Synopses & Reviews
A behind-the-scenes tour of the fabled tattoo industry on the arm of a swashbuckling insider and natural-born storyteller.
In the eighteen years hes been a tattoo artist, Jeff Johnson has worked on everyone from nervous young coeds who turn green at the sight of his needle (chudders) to cocky would-be artists with fancy design degrees and weak constitutions (night hogs). As the proprietor of the legendary Sea Tramp Tattoo Company, hes inked gangbangers, age-defying moms, and sociopaths; hes defused brawls, tended delicate egos, learned to spot and avoid bunnies, and made it his mission to perpetrate ingenious and awful practical jokes on his fellow Trojans. Hes a true swamp panther: He knows all the tricks of the trade and, more important, he knows how to keep his legendary shop in Portland, Oregon, from becoming the scene of a nightly bloodbath.
In Tattoo Machine, Johnson lifts the curtain on an art form that has undergone rebirth and illuminates a world where art, drama, and commerce come together in highly entertaining theater. A tattoo shop is no longer a den of social outcasts and degenerates–its a workshop where committed and schooled artists who paint on living canvases develop close bonds and bitter rivalries, where tattoo legends and innovators are equally revered, and where the potential for disaster lurks in every corner.
Discussing everything from his days as an apprentice to some of the greatest inkers in the trade to the incredibly vivid nightly spectacular over which he presides, Jeff Johnson has written a sometimes riotous, sometimes harrowing, and always riveting memoir about what it means to be on the front lines of a global art revolution.
Review
"Tattoo Machine is meticulously observed, savagely funny, and deeply compassionate. It's a tale of up-from-under redemption through the shadowed art of personal symbolism. Jeff Johnson is a sharp-eyed master tattoo artist and an extraordinary writer." Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love
Review
"As a business guide, Tattoo Machine maintains a reasonable equilibrium between personal iconoclasm, the value of teamwork, and the motivations for success. " Gerry Donaghy, Powells.com (read the entire Powells.com review)
Synopsis
A behind-the-scenes tour of the fabled tattoo industry on the arm of a swashbuckling insider and natural-born storyteller.
Jeff Johnson, a master tattoo artist and co-owner of the Sea Tramp Tattoo Company, has a blazing personality and a surefire management philosophy: Protect your people, make them feel safe enough to be brave, help them grow, and always learn from them. And for God's sake, pay attention to the toilets!
In this sharp, funny, and fascinating memoir, Johnson takes readers backstage at the Sea Tramp, Portland Oregon's oldest tattoo parlor, where art, drama, and commerce come together in highly entertaining theater. Founded by the legendary Bert Grimm, tattoo artist to Buffalo Bill and Bonnie and Clyde, it's an old-school street shop with a rich and colorful past.
Tattoo Machine reveals all the things that a TV show or a visit to your local establishment can't capture. There are the bloodbaths, the scams, the customers from hell. And then there are the friendships, the practical jokes, the surprising acts of tenderness. At the center of it all is Jeff Johnson. Welcome to his world, where there are no do-overs, everything is written in permanent ink, and a picture lasts a lifetime.
About the Author
Jeff Johnson has been tattooing professionally for eighteen years and is the co-owner of The Sea Tramp Tattoo Company, Portland Oregon's oldest tattoo shop. This is his first book.