AI vs. Tattoo Artists: Is This the Future of Ink? I Joey Hamilton DSH #486

you know how it was because she took a picture nonchalantly of the tab of us at the end of the session and she posted it and i was like i was trying to create a video and make all this stuff the next morning she had espn like all these people reaching out to her going

you know

who owns this photo who owns this photo you know what i mean so because they wanted to shoot it out too so

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Ladies and gentlemen, one of the best tattoo artists in the world is here today, Joey Hamilton.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Thank you, Sean.

Thank you.

Yeah, just found out we're neighbors, too.

I know, man.

That was kind of coincidental.

See you down the street.

Yeah.

G-Wagon.

I'm like, hey, I know that guy.

Yeah, I've been there three years, and I've never met a neighbor, so that was cool, man.

Yeah.

Because it's pretty deep in Vegas.

Yeah, no, it's far.

It's out there, but it's actually, if you think about it, it's not too bad.

It's 20 minutes from work for me.

So if you compare it to a real city, it's not too bad.

Yeah.

And then I ran into you at your work like a few weeks later after that.

I think we're meant to do this podcast.

Right.

For sure.

Because when we randomly see each other

and the poker stuff, and you know, it's pretty cool.

It kind of came up on my feed.

And then I just started following you and started looking at your stuff.

And I thought, man, this guy's like got, you know, from every walks of life, you got people on here.

And I thought that was so cool.

Like the alien stuff, you know, you name it.

And I'm like, wow, that's cool.

That's the goal, man.

Just the top people in their industry, you know, getting their perspective, their mindset, how they got there.

Yeah.

So I can't wait to dive into what you do because making it in the Tati space is not easy.

It's not.

It's not, but for me in my career, in my life, I feel like it has been, I don't want to say easy because I always work really hard to get to what I do, but things have fallen in my lap per se like I've always been like I put it out there that I want to do something or you know I believe in karma or like there's things you put out in the universe and then it it does come back to you and I feel you know I back 30 you know 28 years ago when I first started I'm in a military no you know no job prospect when I get out and somebody just happened to mention oh you like doing art so why don't you do it do this and then Back then it was very hard to get into apprenticing and you know you would have to a year of bad you know labor and doing all this stuff i literally talked to one of my friends and he goes yeah i'll teach you so it was like that that should have not happened yeah he'd only been tattooing six months so you got a newbie teaching me you know what i mean so it's it was pretty cool like there's just things in that that have happened it's it just helps me out you know absolutely so you were in the air force for 10 years yeah did you have plans on transitioning into this like near the end I did about a year before I started looking for a job.

My dad's heavy into motorcycles.

I've had some pretty famous friends as motorcycle builders and they actually said, oh, why don't you paint motorcycles for us?

But at the same exact time as when I'd hooked up with my buddy Rodney and he taught me how to tattoo and I just, I liked that aspect of it more than sitting in a paint booth all day trying to paint motorcycles.

The creative part would have been cool.

Yeah.

Cause that was big when

you know the bike build-off shows, like all those things were coming out.

But I just, you know, I just gravitated more towards the art daily, you know, daily something new, different styles, different, you know, techniques, just kind of learning that way.

So I just, my last year in, I learned how to tattoo.

I was working within three months.

Wow.

You know, at a shop during the day, and then at night, I was in the military still.

So dang.

So I, you know, when they said, here, go to all these classes when you get out.

And I said, no, I don't need that.

I already have a job.

It's going to be pretty straightforward.

And then I set my goals right away, you know, of what I wanted to do.

I I love it.

And the tattoos you mainly do that are called realism?

I say

realism-based because I'm not a top-tier one percenter for like photorealism.

I like realism-based tattoos.

I like the illustrative edge where you can add lines or do different things to make it more creative instead of just copying exactly what it is.

And it's kind of cool.

AI is coming out with all this new stuff now where they're generating, because a lot of photo-based realism guys they use the same exact pictures over and over here's the line i've seen a hundred times done and the ai can generate you a new one so i've been you know delving into that wow the last couple of months so there's ai making the tattoos now well yeah making the designs yes of course yeah for photo based stuff it's like you know how many times you've seen a poseidon tattoo where it's the same statue the same you know the same thing over and over so that's where i've used ai in the last you know three months i would say of just the same thing, Aztec Warrior.

You punch an Aztec Warrior, you're going to get the movie Apocalypto, all the guys in that movie.

So now I'm getting different,

you know, Aztec warriors, different faces, different headdresses.

So

definitely,

I wanted to be one of the first shops here in Vegas that has that as, that's my marketing tool.

You know what I mean?

When I first started Revolt, eight years ago, we had a live stream tattooing

before

Instagram live, before Facebook Live.

I was streaming tattoos on my webpage, seven stations all day, hashtag tattooing live worldwide, like doing all this stuff that was not really done yet, you know, and then now, you know, three months later, everybody's live streaming on Instagram, like, look at me, tattooing.

And I'm like, I was doing that first, you know.

Yeah.

You know, I'm always trying to think of things just like the AI.

I want that to be able to, somebody walks in and says, oh, what do I want to get?

And you just punch punch it in and see what it comes up with.

I love that.

That's so cool.

And some of the stuff that spits out is insanely like vivid and detailed.

Yeah, it's almost too detailed.

I did one that was like a Hindu god, and it was like all jeweled out.

It took me three hours just to trace the freaking outhole of what it was, which that's very long for me.

Yeah, just to trace it.

See, I can be ready in 15 minutes, and it took me three hours.

Damn.

It was a lot.

Yeah, because mid-journey be, you input like five different things.

It incorporates all of it.

It's actually insane.

Yeah.

Wow.

What's the longest you spent on a tattoo?

Uh, hour-wise.

Yeah.

Um,

and one shot was 14 hours.

But I've like two weeks ago, I tattooed a guy four days straight.

Like, he tattooed, got four, and probably the longest ever was six out of eight days.

Like,

tattooed all over his body.

So that's crazy.

Yeah.

Your hands must be so tired by the end.

Uh, it is.

Like, and I'm older, you know what I mean?

Like, I've had 28 years, so I've had neck problems.

I got hand problems.

I got, you know, it's the typical stuff.

I tattoo a lot faster faster now, thank God.

And I can get tattooed, you know, I can tattoo.

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Probably eight hours worth of content within five and a half hours is typically my range, depending on color, black and gray, all that stuff.

So it is less trauma, but I'm still working six days a week.

So, I mean, it's like constant growth.

And you got five locations now that you're managing.

Yeah, five, five shops.

We are going through a transition right now where two of the lower shops are going away, and we're going to be gaining two more shops in better locations.

Like we have a store in Houston, as you know, and we're getting a second store in Houston.

So in another mall out there.

So we don't, we, you know, this all came about because we were dealing with Brooksville properties and they know us, we know them, and they constantly are like, oh, you want to do a new one?

And it's just, that's how, like I was saying before about stuff falling in my lap, like that's everything is like, oh, you want to do this?

And so that's how we look, we do the research for the new spots or do whatever.

Yeah.

It's good to have a partner like that, you know?

Yeah.

And you've had a lot of celebrity clients too, right?

Tons.

Can you even name

course?

I mean, people always ask that, like, do you know, when I'm tattooing, it's the same 20 questions, you know, but the celebrity people, Chester Bennington, of course, is probably one of the most famous ones.

I, you know, tattooed, I redid his flames and added some more to it.

I tattooed Feely from Korn.

I tattooed a bunch of the Golden Knights players.

I tattooed Christy Mack, Jenna Jamieson,

you know, just

tons of people, tons of athletes.

I just tattooed a baseball player last week.

You know, it's these, it's they hit me up, you know, the best one, my wife, I laugh at my wife with this story because I'm laying in bed and I usually don't get like starstruck.

You know, I just like whatever.

And Eichel hit me up on Instagram because usually they'll get my number from another player that I've had tattooed already.

And he just hit me up.

So I'm just, I jumped up out of bed and was like, oh my God.

And she's like, what's wrong?

What's wrong?

I said, oh, Jack Eichel just DM me, asked if I want to do the Stanley Cup on him.

I'm like, of course.

At big time.

He was the best player on the night.

Yeah, of course.

So it was a great honor to do that.

And I actually called my dad and I'm like, dad, I'm not kind of nervous.

like like this is a monumental tattoo and i don't think my wife understood the how you know how it was because she took a picture nonchalantly of the tat of us at the end of the session

and she posted it and i was like i was trying to create a video and make all this stuff the next morning she had espn like all these people reaching out to her going

going

you know

who owns this photo who owns this photo you know what i mean so because they wanted to shoot it out too so that's cool where do you get it on his thigh on his thigh yeah did all the players get it from that

uh somewhat not that they all didn't get it from me but like we've tattooed different ones i tattooed uh martinez and then uh colasar got tattooed by one of my guys jason trenton so nice yeah we've got a good rapport with them you know over the eight years the first year they asked us to tattoo in the plaza and do free nights logos and then the second year we did it again and then the third year they went to

weddings, which didn't really pan out for them that well.

But and then they didn't make it.

And then I saw the president and he was just like, dude, you want to do it again?

I'm like, yeah, of course.

So this last year, we got to do it throughout the whole playoffs when they won.

Wow.

So that was awesome.

That's big time.

And that started because you were willing to do it for free, which I feel like most people.

I think a lot of shops probably would have done it for free just because of the advertising aspect of getting to put your banners up.

But, you know, now we've done stuff for Diablo where

they paid us like $25,000 to rent out our space for the day.

Wow.

We do like 120 tattoos of Diablo sticker tattoos.

Damn.

So it's grown into Levi's.

We did stuff with Levi's with Bosch Tools.

Bosch Tools has always been great because we did a concrete world.

We were doing little Bosch.

You know, you wouldn't think somebody would get a Bosch tattoo, but we kind of created it where it's kind of a cool looking design.

And for three days, we're out there tattooing in a container.

They made it into a tattoo shop.

Wow.

So cool, man and when did you start getting the into the store side of things when did you open your first store actually in florida i owned two stores in florida um and before i moved out here um so i think five years in i knew i wanted to own the store and you know like that was my goal and and i don't want to say be known i wanted to be known in florida so back then there was a lot of emphasis on going to conventions and winning awards and trying to put your name out there and that's what i that's what i did back then five you know five years in

did all the circuit in Florida, trying to get my name out,

reached out to like kind of Richmond, Virginia area.

That's when I won my first big award for a leg sleeve I did was all anime and you know that was cool.

One of my best stories is the guy that did my forums, his name is Dino Cook, and he's top tier, always been.

And he was tattooing me.

at a convention in Florida and then they walk up and this magazine was like, hey, Dino, we need to do an interview with you

when you're done.

And then they're like, okay, cool.

And then probably 15 minutes later, the guy comes back and goes, Hey, Joey, I think we need to interview you too because you just won like five awards for doing realism tattoos.

And this guy's doing a realism tattoo on me.

So

it was pretty cool.

And then me and Deano became friends.

And he actually did my next portrait of my dad on me in a living room in my house in Florida.

So he came to visit, hung out for a week.

And, you know, it's just and that's how, you know, you always grow in this business.

You get a r you know, surround yourself with guys better than you

and just try and

learn from them, learn from, you know, and then that all evolved into these

stores.

I came out here, you know, I took a break.

I had a shop for seven years, owned it, and then I stopped.

I came out here, did a TV show called Inked.

Yeah.

Inkmaster, right?

No, Inked.

So Carrie Hart had this store in the Palms.

And he had a show called Inked.

It was the first tattoo show on, it was like a reality show on tattooing.

And I did that show.

That's why I was out here.

And I just, I was on vacation, walked in there and said, hey, do you guys do guest spots?

No, but you should try and be on the show.

And I said, I don't know if I wanna do that.

And I literally tried out.

And then I, my last day here of the 30 days, they call and say, you still in town?

Yeah.

All right, you start tomorrow.

So I sold my house, my business, over the phone, stayed out here, met my wife within three to four months of being out here.

And then just.

Was she into tattoos also?

No.

She thought I was a dentist you know why did she think that I don't know because I had a suit on and I don't know wow you know so my teeth weren't even that great I was like okay you know so but uh and then I just worked for other shops for about five or six years did a couple TV shows and then I did Inkmaster and I won and then that kind of translated into me still working for these guys and and I'm like why am I giving up my money you know like I'm giving up 50% of what I'm charging damn to that's what the going rate is honestly.

That's typically what it is.

When you work out a shop, you give up 50%?

Yeah, typically 50% because the shop's usually supplying you, especially the tourist shops out here, they're supplying you the business.

Okay.

You know what I mean?

And so that's kind of where it's at.

And I'm just like, man,

my brain was like, I just did a $2,000 tattoo yesterday and I...

I'm getting $1,000 of it.

I'm losing money every week.

So I just, I decided to open another, you know, I was like, I'm going to go back and do it.

You had the recognition, not the time to do that.

Most artists artists need to establish themselves.

Well, you do and you don't, you know, it helps for sure.

Location, as I always say, location for a shop is the number one priority.

So yeah, that's why you're in the fashion show mall.

You got a lot of foot traffic there.

It's a lot of foot traffic for sure.

Is that the biggest mall in Vegas?

For a dollar per square foot, I think Caesars is better in the sense of for that.

But

I don't want to pay Caesars rents either.

They're double.

They're probably double what I pay.

They're probably insane.

I know Cafe Lola opened up there and they had to raise all their prices because it's so expensive.

Yeah.

So, and we're on the slower end of the mall, too.

I can't, like, the same thing.

The other end of the mall was way busier, but it's literally probably 40% more in rent.

Wow.

Just to be on the other side of the fashion show.

Wow.

That makes sense, though, because I walked the whole thing, and your side was definitely more.

Yeah, definitely slower.

And, you know, when they were selling it to me to go in there, they were like, oh, do you,

you guys are location.

People will find you.

I was like, yeah, but I'm paying a high rent.

I want, I still need that traffic.

And that's, we average, I think, 40% of our overall traffic is just walk-ins.

Really?

Yeah.

Wow.

That's way harder than I thought.

Yeah.

And overall, like, that's, you know, I've got nine guys working.

So it was packed.

Probably three of us that are tattooing full-time.

Like, we're always booked.

And then there's some that have two or three a week.

And then they rely on five to twenty a day of just people walking in, going, hey, let me get tattooed.

Yeah.

Wow.

You ever see any interesting tattoos that you try to talk them out of, or you don't give input?

No, I do.

I try to because it's like, it's still my name on the tattoo.

If it's a dumb tattoo, it's a dumb tattoo.

And, you know, but

they're just, you know, a guy walks in and goes, I want to get a tattoo for my family.

And he goes, I want to get Winnie the Pooh and whoever else sitting under a tree reading a book.

And then he goes, but on the bottom of it, I want the tree hooked into my skin and pulling.

And I'm like,

does that make even any sense?

because you're so you're saying your family's ripping you apart or you know the guy just mentally sometimes when you're talking people they just don't get it you're like it doesn't make sense so I needed

doing nothing on him like I'm good dude I don't need to do your tattoo you know the risky ones are always like the person you're dating I feel like those get um those get sometimes you know yeah yeah it's you know they always say your wife's always the last one to get tattooed because you're always busy and you don't want to work at the end of the day you know so my wife's always happy when I'm like hey next Thursday, bring your girlfriend in here and we'll do a couple little small Pinterest tattoos.

Yeah.

It's not that I hate doing them because they're easy, but you know.

The wife one I could get behind.

I'm talking about like new relationships.

Yeah.

They get that public.

Oh, like if somebody, like if somebody comes in and like if you brought your girlfriend in and said, hey, I want to get

matching tattoos or if you're getting names, of course, yeah, it's I would tend to talk try and talk them out of it, but it's one of those things of

when they're married and they're getting it, sometimes the reason they're getting it is the wrong reason.

They're getting it to save their marriage instead of getting it to celebrate their marriage.

And that's where I try and figure out

that little parameters.

Like, okay, is it because you love each other and you're going to, you know, you've had 20 great years or because you've had seven years and you're trying to get, you know, trying to save it.

And if you're saving ones, that's usually those are the ones that fail.

Absolutely.

You know what I mean?

So I have my wife tattooed on me like four times.

Wow.

Two portraits, a heart, initials.

Like we have our wedding vows.

Like, you know, so there's, I, I, and this is my second wife.

So I'm like, I, I have nothing for my first wife.

Oh, you didn't get anything?

Nothing.

So there was a reason, you know what I mean?

Like, that's, you knew.

I knew, I know, like, that's, I'm not leaving, you know, we're not leaving each other.

We're not, like, it's, it's the fate part where I knew this is what it is.

So, do you know how many tattoos you have on your body?

No, probably

for as tattooing as long as I have, and like compared to the guys in my shop, I am not heavily tattooed.

Okay.

You know what I mean?

I have nothing.

I have nothing on my back.

Wow.

I've got one on each side of my leg, and I'm always tattooing.

You know what I mean?

So it's, it's one of those things.

I got sleeves and one on my chest, but that's, I'm just not heavily tattooed.

And I like the look of it, and I like

getting tattoos, but I'm always busy.

And then I got to squeeze in.

Like the guy I was going to last was in California.

And so I'd have to get up in the morning, drive to California, sit there, and he was always late.

So, you know, he's sitting there two hours later in the design, drawing the tattoo

and then tattooing it and he would go till like 10 or 11 they're gonna drive back two and a half hours and I'm just like man damn you're speeding doesn't take four hours well I'm not in LA it was in Hesperia so it's like you know on the edge there so it was about two and a half hours still crazy wow

I'm older now I used to love racing around yeah yeah when I first moved to Vegas I had a twin turbo 350z okay I put twin turbos on it put like 25,000 into the car racing around and then within and I was fast in Florida and I came out here within a week I knew I was not the car was not speedsters out here yeah there's even a speed Vegas have you been out there yeah yep I got to go out there and they had me come out there and do a couple laps so nice that was very fun nice yeah have you got to go out there no I got to get out there man yeah no it's fun yeah I'm getting into cars now the G-Wagon was my first kind of big car purchase yeah so I'm getting into cars this year nice I've been pretty low-key up until then just in my Tesla but you know cars are fun though yeah what do you uh what do you want to get Well, I got the G-Wagon mainly for tax write-off.

So now I just want to get something I actually like next.

Maybe a Eurus or something.

I don't know.

That was the one I was going to say.

Yeah.

Because, you know, I had

an AMG CLS or something like that.

That's like a fast car, but it's not like

a Ferrari or nothing like that.

But then...

Because I'm older and my neck doesn't turn as well and getting in and out of the garage, all that old man shit, it literally, the Eurus was something.

I'm like, man, that's a sharp car.

Like JC had one.

Yeah.

You know, and I'm like,

I was like, this sounds awesome.

Like, it's got the rumble.

Yeah, I like the look on it.

Yeah.

You need to get some stem cells for that neck, man.

I know.

You ever look into it up?

I swear to God, I looked into it last week.

Dude, I'll introduce you to someone in Vegas.

Awesome.

One of my basketball, like, one of our neighbors is a basketball player.

Yeah.

He's like, he always is getting it done.

Dude, it works wonders.

Yeah.

You know,

I guess they were talking about it on Rogan a couple weeks ago, and that's when I'm like.

Oh, yeah.

He always talks about it.

Like, if it can fix my neck, I i am down yeah i will i know ufc fighters that get it all the time yeah like once a year yeah uh peptides too are pretty big yeah but um

yeah you must have a stiff neck because just being in that position for hours straight yeah damn well that's you know

i used to work out not workout like i just i would i'm athletic you know play sports all that stuff but i guess because you're you know you're sitting here and your head's got all the weight pushing straight down and it's just not you're not moving around and not trying to exercise it that's my chiropractor's like dude you're, yeah, your neck is just like a bowling ball

a stick.

You know what I mean?

And you gotta, you gotta figure it out.

Yeah.

So you've been in Vegas since that day you moved here unexpectedly?

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

About

17, 18 years now.

Damn, you really like it here.

I run in ruts where I'm like about every 15 years I move.

And I got to that point.

I'm like, I felt like I wanted to go back to Florida.

But everything keeps happening.

You know what I mean?

The stores and then the hockey stuff.

And, you know, being, and I don't want to say I'm a celebrity celebrity at all, but being somebody that has been on TV,

sometimes they'll reach out to you and have you do stuff, and it's fun.

It's fun out here, the dinners, the shows.

Have you seen Atomic Saloon?

No, I just saw Absinthe.

Okay, same, same company.

Okay.

Spiegel World.

I got to check that out.

Cowboy Western, you will laugh your off.

Like, I mean, like, just going to stuff like that.

Yes.

You never run out of stuff to do here, man.

Yeah.

Shows, concerts, sporting, you know, it's it.

And then we went back to Florida last summer for just a quick trip and i'm like this is boring yeah that's how i feel when i vacation now

every time i go by like the fourth day i'm like i i miss vegas yeah it's tough to beat the food there's stuff to do the people yeah i mean the poker is pretty big out here i know you're playing a lot of poker i just tattooed the chef at carbone oh yeah yeah that's one of my favorites we've already went twice nice literally he's bringing out the whole smear like it's just that's some of the best italian in vegas it was funny because people i looked it up and i was like oh man it's hard to get in there Super.

And I shot him a text and I said, hey, 7.30 on Saturday.

He goes, four people?

Cool.

All right.

That's Vegas.

I know.

Exactly.

That's the best part of just like we have a lot of mutual friends and those friends create this network that just help each other out all the time.

Yeah.

Yeah, I texted Peter when I was buying the car because he's an investor in that company.

And just knowing GMs at restaurants doesn't matter what time of day.

Even if it's like a Super Bowl,

we're able to get in because we're locals and we have that connection.

Yeah.

So Vegas hospitality is everything out here.

And your reputation is important out here.

It's a small city.

Yeah.

That's why I try and treat people fair.

You know what I mean?

That's what I'm tattooing them to.

I try to treat them fair and just do a good job.

And then that'll create, you know, the synergy between the people.

You know what I mean?

So absolutely.

You ever tattooed yourself?

I did once.

How'd that go?

I stopped halfway.

The only reason I stopped is because I was like, why am I even doing this?

And I just handed a machine to my guide to sitting there.

And I'm like, just finish this up for me.

It's like cutting your own hair, right?

It's like kind of weird.

Like, why would I even want to inflict the pain myself?

Like, just sit there for a second.

It was over.

Yeah.

What was the tattoo?

It was actually the half of my wedding vow.

Oh, okay.

So it was this very little Hebrew letters, you know, and it was just, uh, it was easy.

Nice.

Do you do anything outside of tattoos that you're really passionate about?

Um, not too much.

I mean, I have a six-year-old now.

Me and my wife have a six-year-old, and he does a lot of extracurricular activities.

So, but I like the poker.

I like chair.

I do a charity series of poker that he has probably two events a month, and we try and donate a bunch to that.

Nice.

And, you know, this is the networking stuff that with that.

And then I used to love, I mean, I'm ex-military, so I love guns.

Yeah.

You know, I got a whole safe full of stuff.

And I'm just like, I used to go out.

I had a buddy who owned a gun store, so I'd go there all the time and hang out.

Nice.

But he sold it now.

He's living off the light.

Lay out of land?

Yeah, he's doing great.

But yeah, I just

honestly just having time with my family because that was back when I was younger, a lot of times that was what was wrong with, you know, you work so hard and you try and create all this stuff, but if you're not spending time with your family and enjoying that part of it, you're not balanced at all.

And that's all I was, I'm trying to do now is just have that nice balance of the work, work, you know, off balance.

I know I'm six days a week, but it's not all day.

I have two hours in the morning, a couple hours at night with my son and my wife.

And so it's, it's, I think it's way better.

When I first moved here, I was was working like 13 hours a day.

Damn.

I was killing it.

Seven days a week.

So much, six.

So usually five.

Still crazy.

That's 90 hours a week.

Yeah, usually five.

I'd pull any double.

And if they're like, hey, you want to pull a double?

I'm like, hell yeah.

Because the money was so good.

That was the first show.

And like every day, there was probably 50 people lined up outside

to get tattoos.

Because the Inkmaster?

No, it was inked.

Oh, inked.

Yeah, so at the palms.

So it was like just every day.

Like it was just ridiculous.

Damn.

And nobody knew what to do with it.

And they were all, you know, know, like, just like, oh, and I'm like working.

I'm just like, dude, sign them up.

I don't care how much it is.

Sign them up.

You must have had a wait list for months.

Yeah.

No, it was just all random.

It was all walk-in.

Oh, all walk-ins.

All walk-ins.

There was no ways.

There was no nothing.

You couldn't make an appointment.

No, nothing.

You just had to get in line.

And then they'd take your number down and they'd call you later.

And we'd stay all day just pumping them out.

Wow.

Made so much money.

Did you save it or did you spend it?

Did you blow up?

You know,

I saved some of it, but it was just that whole learning curve of

saving it.

And that's where, like, what your podcast, like, listening to different things now later on, because, you know, when I first got into business, my first mentor was like, all right, you're going to work your off all day, and then you're going to go to the strip club for three hours at night and blow every dime you have, and then come back tomorrow and want to work just as hard instead of saving it.

And it took me years to figure out, like, man, I need to start saving money.

And then that's when the shops came involved.

And then, you know, these shops are, you know, hundred five hundred thousand dollars a piece so we're just we're reinvesting yeah you know that's why I'm still working so hard because all this money I'm making is still just reinvesting

yeah I can't even picture you at the strip club so you had a little party face well ex-military you know what I mean how to let some steam out yeah wow and then tattoo artists are known to go do that are they yes oh I didn't even know that yeah I thought they were just chill guys coming home after having a beer at the house no damn not typical no there's I mean it's the the pirate life.

They called it the pirate life for a reason because it's all the drugs and all and the liquor and going out every night.

You're the rock star in the town because you're the guy that does the tattoos.

And you know what I mean?

So interesting environment.

So being surrounded by that now at your age is a unique experience, right?

Because you're a family guy now.

Yeah, yeah.

I haven't done that for 20 years, you know what I mean?

So that was just that first 10-year phase of,

you know, you're, I'm still 20 in my 20s.

Yeah.

So wow.

yeah i think a lot of guys go through that phase of just yeah typical alcohol drugs yeah typical growing up for sure well dude it's been fun what's next for you and where can people find you um what's next is just more stores try and get them all built up so i can take time off later on and then uh joey hamilton tattoo uh is my instagram it's twitter like all that stuff and then i literally i want to start live streaming more so maybe i can get some hints from you on

because we did it before We just kind of stopped, and now I got to find some platforms that would live.

I know there's a lot of them out there that would live stream the tattoo process while I'm doing it.

You know what I'm saying?

I would do TikTok and maybe kick or rumble.

Yeah, but we'll talk about it.

Yeah, just do some stuff like that to try and generate some more followers.

I am booked out for quite a while, but it's still, you know, if you want to get tattooed, just reach out.

Awesome.

I'm always getting people in.

So

thanks for coming on, man.

Thank you, yeah.

Thanks for watching, guys.

I'll see you tomorrow.