The legendary Long Beach tattooer shares some wisdom.
Every year, fewer and fewer artists can boast that they actually tattooed at Bert Grimm's legendary tattoo shop. As the oldest shop in America, Bert Grimm's holds a tattooing legacy above all others. If you put in your time there and earned the tiny anchor tattoo that brings each of the shop's artists together, you're generally considered an icon all over the world.
Chris Winn has that tattoo, and he's got the international respect that goes along with it. Although he travels all over the world on a pretty regular basis, Winn's primary shop (Signal Hill Tattoo) is still only about a 15-minute drive from where Bert Grimm's once stood.
Myspace caught up with the 52-year-old artist to talk Bert Grimm's, tattooing's evolution and what it is that new tattooers should know.
What's it like to be a part of the Bert Grimm's tattooing family?
It's a fucking honor and respect, man. To be part of that family and that lineage, it's something that you really have to be able to show that respect where respect is due. That's one of the keys with a lot of our brothers and family. We come from where we come from. Respect is earned, not given. You go out and work hard. You make it the old school kind of way.
How have you seen tattooing change since you began?
Obviously, the machines and ink and all of the tools and equipment have definitely taken a change for the better. Everything is way more accessible and way better at this point because they've taken all of the bugs out of it. Even though I still use coil machines, I use rotaries for some stuff. A lot of people think coils came first, but no, rotaries came first. It's kind of gone full circle where guys are using coils and rotaries depending on the kind of tattoo. They're using different pigments instead of having to mix their own. There's more variety. We used to make our needles by hand. I used to make my own needles every week, every fucking Monday. Now I have a couple of good companies that make good solid needles, so it takes that aspect out and we can concentrate a little more on what we need to concentrate on rather than making needles.
What would be your advice to tattooers just getting started today?
Study the masters. Find out who you like. Just like with music, I constantly go back because I want to listen to what happened before. Know what happened before, and know what's coming around the corner. Know what's new, but know what's old. If you like a certain tattooer, go find out what tattooers he likes, and then find out the tattooers that tattooer likes. Take the lineage back and go full circle. Then you're not only paying respect to the business, but you're also paying respect to the tattooers you love and the tattooers who taught them what to do. It's just the whole thing.
Be true to whatever it is you want to do. If you want to be a tattooer, go out and be the best tattooer you can be. If you want to be a guitar player, be the best guitar player you can be. Whatever it is, make sure you're adding a positive to the scene, not a negative. Make sure you handle your customers well and yourself with the respect a tattooer should. It's a blessing to be able to do this job for a living, and you should treat it as such if this is what you should choose to do. Every day, I'm blessed that I don't have to get up at 6:00 and drive up to Burbank to sit in an office for a bunch of hours. But those people who are getting tattooed by you? They do, so respect that. Understand that those people who are feeding your family are feeding theirs too. Be respectful, and be a positive, not a negative.
You've always been a musician as well. How are music and tattooing related for you?
Well, obviously as we're sitting here, we're listening to music while we're in the tattoo shop and I'm tattooing. There's always that common denominator, but I believe throughout the years that there's a lot of musicians getting tattooed, tattooers becoming musicians, musicians becoming tattooers, whatever. The arts is the arts. You're either in it or you're not. There's always that draw, and there are very few moments I've ever been tattooing without music on. It gives you that vibe and that flow. It gives you that medium where you're ready to create a piece of art while you're listening to art. It's an all-around kind of thing.
How has tattooing's popularity changed things for you?
It's always been evolving. As far as changing, there's obviously more tattooers out in the world. It's going to change the amount of tattoos you're doing, where you're tattooing, who you're tattooing, all of that. It's definitely a different vibe now. It's way more accepting and artistic. There were a lot of times when I first started tattooing that people would shy away from me when I was walking down the street because of my tattoos. Now people ask if you're a tattooer. I know more guys who have picked up some chicks from a bar because they have some sick ass sleeves than they would if they played guitar. It's really kind of in the process of coming back around. The old is cool again. Watch fashion and music, you can see what's coming around again. People are going backwards and finding out the stuff that's cool. The dudes in the '70s thought the stuff in the '40s was cool, and now the dudes in the 2000s and 2010s are going back and seeing that the '70s were rad. I lived through the '70s, it wasn't that rad, but it was cool.
