Love Hate Tattoo
1360 Washington Ave.
Miami, FL
305- 531-4556
chrisgarvertattoo.com

Chris Garver is a reluctant rock star of the tattoo world. Being celebrated in tattooing’s inner circle is one thing but being a reality star was another, so he’s tried to skirt the limelight since Miami Ink. Although little has been heard from the man in the flat cap, he has much to share. On his blog, he regularly posts new tattoos and art, from his dragons and irezumi work to black-and-gray pieces and a simple Superman logo tattoo that he somehow made pop. Even the big, beautiful, intricate pictures on his site are accompanied only by a spare line or two of explication. Graciously, Garver gave INKED some of his time and artwork—and more insight into his life than ever before.


INKED: You’ve credited music and skating with your introduction to tattooing. How did they influence you early on?

Chris Garver: Well, I got into skateboarding around 1980, and by ’82 me and my friends were reading Thrasher magazine and reading punk rock band reviews. By the time I was 12 I was going to see punk rock shows. I was seeing acts like the Clash, Suicidal Tendencies. I guess I got lucky in that I grew up around all that stuff. By the time I was 14 I was checking out the New York hardcore scene like Agnostic Front and the Cro-Mags, and they were heavily tattooed. Most of my friends at the time were a couple years older, so they started getting tattooed and I would go with them. I remember the whole experience and it was great. I was like, That’s what I want to do.

How did you start tattooing?

I got started when I was about 17, and after an apprenticeship that didn’t quite work out I was sort of tattooing on my own. I was working out of my house and things started to come together. I remember this one kid, he wanted me to tattoo a whole dragon sleeve on him, it came out pretty good considering how long I’d been tattooing. Anyway, it wound up getting the attention of Jonathan Shaw and Filip Leu from Fun City Tattoo. They ran into this kid at a convention. That’s when I started working for Jonathan, around 1991.
You worked with him at Fun City? Well, Jonathan decided to open up a street shop on St. Mark’s [Place, in New York City]. It was somewhat of a street shop because, at the time, tattooing was illegal. The first Fun City was actually in Jonathan’s apartment. This was his second shop. I guess technically it was Fun City II. It was pretty underground, it didn’t say “Tattoo” on the front of the building or anything. There was no sign, but it was the closest you could get to having a visible walk-in shop in New York City at the time.

What did it look like? How did people know it was a shop?

It didn’t look like anything, really. It was basically a studio apartment that we’d converted. People would hear about it and they’d have to call from a pay phone down the block. We’d ask them what they looked like and then our shop assistant would go down to the corner and get them.

What was it like to tattoo after it was first legalized?

That first year was pretty bad, you know? Some of these guys were just scratchers and they were popping up everywhere. All of a sudden it was a free-for-all in New York. Every head shop had a tattooer working there and nobody gave a shit what kind of skill level these guys had. I don’t think it did much good for tattooing, and all it meant for the city was that they could collect business license revenue. I remember taking the licensing exam—I was shocked. It was an open-book, multiple-choice test. Basically, if you knew how to read you could become a tattoo artist.

After New York you moved to Miami. What brought you there?

I used to just come down to Miami for the winter. Then I guess I started liking it and wound up moving there for a few years. Then I’d get bored, move back to New York, then get bored and move back to Miami. It isn’t really a big tattoo town, and there aren’t many old shops. There isn’t much of an art scene down here.

Why do you think they decided to film Miami Ink there?

I’m not sure why they chose Miami. I can think of a million other places to do it. There had already been so many reality shows about the city that I think we seemed like a fresh idea. To tell the truth, I don’t understand people that make television. I don’t see what their vision is.

How did you wind up tattooing in Japan?

I’d been to Japan a few times; I started visiting there in 1999 and after a few trips I was asked to work at Three Tides for six months.

You do a lot of Japanese-style tattoos. Is that something that you had always done or did Japan bring it out of you?

I actually went out there expecting to do mostly Western designs. I didn’t think anyone over there would want to get a Japanese piece from me. But it wound up being a lot like the scene over here. I would do about 50 percent Japanese and the other half would be Americana and realistic stuff. It’s just like how Americans like to get Japanese designs, and find that style exotic and exciting—the Japanese feel the same way about our eagles and panthers and all that kind of stuff.

Where does your fascination with dragons come from?

Ever since I was a little kid—even before I thought about tattooing—I was always fascinated by them. Every human culture has its own version of what a dragon is. I love tattooing dragons because they are powerful images, and there’s so many ways you can draw them. You can give each one a different personality. I never get tired of it.

Is there a different artistic process in tattooing Japanese style than, say, traditional?

I’ve talked to some guys that were tattooing during World War II and basically, to them, any tattoo that takes more than 15 to 20 minutes is shit, no matter what. I mean, there’s some great traditional stuff now, but then there’s not. Some of it seems a little anachronistic to me. But then again, I tattoo a ton of Japanese imagery but I’m not a Japanese tattooer. I’m a commercial artist.