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You're listening to local programming produced in K, u and v studios.
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The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
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This is Ruben with the City of Stars podcast.
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Here I'm interviewing up and coming artists in the Las Vegas music scene. Let's get into today's episode.
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Hello.
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How's it going? Good. How are you? Live in the dream? Yes. Happy to be here. That's good to hear. How is
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life?
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A little crazy. A little crazy. You know, a lot going on. had family in town the last week. So it was through that hurt my feet. So I don't want that. I heard about that.
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All right. So, you know, I'm interviewing artists is Las Vegas. And we're talking about really cool. That's the killer
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was trying to be quiet. This mic is pretty good. So I thought I'd give yours.
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So we've got a really cool art. I think it's very like under the radar. And that's tattooing.
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I think other than like that, one show the ink ink masters, the masters. I don't really hear a lot about like, tattooing, and it's a really art. It's a legit, you know, passion. Lastly, your tattoos are amazing.
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I mean, like it's definitely one of those things that if you're kind of not around it too much, you're not going to see a ton of it. But pretty much all my like social media, everything like that. It's just all tattoos anymore. It's awesome to see them getting so much more like socially accepted
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most jobs anymore, it's not a complete no for you to get a job if you have visual tattoos or anything like that. So it's really nice to see the kind of that space expanding. Yeah, no, you know, with you cuz, you know, some of your attentions are visible. And how was it when you were when you got hired doing like, say anything that we got were like asleep, because I know some people he's always at Chick fil A, they're like the bathroom or like the shirts like long sleeves and stuff. So for my current job, I have a long sleeve like uniform, but that's just the uniform as is. Okay, so if I want to pull my sleeves up, that's fine. I mean, my hand is tattooed I have has in front of my ears, I have one technically on my face. So it's not like I can hide all of them. And most employers anymore, it really just comes down to who you are as a person. It's not necessarily as driven by your tattoos, of course, always going to be taken into consideration. You know, if I go up against somebody who isn't completely covered in tattoos, maybe the company would decide to go with them just because they're more culture fit. But if they didn't want my tattoos there, then it's probably not a company I want to work for anyways, without all I'm saying is, is really kind of like outdated. See, you don't need you can't learn tattoos and stuff. Like everyone has a tattoo. Yeah, I mean, I don't know why there's such a stigma to it. Most people do at this point. I have a lot of members of my family who really didn't love that I was getting tattooed at like 1819 years old.
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They now all went with my little cousins who started to get tattoos and got matching tattoos. So it's, they're seeing a lot more accepted. Just kind of I ever. It's, it's exciting to see. Yeah, it's true art. And the cool thing about it is you can buy a poster that'll sit in your room for the rest of your life and how many people are going to really see that posted? Or I can go get a tattoo. That is a beautiful piece of artwork that walks with me every single place I
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do that autosys To I do Yeah, well, it's not the same. See, I love just decoration for anything. stickers for things. Tattoos for me posters for my room, like anything I can do to just kind of make a space my own or make my body ion. Yeah. I love your tattoos. I was curious. What was your first tattoo? On my first tattoo? I was 15 years old. One of my friends got a tattoo machine. And he was like, What do you want? I was like, Oh, you can do it right here on my knee. Do whatever you want. Whatever you think is cool. I've been told to cover that about 1000 times but I love it and it's the most motivational tattoo I've ever received. Anytime I'm feeling down, just look right there. And so my best friend who did it actually has the same one. His is in black. Mine is in red after he did mine. I thought it was so funny. Did it on himself.
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My mom saw it when I was out here for spring break when I was 16. And I told her I drew it on and Sharpie the day before. So I had this thing with my mom for about a year and a half where she thought every single day I wrote my knee in Sharpie. Until one day I finally just told her like, no, that's, it's
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so you wrote it. So you made her believe you were writing it? But you were no, it was
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still there. Yep. Then my mom and my dad both hated begged me to cover it constantly.
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Well, not as much anymore. Now they're more so concerned about my hand, everything like that, you know, now that I have visible tattoos can't really. But they've grown to accept it to a degree. We touched
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on the money your hand. Well, so both my mom and my dad are completely no tattoos. Oh, really? Yeah. So it's just my brother. And we're both just, like covered me more so than him. But once you start tattooing, you kind of just end up with a ton of. So it looks like it really is. You know, you'll get one and then you're like, Oh, I really like how this looks. Maybe I'll try another small one here. You start small and just kind of work your way up and eventually look down and almost your whole body is covered in tattoos. Yeah. So for you, why do you like tattoo some other than it'd be like a personal deform. So I grew up listening mostly to metal.
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Oh, yeah. And that whole scene is very heavily tattooed, you know, gauges, piercings, the whole nightmare. And
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I feel like your taste in music when you're younger, really kind of shapes the style that you grow into. So I grown up I always wanted to dye my hair dark colors. I constantly asked if I could get piercings where my parents obviously really know. You're 14.
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And right when I turned about 1516, I just started doing it all myself, like I pierced my own years. With just the earrings. I didn't use a needle or anything I spotted just shoved them into my ears.
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And I was
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probably 15 When I did that. How's that didn't hurt as bad as you would expect it to I'm didn't feel great.
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But then I done. Technically my first tattoo was a little Stick and poke that I did with a pen that by dipping a safety pin down into the ink in the back of the pen. It's kind of still there. Not really. It's just kind of like this little like blue dot. But it was a little cross. Oh, I can't I shall see like the discoloration. It didn't stay at all. But I mean, I was using a safety pin and
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a big pen so you can't really expect quality out of that I ruined those pins. And then when I was probably 20 I bought my first tattoo machine. And that's when I really started just like kind of going crazy on my legs.
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Upgraded twice since my first one and like skill wise 100 fold. But I've done almost both of my entire legs now. Wow.
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It's impressive. It's really cool art. So she does like a lot of it like your first tattoos, right? But you done Yeah, looks really fashion. Shoot it up. I did like two or three things on practice skin because it came with the tattoo machine I bought. After that I was just pretty much immediately into tattooing myself.
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I did a couple pieces on flag
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covered a bunch of really bad tattoos. I got high school from that same friend tattoo bucket. And
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then I just kind of fell in love with the idea of just tattooing.
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Tattooing yourself to also hurts less than getting tattooed by other people really not sure if it's I have control of like when it hurts or if I notice like oh this spots like rough. Maybe I'll come back or like maybe I can start at the worst spot so that the rest of it isn't so bad. You kind of just have a little bit control over how bad it gets some people literally like they're dragging the
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people's skin like looks like that sometimes, but your needle depth is really what's important. Oh, okay, when you're setting up your tattoo machine you've now
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Actually, like you said, how deep the needle comes out sheet all rows. Yeah, so for certain things, you want it to come out a little bit further, such as shading. Whereas like just doing line work, you only want it to come out about the like width of a duck, okay, so that it actually gets into the skin packs the ink down in there, but it's not going to actually damage the skin and cause scarring. If you go too deep, you're going to actually damage it, everything is going to swell up. So it's not going to hold ink is what you really want to be as gentle as you can skin.
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I don't know, because I want to get a tattoo soon. And like the shading, I feel like the outlining will be fine it just from the start, it's actually the exact opposite, which is fun, we're all the same. So when you're getting your outline done,
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everything kind of hurts. Because you know, you're getting to a brand new area, you're legitimately just stabbing it repeatedly with multiple needles.
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And then you're kind of numbing it, though, in that same sense. So when the outline is done, and it comes time to shade that hole, say you got a circle outlined on you just wanted to color, that whole circle is now at least inflamed a little bit, your body's sending white blood cells there. So it's already starting to fight off the pain within that so Oh, so once the shading starts, it's not necessarily as bad, which is weird to think because shading needle is going to be more needles than aligners. So technically, you're getting stabbed the more times with each up and down of the needle, but it doesn't hurt here. Oh, oh, okay. Okay, the tattoo though.
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When it comes to tattoo pain, placement is really everything. Your artists can have a lot to do with it whether how you said like some people look like they're stabbing there's heavier handed artists, there's lighter hand on the one guy who did my left arm, he's very heavy hand. Also, when he's tattooing, I feel it a lot more. Whereas the lady who did like pan my face, behind my ear here, she's very lightheaded. So it's not as bad. But that difference is not as much a penny versus I handed like the tattoos, it's not going to hurt as bad as take it is as long as you don't get it in an area. That's
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pretty tough. So what's tough?
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What's tough, and then what's like, easy. So in my kneecap, my foot, my poem. Um, with some parts on my hand, a lot of people say the hand is really bad. Thankfully for me, it wasn't terrible. My chest and then the worst for me is my stomach. The stomach hurts. By far.
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Yeah, it's also really hard place to get tattooed. Because every time you breathe, it moves. So you kind of like holding your breath the whole time. It's rough. But like really anything on the arm.
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Like everyone said, The elbow is really bad. I say the elbow itself isn't terrible, but the little pits on the side. Right next to it are where it's really, that hurts.
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But you know your forearm but your bicep is not bad at all inside the bicep is pretty tender. It's not
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unbearable, but it definitely hurts. You also have to just think to like, how long are you going to be sitting? What is the tattoo? It's just a few words. Or something like that. It's not going to be bad. You're there for 15 Is that fast? Oh, yeah. Like something like that takes about 15 to 30 minutes sounds? Oh, um, I mean, when I did my engagement tattoo, like that took me maybe an hour. And then it took her to just put the checkmark in there. 10 seconds. Yeah. So like, it's really not that long process. If you're going to just do script or if you want, you know, just like something small. It's, you got to think Can I sit there through eight hours
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of non stop tattoo? Or you know, eight hours with one break.
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And the larger pieces those are the ones that really kind of like separate them and voice so did you ever tell to the to the hours my longest session was six, six hours because I did the entire bottom of my wrist. All the shading that went up to my elbow. And my
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did your whole war. I
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know I didn't do anything on my arm. Oh, I think I've done on my arm.
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Um, technically are the two between my fingers. I hope you on.
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And eventually we will put a master ball. Thank you just so that it can't come on. Hi. Something like that.
Unknown Speaker 15:13
Mine has been a huge part of my life growing up, as well as just continuing to play the game. So yeah, yeah, a lot of my tattoos are about as nerdy as they can be or as dumb as they can be like, across my toes, it just says foot feet.
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It's so cool. Yeah, you know, it makes me laugh. So let any of my friends tattoo me whenever they want. Oh, yeah, I have my time my machine, I think it creates some of the coolest memories.
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A bunch of smiley faces, sad faces. Anything, you can imagine that everyone's pretty confident that they can draw.
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I want you to do it. It's one day I'm going to be like eight years old. I'm gonna look back on all these
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horrible smiley faces, sad faces. And just laugh and remember the exact night that I had that that day. So it's more of the memories like the friendship or where I was at that point in my life than it is like just a fix.
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Which I liked that one Sapir gave you was one. Ah, all of them.
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Because there's a few now. Which one do you like? Most? Definitely the engagement. Yeah.
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Other than that I do the heart with the smiley face. Definitely. Hilarious. She's good. On the smiley face. Yeah, on the heart.
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There's about eight different lines going through it. But that was her first time ever holding a tattoo machine. So you know, it's a lot different than you think it would be. And something that's kind of hard to train your brain to do is when you're tattooing, you need to go straight down when you're doing lines. Whereas like when you're gonna write with a pen, you kind of usually most people write like an angle. Okay, so you don't use that same angle, you go, what? Straight down? Oh, that's fine, you're like outline. So
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you can kind of go more in the angle of your shading, it kind of depends on the type of shading that you want to do. Okay, so Alright, so what kind of shading so dependent on, I know, it's hard for like a audio podcast. But depending on if you want it to look more like gradient like this, you want to come in angle and just splash at it. Or if you want, like totally darkened something out, then you might go
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straight, okay. And then just different strokes of how you your hand, like sometimes you might just clean straight line sometimes like circles, sometimes you might kind of waited a little bit, it really depends on the effect that you're trying to get. It's very similar to working with a pencil, except the fact that you're using multiple tiny pencils. Okay, so you could use a shader. If it's like a five needle shader, you could actually use that to make five straight lines. Use it as if you go slow and straight. Oh, I don't know. Oh, smart. So it really depends on the effects. You're trying to get the pieces that you're actually currently working on.
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And just your comfortability with how to act and get skin and do it safely and sanitary.
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Because it is a big thing that people don't realize it's an open wound on your body that you're just going to have to heal for sometimes over a week.
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So you got to make sure that like sanitation is one of the biggest things. Okay, yeah. So with that, like what's the sanitation process with a new tattoo. So so once you get the new tattoo, we're setting up for it when you're setting up for it. So you want to make sure that the area that you're in is completely sterile.
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Okay, always using brand new needles. I use a rotary machine that's wireless. So my needles come in and just little cartridge. I just snap it into the machine twist it a lot. If you're using like a traditional tattoo machine or oil machine, the one that has like the two little cylinders on it. Oh, yeah, just like the one that you've seen. Yeah, yeah. If you're using one of those, your needles just come in little packs. And it is just a needle with like a circle at the end that hooks onto the top of that rotary Oh.
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So you always want to make sure you're using brand new clean needles, fresh pink cups, make sure you're wearing gloves, everything gets cleaned down. You clean the skin before you get started. Wrap everything saran wrap to make sure that the area is
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you want to make sure that the client is comfortable or you're comfortable if you're tattooing yourself because
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You're gonna be uncomfortable detecting stuff. So get yourself into the best position possible and
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and then when it comes to after the tattoo, you really just want to listen to your artists.
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People heal their tattoos differently. Sanitarium is a great option is kind of like a two sided sticker. So you put it on the tattoo. Okay, peel off the one side, and then it's basically fake skin for the next couple. Oh, that's it's waterproof, water resistant, holds everything in there. But then you want to make sure to take it off, you do want to clean your tent, want to use antibacterial so
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a lot of people swear by like awkward for I think you should never use Aqua for it packs down into your skin and eventually can blink out with it. But if you're going to use anything to keep the area moisturize, you just want to use cocoa butter, non scented just
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cocoa.
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It'll keep the area moisturize because eventually anything that's like fully colored it is going to stack it's going to just become a massive scab. The whole thing if you don't keep
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and once your tattoos do start to scan if you don't scratch it, and believe me, it will be the most itchy
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and a lot of so you can like pad it like smack it do whatever you need to but do not scratch it and do not belong any scan. If you pull off the scab, you can pull it off. So you just have to let it do its thing. You want to do your best to not get it wet. Unless you're washing it you are washing it again antibacterial. So had it dry with a paper towel. Wipe it hat slowly, by a good enough amount of pressure to really just getting water moisture out. But you have to like
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ah, well now I know. Again, I talked to you a couple of months when you go I got you. Please come with me.
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I'm gonna bring you in Sofia, English.
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Sounds really she's awesome. She's the one who did my hand. I base.
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My tanjiro I love that. 101 I love I'm I think I'm gonna get my fairy tale one. Oh, that's awesome. Black again. I gotta go red. Okay, the red the red looks awesome. Yeah. And you ended up here like on your shoulder. I want on my on my on my bicep more down on the bicep. Then you're solid. It's not going to be super painful spot. That's really good. Yeah. Like mine on like my entire, like shoulder bicep area here are the only parts that were really bad was once I got back down in here, but like going, Oh, this isn't bad at all. And mine's pretty heavily shaded and everything like that. So we shouldn't have anything to worry about there. So I have my pointment most likely next month. Start my right arm. What are you going to do with your right arm? Um, I have this
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guy. I've been talking to him for a while he's based out of San Diego, but he is from here. Okay. But he does some of the most impressive like kind of mini tattoos that anyone's ever seen. And he's gonna be doing my entire arm. We've been talking about this for a little while now.
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And he might just be one of the most talented full color MMA artists I've ever seen. Oh, these are amazing. So we're gonna do like probably five or six just full character like everything full color for this. You know who you want to do. Um, the main one I know so far is just a person we're talking about. I'm going to be doing going from Hunter Hunter right here on my forearm
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is one of my favorite characters and Hunter hunters my favorite enemy of all time. So I just I have to make sure to get him on there. I already my hand is already 100 100 tied to I have a kilo tattooed on the back of my left. So yeah, it's He's awesome. He's also going to be doing a tattoo for your sister.
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But this is basic
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right? Except there'll be a different theme but that
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and yeah, this guy's just awesome. And he's going to be doing my entire right arm over the next year. In July I'll be tattooing my entire row.
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As a cool
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and then most likely a I'm going to be doing my entire back. Sell
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the full body simple be here, most likely before T.
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Rice before you get married.
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Exactly got to make sure to have everything right. Yeah. Are you do you have any tattoos? Like about your kids? as well. Um, so I have my blank space here for Aspen's name. But I do have Mason's down the back. Oh, that's sweet. So yeah, let the space there. And then after the wedding will be a heffleys process
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or under a year so that all three. Oh,
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so with you, what's your process we'll do a tattoo.
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But how do you do like,
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cuz honestly, very simple and stupid. Uh, usually I'll just be sitting at work or I'll find a picture of something. I'm like, that looks sick. I'm gonna tattoo that on myself tonight. And then I come home, sit on my computer, print out the picture, make the stencil and I tattooed on myself that I
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made sure to kind of go through the same like Sanitary Process I told you. And then I go take a shower, clean off
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and usually go back to work the next day, like I almost did last night. But just because my feet are all injured. I don't want to put my body through anything more than past to when I saw this. And I was like, Oh, I'm going to tattoo that myself. That's so cool. Skeleton samurai. Sounds pretty sweet. Yeah, so I'll be doing that as soon as I'm able to like walk again. But it's realistically, I mean, your sister seen it 1000 times, I
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find a picture and I'm like, Yep, I can tattoo that. And I come home and put it on myself. Most of my tattoos end up just being anime related or something I drew in a sketchbook for absolutely no reason.
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But they keep me entertained. And they're definitely fun.
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It's also great to know that like the cost for a tattoo machine, as long as you know what you're doing, get your license, everything like that. And ink and needles is significantly less than the cost of it. That's really well tattoos are expensive.
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But you're not paying for
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just something you want you're paying for something at a lot of tattoo clients need to understand is, as an artist, have you tell someone the price, usually not that ocean.
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You know, this is what you say you think that this piece of artwork that is a walking piece
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is worth tea, not necessarily what it's worth.
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You have to remember, as an artist of any sort, you want your artwork to be
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taken to, you want to be worth what, you know, you want it to be worth what they paid for as well as what you receive.
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Not many pieces of art, travel as far as tactics.
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And I mean, like I could give you a tattoo right now. And everywhere you go for the rest of your life by art.
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It's like painting a picture and somebody just wears it as like around their neck like a necklace for the next 5060 never takes it.
Unknown Speaker 28:27
And that's how you see tattoos as art. It's much more than like, Oh, it's just a goofy thing on my arm. But you really do you see as like a pain is essentially the same thing. I mean, like there's, there's tattooers out there in this world that
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are better artists than any painting I've ever seen.
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Some of the people who can work with realism, and I may make it look like your favorite celebrity your favorite. You know, your grandma, anything is on your body and perfect photographic form for the rest of your life.
Unknown Speaker 29:06
You don't really see that. As often it feels like painting, or people who are just very talented at drawing. And I'm not saying it's not out there. I'm saying you don't see it because it doesn't walk.
Unknown Speaker 29:22
I'm sure you've seen plenty of tattoos that you just like That's insane. Yeah, no, i That's why I want to get a tattoo because I've seen amazing ones like yours. I'm like, I want that. So cool. And it's like when you see it. You appreciate the artistry fine. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 29:43
Thanks for listening. Catch us again every Wednesday at 6pm on the rebel i 1.5 HD
Transcribed by https://otter.ai