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I don’t know what a shark would look like were you to encounter one while on acid, but I think it’d look a little something like this.

Tattoo by: Sean Herman at Royal Street Tattoo in Daphne, AL.

Sean Herman is a name I’m sure most of you are already familiar with–but I think this video does a great job of introducing us to rest of the members of Royal Street Tattoo in Mobile, AL. Hearing the thoughts from multiple tattooers (including apprentices) about the philosophy of tattooing was a nice look into a thought process regarding tattooing seldom touched upon.

Being the people-watcher that I am, hearing folks off the street voicing their thoughts on visible tattoos was a pretty serious bonus. Obviously this remains a topic that can get people talking, especially given their comfort with expressing a wide variety of opinions about the subject.

Live Free from Alek Rost on Vimeo.

During the Detroit Motor City Expo, I talked to the guys from Black 13 Tattoo Parlor about doing an interview with us. They were excited about the idea, and it took a few weeks for everything to come together. The real time delay was on my part, as I had to come up with a handful of questions that really showed what a unique shop Black 13 is.

I’m excited to have this interview live on the site, and hopefully by the end – you’ll understand why.

Tattoo Snob: Let’s start off with a roll call.

Doy: Black 13 consists of owners Josh Woods and Doy Gardner. Josh, Steve Martin, Ian White, and Marty “Riet” McEwen are our artists.

TS: Does your shop have a motto? (If not, make one up anyway.)

D: “Artists as well as gentlemen” – will that do? ha.

TS: Most people wouldn’t expect a shop of your caliber to be located in Tennessee. Do you think it’s harder to be successful there compared to larger cities?

D: I feel like success is based on what you put in to it. There are great shops all over the world in smaller and larger cities. I feel like Nashville is a really great city and I felt like it would be a enjoyable experience for out of town clientele. I moved here in 99 and noticed pretty quickly that there wasn’t a ton of extensive work going on here. Everyone I met with extensive work traveled outside of Nashville to get it, and no one I knew of ever traveled to Nashville to get tattooed. I wanted to see a different approach for not only tattooing, but for the customer service side too. Josh and I met and ended up talking about everything. We realized pretty quickly that we both wanted the same things. We want a shop that first and foremost cares about its clientele, and the artwork coming out of here. We want to create something that artists never want to leave, a family that takes care of one another. In my opinion, as long as you take care of people and do the best you possibly can, everything else will fall into place.

Tattoo by Ian White

Tattoo by Josh Woods

TS: What percentage of your work would you say is local clients versus those traveling from outside the area?

D: At this point I would say up to about 75% percent is “out of town” clientele. We see people that live at least 45 mins out on a regular basis. Some over a few hours. Some out of the country. Its great!

TS: How often does collaborative work between artists happen?

D: There isn’t a whole lot of that going on right now. The guys always share input and thoughts on each others sketches and art. Every once and a while someone requests it, but its rare.

Tattoo by Steve Martin

TS: What is the PROMocalypse? How did this idea start?

D: Hopefully it will become a yearly event that you will always hear about. Ha. In short, PROMocalypse is a dance for the living, a dance for the dead. Josh has wanted to do a prom for a while, and I like dressing up so we combined the two. For the most part, it will be straight up like high school prom. We will have one small dance room for zombies, but other then that, prom. www.promocalypse.com has the full story.

TS: What other shop events are planned throughout the year?

D: We have our yearly party coming up August 7th at Mercy Lounge here in Nashville. We will be celebrating two years! I believe Ian will be doing some art over in east Nashville for the Tomato Fest. Other then that, just a hand full of conventions throughout the rest of the year.

Tattoo by Marty "Riet" McEwen

TS: A number of guests artists are penciled in for 2010. Who’s on that list, and when will they be there?

D: Sean Herman will make it out sometime this year. Thats what he tells us. Amanda Leadman will be in and out. Lenny Renken is TBA. Theres a few others waiting to be locked down. The updates are in the guest artist section of www.black13tattoo.com

TS: I hear the shop has a rockin’ van. Can you tell us a little more about that? There’s a shop t-shirt of the van too, right?

D: Prior to opening the shop with Josh, I bought this van in Kentucky for $700 bucks. I needed it to get my travel drum cases around. It was in pretty bad shape but it ran and served its purpose. Once Josh took on Marty “Riet”as an apprentice we knew we had to get him to do it up. Cam took care of the paint and body work, Marty spray painted everything on, and Cam clear coated it. Marty ended up doing a sketch for the shirt with me driving. It’s available in the online store!

We thought it would be funny to do our version or spin with a rat fink inspired van design. Ol’ boy Marty drew me driving it, I like it.

TS: What is the shop or artists involved in outside of tattooing?

D: We all, minus Marty, enjoy riding the ol motorcycles. Everyone, minus me and Marty, is into working out and eating right. Steve has a little one and everyone tends to keep busy with the little time we spend out of the shop. We are there a lot now.

TS: Most importantly, how many pages of Cherry Creek flash do you have posted in your shop?

D: Thankfully, NONE! Ha..

TS: Any last words?

D: Thanks for the taking the time to hear from us and share our work. Many thanks for the PROMocalypse support too. Thanks to Tramp, Joe, and everyone over at Eternal for making great inks. Please check us out on www.black13tattoo.com – from there you can add us on Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter.

Thanks guys!

Tattoo by Steve Martin

Tattoo by Josh Woods

As most of you probably know, this past weekend was the Detroit Motor City Tattoo Expo. This year marked the 15th anniversary of the show, and despite the bad weather – the turnout was great. The artist turn out was nothing short than stellar, and the floor was packed all weekend.

As always, I brought out my camera and tried to capture some of the quality work that surrounded me. I snapped entirely too many pictures to post on here, so I’m just going to post the cream of the crop. Please remember, my photography skills are amateur at best.

If you’re interested in seeing all of the mediocre pictures I took, become a fan of Tattoo Snob on Facebook. All of the pictures from this past weekend are posted in the albums.

Sean Herman recently updated his website with his latest tattoo work, blog updates, and pictures from the road.

One of the videos Sean added to the site was from A Year at the Wheel, where Sean was interviewed about anarchy, art, and tattoos. It was filmed back in 2008, in which Sean discusses his thoughts on government (or lack of,) and the tattoo industry. I wonder if Sean feels any different about politics or the tattoo industry now?

Courtesy of: A Year at the Wheel

I’ll be the first to admit I’m a long time admirer of Sean Herman’s work. I had the pleasure of meeting him several years ago at the Northern Ink Xposure convention in Toronto and I was instantly blown away not only by the quality of his work, but his sense of humor and something bordering on humility about what he does for a living. All in all, a great dude–which is all the more reason for you to scope out his recently updated website (www.seanherman.com) complete with new photos and tales of his recent travels through Canada.

Someday I hope I’m fortunate enough to be in the same town as him long enough to get myself a sweet tattoo. In the meantime, I’ll just be envious of the person rocking the piece pictured below.

Tattoo by: Sean Herman

Unless you’re living in a cave, you’ve heard of Sean Herman over the past couple of years. If you’ve been to a major tattoo convention, chances are you’ve passed his booth as well. Sean attends an absurd amount of tattoo conventions, and when he’s not traveling – he’s tattooing. His calendar clearly shows he doesn’t stop.

I believe the tattoo below is still in progress, and it certainly showcases Sean’s talents. At the next convention you attend, stop by Sean’s booth and say hello. He always has an interesting booth, with enough content to distract you for a bit.

Tattoo by: Sean Herman