April 17, 2025 • 9 mins
This raw, unfiltered conversation takes you behind the scenes of tattoo culture's evolution from societal taboo to mainstream acceptance. We explore the journey from first tattoos (a small "tribal sun" at age 50) to deeper immersion in ink culture, while unpacking the loaded terminology and judgments that have historically surrounded body art.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I met you.
It was close to In an alley.
No, it was on HollywoodBoulevard.
No Rest my case.
The alley came later, but I metyou.
I think it was seven years agonow.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Maybe Eight years ago .
It's hard to believe that COVIDwas four years ago, so I'm all
lost Almost five years ago.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Kind of like, really that was seven years ago, so I'm
all lost almost five years ago.
Yeah, it's kind of like I'mreally.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That was seven years ago I'm looking back on some of
these things and it's like, wow,this has been a long time, but
I think it was 2017 and at thetime, I had a roommate who, uh,
wanted to go to this club andshe was like you got to get on
instagram, you got to do this.
And I I'm like, huh what?
Yeah, whatever, you know what'sInstagram?
I'm like whatever this is, andso, anyway, she ended up
(00:55):
dragging me out to this club.
No pun intended.
And standing on the steps wasthis guy who had all of these
tattoos and all of this stuffand frankly, it was very scary,
intimidating, and I ended upgoing back to the club a few
(01:18):
times and we got to talking witheach other and somehow you
stood out like a sore thumb,like a sore your first year.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
A foot taller than everybody else.
I am a little bit tall, yeah,and you didn't bother dyeing
your hair black or whatever.
So like yeah, here's this bigwoman with blonde hair just
walks in right, floating overeverybody else.
Yes, you, you couldn't bemissed.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It was when I first got in there.
I was going to admit I was alittle intimidated by the whole
thing, as everybody is.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
When you first went there, you were like what the
hell is this?
Why do I feel like something'sdifferent here?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I was like what is this?
It was your first taste offreedom.
It really was, and and I had.
I will admit I had gotten acouple of tattoos before I got
to know you.
I I my first tattoo was when Iwas 50, and it was this little
tribal sun on my stomach whichreally made no sense.
(02:19):
But I thought it was likereally, wow, incredible, I'm
getting tattoo.
I love the way you said yourstomach.
Well, that's where it was.
It was between my stomach andjust below my belly button and
it wasn't that far down, and soI got that.
(02:41):
And then I had gotten a trampstamp that I had designed from
some crap I had seen online, youknow that's another word that
somebody not in the tattoo worldmade up Really Tramp stamps.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Who made it up?
Probably jealous wives.
Probably jealous wives, becausewhy?
The majority of the people thatgot it, the girls that got it,
were either strippers or youngcollege girls that had this
amazing figure and it accentedthe lower back and that's all it
did.
And then, somewhere, peoplethat were jealous and haters
(03:15):
started calling it a tramp stamp, like trying to put it down.
Oh, you have a tramp stamp.
You must have been a tramp.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, for a lot of time the tattoos were looked
down upon by most of society.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That's because people didn't know the history.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
And so we've seen a big change over the last 20
years.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
That's because the tattooed people took over as the
old people died.
See, people with tattoos wentinto the industry and decided,
oh, I have tattoos, so I don'thave to like conform to all this
crap that the generation, twogenerations before we're doing I
mean even still today.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
There's still some law enforcement agencies which
prohibit which is any display ofof tattoos.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, there's a story about that too in la, and it's
my fault, I did the tattoo thatgot that cop fired and banned,
oh no, which made the LAPD putthe sleeves on.
Oh wow, yeah, it was a pictureof his wife naked, with cuffs
over her nipples, with his haton.
Oh dude, that was it.
Nothing was showing.
(04:19):
You couldn't even read thebadge number or anything, but
some touchy person in the thinggot offended, said that that
tattoo made people look at herdifferent and she had a shape
like me.
So there was nothing that theywere looking at.
But still, I'm not body shaming, but I'm just telling you the
(04:39):
story that happened.
I'll body shame later.
I just you know I can'tremember later the.
The.
I just you know I can rememberhis name George, something,
george, officer, george,whatever.
I'm not sure he was a littlemidget dick, though you know
Well, you've tattooed Little.
(05:00):
Irishman cop yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I wonder why You've tattooed a lot of cops, yes, and
a lot of sheriffs and federalofficials, and no CHPs.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
They don't allow it at all.
Girl scouts will get that shitbefore, the CHP will.
No, they're just pussies.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So I was at this club you saw me gradually kind of
change a little bit and then Ithought I need to get a tattoo.
That was nice of you.
I went down to your shop and Igot a picture of you in your
shop there with your flash andrates and other things Wow, look
, there's barely any gray hairand rates and other things.
There's barely any gray hair.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It's my computer work .
Yeah, it was.
It was a few years ago.
Computer, Look at it.
All is crown on conspiracystuff.
My computer just decided tofizz away.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And so what do you do to it?
I visited your shop and westarted working on some tattoos
yeah, you had really good ideas.
So before we get to, you knowmy tattoos and all that let's
hear a little bit about you well, I went to juilliard.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
No, you didn't, um, you're originally.
You're originally from la, bornand raised in hollywood.
I was literally born on romaine, right by gower, literally half
a block away from the cemetery.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Oh wow, like that doesn't explain anything did you
spend a lot of time there whenyou were growing up?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
no, no, because at like a year and a half we moved
to the sunset strip right acrossthe street from rocker ralphs.
Oh wow, it says rock and rollralphs, but nobody called it
that back then.
It was just Rocker Ralphs, justRocker Ralphs.
Yeah, rocker Ralphs, and yourmom was involved in the— my
great-grandmother was in theindustry.
She was an actress and a singer.
My grandmother was in theindustry as a model.
(06:50):
She tried to be an actress.
Didn't work, so she ended upbeing a taxi dancer.
You know what a taxi dancer is?
Oh yeah, the dance club.
Very low-end prostitute.
Ten cents a dance, Ten cents adance.
She didn't put out or anything,but I'm just saying that.
And then she went on to moredarker things in Hollywood with
you know, Mickey Cohen Ah, Iremember you telling me about
(07:11):
that and Eddie Nash if peopleeven know who eddie nash?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
is.
Well, eddie nash made mickeycohen look like a bitch.
Uh, eddie nash is.
Uh was the dealer in hollywoodand the enforcer.
The wonderland murders are alltied to him.
There's a documentary out now.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Better there's that.
There's um boogie nights wherethey where um the eddie nash uh
character is in there with thelittle asian dude throwing
firecrackers yeah yeah, yeah no,my grandma worked for him.
Oh wow, because then my grandmaalso like had this other stuff
going on.
My, my mom, was in music andthe music industry.
(07:51):
She like saw the beatles at thehollywood bowl and then later
she met my dad on the strip andshe was the manager of his band.
She was.
She was also a waitress at umDupar, she was a waitress at
Canners and she was a waitressat the Rainbow oh wow at a
birthday party.
I don't know how any of thatkeeps happening yeah, and so she
(08:13):
was in the club scene and solater, later in the in the late
70s, she um, my parents gotdivorced when I was nine, so or
split up, so that was uh 76, soby 78 79, she was finding
herself you know, I'm gonna godo this and I'm gonna be this
(08:34):
and I'm gonna, and it was kindof cool.
It's kind of embarrassingbecause your friends are like
your mom's a kook, she listensto Led Zeppelin.
You know you have a Mohawk, butyeah.
And then she eventually gotinvolved with the music machine
which at the time was called thecowboy.
Yeah.
I met you.
It was close to In an alley.
No, it was on HollywoodBoulevard.
No Rest my case.
The alley came later, but I metyou.
I think it was seven years agonow.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Maybe Eight years ago .
It's hard to believe that COVIDwas four years ago, so I'm all
lost Almost five years ago.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Kind of like, really that was seven years ago, so I'm
all lost almost five years ago.
Yeah, it's kind of like I'mreally.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That was seven years ago I'm looking back on some of
these things and it's like, wow,this has been a long time, but
I think it was 2017 and at thetime, I had a roommate who, uh,
wanted to go to this club andshe was like you got to get on
instagram, you got to do this.
And I I'm like, huh what?
Yeah, whatever, you know what'sInstagram?
I'm like whatever this is, andso, anyway, she ended up
(00:55):
dragging me out to this club.
No pun intended.
And standing on the steps wasthis guy who had all of these
tattoos and all of this stuffand frankly, it was very scary,
intimidating, and I ended upgoing back to the club a few
(01:18):
times and we got to talking witheach other and somehow you
stood out like a sore thumb,like a sore your first year.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
A foot taller than everybody else.
I am a little bit tall, yeah,and you didn't bother dyeing
your hair black or whatever.
So like yeah, here's this bigwoman with blonde hair just
walks in right, floating overeverybody else.
Yes, you, you couldn't bemissed.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It was when I first got in there.
I was going to admit I was alittle intimidated by the whole
thing, as everybody is.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
When you first went there, you were like what the
hell is this?
Why do I feel like something'sdifferent here?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I was like what is this?
It was your first taste offreedom.
It really was, and and I had.
I will admit I had gotten acouple of tattoos before I got
to know you.
I I my first tattoo was when Iwas 50, and it was this little
tribal sun on my stomach whichreally made no sense.
(02:19):
But I thought it was likereally, wow, incredible, I'm
getting tattoo.
I love the way you said yourstomach.
Well, that's where it was.
It was between my stomach andjust below my belly button and
it wasn't that far down, and soI got that.
(02:41):
And then I had gotten a trampstamp that I had designed from
some crap I had seen online, youknow that's another word that
somebody not in the tattoo worldmade up Really Tramp stamps.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Who made it up?
Probably jealous wives.
Probably jealous wives, becausewhy?
The majority of the people thatgot it, the girls that got it,
were either strippers or youngcollege girls that had this
amazing figure and it accentedthe lower back and that's all it
did.
And then, somewhere, peoplethat were jealous and haters
(03:15):
started calling it a tramp stamp, like trying to put it down.
Oh, you have a tramp stamp.
You must have been a tramp.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, for a lot of time the tattoos were looked
down upon by most of society.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That's because people didn't know the history.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
And so we've seen a big change over the last 20
years.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
That's because the tattooed people took over as the
old people died.
See, people with tattoos wentinto the industry and decided,
oh, I have tattoos, so I don'thave to like conform to all this
crap that the generation, twogenerations before we're doing I
mean even still today.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
There's still some law enforcement agencies which
prohibit which is any display ofof tattoos.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, there's a story about that too in la, and it's
my fault, I did the tattoo thatgot that cop fired and banned,
oh no, which made the LAPD putthe sleeves on.
Oh wow, yeah, it was a pictureof his wife naked, with cuffs
over her nipples, with his haton.
Oh dude, that was it.
Nothing was showing.
(04:19):
You couldn't even read thebadge number or anything, but
some touchy person in the thinggot offended, said that that
tattoo made people look at herdifferent and she had a shape
like me.
So there was nothing that theywere looking at.
But still, I'm not body shaming, but I'm just telling you the
(04:39):
story that happened.
I'll body shame later.
I just you know I can'tremember later the.
The.
I just you know I can rememberhis name George, something,
george, officer, george,whatever.
I'm not sure he was a littlemidget dick, though you know
Well, you've tattooed Little.
(05:00):
Irishman cop yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I wonder why You've tattooed a lot of cops, yes, and
a lot of sheriffs and federalofficials, and no CHPs.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
They don't allow it at all.
Girl scouts will get that shitbefore, the CHP will.
No, they're just pussies.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So I was at this club you saw me gradually kind of
change a little bit and then Ithought I need to get a tattoo.
That was nice of you.
I went down to your shop and Igot a picture of you in your
shop there with your flash andrates and other things Wow, look
, there's barely any gray hairand rates and other things.
There's barely any gray hair.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It's my computer work .
Yeah, it was.
It was a few years ago.
Computer, Look at it.
All is crown on conspiracystuff.
My computer just decided tofizz away.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And so what do you do to it?
I visited your shop and westarted working on some tattoos
yeah, you had really good ideas.
So before we get to, you knowmy tattoos and all that let's
hear a little bit about you well, I went to juilliard.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
No, you didn't, um, you're originally.
You're originally from la, bornand raised in hollywood.
I was literally born on romaine, right by gower, literally half
a block away from the cemetery.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Oh wow, like that doesn't explain anything did you
spend a lot of time there whenyou were growing up?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
no, no, because at like a year and a half we moved
to the sunset strip right acrossthe street from rocker ralphs.
Oh wow, it says rock and rollralphs, but nobody called it
that back then.
It was just Rocker Ralphs, justRocker Ralphs.
Yeah, rocker Ralphs, and yourmom was involved in the— my
great-grandmother was in theindustry.
She was an actress and a singer.
My grandmother was in theindustry as a model.
(06:50):
She tried to be an actress.
Didn't work, so she ended upbeing a taxi dancer.
You know what a taxi dancer is?
Oh yeah, the dance club.
Very low-end prostitute.
Ten cents a dance, Ten cents adance.
She didn't put out or anything,but I'm just saying that.
And then she went on to moredarker things in Hollywood with
you know, Mickey Cohen Ah, Iremember you telling me about
(07:11):
that and Eddie Nash if peopleeven know who eddie nash?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
is.
Well, eddie nash made mickeycohen look like a bitch.
Uh, eddie nash is.
Uh was the dealer in hollywoodand the enforcer.
The wonderland murders are alltied to him.
There's a documentary out now.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Better there's that.
There's um boogie nights wherethey where um the eddie nash uh
character is in there with thelittle asian dude throwing
firecrackers yeah yeah, yeah no,my grandma worked for him.
Oh wow, because then my grandmaalso like had this other stuff
going on.
My, my mom, was in music andthe music industry.
(07:51):
She like saw the beatles at thehollywood bowl and then later
she met my dad on the strip andshe was the manager of his band.
She was.
She was also a waitress at umDupar, she was a waitress at
Canners and she was a waitressat the Rainbow oh wow at a
birthday party.
I don't know how any of thatkeeps happening yeah, and so she
(08:13):
was in the club scene and solater, later in the in the late
70s, she um, my parents gotdivorced when I was nine, so or
split up, so that was uh 76, soby 78 79, she was finding
herself you know, I'm gonna godo this and I'm gonna be this
(08:34):
and I'm gonna, and it was kindof cool.
It's kind of embarrassingbecause your friends are like
your mom's a kook, she listensto Led Zeppelin.
You know you have a Mohawk, butyeah.
And then she eventually gotinvolved with the music machine
which at the time was called thecowboy.
Yeah.
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