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About Aarron's Tattooing- * -
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If you came to this page via a search engine - You may wish to start at The Main Page. Or the main Tattoos entry page. |
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The what? and the why? of it all ~ |
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I am often asked how I got into tattooing, when I got into tattooing, how long I have tattooed etc... So ~ Here it all is. All the answers to those questions most asked about me when it concerns my tattoo career. I have been an artist for my entire remembered life. My father was an artist ( sculptor and painter ) so I spent a lot of time in his studio and in the studios of his friends and associates. Many of those "friends and associates" were already or became very well know figures of the fine art scene. Many taught at colleges and universities. I of course had no idea of that at the time, but they all were nice to me and they all encouraged me to create. Instead of coloring books and crayons I had large canvases that I couldn't reach the top of even with the longest brushes. Instead of playdough I had big buckets of red clay, huge slabs of wax and access to large walk in kilns. I had no clue how lucky I was. I was taught to follow the feeling and create what was inside. Ignore the lines and make my own. Are perspective and color theory great subjects for children not yet in school ??? For me it was great. I was going to be a great artist so people said. Then something happened. It happens to all small children. They see or hear about something or somebody and they hero worship it. They wish to become it. For most children it is a fire fighter or a soldier. Maybe a policeman or even a super hero or astronaut. For me it was a pirate. I wanted to be a pirate. A pirate with an earing and big black boots and a sword. A pirate with a jolly roger tattoo. That was the beginning for me with tattoos. The want to be a pirate. Then I found something almost as cool and much more easy to find.... Bikers! They seemed like pirates to me. Big black boots, golden loops in the ears and lots of tattoos. Awesome. Then a movie came out that changed my life. Papillon starring Steve McQueen. When I saw him tattoo a butterfly on a chest of an islander my future was set. I wanted to do that. 1st grade ~ I took a needle and shoved it backwards into a q-tip. (my own invention) I dipped it in the inkwell and tattooed a friend at school. Dang it was cool. A little heart. I did a couple more too before I got in trouble. A few years went by and I started doing it again. 5th grade was a good tattoo year for my fancy q-tip invention and then I found out about E strings and little motors from remote control cars. I was getting good dangit. I decided tattooing was for me. I started annoying any and every tattooist I could possibly get to talk to me. Some were very rude ( I was a kid though remember) and some thought it was just the coolest thing ever for a kid my age to want so badly to be a tattoo artist. One of the cool ones was a guy named Danny Danzl. He had a shop in Seattle. He was like somebody out of a strange novel to me. I won't go off on that because it would be a page unto itself, but for those of you who ever met him.. just imagine his affect on a 12- 13- 14 year old. The important thing though about not getting kicked from his shop was that I met who I thought was the coolest guy ever. A guy named Greg Irons. He was stoked to see a kid who not only could draw well, but one who was interested in all kinds of art. He took the time to look at my stuff, comment, tell what was and wasn't cool when it came to tattooing etc... He also told me to stop tattooing and waite till I was a bit older. He told me I would learn faster and better without to many bad habits that I would learn on my own. I took his advice and stopped cold turkey. I concentrated on drawing and painting then knowing that someday I would learn to tattoo. I would have ~ I think ended up learning from him... but tragically he died. In 1985 I went to alaska to work a fishing season. I met a tattooist who would teach me. He had been tattooing for 12 years and his brother had been in the business for 14. There are 2 main ways to learn tattooing from a tattooist. One is to do grunt work till your hands fall off and your eyes burn from anger while little bits of info is trickled to you like a leaky faucet. The other way is to bribe with lots of cash for the education you need without the grunt work. I chose the second rout. In both cases it is usually no fun. Example: My first tattoo machines were given to me in pieces. Reason being so that I could learn how to put a tattoo machine together. Once the tattoo machine is together it turns out that a great way to make a person learn how to put together a machine correctly is for it to be taken apart again. Then of course if you mess something up it should be taken apart again and given back minus the peaces that you had wrong. (like springs because they had been set back to far) "How do I get another spring dangit?" Well... duh.. I am supposed to go shopping. If I can't learn how to make the parts and how to put them together then I can't understand the machine obviously. If I can't understand the machine how can I expect to tattoo? Ahh the fun. If ever any of you get taught by somebody of this school of thinking don't mess up your coils! Learning how to wind your own copper coils is about as needed as learning how to make your own linoleum to put on your floor. Anyway, I learned the basics. That's about all anybody knew in 85 anyway. I however wasn't satisfied with the basics and spent the next couple years bugging other tattooists just as I had before. It's much easier to bug tattooists for their info once you are a tattooist yourself and can get a job next to them in the same shop. In the 80's however tattooing still was not the hip popular trendy new fashion wave that it is now and most tattooist still had that keep it a secret thing going on. I really had to bug to learn some tricks and specialities. I got married and had a child in 1986. That made it so that I could not travel as easy and learn as fast as I wanted from all the people I had heard of, but it didn't stop me. It just slowed me. By 1990 I was considered by most of my peers to be a respectable tattooist. By 1995 I was considered by the majority to be a top player. Tattooing had changed. My Tattoo Elegance studio in Port angeles washington was well known throughout the USA and pretty well known worldwide. The media loved tattoos in general all of a sudden and most of the tattooist who had been trying to create art rather than just a buck got to ride the wave so to speak. Tattoo magazines became a hit on newsstands and for me that was great free advertising. I published a lot and people came from all over. It was so weird. I started to miss the early days. Days when it was odd to be heavily tattooed. Days when tattooist new of each other by name if not personally. Days when tattoo shops were the place to go to find whatever you needed. Days when tattoo shops were for pirates. Still... I was mostly chasing art. I went to shows, won awards, made money... I burned out. I wanted to quit. I did. I tried to stop tattooing altogether. Turned out I couldn't. I was, am, and always will be an addict. I used to say "tattooing is my life blood." Turns out I was correct. Aarron not doing tattoos is Aarron not being alive. Still though.. The tattoo rat race was no longer for me. I doubt it ever will be. I now devote my time to a variety of artistic endeavors as much as devote myself to tattooing. I try and maintain a balance. I refuse to burn out again so I tattoo as much as I want to and no more. I find I am able to create much better skin art when I want to tattoo rather than when I have to tattoo. I now consider myself to be what I like to call a "Life Artist" I am pursuing my artistic dreams with no boundaries. As this pertains to tattooing... I am working on many special projects. I still love the "art" of tattooing. If you're interested in what my current tattoo projects are visit my Want some ink page and see what I'm up to. On the Want some ink page you will also find conventions I may be working at and shops I may be guesting at. For custom tattooing (as in an idea you have) just send your idea and information along with a self addressed stamped envelope to Aarron Laidig Tattoos ATN. Artwork P.O. Box 2921 Port Angeles, WA 98362 Be sure to include desired placement, fully detailed description, working budget, phone number and as stated before.. Include the S.A.S.E for correspondence and the return of your material. And just to save time.... YOU MUST BE OVER 18 YEARS OF AGE! No exceptions ever! Thanks and hope to hear from you. |
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