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Tony Hundahl
Interview by Crash
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CRASH: OK. Name, age, where you tattoo...
TONY HUNDAHL: Anthony Hundahl, 29, Rock of Ages Tattoo.
How long have you been tattooing?
Ten years as of May—as of Mother's Day. That's how I remember it.
Yeah, I blew off Mother's Day to do my first paying customer tattoo.
(laughs) That's awesome. Um, how did you—how did you get into
tattooing?
Uh, actually, I was hanging out with these two like bull dyke chicks. And
they wanted—like they saw I could draw and they made me a tattoo
machine out of one of those little hand-held fans so I could tattoo ‘em.
That's the first tattoos I did. And then they started taking me to the
tattoo shop they went to and I started trading flash to the owner of that
place for credit in the shop. And then after about six months of totally
God awful tattoos I was getting, I was like, "Man, I know I can draw
better than these guys that are tattooing me." And so I figured if they
could make a living, then I would be able to. Right around that time,
that dude offered me an apprenticeship. But it was right at the same
time that I realized how terrible they all were so I went to like the only
good shop in that area, you know, the only guy that could draw. And
I just went in—just walked in the door and I was like, "Y'all need an
apprentice?" And I figured they would just shut me down like instantly,
you know? And they were like, "Well, show us some artwork." And at
the time I worked this graveyard job, kinda like the night watchman at
a detox facility. I worked these 12-hour shifts where I had to just sit
there and make sure everybody was in their rooms once an hour. So
that night I drew two sheets of flash and took it to the shop the next
day. They were like, "All right. Sit down over there." And it just kind of
went from there. I just stumbled into it, kind of.
Had you been getting tattoos already?
Uh, I started getting tattooed at that terrible shop, like right before I
turned 17. I hand poked some shit, like four tattoos on myself, but I
was 14. But I didn't even know like the whole wrap the thread around
the needle or anything. I was like—I would dribble a line of ink onto my
skin and then stab into it for like 10 minutes.
Right.
And then I'd wipe it off and see what I had. So everything was straight
lines. (laughs) Everything I did had to be straight lines. But I saved
that one. That's the first tattoo I ever did and the first cover up. It
was a cross that came out so good I thought that if I dribbled ink
on there and poked it less times right next to it, I could do a drop
shadow. And I just started making a blob so I just made it into a star/
pot leaf interpretation there. Yeah, I started getting tattooed at 17. I
was drawing flash at 16 and selling it—like people would buy a design
or whatever and take it to these guys and get it tattooed. Then they
saw the drawings and the dude was like, "Hey," you know, "If you'll
draw shit for the shop..." And you know, I was an idiot. I was giving
up the originals for $20 in tattoo credit a piece. And I thought I was
getttin' fuckin' hooked up. And just letting these fools doing anything
they wanted to tattoo on me too... I'm having to laser that shit off now.
I have like a fucking chest panel of fucking tree frogs in a goddamned
rain forest that was outlined with fucking rainbow-haired, fucking Jimi
Hendrix looking fucking psychedelic chick face... Oh, I was so stupid.
Chrome tribal dragon down my side...
And where was this at? Where were you?
This was in Everett, Washington, like 25 minutes north of Seattle. I
actually lived 45 minutes away from the shop and I would commute
back and forth every... Like when I started apprenticing, I held that
graveyard job at the detox for like another 8 months. I would work all
night and go home and sleep like two hours and then drive
45 minutes to the shop, work like 8 or 10 hours, drive
back home, shower and then go to work. And those
were 12-hour shifts at the detox. And then I found a job as a janitor at a
community college that was only 8 hour shifts so I could be at the shop a
little bit more. But it was about a year of like only 3 hours a night sleep.
Yeah, so your apprenticeship lasted about a year?
Roughly. I mean, it was probably about a year from the time that
like I started in there to when I was like, you know, making my living
from tattooing. You know, I quit my job and it wasn't much of a living,
but once I got to charge something for tattoos, as soon as... And I
wanted to quit before school started back too ‘cause September was
coming up and I didn't want to clean up after a massive amount of
college students.
Uh, who did your first real tattoo—your first good tattoo?
My first good tattoo? Aw, fuck...
Yeah and what was it?
Uh, I don't even know. I don't have very many good tattoos. Uh,
the first... It's tough to think of what the first good tattoo I got was.
Probably... Aw! You know what? Eric Doyle did a skull on my
stomach. That was the first tattoo... At that San Antonio... When
the National Convention was in San Antonio—like '99 I think? And
I actually went—I was gonna get tattooed by Cap Szumski. And I
talked to him like on Thursday night and he was like, "Oh yeah, just
come by the booth tomorrow." You know? And he was like, "Yeah, just
come by like at 2 o'clock and we'll figure out—we'll set up a time for
you." He was like, "Yeah, it will be cool to do that tattoo," or whatever. And I
went by his booth and he didn't even remember talking to me. He was like, "Oh,
no. I'm totally booked up." And I was just BUMMED you know? And I was just
wasting time then, you know? I was just looking at every portfolio for as long as I
could. That was the first tattoo convention I'd ever been to. And I looked through
Eric's book. I was like, "Fuck, man." So I got tattooed by him. I had 500 bucks
burning a hole in my pocket. Yeah, that was
probably the first really cool tattoo that I got.
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