I started tattooing in San Diego in 2000. That's a long time to do anything, but it's a particular kind of long time in tattooing, an industry that has changed more in the past two decades than in the previous century.
Where it started: Tahiti Felix's
My first shop was Tahiti Felix's Master Tattoo. Felix established the shop in 1949, one of the oldest continuously operating tattoo studios in the United States, and one of the most storied in San Diego. Starting there grounded me in something important: the idea that tattoo is a long-form craft with real history and real stakes. The people who came before took it seriously. That's not optional.
Working in a shop with that kind of lineage gave me an early sense of how the craft connects across generations. The techniques, the standards, the understanding of what makes a tattoo hold up over a lifetime: these aren't things you invent from scratch. They're passed down and refined. I was fortunate to absorb that early.
Avalon Tattoo II and learning to work under someone great
From Tahiti Felix's I moved to Avalon Tattoo II, working under Fip Buchanan. Working under an accomplished artist is a different kind of education than starting at a shop and figuring things out independently. You learn by watching someone solve problems you haven't encountered yet. You develop standards because you're around someone who has them and holds you to them.
That period shaped how I think about mentorship and craft. The tattoo industry has a tradition of that kind of transmission, knowledge passed from one artist to the next, and I take it seriously. What I learned in those early years still informs how I work today.
Opening Remington Tattoo in 2011
I founded Remington Tattoo in San Diego in 2011. Opening a shop is a different kind of commitment than working in one. You're responsible for the environment, the culture, the standards, the client experience. All of it. You're also responsible for the other artists who work there.
I also worked at Dare Devil Tattoo in New York City, which gave me a different frame of reference. New York has its own tattoo culture, its own pace, its own client expectations. That experience clarified what I wanted Remington to be and how I wanted to run it.
Remington has been the home of my practice for over a decade now. The shop reflects how I think about tattooing: serious, custom-focused, designed for clients who know what they want and are willing to wait for it.
What's changed in 25 years
When I started, the internet barely existed as a factor in tattooing. Reference was physical: magazines, books, sketchbooks passed around shops. The path to finding a good tattooer was word of mouth and walking into studios. Now Instagram has completely restructured how clients discover artists and how artists develop reputations. It's accelerated everything, including bad decisions made quickly.
The rise of custom tattooing as the dominant client expectation is the most significant shift I've seen. Clients are more informed, more intentional, and more willing to wait for the right person. That's entirely good. It's pushed every serious artist to develop a real point of view rather than coasting on technical competence alone.
The conversation around tattooing as an art form, rather than a trade or a subculture signifier, has also matured. Galleries show tattoo-adjacent work. The broader art world pays more attention. That's worth something, even if the work still has to stand on its own regardless of cultural context.
What hasn't changed
The work itself. A good tattoo in 2024 requires the same things a good tattoo required in 1949: strong drawing, sound technique, appropriate design for the body, and an honest relationship between the person making it and the person wearing it. All the aesthetics evolve. None of that does.
Being booked roughly a year in advance for close to two decades is something I'm genuinely grateful for. It means people are willing to wait, which means they're serious about what they're getting. That's the best kind of client to have. It keeps the work at the level it needs to be. The day that stops being true is the day I need to reassess something.