When most people think of what the benefits of being a tattoo artist are, I bet they think of the ability to travel and work anywhere, becoming friends with people all over the globe, and being your own boss. Now, there are other industries and jobs that have all of those benefits as well, but they are either too corporate, or they do not have the potential to be as lucrative and satisfying. Im sure I will get some flak for associating becoming a tattoo artist with wanting to earn lots of money, but I believe that is a big reason why a lot of people take this path in life. Being a tattoo artist allows you to be a free spirit and maintain your artistic integrity, yet it provides a relatively consistent stream of money. This is so incredibly rare in the art world!
Recently, I had the chance to interview a tattoo artist that embodies all of the above, while not being an overly egotistical person. If you are heavily involved within this great industry, then you have no doubt heard of this industry legend, even though he would not consider himself one..ladies and gentleman, may I present my interview with the fabled Adam Sky. Everyone on this planet, or at least everyone that can read English, should read this interview to learn about Adam Skys amazing life and journey. Not only has Adam Sky had an incredible career, he was also one of the first tattoo artists to bring the industry into the online world by starting Tattoodles, an online tattoo reference database.
By this point, you must be thinking, Let me see some of this Adam Skys artwork! Well, I was just about to get to that, but here ya go you impatient people!
Have you always had some sort of interest in tattoos?
I got my first tattoo when I was 17 years old, passing through Ottawa at the time. Me and a friend stole a car in Kingston and were driving to Montreal just for something to do. I found a head shop that had tattooing in the back and got tattooed an old biker named Patty. The tattooer looked like Santa Claus in a leather vest and he had Fuck the Warden hand poked in big letters on his forearm. With a ballpoint pen, I doodled a punk rock skull with bat wings on some yellow fullscap and he ran it through the stencil machine and tattooed it on my arm. He kept taking breaks every five minutes to do drug deals in the back room. When he finished, he said my tattoo looked buzzy and then he asked me for I.D.. When I didnt have I.D. (nor was I 18), he blew his top and threw me out of the shop. That was my welcome to the world of tattooing.
How did you get your start in tattooing? Why did you choose this path?
I started scratching at 18. I moved from Toronto to Vancouver in 1986 and got my hands on some homemade tattoo guns soon after. I knew that finding an apprenticeship was the correct way to go about breaking in to the business, but this was during an era when tattooing in Canada was very much controlled by outlaw motorcycle gangs and closed off to outsiders. I continued scratching out of my house in East Vancouver until 1993 when I opened Sacred Heart Tattoo on Vancouvers affluent west side. I purposely chose a location that was the furthest away from any other local tattoo shop, without falling into the Pacific Ocean. Soon after opening, I brought on some tattoo artists who were huge influences in uplifting my tattooing to a professional level, such as Dave Nicholson, Rob Hope, Percy Lemaigre, and Bill Baker. I owned Sacred Heart until 1996 and then sold it, choosing to then spend a few years traveling throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe full-time tattooing on the road after being inspired by the gypsy ways of Theo Jak, who visited my shop as a traveling tattooer in the summer of 1995.
Do you feel like you starting as a scratcher has hurt or helped your tattooing career thus far? Why?
Starting out as a scratcher means starting out in the basement versus starting on the first floor. Being self-taught was a grueling introduction to tattooing that is vastly inferior to being brought in via an apprenticeship. I scratched for almost five years, until I finally fell in with some more experienced tattooers who would help to deprogram all of my backwards ideas about how I thought tattoos were meant to be applied.
So, do you think you would have been better off being an apprentice? Or are you happy with the way you got your introduction into the industry?
Of course I would have much preferred to have been apprenticed in the beginning, and it wasnt for any lack of trying. As I mentioned, as a teenage punk rocker growing up in the 80s I couldnt have been further, culturally speaking, from the outlaw biker community that had tattooing sewn up. I visited every tattoo shop in a 100 kilometre radius of Vancouver, asking about apprenticeship opportunities and no one was interested in my (overwhelming) enthusiasm or my (complete in-)abilities. I dont slight them for it because A) I was a self-entitled art school brat and B) tattooing was much more subversive and marginalized at the time, which meant less tattooing to go around. I remember being told that the city wasnt giving out any more tattoo licenses, so dont even try to enter the business. This was total horse shit of course as the city of Vancouver has never required anyone to have a license to tattoo, but I believed that tale for years.
Being a traveling tattoo artist must have been incredibly exciting. What was it like being on the road full-time? Any interesting stories or adventures from that time?
Traveling and tattooing I think is a necessary step in becoming a well-rounded, versatile tattooer. I had the fortune of being introduced to some really fantastic environments for learning that I otherwise would never have experienced if I hadnt forced myself out of my bubble world that I created for myself owning and running Sacred Heart. When I abandoned Vancouver for a life on the road, I simply loaded up the saddle bags of my motorcycle with clothes and tattoo equipment and rode south towards San Francisco. I would wander in to tattoo shops with my portfolio and just ask if they needed help. From one shop Id be recommended to be a guest at another shop in another town through the vast network of friends and peers in the tattoo community. I spent some time living in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami, and then back to my birthplace of Toronto. I was exposed to a lot of different cultures in tattooing by way of my travels; from tattooing celebrities on the Sunset Strip to slinging babby-momma names all day on gangbangers in The French Quarter. I think that time spent in the wind help to define my character as a tattooer.
How would you describe your character as a tattoo artist now? What aspects of that was defined by your time traveling?
I was very fortunate to have fallen in with some incredible tattooers during my travels. For instance, at Tattoo Mania in Los Angeles I worked alongside giant legends in the industry like Charlie Roberts, Clay Decker, Gil Montie, and Mark Mahoney. I was newly off the boat from Canada at that time and I had only really known working at my own shop as the boss. I sort of feel sorry for tattooers who own their own shops and never hire or work alongside tattooers who are superior to them with their tattooing. I know a few tattooers who are like this. Their egos have to be propped up every day in a sort of charade of superiority. Being exposed to some seriously heavy talent, after years of thinking that I was the shit, was brutally humbling. For instance, I will never forget Mark Mahoney impressing upon me that each and every customer who came to Tattoo Mania were to be treated exactly the same like solid gold. It didnt matter if that customer was a celebrity (to which we tattooed daily at that shop) or was a gang banger from East L.A. everyone got the same high level of service and appreciation. Its exposure to these calibre of tattooers that inspired me to not just tattoo, but to constantly endeavour to better myself.
Wow, you truly got to work alongside some tattoo legends! What was it like working in LA and that shop back then?
I had a great experience working at Tattoo Mania in L.A. This was the mid-90s. An era in tattooing was coming to a close the pre-internet, pre-tattoo reality show era, and Tattoo Mania was an old school tattoo shop staffed by old school tattooers and the shop had Hollywood on lock-down for talent and reputation. Tattoo Mania was open until 2AM every night, and some nights that meant working until the wee hours of the morning as people would continue to roll in to get tattooed, sometimes until the sun came up. There were no appointments, it was all just walk-in, first come, first serve and every night some celebrity would wander in like any other walk-in to get something done. Tattoo Mania was directly across the street from the infamous Viper Room (Johnny Depps bar) and The Whisky A-Go-Go was just on the corner. From my work station, I could see the spot where River Phoenix perished on the sidewalk.
Can I just say, I am beyond jealous that you had the opportunity to work in that atmosphere in such an amazing area and time! Obviously, you must have some crazy stories from that time. What are some of the best ones?
In 1997, I worked at Blue Devil in Ybor City, which is a district of Tampa, Florida. My work station was the closest to the front door of the shop. One afternoon the door opens and in walks one of the artists from a rival tattoo shop up the street. He was being held at knife point by someone pressed up against his back. The man holding the knife had a fresh, still bleeding red and black tribal tattoo on his cheek.
The man with the knife looks at me and asks, Hey! What colour is this tattoo? pointing at the oozing facial tattoo with his knife.
Black and red, I deadpan back at him.
The man with the knife yells, Goddamnit, youre fucking lucky! at his captive and lets him go with a push. The newly released tattoo artist looks exasperated and relieved, and tells me that the guy with the knife asked for a black and red tribal tattoo on his face. When the tattoo was done, he didnt believe that there was any red put in the tattoo. It turns out that the client was colour blind and all he could see was grey instead of red. The tattooer assured him that it was red, but a fight broke out over the matter and the client pulled out a knife and then pulled the artist out of the shop.
I may have saved a mans life that day.
Wow, I am a little speechless at that story, haha. Did the guy just walk out after he let go of the artist? I have so many questions right now, like how did the guy not know he was color blind?? Once you stopped being a traveling tattooer, what was your next stop?
I returned to Vancouver in 1998 after being invited to come back to work at Sacred Heart. The shops new owner had set up a dream team of Canadian tattooers and I was really excited to play a role in this collective of incredible talent. Steve Moore, Chad Woodley, Craig Driscoll, and Bill Baker were all residents of Sacred Heart at that time. I was happy to be back in Vancouver; to have my own apartment again after living out of my saddle bags for all that time on the road. I stayed at Sacred for several years and during this time of personal stability I started Tattoodles, which was the first ever tattoo design download website. I ran Tattoodles and the Read Street Forum for over ten years and both entities were incredibly successful and stayed relevant for a long time in a volatile, burgeoning web environment.
After seven years of being with Sacred Heart, I left in 2005 to open my own private studio in Gastown in Vancouver. I felt that being in a street shop was no longer necessary and that a more personal, intimate environment like a private studio was the future of tattooing, at least for me and my tattooing.
After all of that, how did you end up in San Francisco?
I moved to San Francisco in 2011. San Francisco had always been my favourite American city with its natural and architectural beauty. My wife works in the video game industry and when she was offered a job working for Playstations corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley, we jumped at the chance to relocate from cold ass Canada to year-long mild Northern California.
Once you moved to San Francisco, what brought you to Rose Gold? Did you know the shop and the artists before moving?
I moved to San Francisco without first securing a shop to work at. The focus of the move was for my wifes career and I figured my job was portable enough that I could find a shop that needed an experienced and reliable tattoo artist without much fuss. Boy, was I in for a rude awakening! San Francisco is legendary as a magnet for immigrant tattooers and with the stratospheric cost of living in the City, it is not an easy assimilation for anyone coming to town to tattoo.
It took me about a year to find my spot at Rose Golds. The first several months of living in a new city is about just getting your bearings. After being so entrenched and established for so long at home in Vancouver, I knew it was important to find the right shop for my work to be introduced to my new community. It was Ben Matthews, an old friend from my New Orleans days who suggested Rose Golds. Ben and I have worked on and off together at various shops around the U.S. for over 20 years. Its funny how tattooing can be so nomadic that by complete coincidence you can work with the same people as you move around the country during the course of your career.
Anyhow, Rose Golds has really been a breakout success coming in to our second year in business. Its just a great shop to work at! Its a big, beautiful shop with a spired ceiling and a tons of light from million windows and skylights. A lot of TLC went in to making the shop look like a fucking day spa, which seems to attract a lot of fashionable, young female clientele, so I cant complain.
Are you planning on staying at Rose Golds for the foreseeable future? Or do you think there is a chance you open your own shop again?
Im pretty grateful to be at Rose Golds for now. The shop has a great crew and I think weve been successful at building a good reputation in our first couple years in business, and I feel that right now Rose Golds is a good fit for me. Inevitably, I hope to build a private studio environment in San Francisco drawing from lessons I learned in Vancouver because I think its an environment that San Francisco clients would really enjoy, but for the time being Rose Golds is my home.
Leading up to this point in your career, has there been anyone that has mentored you or guided you at all? You mentioned the legendary Mark Mahoney earlier, did you pick his brain at all about the art?
I like to think that every tattooist I work with has something to teach me. Mark is of course an amazingly talented black and grey tattooer and the opportunity I had to work elbow to elbow with him for a few months was priceless, but the real thing I gleaned from working with Mark was how to be a gentleman tattooer. Mark Mahoney is the embodiment of what it means to be a class act tattoo artist. Although the surface layer was silk shirts, pressed trousers, and convertible Cadillacs, Mark had a code of conduct that he worked by that I handily adopted.
Even when working alongside less experienced tattooers, I still look for unique angles theyve created for themselves with their tattooing and try to figure out ways that I can adopt it to my own work. This could be art, technique, or even just how to have a better bedside manner with my clients.
What are some of the most important parts of Mark Mahoneys codes of conduct? You mentioned him teaching you that every customer was to be treated like solid gold, but what else is there to it? Do you think all tattoo artists should follow this code? Why or why not?
Perhaps its a maturity thing, but Ive worked around plenty of tattooers who allow the drama in their personal lives to permeate and complicate their work lives and inevitably drag their coworkers in to a spiralling black hole of drug, alcohol, and baby-mamma drama. My credo, which is an extension of what I learned from Mark and many other tattooers, revolves around a focus of the customers needs always coming first and my personal bullshit and sense of self entitlement as a rock star tattooist never factoring in to the equation.
For instance, I cant understand how some tattooers cant figure out how to make it to work on time for noon. Dude, its noon. Also, Im always sure to have my clients artwork done on time and I dont take it personally when a client requests a revision to their design. But this is mostly about managing your ego in your art. Its no coincidence that the most talented and inspiring artists Ive met are almost always the most humble, down to earth people. Theres a zen to being a highly productive, successful tattooer and those artists who struggle with being successful are most often people who invite and nurture drama in their personal lives. Sure, we all have daily drama but its about how we manage and diffuse drama as well as how we use our art as a tool to center ourselves. A great way to actively engage a positive and productive outlook for your tattooing is to create a basic code of conduct with regards to work.
For instance, make punctuality your priority. Ensure that your artwork is on time and your tattoo station is set up and ready to go when your client arrives. Dont rush your artwork. Dont design any tattoo that you wouldnt put on yourself (meaning quality, not the weird fucked up shit clients ask for). Know your limitations but strive to improve your work so your limitations are lessened and the scope of your ability keeps growing as you improve with your craft.
Ive got to say, these are simple little things that every tattoo artist should follow, but Ive met plenty that somehow do not seem to know about them at all. You should definitely be teaching these to anyone that will listen. Do you spread these around to other tattooers?
I keep a tattoo artist blog where I talk a lot about ethics in tattooing. Its sort of the underlying current of all my writing; my feelings on the ethics of making tattoos.
This question seems to be tricky for a lot of tattoo artists, but Ill ask it anyway.Do you have some favorite tattoo artists? Maybe a top 5 or a top ten? What about some tattoo artists that influence the work that you do?
Im a big, big fan of fellow Canadian tattooers. Very few tattooers in the United States have been paying attention to the insane shit that their neighbors to the north put out. My biggest influences have been the artists Ive worked alongside up in Vancouver, such as Steve Moore, Craig Driscoll, Samantha Smith, Bill Baker, Rob Hope, Dave Nicholson, Miles Kanne, and a million more excellent dudes. These guys go virtually unknown in circles down here in California, but collectively, all of these artists from the Canadian community have managed to create what I think is a style of Canadian tattooing that is totally recognizable to a sophisticated eye.
My good friend Dave Allen at Hold Fast Stay Gold is making a film right now about the historical importance of Canadian tattooers from the mid nineties until the present. It should be really cool.
If you had to get tattooed by one artist, who would you choose and why? What would you get?
These days, smart tattooers know to find a style of tattooing that they excel at and specialize in that style. Its still good to be versatile of course, but with just so many tattooers working in every city, to stand out and become successful its really important to recognize, develop, and nurture a style of work that youre excited about as an artist. So all that said, Im not someone who is interested in only getting tattooed by one artist. I enjoy collecting. I totally understand wanting to source out one artist that you want to stick with because trusting someone doesnt come easy. But I get too excited about getting different tattoos from different artists.
I completely understand what you mean. I couldnt stand just getting all my tattoos from one guy, so I try to find the best artists in many different styles. Going along with this, are there any artists that you are excited to get tattooed by in the future?
Currently I have hopes to get tattooed again by my pal Stefan Johnsson from California Electric Tattoo in Santa Cruz. I also hope to get tattooed by my old friend Rob Hope from Maple Ridge, B.C. and although weve been talking back and forth for years about me getting tattooed by Bob Tyrell, I will make it happen one day now that Bobs making regular visits to the Bay Area as of late. Id also love to get tattooed by Kore Flatmo sometime.
How many hours of work do you have on your body so far? Are any of them more important than the others?
Ive lost count on how many hours I have on me. Its more like how many years I have on me, not hours.
Years? That is damn impressive! What was the last one that you got?
Stefan Johnsson tattooed my foot recently. I want him to tattoo my neck next. Stefans work is mature beyond his years.
You mentioned starting the well-known site Tattoodles. Id love to know why you started it in the first place. Was there a big need for the site? What was the industrys reaction to it?
Tattoodles was conceived in the late 90s as a way for tattooers to store and share tattoo art and reference material. At that time, the saying went that a tattoo shop was no better than its reference library. I thought it would be rad to create an archive of tattoo reference that all artists could share regardless of location. I was just getting interested in how tattooing could integrate with the internet something that very few tattooers were embracing, but I could see that internet technology was the next frontier for our industry and I recognized that the timing was right to actualize my ideas in to something functional that other like-minded tattooers could enjoy.
Tattoodles went live in 2001 and it was very well received, although most tattooers found the name revolting. The name came from legendary Oakland tattooer Phil Sparrows autobiography Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos. A Tattoodle was Phils pet name for little banger tattoos. I wanted a name that was a little cheeky, but it came at the cost of some tattooers not taking what I was doing very seriously because of it.
Tattoodles was very successful, however, right from the get go. I did my absolute best to accommodate professional tattooers and create an online experience that was as resourceful as I could make it. I figured that Id make a service that I desperately needed to enhance my tattooing, and hopefully other tattooers would find it valuable as well. I eventually sold my interest in the company shortly before moving to San Francisco. Paul Roe, a tattooer from D.C., acquired the site in 2011. When I sold the business, I wanted to be sure that it was another tattoo artist that took the helm. The sale of Tattoodles included the Read Street Forum, which was the largest and most comprehensive tattoo artist discussion forum ever created, and it was important that 10 years of technical discussion and information stored on our servers didnt wind up in the hands of Disney, or some other corporate bullshit.
That is quite amazing! Were there any educational elements to Tattoodles and the Read Street Forum?
Yes, there are thousands upon thousands of technical discussions about tattooing archived on the Read Street Forum.
Lets talk about a little bit of a deeper subject. How do you think modern society perceives tattooed individuals? Are there still taboos surrounding this industry? Is any of this improving at all? Why?
Its not really possible to have a blanket statement that answers that question effectively because how other people react to tattooed people in their community is cultural and region specific. Whats accepted and whats taboo with being a tattooed person will be completely different depending on where you are in the world. Here in San Francisco, nobody will look at you twice for having really public tattoos because San Francisco has a long, rich history of high quality tattooing, and the city is full of freaks. Is tattooing as a whole becoming more culturally acceptable, at least in North American culture? Sure. If I can do more elaborate, challenging tattooing because customers feel more confident in living with elaborate tattooing that wont interfere with their personal or professional lives, then Im all for it. Although I do miss the shock value of being a heavily tattooed person, you cant have it both ways.
Why do you miss the shock value that used to come with being heavily tattooed?
Having a tattoo used to mean that you were a bit of a scum bag, which I enjoyed. Having tattoos was like a filtering mechanism for meeting people. When someone was exposed to another person being tattooed, the reaction would vary from genuine interest to indifference to shock and revulsion. Im not a physically imposing person, but when people would see me coming in a short sleeve t-shirt, theyd sometimes cross the street to avoid me or lock their car doors if I was strolling through a liquor store parking lot. Now I get grandmas approaching me at the grocery store wanting to check out my sick ink.
What do you think of all the publicity surrounding tattoos now, especially with all the tv shows that exist now?
Miami Ink and the early tattoo reality cable TV shows beamed high quality, big custom tattooing in to the living rooms of middle America and changed the general perception of what tattooing was or could be. Large scale, elaborate, custom tattooing became accessible in a mainstream way, just the way MTV rock videos of the early 90s made tattooing something that celebrities adopted and therefore average people who worshiped celebrities would therefore also adopt.
A show like TLCs Ink Master is an excellent example of whats great and what sucks about how tattooing is portrayed on television. On one hand, you have a panel of tattoo artist judges who seem to care about the craft and want to expose and promote good tattooing, but the only way to draw in viewers is to ramp up bullshit, made up drama between the people featured as contestants on the show. I enjoy watching the process of tattoos being made on the show and the dissection of each tattoo into what was successful and what failed, but the bickering between artists is so convoluted and kind of insulting to the viewer. My hope is that media portrayal of tattooing will mature over time and become more sophisticated but Im not holding my breath.
Personally, I think there just needs to be a show like Tattoo Age to make it on tv for the media portrayal to change. Do you think that would work? Or is the media too focused on creating drama for ratings?
As much as many tattooers I know deride the tattoo shows for being too dramatic, in reality most of the tattooers I know personally, especially those whove been portrayed on television, are the types of personalities that attract buckets of drama in to their personal lives anyhow. Its a vicious circle. I dont try to focus on media portrayal of my industry too much because Id wind up hucking my TV in to the ocean. I imagine myself being an artist on reality TV, but nobody would watch because the story line of the show would include me riding my bicycle to work, drawing for 3 hours before the shop opens, then having a pleasant and cordial relationship with my coworkers, only for me to ride my bicycle home to my lovely wife and then Im in bed before 10pm. I make decent tattoos, but probably lousy television.
What do you wish tattoo collectors knew more about? Basically, what do you want to educate them on when it comes to tattooing and the industry?
I actually keep a blog called Tales From the Front Lines of the Tattoo Shop. My blog is dedicated to educating customers about tattooing. Check it out here.
Say someone came up to you and wanted to know the best way for them to get a tattoo, what would you tell them and why?
Put as much effort into researching your tattoo artist as you do researching your tattoo design. When you find an artist whose work youre really excited about working with, put your trust in that person and listen to their suggestions and advice.
If someone wanted to contact you about getting tattooed, what would be the best way to get in touch with you?
You can contact me through my web site, or if you want to keep up with my output on Instagram, you can find me @adamskytattoos.
Outside of tattooing, what do you enjoy doing?
Aside from tattooing, my passion is long distance motorcycle touring, long walks on the beach at sunset, and I hate moody days and rainy people.
And lastly, is there anyone that youd like to give a shout-out to or thank?
I want to thank all of the amazing tattooers whom Ive had a chance to work alongside over the past two decades for being all around awesome people and for allowing me to be part of their community, be it either here in San Francisco or back in Vancouver. I also want to thank all of my fantastic clients for putting your trust in me. I try to never forget how important each tattoo is that I do to the person whos wearing it and this thought keeps me humble and inspired.
If you want to learn more about Adam Sky, then there are a few things you should do: go to his website AdamSky.com, read his blog, and follow him on Instagram.
Travelling is my life
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