How started
I started tattooing in 1981 under the direction of Don Ed Hardy in San Francisco. I knew Ed since '76 and basically Ed saw something in me that he wanted to bring into the tattoo world-so he encouraged my collecting of imagery that related to traditional tattooing from around the world. During the mid 70's, I used to go to the San Francisco main public library and photocopy as much as I could on traditional tattooing from Borneo of Polynesia. At that time, there wasn't a lot of material available. But Ed always insisted that I keep my research up and in '77 he started tattooing me. So in '81, he convinced me basically to start tattooing my friends. I wasn't really ready to change careers. I had a good job in San Francisco, but basically after I started tattooing my friends realized that this was for me.
