>> Do you ever feel like adhering to tradition stifles your creativity?

I think it’s important to give a tattoo that authentic feel. I have plenty of other outlets for my creativity. I can paint, and stuff where I can do whatever I want where there are no rules. I like following the rules—not in most outlets in life—but when it comes to tattoos I do. the thing about traditional tattoos is that when you pull it off, and it looks authentic, it’s something to be proud of right there. It feels good. there are a lot of people that want to put their personality into it, well, fine for them. I don’t need to express myself in that way.

>> While you have found a style that suits you, and you have been doing it for many years, is it still possible for you to learn new things?

You have got to keep learning. there are so many ways to do one picture. Most of them are wrong [laughs] but you have got to make those mistakes to learn them—just hope that you make those mistakes on paper first and not on skin. you can throw those away. the best you can do with skin is just deny that you made a mistake and then you are just lying to yourself. Lying to yourself is rampant based on how many comb-overs there are in this world.

>> Lately you have been having some health problems and you have been struggling to find health insurance. What’s going on?

Yeah, we’ve been trying to get insurance. I’ve got a double hernia going that needs to be operated on. That came from working in the shop. Complications from diabetes and just getting older, that’s life. you spend a lot of time feeling like you’re bulletproof, but it turns out life ain’t that way.

>> You’ve had some complications with your eyes—are you worried that will cause your eyesight to fail? As an artist that could be a big fear.

Well, I can see. The only problem is fatigue. If I get too tired my eyesight gets a little swimmy. I’ve had some bleeding behind the eyes and that made me really snap back and start taking care of myself. ... Damn, man, don’t bummer me out like that.

>> But the lifestyle of a tattoo artist can be cool and carefree. you get to travel and do what you love while making a living. but there are those downsides, like not having the stability of other jobs that might provide health insurance. Do you ever regret the life you chose?

It’s discipline. It’s all up to you. I am not the poster child for discipline, by any means. For a while I worked at a factory where I had to punch a time clock and follow a dress code. I worked in a refinery where there was a guy to check if you had shaved right when you came in the gate, in case you had to throw on a respirator. If you hadn’t shaved they gave you a bic and you had to go to the water fountain. Not a lot of laughing and smiling going on in that environment, just a lot of moaning and whining for a very small check. When I was working in the oil field I was also tattooing at night for a little while. It was pretty tiring but I was really young so I did it. My pop told me to keep my job in the oil field so that I would have insurance. I saw a guy get his fingers cut off one time. I saw a guy die. I thought, So that’s why you need the insurance here. Once I started making more money at night than I was all day at the oil field, that’s when I figured that I would just take my chances with the tattooing.

>> It’s at least a lot safer work environment.

I’ve never seen anyone get their fingers cut off tattooing. Not while tattooing, anyway. [Laughs.] I’ve heard of people getting their fingers chopped off because of tattooing, but not while tattooing.

>> Over the years tattoo culture has changed a great deal and become more “When I started out we had never hearD the term ‘American traditional.’
that’s just What a tattoo Was.” accepted—

You think? [Laughs.] there was no “tattoo culture” back then. All we had was the National tattoo Convention. When I started out there was one convention a year. Now they have become expos. It’s like gun shows: “Come on down Sunday if you want good deals, folks!”

>>How do you feel about all of the changes the industry has gone through?

I’m not one to bitch about it. It’s interesting to see how much it has grown; I never would have foreseen this. When I started tattooing I knew two people with tattoos: my dad and the guy who did his tattoos. My generation wasn’t interested in it. It was something that their dads had from the war. It used to be a cycle where every other generation liked it. you either got them because your parents didn’t have them, or you avoided them because your parents had them. Now I’ve tattooed whole families. Kids, parents, grandkids, whatever. Who cares? I remember when there was one book in the bookstore with tattoos in it. I saw this movie where a guy got a tattoo on his lip. It was called Jabberwalk [This Is America], and it was all about weird shit in America, at the drive-in. It just stuck in my head. My grandpa used to say, “Richard is always into the weird shit.” I lived in a little country town where nothing ever happened. I was attracted to anything strange or out of the ordinary. Everyone in my family was always petrified of snakes, so I became really interested in snakes.

>> Do you ever think that all of the ways tattoo styles have changed is bad for tattooing as a whole?

Some of the things those kids do with the realism, I admire it. I don’t have the desire to do it—I’ve found what I like to do and I’m going to stick to that. I don’t hate them for it. I want to see what it’s going to look like in 20 years, but there is no way to find out other than waiting 20 years. We’re going to have to wait and see. Some of it looks like it’s going to work, but it all depends on the adeptness of the hand that’s applying it. you see a lot of people trying to illustrate what they see, but they aren’t really getting it in there good. Going back to how it’s weird how tattooing became popular, look at all the things that have become popular. I got chased off of one of my girlfriend’s porches by her daddy because I was riding a motorcycle and I had tattoos. Now I imagine that if her daddy is still alive he probably has a little tattoo and is riding a Harley Softail and enjoying his retirement.