I was introduced to the manager and owners of the local tattoo studio in seaside Oregon Kimbra Schlater and Tony "thunder Guts" by a mutual friend.
I had been looking into getting tattooed and the studios that I went to in Portland and the Oregon coast were so different to the dirty tattoo parlors of my childhood in New Zealand . Places like Atomic, deluxe and lucky dog had a rockabilly vibe influenced with art and hot rods, they were the whole package when it came to tattooing , cool people cool shop and cool cars out the front and most important AMAZING art which is equally the most important aspect of tattooing with hygiene , they held a large appeal to me.
I had an obsession with hot rods and American muscle cars from the 60s and 70s, so the seamless transition into tattooing in an environment influenced by something I loved and was apart of became a large driving factor in my decision to chase my dream of tattooing.
I remember when I first spoke with "thunder guts" the reason his was nicknamed this was that he had these huge lightning bolts tattooed down both sides of his stomach and he was walking along the beach one day with his shirt off and a little boy about the age of six asked a rhetorical question as to why he had lightning bolts tattooed on his stomach " is it because you've got thunder guts?" so the name stuck.
I was hanging out to get a tattoo apprenticeship , and approached thunder guts about how I would start this process , what was needed and how did it all work? Thunder guts said " straight up you pay me $10,000 (usd) , I teach you to tattoo, period." so I asked him what he would teach me for that investment in his knowledge, how long it would take to learn to tattoo.
all I got in reply was uuuummmmm........ if you want to learn to tattoo , you pay me $10,000 (usd) . So needless to say the first meeting wasn't smooth, I then started going to some of the other studios asking questions about how the apprenticeship works and all I got was doors slammed in my face, no one wanted to give me any information regarding tattooing, all tho in 98 there was the Internet, it wasn't what it is today. In order to find info about tattooing there were two ways to do it , one was befriend someone that was willing to give you a small amount of info or you paid someone alot of money for the information. When I first started tattooing I would need a letter of recommendation from my boss in order to buy equipment , if you didn't have someone to vouch for you , you were not getting your foot in the door of tattooing.
Tattooing has always been a dark art with lots of secrets and a club for the last of the pirates.
every where I turned the answers to my questions were answered with a firm NO, but I was determined to reach my goal of tattooist.
During this time of searching for a apprenticeship "thunder guts" headed south to California and I
befriended Kimbra the manager of Lucky Dog tattoo in seaside Oregon. after a while I asked if she would apprentice me again I received a "No not going to do it , everyone all ways asks but they never want to do the work it takes ." so I asked what I needed to do to prove that I was willing to do the work. Kimbra said that she had seen my paintings but that she needed to see a portfolio of tattoo designs that I had drawn , to see if I had what it takes to be a tattoo artist.
I had a lot of drawing and coloring ahead of me .
At last someone had opened the door to tattooing . Even if it was just a crack , it was the first light in a long line of darkness.
