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

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

🎨🎙️ AI vs. Tattoo Artists: Is This the Future of Ink? 🚀 Tattoo enthusiasts and tech buffs, you can't miss this! Tune in now to the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly featuring Joey Hamilton, one of the best tattoo artists in the world! 🤩 In this eye-opening episode, we dive deep into the intersection of AI and tattoo artistry. Joey dishes on his journey from the Air Force to becoming a top-tier tattooist, his innovative use of AI for creating unique designs, and his experiences tattooing celebrity clients. 💉✨ From traditional techniques to AI-generated designs, is this the future of ink? Don't miss out on this fascinating conversation packed with valuable insights and behind-the-scenes stories. Join the conversation and get a peek into what it takes to stay ahead in the tattoo industry. 🤖🎨 Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 #DigitalSocialHour #SeanKelly #Podcast #Tattoos #AI #JoeyHamilton #InkMaster #TattooArtists #FutureOfInk #RealisticTattoos #TattooTrends #AiTattooFuture #AiTattooInnovation #AiTattooArtist CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Intro 0:41 - Joey Hamilton 2:47 - Transitioning from the Air Force to Tattooing 4:00 - Realism Based Tattoos 7:32 - Managing 5 Tattoo Shops 8:18 - Tattooing Celebrities 11:30 - Starting in the Tattoo Business 16:27 - Interesting Tattoo Requests 19:47 - Racing Cars Hobby 22:08 - Living in Vegas 24:15 - Do You Tattoo Yourself 25:30 - Balancing Work and Family 26:18 - The Palm Casino 26:50 - What Did You Do With All That Money 28:12 - Where to Find Joey 28:35 - What’s Next for Joey APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/D2cLkWfJx46pDK1MA BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Joey Hamilton https://www.instagram.com/joeyhamiltontattoo/ SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 you know who owns this photo who owns this photo you know what i mean because they wanted to shoot it out too so 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 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, I just found out we're neighbors, too. I know, man. That was kind of coincidental. So crazy. Driving 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 it's out there but it's it's actually if you think about it's not 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 yeah the poker stuff and you know it's pretty cool yeah i've uh 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, 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. So I can't wait to dive into what you do because making it in the tattoo space is not easy. It's not, you know, it's not. But for me and 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've yeah you know i back 30 you know 28 years ago when i first started i'm in the 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 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. Absolutely. So you were in the air force for 10 years. Yeah. Did you have plans on transitioning into this? Like near the end? Uh, I did about a year before I started looking for a job. Um, uh, my dad's heavy into motorcycles. Um, I've had some pretty famous friends as motorcycle builders and they actually said, Oh, why don't you, uh, paint motorcycles for us? And, 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 or the creative part would have been cool. Yeah. Cause that was big when, uh, you know, the bike build off shows, like all those things were coming out. Right. 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 day and then at night I was in the military still so 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 what I wanted to do I love it and the tattoos you mainly do they're called realism I say realism based because I'm not a top-tier one-percenter for photo realism.

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 or yeah 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 ai can generate you a new one so i've been you know delving into that wow the last couple months there's ai making the tattoos now well yeah, yeah, making the designs, yes, of course. For photo-based stuff.

It's like how many times you've seen a Poseidon tattoo where it's the same statue, the same thing over and over. So that's where I've used AI in the last three months, I would say, of just the same thing. Aztec Warrior. You punch in 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 that's cool 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 uh 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 web page seven stations all day hashtag tattooing live worldwide like doing all this stuff that was not really done yet you know 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're ahead of the game.

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 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. Took me three hours just to trace the fricking outline of what it was, which that's very long for me. Yeah. Just to trace. I can be ready in 15 minutes and it took me three hours. So it was a lot.

Yeah. Cause 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 in one shot was 14 hours but i like two weeks ago i tattooed a guy four days straight like he tattooed got four and price the longest ever was six out of eight days oh my gosh tattooed all over his body. That's crazy. Yeah.

Your hands must be so tired by the end. It is. I'm older, you know what I mean? I've had 28 years, so I've had neck problems. I've got hand problems. It's the typical stuff. I tattoo a lot faster now, thank God, and I can get tattooed.

I can tattoo. Are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest we'll 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 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 yeah 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 a better locations like we have a store in houston as you know and we're getting a second store in houston um so in another mall out there so we don't we uh you know this all came about because we were dealing with brooksville properties and they know us we know them and they constantly, 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 when 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?

Of course, of 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 feedley from corn i tattooed a bunch of the Golden Knights players. I tattooed Christy Mack, Jenna Jameson, you know, just tons of people, tons of athletes. I just tattooed a baseball player last week. You know, it's like, they hit me up. You know, the best one, 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, and I go hit me up on Instagram. Cause 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 be like, Oh my God. And she's like, what's wrong? What's wrong? I said, Oh, Jack Eichel just DM me, asked me if I want to do the Stanley cup on him. I'm like, yeah, of course. A big time. He was the best player on the night. Yeah, of course. So it was a, 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 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 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 because they wanted to shoot it out too so that's cool where do you get it honest i honest i 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 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 Knights 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. And then they didn't make it. And then I saw the president, and he was just like, dude, do 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.

So that was awesome. That's big time. I'm like, 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. Yeah. 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 did 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 Concrete World. We were doing a little Bosch. You wouldn't think somebody would get a Bosch tattoo, but we kind of create it where it's kind of a cool-looking design.

And for three days days we're out there tattooing in a container they made 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 own 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, that was my goal. 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 did back then. 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. Like, you know, one of my best stories is the guy that did my forums, his name's 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 you with you when you uh when you're done and then

they're like cool and then probably 15 minutes later the guy comes back and goes hey uh joey i think we need to interview you too because you just won like five awards for you know doing realism tattoos and this guy's doing a realism tattoo on me. It was pretty cool. Then me and D'Anno became friends and he actually did my next portrait of my dad on me in a living room in my house in Florida. He came to visit, hung out for a week.

That's how you always grow in this business. You surround yourself with guys better than you and just try and learn from them. And then that all evolved into these stores. I came out here. 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, Ink Master, right? No, Inked. Oh, Inked. So Cary 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 want to 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. Why'd she think that? I don't know. Cause I had a suit on. I don't know.

Wow. You know, my teeth weren't even that great. I was like, okay. You know, so, dentist you know why'd she think that i don't know because i had a suit on i don't know wow you know so my teeth weren't even that great it's 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 ink master 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? I'm giving up 50% of what I'm charging. Damn. That's what the going rate is, honestly.

That's typically what it is. When you work at 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'm getting $1,000 of it and I'm losing money every week so I just 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 need to establish themselves. 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. 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 a sense for that. But I don't want to pay caesar's rents either they're double they're probably double what i pay so they're probably insane yeah 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 dead. Yeah, it's definitely slower. And when they were selling it to me to go in there, they were like, oh, you guys are location. People will find you. I was like, yeah, I'm going to pay a high rent.

I still need that traffic. And 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, I've got nine guys working.

Yeah. It was packed when I pulled up. There's probably three of us that are tattooing full-time. We're always booked. And then there's some that have two or three a week. And then they rely on five to 20 a day of just people walking in going, hey, let me get tattooed yeah wow you ever uh see any interesting tattoos that you try to talk them out of or

you don't give input um no i do i try to because it's like it's still my name on the tattoo you know if it's if it's a dumb tattoo it's a dumb tattoo and you know but um 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 i'm pulling and i'm like what 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 to people, they just don't get it. You're like, it doesn't make sense. I need to do nothing on him.

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 complicated. Sometimes, you know, yeah. 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 and we'll do a couple little small pinterest tattoos yeah that i you know not that i hate doing them because they're easy but you know

wife one i could get behind i'm talking about like new relationships yeah they get that public like if somebody like if somebody comes in and like if you brought your girlfriend and i said hey i want to yeah yeah if you're getting 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 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 that little that little parameters like okay is is it because you love each other and you're gonna 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 the saving ones that's usually those are the ones that fail absolutely 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 this is my second wife so i'm like 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 know like that's i'm not believing you know we're not leaving each other we're not like it's it's the fate part. I knew this is what it is. Do you know how many tattoos you have on your body?

Probably hundreds. For tattooing as long as I have and compared to the guys in my shop, I am not heavily tattooed. Okay. You know what I mean? 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 one of those things. I've got sleeves and one on my chest leg and I'm always tattooing. You know what I mean? So it's one of those things. I got sleeves and one on my chest, but I'm just not heavily tattooed. And I like the look of it and I like getting tattoos, but I'm always busy. And 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 he's sitting there two hours later drawing the tattoo and then tattooing it. And he would go until like 10 or 11.

They're going to 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 I was on the edge there. So it was about two and a half hours. Still crazy. Wow. I'm not in LA. It was in Hesperia. So I was 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 I was fast in Florida. And I came out here within a week. I knew I was not. The car was not that fast. There's some 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 uh well i got the g-wagon mainly for tax write-off um so now i just want to get something i actually like next maybe a urus or something i don't know that was the one i was gonna say yeah because that's because you know i had a you know the 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, you know, getting it out of the garage, all that old man shit, it literally, the Urus was something I'm like, man, that's a sharp car. Like JC had one, you know, and I'm like, I was like, this sounds awesome.

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 was like, this sounds awesome. It's got the rumble. I like the look on it. You need to get some stem cells for that neck, man. I know. You ever look into that? I swear to God, I looked into it last week. Dude, I'll introduce you to someone in Vegas. Awesome. One of our neighbors is a basketball player. He always is getting it done.

Dude, it works wonders. 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. If it can fix my neck, I am down. Yeah.

I know UFC fighters that get it all the time, like once a year. Yeah. Peptides, too, are pretty big. Yeah. But, 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 work out. I'm athletic, play sports, all that stuff. But I guess because you're sitting here and your head's got all the weight pushing straight down and you're not moving around and not trying to exercise it, that's my chiropractor's like, dude, yeah, your neck is just like a bowling ball sitting on a stick. You know what I mean? And you've got to figure it out.

Yeah. So you've been in Vegas since that day you moved here unexpectedly? Yeah. Wow. 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. 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 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 gotta check that out uh 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 miss vegas yeah it's tough to beat the food there's stuff to do the people 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 favorite spots we've already went twice nice literally He's bringing out the whole smear. That's some of the best Italian in Vegas. It was funny because I looked it up and I was like, oh, man, it's hard to get in there. Super hard.

And I shot him a text and I said, hey, 730 on Saturday? He goes, four people? Cool. All right, guys. That's Vegas, though. 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. Yeah. 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. Yeah, so Vegas, hospitality is everything out here. And your reputation's important out here. It's a small city. Yeah. That'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 the synergy between the people. You know what I mean? Absolutely.

You ever tattoo yourself? I did once. How'd that go? I stopped halfway through. The only reason I stopped is because I was like, why am I even doing this? I just handed a machine to my guy that was sitting there 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? I just sat there for a second. It was over. Yeah. What was the tattoo? It was actually the half of my wedding vow. Oh, cool. So it was this very little Hebrew letters, you know, and it was just, it was easy.

Nice. Do you do anything outside of tattoos that you're really passionate about? Not too much. I mean, I have a six-year-old now. I mean, my wife has a six-year-old and he does a lot of extracurricular activities. So, but I like the poker. I like charity. 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 with that. And then I used to love, I mean, I'm ex-military, so I love guns. Yeah. You know, I've 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, and he's living off the land. Lay of the land? Yeah, he's living off the land. You know, he's lay out of land. Yeah. He's doing great. So, um, but yeah, I just honestly just having time with my family. Cause that was back when I was younger.

A lot of times that was what was wrong with, you know, you, you work so hard and you, 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 be that 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 working like 13 hours a day damn i was killing seven days a week so much uh six usually five still crazy that's 90 hours a week yeah usually five i'd pull any double if they're like hey you want to pull a double i'm like hell yeah because the money was so good that that was the first show and like every day there was probably 50 people lined up outside wow to get tattooed because the ink master well no it was inked oh yeah at the at the Palm. 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, like just like, oh. And I'm like working. I'm 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 walk-ins. Oh, all walk-ins. All walk-ins. Wow. There was no waits. 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. They'd stay all day just pumping them out. Wow. I made so much money. Did you save it or did you spend it?

Did you blow it? You know, I saved some of it, but it was just that whole learning curve of saving it. And that's where your podcast, like listening to different things now later on. Cause you know, when I first got in the business, my first mentor was like, all right, you're going to work your off all day. And 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 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 these shops are $400,000, $500,000 a piece. So we're reinvesting. That's why I'm still working so hard because all this money I'm making is still just reinvesting. I can't even picture you at the strip clubs. You had a little party face. Well, ex-military, you know what I mean?

Yeah, had to let some steam out? Yeah. Wow. And then tattoo artists are known to go do that. Are they? Yeah. Oh, I didn't even know that. I thought they were just chill guys coming home after having a beer at the house.

No. Damn, I. Not typical, no. I mean, it's the pirate life. They call 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 yeah typical growing up yeah 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 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 gotta 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. I would do TikTok and maybe kick or rumble, 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. I'm always getting people in. So that's coming on, man. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for watching guys. I'll see you tomorrow.