Mike Rubendall
Civ: My first question, because I don’t know some of these things, is where were you born and raised?
Mike Rubendall: I was born and raised on Long Island, New York, in a place called Massapequa.
Beautiful Massapequa. Home of the Stray Cats.
You’re right, you’re right. And that’s where I ended up opening the shop, Kings Avenue. In my hometown…
In your own hometown. I like that about you. Good Guy Rubendall. Is that Jewish?
No. German. I’m half-German and half-Italian.
I knew you were Italian. I’m half-Italian too.
Only the good half. I was brought up Italian.
Only the good half. [Laughs] I know. I don’t talk about my Irish side either. Your father is Italian?
No, my father’s German.
And what did your father do for a living?
He was a banker, on Wall Street.
For how long. Whole career?
Probably 20 years.
Mom was a housewife?
Yeah.
Perfect. Do you have any brothers and sisters?
I’m the youngest of three. I have a brother that’s 10 years older than me, he’s 43, and I have a sister that’s eight years older.
Nice. And what do they do?
My brother works for the MTA, the railroads, and my sister owns a hair salon.
Nice! So you guys are perfect. When you were in High School, did you do any sports, or clubs, or after-school stuff? Or were you just a split-after-school kind of guy?
No, I was a jock. I was heavily into sports and always very active.
Yeah? What’d you play?
Lacrosse, football and I did a lot of surfing and BMX when I was younger. During the later half of my high school years, like my Junior and Senior year, I got into hardcore/heavy metal music and tattooing, so that derailed my pretty boy image and any type of desire to be a professional athlete.
That’s okay. That’s a good thing to get rid of sometimes. After high school, did you go to college? Or did you get right into working?
No college, I was 17 years old when I first started working for Frank [Romano].
That was your apprenticeship? At Da Vinci tattoo?
Yeah, that was 1995, that I started with Frank. I was still in high school, skipped college and I never had any sort of formal art training, or anything like that—I just went right into the tattoo biz.
Why did you think tattooing was going to be good, if you had no formal art training? Did you just like to draw?
I never really thought tattooing would turn out the way it did for me. I drew since I could remember. I got influence from graffiti and music at a young age. You know, the basic things that move you as a youth. I had always enjoyed being creative and was fascinated by tattoos so it made sense at the time.
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