I still vividly remember starting my first sleeve. This was “back in the day” when few people walked around fully sleeved and fewer still planned their art from wrist to elbow instead of a patchwork of separate pieces. But I had grown up looking through my Grandparents’ National Geographic magazines and found myself fascinated by the many different body modifications seen on the indigenous peoples all over the world. When I came across an article with these Japanese men covered in tattoos, I was hooked. They weren’t covered in a multitude of smaller pieces but instead full flowing themes of Koi Fish, Dragons, and Samurai that draped over their anatomy as if their skin was a living breathing garment. I knew at that moment I wanted lots of tattoos, and large ones at that. As I said I was I was hooked.

Fast forward years and after a time in the military I had collected a few small tattoos, after the third one I knew these weren’t the type of tattoos I wanted. I wanted my tattoos to look like the Yakuza I saw in that magazine all those years ago. So I saved some money, asked around for the best tattooist in my town and approached him about getting a “Japanese Sleeve”. You have to remember this was the pre-internet era, hell this was before Bushido or Studying Horiyoshi III were published and you couldn’t find a copy of The Japanese Tattoo at the local library. Finding information on authentic Japanese motifs was difficult in small town Ohio USA. So I abandoned the Japanese theme and un-regrettably went another route, it became the catalyst that led to my career of the last 23 years.

I’m still a long way off, a very long way away from my body suite. But that’s one of the things I like about collecting and creating large scale tattoos. The time they take. They aren’t instant, they require dedication and commitment. They’re painful and expensive. They hold no value to anyone except the wearer. And they are completely collaborative. The technological advances, the sharing of information, and the “watering down” of the art of tattooing has done little to change the fact that when someone decides and then commits to collecting a piece that will span months or years before completion they are committing to dramatically changing for a lifetime.

And that, I find that worth the wait.