The Great British Tattoo Show is being billed as "A brand new show with a brand new vibe.....world-class artists.... blah blah blah.... yet another first for the UK tattoo industry.....blah blah blah..." As tattooing has gotten more popular more people have looked towards our industry to make a quick dollar. People who have no concern or love of tattooing only look for ways to exploit the tattoo industry and the success that's been created by others before them. After the first London Tattoo convention this person organized "Tattoo Jam" a show one month before the London show less than 100 miles away. He then went on to set up "Tattoo Freeze" another UK show a week before the Brighton convention.  I guess this could all be written off as coincedence and fair play in business but to make this drama even more interesting there is a webpage devoted to this guys business practices of not paying his vendors, bankrupt companies and an overall contempt for the rest of the tattoo world. Did I mention that this guy has not one tattoo (last I heard anyway)? 

Not only does this affect the people who run the original London show it also impacts all of the artists working at that show. [...] As artists, these are the people we should not lend our names to.  It's important to be aware of who we support. I know that the show will probably go on. But I for one am not going to be a part of it.

I think the key thing, above and beyond any kind of subject is -- it's corny to say it but -- if you really have a dream, kids...For me, in the mid-fifties, the dream was tattooing. It was so not cool then. It was such a marginalized thing, and I was just driven to do it. When I got into it coming out of art school, it still was totally looked down upon, and I just thought it had a lot of great potential, primarily as a medium, and I wanted to pursue that. That's an important thing for people to know.

But I know the playing field is so completely different now. People are always coming up to me saying, "Oh, I have a nephew or niece or whatever, who wants to be a tattooer, what's your advice?" And I say, "Well, they probably shouldn't do it. It's so crowded. It's not a sure thing, but if they are really driven to do it, maybe it will work." There was an interview with Bob Dylan, maybe about a couple of years ago, and someone asked him, "If you were 18 and going to get into music today, what would you say to people?" and he said, "I would never do it." Because he got into music at a time when it was right. I got into tattooing at a time when it was right.