Interview with World Famous Tattoo Artist Joey Hamilton

USPA NEWS - Joey Hamilton started tattooing in the last year of his service for the United States Air Force. He has been tattooing 16 years.He bounced around Florida till he landed in Destin where he opened a shop with Jason Stephan and Jeff Bullard.He then traveled to Las Vegas. And now works for Club Tattoo.

What was your first tattoo like? My first tattoo was on a fellow airman in the USAF, it was a little scary to do of course because it was my first one. But I did have my mentor Rodney Folsom watching over me. It was about a 30 min tattoo and I was relieved when I finished. Funny story though my first tattoo was on Glenn Flemming, now a star on the show Son's of Guns.

What is your favorite tattoo?

I don't really have a favorite tattoo. I tattoo so often its kind of like having a new favorite every week. Luckily my clients usually come up with cool ideas so I am getting to do tattoos that interest me. I would have to say though the Kiss tattoo Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley is my favorite. The detail in the tattoo is impressive. I must say I impressed myself.

See the Kiss tattoo:http://clubtattoo.com/artists/joey-hamilton/#!prettyPhoto[912]/2/

What's the first thing you do when you get to Club Tattoo?

When I get to the shop in the morning I am usually getting all the last minute details for that days tattoo ready. I like drawing that morning so a lot of the ideas are fresh in my head when I am tattooing it. I usually grab a quick breakfast also as I am tattooing for a many of hours at a time.

Have you ever had a customer give you the willies? If so tell the story.

I have many stories about gross customers and most of them are probably to sick disgusting to repeat. Lets just say when some people pass out they tend to loose control of all bodily functions. It has only happened a couple of time for the extreme ones but they were pretty bad. I have also had a couple of bad ones that smelled really awful. Once I was in a shop in Florida working and a gentleman came in to get tattooed and he had an extreme odor about him. Luckily my friend ended up tattooing him and I was sparred the smell. It was so bad I had to step out of the shop for awhile.

What's the worst thing you have seen at any tattoo shop?

I would say the worst thing I see in tattoo shops are just the artists themselves. Because tattooing is so mainstream now everyone wants to get into the business. A lot of shops are popping up and the artist have no business tattooing people. The talent level is going to the extremes of both ends. Amazing artist are coming out of art schools or just having a great art background. But tons of people picking up the machines and thinking they can tattoo with no experience. Truly just hacking people up. Hopefully they don't last to long in the business.

What do you and Club Tattoo have planned for the future?

My plans are to stay at Club Tattoo for years to come. They have great ownership and I like the direction they are taking the Studios. They Just opened another amazing location at Pier 39 in San Francisco. We both believe in giving the customers a great experience so they want to come back. I would say 30-40 percent of the tattoos I do now are from repeat clients or just friends of repeats. Hopefully I can be involved with Club Tattoos future endeavors in the future.

If you had your life to live over again,What's one thing you would change? The only thing I would do over in my career is maybe start tattooing when I first joined the USAF. I also would have stayed in to a retirement also. And defiantly saved more money along the way. If you would like to see some of Joey's work go to: http://clubtattoo.com/artists/joey-hamilton/ Or if your going to be in Vegas and would like to set up appointment with Joey. Call 702-363-2582