Interview with Skins, Baz Black

 ‘I would constantly draw tattoos all over my arms and wished they were real!!…’

 

OCCUPATION: Body piercer and modification artist. Business owner. I own BLACKOUT TATTOO AND PIERCING-in my home town of Drogheda, Co.Louth.
AGE: 27

TELL US HOW YOUR INITIAL INTEREST IN TATTOOS STARTED.

My interest in tattoos started from a young age, I can remember when I was as young as ten being fascinated with Steve Harris, bass player for Iron Maiden and his old school ink he had on his arms….thats where it all started for me. I would constantly draw tattoos all over my arms and wished they were real!! My interest grew through the years until at the age of 17 I got my first tattoo done.


WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE PIERCING AS A CAREER AND HOW DID YOU GET INTO IT?

I got my first piercing when I was 14. This experience was a bad one. An eyebrow piercing with a ring, done with the wrong jewellery and improper aftercare advice lead to a nasty infection. From this experience I knew there had to be better out there and from there my research began. I would get books out from the library and study anatomy and even different metals that were suitable for use in the human body. Unfortunately I can’t draw to save my life so the tattoo artist path wasn’t the right one for me and I believe you have to be an artist for that job. With anything in my life I want to be best at what I do, its just in my nature. By no means would I say piercing was a second option to tattooing, if anything the piercing world fascinated me more.
So over the years I got a lot of piercings done in different shops and studied and compared each one…I knew I needed to do an apprenticeship and the standard here for me wasn’t enough so I made the decision to move my life to California where I landed an apprenticeship in a top studio. It was tough going but defiantly worth it.


YOU DO SOME MODELLING PART TIME, HOW DID YOU GET INTO IT AND WHAT HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE BEEN IN THAT LINE OF WORK SO FAR?

I am quite a shy and reserved guy so with the modelling thing I never went looking for it, just came from being asked for different projects. honestly I still am not comfortable with it after the dozens of shoots I’ve done. My best experience was a shoot with Skin Deep Tattoo Magazine. They had been asking me to do it for around two years and finally nabbed me at the London tattoo convention. It was a five page feature and I got to explain about my piercing/modification work so was great exposure for me. Still to this day I can’t look at the pictures that were featured in it!!


IN YOUR LINE OF WORK YOU MEET A LOT OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE. WHAT CHARACTERS HAVE STOOD OUT TO YOU THE MOST IN YOUR CAREER?

I have met all sorts of people through this industry…some good and some bad. It’s definitely one of the most bitchy industries to work in which is quite sad really and I don’t waste my time with peoples jealousy and negativity. I have pierced a few “celebrities” over the years, some of these include, Shane McGowan from the Pogues, members of Boyzone and Westlife, Keith flint from The Prodigy, Britney Spears, Green Day members and Kelly Clarkson… which was really cool but at the end of the day they were treated the same as any other customer I would pierce (even if there was 3bodyguards in the room for a certain diva popstar, haha)


WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES AS A BODY PIERCER?

Steve Haworth has advanced the techniques for implant work and his work has pushed the boundaries of the modification world. Other than that I don’t really have any influences and try make my own path as much as I can. Obviously there are many piercers and modification artists who inspire me and who I respect, but you can’t just copy other peoples work you have to push yourself to try new techniques and modification work. Once you have the knowledge to do it safely there is no limit.


TELL US ABOUT YOUR TATTOOS (MAY TAKE A WHILE HAHA)

As for my tattoos there really are too many to mention here. The top half of my body is all black and grey work, I do jiu-jitsu so a lot of my early work was influenced by this. My first tattoo was a Japanese dragon on my arm and my full back piece is sword with two dragons. This was designed by my brother. Another big theme that runs through my tattoos is music. I play drums in the punk band MONGOHORN and have been drumming since I was 8years old. I have our band logo tattooed on the inside of my thigh. I also have around 20 of my favourite bands inked on me. Most noticeable of these is Rancids infamous album cover “and out come the wolves.. on the back of my head. On my neck i have “music” on one side and “life” on the other.
On my legs I have some colour work, on my thighs I have some pin up girls, a cobweb on my knee, a family guy leg sleeve, on the other leg i have a portrait of my dog dippy, one when he was a puppy and one how he is now.. at the back of my legs I have a tattoo for my mam and one for my sister, which may sound sentimental but I called my sister the rat bitch growing up which is what I have written in a poison bottle, haha! When it comes to my tattoos, some have meaning, some I just like and some friends of mine want to do a certain piece and I have no problem letting them!
As for the artists who did them there are just too many to mention(and the ones I forget get annoyed when I don’t mention them) I have gotten inked all over the world. Most recently Gatis my tattoo artist in my shop has done a few new pieces on me. The last one was an old triumph car with Grandad written under it. He gave me an ashtray just before he died with the triumph car on it so this was a nice dedication to him!


YOU’RE AN ALMOST FULLY COVERED GUY NOW, WHAT WERE FRIENDS/FAMILY INITIAL REACTIONS? DID IT OR ARE THERE OCCASIONS WHERE IT STILL BOTHERS YOU?

When I first started getting my tattoos and piercings my family were initially concerned but once they realised its what I wanted to do with my life and without sounding too corny its who I was then they accepted it…I just couldn’t see myself without my tattoos. You will always have people who will be negative towards it and usually its because people are afraid of what they don’t understand and wouldn’t be brave enough to do it themselves. It doesn’t really bother me what people think, I do it for myself not other peoples entertainment. As I said im quite a reserved guy and I don’t like any attention thats brought from my tattoos, I totally understand people being curious but there is a huge difference in being curious and being ignorant. Unfortunately Ireland is about 10years behind the rest of the world and I get mostly negative comments and people staring etc.. I have lived in California, Manchester, London, Holland and never got a thing said to me, living in Dublin was the worst, not a day would go by without some kind of confrontation. people expect you to just take the abuse, but not in a million years would I let some ignorant person get away with shouting abuse and would often end up in physical battles, which I hated but sometimes its the only way to get through to people. Worst is when im out with my family and have people making remarks or blatant staring…its hard because I feel embarrassed for my family. I have to say living back in my hometown of Drogheda after 8years being away is way better and never really get anything said to me and life is better here because of it! I once got refused membership to a gym in temple bar. the reason..and I quote “because of your visible tattoos and a haircut like yours” I had a Mohawk at the time. What made it more ironic was that I am also a qualified fitness instructor and had worked in many top gyms. There are also certain pubs/clubs that refuse me entry. So I hope this will change eventually.
I think only now in the last few years peoples perceptions of tattoos are changing and shows like Miami ink have helped people realise there is a lot more options available to them and they aren’t just for jail bird criminals anymore, which is the unfortunate and mis-informed perception that it once had.


DO YOU THINK THE PIERCING INDUSTRY IS CHANGING?, IF SO, HOW? WHAT ABOUT REGULATION OF PEIRCING IN IRELAND?

I feel we are advancing in the techniques and quality of artists here in Ireland but our regulation of shops is way behind..and there is no law in place, we are one of the only country’s left that doesn’t have this. If you don’t have an autoclave, ultrasonic etc then you should be shut down. Another problem with the recent popularity of tattoos/piercing is people buying dodgy equipment off ebay and doing tattoos/piercing from their house with no clue of what they are doing or sterilisation and this is dragging the industry’s name down rapidly. In my shop we do on average 5 fix ups a week of terrible tattoos done by “scratchers” so i think this is a problem we need to address before someone ends up killing someone with an infection.
I still love what I do and am kept busy with my piercing work and scarification and implant work. We are working the Belfast Tattoo Convention on June 4th and already booking up fast so we are really looking forward to that. Gatis is doing some lovely work and building a great name up. Roy our apprentice here is one to watch, he has done some quality tattoos on me already and his drawing skills are amazing! We all work very hard and strive to give people the best quality tattoos and piercings that we possibly can.
I also run a clothing label with my brother David its called “FIX YUR FACE” its going really well. You can check all our range on our website- http://www.fixyurface.com/

My piercing page is baz.black.piercer@facebook.com
The shops page is- Blackouttattoo piercingdrogheda@facebook.com
My email is dippyisaboy@hotmail.com
Shops phone number is 0894477671

PHOTOGRAPHER ALEX HUTCHINSON;

Alex Hutchinsons Website


Alex Hutchinsons Facebook Page

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