mario desa

this past june i was in LA and went to SPOTLIGHT for the first time. man, i hadn't felt that intimidated in a shop since i first went into one in the early 90's...so cool though.

do you still use your butcher skills?

chad...you have tricks AND knowledge! lizzie, you're right, too many guys with barely five years in bitch about doing walk-ins and are fed up with customers. i don't get it, it's the best profession out there. or at 5 years in they think they are above paying a percentage and think they have their dues paid. yeah, it can be frustrating, and we all lose our cool sometimes, but at 5 years or less that's ridiculous.

my first trip to san francisco, in 99, made a big impression on me. i was barely tattooing for two years and went out there with julio and our friend brian to get tattooed by scott at 222. i'll never forget walking into that shop and seeing all the HAND PAINTED flash they had up. and not just "cool" stuff, but kanji and tribal sheets they painted! while i was there juan did a tribal tattoo, and that really stuck with me. also, stopped by tattoo city and jef whitehead was doing a kanji. that was a big lesson in humility in this craft. that no matter how big a "name" you may have, you are still a tattooer!

hell yeah, get tattooed by good tattooers, people who have ten yrs or more in this craft! not the local hotshot internet sensation who knows some color blending tricks. i mean KNOWLEDGE.

there's LOTS of fat, unhealthy vegans/vegetarians out there. haha...not eating meat is not an automatic perfect health!

plenty of vegan food is pastas, soy, fried, and packed with calories.

what these two guys above said. plus, making tattooing your priority, not skateboarding, music, drinking, etc. that should go without saying, but i see it all around in this business. tattooing is not for subsidizing your partying or hobbies.

not that we can't blow off steam or have other interests, but it shows in your work, and attitude at work when tattooing is not your priority, or vocation, as it should be.

we have thursday night as our designated family tv/dinner night, saturday nights are date night, sunday-monday (my days off) are about getting stuff done/running errands and NOT drawing or painting. i don't bring any work home.

as we've talked about, its rough working til midnight with a family. on the one hand it can be a fun and busy shift, but i'd love to be able to put my son to bed every night and spend some time just being at home. i think just being there, at night is important. even if kathy and henry are both asleep, i feel good just being home, and i know they appreciate that i wasn't out somewhere instead of being home.

worked at...

-absolute tattoo, milwaukee

-steve's tattoo, madison wi

-deluxe tattoo, chicago

-chicago tattoo co., chicago

guest spots, or at least one tattoo...

-south street tattoo, philadelphia

-marks of art, san jose

-ink factory, hudson wi

-uptown tattoo, minneapolis

-aloha monkey, burnsville mn

-atlas tattoo, portland or

-powerhouse tattoo, nj

-saved tattoo, brooklyn

-namebrand, ann arbor mi

-inkrat, tokyo japan

-liberty tattoo, atlanta