06,360 --> 00:42:11,320 Speaker 1: that is the connector for all of it, regardless of 630 00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:16,360 Speaker 1: what they call it, what color it is, what color 631 00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:21,640 Speaker 1: the skin is, how well it's done, that is the 632 00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:27,120 Speaker 1: tying end point. And with that is the idea that 633 00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:31,200 Speaker 1: the person wants to wear this, They want to have 634 00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:35,960 Speaker 1: this image on them for the world to see. And 635 00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:39,759 Speaker 1: that's the connector. It's elementary. It goes back to the 636 00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:43,720 Speaker 1: whole d n a thing of why did these people 637 00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:48,440 Speaker 1: come in and say I need this tattoo? What is that? 638 00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:53,440 Speaker 1: What is that drive? And that drive, obviously is is 639 00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:57,160 Speaker 1: varied as the people walking into the shop. I believe 640 00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:02,160 Speaker 1: that's the link. That is the physical idea of wearing 641 00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:07,279 Speaker 1: a tattoo and facing what you might not understand as 642 00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:11,200 Speaker 1: far as pain, healing, repercussions from your family. What's your 643 00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:14,520 Speaker 1: mother going to think? Being willing to face that and 644 00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:18,000 Speaker 1: go Okay, I want this mark. This mark is important. 645 00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:20,920 Speaker 1: Those Marie tattoos, their whole life story was told on 646 00:43:20,960 --> 00:43:24,799 Speaker 1: their face. If you could look at your tattoos and 647 00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:28,319 Speaker 1: knew what the meanings of them were to you, those 648 00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:31,279 Speaker 1: tattoos would tell the story of your life. We're all 649 00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:34,680 Speaker 1: the same, We're still all the same. No no matter 650 00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:39,000 Speaker 1: how sophisticated we dress ourselves, or what clever haircut we've got, 651 00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:42,120 Speaker 1: or what cute accent we have, Well, we're all in 652 00:43:42,160 --> 00:44:18,120 Speaker 1: this boat together. Yeah, Yeah life. This episode of Ephemeral 653 00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:21,360 Speaker 1: was written and assembled by Trevor Young and produced with 654 00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:25,239 Speaker 1: Max and Alex Williams. Chuck Eldridge is the founder of 655 00:44:25,280 --> 00:44:29,640 Speaker 1: the Tattoo Archive, which you can bruise on tattoo archive 656 00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:33,560 Speaker 1: dot com. And special thanks to Josh May, the tattoo 657 00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:36,959 Speaker 1: artist we recorded working on Trevor's arm. You can find 658 00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:40,360 Speaker 1: Josh and his work on Instagram at j m a 659 00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:44,240 Speaker 1: y underscore a t L. If you'd like to share, 660 00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:47,120 Speaker 1: we'd love to see your tattoos and hear the stories 661 00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:52,120 Speaker 1: behind them. Find us online at Ephemeral dot show from 662 00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:54,799 Speaker 1: our podcast through my Heart Radio, visit the i heart 663 00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:58,520 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 664 00:44:58,520 --> 00:44:59,280 Speaker 1: favorite shows.