Video Gamers Podcast - Gamers, Ink. - Committing Fandom to Flesh (Bonus Episode) | Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Gaming host John is diving skin-deep into nerd culture! In this special episode, we talk with tattoo artist Cortland (Double Blade Project, Phoenix AZ), a specialist in video game and anime-inspired ink. From tattooing beloved gaming icons to capturing someone's favorite anime moment forever, Cortland shares what it’s like to bring fan passion to life one needle at a time. Your weekly hit of video game culture, fan obsession, and behind-the-scenes creativity—from the Video Gamers Podcast. FOLLOW CORTLAND: Cortland's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cortland_ink/ Double Blade Project Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/double.blade.project/ Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Ol’ Jake, and Gaius Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay, flights on Air Canada. How about Prague? Ooh, Paris. Those gardens. Gardens. Um, Amsterdam. Tulip Festival. I see your festival and raise you a carnival in Venice. Or Bermuda has carnaval. Ooh, colorful. You want colorful. Thailand. Lantern Festival. Boom. Book it. Um, how did we get to Thailand from Prague?

Oh, right. Prague. Oh, boy. Choose from a world of destinations. If you can. Air Canada. Nice travels. To support sustainable food production, BHP is building one of the world's largest hot-ash mines in Canada.

Essential resources responsibly produced. It's happening now at BHP, a future resources company. Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. Now, we all love to show off our passion for gaming, anime, and everything nerdy, but some folks take that love to the next level, with ink. That's right! Today, we're diving headfirst into the world of nerdy tattoos. From full sleeves of Final Fantasy summons, to a tiny triforce tucked behind the ear,

we're talking the art, the fandom, and the permanent dedication it takes to wear your nerd flag literally on your sleeve. But before we start judging which fandoms look the best in Inc. Some introductions are in order. I am your host, John. And joining me, he's the talent who commits people's passions permanently to flesh. And I can speak from experience. It's Cortland with Double Blade Project in Phoenix, Arizona. Cortland. How you doing tonight, man? Good, man

How are you? I'm very good. So for the listeners The Cortland's actually already done a tattoo on me I'm a big Warhammer 40,000 fan and he tattooed like quite possibly the coolest looking Tyrande Lictor I've ever seen on my rib cage. He made it a super fun painless process and it turned out he's a really fun guy to talk to. So thank you for that right off the bat, man. It was super fun, dude. Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you. Yeah. So what was the first nerdy tattoo you ever did? Like, how did you, how did it feel putting somebody's passion on them for the first time in ink? That's, that was actually being my wife. I got to tattoo her for the first time and she got a Vonitas from the, I believe it's called the curious case of Vonitas. I could be wrong about that, but it's Vonitas us which is an animation really likes So I got to do that. That was basically the first like Anime tattoo I got to do coming back. So that was really really cool

What were you doing up until that point? So actually like when you say it was like your your wife was this like a first date kind of thing? You're like, hey, I've got a crazy idea. Let's kind of thing you're like hey I've got a crazy idea let's solidify this so we weren't married at the time but I had just started tattooing so I had just come back to tattooing and she I needed somebody to practice on and she was like hey tattoo me and I was like yeah absolutely and I was like give me a list of things that you might want yeah basically like kind of the guinea pig you know but it was a lot of fun and she gave me a bunch of options

and, but she like really wanted this Vani to a statue. And I was like, yeah, absolutely we can do that. So it was fun. It was a panel and yeah, got to do that. First time coming back. How did it turn out? If you don't mind me asking. You know, I actually turned out pretty good.

I experimented a bit, you know, coming back, back I was rusty so it wasn't really like second nature at like in the moment, but everything started coming back I'm like, oh, yeah. Okay. I can't remember how things go So it didn't turn out too bad. It was actually I was pretty proud of it To today's standard I say it still holds up. I mean, it's okay, you know, it's not bad. That's saying something. I sang your praises, you know, to your face when I was at your shop a couple of weeks ago. But for anybody who's checking Courtland out for the first time, it is absolutely top tier art. I have been a tattoo collector for going on 30 years at this point. I have been a tattoo collector for going on 30 years at this point. And my gosh, it is just gorgeous art. Absolutely gorgeous art. The fact that we have somebody like you in the arts

community who's dedicating their craft to like gaming and anime and sort of nerddom otaku culture is incredible, man. But I mean, that kind of begs the question, what's your own origin story? You mentioned getting back into tattooing. How did you get into tattooing to begin with and what made you choose to focus on sort of this niche of tattooing? So I got into tattooing back in 2014

and I did it till about 2016. I was living in Prescott at the time, which is my hometown. And I was pretty much just sort of on my own. I had started in a little shop in PV, and then I moved around a bunch. I went to a few other shops during those two years. And I didn't really think of anime, I loved anime. I love the 90s stuff. I'm a 90s kid. So, you know, I grew up around it,

my style definitely reflected it. But living in a small town trying to tattoo and make a career out of it was challenging, especially since I didn't really know what I was doing. So I quit just out of frustration, essentially, and went back to school, got some certs and stuff like that, started programming, got a desk job, and that's why I moved here to Phoenix. And now, so I did that. And during that time, I met my now wife, Bunny, who wanted to start a sticker business and was like, Hey, can you draw? Like, do you know how to do any of this stuff? And I was like, I used to draw, I used to tattoo a little bit, and she's basically convinced me to

try again. So that's basically what happened. And so I bought a machine, started practicing on some fake skin. She got into it started trying to show her kind of what I knew even though at the time I was not confident I didn't know what I was doing either really kind of figuring it out together. And then eventually, yeah, she's like, you know, make a decision you either, you know, I had to make a decision to tattoo or work my full time desk job, which I was doing during the week and then tattooing on the weekends.

So it was one of those things where I was like, okay, at a certain point, I can't just have do one, I have to figure out a way to put myself all into one or all into the others. So I took the leap and you know, that's kind of where we're at right now. I appreciate the it's it's very tempting to use certain expletive words in that. But yeah, you can't you can't half but it's better to full but one thing than half. Yeah, okay. You caught that. That was very good. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, man.

And so I'm curious, you know, you've went through two different phases of your tattoo career. Have you noticed like a quantum leap in your own skill level between phase A and phase B? Because you mentioned like coming into phase B you weren't like terribly confident and like bro I mean yeah yeah it is impeccable art I'm saying that without any bit of hyperbole like again I've got lots of tattoos and re tattoos note to the audience get it done right the first time buy nicer buy twice right but it is it is it looks like a like a sticker or something. It looks like somebody like traced art onto my body like the level of detail is incredible

and it healed very well too, man. So I mean, I'm curious to hear your own experience from phase one to phase two. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that, man. I definitely do feel that when I first started during those two years, it was a lot of experimenting and a lot of messing up and trying and figuring things out. I didn't have a traditional apprenticeship, and I didn't have any fake skin.

I didn't even know fake skin was a thing. So I basically just had to figure it out on real people, which was at the time, like scary, but also like I didn't have a choice. The nice thing coming back, I definitely feel like now that I'm definitely older, I can my perspective has changed, especially when it comes to what is possible. And obviously, you look at Instagram and things like this, there's a lot of amazing work being done. So I definitely have inspiration to look at,

which before I kind of shied away from, cause I was like, I'm gonna do my own thing. But realistically, I mean, looking at other people's work is like, seeing what is possible is definitely inspiring. I would say, yeah, my skill level has definitely increased. There are things that I think about now that I would have never thought about then.

Just tech on a technical level, and also convenience level, like the way that I set up my stuff is for my own benefit and for the client's benefit. And I never thought of it that way. Little things like that. But yes, I would say, my overall ability has definitely improved. And especially over the last year since coming back, I mean, I learned some new tricks. And I'm constantly like, okay, how do I do this? And what is it? How is that? You know, what's what's what things can I do to just make the experience better, not only for myself, but for the client? And what's the best result that I can get every single time? I found consistency is definitely like, kind of my mantra my mantra like if I can be consistent You know good things will happen and my work will just get better

And how did you come to focus on anime and video game? You know otaku type stuff specifically? Yes, okay, so my wife Is huge anime fan same with myself.. However, I up into that point, I like, I watched a lot of movies, but I didn't like dive into a lot of series. I did watch some series, right? Some Dragon Ball here and there. Attack on Titan, a few other things. But I was really into movies. So she was like, you got to watch this, you got to watch this, you got to check this out. Like, okay, okay. So at a certain point, and I always played video games,

love video games, Japanese culture in general. But she really was the doorway for me to try it out. And to be like, do this is the most fun I've had. And not only that, but my art before was already reflective of anime and sort of, kind of that style, generally speaking. So it was just a great excuse to kind of learn more about that and get to do it

and just have a lot of fun with it. Yeah. Yeah, I gotta say it is admirable what you've done. You mentioned that you went to school for programming and you ended up reaching this sort of like fork in the road with your life and your career where you're like, do I continue to divide my attention and not really be great at either of these things or do I choose one? Now I gotta say, pragmatically, most people would say that the programming career would have been the much safer choice. Sure. But it is so awesome, man, that you had this passion for Japanese culture and anime and

gaming and you double down on it man and you know it is a rare thing to show early success like you have in the arts in general but just the guts that the guts and the gusto it takes to go down that hole to begin with man that's a that's a special kind of person. Thank you. No I appreciate that man. I don't really think of it but I appreciate appreciate you saying that. That's yeah, you're right. I mean, video games, anime, I mean that stuff's way, don't get me wrong, programming is fun,

but sitting in an office- No, it's not, it's terrible. Well, okay, look, solving puzzles is fun, at least for me, but having to work a nine to five in an office and basically being forced to stay there and, you know, have these, you know, do these sorts of things. It was fine, but I knew it wasn't sustainable. I felt like and obviously I'd much rather watch anime play video games and surround myself by that. And not only that, but get to meet people who are also into that stuff and get to talk to them. It's much more fun, you know. So, you know, you've obviously developed your whole business is centered around this type of art.

How do you go about collaborating with your clients to turn a game or, you know, an anime moment or whatever into something truly original and wearable? How does that collaboration process usually work for you? That's a good question. Honestly, most of the time, at least at this point, people kind of get a sense of what I do and what my style is like. So it's nice when people come to me

and they ask for something, they have kind of an idea of a direction that I can go as well. So somebody tried to open the door. Anyway, sorry. Yes, what was I saying? We were talking about how you collaborate with clients, I am son. Yeah. Yeah, so So clients will come and they kind of have an idea of what they want to do

And most of the time not all the time definitely they'll come with something that I know and I'm like, you know It's it would be cool. Let's say they want a character But if I know the show or know the game, I can kind of put some little nods that like true fans will know, which is really fun. That's like my favorite part. I don't get to do that all the time, but if I get an opportunity, definitely. Most of the time I will come up with a design

and just show it to the person. And if they're into it, it's game on. If they're not, it's okay. If there's little changes or minor tweaks, I absolutely don't mind doing that. If they don't like it at all, that's also okay. I try my best to come up with something original and special for them, unless they're very specific

and they're like, I want exactly this, no changes whatsoever, which also is fine. I do try to put my own flavorant if I can. But it's not like a requirement. I'm not, you know, I, I try not to tattoo other people's stuff that's like if there's their original design, I don't touch it. But I will do my own thing with it, which you know, I do like to do. But yeah, the collaboration, most of the time they have questions and I'm happy to answer. And it's usually pretty smooth. I don't really have too many clients that

are hard to work with sometimes. But generally speaking, everybody's pretty chill. And they're like, yeah, they just want the fandom. Yeah, you beat me to the punch there. Again somebody I've had lots of tattoos and lots of different tattoo artists that I've worked with in the past and I think that when you are getting sort of an you know an abstract concept like hey you know I want a skull or a rose or an eagle or a Sailor Jerry style tattoo or something, there's a degree of interpretation that is sort of permissible and or expected and even wanted a lot of the times.

Like I've had artists that I've worked with where I'm like, hey, you're the artist, these are some things I like, what would be cool? And like kind of have at it. I get the feeling and maybe it's not correct But I love your opinion on this that you're probably your typical person who's getting like fandom Tattooed might be a lot more specific and less forgiving about the design then uh

Then something else because I think you know, it's, it's not just like a concept, like there's a very clear representation of what they're looking to get tattooed. Yes, no, you're, yeah, go ahead. No, I was, go ahead, I was gonna ask if you've had any challenges with that specifically. Yeah, that's actually a good question. I would say my sort of take is if I if somebody comes to me with a specific

character or say a specific series in the end and they want you know, it's very they want the logo or they want the you know, this that or the other. Yes, obviously, I'm going to try and respect and stay true to what is already there because that's the reason they're getting it. On the flip side of that, I have a usually not all the time, but I will try and throw in some of my own kind of flavor that like accents or, you know, kind of just goes along with what it is that they're getting. If it's a series or something like that. What kind of series is it? Is it aggressive? Is it like bad at, you know, like, is it Demon Slayer? Is it solo leveling? Or is it something like Cardcaptor Sakura where it's like cutesy?

And you know, like, I'll try and do my own thing with it. And most of the time people are pretty perceptive because they want to not only get the fandom, but they also want it to be unique to them, which I think is really cool. That's kind of where I exploit my own sort of creativity, I guess, and throw in my own flavor. I would say that some people are very picky. They know what they want, and that that's it. And, you know, they kind of just, you know, strong arm you into just doing what what it is they want, which is, you know, which is fine. I always try to make a suggestion like, hey, like we can definitely do this. I don't mind. It's your tattoo, but at the same time, it would be cool

if we maybe added a little bit of this flavor or maybe we tried and like did this. And sometimes they're open and sometimes they're not, but overall I think most people are pretty easy to work with. You know, I've had a couple run-ins. Sorry, I have to ask, in those cases where you're taking a bit more creative liberty,

do you come to the table with A and B, where one's more like, hey, this is kind of the Portland version, but if you want the more conservative one, we've got this. Sure, sure, I have done that in the past. I've created two versions, one with my own sort of flavor on it, and then that I would really enjoy doing and then one that I kind of know that they would just say

yes to. Just to, you know, just to have those options available. Yes, I've definitely done that. And more times than not, they do kind of like the extra flavor only because again, it does feel a little different maybe. And I try to look at the person you know, a little bit I don't want to know their life story or anything like that. But you know, are they like, you know, like what what what kind of person are they sort of so I can get a sense like, okay, well, you know, I want to go like masculine with this and like kind of hard, you know, and I don't wanna, I don't wanna soften the edges at all. I wanna keep it like aggressive.

So I'll like try and bake that into the design as best I can. Yeah, and so again, for the listeners out there, there's content on Instagram and TikTok and stuff like that. You can see see from my actual session with Cortland doing the tattoo on me. So he tattooed a Lictor from the Tyrande race in Warhammer 40,000 and there is a specific look that is associated with Warhammer.

And I asked Cortland to create a unique piece of art for me too, which he was more than happy to do. And when I got there, I was, I mean, it is absolutely spot on nailed for my tastes. I don't know how you're able to interpret that, or if there was an interpretation process, or if you're just rolling the dice or whatever but you nailed it man. I mean they are kind of like evil chaotic looking characters anyways but you totally plus that up man. I mean it looks

awesome and unique. There's nobody else in the world with my tattoo and I'm like I'm hooked. You're my guy going forward so I hope we continue to get along. Yeah, man. I have to ask some maybe controversial questions though, man. So having worked in both the normal tattoo realm and the nerd otaku sort of realm, have you experienced a higher incidence of like hygiene problems or anything like that? That's a funny question. Anybody who's been to a comic con knows what I'm talking about. Honestly, like, I mean, not really.

I mean, there's been a couple cases where it's like, okay, yeah, like that session was a little rough, maybe because I was by their feet or something. But generally, people are pretty respectful. They know like, if they're going to come get tattooed, they should probably shower and bathe beforehand. Not happens every time. But I would say it's not as like, it's not as obvious as you might think. You know, you get all kinds of people in here and a lot of people like anime and video games. So, you know, you never know who's gonna come in. Yeah, and it certainly seems like nerd and anime tattoos

and culture in general is kind of becoming more prevalent. You know, we see it in the movies all the time. A lot of mainstream media seems to be leaning heavily on those properties and the the fandom follows that the tattoos follow. What are some green light habits for a customer? Like somebody walks in and you're like ah green light for this guy. Oh man that's a good question. I would say for me personally at least if They give me a direction but don't

But just say do what you want. They don't necessarily Have like us. They're not locking me in a box in terms of stylistically or anything like that It's it's like this is what I want Do the cool do the cool thing like make it as cool as you can. That's definitely a green flag. If they don't mention budget, that's also a green flag. I know that seems kind of maybe a little funky, but like realistically, yeah, like if they're getting

a tattoo, they probably know it's gonna cost money and they're not really concerned about the costs as long as it looks good and it's what they want. Totally a green flag. I mean, other than that, I mean, if you're nice and polite, yeah, give me time to work as well. Don't bug me the next day expecting to see something because I'm probably not gonna have it for you,

that sort of thing. Yeah, in general, the etiquette that I found is like, you should expect to see the art probably the day you show up. Like that, that that's typically the case. And I have to say, just speaking for an advocate for all the tattoo artists out there, and this goes a lot of ways, this, this goes for a lot of industries, but And this goes a lot of ways this this goes for a lot of industries, but it is really challenging for me when I hear somebody say as one of their priorities that

They want to know like the cost like that. They're really beholden to a car or I should say everyone should be price-conscious You're right. Everyone should know what their budget is sure but when When they're looking for a tattoo specifically cheaply now, you're right. Everyone should know what their budget is. Sure. But when, uh, when they're looking for a tattoo specifically cheaply, like guy, this is something you're going to be wearing on your body for the rest of your life. And like choose the right artist and then figure out how to afford it Yes, like I I have I have had a lot of cover-up and a lot of blackout at this point You know just getting rid of cheapy Impulsive decision, so please everyone out there learn a lesson from from young Johnny here

That's a good point. I mean no I mean I mean, I've gotten, you know, I've, I've gotten off the cuff tattoos. I think, you know, it, it's not uncommon. But I would say, yeah, if you research the artists, and you know, like, hey, I really want to get a piece by this person, you know, I've seen the work, or maybe I know them a little bit. It's definitely worth saving. And if the artist is cool, you know, they'll work with you if you have a budget, you know, if you're like, Hey, I only got like, you know, 300 bucks to spend today. And I want like a half sleeve.

Well, if you want half sleeve, it's going to cost more than 300 bucks, but we can work within your budget, maybe get some of the line work done, you know, what have you. So, you know, find an artist who's willing to work with you if you are on a budget. But take your time, you know, like you just said, it does, it is on your body forever. And, you know, if you want it, you know, good, good tattoos aren't cheap and cheap tattoos aren't good. Boom. Yeah, well said. Hey, so I want to, this is a gaming podcast. So we always like to spend some time talking about getting What are you playing these days? So actually so I just saw that they dropped oblivion remaster. Yes

I'm like, okay, like that was totally unexpected. I like I saw that they released like a little teaser yesterday and they were like tomorrow and they had like the, you know, the, the, the shadow drop, man. I love it. Yeah. I have no idea. They were actually dropping the date, the thing. So I was like super stoked about it.

I haven't played it yet. So I am going to probably download it tonight. I am excited about that. In recent times in the last like week or so, I'm replaying Death Stranding just because the second one's coming out and I am excited to try that one out. It's one of the better looking trailers I've ever seen. I mean it's 12 minutes long or whatever but it looks gorgeous. I mean it's definitely wild like but you know it's not for everybody but hey, it's it's it's it's definitely wild like but you know, it's not for everybody

But hey, I'm I does it for me. It's scratches an itch and I enjoy it Nice. Do you do you find yourself favoring one type of game over another these days? Do you have like kind of a go-to genre or you all over the place? Yes, I do like over the place. Yes, I do like. So I had, I went through a phase where I you know, I pretty much played first person shooters, Halo, Call of Duty, a little bit of Destiny, some Overwatch back in the day. Nowadays, I definitely like I sunk it into the single player stuff. I'll play souls sometimes. I got my wife into Bloodborne. Yeah, I know. I think it into the single player stuff. I'll play souls sometimes. I got my wife into Bloodborne. Yeah, I know.

I think it's interesting. I think it's interesting. Maybe we can talk about that later if you want of why you're not into souls, but I got my wife into Bloodborne. So she's been enjoying that a bit. It's stressful for her. So, you know, only small bites at a time.

I definitely like, I'm kind of into more not stimulators, but I enjoy the I like to see how they represent these sort of like almost mundane kind of activities in a like, are you talking about like pressure washer simulator and that kind of thing? Kind of. I'm not like in a pressure washer simulator, but I played recently. I tried, what is it called? Like mechanic simulator where you're like taking apart cars and you're like doing these like, you know, like these maintenance things on vehicles and stuff. It's actually kind of fun.

It's not like I'm not I wouldn't like recommend it to play but it is fun in the sense that it's like, okay, they made a game out of this. Like, that's kind of interesting. I definitely like puzzly kind of games at least right now. Humanity, I play sometimes with my wife. That's that's a fun one. play sometimes with my wife. That's that's a fun one. I'm waiting for. I'm waiting for it's not really a puzzling game kind of I'm waiting for re animal and yes yes yeah animals like one of my absolute like it's one of my two most anticipated games this year man there's me too man expedition 33 drops this week. It'll be a little later by the time this episode comes out, but I'm absolutely stoked for that

I got game of the year on that one and then reanimal. Oh man. That looks awesome, dude Reanimal man, that one looks good and baby steps looks fun. It looks Yeah, it looks cool. And then I mean real the last one is Yeah, it looks cool. And then I mean real the last one is This one called hell is us. It's I believe like a third-person action game It I don't really know much about it. I do like action games action games are like by far one of my favorite genres like I'll play Metal Gear Rising and Bayonetta and like You know Metal Gear Rising and Bayonetta and like, you know, Stellar Blade, if my wife will let me like, I'll play, I'll play those games.

If I can, those are really fun. Just like pure action. Bayonetta gets the pass, but not Stellar Blade. I haven't played Bayonetta in front of my wife, so I don't know. Probably not. I'm going to make the. But there's there's certainly an audience they're catering to. For sure. No, no no I agree but as action games like platinum does really well I definitely want to try the ninja guiding game the new one or the remaster whatever they came out with recently yeah yeah action games

are cool so I would say yes I I like I like action games but there's a fine line between action game like third-person action game and Souls like so for instance. I just got done playing ghosts of Tsushima Awesome game awesome. Awesome game not quite top 10 for me, but awesome game and there's a gradual Difficulty enhancement you never feel absolutely out of your limits. And then in our Discord, which at some point, if you ever wanna hop on there, it's an awesome Discord. You got like a thousand people on there

and it's super like a thousand people on there and no moderator, like there's no drama. It's just people talking games. But a game that was recommended to me on the indie thread and there was this game called another crabs treasure. Have you ever heard of that? I have not now. So it is it is like if Pixar made finding Nemo into a souls like game, basically, okay, it's super

into a souls like game, basically. Okay. Super cutesy animation, but really funny, really funny dialogue. You know, it's like really tongue in cheek kind of dad humor dialogue, but like honestly funny and we started playing it and playing it and it is definitely a souls like man. It is was like shockingly hard for what you're looking at. And I got through like two bosses and I sat down, I'm like, why am I like, am I actually enjoying this? Like, why am I playing this still?

Like I didn't want to. Do you feel it's the difficulty curve of souls like games that you're just not into for generally. I I hate to grind man I okay grind. Okay, I like in goes to it's it's a fine line too Cuz like in goes to Tsushima for instance, there is like character progression like you unlock different stances and different weapon upgrades so on and so forth but like It isn't absolutely critical that you have them to be able to Okay in souls like games like Elden Ring is my biggest example

but there was like a part where you end up having to do like XP mining to be able to like can't possibly like the average person couldn't possibly advance in the game without grinding it out. And I just hate it, man. I hate it. That's that's a fair that's a fair point, I would say. I would ask you, though, what about Final Fantasy? Because we talked a little bit about Final Fantasy 10. And you do technically have to grind in that game of all time games. Me too. Love that game. But you do that. I mean, I spent time grinding in that game. How do you feel about something like that? That is a really good question. And I think the fact that the grinding in Final Fantasy 10 is in a turn based format instead of literally like, you know, did you play Elden Ring? I did, I did.

Okay, Millenia, literally, I'm like, you know, like tensing up when I'm playing it and then I'm, oh man, I almost got her and then I died again and then he died. Bro, I don't know how to, like I probably died 30 or 40 times, more playing fighting Millennium again I don't have that skill set for it. But like it with a Turn base game you can like kind of space it out and strategize and it's not just like fast twitch adrenaline

Which I again, I understand the appeal is just not for me man Understand no, I just like turn bases and for everybody. I totally get no I actually, I would actually rather grind probably in a turn based game or at least one that's dynamic enough. Not every turn based game is necessarily fun or dynamic but you know, they're grinding in those kinds of games, I can definitely see it being a little bit more like pleasurable. Because grinding in of games, I can definitely see it being a little bit more like pleasurable. Because grinding in Souls games, I mean, I maybe I'm maybe this is a hot take, and I'm the outlier, but I didn't hear it. I didn't think Elden Ring was really like, as hyped as it could as people made it out to be I liked the game but

You're right. I mean It feels a little disorganized and the week just because of the open world aspect of the game. I still like it I think it's fun, but it's not as I don't think the hype is as Big as it should be for it I think there are other Souls games that I would much rather play than Elden Ring, to be honest with you. And as somebody who doesn't like Souls-like games, it's like, it's the ultimate kind of like expression of it.

And I definitely, and I didn't even really care for it as much as I did say so, you know You know or you know, even sec you know, I love sec girl, but regardless. Yeah, I totally get your point. I think it's fair. Yeah Yeah I'm really curious. Is your wife a pretty hardcore gamer? You know, I wouldn't say she's hardcore She's definitely dabbles.bles I the biggest issue with with her and trying to play video games, at least in the past has been the joysticks having to manipulate in the third person view or even a first person view, having to my wife's camera and pointed things and then try

and like do stuff and like move at the same time. It just doesn't work. So we'll play a lot of like side scroller stuff. Cuphead was one of like our big favorites. We also did a odd was it Abe's odd Odyssey, Abe's? Yeah, it's odd world odd world. I know which one you're talking about. You know which one I'm talking about? Okay, yeah, that was- It's like a kind of old western-y. Kind of, yeah, so yeah. It's like weird or like apocalyptic a little bit. It's a side-scroller though. It's like, it's fun, man.

Mechanically, it's like a super fun game. And it's like a little slower pace. You do have to have some quick reaction times. But generally speaking, it's not so like, you know, it's not like playing Castlevania or something like that a little but not really, right? Yeah, fair. Your wife actually, if you don't mind the segue here, this is a this is an interesting story. So your wife, at the time you met her was trying

to get like a sticker company off the ground. Yes. And you know, you she encouraged you to get back into tattooing. She kind of volunteered to be your canvas at one point. But she has since gotten into tattooing, which is a crazy thing for me to wrap my head around. I grew up on comic books, and when I was growing up, there was this magazine called Wizard Magazine. I don't know if you ever heard about it, but it was like a magazine that did comic book news, and then they also like gave comic book values. Like they would tell you how cool the number one blah was worth sure but they did these contests where if you sent in a piece of original art they would like mail you a prize and i was like obsessed with it i used to send them stuff all the time but my art sucks man it was never any good and uh and so i can't imagine going from like a position where I'm like not at all an artist to somebody who is making money permanently tattooing art and she's awesome dude I looked at her work it's awesome she's got fantastic tattoos you guys do a lot of like prints and stuff here's like one that you

gave me oh yeah right yeah but uh your prints look great and stuff. How did she how did she develop that skill man? So when I so when I got my machine and I started practicing on fake skin, she was like curious obviously right she was curious about it and wanted to try and see what it was like. But I did force her, I didn't force her, but I basically strongly encouraged her to draw for months before doing anything. Right? Like I was like, dude, you got to draw before you tattoo anything. I still let her play a little bit, like just to see how you know how she liked it on the fake skin, of course. But during that time, she was drawing pretty consistently, pretty constantly.

And I was, I even now she'll ask me for advice on her designs and stuff like that. She's not necessarily, art isn't necessarily like her thing, but she really enjoys it. And she got really good at it really quick because I basically made her, like I was like, and she's very competitive. So every time I do something, she was like, okay, I have to do that. Like I gotta be that good or better. And I'm going to be better.

Like she would always tell me that. So I was like, okay. Like- Double blade. Yes, exactly. So she has like a motivation to like, in anything she does really, I mean, she has motivation to not only do it well,

but be better at it than pretty much anybody else. So there was, you know, she has that drive. I would say in terms of getting into tattooing, it was definitely a scary sort of like for her, it definitely was a scary thing because again, she wasn't experienced in art generally speaking, she had a little experience, but not much, right? And so I would tell her like,

okay, look, if you if you practice this, just on fake skin on pencil paper on the iPad, or whatever, you'll get to know it. And the more you practice it, the better you get to know it. And then when you get to the skin, it's like, okay, now I can just worry about the technicals. I don't have to think so hard about making this design look good as long as shading and all of this stuff is all technical. And she's into technical stuff.

So she jumps on it pretty quickly. Most people don't progress quickly in that way. She's kind of an exception, at least the people that I've worked with in the past and who I've seen. There are exceptions. And I would say that from somebody who basically went from nothing to doing what she does, she is definitely an exception. Yeah, I gotta say, man, I've kind of been adjacent to people in the arts community for a while. And I don't, I can't think of another person who's done what she's done, who went from no art to permanently committing art

into people's flesh. That's a truly unique thing. And then again, it's not like she's just an artist now, somebody who took up painting as a hobby. Like I have to imagine there is an incredible amount of pressure and Oh gosh You're really putting yourself out there like hey man, like how do you like this, you know, you kind of there's no eraser for this No, I mean no, you're you're absolutely right. There is a sense of pressure

I mean and she she's still I feel she'll express to me that, you know, if she takes on a project and it's a little out of her depth, I help her, you know, I definitely try to have her back. And there's other projects where it's like, she knows exactly what's going on. She's learned so much in this past, like, I think, three, four years almost. And it's like, it's amazing. But yeah, it's definitely like she still feels the pressure. And I mean, I do too. Sometimes for sure, I think everybody does. But for someone like her, it's, I almost take it for granted because I'm the one who's basically helped her and kind of shown her the ropes. So I've seen her progress but Realistically, yeah, it's crazy how much she's been able to do in such a short period of time just by sheer like

It's pretty pretty it's incredible, man It's incredible and again the fact that you guys have built this Business around such a niche and just absolutely knocked it out of the park, man. I if I remember correctly, you guys have been in business for about two years, something like that. Yeah, actually, we just had our one year. One year. We're in our second year now. Yeah. Yeah. In terms of opening the shop. Yeah, in terms of opening the shop the fact that you guys have been able to to develop a Solvent business that has survived its first year, which the grand majority of businesses fail in their first year and to do it around Passion and to do it with such integrity and quality and and you guys are just awesome people man. It is

So cool. So refreshing to hear dude I I am stoked for your success and I think that you are going to get lots and lots more you're gonna you guys are gonna be a very in-demand shop you're crazy dude thank you I appreciate that a lot and that's yeah that's so cool hey dude so I don't know if you're open to this but we've got a couple of questions from our listener community if you don't mind. Yeah, yeah. So Brett from our discord asks, what fandoms do you love the most? And do those ever influence the designs that you're most excited to create? That's a good question. Yeah, I definitely have favorites,

at least in recent memory. So my wife got me a Berserk on a manga and I've been reading that and holy shit, man. Like that, it definitely deserves the hype that it gets. I know that like a lot of people talk about Berserk and they get the Berserk stuff, but that series is some of the most amazing art and like just overall vibe that I've come across in terms of just brooding, like brutal, like, you know, manga, like it's super sick. On the flip side, I'm a huge Initial D fan. I love Initial D. I love cars generally,

in driving, so it goes hand in hand. Artistically, though, Initial D has its 90s charm. I would definitely say that my style doesn't really go in with the Init D stuff. But I love like the sort of rawness of initial Ds like art style. And other than that, I mean, I mean, you have movies like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, the Studio Ghibli stuff. Yeah, icons that have literally bred entire subgenres. Yeah. I mean, those sorts of things, I mean are unbelievably cool influence on my work for sure Gundam as well. I think that they do incredibly cool like They make robots look so good. Like it's it's amazing what they so cool man

It's going from the 70s to now like it's crazy Yeah I'm trying to I'm trying to talk the other the other hosts into doing a like a Japan field trip at some point My my best friend CJ and I got to do that last year and oh my gosh Dude, it is so cool. You like you see all the normal Gundam gun plus stuff But then all of the offshoots that that came from it. It's so cool. So cool No, it's great. it's crazy what the community does with that intellectual, with that IP.

It's insane. Yeah, I agree. So this is a John question, but you mentioned you're really into cars and stuff. If you could pick one vehicle from fiction, what would be your daily driver? Oh man, from fiction what what would be your what would be your daily driver oh man from fiction yeah okay look it's it is the Batmobile for me Batmobile is sick dude Batmobile is sick you know I love Blade Runner. I mean, it's not reasonable, but like the the the runners in Blade Runner are just iconic.

Like they're so cool. Like they kind of like I mean, look, the main of Lorian is cool and all. Don't get me wrong. But like, yeah, the vehicles in Blade Runner, even the original Blade Runner, I love. I would take Deckard's car, Deckard's car for sure. And even Kay's car from the new one I would take. As a daily driver, I don't know how practical it might be. His like cruiser. Yeah, I could say, yeah, parking. If I could fly it, you know, and that's like completely feasible and reasonable to do in today's age. Yeah, sure. I would definitely take I would definitely take a case car and like, you know, fly it around and stuff like that.

Yeah. As I'm saying it, there's like all kinds of like I open up a can of words. Well, Star Wars, man, there's something that I go, oh, Star Wars. But dude, Star Trek, like you could like I'm not even a big Star Trek guy. But like, I respect it but like I mean those are the most hyper capable things Right, right. I mean realistically though from fiction like an actual car. I mean Man I Don't know I'm drawing a blank right now, honestly, I can't think of one. But yeah, there's there's I mean, there's a Dude talking me is a initial D

Freaking three, you know a 86 I would take that car. I would definitely take that car just for fun as a daily driver I think it would be great. That sounds awesome Next question here from ace actually. He's our indie co-host What is the most obscure tattoo that you've ever been asked to do? Obscure You know, okay, so There's this genre of tattoos called ignorant tattoos and they're popular. They're gaining popularity. Basically, it's like, ignorant, ignorant tattoos. Yeah, it's kind of in the vein of kind of like joke,

kind of like mean tattoos sort of but they're called ignorant tattoos. And basically, it could be, you know, silly little line art, but done well, usually sometimes not done well. But, um, I've been asked to do like, this wasn't an ignorant tattoo, but it does remind me of it. I did get to do, it's not super obscure, but I did get to do Spongebob and Patrick when they're like, when the guy got Spongebob and the girl got Patrick, and they're sitting up like they have like, they're like when they're sitting and their mouths are like completely open, and they're just like sitting on the ground, like that's a little bit of scare, not super obscure, but like kind of a funny request. Um, I've had people ask me for like lines

and stuff like just random lines like, Oh, I want to get like, just the straightest line you can do down the back of my calf. You know, I've been, you know, I've asked, been asked to do abstract these stuff like that. But yeah, nothing super obscure, no like swastikas or anything like that. Oh, well, good. Like that, you know, that's a different level of stuff, but no, nothing super offensive. You know, it's, it's funny. It's funny that you even have to qualify that in the 2020s. It's funny that you even have to qualify that.

We try to stay away from like political stuff here, but I think the grand majority of people out there should agree that that's not something you should be asking your tattoo artist for. And if you are one of those 0.001% of people, you can kindly sign off from listening to this show. Absolutely, 100%. So last listener question here, what is the most common request you get? Ooh, okay, so the most common request, I get a lot of-

Sorry, this is from Lucy Moon by the way okay I get a lot of people who want to get Spirited Away stuff so Haku is very popular Haku is hard to tattoo man I've done a few now and although it can be fun it it's basically just a big tube. And it's of really long tube that you have to shade and put scales and depth and stuff. It's tough. Haku is hard, but still fun. I get asked to do a lot of Demon Slayer stuff. Rengoku from Demon Slayer is very popular. I don't really get, I get like sometimes people will ask for

just like basic roses and I don't mind doing basic roses. Roses are fine but I will say if you want a rose consider a peony instead because peonies are in my opinion just more beautiful and they're just more aesthetically pleasing to look at as tattoos because most people get roses some people get peonies but most get roses so you want to set yourself apart a little and you want to get something cool like that yeah peonies are like like the more pretty like sister of the rose okay my opinion. Okay, great, great. Love it, awesome. So thank you to the listeners

who have submitted those questions. Now these are for me. These are just this or that questions, one word answer. So which is the first thing that comes to your mind? Xbox or PlayStation? PlayStation. Mario or Sonic? Oh, Sonic.

RPG or first-person shooter? RPG Sonic is the right answer by the way Open world or linear story It depends man, no one word one word I would say I One word. I would say... I might regret this, but linear story. Ah, I have to agree with you. I have to.

It's a narrow margin, but I have to agree with you. Final Fantasy or Legend of Zelda? I mean, for me, Final Fantasy. Only because I didn't grow up with Zelda, I did grow up with Final Fantasy, so I have to give it to them. But I love both. That's a hard one. I love both.

PC or console? Okay. Look, I have a PC. I love it. But I would say console because it's a dedicated system and the PC is great. But it is very like I have to just I have to I have to be on the PC and my you know, I can't share the experience with anybody else like my wife or whatever I mean it just takes a hand yeah sure but I would say just as a dedicated gaming machine probably console yeah I grew up with consoles I'm gonna be a I'm a ride-or-die console guy for life. For sure. Okay. Anime edition. Sub or dub? Generally speaking. One it one word brother. First thing that comes to your mind.

Sub. Sub. Naruto or One Piece? One Piece. I never watched Naruto. Okay. keep G Billy Thank you for correcting me. I should know that but studio Ghibli or trigger All state I'll say I'll give it to Ghibli. I'll give it to Ghibli. I love Trigger's stuff, but I'll give it to Ghibli only because they have made such an impact on the industry early on. Oh, even outside of anime too, for sure. As a as a matter of fact again a bit of a segue here

But we were recently talking with the creative the narrative director of reanimal Super nice. Yeah, super cool guy And when we asked him what the inspiration behind little nightmares and then reanimal was like how they kind of came up with the feel And that the genre of that game that they were looking for he said studio Ghibli specifically spirited away was kind of the wow inspiration behind it definitely see Okay, tattoo tattoo edition here all right color or black and gray black and gray Agree anime or game tattoos

Anime or game tattoos? I would say first thing that comes to mind, but anime for sure. But man, very few people get gaming tattoos. So I'd love to do more of that. That's why I would say gaming as well But yeah, anime is fun Yeah, it's my brother It's your bread and butter and I think there's probably as you mentioned. There's kind of a bigger

Jail market for it sleeve or back piece Back fees. Yeah biggest canvas. Yeah, it's flat. I've never gotten to do one. So I'd love to be able to do one. All right. And the last ones here are just for fun. So coffee or energy drink? Coffee. Cats or dogs? Dog. I agree. Pizza or burgers? Oh, burger. For Oh burger for tacos or sushi I'm gonna say Sushi I guess yeah, okay

Love tacos. Yeah, I love it. It's hard. It's hard to let either one go Yeah, I love it. It's hard to let either one go. Sweet or salty? Salty. Ice cream or cake? Ice cream. Ramen or pho? Oh, ramen. And probably...

Yeah. What about ramen or udon? Oh... Udon's like the thicker noodles, right? Yeah. What about ramen or udon? Udon's like the thicker noodles, right? Yeah. I probably still say ramen, although I do like udon. Probably ramen. I love udon, man. Yeah, that's good.

Okay. And then french fries or onion rings? French fries, for sure. It's interesting. I think like french fries, you it's they're more consistently good but the best onion ring I would take over the best for oh man. Yeah. You know, I would I would agree with you but I I it's more likely that I will have a good French fry than a good. I totally agree with that. I say the french fry is the safe bet for sure. Yes. If you can go to a place and got the little sampler

where they give you like all the different like fried things so you can like kind of try them all with other, that's a pro move. Diners of the world, that's a pro move, do it. Yep. Cortland, the question I wanna end with here is what is one piece of advice that you could give to somebody who's looking to get their first tattoo, especially if it's like fandom related?

Ooh, that's a good question. A piece of advice I would give is research your artists for sure. Understand what you're getting into. Don't just go to a random shop and then ask for sure. Understand what you're getting into. Don't just go to a random shop and then ask for something. You can do that, but it might not be the best experience. Definitely research who you want to get your tattoo from and then save up for it. But other than that, I would say also don't,

if you find somebody, you'll probably get a better tattoo if you give them a little bit of freedom rather than locking them too close into a box. You can still be like, yeah, I'd love to have black and gray. I'd love to have this character. I'd love to have this character and love to have these elements maybe but if you lock them too harshly then You may get a less cool tattoo than if you give them a little bit of free. That's definitely something I would I Totally agree. Let the artists play to their strengths man. Let them put their own flair in there

They're gonna know what they're gonna do best and what they're gonna be happy as tattooing and ultimately I think that's gonna translate into a better tattoo for you. Couldn't agree more. Cortland, dude, thank you so much for taking the time to do this, man. I am so looking forward to my next session with you at the end of the month here, or I guess at the end of next month. I am super stoked, man.

If anybody ever frees up, let me know. I'll book it on my little booty down there dude so again this is Cortland at the double blade project tattoo in Phoenix Arizona Guys if you are in the Phoenix area I cannot recommend this shop more highly they are absolutely Amazing at what they do frankly if you are out of state or out of country, it might be worth the visit. I highly recommend checking them out. Cortland, where can people find your work and follow you?

They can hit me up on Instagram. That's where all my work is posted. I do have a TikTok as well, but I don't use it too often. So Instagram is cortland underscore inc. That's C-O-R-T-L-E- D underscore ink. Um, you can find all my work there. I post every week. Um, you know, once I do stuff, um, that's where you can find me and my booking and everything. All the information is there.

Awesome. And we will include that link in the show description for everybody. Guys, if you reach out to Cortland, make sure you tell them where you heard about us or heard about him. I should say, Cortland, you're tell him where you heard about us or heard about him I should say Cortland you're awesome, dude. You're my hero. You're my tattoo hero for sure everybody Thank you. Thank you for tuning in That's it for us today and until next time happy gaming. Thank you, man. I appreciate you

doodaloo Happy gaming. Thank you, man. I appreciate you. Toodle-loo. ["Skyward