A.Sanchez

I was born in Long Beach and grew up in Wilmington, Pedro, Long Beach. My Dad, Uncles and my godfather all have tattoos from the Pike. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be like them. I wanted to go one step further and be heavily tattooed, circus style coverage. Through getting tattooed in the bay area, hanging out in shops, and then getting a counter job I fell in love with the craft. then came apprenticeship and 7 years later i'm still in love...

I will have to take some pics with my camera tommorrow..the ones i am taking with my phone do not tell the whole story...but believe me...he is a monster....and he will never forgive me for posting something he wouldnt want out there...
so is Angelo Miller and Mike Bruce at inksmith and rogers....Poor Angelo...every tattoo he does is either before or after one Mike wilson does....Tattooers get his Ink products they are calling it "Time Tells"....and Mike Bruce...he works at the Atlantic Blvd shop....real low key but just amazing...Eric inksmiths forearm...i thought Rollo did it but it was Mike Bruce....
All three do not care for alot of attention...but they are all real real good....
It is funny...there are so so many good tattooers now.....

So I'm pretty much a packrat. And I have 1000s of hours of VHS video in various rubber maids around my house. Some commercially produced stuff. Some literally one of a kind transfers of old 8mm films that were left to me when older friends passed away.
I found out last night that my "dazzle" video hub doesn't work with a mac, so I put an order in for a Apple compatible device. Soon I'll be transcoding old films to digital.
I'll try to remember to post links to anything I put on youtube here, though some of the footage (Cliff Raven tattooing naked) may not be everyone's cup of tea so I'll use discretion.
First up is some NON naked Raven, some classic Realistic Tattoo stuff with Hardy, Irons, Salmon, Zulueta and the gang. Just have to wait for the hardware to arrive!

I have thought long and hard about this and have changed my approach from time to time. I tend to be a workaholic, and I have made a general rule to keep work at work and spend my days off doing things other then tattoo related drawing. I try and clear the visual tattoo clutter out of my head by spending time with family, going to a museum, seeing a movie or show, or just going for a walk/hike or getting out on my bike. I feel like this approach has recharged my intentions and inspiration more then when i use to spend every waking moment searching for reference and thinking about my clients for the upcoming week.
I try and have one day out of a work week (Wednesday for me, which is my Monday) where i sit down and knock out as many drawings for clients as I can. If that means coming in to the shop at 9am I'll do that. No music, no clients, no one else there yet. I just get out my references and start knocking out appointment drawings in order of priority. I find my brain and hand really respond to that kind of intention to just sit down and draw rather then trying to cram drawing time in between appointments and walk ins. And for those kind of appointments I try and have it all work out and ok'd so when appointment time comes i can just sit down and tattoo.
I also got a really good tip from one of my other tattoo buddies to draw tiny. Like with a mechanical pencil to start with. Really little...like 1" x 2" no matter how big the tattoo is. Just to rough out a thumbnail of how i want everything to fit compositionally. and then once i like it in mini form I'll blow up that thumbnail and start working that way. It saves me so much time and energy. I'm not fully rendering things out that the client wants me to completely change. I show them the little guy and explain it to them and if they are into the idea i render it out.
Also I started having a day once a week were me and 4 other tattooers meet up and draw and paint for ourselves. No talking about tattoos, or work and the images can be whatever we want. We all just bring a bunch of supplies and see what happens. It's been great for inspiration and productivity.
Mario I think redrawing is okay if you don't drive it into the ground. I think artists need to tap into their intuition and go with what feels natural. I can always see it in my head and just try and get it down on paper. But i also always ask the imput of my co-workers "what looks weird? what doesn't work? how would you approach this?"
okay i feel like i'm rambling now........

Yeah one of the most inspiring influences in my tattoo life is Henry Lewis. He reintroduced the idea to me ( I had learned this in art school but let it fall by the wayside) after starting at Skull and Sword. Those guys are on some tattoo warrior shit. Henry has been open to starting over and taking instruction to better his tattooing and the tiny drawing thing is big over there. Seeing a wall sized cork board full of tiny drawings of back pieces and sleeves was pretty mindblowing.

we've been rocking this "Out on the Floor" northern soul comp a lot lately, and Barry White.
It's super relaxing and when we get the customers who say, wow I've never heard this in a tattoo shop before
I take that as compliment