In the begining.....

As an illustrator or artist I would work with pen and ink on paper. Many hours of tiny strokes, attempting to get everything in the right place, making an image pleasing enough to the eye to make people want to keep them. This gave my artistic efforts some permanence, and me some satisfaction. As I sat in a coffee shop working away on whatever project of day had taken my fancy, occasionally a passer by would stop and comment. On more than one occasion I would be asked if I was a Tattooist, quiet often by someone who looked as though they might have been. When I answer "no" they would scurry away. I would later learn that my particular methods of inking paper would translate directly from pen to tattoo machine. I would also learn that the reason for the rapid departure of these knowledgeable passers by was that they knew this fact even if I didn't. Such is the secretive nature of the tattoo world that all information is guarded feverishly, and excluding that knowledge from outsiders to prevent them from entering the profession. I don't think it should work that way, so I set out to learn....