NEVER Get a Face Tattoo Without Watching This I Romeo Lacoste DSH #472

face tattoos i just feel like for people like unless you're like older you know and and and i mean honestly it really just depends on what your career is but even even then it's like you never know if you're gonna have a career change we're seeing a lot of celebrities now coming out like little uziver just came out and says he wants to get all of his tattoos removed damn all of them i didn't know that yeah and there's a lot of celebrities who are coming out and you know saying that they regret getting face tattoos and things like that

Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe.

It helps a lot with the algorithm.

It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team.

Truly means a lot.

Thank you guys for supporting.

And here's the episode.

All right, guys, one of the best tattoo artists in the world, Romeo Lacoste, here today.

How's it going, my man?

Dude, thank you so much for having me, Sean.

This is dope.

I appreciate it.

Absolutely, man.

You know, as legends say, you know, one of the best tattoo artists in the world.

And I've known you for over five years, so it's pretty cool to see you do the podcast and, you know, have me as a guest.

Absolutely, man.

You are a tattoo from top to bottom, from side to side uh everything except for my face yeah so i have like a very controversial unpopular opinion i mean actually i think it goes both ways i actually i'm not a huge fan of face tattoos i usually try to advise people against it but i do do them if people want to get them because obviously i want them to at least get a good one so a lot of times celebrities or people will come to me and they'll want to get a face tattoo um i usually try to say like dude like are you sure like this is a really really big deal you know you can obviously get stigmatized and stuff like that but um if they're gonna to get it, the way I see it is, at least if I do it, they're going to get a good job versus just going to somewhere and then like getting it all messed up.

So yeah, why are you so against face tattoos?

I mean, there's a few things that I'm against.

So like, you know, I don't do anything that's vulgar, profanity.

I won't do any tattoos that's like curse words.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, no curse words, no, nothing that involves like nudity or anything vulgar.

Wow.

And yeah, and then usually like for face tattoos, I just feel like for people, like, unless you're like older, you know, and, and I mean, honestly, it really just depends on what your career is.

But even, even then, it's like you never know if you're gonna have a career change.

We're seeing a lot of celebrities now coming out.

Like, little Uziver just came out and says he wants to get all of his tattoos removed.

Damn.

All of them.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

And there's a lot of celebrities who are coming out and, you know, saying that they regret getting face tattoos and things like that.

So for me, like, I think anywhere else in your body is a free game.

Obviously, I'll still do it if you want something that's like very important and you want, obviously, you want to go to a good artist to get it done.

But I just feel like your face is kind of like your identity and you never know what kind of like life decision or career you're going to decide to do in the future yeah you know what if you decide you want you have a change of heart you want to get involved in politics or you want to get involved in something in business you know um and unfortunately you know yes i think people we are in a world where tattoos are more accepted but i feel like face tattoos is just like that one sort of like it's right over right across the line where like i don't think it'll ever get to a point where people will won't look at you like differently so yeah i know for me and especially for me like getting involved now more in the the business and stuff i had i used to have my sideburns tattooed i had them lasered off um and obviously i have facial hair and stuff but i had i had like feathers on my sideburns but i got them removed um and yeah like we're seeing a lot of celebrities getting them you know i mean change and i mean and i think also too like um

A lot of celebrity, I mean, a lot of celebrities too, they just, you know, you kind of see like what they look like with face tattoos.

And most of them aren't even done that well.

So you're kind of just like, dude, you just messed your face up, you know?

So, yeah.

Yeah, because you can't even hide the ones on your face.

At least with your arms, you could wear sleeves and stuff.

Yeah.

And plus, like, you know, your parents always say, like, not the face, you know?

Usually moms are like, not the face.

So do you even know how many you have on you?

Dude, I don't even know.

I've lost track like forever ago.

I have like my entire, pretty much my entire body almost is covered, neck down.

I even have my head tattooed too.

What?

Yeah, it's like funny story.

So everyone always, they don't, they never know I have head tattoos.

I'm like, why do you have your hair over it?

When I was younger, this girl, I was like too broke to afford a haircut.

This is like when I was first grinding and stuff.

And I just let this girl who was going to like Paul Mitchell and like training like cut my hair.

And she like nicked me down to the skin on the side of my head and tried to like blend it.

And it just completely looked botched.

I looked like a blender had just gone through my hair.

So I was just so pissed.

I was like, well, I can't keep this haircut.

This haircut looks terrible.

So I literally like shaved the side.

And I was like, well,

might as well get a head tat.

So I got, I got like a head tat and then.

And then after that, I was just like, well, it looks all uneven.

So I just ended up, I end up just like for three months, just got like the other side, the top.

No way.

And then I was just like, yeah.

So then it's like, well, if I ever shave my head, at least like I'll have a bunch of dope tats on my head.

What's the tat up there?

I have a bunch of like Native American artwork and stuff.

So it's pretty cool.

Yeah.

Like I have a bear and an Indian headdress.

And just like, yeah, just some cool stuff.

But it's just funny because this girl like just completely botched my hair.

And I was just like, I was pissed.

I was like, God.

And your OCD just kicked in.

So you wanted to fill up.

Yeah.

I was just going to get one side.

And then

it just, yeah, it kicked in.

I was like, dude, I got to get to get all the rest of it.

That's probably why you did your whole body, too.

You couldn't rest until it was all completed.

Yeah.

I mean, a lot of people talk about it's an addiction, um, and it kind of is in the sense where I think a lot of people, I don't want to say everyone's OCD, but you start finding like spots that are missing and seeing like things that could be pieced together and like parts that need to be filled in.

And I think people just naturally want to like get those, they want to keep going, you know, it becomes like a collection.

It's almost like a collector, you know, you call it a sleeve, right, for the arms, right?

I mean, it's like anything else.

You get a, you know, you start collecting cards, you start collecting cars, you start collecting anything you collect.

You, you all, you don't start from like, you know, zero to a hundred.

You usually get a couple and it keeps going.

So, I think the tattoos is the same way.

You get a couple, then before you know it, they're not that big of a deal.

You're like, Oh, I want to get more.

Absolutely.

Which ones hurt the most that you got?

So, dude, the head was brutal.

Uh, because that's bone up there, dude.

Brutal.

Um, the hands, the chest, the neck, dude, there's just so many bad ones, bro.

Like, they just hurt so bad.

And it's actually funny, but it actually hurts more for guys than for girls.

Yeah, so it's actually true.

Women have a naturally chemically, like you know a biologically have a higher pain to pain tolerance more guys complain than girls and in certain body parts uh parts of the body hurt more for guys than for girls like if you if you i mean rarely will a girl tap out rarely would a girl say it's too much to handle anywhere on the body oh guys always are tapping are you serious oh 100 you know and it doesn't matter if you're big if you're muscular like you know i mean it just it has nothing to do with with how much muscle you have or how much fat it has more to do with like your nervous system and how the how the nerves in the body are built out.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, for guys, that the pain tolerance is just like it's drastically lower.

Yeah, yeah, man.

I didn't know that.

I assumed the opposite.

I thought guys had more pain tolerance.

No, I think like it's it's weird because you know, guys just assume they're tougher when it comes to like, you know, fighting and things like that.

And sure, I do obviously believe that guys are tougher when it comes to like hard work and fighting, but when it comes to actually like taking tattoo pain, I'm not sure how, if it's a psychological thing if it has to do with like you having to basically like you're not engaging in any kind of like physical or like active sport so you know you're the the impact of the pain when you're doing like physical activity for a guy you know and having to prove that you're tougher is a lot different than i guess more like the psychological the psychological aspect of having to just sit there and endure it but when guys have to sit there and just endure like pain in certain areas especially on the chest i see guys tap out all the time damn yeah or just they're like yo hurry up like finish it up like you know They're trying to get out of it as quick as possible.

Do you have any crazy tattoo stories when you were tattooing a client?

Dude, it's crazy.

I've been tattooing for over for about 15 years.

I started when I was 17 years old.

So I've been an artist my whole life.

I started drawing cartoons when I was a kid.

I started drawing Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z and like video games and Street Fighter and all that stuff when I was a teenager.

And then when I turned 17, I've always had like an entrepreneur mindset.

And I was like, I want to figure out what I want to get into early.

I don't want to wait forever.

I wasn't like partying.

And,

you know, tattooing obviously was a job that not only paid very well, but you also had a lot of freedom and you could, you know, be your own boss.

And, you know, you weren't answering anyone else, so to speak.

So I got into tattooing.

And yeah, I mean, I've been tattooing for over 15 years.

There's a lot of crazy stories.

One, I mean, I've had multiple times I've had people pass out.

And that's actually really scary.

Really scary because a lot of times they don't, they don't disclose medical conditions.

Yeah.

Like I had one dude one time who who passed out and started having it like damn near a seizure.

What?

Yeah, in the tattoo chair.

He had just turned 18.

He was getting his first tattoo.

So this is how it happened.

It was actually pretty crazy.

He came in with his mom.

He had just turned 18.

He was getting his first tattoo and I started tattooing him on his arm.

And I had just, I was like five minutes into the tattoo.

And I see his eyes start kind of closing and he starts rolling off on the side of chair and he starts having a seizure almost.

And I was like freaking out.

You know, we're stopping mid-tattoo.

You know, I don't know what the heck is going on with this guy.

and his mom had left to go get food she comes back and i was just like tripping out i was like yo i don't know what's going on like your son just kind of like had a seizure this isn't really like normal he's kind of passing out and she was like oh it's normal for him he has a medical condition he sometimes gets like seizures or he passes passes out very easily and i was just like no one had even disclosed that to me it was crazy and i was just assuming like he was about to just maybe die on the table you know

Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest?

Well, click the application link below in the description of this video we are always looking for cool stories cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life click the application link below and here's the episode guys um but that's happened a couple times i've had a couple people pass out i think what it is is a lot of people get their first tattoo they get scared they think the pain is going to be like this crazy pain it's not that bad it's obviously painful but it's not that bad they don't eat they don't sleep they're all nervous they're not hydrated and then you know they they get their tattoo and then obviously like the endorphins kick in and they just they get nauseous and almost pass out.

That's scary.

I've actually had a couple of tattoo sessions, even for me.

I think when I was getting my head once and one time when I was getting my chest where I thought I felt like lightheaded, like I was about to pass out, I didn't pass out.

But yeah, I mean, the tattooed pain can be pretty extreme if you're not like nourished or not well slept.

Usually that's not really an issue, but if you're getting tattooed in like a painful place and you don't anticipate the pain or know what to expect, it can happen.

And another crazy story too is this is just hilarious, but this girl like threw up on me one time.

Yeah, this is wild.

Was she she drunk?

No, she, she just like, it was another situation.

She had like just turned 18, was getting her first tattoo,

and she just got like nervous.

And I started tattooing on her arm.

You know, I'm in the chair and I'm just focusing on a tattoo.

And all of a sudden, I hear her say,

hey, I'm not really feeling too well.

And I just, I just thought she needed a break.

And she just like leaned forward and like threw up on her lap and like on my leg.

Damn.

Yeah.

Like just like, just hurled in the middle of the tattoo shop.

We had to stop, take all, it was like a one-hour break,

clean up, like, you know, sterilize and just bleach out every, it was just like a whole mess.

And the part that sucked the most too was she didn't even tune tip me afterwards.

No, yeah, dude.

It was, I was so pissed because I didn't want to like try after she asked me, like, you know, like, after where she was like, okay, like, how much tattoo is going to cost?

I didn't want to be like, oh, and by the way, there's like $150, like a throw-up cleaning fee.

You know, I feel like I'd be like a d ⁇ if I did that.

So I just obviously told her the regular price of the tattoo.

I kind of felt bad she threw up, but I was expecting at least like a nice tip, zero dollars.

You're supposed to tip a tattoo artist?

Well, you don't have to, but you know, Dan, if you're going to throw up on a tattoo artist and, you know,

I always tip my haircutter, girl.

Yeah.

I always tip too.

I mean, you're supposed to tip on a tattoo.

I, I always, like, I charge what I would want, and if they don't tip, I don't really care.

Like, I, I make my price like, this is what I want.

I don't do the whole, like, I'm going to charge less and hope that they tip kind of a thing.

You're a luxury market, right?

Right.

We're a luxury market too.

We also, you know, we cater to luxury clients, but, you know, I just kind of assume that if she's going going to throw up, like at the very least.

She might watch this, so call her out, man.

But speaking of luxury clients, name some of your top celebrities that you've tattooed.

Yeah, man.

So I feel like I've tattooed,

I've either tattooed or met or almost tattooed anyone in the world.

Like it's crazy.

So

people I have tattooed, you know, Justin Bieber, Aaron Agrande, Kendrick Lamar, Marshmallow.

I mean, anyone from like Kodai Black, Juice World, OBJ.

I mean, the list just goes on.

Tons of actors, Stranger Things, you know.

Oh, those kids got tattoos?

It was one of the other actors.

Okay.

yeah it's one of the one of the older actors uh not the kids i mean i don't think they're even 18 yet but um now they are now they are yeah no it was one of the other actors i mean i've done like yeah people from tv shows um but it's funny um i've actually never disclosed this on on any kind of a podcast but so i was supposed to tattoo mac miller uh through one of his friends on the tour he passed away didn't get to tattoo him i was supposed to do uh post malone's first face chat so i used to like text post he like this was before he like blew up crazy big was gonna do the barbed wire across his face yeah um things just end up then ended up lining up didn't do that and then um and drake follows me on instagram he's been yeah he's been wanting to get tattooed i tattooed actually his mom uh not too long ago wow yeah his mom's like 60

60 something she's never had a tattoo came into the shop which was really cool i didn't even know they were going to come into the shop and she got like a letter a on her finger which was for adonas adonis and aubrey supposed to be for both

and uh yeah i did that and a little rose on her arm so drake's mom came and got tattooed which was really dope and then yeah and then drake like you know he follows me and likes some of my pictures that's huge yeah super dope And that's just because of your talent, right?

Because there's not many artists that can do what you do.

Yeah.

So it's really cool.

I mean, I've been in, I've been in, you know, social media and at the beginning of social media, like, I was, you know, starting at the end of my space, going into Facebook and Instagram.

Like, I was, you know, creating, I was tattooing right when Instagram first came out.

And I was just seeing the whole wave from like Vine and TikTok and, you know, and out and capitalized on that, built my following, you know, have about 4 million followers now between my platforms.

I have a million on YouTube, 2 million on Instagram.

Damn.

um and yeah i mean a lot of celebrities have worked and followed me um and yeah i mean it's crazy and even just the ones that i've tattooed has opened so many opportunities like a lot of things for me now like tattooing i've actually been tattooing a lot less i'm

focusing a lot more on building the brand and the business but tattooing for me has become and and i'm sure for a lot of people who are skill-based you know uh jobs and things like that but it's become also like a networking play right like it's crazy the people that i've met like you know uh talking to mark hubin on Instagram.

You got a top?

No, but I've DM'd him and he's just like, hey, I'm not gonna, like, I just reached out and I was like, I just DM Mark Cuban.

I was like, yo, if you ever want to get tattooed or no one in your family wants to get tattooed, let me know.

I'll just reach out to random people sometimes.

That's funny.

And he replied and he's like, ha ha, I don't know if I'm going to get a tattoo, but if I can be of any service, let me know, which I think is like huge.

Just even have that line of communication with someone like a billionaire, like Mark Cuban.

Right.

And then even through like.

tattooing a lot of the OVO guys and people around Drake, I've gone to like Drake's parties and, you know, met Rihanna and Adele and P.

Diddy and just like all these different like celebrities, like the parties that these guys end up having when you're on the level of like someone like Drake, like the birthday parties, it's like every celebrity in the world goes there.

Sorry for my language.

No, you're good.

Every celebrity in the world is there.

So like I would just go there and just be like, you know, Kylie Jenner and just Chris Brown and everyone you can imagine.

You're just looking around and all these celebrities are there and it's become almost normalized.

But, you know, the tattooing has just become, I think, not only something for art, but for me, it's like a way to build other things on the side and and a network.

And I mean, just kind of like what you're doing, like the networking is crazy, you know?

So I think that's great advice for people watching.

Develop that high-income skill that can open doors, right?

Whether it's tattooing, golfing, poker, whatever it is, develop that skill.

Yeah, I mean, a thousand percent.

I mean, when I was like really tattooing super hard, um

we were, I was making close to a hundred grand a month tattooing, which I think is like nuts for anyone in tattoo space.

Like, I was just printing cash.

Yeah, that's crazy.

Um, I was leaving the shop with like three to five grand a day cash.

Damn.

Yeah, nuts.

Just like day after day after day, like clockwork.

And now, I mean, 100 grand a month is crazy, but now I'm like, my mindset is just elevated.

You know, I used to want to be like, and I did achieve everything I wanted to do.

I got on TV, I got on magazine covers.

I've tattooed all the biggest celebrities in the world.

My goal was to become the biggest and most famous tattoo artist in the world on social media.

And I felt like I did what I wanted to do.

And now it's like, I kind of peaked and plateaued.

And I felt like I had to take a step back a little bit.

And

I don't want to say like go not go backwards, but I had to take a step back and somehow like transform myself and be like, okay, if I want to make a million a month, with now my goal is a million a month.

If I want to make a million a month and reach a hundred million, my goal is a bit, I want to become a billionaire.

Yeah.

But I'd like to, if I can fall short anywhere over a hundred million, I'll be happy.

If I want to make a million a month cash flow, like every single month, I need to take a step back from being the celebrity spotlight tattoo artist who's just grinding in the chair every single day.

And I need to build a company, build a brand, elevate my artists around me.

Like now my focus is building the artists on my team, building the team and helping them become the next me pretty much.

Yeah.

You know, because I've done it all and I see that like I can take someone and help build them and put people in place to become what I do and build someone up, build a team and just build a company that could be worth $100 million.

I mean,

we're going to open a new location in LA.

We're already looking in Miami.

We want to open shops in different cities and just build the California dream and my tattoo shop into being a $100 million company.

I love that.

Yeah, it's cool to see that shift, man, because a lot of people get caught up in that follower scene, right?

Where they're chasing followers, chasing, you know, being famous or whatever.

But there comes a shift where you got to realize the money is not where I want it to be.

100%.

And not just that, but you start realizing too, like,

I don't know.

I mean, I feel like the fame, not that it gets old, but like the followers and the, I mean, we just live in a day and age now where it's like, there's so much fakeness and facade and you start realizing that it's not even everything too.

You know, like, I want to build generational wealth.

I also want to see,

instead of just building me, me, me, I'm also now in a mindset where it's like, it's cool to build other people up and for me to have a company and a business where I can help other people achieve their dreams.

and help someone else.

And obviously, yes, it benefits me because they're working for my company, but I'm helping them get to a level that they would never be able to be if i didn't help them up and i'm helping them speed it up and get there faster and helping them cut corners and you know save themselves from making mistakes that they were making before so you know i feel like now there's a lot more to it too than just like how you know like i want to be famous or you know trying to be like you know a celebrity i mean i just think like we live in a in a day where

Everyone wants to be an influencer and they don't even know what they want to be an influencer for.

Everyone wants to be famous.

They don't know what they want to be famous for.

Now I'm trying to think of like ways that I can change people's lives, lives change my life and just kind of get to that next level like i got i got to the peak it's like of being like a celebrity tattoo artist and now i want to become i want to i want to do new stuff i want to find a new heights you know i love that yeah and it's kind of like what you're doing too like you get to a point where it's like what's the next thing you know i mean you want to just keep reinventing yourself and keep being creative and i just feel like this is the moment in my life that i'm there now it's crazy with tick tock and instagram and and i see it's so many artists now they're trying to do what i was doing like seven eight years ago.

It's like flooded with every, you know, everyone wants to be a celebrity tattoo artist.

Everyone wants to be an influencer.

And I wasn't even trying to be that before.

I was just more like utilizing social media.

It was more of a

resume.

And it was more of a business tactic for me.

But they're doing a lot of people were like copying now five years behind what I was doing, you know, at the beginning of Instagram in the early stages of Instagram.

You were early.

I was early, bro.

Because I feel like most tattoo shop owners weren't really on social media back then.

And you were kind of that first.

Well, there's a reason for it, too.

And this is what's actually crazy.

The tattoo industry,

it's very like

archaic in the sense that they have a mindset of like, you know, apprenticeships and it's like an old school mentality, which is good in some ways because they're kind of like guarding the craft.

But in other ways, they're very behind when it comes to progress and moving forward.

So I was super young and I was super savvy with social media.

And I was also like, had a, had a very business mindset.

So I knew early on I was going to use social media to catapult my career and get to where I'm at.

And I almost like reverse engineered my career.

I was like, I'm going to tattoo the most famous celebrities.

I'm going to network from them and who's in their circle and go backwards.

But I was doing a lot of stuff that tattooers at the time were like, yo, like, you know, that's gay.

Don't do that.

No, I'm serious, bro.

Yeah.

They would be like, yo, why are you posting a picture of yourself?

That's gay.

I was like, dude, how's a picture of myself?

Like, I'm building brand awareness.

Like, you post it, you have your name, you know, your name could be XYZ.

And all you have are pictures of your tattoo.

And you look at, and your work's exactly exactly the same as the guy next to you, and next to you, and next to you, and next to you.

Who's going to remember you?

Like, I was posting pictures of myself.

I was trying to have people connect the name with the face.

And I was obviously doing content.

And a lot of people just didn't, they didn't understand the concept.

They, they wanted to hold on to that old school mentality of like, my work speaks for itself.

Unfortunately, we're not in that day and age anymore.

You can't just say, my work speaks for itself.

You have to have a strategy.

You gotta be, you gotta know how to market yourself.

You have to have a brand.

You'll never stand out.

And it's also way too competitive.

And now I feel like seven, eight years later, people are just now realizing that and trying to hop on.

And it's like, I don't want to say it's too late because obviously there's still people blowing up on like TikTok and stuff, but you're behind.

You know, like, I've already made millions of followers and millions of dollars.

And you're over here trying to now, just now realizing that, like, oh, I got to build a brand for myself.

Yeah, you were early.

That's cool to see you stick through it, right?

Because a lot of people would have got those hate comments and kind of followed into it.

The comments I get, I mean, I still get, I mean, people always call, I mean, tattooers are just so bitter because it's it's like, I mean, I don't know what it's like in the barbershop world or in the, you know, hair salon world, but like you always, when you, when you have a craft and a skill, you always think that you're, or you always want to believe that you're better and people will appreciate you for, for what you can do and how talented you are.

And unfortunately, the internet doesn't work that way.

And

it's just, there's too much competition.

So you can't just stand out alone just from having work.

I can't tell you how many times I go on Instagram and I see dudes, and I'm not even kidding you, like skill level, Like, some of them are even better than me at tattooing.

Unknown, no follower, they just don't know how to brand themselves, they don't know how to market themselves, you know.

So, it's like you can't just have just the talent, you gotta have the talent, you have to be able to brand yourself and stand out, and you have to know how to market yourself and how to network.

So, it's like it's kind of like a there's three parts, you know.

Yeah, agreed.

Some people lack the in-person communication, right?

Um, so that being said, do you think social media is toxic right now?

Bro, social media is literally the most toxic.

I stay off of it.

I've actually haven't been super active on social media the last couple of years.

I spent like, I had like a run where I just, I was growing like crazy.

I was getting shouted, you know, I tattooed like Ninja and Ariana Grande, and they were shouting me out doing like Instagram posts.

I was getting 100,000 followers a day sometimes on Instagram.

Yeah, just like flooding, flooding, flooding.

And I think now

social media is more toxic than ever.

People are confused.

There's a lot of misinformation.

People are entitled.

People just sit on the internet and, you know, talk crap and want to like, you know, they want to be heard.

So they'll try to like tear you down.

And not just that, but the way that the algorithm works too,

we unfortunately live in a day and age now, which now the algorithm and social media is way different than it was five years ago when I was really crushing it on social media, like when I was like the only one on there.

It's

quantity over quality now.

Like now they want you to just post like 50 times a day, every single day.

You got to flood the market.

I mean, how many times do you go on a

singer's like page on Instagram and you hear the same song over?

Like they're posting 300 videos with the same audio code on TikTok.

Trying to break through, right?

It's like

it's not quality-based anymore, you know?

And unfortunately, we're at the mercy of the social media platform.

So, you know, TikTok came out with their algorithm and Instagram felt like they were kind of stealing their shine and winning.

So they kind of copied their algorithm.

And now Instagram kind of follows TikTok with like the reels.

Everything's short form video based.

Yeah.

And it's one of those things where they just, they want you to post, post, post all the time.

And I, you know, unfortunately, it's really difficult for someone,

you know, in our field who can't, who aren't full-time content creators.

You know, like a lot of tattooers just don't have the, you know, the mental like energy or capacity to just go home and film.

Tattoos take time too, man.

Dude, yeah, man.

It's crazy.

And, you know, they, they want you to be not only good at what your craft is, but they want you to also be a full, it's almost like you have to be a full-time content creator also you know i have literally a full content team that makes all the clips because if i were to do it it would take 10 hours a day yeah so i mean like before when i you know uh

a few years ago when i was you know gaining a ton and there was no one else doing it it was a lot easier to post a picture with you know one celebrity a shout out a photo and you gain like ten thousand twenty thousand thirty thousand followers now it's like the shout outs don't work as well like if someone just tags you in a post even if they have millions of followers they don't really they're not as effective because people are just, there's too much competition.

They see too many people on their page.

They don't care as much.

And then the

algorithm doesn't even want to push content as much anymore too.

So it's like you almost, the only way to really gain the followers now is to have viral, clickbaity, catchy, like a hook type of content.

And it's difficult for photographers, photographers who used to just grow and build a career off photos now are having to switch their career to video content of some sort.

Tattooers now are having to become, comedians and do jokes and pranks and stuff.

I mean, it's just like, I just feel like social media right now is like a huge mess.

It's toxic.

But, you know, you got to play, you got to play the field.

I play the game.

I know what it is.

I know like you got to stir comments.

Right.

It's so good for outreach and for resume.

So I still like Instagram, but I know what you mean in terms of like just scrolling.

It's like mindless.

Yeah, I mean, we're changing our tactic now.

Now we're hiring a full-time content creator, like what you said you're doing.

We have to have someone to come in, film the content.

I mean, it's just like pump the videos out, put the videos on all the platforms i mean it's just like you got to change it change your strategy yeah absolutely yeah i want to talk about anesthesia tattoos and what exactly that is i actually saw a couple youtube videos talking negatively about it about uh this type of tattoo but what is your take on it yeah i mean it's nuts so it's it's a new concept um and i think that people talk crap about it for multiple reasons one they don't understand how it works so they just think it's like you know oh it's nuts like you know you could die from it or something like that and then also a lot of people who get tattoos have this like tough guy mentality yeah so a lot of the negative comments come from oh like that dude's a like why didn't he just go like why are you going under you should just like take it like a man but i think you know we we live in a very innovative age now where new it's all about moving forward right new things are coming out with ai with tech um with health you know we're talking about like peptides and all kinds of stuff yeah so it's like why wouldn't there be like progress in tattooing.

People have been asking me, I mean, I tattoo a lot of high-end celebrity clients or or people who, you know, high-net worth people.

And I've actually, people have been asking me about these anesthesia tattoos for a long time.

Really?

Yeah.

I just never got around to doing it.

And then, you know, people just kept asking me.

And eventually to the point, I was like, you know what?

Like, people keep asking me about it.

I was like, why don't we just figure out how to get this done?

So, you know, we partnered up with the top anesthesia facility in Los Angeles.

So we have a partnership with them.

And we do these at a facility.

There's, you know, doctors on site.

It's all done completely on board.

And yeah, I mean, basically, you know, they go under under and we get a, I have a team of five to seven artists and we tattoo them all in.

Damn, it's not many.

Yeah, man, because think about it, the tattoo could take seven hours long for all the artists, but, you know, some of them are going to want breaks.

So, you know, sometimes we rotate some of the artists.

So one of them might take a break and then we have another one jump in.

You know,

my goal is to have the patient under anesthesia for the least amount of time as possible.

Right.

Not that there's any kind of complications or risks because it's actually a pretty safe method.

Obviously, there's complications with anything, but this is what I tell people.

You know, girls are getting like boob jobs and there's people going under anesthesia for plastic surgery every single day, thousands of people every single day.

And, you know, nothing happens, you know?

So it's like, it's, it's the same thing to me as a medical procedure for anything else that would be cosmetic.

Yeah.

People just don't seem to grasp that or they think that it's, it's.

too nuts because it's for a tattoo like why would you under for a tattoo why would you go under for a boob job why would you go under for you know a nose job you know but you people come out fine you know almost every surgery uses that right yeah exactly so uh yeah i mean we're we're doing a lot of these now um

actually our last video got 20 million views on youtube yeah

so we did our first one um i hired a videographer we got we got a couple dope pieces of content and yeah i mean they wanted they just crushed on youtube 20 million views um and then we're also running ads and the ads are doing great we have i mean we have so many people inquiring us about the anesthesia tattoos so that's like the next wave i guess I think so, too.

I mean, unfortunately, it's very expensive to do

in the tens of thousands.

Yeah, there's a lot of costs.

It obviously depends on what you're getting done, how detailed and things like that.

But I mean, it could, you know, it's easily $30,000 to $50,000.

Holy shit.

Because you got to pay, think about it.

You got to pay anesthesiologists.

You got to pay multiple tattoos.

And these tattooers are doing grueling, like it's a grueling day.

They're just like tattooing like seven hours straight, you know?

So there's a lot of costs that go into it.

The anesthesia is not cheap.

And then, yeah, I mean, obviously, you have staff.

We got to do consultations.

There's a lot of stuff that goes into it.

So it's not something that everyone can afford, but the really cool thing is we just started offering financing, too.

So the same way that people are getting, you know, cosmetic surgeries, like, you know, nose jobs and boob jobs and things like that, lipo, and they're getting, they're using like care credit and they're able to get financing.

We also can offer financing.

So a lot of these people now are just coming in.

And, you know, obviously there's, you know, monthly payments.

It's not cheap, but so it's like a car finance.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, you're not having to come out like, you know,

30, 40 grand, 50 grand out of pocket.

You're going into it.

You're like, okay, cool.

I'm going to get finance.

And you're pretty much can just make monthly payments and still get your, go in one time, get your whole back done, and then you don't have to do it anymore.

What's the most expensive tattoo you've seen?

I don't know.

As far as expensive, I mean.

Like, have you given any that people paid a ton of money for?

I mean,

I think I've done a house call for like seven grand one time.

Damn.

I usually, my full day sessions, you know, it depends on like it goes, you know, it could be between five to seven grand on a house call.

Um, but usually, like, let's say for someone who comes in and gets a whole back done, you know, they could be paying, you know, 35,000 for a back piece.

For a back?

Yeah, because I mean, like, I'm doing, depending if I'm doing a house call, they're coming in shop, you know, charging between three to five grand a day.

Um, and then you do that times like seven, you know, if there's seven sessions to do on the back.

Yeah.

Um, but now it's really cool because we're really flexible with different options for customers.

So, you know, I'm really focusing a lot on trying to give people different options.

So, if someone wants to come in and get tattooed by me, I'm able to always also bring in some of my artists.

They can hop in on the project.

We have the anesthesia, which I do the anesthesia, but my price to be involved on the anesthesia gets brought down because there's other artists and things involved too.

Yeah, so you're able to get, you know, go in under, get a whole tattoo, or if someone wants to come in and fly in and get multiple sessions, you know, and I mean, yeah, but a a back piece can cost a lot of money.

It depends on the quality, depends on how long.

There's a lot of things that go into the price of the tattoo.

But yeah, and every artist charges differently too.

Yeah.

Has anyone ever come in trying to remove a tattoo?

So,

I mean, I see people want to get removed all the time.

Obviously, tattoos are easy things for people to regret.

The cool thing is, is the new shop we're designing.

So the new shop is going to be way bigger.

I'm basically trying, I'm going to build a staple location in LA, like a flagship location, and it's going to be like a super shop.

So we're designing the shop with 15 plus chairs.

There's going to have laser removal.

So in this new shop coming out not too far from now in Los Angeles, and also in the other shops moving forward, when we do Miami, we're going to offer laser removal because one,

there's, I mean, it's part of the tattoo culture.

If you regret a tattoo, I feel like you shouldn't be stuck with a tattoo.

And they're going to go to a med spa and get it removed anyways.

But also, people come to us wanting to get cover-ups.

And I don't think that a lot of times people understand

the process of getting a cover-up and how easy it is now to get a tattoo removed.

Like, a lot of people come and they get these cover-ups because they think, like, there's no hope, or getting a laser removal is going to take me like five years.

I mean, you can honestly, if you go like every single month, you can get a tattoo removed or at least lighten up enough in like six months to get it covered up.

And your cover-up is going to look a lot better with it lasered than if you just had this like dark, like black blobby thing on your arm, you know, because you had a name or something that you wanted to cover up.

But so, yeah, we're going to start offering laser.

I'm a big fan of laser.

I've had my chest piece lasered and redone.

I had an entire sleeve lasered and redone.

I'm really, I'm lasering my, my leg now.

I got it on my face.

That shit hurt, bro.

You did?

Yeah, man.

To remove some scars, but

that's crazy.

Oh, you did?

Yeah, they numbed my face and lasered it.

Was it the same?

It was similar to the tattoo.

It's pretty painful, right?

It's pretty painful, dude.

Yeah, on your face, yeah.

It was cool, man.

But yeah, I mean, this is what I tell people.

It's like, look, a lot of people are like, oh, I don't want to spend that money to get the laser.

I'm like, listen.

And they're asking me, like, why I got a ton of laser done.

You're going to live a long time.

Most people who are getting tattooed, they're in their like 20s or 30s.

You still have two-thirds of your life left.

Do you want to have a tattoo for 50 years plus that you regret and wish that it would have looked better?

Or are you going to just spend, you know, a couple hundred bucks, a thousand bucks, go get some laser removal and then finally be happy and then actually have like a clean slate and be like and then you have the whole rest of your life to enjoy a good tattoo.

Yeah.

You know, for sure.

Romeo, it's been fun, dude.

Yeah.

Wherever people find you and learn more about what you're up to.

So you can obviously find me on social media.

My social media is at Romeo Lacoste.

And, yeah, come get tattoos, come swing by.

Come check out my stuff.

LA, right?

Yeah.

And Los Angeles and soon Miami as well.

Awesome.

And maybe Vegas, too.

Oh, okay.

Let's get it.

Thanks for coming on, bro.

Thank you for watching, guys.

See you tomorrow.