Gary Kamin

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Major influences 

Nikola Tesla, Paul Rogers, Leonardo Davinci, Bon Scott…yeah Bon Scott.

 Mostly for none of the reasons you may think.

 

Started like many do, markin up my buddy Joe at the age of maybe 16. Markin up a few more with homemade sin and a jailhouse type rig. I luckily realized very quickly that was not the way to tattoo…..

After getting the run around from a few local tattooers I was told “nobody was gonna tell me anything around that area” because they barely knew more than the next guy. Central PA was not a tattoo mecca in 1988. “Head South and be polite” was all I got out of him.

 So, I bought a cheap car and headed that way. I had spent most of what I had on a Spaulding Deluxe kit(like so many before me..) and started out with a stop in VA, best decision I ever made! I met Mr Jerry Reigger(look him up kids) I knew a guy who worked for him and I was taught how to make needles over a few days and given the honor of Jerry sponsoring me to get supplies from National. I had my foot in the door…”keep yer mouth shut and yer ears and eyes open and ya might not piss anyone off”…thanks Jerry! I still follow that advice to this day.

Fast forward past a few years of lookin, listenin, and prolly too much drinkin…I realized I had a good grasp of tattooing and a better grasp on drinkin. I knew I needed a real job in a real shop and less drinkin….

In the fall of ’91 I rolled into Ft Myers, FLA. With the intention of visiting my parents, and sobering up in a warm place. An old friend told me about a shop on the beach that just might need somebody. I recognized the owners work as soon as I walked in the door, it was in all the magazines at the time. Bill Hannong. He watched me do a piece on myself and told me I lacked most of the skills a good tattooer needed….great….

I was told if I promised to stick around and do what I was told, he’d show me all the things I didn’t know….I’m not stoopid. I stuck around for 14 years!

I cut my teeth on street shop walk ins and spring break bangers. I owe most of what I know today to Bill. From drawing, to machine work. From sweeping the right way, to mixin color properly. I earned my education. But it was eventually time to go.

I moved to Seattle and worked at Super Genius Tattoo for the first year with some of Seattles best current artists. Alki Beach Tattoo for a short while and 3 years at Seattles oldest shop the Chrome Ohm.

After 4 or 5 years back in PA I moved to beatuful Tucson, AZ! I got lucky enough to get a job with one of tattooings greats, Tony Edwards, of Old Towne Tattoo. My years have given me the skills to carry on the fine tradition of quality tattooing and integrity to the craft that Old Towne represents.