marisa_dimattia

Theo Jak may own two of the hottest tattoo ateliers in Europe, he may work at the best body art expos around the world and get featured in various magazines, but when you sit down with him, he's still an American street punk: Hard, brash, easy with a joke and easier to call bullshit.

At the London Tattoo Convention, Theo and I kept up our ongoing argument over whether tattooing should go back to being illegal and underground. We talked about the curse of the big personality. And he schooled me on the difference between tattooer and tattooist.

Theo Jak is currently looking for a dwarf or small person to tattoo a body suit on for free.


An interview with Theo Jak starts off with a story. He doesnt wait for a question

Theo Jak: That guy we just passed by who said hello. When I just got over to Europe, in Amsterdam, I was a kid, that guy used to be a super-close friend of a guy I used to work with. He was always giving me shit. And you know, Id give a little shit back, but not too much, being just a kid. Id be working and hed be hassling me, and he'd be giving me a shit, not like friends do, but just to try & have somebody to shit on. Time passed and I eventually left due to a bunch other unrelated junkie and loser stupidity.

So I run into this guy ten years later, and Ill tell you what, I go up to him and say, Hey how are ya? and of course he has to say some shit. So I tell tell him, Ill tell you what, fucker. Youre old and fuckin sick and I aint a kid no more, Ill kick your fuckin' broken ass. And his fuckin' face fell. Now when I see him I say, Hey, howyadoin? And [nodding politely] he says Hello. [laughs]

Anyway, what can I do for ya?

Marisa DiMattia: Well, first off, knowing you from the tattoo conventions, Ive always been curious about one thing. I see there are two sides to Theo Jak, the artist with the well known and respected tattoo portfolio, and the persona of Theo Jak, where youre known beyond your work for being this gregarious, outgoing

TJ: Asshole!

MDM: No, Id call it charming. Seriously, how do you feel about this kind of popularity?

TJ: Under what circumstances?

MDM: In circumstances within the tattoo community

TJ: No, no. Lets take tattoo conventions. There is a tattoo community but its a lot more fractionalized than people think.

So, at tattoo conventions, sure, people know who I am. Sure, I capitalize on it, to the extent that hopefully I can make a cool tattoo on a really cool person and make something that satisfies us both. But being as outgoing as I am, one can also meet a lot of pricks; working in a tattoo shop for nearly twenty years Im used to pricks and can cut through their shit really quick.

Ill tell ya a story. There were some people in Milan [tattoo convention] a couple of years ago, I see them hovering around the booth, so I says to them, What are you doing over there? Come over here and talk to me. I tattooed them, we had a lot of fun. It was a really nice weekend. Eventually they admitted to me that they were afraid of approaching me because, they said Well, we heard you were, What? an asshole? Yes. "Well, weve had a nice time havent we?" That tells you more about the person who says Im an asshole than it does about me.

Sure, I can be a pain in the ass, but for the most part, I treat everyone the way I want to be treated. Why waste ones time with dumb-asses & psychic vampires when there's good experiences to be had?




MDM: The reason for me asking is, essentially, can personality be a draw for people to get tattooed?

TJ: Sure, yes. The guy I learned from said, Theo, there are two kinds of people who make it in this business and this is back before tattoo magazines and the Internet & all the TV bullshit There are those who dress funny and those that do good work, but it doesnt hurt to have a little circus in ya. And all these years later, it still holds true. Its a sort of magnetism as to why people chose to get work from one guy over another because its not just about the tattooing but the temperament that they relate to.

MDM: But you also have the work to back it up, to back up the mouth.

TJ: If you come to the studio, I tend not to be so loud. Its my place and I have more responsibility there, and when I work, I take it very seriously. Im usually fairly outgoing before Im tattooing, and in between Im more quite because I have to get focused on what Im doing, and then once Im in doing my thing, I can be a fucker again.

MDM: Lets talk about the studio because, for most of the time Ive known about you, you were on the road and for a while.

TJ: Ive been on the road so long, I am the fuckin road.

MDM: How long were you on the road?

TJ: I traveled basically for 13 years. I tried living in places before but they never quite fit. I was coming and going a lot in Scandinavia. Eventually, I returned to Stockholm, opportunity and circumstance collided, it was time to have another kind of adventure, so I opened Infamous. Its been a private studio, no advertisements whatsoever, no sign, no phonebook adds, etc. Part of the reason for that is because Im a street-shop tattooer, street-shop educated, trained, experienced.

When I was a kid, you walked into a tattoo shop and you were somewhere else. You didnt know how to behave but you knew you had to behave. I always envisioned opening a street shop but, when the time came, I didnt like what happened to them. They became like nail salons, or too freaky, or too sterile, or a TV version of whats interesting, and it really bummed me out. No magic. No mystery. Wheres the unknown? So by personal necessity I had to open a private studio. And its worked really well. Most of my customers still come from abroad. Swedens actually the country where Im the least well known, which is interesting but I also spent more time in other parts of Europe: Germany, Holland, Italy, and Spain.

MDM: When did you open the private studio?

TJ: November 22nd of two years ago. Im no good with linear time.

MDM: But recently you did open your own street shop as well?

TJ: Yes. The place in front of the studio closed, so I finally got a street shop as well. The reason is, even though Im teaching somebody [to tattoo], I really value my time alone; my private studio is quite small, and while there was room, I wanted everyone outta my fuckin hair [laughs]. With the street shop, she [his apprentice] now gets more out of it because she learns how to deal with the public in a way that I had to. But also, I also wanted to make the street shop a proper street shop. It still had to have some of that mystery. Its got a fucking counter, flash on the wall. There are some niceties about it. I wouldnt go as far as saying that my place is extravagant but it is definitely unique. Its also taken twenty years of development in my own personal interests, aesthetic interests, to turn it into this physical space. And its quite nice. Now I have the best of both worlds. I have my own studio for myself and one for my workers, Rana and Jenny, who are working really hard and learning, installing good tattoos.

MDM: What is it that makes it magical?

TJ: I made it the way I wanted it, like a antiquary. Its like an old book store, a curio shop, and an old wax museum. Thats what I loved when I was a kid. If I can describe it in any way, put all those together and add them to a 1940s funeral parlor and then you got Infamous Studio.

MDM: You dont have any fetuses in jars, do ya?

TJ: If I had one, Id put it in a jar! On that note; I've got a client, it's her first tattoo and she's getting a dragon on her back down to her thigh and sits perfectly. Im thinking of her now because, while we were last tattooing, she looked over at my altar, sees this 400 year old skull on it and she asks, Is that a real skull? Of course, who wants a plastic skull? So she asks how I got it and I said, Well, when youre interested in things, they show up. Five minutes later; the piercers walk in with a tin robot and said, Hey, we got a robot for ya! I turn to her and say, Thats how I get my skulls. [laughs]

MDM: Excellent. Ok, tell me, how would you describe your tattoo style?

TJ: I couldnt. I still think of the fundamentals: lines, shading, color. I think that having a flexibility of aesthetic and diversity of skill is extremely important to be a professional tattooer. A lot of younger people now are focused on a style, and sure thats good to a point, but its also extremely limiting.

MDM: Thats a very street shop mentality.

TJ: Yeah, absolutely, but these days, theres a fine line between custom and classic. That line is really blurred.

MDM: Well, then what do you think of the painterly style of tattooing or tattooists having art gallery shows?

TJ: I think its fuckin pretentious as shit. [laughs] Sure I've participated in a few and will again, but I still think it's pretentious.

MDM: You knew I was gonna ask you about it.

TJ: I dont even call myself a tattoo artist or a tattooist. Im a tattooer.

MDM: Whats the difference?

TJ: Just listen to the words. Tattooer: carpenter, plumber, truck driver, worker. Artist: dentist, somnambulist ok, that means sleepwalker. But you get the point. I read, like a lot of people, George Burchetts Memoirs of a Tattooist. He was a cool guy. This was back in the '30s and '40s, tattooing had a reputation. This is where you and I disagree about where tattooing is going. He wanted it to be legitimized in mainstream society. But the reason it attracts all of us is the fact that it has a vein of antisocial behavior. You dont have to be involved in violence, drugs, robbery, crime and all that but there are very few people who get tattooed in the West that dont have some attraction to the idea of these things. And thats normal. If I tell you not to look behind that door, youre gonna wanna know what the fuck is behind that door. Tattooing is no different. Now its just become safer for people to step across that line, associate themselves with those things without the risk.

I dont have a need to be legitimized. I think its brilliant that there are a lot of people who are developing their creative skills and bringing new ideas into tattooing, but people also forget that skin is a medium with limited parameters and just because it looks beautiful now, doesnt mean its going to look beautiful later. And its not a fixed medium. It continues to change and alter over time. I know Im speaking the obvious but, your skin is your biggest organ, so if you live like shit, you eat like shit, you're gonna feel like shit and whatever is in your skin is gonna look like shit. And I think its one thing that many tattooists are not taking into account no matter how tremendously skilled they are in drawing and technique; they have to keep these things in mind.



MDM: I agree. But I want to go back to our disagreement over the mainstreaming of tattoo; Im more about finding a happy medium in keeping some of tattoos soul but also making it safer, making it legal

TJ: This is based on our argument when I said that I wish tattooing would go back to being illegal.

MDM: Yes, well, youre talking to a lawyer here.

TJ: Then I would call you if I got arrested! [laughs]

MDM: Ok, heres what I want to know: What would Theo Jaks perfect tattoo world be like? No reality tattoo TV, for example?

TJ: Listen, I grew up on punk rock. If its on TV, its not punk rock. Punk rock is not a sound or a look, its an attitude. When I started tattooing, there were none of these magazines, web sites, and hoopla around tattooing. I remember the day when people starting asking me for my fuckin' autograph, it was the most peculiar thing on the planet. Im in love with the tattoo, not the idea of myself, and for me thats the most important thing, so if I can hold on to that, I can learn to accept the changes and make use of some of themjust as long as I focus on whats important to me and thats making a tattoo that I would wear.

Interview by Marisa_DiMattia of Needled.com.