Who are some of the artist's you look up to?
I have respect for any artist doing their thing and no respect for dickheads, don't care who you are. Learn some manners.
As far as who I look up to, it would naturally be the people who I feel like are doing the best job at what I enjoy. Naturally, Shane O'Neill and BJ Betts are influences. My good friend Steve Wimmer is an inspiration as well. Klown and Abey Alvarez, from Lowrider Tattoo, have been incredibly welcoming, supportive, and just plain nice to a young kid who's was too afraid to talk to anybody. I look up to Bob Tyrell, Chuey Quintanar, Jose Lopez, Jun Cha, Nikko, Todd Noble, and Russ Abbott as well.
What are the main challenges in producing a winning portrait tattoo?
Everything. Trying to sit down, concentrate, and maintain for 5, 6, 10 hours, despite the people talking next to you about dumb shit, your girl blowing up your phone to fight with you, people walking through the door to interrupt you, and the customer not cooperating - those are the main challenges. Everything that makes a regular tattoo difficult is magnified by a thousand when the room for error is divided by it. For a person like myself, the hardest part for me is just slowing down. Things are always moving quickly, and when you're moving too quick, you miss a lot. A good likeness of someone will make a quality tattoo, but for that portrait to be dead on, you have to capture EVERYTHING. And you have to get it right. Time, patience, and discipline are required.
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