Tattoo 408

In this episode, Ethan talks with Lesley Mullins, shop manager at Marks of Art Tattoo, and Tyler Harrington, tattooist at State of Grace, about their experiences working tattooing's favorite day: Friday the 13th.

The following shops will be doing Friday the 13th flash this coming Friday, October 13th:

Downtown

Luna Tattoo Studio

Cali Stylz Tattoo

Blacksuit Tattoo

Underground Creations

Player's Ink

Midtown

San Jose Tattoo

Eleventh Dimension Tattoo Arts

Xibalba Ink

Japantown

State of Grace (Alan and Berto)

East Side

Premium Clan

West Side

Unlimited Ink

South Side

Sacred Oath

Noble Trinity

Marks of Art

Black Lantern Tattoo

Rose Garden

Holy Scythe

Floating House

Current Tattooing

Ants Tattoo

Willow Glen

Pura Tinta Tattoo Studio

Flourish Tattoo and Foliage

Santa Clara

Vampire Battle Mansion

Milpitas

Parallax Tattoo & Art Studio

Modesto

Anomaly Tattoo Studio

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Love Tattoo 408? Here are the best ways to support the show!

1. Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (it takes ~10 seconds).

2. Tell your tattoo-loving friends and family about it!

3. Get 15% off when purchasing tattoo healing products from saniderm.com with the code "tattoo408"

4. Leave a tip!

Follow Tattoo 408 on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. DM your address and get stickers in the mail!

Thank you to Tessia Spisak for our logo and to mint.beats for our music.

Tattoo 408 is produced by Ethan Gregory Dodge.

© 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Today, Tattoo 408 brings you the second half of Ethan's interview with Abraham Ortega, owner of Blacksuit Tattoo.

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Love Tattoo 408? Here are the best ways to support the show!

1. Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (it takes ~10 seconds).

2. Tell your tattoo-loving friends and family about it!

3. Get 15% off when purchasing tattoo healing products from saniderm.com with the code "tattoo408"

4. Leave a tip!

Follow Tattoo 408 on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. DM your address and get stickers in the mail!

Thank you to Tessia Spisak for our logo and to mint.beats for our music.

Tattoo 408 is produced by Ethan Gregory Dodge.

© 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Abraham Ortega has been tattooing in San Jose for over 20 years. Like Chono, he learned in the streets on the East Side before moving into it professionally. He is currently the owner of Black Suit Tattoo in downtown San Jose and specializes in black and grey Chicano tattoos.

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Love Tattoo 408? Here are the best ways to support the show!

1. Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (it takes ~10 seconds).

2. Tell your tattoo-loving friends and family about it!

3. Get 15% off when purchasing tattoo healing products from saniderm.com with the code "tattoo408"

4. Leave a tip!

Follow Tattoo 408 on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. DM your address and get stickers in the mail!

Thank you to Tessia Spisak for our logo and to mint.beats for our music.

Tattoo 408 is produced by Ethan Gregory Dodge.

© 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

This week I'm finishing up my conversation with Chono Garduño.---

Love Tattoo 408? Here are the best ways to support the show!

1. Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (it takes ~10 seconds).

2. Tell your tattoo-loving friends and family about it!

3. Get 15% off when purchasing tattoo healing products from saniderm.com with the code "tattoo408"

4. Leave a tip!

Follow Tattoo 408 on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. DM your address and get stickers in the mail!

Thank you to Tessia Spisak for our logo and to mint.beats for our music.

Tattoo 408 is produced by Ethan Gregory Dodge.

© 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

This week I'm talking with Chono Garduno about his 35 year tattooing career. Born and raised on San Jose's East Side, Chono got his start tattooing on homemade machines in the streets.---

Love Tattoo 408? Here are the best ways to support the show!

1. Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (it takes ~10 seconds).

2. Tell your tattoo-loving friends and family about it!

3. Get 15% off when purchasing tattoo healing products from saniderm.com with the code "tattoo408"

4. Leave a tip!

Follow Tattoo 408 on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. DM your address and get stickers in the mail!

Thank you to Tessia Spisak for our logo and to mint.beats for our music.

Tattoo 408 is produced by Ethan Gregory Dodge.

© 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

When we last left Paco Excel, he was just starting to tell us about his days at New Skool, the shop he co-founded with Adrian Lee in San Jose's midtown. In this half of the interview, he takes us through the rest of the shop's days and where his career went after that, and where it is now.

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Love Tattoo 408? Here are the best ways to support the show!

1. Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (it takes ~10 seconds).

2. Tell your tattoo-loving friends and family about it!

3. Use the code "tattoo408" when purchasing tattoo healing products from saniderm.com and get 15% off.

4. Leave a tip!

Follow Tattoo 408 on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. DM your address and get stickers in the mail!

Thank you to Tessia Spisak for our logo and to mint.beats for our music.

Tattoo 408 is produced by Ethan Gregory Dodge.

© 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

I took a drive north to the foggy town of Pacifica, CA to interview Paco Excel. Paco, along with fellow artist Adrian Lee, opened up that tattoo shop known as New Skool back in the mid 90s. It changed the game in San Jose tattoo.

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Love Tattoo 408? Here are the best ways to support the show!

1. Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (it takes ~10 seconds)

2. Tell your tattoo-loving friends and family about it!

3. Use the code "tattoo408" when purchasing tattoo healing products from saniderm.com and get 15% off.

4. Leave a tip!

Follow Tattoo 408 on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. DM your address and get our stickers in the mail!

Thank you to Tessia Spisak for our logo and to mint.beats for our music.

Tattoo 408 is produced by Ethan Gregory Dodge.

© 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Hey everyone, welcome to Tattoo 408! Ethan Gregory Dodge here with part 2 of my interview with Scotty Weeks. I loved my conversation with Scotty. He's seen so much and his shop, Marks of Art, is a staple in San Jose tattooing. If you haven't listened to the first part of the interview, go back and listen to the previous episode as it sets the stage for this episode. Here Scotty tells us about some of the folks that have worked for him, the ups and downs and running a tattoo shop, and how the industry has changed since Marks of Art opened nearly 30 years ago.

Remember, we now have a sponsor, Saniderm. They make those clear bandages that you can apply after getting a tattoo that still allow the tattoo to breathe while preventing it from getting dirty or infected. They also have awesome tattoo aftercare products. Get 15% off on their website, saniderm.com with the discount code "tattoo408."

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Love Tattoo 408? Here are the best ways to support the show!

1. Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (it takes ~10 seconds)

2. Tell your tattoo-loving friends and family about it!

3. Use the code "tattoo408" when purchasing tattoo healing products from saniderm.com

4. Leave a tip!

Follow Tattoo 408 on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. DM your address and get stickers in the mail!

Thank you to Tessia Spisak for our logo and to mint.beats for our music.

Tattoo 408 is produced by Ethan Gregory Dodge.

© 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Hey everyone, Ethan Gregory Dodge here with episode number 3 of Tattoo 408. We're moving on to a new artist. This week we have Scotty Weeks, founder of Marks of Art Tattoo. It's difficult to talk about San Jose tattooing and not bring up Marks of Art. It's been open on Union Avenue in the Cambrian neighborhood for 29 years. I paid the shop a visit back in April to ask Scotty all about his upbringing and career. I'm stoked to share it with you today.

Just a couple of notes before we dive in:

This was one of the first interviews that I did using these particular microphones. As a result, I didn't place them as well as I should have and there's a bit more background noise and mic bleed than I would like. I've done my best to minimize it while maintaining the shop's ambience. You will also hear some finger tapping close to the mic from Scotty.

If you've listened to our interview with Tattoo John, then Scotty's name may sound familiar. It's because Scotty got his start looking over John's shoulder, so I had to make sure I asked John about that. As such, Scotty talks about John fairly extensively. If you haven't listened to John's interview, it comprises our first two episodes. Go back and listen to them!

Scotty brings up an artist called Pinky. There is so much to be said about Pinky and he only really comes up in passing in this interview. But he had such an incredible impact on tattooing in San Jose and across the world. We will do an episode all about him in the near future, but if you want to learn more now, I wrote a 3,000 word article for Metro Silicon Valley on the life of Pinky. Shortly after that, I was asked to speak on a panel about Pinky at a Sacramento tattoo convention, Cap City Classic.

And lastly, Scotty mentions Chuck Marshal. I just wanted to remind listeners that Tattoo John told me he got his first tattoo from Chuck. Unfortunately he's no longer around, but if you knew him, I'd love to talk to you!

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Love Tattoo 408? Here are the best ways to support the show!

1. Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (it takes ~10 seconds)

2. Tell your tattoo-loving friends and family about it!

3. Use the code "tattoo408" when purchasing tattoo healing products from saniderm.com

4. Leave a tip!

Follow Tattoo 408 on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. DM your address and get our stickers in the mail!

Thank you to Tessia Spisak for our logo and to mint.beats for our music.

Tattoo 408 is produced by Ethan Gregory Dodge.

© 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Hey there everyone. Ethan Gregory Dodge here with the second episode of Tattoo 408. This is the rest of my interview with Tattoo John Bullock over at San Jose Tattoo. It's the oldest operating tattoo shop in the 408. It opened its doors in 1978 and only closed down one time due to a fire in 2020. John goes into detail about that fire in this part of the interview.

If you haven't listened to last week's episode, I highly recommend doing so before listening to this one. They were recorded in the same sitting and split up over two episodes for the sake of time. Last week we learned a lot about John's upbringing and life leading up to San Jose Tattoo. This week we cover the opening of the shop, his experience of escaping addiction, and his tattooing philosophies.

Because the conversation was so long, I didn't get to dive into a lot of things I would have liked. For example, I'd love to know more about John's inspirations, be they other tattoo artists or what have you. What drives him to draw the things that he does and why? That sort of thing. I'm sure I'll get the opportunity to interview him again and we can dive into all of that.

Now, remember from last time all the things I said about ambiance? You're going to get even more of that this time because Angel, John's co-worker, actually saw and tattooed a client during this half of the discussion.

Like last week, there's a bit of context that may be difficult to gather, so I'll help you out a bit:

Chono is another San Jose tattooist and friend of John's. He is mentioned in passing throughout the interview. I have already interviewed him and it will likely be episode 5.

Scotty Weeks is also another 408 tattoo artist. As you'll hear in the conversation, John helped him get his start. Scotty's interview is actually the next one up on the pod.

The terms "street shop" and "flash" are brought up a lot. A street shop is a tattoo studio that typically doesn't take appointments. They may do so occasionally, but the vast majority of their clients walk in off the street with little heads up. Street shops typically have loads of small to medium size tattoo designs on their walls that clients can choose from. Those designs are called flash. It's not unusual for appointment-based shops to have flash on their walls, too.

John mentions that he's going to ask me about "the Mormon thing" later. He's referring to the fact that I was raised LDS in Utah. We had that conversation off the record after the interview. It's something that I'll likely cover in a future episode because I believe it does play a bit into my love of tattooing.

I bring up a sleeve that I'm having done on my left arm by various San Jose artists. That sleeve will likely be a topic in that same episode.

Now, when I brought up John's history with drugs, I didn't ask for a lot of back story. That is a rookie interviewer's mistake. So if that transition seems abrupt, that's why.

And lastly, at the beginning, I ask John about artists that were tattooing here back in the 70s that are still around. I am trying my best to track those artists down and get them on the podcast.

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Love Tattoo 408? Here are the best ways to support the show!

1. Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (it takes ~10 seconds)

2. Tell your tattoo-loving friends and family about it!

3. Use the code "tattoo408" when purchasing tattoo healing products from saniderm.com

4. Leave a tip!

Follow Tattoo 408 on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. DM your address and get our stickers in the mail!

Thank you to Tessia Spisak for our logo and to mint.beats for our music.

Tattoo 408 is produced by Ethan Gregory Dodge.

© 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.