Creative Body Art, Transformative Stories, and Tattoo Icon Memories

This clip podcast episode explores the transformative power of tattoos, focusing on a journey that begins with five roses representing Jessie McGrath's children and evolves into a stunning lotus flower design symbolizing rebirth. 

The conversation dives into tattoo techniques, personal stories of resilience, and the interplay between darkness and beauty in life’s journey. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Tattoo Design Styles and Tattootoo Expo
• 6:28 Metaphor of Transition Tattoo Design

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The next one is the photo of. This is when I said I wanted a tattoo. I said I wanted five roses for my five kids and you came up with this incredible side piece which is 25 times bigger than I thought I was going to get.

Speaker 1: 0:21

We already acknowledged she was Big Bird, right going to get, but when you, we already acknowledge she was big bird, right. So when? So when I went in and you hand drew this on me, yeah, to show me where it was going to go, and placement, and all of that, I was suddenly like, oh wow, I, I want to do this with you, and it's a different styles of doing black and and what clearly had fun with this one.

Speaker 1: 0:45

What I found out was that you used all different kinds of techniques in the design of this tattoo and if we can look at that again, you can kind of point out what the different things are, because I thought it was just amazing.

Speaker 2: 1:00

Well, the solid black is black work and some people call it tribal. Well, the solid black is black work and some people call it tribal, and it's a mixture of, like that tribal mixed with Edwardian flourishing, which I love doing as flourishing. I use it with my letters, I use it with all sorts of stuff to dictate the shape of what it's on. So when that moves, you move. The roses were all put on using the crosshatch style, which is old printmaking yes, you know from the wood, wood prints. So I drew those in places that wouldn't move as much as what the black was. And then I did the the east la powder shading style on it too, behind it. So I was just mixing up all these styles and, right by your watch, that's the cover-up of your… Tribal sun. Yes, your tribal sun, which you can see is definitely a good six inches below her belly button, even though she was trying to pretend it wasn't that low earlier.

Speaker 1: 1:58

It was on my stomach, lower stomach, yeah, sure, and so we spent a lot of time on there's. There's still two more roses. Oh yes, this is. This is not the.

Speaker 2: 2:12

This is cropped for entertainment.

Speaker 1: 2:14

This, this is not the complete tattoo, because it goes up in my back and then down, so it moves around. So this, this was a really, really big piece.

Speaker 2: 2:24

This was a whole beginning of a journey piece, and and so we spent did we have the other side two or three weeks?

Speaker 1: 2:31

this was the very first thing you did. Yeah me. So I'm just the other sides yes, picture yes, we do have the other side, and so, after I, there you go. Let's go back to lyle for a second, though, because I met him right after you did this one and got a chance to show it to him. You got to show, yeah, lyle.

Speaker 2: 2:49

Lyle Hardy hated Lyle. No, hardy didn't hate Lyle. Sailor Jerry hated Lyle and therefore at the time, hardy hated Lyle. Hardy apologized later.

Speaker 1: 3:04

And Lyle is like one of the OGs right Lyle was, uh, definitely an OG.

Speaker 2: 3:14

He tattooed everywhere. One of his best friends was Ron Ackers, who was in England. There was nothing like that, so you had to write people so all their correspondence would be through the mail and they would send stencils and at the time they were acetate stencils, so you would do a rubbing or whatever and make a pattern and they would do all this. They would send machines back and forth. Lyle probably had the biggest he's dead now. That's why I said had, yes, biggest collection of tattoo machines ever. He was the go-to If you had something and you wanted to know anything about it. Lyle knew and he always had these little one-liner jokes too like oh this is a boat anchor.

Speaker 2: 3:58

Throw it away shit like this. If you look behind him it says Rolling Stone. He is the first and only tattooer to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. Oh wow, Back when it was a paper, and he falsely got credit for tattooing Janis Joplin's wrist. Janis Joplin's wrist was done by Pat Martinick, who was a Canadian who couldn't really take credit because he was illegal, so he didn't want any spotlight on him. I didn't do that, so Lyle took credit for it. But then it wasn't really a lie because later he put a little heart on her chest, on her wrist. So he didn't lie. But you know, people assume because they see the wrist more than they see the heart. Yeah, lyle, lyle was the King of San Francisco.

Speaker 1: 4:52

And I think this was at the tattootoo Expo out at the Fairplex. Yeah, this is Pomona, and I'm honored that you asked me to come out and get a chance to meet him.

Speaker 2: 5:04

Well, you showed interest so you obviously proved that you were cool. So, plus, everybody knows I sponsored that show for the past 22 years. Yeah, we tour all over the country with it.

Speaker 1: 5:20

And you do, tucson and Not Tucson.

Speaker 2: 5:23

I do Phoenix this year because we changed the locations all the time was downtown LA, pomona, san Francisco, phoenix, and then in November of this year, on the 8th, 9th and 10th, we'll be at Westworld in Scottsdale, arizona. Okay, but we did do Tucson once and it was horrible. It was horrible. So you've, I think, like a hundred people showed up and I tattooed about 10 of them.

Speaker 1: 5:53

And and getting an appointment with you sometimes is kind of difficult because you are traveling all over the country.

Speaker 2: 5:59

Yeah, I just made an appointment today for Norfolk Virginia. Yeah, I travel everywhere, but people don't. I post it all on Instagram and then they're like are you in town? Like no.

Speaker 1: 6:12

No, didn't you see my? I'm in Houston, I'm doing oh we do Houston too.

Speaker 2: 6:16

Oh, that, no, didn't you see my, my, I'm in Houston, I'm doing all that. We do Houston too. Oh yeah, I forgot that I'm like I'm in Houston to go. I thought that was.

Speaker 1: 6:21

You did that already and so now, going back to the side tattoo that you did for me. I originally went in and said I want five roses for my kids on this side and I want a single color, rose over here for me. And we spent a lot of hours on that right-hand side and when I said, okay, well, let's make an appointment, I want to get my rose, you were like, yeah, I can do that. But and then you came up with the most incredible idea. Do you remember what?

Speaker 2: 6:56

it was, of course, original sin. I just want to hear the way you say it. You said okay, you're the receiver. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 7:06

It was, I was sitting there and he goes okay, yes, I can do, you know, a rose here, but you know we've been working together. I've listened to your story, you have an amazing story.

Speaker 1: 7:16

We've talked with each other and I've kind of gotten to know you and I said but and you have that little tribal son there, and what the fuck do you have that for? It doesn't make sense. He goes. So what I was thinking we could do is I would come up with a lotus flower cover up of that tattoo, because the lotus flower is something that is beautiful, that springs out from from mud, from mud and darkness, yes, um. And that it would then transform over to a flower, but not a rose, but an exotic flower, a flower that is unlike any other and and who are we talking about?

Speaker 1: 7:54

and we incorporate the original sin and the apple and the snake, and, and I was like this was right after it was done, so there's a lot of swelling on there.

Speaker 2: 8:04

So you know the. The gray shading behind it got really light so you can make it out better now, but the red that you see are the belly scales of the snake.

Speaker 1: 8:12

I'm describing it so you're yes, I can see it here also. Oh yeah, and it's, it's going to be on the screen here so, yes, on the screen right.

Speaker 2: 8:20

So there's the apple down at the bottom with the thing, but then you have this like flourishing thing of beauty, but we left your butterfly and your little stars in there.

Speaker 1: 8:30

Yes, because that was the five stars for my five kids and I do a lot of five things.

Speaker 2: 8:36

And this is another one where it also moves with your body. When I was drawing it on you, I had you stand and move and I drew all the cross lines and stuff like this. So if you go from the black through the lotus into this, it was like my way of seeing your story of transition. So the tattoo is transitioning too.

Speaker 1: 9:01

And because of that I've then kind of decided that all of my right hand body side legs, arms and such are black ink tattoo and then it transitions into color on my left hand side and it's kind of become a metaphor for my transition that I had this darkness and this colorful.

Speaker 2: 9:22

But the darkness wasn't bad darkness. It could have been any darkness, so it could have been dark and romantic. I mean, your kids aren't bad. So those four roses, you know some people don't understand darkness when you say it they don't understand. There's a beauty to darkness, you know, when you're in complete darkness is the smallest bit of light you appreciate, and if you're in the light you never appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 9:47

And and I was in some dark places at different times in my life, and and Hollywood that we first talked you.