Do you think Silicon Valley
fuelled the West Coast tattoo
boom as well?
No, San Francisco had something
special way before then. It was
already established. There was Ed
Hardy and Tattoo City, Bill
Salmon’s Diamond Club, lots of
others. It just grew in popularity. A
bunch of really great shops
opened up in the nineties that are
still around, like Temple Tattoo –
and Spider Murphy’s of course.
There was a lot of stuff going on
at that time, like Lyle Tuttle being
on the cover of Rolling Stone
which was a real big deal. On the
West Coast, tattooing’s always
been more generally accepted
and not outlawed like it was in
New York [from 1961 to 1997 –
Ed.] That ban would definitely
have been a setback, but it didn’t
take the East Coast long to catch
up! There was a moment in time
when it was really exciting to see
New York tattooing, and all the
great artists who were there. It
made me want to go and see for
myself, and guest there.
Do you think those
moments still happen?
Even in today’s global
industry?
Yeah, I think so. Recently, for
example, the Australians were
really dominating and putting
out all kinds of great work, lots
of classic-style tattooing. I see
it now in Italy and Spain, with
all those great young artists
who are really inspired by
older tattoos.