October 24, 2024 • 41 mins
Chris Coulon, AKA TALLBOY, is a tattoo artist, graphic designer, and all-around awesome human. In this episode, we catch up with Chris to discuss the details and inspiration behind his incredible skateboard collaboration with Sailor Jerry. We also dive into Chris's vibrant color tattoo style, inspired by a kaleidoscope of iconic skate graphics from artists like Ed Templeton, Mark Gonzalez, and Jim Phillips. We also discuss Halloween madness at North Street Tattoo in Salem, Massachusetts, Motörhead, ZZ TOP, Forrest Gump, and Chris's philosophy of life—"Seek peace and have fun." As always, brought to you by Sailor Jerry!
https://www.instagram.com/tallboy666/
https://sailorjerry.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hell yeah, chris Coulon, aka Tall Boy in the
House Sailor Jerry Podcast.
How you doing my man?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Oh, I'm good man, I live in Salem Massachusetts, so
it's kind of like Halloweenmadness right now.
It's been like one of thecraziest years for tourism that
I can remember, so that's kindof what's up with us right now.
Just driving around, I mean,picking up coffees is kind of
(00:30):
insane.
Just pedestrians running allover the place tourists driving
around really slowly wrong sideof the road, all that stuff.
So it's fun.
But we try to have a goodattitude about it because you
know what you're getting intowhen you live here.
But sometimes it's like holyshit.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, yeah, Does the shop pick up?
You know, during this time Doyou get a lot of Halloween tats
coming through?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, it's been real crazy, especially on the
weekends.
We just announced that we'regoing to be open seven days a
week for October, just becausethe walk-ins have been crazy.
Awesome man, A lot of brooms,crescent moons, black cats and
witch hats.
(01:19):
They're keeping us busy, soit's good.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Nice.
And what's the shop name?
Again, north street tattoo.
North street tattoo, salem,massachusetts, awesome, while
we're on the topic here, as as amusician, as a touring human
being, it's still one place thatI've never, ever been to, which
drives me fucking nuts.
I think some of the guys fromconverge maybe live in salem.
(01:46):
Yes, um, yeah, nate um, yeah,nate.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, jake is the?
Um, jake's a singer.
He lives like a little bit morenorth um, but kurt has, uh, his
recording studio.
God city is just smack dab inthe middle of Salem.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So that's sick.
Shout out Converge.
Shout out Kurt.
Shout out Nate.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Shout out to Nate especially when he's a skate, a
skate buddy of mine.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So he is dude.
He's the man doom riders doriders in the house, but so you
get into the witch trials ofSalem.
Are you from there?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, I'm from Lynn, so Lynn is the city right next
door to Salem.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
All right.
So you've been there your wholelife, so you've seen it coming
and going For someone who'snever been there.
Is there an energy?
Is there any sort of rumblingsfrom the olden era that you
still feel in in town?
You know, like real on the realdeal level?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
yeah for sure, like I mean.
So you've been to boston, right?
Yeah, so it's like, yeah, it's.
I mean, part of the reason whyyou probably haven't been there
is just because it is like it'slike a half an hour or so north
of boston.
If the traffic sucks, it's likeyou know what, however long
that can take, it can take liketwo hours sometimes with like
(03:08):
airport traffic, because it'slike right on the coast there's
kind of a distance between itand like the freeways, the
highways, so it's like it's kindof a pain in the ass to get in
and out of Um.
But yeah, all the houses I meana lot of the houses have been
like preserved, with like thelittle historic plaques on them,
with like oh, that's cool theyear they were built, like 18,
(03:29):
whatever, and like the name ofthe person that that um lived
there.
Like my next door neighbor'shouse, I think was it says ship
builder.
So there's like all these old,uh names and like the people
that live there.
So I feel like that kind oflike.
I mean, if you're prone tobeing haunted or whatever, like
(03:50):
that energy going into an oldhouse and like having that
person in your mind already Ithink kind of gives out that
energy.
But those houses are all overtown.
Obviously, like the people thatdo business here and live here
capitalize on on the witchwitchiness, so all kinds of like
curiosity shops and like fogmachines going in the street
(04:13):
right now and yeah, yeah andcostumes everywhere.
So it's definitely yeah, it's aweird spooky vibe.
It's cool.
My wife is um, she's awesome'slike does not like getting
scared, she hates getting scared.
So for us, like walking to thelocal CVS.
There's like a dude in a clowncostume like trying to freak
(04:34):
people out.
There's a dude on stilts whohides behind like a, like a
pillar, and he'll just step outwhen people are coming and scare
the shit out of everybody.
So yeah, it's a spooky place,it's fun, it's silly.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, it sounds awesome, man, I mean it's.
You know I, I love shit likethat.
Um, as far as you do you?
Do you celebrate Halloween, areyou?
Are you dressing up this year?
Do you dress up?
What's your greatest costume?
What do you?
What are you working with?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Oh man, I usually.
I usually like to wait till thelast minute and try to hit like
the thrift stores or, like youknow, home Depot or something
silly like that and I.
They usually come togetherpretty well.
Last year I was um, I wasForrest Gump when he was running
, cause I get the long hair anduh, that's Ooh, that's a good
(05:22):
one.
Yeah.
So I just wore some shortshorts, some striped socks, um
some.
I had the the Nike Cortez kindof um a version of those like
the SBs and uh, and I spraypainted a Brown, um smiley face
on a yellow t-shirt.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Like when you, if you remember, when he's running, he
invents that face t-shirt ithappens.
Yes, running, he invents thatsmiley face t-shirt.
It happens, yes, yeah, and uh,my wife christy was jenny.
Jenny, I feel like jenny got abad rap in that movie.
She's an.
She's an easy target.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Granted, she did kind of take advantage of our boy
forest yeah, she's a, but youknow character she's a
controversial character, to saythe least I know I'm trying to
get jimmy the, the owner of ourtattoo shop.
He, um, he's, he's fine, but hehad a accident on a vespa
scooter over in greece and he,um, he, uh, broke his arm and to
(06:16):
fuck up his ankle or something.
He was in a wheelchair and Iwas like, oh, that'd be a good
lieutenant, dan costume oh great, lieutenant dan, lieutenant you
, you could do a good,lieutenant Dan too, with the
hair.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
You could do like New Year's Eve.
Sad Lieutenant Dan.
I know it's a confetti, theconfetti.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I know, oh my God, yeah, shit, I might do that.
Tie the tie the uh, tie thepants off.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Wear like black tights on my on my real legs and
have like fake stuffed pants,army pants.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, yeah, back to back forrest gump themes would
be pretty great too.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You could probably soak a good you know three, four
years out of just characters inthat movie alone.
Oh yeah awesome man um, so youknow, let's kind of get into
your, uh, artistic career here,your kind of journey I would
like to go.
Since I don't really know youpersonally, I would like to go
(07:13):
back to kind of where it allstarted for you, if that's cool.
You know, when you were a youngkid, how did that kind of take
shape for you in the beginning?
Were you drawing a lot?
Was there any sort of artistryin the family or anything like
that?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
my mom definitely, uh , was like a painter as like a
hobby.
Now that you say that, I'venever really even given that
much thought, but, um, yeah, shealways had like paintings that
she did, um, like some like, uh,new england, like coastal
landscapes and cool um self-portportraits that she did hanging
up in the house, um, so, yeah, Iguess maybe that that might've
(07:50):
planted the seed originally I'venever even thought about that
till now which is cool, I don'tknow.
But um, cause you know, when Ithink of like my art it's like
skulls and eyeballs and crazyshit.
But I was around it a littlebit growing up.
She kind of did it as a hobby,um, but um, to think back to the
(08:11):
like original influencers, Iwould say before I got into
skateboarding I had a cousinthat had a um might have been
like a white zombie poster inhis um, yeah, in his bedroom
with that kind of like rat fankinspired style.
Yeah, and um, my uncle had someof those uh, original weirdo, um
(08:32):
hot rod models in his childhoodbedroom at my grandmother's
house.
So I always loved those, likethe bulging eyeballs and the
monster stuff for sure, and theneventually getting into
skateboarding, like that justblew the, blew the lid off.
You know just like was obsessedwith skate graphics from from
day one of getting into skating.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Shout out to that.
First rob zombie or whitezombie album, lost sex or sisto
devil music volume one, becausethe cover on that I remember.
I remember having that cd and Iremember looking at it, going
like this is so fucking cool,this is so this is so awesome
getting into skateboarding artspecifically what, uh, you know
(09:13):
what spoke to you aboutskateboard art initially and how
did you get into skateboarding?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
um, so I, I have the, uh, I have the older brother,
um, so, yeah, so he had, he gotthe first like legit skateboard.
It was an alien workshopgraphic, um, alien workshop
skateboard and, um, I think youknow I wanted to use it.
So, like, my parents made arule that we had to share it.
(09:40):
So we had one shared alienworkshop board for a while and,
um, you know, I do love those,those graphics.
They're more designer, I guessyou know I appreciate that and I
went to school for graphicdesign, so I like that shit.
Um, but it was when I saw toymachine graphics, like something
about ed templeton's art, likethe playfulness, like the, the
(10:04):
simplicity of it, but also justlike the, just the boldness of
it.
And the fact that he was a proskater and did his own graphics
like really inspired me, becauseI was still young and had that
dream of being a pro skater oneday, yeah, but when I learned
that he did all like the toymachine graphics too, that was
like, okay, maybe I can be a proskater one day, yeah, um, but
when I learned that he did alllike the toy machine graphics
too, that was like, okay, maybeI can be a pro skater who does
his own graphics.
(10:25):
That's fucking awesome.
And then you know, then you see, like Mark Gonzalez, and you
learn more about artists likethat, who are like great skaters
and also artists, and I'm like,well, that would be like the
ideal life, I think.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Hell yeah, Hell yeah it would.
That's awesome.
Yeah, Older brother got you in.
Shout out to older brothersworldwide what's the?
What's the goat skateboardgraphic Is it?
Is it the screaming hand?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Oh man, yeah, um, yeah, there's the screaming hand
, but there's also the Roscoffface with the bulging eyeballs.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I did that on a dude's arm theother couple of weeks ago and,
uh, yeah, that might be the bestthe, the Corey O'Brien um
(11:17):
Reaper with the fireball.
You know, you know, I thinkthere's like some history to uh
a tie into tattooing with thatone.
I feel like Jim Phillips mayhave um referenced like some
Mike Malone flash for that yeah.
Yeah.
So, um, shit, I know it's allit all goes to Jim Phillips for
(11:38):
me personally, but I mean shit,I know it's all it all goes to
jim phillips for me personally.
But I mean, oh man, that bookdisposable from sean cliver just
has like there's so many goodones and they're from so many
different eras and likedifferent decades of
skateboarding.
Like all that world industryshit was just like so fun and
like controversial, like meantto get kids in trouble.
(11:58):
There's like full on unity onsome of them.
Yeah, I love all that shit.
The, um, the, the Jason Lee onewith like the American flag and
the Bible and the handgun likesome of those were so iconic
it's so hard to choose one, butthe screaming hand, I mean, I
got it tattooed on my palm.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I got to show Jim Phillips that last year in Santa
Cruz Hell, yeah, yeah, we wentout for Santa Cruz's 50th
birthday party and theypremiered a documentary about
Jim Phillips that we got to seeand I don't know if it's been
released yet, but when it islike everybody, everybody will
(12:40):
see it, but everybody should seeit.
It was like so well done, it wassuch an awesome story.
Like he has a, he had a timeperiod in his life where he
lived in Boston doing like, likeshow flyers for, like this,
this venue in Boston I had noidea about, but they Santa Cruz
got, they hired Dinosaur Juniorto play on the Santa Cruz
(13:00):
boardwalk, a free show facingthe ocean.
So the crowd was all on thebeach and me and a bunch of like
all the artists that I'vealways kind of talked to online
and I met, met some of them, butthey were all there.
So we're all hanging out,partying together.
We're running to get to theDinosaur Junior show because
we're running a little late downthe boardwalk and, like I just
(13:22):
come face to face with jimphillips, he's like leaving,
dipping out early because he'she's older and probably going
home, but, um, I got to show himmy, my palm tattoo and he gave
me a fist bump and that's all Ineeded.
Yes, it's like meeting my godhell.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yeah, dude, that's such a fucking cool story.
That's awesome, dude.
Um, you designed a skateboardskate deck for sailor jerry,
yeah, and it came out so sick.
Uh, the iconic sailor jerryhula girl was the design, uh,
that you chose.
Um, I just kind of wanted toget into the collaboration a
little bit.
What was your thought processbehind the design and kind of
(14:05):
how did the whole thing cometogether?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I worked with a dude named Dave Hort on that one.
He's a skateboard enthusiastwho's working for Sailor Jerry I
think he still is, but I mean,I mean to go back to 2019, he,
um, he invited me, he flew meout to London to do a sailor
(14:28):
Jerry a mural on the side of askate shop called three amigos
out in Camden town.
Awesome, uh.
So yeah, we painted.
It was like a whole city blockwith sharks on it.
Um, we did a skate deck withthem and a t-shirt to release
that and his, his direction waslike we want you to do your
(14:48):
thing, but we want it to beinspired by sailor jerry and
sailor jerry's art who I would?
I would consider, like the jimphillips, you know, in tattooing
, just like solid designs JustI've always referenced the
Sailor Jerry designs, even likebefore I was tattooing like just
a solid way to simplify, likewhat you're trying to draw and
(15:12):
then kind of insert your ownstyle off that base super clean
graphics and iconic, so, um, soyeah, I really appreciated
having that freedom.
It's like we want you to dosomething that is inspired by
and pays homage to sailor jerry,but we want it to be your art
too.
So, yeah, the uh iconic uh hulagirls definitely definitely up
(15:36):
there with like the most iconicsailor jerry design.
So you know, I just kinda we wetalked about doing like a Tiki
theme, um, and I think just medoing my version of that uh
tattoo flash design, like in mystyle, kind of just ties the two
(15:56):
worlds together and like justtranslates it into a skate
graphic, change the ukulele intolike a flying V, um hell yeah,
like a geeky mask in there, avolcano, just like some flames,
some movement and um superbright colors.
Um, so sector nine killed itwith the execution Like the
(16:18):
colors were fucking awesome.
There's graphics on the wheels,on the grip tape, like all
customized tall boy sailor Jerry.
Super impressive execution onthat.
They sent it to me in a boxwith like straw and like a
couple of bottles of rum.
So I have it in my station atthe shop.
Actually, it's got a littledirt on the wheels too, cause I
(16:39):
wrote it from my car to the shop.
Actually it's got a little dirton the wheels too, because I
wrote it from my car to the shopand I'm like, oh shit, I should
have kept this thing mint so Icould have it on the wall and it
can look clean.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But I'll probably just rip it around a little bit
more.
Yeah, awesome man.
And yeah, it came out so sick,thank you.
And I mean it rides, it ridessmooth, man, it rides smooth, it
rides great.
And uh, you know, kind ofsegueing into tattooing here,
you know you mentioned, you knowyou grew up, you know, with art
(17:09):
drawing, you went to graphicdesign school.
How did the transition happeninto tattooing?
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, um, I'm only my third year of tattooing, so I'm
super new.
Um, I w I've been gettingtattooed since I was like 18.
Um, I put out like we put up meand my wife put out these zines
called nightwatch zine and theywould.
They would end up in a lot oftattoo shops and we met a lot of
tattooers through that.
(17:36):
We did a lot of traveling inour 20s just moving around um,
from san diego to austin, tophilly, back here to boston area
, uh, to portland, oregon, andjust got tattooed all along the
way and made friends withtattooers and stuff.
So I've always been like intattoo shops getting getting
(17:57):
tattooed and and, uh, likemaking friends with tattooers.
But, um, I think there therecame a time where I got kind of
burnt out from hustling and likejust being at my desk in my
house or in my studio and justlike scanning and emailing all
my stuff and I don't know it.
(18:17):
Just I got kind of burnt out onthat and I wanted to work with
people more.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And I never did anything.
I went to, I went to Salemstate college and I did graphic
design there.
I never really like didanything with that degree, like
officially, um.
So I ended up.
I ended up taking a, um, agraphic design job at like a
large uh footwear company inBoston and, um, I worked there
(18:43):
for like two years, like throughthe pandemic, so that that kept
us, like you know, it kept meworking through the pandemic,
which was sick.
But I kind of quickly realizedthat I, I, I don't like the
corporate um side of uh graphicdesign.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah, that happens a lot.
Dude, that happens a lot.
I got a ton of friends thatwent to school for graphic
design and they get out and theyget like a you know a good job,
but they're like basically likeyou know, like designing like
shampoo ads or something likethat, and they're like, dude,
fuck this.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah, it was a cool job, like don't get me wrong,
but I'm like, oh man, I feellike it's so much, it's so much
work and so much creative energygoing into something that I'm
not totally in love with and Ithink, to me, art, like me doing
art, I need to uh the.
I left the graphic design joband got an apprenticeship with
(19:42):
um, with a friend named AndrewBixby who owns garden city
tattoo in Beverly, right next toSalem, and, uh, did a legit
apprenticeship at age 35.
So a humbling experience, butalso like necessary.
It taught me about working in atattoo shop.
(20:03):
It taught me about all thisshit that can happen and will
happen and comes through thedoor.
You know, yeah, and then justkind of worked my way up.
Luckily I have a following fromall the board graphics and all
the other illustration andhustling, the zine and all that
stuff.
So I have a.
(20:25):
I had like an audience already.
So it was.
It was like a little bit easierfor me to get people in the
door to get tattooed early on,so, which was really fucking
cool to have everything kind oftie together.
So it's not like I'm leavingone world behind and, like you
know, starting something new I'mtrying to like.
I'm trying to like moldeverything together from like
(20:48):
the zine making to theskateboard graphics and
tattooing.
Like my station at the shop nowat north street, um looks like
the wall behind me, it's likeall skateboards and then tattoo
flash and I just want to kind ofkind of create that, that world
of like tattooing and um skategraphics and just kind of like
(21:10):
continue to build that style up.
It's been super fun so far.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Um, one thing I noticed, uh, in your work is is
your use of, of, of, you know,color.
It's like very, it's verybright and and I feel like
that's something that, in mymind at least, translates from
like skateboarding and skategraphics.
Is that something that you kindof consciously do stylistically
?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
yeah, for sure.
Um the, the dude that taught me, uh andrew, he uses um a lot of
bright colors too and kind oflike definitely showed me the
ropes on that it's really cool,it just pops man I just love
using bright colors, likeobviously from the boards behind
me.
You know it's like I know, Iknow like I don't know.
(21:56):
It's everything's likedifferent with tattooing.
It'll heal and over time thecolors they can't be neon, but
there's tricks you can use, likeputting a dark green next to a
brighter green and it it.
I think it connected withpeople and, um, a lot of people
come to me like for the colorstuff.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, yeah, it's really cool.
It's something that reallystands out about, about your
style.
Um, you know you mentioned youdid the, you did the
apprenticeship.
Uh, you went the old school way.
Um, you know there's a lot ofhot button topics in the
tattooing community right now.
One of them is, you know, thekind of Amazon generation of
(22:47):
people just buying a tattoomachine online and just going
for it.
You know, musically I guessit's tough to kind of correlate,
because I was thinking aboutthis Music is just so wide open
that to say, you don't thinkit's cool that anyone could just
(23:08):
pick up a guitar and play musicand that's dumbing.
You know, like if someone goesand buys, you know, a tattoo
machine on Amazon, runs aroundtheir whole neighborhood giving
everybody shitty tattoos, doesthat dumb down the whole culture
(23:29):
?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, I mean, I've done that stuff, don't get me
wrong.
Like when I was younger, we meand some friends that attained a
, uh, obtained a tattoo machineand we're just giving each other
shitty tattoos at parties andstuff, um, but yeah, thinking
back to that, I had no fuckingidea what I was doing.
I don't even know how we set upthe rubber band on the thing,
(23:57):
like we were drinking beers andjust being crazy.
So, uh, I personally can'timagine doing like what I'm
doing now without having thatlegit apprenticeship, because
it's like, dude, yeah, there'sso much, there's so much that
you, uh, that you gain fromhaving like knowledgeable
(24:18):
tattooers helping you out.
So, yeah, yeah, With tattooing,it's so crazy because it has
like such a history and likethese shops that were only
accessible by like walking inand like seeing all the art on
the walls, like it was such likea walled off thing, and I think
it really, like you know, itpisses people off to see it just
(24:38):
kind of like a free-for-all,which I totally get.
I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm new totattooing.
I've only been in this forgoing on three years, so you
know, it's not really I can'treally like say too much about
it, because there's peoplewho've been doing it for like 20
, 30, 40 years or whatever, andyou know they're the ones that I
(25:02):
think justifiably can getpretty pissed off about it.
So I just try to just respectit as much as I can, because
it's been around longer than meand it will be around longer
than me.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, it's interesting.
I was like just thinking aboutdifferent you know correlations
between music and tattooing andgatekeeping, quote unquote, and
it's like, in general, music isjust kind of anyone can do it,
but then as you get into scenes,whether it's punk or hardcore
or hip hop or whatever, there'sa lot of people who care about
(25:37):
keeping the integrity of thosegenres alive and I get that and
I respect that.
But then it's just like, yeah,it's just.
I mean that's like an endlessconversation.
You know A couple.
I got a couple of pickums herefor you.
Ok, we're going to do likebands, uh, tattoo flash, random
(26:01):
things.
You tell me which one you likebetter.
All right, on this one.
I'm gonna start off with aheater right here, because I
went to your instagram profile.
You got zz top and you gotmotorhead the foundations for a
great life.
Uh, two of the greatest bandsof all time.
But if you had to choosebetween zz top or motorhead, who
(26:22):
you got?
Motorhead?
What about?
Uh, metallica or slayer?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
oh man, shit, I guess I'm more.
I'm more in a metallica moodtoday, so I'll go with tiger, a
wizard or dragon wizard yeah,yeah, I'm gonna get a wizard
tattooed this week.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I'm hyped on it.
Uh, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get.
Uh, spider sinclair is is downin la, he's gonna do a little
wizard on my back.
I'm hyped.
Uh, barbed wire or chain link,chain link, peace or anarchy
peace.
That's the long hair talkingright there, I know right
morning till the morning thinlizzy or kiss oh, thin, lizzy
(27:08):
yeah, snake or pinup girl, snakegas or electric gas, sandwich
or burrito some people would saythose are the those, but I'll
go with that.
Who says that no one says that.
Psychopaths say that.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Shout out to my boy, Matt Sticker Bargain bin
blasphemy.
I think he said soup is asandwich.
He says everything's a sandwich.
I don't know.
You'd have to talk to him thisperson sounds insane Punk or
metal Metal.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Nice Neil Diamond or Barry Manilow.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Neil Diamond.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Yeah, lover or fighter, lover Darts or dice
Dice yeah, friends or followers,friends ACDC or Iron Maiden,
maiden Nice and Black Sabbath orSolo Aussie Sabbath, oh really
(28:08):
yeah.
It always shocks me how manypeople say Sabbath.
I'm like such a Solo Aussie guy.
I love Solo Aussie.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
All these have been insanely hard, so I'm answering
them as fast as I can, and theanswer could be different
tomorrow, but I like that.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Okay, just a couple more questions here.
We're going to end the pod onsome hypotheticals.
First one is the the classictime machine question.
The classic time machinequestion.
Okay, time machine shows upoutside the shop, you know,
doors open.
Come on in, tall boy.
Anywhere in history, where areyou going to go first and why?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
oh man, I mean, there's like probably like this
era where I feel like I'vetalked to some some old dudes
before that have like explained,like or some of the shows they
went to.
I think there was like a timewhere you could see like the
ramones and motorhead and likethe stooges at like the same
show.
Yeah, and that would just be.
That would be insane.
So, whatever year that would be, like what, like 79 or some
(29:16):
shit, I don't know that would besick.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, what do?
What if you went back to thewitch trials, bro?
What if you went back to thewitch trials and then you were
the guy in the shop?
That was like I saw it all.
I probably was.
No, no, no one, no one dies inthese hypotheticals.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I'd be the guy with all the stones being dropped on
him.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Who is that guy?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
guy.
His last words were more weight.
He wouldn't sell out moreweight that's some saline
history for you right there yeah, absolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Uh, well, let's go.
Let's go with the uh, genie inthe bottle here.
Okay, for the sake of thepodcast.
Let's say you crack open a abottle of Sailor Jerry spiced
rum and a genie comes out Lemmy.
Let's say Lemmy comes out, yeah, and you're hyped.
Obviously Anyone would be hypedto have Lemmy come out of the
bottle.
(30:10):
Lemmy comes out of the bottle,you know, and says what's up,
tall boy, you know, I'm here togrant you one wish.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
And one wish only.
It can be anything, oh my god.
One wish from lemmy coming outof a rum bottle and shit.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Am I gonna be basic as hell and say world peace,
shit, am I gonna be basic ashell and say world peace, say
that's a choice you got to makeon your own.
You know you can't.
I just if you want to go, worldpeace, I don't think anyone
would frown upon that shout out,shout out.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
To the crow mags I'll say world peace I like that.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Uh, all right here, tall boy.
Why, by the way, I gotta know?
You don't seem like in our,unless you are possibly like,
like secretly, like a sevenfooter.
What where's tall boy come from?
Is that from the beer can, orwhat?
What's that all about?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Exclusively a tall boy drinker.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
No, no, maybe at one point in my life.
Um, when I first started I waslike a 40 ounce drinker cause
they were so cheap.
Um, no, I'm like, I'm like six.
Two, I'm like a little tallerthan average oh, so you are a
tall boy plenty of people thatare taller than me.
My buddy, matt the sandwich guy,he's like seven feet tall and
like looks just like me.
(31:31):
He's way taller but um, he, uh,yeah, what?
When I was working at thescreen printing shop, I was also
like in college and I wastaking like an illustration
class and we had to do likecomic strips and I did like a.
I did a comic strip.
That was like it was supposedto be political and I watched a
(31:54):
debate between like Obama andJohn McCain and our assignment
was to like do a politicalcartoon and I was just like so
bored by the whole thing, likeoh, I, I just hate that shit.
So like they just kept talkingabout offshore drilling and I
drew them like having sex on anisland, said offshore, and and I
just wrote I wrote tall boyunder I'm like I'm not writing
(32:16):
my name on this, uh, and I'vealways liked, you know, like pus
head or like neck phase or likeyou know those, those dudes
that have like art monikers.
Um, so I was always looking fora name and I thought tall boy
was cool.
Definitely it's a beerreference.
I've been a big beer dude forforever, um shout out beer.
(32:38):
I think at the time, yeah, shoutout beer.
I think at the time I wasworking at that print shop and
we were drinking those Arizonaiced teas that were like a
dollar for the man can.
We'd just be like I'm going tothe store to get some tall boys,
like who wants a tall boy?
Like let's drink some tall boys, let's get some tall boys.
So, interestingly enough, it'skind of a weird term but I tell
(33:00):
people this I'm like I think thename might have been more of a
reference to those arizona ice t99 cents, yeah, at that time.
But yeah, I started writingtall boy.
Shit caught on and I stillwrite tall boy on everything
hell yeah, hell yeah, awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Uh, chris coulon, tall boy, it's been a pleasure.
My man, thank you for being aguest here on the Sailor Jerry
podcast.
Your incredible skateboardright here, sector 9
collaboration.
Sailor Jerry, tall boy, iconichula girl.
It's out now.
Congrats on it, my man.
(33:38):
You killed it.
You knocked it out of the park,stoked to have one.
And our last question here alittle bit of a doozy, but I
think you're going to be allright.
What to you, tall boy, is themeaning of life?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Oh, my God, the meaning of life.
Life, um so, uh, I would Iwould say like lately I've been,
um, my wife has like beenreally good about like mantras
and shit like that and she'sbeen like teaching me about that
stuff and I'm and she's likewhat's your mantra?
And I'm like I think I came upwith a couple, but it's a it's a
(34:16):
work in progress.
But seek peace and have fun.
Like I think, if you have funwith everything like my job is
to make skateboard graphics andto make tattoos and like I've
like worked my whole life to tohave a job that is fun, so I'm
not so I'm just like enjoying asmuch of my life as possible.
So, yeah, have fun and seekpeace.
(34:39):
I don't know, I don't know.
Sometimes I guess anxiety justfeels like shitty.
So just remember to do.
Do shit that is fun and throughthat you'll have peace.
Whether it's skateboarding,artwork, whatever, those are the
shit, that, the things thatmake me happy and give me peace.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
So Awesome Tall boy man, Really appreciate your time
.
Thanks for being a guest hereon the sailor Jerry podcast
no-transcript.
Hell yeah, chris Coulon, aka Tall Boy in the
House Sailor Jerry Podcast.
How you doing my man?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Oh, I'm good man, I live in Salem Massachusetts, so
it's kind of like Halloweenmadness right now.
It's been like one of thecraziest years for tourism that
I can remember, so that's kindof what's up with us right now.
Just driving around, I mean,picking up coffees is kind of
(00:30):
insane.
Just pedestrians running allover the place tourists driving
around really slowly wrong sideof the road, all that stuff.
So it's fun.
But we try to have a goodattitude about it because you
know what you're getting intowhen you live here.
But sometimes it's like holyshit.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, yeah, Does the shop pick up?
You know, during this time Doyou get a lot of Halloween tats
coming through?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, it's been real crazy, especially on the
weekends.
We just announced that we'regoing to be open seven days a
week for October, just becausethe walk-ins have been crazy.
Awesome man, A lot of brooms,crescent moons, black cats and
witch hats.
(01:19):
They're keeping us busy, soit's good.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Nice.
And what's the shop name?
Again, north street tattoo.
North street tattoo, salem,massachusetts, awesome, while
we're on the topic here, as as amusician, as a touring human
being, it's still one place thatI've never, ever been to, which
drives me fucking nuts.
I think some of the guys fromconverge maybe live in salem.
(01:46):
Yes, um, yeah, nate um, yeah,nate.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, jake is the?
Um, jake's a singer.
He lives like a little bit morenorth um, but kurt has, uh, his
recording studio.
God city is just smack dab inthe middle of Salem.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So that's sick.
Shout out Converge.
Shout out Kurt.
Shout out Nate.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Shout out to Nate especially when he's a skate, a
skate buddy of mine.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So he is dude.
He's the man doom riders doriders in the house, but so you
get into the witch trials ofSalem.
Are you from there?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, I'm from Lynn, so Lynn is the city right next
door to Salem.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
All right.
So you've been there your wholelife, so you've seen it coming
and going For someone who'snever been there.
Is there an energy?
Is there any sort of rumblingsfrom the olden era that you
still feel in in town?
You know, like real on the realdeal level?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
yeah for sure, like I mean.
So you've been to boston, right?
Yeah, so it's like, yeah, it's.
I mean, part of the reason whyyou probably haven't been there
is just because it is like it'slike a half an hour or so north
of boston.
If the traffic sucks, it's likeyou know what, however long
that can take, it can take liketwo hours sometimes with like
(03:08):
airport traffic, because it'slike right on the coast there's
kind of a distance between itand like the freeways, the
highways, so it's like it's kindof a pain in the ass to get in
and out of Um.
But yeah, all the houses I meana lot of the houses have been
like preserved, with like thelittle historic plaques on them,
with like oh, that's cool theyear they were built, like 18,
(03:29):
whatever, and like the name ofthe person that that um lived
there.
Like my next door neighbor'shouse, I think was it says ship
builder.
So there's like all these old,uh names and like the people
that live there.
So I feel like that kind oflike.
I mean, if you're prone tobeing haunted or whatever, like
(03:50):
that energy going into an oldhouse and like having that
person in your mind already Ithink kind of gives out that
energy.
But those houses are all overtown.
Obviously, like the people thatdo business here and live here
capitalize on on the witchwitchiness, so all kinds of like
curiosity shops and like fogmachines going in the street
(04:13):
right now and yeah, yeah andcostumes everywhere.
So it's definitely yeah, it's aweird spooky vibe.
It's cool.
My wife is um, she's awesome'slike does not like getting
scared, she hates getting scared.
So for us, like walking to thelocal CVS.
There's like a dude in a clowncostume like trying to freak
(04:34):
people out.
There's a dude on stilts whohides behind like a, like a
pillar, and he'll just step outwhen people are coming and scare
the shit out of everybody.
So yeah, it's a spooky place,it's fun, it's silly.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, it sounds awesome, man, I mean it's.
You know I, I love shit likethat.
Um, as far as you do you?
Do you celebrate Halloween, areyou?
Are you dressing up this year?
Do you dress up?
What's your greatest costume?
What do you?
What are you working with?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Oh man, I usually.
I usually like to wait till thelast minute and try to hit like
the thrift stores or, like youknow, home Depot or something
silly like that and I.
They usually come togetherpretty well.
Last year I was um, I wasForrest Gump when he was running
, cause I get the long hair anduh, that's Ooh, that's a good
(05:22):
one.
Yeah.
So I just wore some shortshorts, some striped socks, um
some.
I had the the Nike Cortez kindof um a version of those like
the SBs and uh, and I spraypainted a Brown, um smiley face
on a yellow t-shirt.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Like when you, if you remember, when he's running, he
invents that face t-shirt ithappens.
Yes, running, he invents thatsmiley face t-shirt.
It happens, yes, yeah, and uh,my wife christy was jenny.
Jenny, I feel like jenny got abad rap in that movie.
She's an.
She's an easy target.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Granted, she did kind of take advantage of our boy
forest yeah, she's a, but youknow character she's a
controversial character, to saythe least I know I'm trying to
get jimmy the, the owner of ourtattoo shop.
He, um, he's, he's fine, but hehad a accident on a vespa
scooter over in greece and he,um, he, uh, broke his arm and to
(06:16):
fuck up his ankle or something.
He was in a wheelchair and Iwas like, oh, that'd be a good
lieutenant, dan costume oh great, lieutenant dan, lieutenant you
, you could do a good,lieutenant Dan too, with the
hair.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
You could do like New Year's Eve.
Sad Lieutenant Dan.
I know it's a confetti, theconfetti.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I know, oh my God, yeah, shit, I might do that.
Tie the tie the uh, tie thepants off.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Wear like black tights on my on my real legs and
have like fake stuffed pants,army pants.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, yeah, back to back forrest gump themes would
be pretty great too.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You could probably soak a good you know three, four
years out of just characters inthat movie alone.
Oh yeah awesome man um, so youknow, let's kind of get into
your, uh, artistic career here,your kind of journey I would
like to go.
Since I don't really know youpersonally, I would like to go
(07:13):
back to kind of where it allstarted for you, if that's cool.
You know, when you were a youngkid, how did that kind of take
shape for you in the beginning?
Were you drawing a lot?
Was there any sort of artistryin the family or anything like
that?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
my mom definitely, uh , was like a painter as like a
hobby.
Now that you say that, I'venever really even given that
much thought, but, um, yeah, shealways had like paintings that
she did, um, like some like, uh,new england, like coastal
landscapes and cool um self-portportraits that she did hanging
up in the house, um, so, yeah, Iguess maybe that that might've
(07:50):
planted the seed originally I'venever even thought about that
till now which is cool, I don'tknow.
But um, cause you know, when Ithink of like my art it's like
skulls and eyeballs and crazyshit.
But I was around it a littlebit growing up.
She kind of did it as a hobby,um, but um, to think back to the
(08:11):
like original influencers, Iwould say before I got into
skateboarding I had a cousinthat had a um might have been
like a white zombie poster inhis um, yeah, in his bedroom
with that kind of like rat fankinspired style.
Yeah, and um, my uncle had someof those uh, original weirdo, um
(08:32):
hot rod models in his childhoodbedroom at my grandmother's
house.
So I always loved those, likethe bulging eyeballs and the
monster stuff for sure, and theneventually getting into
skateboarding, like that justblew the, blew the lid off.
You know just like was obsessedwith skate graphics from from
day one of getting into skating.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Shout out to that.
First rob zombie or whitezombie album, lost sex or sisto
devil music volume one, becausethe cover on that I remember.
I remember having that cd and Iremember looking at it, going
like this is so fucking cool,this is so this is so awesome
getting into skateboarding artspecifically what, uh, you know
(09:13):
what spoke to you aboutskateboard art initially and how
did you get into skateboarding?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
um, so I, I have the, uh, I have the older brother,
um, so, yeah, so he had, he gotthe first like legit skateboard.
It was an alien workshopgraphic, um, alien workshop
skateboard and, um, I think youknow I wanted to use it.
So, like, my parents made arule that we had to share it.
(09:40):
So we had one shared alienworkshop board for a while and,
um, you know, I do love those,those graphics.
They're more designer, I guessyou know I appreciate that and I
went to school for graphicdesign, so I like that shit.
Um, but it was when I saw toymachine graphics, like something
about ed templeton's art, likethe playfulness, like the, the
(10:04):
simplicity of it, but also justlike the, just the boldness of
it.
And the fact that he was a proskater and did his own graphics
like really inspired me, becauseI was still young and had that
dream of being a pro skater oneday, yeah, but when I learned
that he did all like the toymachine graphics too, that was
like, okay, maybe I can be a proskater one day, yeah, um, but
when I learned that he did alllike the toy machine graphics
too, that was like, okay, maybeI can be a pro skater who does
his own graphics.
(10:25):
That's fucking awesome.
And then you know, then you see, like Mark Gonzalez, and you
learn more about artists likethat, who are like great skaters
and also artists, and I'm like,well, that would be like the
ideal life, I think.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Hell yeah, Hell yeah it would.
That's awesome.
Yeah, Older brother got you in.
Shout out to older brothersworldwide what's the?
What's the goat skateboardgraphic Is it?
Is it the screaming hand?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Oh man, yeah, um, yeah, there's the screaming hand
, but there's also the Roscoffface with the bulging eyeballs.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I did that on a dude's arm theother couple of weeks ago and,
uh, yeah, that might be the bestthe, the Corey O'Brien um
(11:17):
Reaper with the fireball.
You know, you know, I thinkthere's like some history to uh
a tie into tattooing with thatone.
I feel like Jim Phillips mayhave um referenced like some
Mike Malone flash for that yeah.
Yeah.
So, um, shit, I know it's allit all goes to Jim Phillips for
(11:38):
me personally, but I mean shit,I know it's all it all goes to
jim phillips for me personally.
But I mean, oh man, that bookdisposable from sean cliver just
has like there's so many goodones and they're from so many
different eras and likedifferent decades of
skateboarding.
Like all that world industryshit was just like so fun and
like controversial, like meantto get kids in trouble.
(11:58):
There's like full on unity onsome of them.
Yeah, I love all that shit.
The, um, the, the Jason Lee onewith like the American flag and
the Bible and the handgun likesome of those were so iconic
it's so hard to choose one, butthe screaming hand, I mean, I
got it tattooed on my palm.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I got to show Jim Phillips that last year in Santa
Cruz Hell, yeah, yeah, we wentout for Santa Cruz's 50th
birthday party and theypremiered a documentary about
Jim Phillips that we got to seeand I don't know if it's been
released yet, but when it islike everybody, everybody will
(12:40):
see it, but everybody should seeit.
It was like so well done, it wassuch an awesome story.
Like he has a, he had a timeperiod in his life where he
lived in Boston doing like, likeshow flyers for, like this,
this venue in Boston I had noidea about, but they Santa Cruz
got, they hired Dinosaur Juniorto play on the Santa Cruz
(13:00):
boardwalk, a free show facingthe ocean.
So the crowd was all on thebeach and me and a bunch of like
all the artists that I'vealways kind of talked to online
and I met, met some of them, butthey were all there.
So we're all hanging out,partying together.
We're running to get to theDinosaur Junior show because
we're running a little late downthe boardwalk and, like I just
(13:22):
come face to face with jimphillips, he's like leaving,
dipping out early because he'she's older and probably going
home, but, um, I got to show himmy, my palm tattoo and he gave
me a fist bump and that's all Ineeded.
Yes, it's like meeting my godhell.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yeah, dude, that's such a fucking cool story.
That's awesome, dude.
Um, you designed a skateboardskate deck for sailor jerry,
yeah, and it came out so sick.
Uh, the iconic sailor jerryhula girl was the design, uh,
that you chose.
Um, I just kind of wanted toget into the collaboration a
little bit.
What was your thought processbehind the design and kind of
(14:05):
how did the whole thing cometogether?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I worked with a dude named Dave Hort on that one.
He's a skateboard enthusiastwho's working for Sailor Jerry I
think he still is, but I mean,I mean to go back to 2019, he,
um, he invited me, he flew meout to London to do a sailor
(14:28):
Jerry a mural on the side of askate shop called three amigos
out in Camden town.
Awesome, uh.
So yeah, we painted.
It was like a whole city blockwith sharks on it.
Um, we did a skate deck withthem and a t-shirt to release
that and his, his direction waslike we want you to do your
(14:48):
thing, but we want it to beinspired by sailor jerry and
sailor jerry's art who I would?
I would consider, like the jimphillips, you know, in tattooing
, just like solid designs JustI've always referenced the
Sailor Jerry designs, even likebefore I was tattooing like just
a solid way to simplify, likewhat you're trying to draw and
(15:12):
then kind of insert your ownstyle off that base super clean
graphics and iconic, so, um, soyeah, I really appreciated
having that freedom.
It's like we want you to dosomething that is inspired by
and pays homage to sailor jerry,but we want it to be your art
too.
So, yeah, the uh iconic uh hulagirls definitely definitely up
(15:36):
there with like the most iconicsailor jerry design.
So you know, I just kinda we wetalked about doing like a Tiki
theme, um, and I think just medoing my version of that uh
tattoo flash design, like in mystyle, kind of just ties the two
(15:56):
worlds together and like justtranslates it into a skate
graphic, change the ukulele intolike a flying V, um hell yeah,
like a geeky mask in there, avolcano, just like some flames,
some movement and um superbright colors.
Um, so sector nine killed itwith the execution Like the
(16:18):
colors were fucking awesome.
There's graphics on the wheels,on the grip tape, like all
customized tall boy sailor Jerry.
Super impressive execution onthat.
They sent it to me in a boxwith like straw and like a
couple of bottles of rum.
So I have it in my station atthe shop.
Actually, it's got a littledirt on the wheels too, cause I
(16:39):
wrote it from my car to the shop.
Actually it's got a little dirton the wheels too, because I
wrote it from my car to the shopand I'm like, oh shit, I should
have kept this thing mint so Icould have it on the wall and it
can look clean.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But I'll probably just rip it around a little bit
more.
Yeah, awesome man.
And yeah, it came out so sick,thank you.
And I mean it rides, it ridessmooth, man, it rides smooth, it
rides great.
And uh, you know, kind ofsegueing into tattooing here,
you know you mentioned, you knowyou grew up, you know, with art
(17:09):
drawing, you went to graphicdesign school.
How did the transition happeninto tattooing?
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, um, I'm only my third year of tattooing, so I'm
super new.
Um, I w I've been gettingtattooed since I was like 18.
Um, I put out like we put up meand my wife put out these zines
called nightwatch zine and theywould.
They would end up in a lot oftattoo shops and we met a lot of
tattooers through that.
(17:36):
We did a lot of traveling inour 20s just moving around um,
from san diego to austin, tophilly, back here to boston area
, uh, to portland, oregon, andjust got tattooed all along the
way and made friends withtattooers and stuff.
So I've always been like intattoo shops getting getting
(17:57):
tattooed and and, uh, likemaking friends with tattooers.
But, um, I think there therecame a time where I got kind of
burnt out from hustling and likejust being at my desk in my
house or in my studio and justlike scanning and emailing all
my stuff and I don't know it.
(18:17):
Just I got kind of burnt out onthat and I wanted to work with
people more.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And I never did anything.
I went to, I went to Salemstate college and I did graphic
design there.
I never really like didanything with that degree, like
officially, um.
So I ended up.
I ended up taking a, um, agraphic design job at like a
large uh footwear company inBoston and, um, I worked there
(18:43):
for like two years, like throughthe pandemic, so that that kept
us, like you know, it kept meworking through the pandemic,
which was sick.
But I kind of quickly realizedthat I, I, I don't like the
corporate um side of uh graphicdesign.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah, that happens a lot.
Dude, that happens a lot.
I got a ton of friends thatwent to school for graphic
design and they get out and theyget like a you know a good job,
but they're like basically likeyou know, like designing like
shampoo ads or something likethat, and they're like, dude,
fuck this.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah, it was a cool job, like don't get me wrong,
but I'm like, oh man, I feellike it's so much, it's so much
work and so much creative energygoing into something that I'm
not totally in love with and Ithink, to me, art, like me doing
art, I need to uh the.
I left the graphic design joband got an apprenticeship with
(19:42):
um, with a friend named AndrewBixby who owns garden city
tattoo in Beverly, right next toSalem, and, uh, did a legit
apprenticeship at age 35.
So a humbling experience, butalso like necessary.
It taught me about working in atattoo shop.
(20:03):
It taught me about all thisshit that can happen and will
happen and comes through thedoor.
You know, yeah, and then justkind of worked my way up.
Luckily I have a following fromall the board graphics and all
the other illustration andhustling, the zine and all that
stuff.
So I have a.
(20:25):
I had like an audience already.
So it was.
It was like a little bit easierfor me to get people in the
door to get tattooed early on,so, which was really fucking
cool to have everything kind oftie together.
So it's not like I'm leavingone world behind and, like you
know, starting something new I'mtrying to like.
I'm trying to like moldeverything together from like
(20:48):
the zine making to theskateboard graphics and
tattooing.
Like my station at the shop nowat north street, um looks like
the wall behind me, it's likeall skateboards and then tattoo
flash and I just want to kind ofkind of create that, that world
of like tattooing and um skategraphics and just kind of like
(21:10):
continue to build that style up.
It's been super fun so far.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Um, one thing I noticed, uh, in your work is is
your use of, of, of, you know,color.
It's like very, it's verybright and and I feel like
that's something that, in mymind at least, translates from
like skateboarding and skategraphics.
Is that something that you kindof consciously do stylistically
?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
yeah, for sure.
Um the, the dude that taught me, uh andrew, he uses um a lot of
bright colors too and kind oflike definitely showed me the
ropes on that it's really cool,it just pops man I just love
using bright colors, likeobviously from the boards behind
me.
You know it's like I know, Iknow like I don't know.
(21:56):
It's everything's likedifferent with tattooing.
It'll heal and over time thecolors they can't be neon, but
there's tricks you can use, likeputting a dark green next to a
brighter green and it it.
I think it connected withpeople and, um, a lot of people
come to me like for the colorstuff.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, yeah, it's really cool.
It's something that reallystands out about, about your
style.
Um, you know you mentioned youdid the, you did the
apprenticeship.
Uh, you went the old school way.
Um, you know there's a lot ofhot button topics in the
tattooing community right now.
One of them is, you know, thekind of Amazon generation of
(22:47):
people just buying a tattoomachine online and just going
for it.
You know, musically I guessit's tough to kind of correlate,
because I was thinking aboutthis Music is just so wide open
that to say, you don't thinkit's cool that anyone could just
(23:08):
pick up a guitar and play musicand that's dumbing.
You know, like if someone goesand buys, you know, a tattoo
machine on Amazon, runs aroundtheir whole neighborhood giving
everybody shitty tattoos, doesthat dumb down the whole culture
(23:29):
?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, I mean, I've done that stuff, don't get me
wrong.
Like when I was younger, we meand some friends that attained a
, uh, obtained a tattoo machineand we're just giving each other
shitty tattoos at parties andstuff, um, but yeah, thinking
back to that, I had no fuckingidea what I was doing.
I don't even know how we set upthe rubber band on the thing,
(23:57):
like we were drinking beers andjust being crazy.
So, uh, I personally can'timagine doing like what I'm
doing now without having thatlegit apprenticeship, because
it's like, dude, yeah, there'sso much, there's so much that
you, uh, that you gain fromhaving like knowledgeable
(24:18):
tattooers helping you out.
So, yeah, yeah, With tattooing,it's so crazy because it has
like such a history and likethese shops that were only
accessible by like walking inand like seeing all the art on
the walls, like it was such likea walled off thing, and I think
it really, like you know, itpisses people off to see it just
(24:38):
kind of like a free-for-all,which I totally get.
I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm new totattooing.
I've only been in this forgoing on three years, so you
know, it's not really I can'treally like say too much about
it, because there's peoplewho've been doing it for like 20
, 30, 40 years or whatever, andyou know they're the ones that I
(25:02):
think justifiably can getpretty pissed off about it.
So I just try to just respectit as much as I can, because
it's been around longer than meand it will be around longer
than me.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, it's interesting.
I was like just thinking aboutdifferent you know correlations
between music and tattooing andgatekeeping, quote unquote, and
it's like, in general, music isjust kind of anyone can do it,
but then as you get into scenes,whether it's punk or hardcore
or hip hop or whatever, there'sa lot of people who care about
(25:37):
keeping the integrity of thosegenres alive and I get that and
I respect that.
But then it's just like, yeah,it's just.
I mean that's like an endlessconversation.
You know A couple.
I got a couple of pickums herefor you.
Ok, we're going to do likebands, uh, tattoo flash, random
(26:01):
things.
You tell me which one you likebetter.
All right, on this one.
I'm gonna start off with aheater right here, because I
went to your instagram profile.
You got zz top and you gotmotorhead the foundations for a
great life.
Uh, two of the greatest bandsof all time.
But if you had to choosebetween zz top or motorhead, who
(26:22):
you got?
Motorhead?
What about?
Uh, metallica or slayer?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
oh man, shit, I guess I'm more.
I'm more in a metallica moodtoday, so I'll go with tiger, a
wizard or dragon wizard yeah,yeah, I'm gonna get a wizard
tattooed this week.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I'm hyped on it.
Uh, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get.
Uh, spider sinclair is is downin la, he's gonna do a little
wizard on my back.
I'm hyped.
Uh, barbed wire or chain link,chain link, peace or anarchy
peace.
That's the long hair talkingright there, I know right
morning till the morning thinlizzy or kiss oh, thin, lizzy
(27:08):
yeah, snake or pinup girl, snakegas or electric gas, sandwich
or burrito some people would saythose are the those, but I'll
go with that.
Who says that no one says that.
Psychopaths say that.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Shout out to my boy, Matt Sticker Bargain bin
blasphemy.
I think he said soup is asandwich.
He says everything's a sandwich.
I don't know.
You'd have to talk to him thisperson sounds insane Punk or
metal Metal.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Nice Neil Diamond or Barry Manilow.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Neil Diamond.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Yeah, lover or fighter, lover Darts or dice
Dice yeah, friends or followers,friends ACDC or Iron Maiden,
maiden Nice and Black Sabbath orSolo Aussie Sabbath, oh really
(28:08):
yeah.
It always shocks me how manypeople say Sabbath.
I'm like such a Solo Aussie guy.
I love Solo Aussie.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
All these have been insanely hard, so I'm answering
them as fast as I can, and theanswer could be different
tomorrow, but I like that.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Okay, just a couple more questions here.
We're going to end the pod onsome hypotheticals.
First one is the the classictime machine question.
The classic time machinequestion.
Okay, time machine shows upoutside the shop, you know,
doors open.
Come on in, tall boy.
Anywhere in history, where areyou going to go first and why?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
oh man, I mean, there's like probably like this
era where I feel like I'vetalked to some some old dudes
before that have like explained,like or some of the shows they
went to.
I think there was like a timewhere you could see like the
ramones and motorhead and likethe stooges at like the same
show.
Yeah, and that would just be.
That would be insane.
So, whatever year that would be, like what, like 79 or some
(29:16):
shit, I don't know that would besick.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, what do?
What if you went back to thewitch trials, bro?
What if you went back to thewitch trials and then you were
the guy in the shop?
That was like I saw it all.
I probably was.
No, no, no one, no one dies inthese hypotheticals.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I'd be the guy with all the stones being dropped on
him.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Who is that guy?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
guy.
His last words were more weight.
He wouldn't sell out moreweight that's some saline
history for you right there yeah, absolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Uh, well, let's go.
Let's go with the uh, genie inthe bottle here.
Okay, for the sake of thepodcast.
Let's say you crack open a abottle of Sailor Jerry spiced
rum and a genie comes out Lemmy.
Let's say Lemmy comes out, yeah, and you're hyped.
Obviously Anyone would be hypedto have Lemmy come out of the
bottle.
(30:10):
Lemmy comes out of the bottle,you know, and says what's up,
tall boy, you know, I'm here togrant you one wish.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
And one wish only.
It can be anything, oh my god.
One wish from lemmy coming outof a rum bottle and shit.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Am I gonna be basic as hell and say world peace,
shit, am I gonna be basic ashell and say world peace, say
that's a choice you got to makeon your own.
You know you can't.
I just if you want to go, worldpeace, I don't think anyone
would frown upon that shout out,shout out.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
To the crow mags I'll say world peace I like that.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Uh, all right here, tall boy.
Why, by the way, I gotta know?
You don't seem like in our,unless you are possibly like,
like secretly, like a sevenfooter.
What where's tall boy come from?
Is that from the beer can, orwhat?
What's that all about?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Exclusively a tall boy drinker.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
No, no, maybe at one point in my life.
Um, when I first started I waslike a 40 ounce drinker cause
they were so cheap.
Um, no, I'm like, I'm like six.
Two, I'm like a little tallerthan average oh, so you are a
tall boy plenty of people thatare taller than me.
My buddy, matt the sandwich guy,he's like seven feet tall and
like looks just like me.
(31:31):
He's way taller but um, he, uh,yeah, what?
When I was working at thescreen printing shop, I was also
like in college and I wastaking like an illustration
class and we had to do likecomic strips and I did like a.
I did a comic strip.
That was like it was supposedto be political and I watched a
(31:54):
debate between like Obama andJohn McCain and our assignment
was to like do a politicalcartoon and I was just like so
bored by the whole thing, likeoh, I, I just hate that shit.
So like they just kept talkingabout offshore drilling and I
drew them like having sex on anisland, said offshore, and and I
just wrote I wrote tall boyunder I'm like I'm not writing
(32:16):
my name on this, uh, and I'vealways liked, you know, like pus
head or like neck phase or likeyou know those, those dudes
that have like art monikers.
Um, so I was always looking fora name and I thought tall boy
was cool.
Definitely it's a beerreference.
I've been a big beer dude forforever, um shout out beer.
(32:38):
I think at the time, yeah, shoutout beer.
I think at the time I wasworking at that print shop and
we were drinking those Arizonaiced teas that were like a
dollar for the man can.
We'd just be like I'm going tothe store to get some tall boys,
like who wants a tall boy?
Like let's drink some tall boys, let's get some tall boys.
So, interestingly enough, it'skind of a weird term but I tell
(33:00):
people this I'm like I think thename might have been more of a
reference to those arizona ice t99 cents, yeah, at that time.
But yeah, I started writingtall boy.
Shit caught on and I stillwrite tall boy on everything
hell yeah, hell yeah, awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Uh, chris coulon, tall boy, it's been a pleasure.
My man, thank you for being aguest here on the Sailor Jerry
podcast.
Your incredible skateboardright here, sector 9
collaboration.
Sailor Jerry, tall boy, iconichula girl.
It's out now.
Congrats on it, my man.
(33:38):
You killed it.
You knocked it out of the park,stoked to have one.
And our last question here alittle bit of a doozy, but I
think you're going to be allright.
What to you, tall boy, is themeaning of life?
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Oh, my God, the meaning of life.
Life, um so, uh, I would Iwould say like lately I've been,
um, my wife has like beenreally good about like mantras
and shit like that and she'sbeen like teaching me about that
stuff and I'm and she's likewhat's your mantra?
And I'm like I think I came upwith a couple, but it's a it's a
(34:16):
work in progress.
But seek peace and have fun.
Like I think, if you have funwith everything like my job is
to make skateboard graphics andto make tattoos and like I've
like worked my whole life to tohave a job that is fun, so I'm
not so I'm just like enjoying asmuch of my life as possible.
So, yeah, have fun and seekpeace.
(34:39):
I don't know, I don't know.
Sometimes I guess anxiety justfeels like shitty.
So just remember to do.
Do shit that is fun and throughthat you'll have peace.
Whether it's skateboarding,artwork, whatever, those are the
shit, that, the things thatmake me happy and give me peace.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
So Awesome Tall boy man, Really appreciate your time
.
Thanks for being a guest hereon the sailor Jerry podcast
no-transcript.
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