Hey there everyone. Ethan Gregory Dodge here with the second episode of Tattoo 408. This is the rest of my interview with Tattoo John Bullock over at San Jose Tattoo. It's the oldest operating tattoo shop in the 408. It opened its doors in 1978 and only closed down one time due to a fire in 2020. John goes into detail about that fire in this part of the interview.
If you haven't listened to last week's episode, I highly recommend doing so before listening to this one. They were recorded in the same sitting and split up over two episodes for the sake of time. Last week we learned a lot about John's upbringing and life leading up to San Jose Tattoo. This week we cover the opening of the shop, his experience of escaping addiction, and his tattooing philosophies.
Because the conversation was so long, I didn't get to dive into a lot of things I would have liked. For example, I'd love to know more about John's inspirations, be they other tattoo artists or what have you. What drives him to draw the things that he does and why? That sort of thing. I'm sure I'll get the opportunity to interview him again and we can dive into all of that.
Now, remember from last time all the things I said about ambiance? You're going to get even more of that this time because Angel, John's co-worker, actually saw and tattooed a client during this half of the discussion.
Like last week, there's a bit of context that may be difficult to gather, so I'll help you out a bit:
Chono is another San Jose tattooist and friend of John's. He is mentioned in passing throughout the interview. I have already interviewed him and it will likely be episode 5.
Scotty Weeks is also another 408 tattoo artist. As you'll hear in the conversation, John helped him get his start. Scotty's interview is actually the next one up on the pod.
The terms "street shop" and "flash" are brought up a lot. A street shop is a tattoo studio that typically doesn't take appointments. They may do so occasionally, but the vast majority of their clients walk in off the street with little heads up. Street shops typically have loads of small to medium size tattoo designs on their walls that clients can choose from. Those designs are called flash. It's not unusual for appointment-based shops to have flash on their walls, too.
John mentions that he's going to ask me about "the Mormon thing" later. He's referring to the fact that I was raised LDS in Utah. We had that conversation off the record after the interview. It's something that I'll likely cover in a future episode because I believe it does play a bit into my love of tattooing.
I bring up a sleeve that I'm having done on my left arm by various San Jose artists. That sleeve will likely be a topic in that same episode.
Now, when I brought up John's history with drugs, I didn't ask for a lot of back story. That is a rookie interviewer's mistake. So if that transition seems abrupt, that's why.
And lastly, at the beginning, I ask John about artists that were tattooing here back in the 70s that are still around. I am trying my best to track those artists down and get them on the podcast.
---
Love Tattoo 408? Here are the best ways to support the show!
Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (it takes ~10 seconds)
Tell your tattoo-loving friends and family about it!
Use the code "tattoo408" when purchasing tattoo healing products from saniderm.com
Follow Tattoo 408 on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. DM your address and get our stickers in the mail!
Thank you to Tessia Spisak for our logo and to mint.beats for our music.
Tattoo 408 is produced by Ethan Gregory Dodge.
© 2023 under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
