Digital Social Hour - NEVER Get a Face Tattoo Without Watching This I Romeo Lacoste DSH #472

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

**NEVER Get a Face Tattoo Without Watching This!** In this episode of Digital Social Hour, host Sean Kelly dives into the controversial world of face tattoos with one of the best tattoo artists in the world, Romeo Lacoste! 🎨💉 You won't believe the juicy celebrity secrets and regret stories he spills, including Lil Uzi Vert and others wanting to remove their ink. 😱 Don't miss out on this eye-opening conversation that challenges everything you thought you knew about face tattoos and career changes! Packed with valuable insights, this episode is a must-watch for anyone considering a face tattoo. Tune in now to hear why even tattoo legends like Romeo advise against it and the shocking stories of clients passing out, throwing up, and more! 🤯 Join the conversation and get the inside scoop on the world of high-end tattoos, celebrity clients, and the booming business behind body art. 💪 Whether you're a tattoo enthusiast or just curious, this episode has something for everyone. Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets from the Digital Social Hour Podcast! 📺✨ Don't forget to follow us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for the latest episodes. Tune in now and join the growing community of tattoo and business enthusiasts! 🚀 #TattooPodcastEpisode #FaceTattoos #SeanKelly #FaceTattooRemoval #DigitalSocialHourPodcast CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Intro 0:40 - Why Romeo Doesn’t Do Face Tattoos 3:35 - How Many Tattoos Does Romeo Have 7:31 - Craziest Tattoo Story 12:05 - Top Celebrities You've Tattooed 15:35 - Develop a High Income Skill That Can Open Doors 17:40 - Why You Need to Build a Brand 22:50 - Is Social Media Toxic Right Now 26:33 - Anesthesia Tattoos 30:43 - Most Expensive Tattoo Matt Has Done 32:07 - Tattoo Removal 34:25 - Where to Find Romeo APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/D2cLkWfJx46pDK1MA BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] 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

Face tattoos, I just feel like for people, like unless you're like older, you know, and I mean, honestly, it really just depends on what your career is. But even then, it's like you never know if you're going to have a career change. We're seeing a lot of celebrities now coming out, like Lil Uzi Vert 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. Yeah. 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. Everything except for my face. Yeah.

So I have, like, a very controversial and popular 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 going 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. So, uh, against face tattoos. Um, I mean, there's a few things that I'm against. So like, you know, I, I don't do anything that's, you know, vulgar profan against. I don't do anything that's vulgar, profanity. I won't do any tattoos that's curse words. Oh, so you won't do a curse word. Yeah. No curse words. Nothing that involves nudity or anything vulgar. Wow.

Usually for face tattoos, I just feel like for people, unless you're older. Honestly, it really just depends on what your career is. Even then, you never know if you're going to have a career change. We're seeing a lot of celebrities now coming out. Like Lil Uzi Vert 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 free game. Obviously, I'll still do it if you want something that's like very important and you obviously 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. 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. 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 won't look at you like differently so yeah yeah i know for me and especially for me like getting involved now more in the business and stuff 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 yeah 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 is covered uh neck down i even have my head tattooed too like what yeah it's like funny story so everyone always they don't they never know i have head tattoos i'm like why why you have your hair over it um when i was younger this girl i was like too broke to afford a haircut this is like when i first grinding and stuff and i just

let this girl who was going to like paul mitchell 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 yeah and it just completely looked botched i looked like 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 might as well get a head tat so 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 ended up just like for three months just got like the other side the top no way and 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 like native american artwork and stuff so it's pretty cool yeah like i have a bear and a indian head dress 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, just some cool stuff. But it's just funny. This girl like just completely botched my hair. And I was just like, I was pissed. I was like, God, you just kicked in. So you wanted to fill up. Yeah, I was going to get one side.

And then and then it just, yeah, I kicked in. I was like, dude, I gotta get all the rest of them. 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. 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 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 right 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 collect 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 they hurt so bad and it's actually funny but it actually hurts more for guys than for girls really yeah so it's actually true women have a naturally chemically like you know 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. Wow. Guys always are tapping. Oh, a hundred percent. 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 has more to do with like your nervous system and how the how the nerves in the body are built out. Yeah. But yeah, for guys that the pain tolerance is just like it's drastically lower. Yeah. I didn't know that. I assume the opposite. I thought guys had more pain tolerance. No, I think like 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 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 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. Yeah. Or just they're like, you know, hurry up, like finish it up. Yeah. They try 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, you know, drawing Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z and like video games and, you know, 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. I was like, I want to figure out what I want to get into like early. I don't want to like 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 15 years. There's a lot of crazy stories. 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. Um, like I had one dude one time who passed out and started having it like damn near 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. Um, 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 his eyes start kind of closing and he starts rolling off on the side of chair and he starts having a seizure almost yeah and i was like freaking out you know we're stopping mid tattoo um you know i don't know what 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, I don't know what's going on. Your son just kind of had a seizure. This isn't really 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 seizures, or he 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 he was about to just maybe die on the table. Oh, my gosh. 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. But that's happened a couple of times. I've had a couple of 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 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 get their tattoo and then obviously like the endorphins kick in and they just, they get nauseous and almost pass out.

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'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 tattoo pain can be pretty extreme if you're not like nourished or not well slept. Um, usually that's not really an issue, but if you're getting tattooed in like a painful place and you're, you're don't anticipate the pain or know what to expect, it can happen. Um, 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 drunk? No, 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 the tattoo, and all of a sudden I hear her say, hey, I'm not really feeling too well. And I just thought she needed a break.

And she just leaned forward and threw up on her lap and on my leg. Damn. Yeah. Just hurled. In the middle of the tattoo shot. We had to stop. It was like a one-hour break. Clean up.

Sterilize and just bleach out everything. It was just like a whole mess and the part that sucked the most too was she didn't even she didn't tip me afterwards no yeah dude it was i was so pissed because i didn't want to like after she asked me like you know like afterwards she was like okay like how much tattoo is gonna cost i didn't want to be like oh and by the way there's like 150 like a throat cleaning fee you know i feel like i'd be like a 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 gonna throw up on a tattoo artist and and you know i always tip my hair cutter girl yeah i mean 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 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 don't do the whole like i'm gonna charge less and hope that they tip kind of a thing you're a luxury market right we're a luxury market too we also you know we cater to luxury clients but you know i i just kind of assume that if she's gonna throw up like yeah at least she might watch this so call her out man but speaking of luxury clients

name some of your uh 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 our people that have tattooed you know justin bieber aaron agrande kendrick lamar marshmallow i mean anyone from like kodak black juice world ob, 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 older actors.

Not the kids. I don't think they're even 18 yet. 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. But it's funny. I've actually never disclosed this on any kind of podcast.

So I was supposed to tattoo Mac Miller through one of his friends on the any kind of 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 tat so i used to like text post he like this was before he like blew up crazy big was going to do the barbed wire across his face um things just 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 adonis adonis and aubrey is supposed to be for both and uh yeah i did that and a little rose on her arm so drake's mom came 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 facebook and instagram like i was you know creating i 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 uh about four million followers now between my platforms of a million on youtube two 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 is open 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 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.

It's crazy the people that I've met, like talking to Mark Cuban on Instagram. He got a tat? No, but I've DM'd him. And he's just like, hey, I just reached out. And I was like, I just DM'd Mark Cuban. I was like, yo, if you ever want to get tattooed or anyone 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 was like, haha, I don't know if I'm going'm gonna 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 um 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 is 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. 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 to build other things on the side and then network and i mean just kind of like what you're doing like the networking is 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 yeah 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 100 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 like three to five grand a day cash damn yeah nuts just like day after day after day like clockwork um and now i mean 100 100 grand a month is 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

artists 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 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. I want to make a million a month and reach a hundred million, my goal is I want to become a billionaire, 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 cashflow, like every single month, I need to take a step back from being the celebrity spotlight tattoo artist. Who's just grinding on 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 and put people in place to become what i what i do and build someone up build a team and just build a 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 at Miami.

We want to open shops in different cities and just build the California dream and my tattoo shop into being $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 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, 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 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 there's a lot more to it too than just like how – like I want to be famous or trying to be like a celebrity. I mean I just think like we live 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. Like now I'm trying to think of like ways that I can change people's lives, change my life, and just kind of get to that next level. Like 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 tikt and Instagram. And I see so many artists now they're trying to do what I was doing like seven, eight years ago. It's like flooded with, 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 as it was more of a resume, 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 and 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 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 like yeah they would be like yo you 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 you have your name you know your name could be xyz and all you have are pictures of your tattoo and you look and your work's exactly the same as the guy next to you and next to you and next to you next to you who's gonna remember? 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 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 got to be, you got to know how to market yourself. You have to have a strategy. You got to 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. I've already made millions of followers and millions of dollars. And you're over here just now realizing that like, oh like oh i gotta 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 yeah falling into it the the comments i get i mean i still get i mean people always call i mean tattooers are just so bitter because it's like i mean i don't know what

it's like in the barbershop world or in the hair salon world, but when you have a craft and a skill, you always want to believe that you're better and people will appreciate you for what you can do and how talented you are. And unfortunately, the internet doesn't work that way, and 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 a talent.

You got to 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. It's like, it's kind of like like a there's three parts, you know. Agreed. Some people lack the in-person communication. Right. 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 shot, you know, I tattooed like Ninja and Ariana Grande and they were shouting me out doing like Instagram posts. I was getting a hundred thousand followers a day sometimes on Instagram. Yeah. Just like flooding, flooding, flooding. And I think now, um, social media is more toxic than ever. People are confused. Um, there's a lot of misinformation. People are entitled. People just sit on the internet and talk crap and they want to be heard. So they'll try to 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 on social media like when i was like the only one

on there it's 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 them i mean how many times do you go on a singer's song a singer's like page on instagram and you hear the same song over like they're posting 300 videos with the same audio clip trying to break through right it's like it's not 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 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 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 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 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. There's C they see too many people on their page. They don't care as much. And then the algorithm, 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 we're having to switch their career to video content of some sort. Tattoos now are having to become, you know, 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 gotta play you gotta play the field right play the game i know what it is i know like you gotta stir comments right um 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 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 not so 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 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, talking about like peptides and all kinds of stuff. So it's like, why wouldn't there be like progress in tattooing? Um, people have been asking me, I mean, I tattoo a lot of high end celebrity clients or people who, you know, uh, high network people. And I've actually, people have been asking me about these anesthesia tattoos for a long time. Yeah. I just never got around to doing it. Um,

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, I was like, why don't we just like figure out how to get this done? So we, we you know we partnered up with the top uh anesthesia facility in los angeles so we have a partnership with them and we do these at a you know facility there's you know doctors on site it's all done completely on board and um yeah i mean basically you know they go under and we get a i have a team of um five to seven artists and we tattoo them all in dance 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 my goal is to have the patient under anesthesia for the least amount of time as possible right um 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. Uh, 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 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 go 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 just 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. Actually, our last video got 20 million views on YouTube.

Damn. Yeah. So we did our first one. I hired a videographer. We got a couple of dope pieces of content. And, yeah, I mean, they just crushed on YouTube 20 million views. And then we're also running ads, and the ads are doing great. I mean, we have so many people inquiring us about the anesthesia tattoos.

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's easily $30,000 to $50,000. Holy shit. Because I mean you got to pay – think about it's easily 30 to 50 000 holy because i mean you gotta pay think about it you gotta pay anesthesiologists you gotta pay multiple tattooers

you know 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 cause that go into it um the anesthesia is not cheap um and then yeah i mean obviously you have staff we gotta do consultations we got there's a lot of stuff that goes into it um 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 no monthly payments. It's not cheap,

but it's like a car finance. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you're not having to come out like, you know, uh, you know, 30, 40 grand, 50 grand out of pocket. You're going into it. You're like, Oh, cool. I'm gonna get finance. And you're pretty much can just make monthly payments and still get your going one, one time, get your whole back done. And then you don't have to do it anymore. You know, what's the most expensive tattoo you've seen um 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 um 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. Um, but now it's really cool because we're, 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 you have the anesthesia which i do the anesthesia but my price to be involved on the anesthesia gets brought down because there's

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 back piece can cost a lot of money depends on the quality depends on how long there's a lot a lot of things that go into the price of the tattoo um 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 removal all the time uh obviously tattoos are easy things for people to regret the cool thing is is the new shop we're we're designing so the new shop is going to be way bigger i'm'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 other shops moving forward, when we do Miami, we're going to offer laser removal because one, I mean, it's part of the tattoo culture if you regret a tattoo you shouldn't be 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 want to get um cover-ups and i don't think that a lot of times people understand um 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 or getting 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 got a name or something that you want 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 i should hurt bro you did yeah man to remove some scars but

painful 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. Yeah, on your face. Yeah.

Yeah. It was cool, man. 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 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 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 a couple hundred bucks, a thousand bucks, go get some laser removal, and then finally be happy? And then actually have a clean slate. For sure. And then you have the whole rest of your life to enjoy a good tattoo.

Yeah. For sure. Romeoo it's been fun dude yeah where can 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 uh yeah come get tattooed come swing by um come check out my stuff and yeah and now at los angeles and soon miami as well awesome and maybe vegas too oh okay let's get it. Thanks for coming on, brother. Thank you, bro. Thanks for watching, guys. See you tomorrow.