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Trailer Tales

Generally speaking, you’re not getting tattooed in a trailer unless you’re out in the sticks.

Working for VICE has its share of benefits. Last year I did a bunch of filming for our series on tattooing, Tattoo Age, and I also shot photos of some of the people we featured. I knew a bit about the subject beforehand, but knew a lot about it by the time I was done.

Through my experience, I’ve started collecting tattoos from some well-known artists. Last week, one of our sponsors, Sailor Jerry, brought in the famous Oliver Peck to do some tattooing in an Airstream trailer down the street from our office. I was lucky enough to secure one of the appointments and I got a good forearm piece.

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Oliver Peck, who’s from Texas and has the drawl to match, has been tattooing for 30 years. Recently he was on a really unintentionally hilarious tattoo competition reality show as a judge, next to Dave Navarro. The show refers to people as "human canvasses," and to me is super fake.

While Oliver was working on me, I realized that one of the interesting things about getting tattooed by older, experienced artists is the stories they tell while on the job. They’re worth the tattoo price alone. Oliver told us long, terrifying tales about Wild Bill and Johnny Smoker. Apparently Wild Bill used to completely change the design that the client wanted, and then charge them three times as much as they had bargained for, and when the client didn't have enough money to pay, he would walk them to the nearest ATM and wait for payment for the tattoo they didn't even really want to begin with. It’s the kind of thing that makes you happy you’re in the hands of someone good.

Generally speaking, you’re not getting tattooed in a trailer unless you’re out in the sticks. But this is Brooklyn, so there was an app developer in there with us, and got a really tiny anchor tattoo that was almost hilarious for how small it was. It was also kind of weird because when people would walk around the whole thing would shake, which isn’t really the situation you want to be in when you’re getting something that requires needles and absolute precision put on to your body for all to see for the rest of your life. But Oliver’s a pro so it worked out fine. Actually, it worked out great.

It was the afternoon and it was a workday, but I ended up drinking some rum cocktails anyway and then came back to work drunk with a tattoo. That was strange. But for those who might lose their jobs for pulling something like that, I heard a rumor that the Airstream is going to be in the LES this weekend, and that Alex McWatt of Three Kings will be there doing a limited number of Sailor Jerry classic designs. But of course that is just a rumor.

@dougmellencamp

Watch Tattoo Age here.