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Dan Trocchio
From Beer To Eternity
By Kore Flatmo
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It's difficult these days to find a good place to work given the number of people per capita tattooing and the high percentage of low-rent shops. You have to hand it to an artist who has the ability to move from town to town, country to country, (and since he’s been in New York, shop to shop) and always find a quality place to do his tattoos.
Over the past 13 years, Dan Trocchio has had that ability and anyone who knows him understands why.
On the surface his portfolio of beautiful tattooing, painting and drawing makes him a good asset. But it’s his genuine personality and sincere affinity for the profession that really separates him from most others. I consider him a good friend and on a recent working trip to my studio, we had a chance to sit down and talk.
Kore: So, let’s start from the beginning. You worked in Wisconsin, then Scandinavia, then parts of Europe and now you’re in New York City.
Dan: Chronologically, yeah, I guess.
Give me that order. How does that happen? How do you go from Madison to Sweden to Brooklyn?
I think Spike Bieganek and Steve Gold developed a relationship with Matti Sedholm in Texas at a convention. And then Matti came to Wisconsin to visit because we had a plethora of tattoos to do, money to make at the time. Steve's Tattoo was a really busy shop.
It was easily one of the busiest
shops in the country at the time,
wouldn't you say?
Yeah, I think so. I mean I didn't
have much experience in other
tattoo shops in other parts of the
country at that time. People would
come and say how spoiled we
were and I didn’t understand what
they were talking about.
That's where you started?
Yeah, that's where I apprenticed.
On Saturdays, on a walk-in day,
you'd go there — I'd say, open up
at 11 and there would be a line of
20 or 30 people outside the door.
Not all of them would be getting
tattooed, some friends visiting,
coming with them to watch. But
there would be 20 or 30 of them
outside waiting for the place to
open. We’d just start a list.
This was in the mid-'90s?
Yeah, that was '94 through
probably until '99 when the shop
moved.
When you were doing those busy
commercial days, you got paid to
practice.
Yeah, nothing's better practice
than just complete redundancy;
repeating the basics.
Absolutely. And so then Spike
was the guy that you started
with?
Yeah and he's the one who really
befriended Matty. That's how I first
got over to Sweden.
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