| "Where do I start? Well, I was born and brought up in Tipton, a real Black Country boy. I first started tattooing when I was at school, you know with a pin and Indian ink, the traditional school crap. I messed about through most of my school life. I never took it seriously and I used to skive off whenever I could. It was only in the last two years of school that I actually started to take an interest. One of the teachers took an interest in my artwork and took me under his wing, so to speak. He pushed me and pushed me but it worked. I started turning out some good paintings. They were mainly copies of fantasy art pieces like Boris and Frank Frazetta stuff. I suppose the reason that I first started taking an interest in art was because a close mate got hit by a car and ended up with two badly broken legs. He was off school for a long while. Anyway I was bored in class on my own and I started taking an interest in art. |
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“When I left School I got a job as a trainee plater and welder in Tipton, which I did for about 3 years until I got made redundant. Then I got a job in a local glassworks. It was one of those places where anyone and everyone could get a job. It also seemed like everybody was tattooed so the staff used to organise days out on Saturdays to various studios to have work done. |
| “It was during this time that I got the craving to tattoo again, so I started doing pin tattoos during my lunch breaks. Not long after this I had an accident at work and was off sick for a short while. Then, guess what? During that time I got made redundant again. I got £400 redundancy pay, most of which went on paying off debts. At the time we also desperately needed a washing machine so I went out to get a washing machine and came back with my first tattoo equipment and no washing machine! I was not popular, to say the least. |
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“The kit was nearly all early Davis gear. I didn't know how good or bad it was. It was tattoo equipment and I started tattooing from home. I hadn't been working from home long when I got offered premises that I could use as a studio. It was an old office on the side of a disused factory. I thought 'Yeah, my own studio" and took it on. It only lasted about two months. One day a bloke walks in and started asking questions about my total lack of sterilising equipment. I asked him who he was and he told me his name was Kev Shercliff. He did a bit of tattooing in Stafford, working from his house. He told me I was more than welcome to go over and see him and he would help me wherever he could. At this time Kev was working as a sheeter and tattooing part time. |
| "At this point I realised that I had to learn a lot more about tattooing so I closed the so called studio. I bought a decent machine, power pack and other necessities and went back to working from home. I spent a lot of time practising and learning different techniques and I was starting to get somewhere. About a year later I got a message that Kev Timms, who ran a tattoo studio, wanted to see me. My first thought was that I was going to get a kicking and told to shut down, so I went to see Kev fearing the worst. To my surprise and relief he offered me a job at his studio. He was working with Mickey Sharpz and couldn't do both at the same time. So over the following months Kev taught me what he could and he also introduced me to Mickey Sharpz. |
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| “I started using Mickey's
machines and equipment and my work started to progress through using good equipment. Over the next year or so I worked in Kev's shop part time. Also during this time Kev Shercliff opened his studio in Cannock and I was also working there part time. |
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| "Now this is where things get a bit confusing. Kev Timms closed the shop in Dudley and at the same time Kev Shercliff closed his shop in Stafford and opened a new one in Stoke. Shercliff then offered the running of the Stoke shop to me as he was busy himself at Cannock. So I took on the Stoke shop and ran it for two years. By the time I'd been travelling 80 miles a day for two years in all sorts of shit weather and in all sorts of crap cars I'd had enough. I left Kev and the Stoke shop and opened up on my own in Wednesbury near Tipton. I had that studio for about two years and it was OK, not brilliant but OK. After about two years I had to close the shop due to personal reasons and I went back to tattooing from home and I also went into partnership in a breakers yard. |
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| "Around about this time I got a call from Kev Shercliff asking if I would be interested in working part time in the Cannock shop. Just after I started Kev buggers off to Germany for six weeks, leaving me to look after the shop. By the time he came back, I had so many bookings that I stayed on full time. I stayed at Kev's studio then right up until the end of 2000 when I decided that I had to stand on my own and decided to open Native Ink here in Stafford. We opened the shop in May. To be honest, if it wasn't for the help I've had over the years and especially over the past 12 months, I don't know where I would be or what I'd be doing. I'd like to take this chance to thank everybody who has helped me. I won't embarrass anybody by naming them, you know who you are." | |
