The traditional manner to becoming a professional tattoo artist is to find a working professional tattoo artist that is also a master at tattooing and to shmooze him/her into taking you on as his/her apprentice. To explain the shmoozing and the process of apprenticing-tattooing is entire article unto itself, but suffice it to be said, that being taught how to tattoo by the right person or people in the right tattoo studio with the right working atmosphere is like someone else in another field learning at esteemed elite learning institutions MIT or Harvard or Oxford or Israel’s Teknion. Not every tattoo apprenticeship is created equal and some apprentice tattoo artists that are taught by the tattoo world’s elite tattoo artists have serious advantages over other apprentices who learn from average tattoo artists. Adam Sky is a Jewish tattoo artist who learned how to tattoo from a master tattoo artist years ago, and he has since worked his way tattoo by tattoo to becoming a world class tattoo artist of international repute.

JM: Where were you born?
AS = In a hospital, weren’t you? I think it was Toronto…..

JM: Where did you grow up? What high school did you attend?
AS = I grew up in Toronto more or less, and I went to a variety of high schools although I was usually expelled from a new school every year. My parents on my mother?s side are gypsies. They taught me to steal (mostly pick pocket) and they insisted that I steal from other student?s lockers. I was in trouble with the law a lot as a kid. I hit a kid with a flaming 2X4 once and that was the last straw for me at high school. It was too bad because I was going to an art vocational school and getting good grades aside from my regular truancy.

JM: What is your Hebrew name?
AS = I don?t have a Hebrew name, but I was yelled at a lot in Hebrew….dads who caught me with their daughters….they called me a lot of names in Hebrew! You should ask them. I dated Rachael Rosen (daughter of Harry Rosen, as in Harry Rosen Clothes) when I was 14. Because my father?s name is Reichmann (as in the Toronto/New York Reichmann family), Rachael was excited to introduce me to her father. Rachael?s boob was the first boob I ever touched. It was truly a remarkable Jewish boob. We made out under her Boy George posters and turned The Young and the Restless waaaay up so her parents wouldn?t hear. Little did she know that although Reichmann was on my birth certificate, I was raised by gypsies as I was the gypsy love child in a secret scandalous Jew/Gypsy afair. To this day, I still get ?fuck off? money from the Reichmann family to not go forward and name names.

JM: Are/were both your birth parents Jewish?
AS = Both my parents are Jewish although my mother is half Jewish, half Gypsy. My mother was my father?s fortune teller.

JM: Where were they born?
AS = In hospitals…..why do you keep asking that?

JM: : |
AS = )

JM: Where your grandparents from?
AS = My father?s side (Reichmann) is from Germany, specifically the Black Forest region. My Great Grandfather was famous for hijacking an airplane to escape Nazi Germany just before the War. The Reichmann family owned textile factories in Germany leading up to WWII. His factories were seized by the Nazis and my Grandfather had enough money to hire a plane to fly to Austria when he was just about to lose his company for good. He took his family and hijacked the plane and had it flown to England. The rest is history that?s widely available in modern Canadian/American Jewish history books. My grandmother?s side is very poor Romanian/Polish Gypsy stock.

JM: Did you go to Hebrew, religious school?
AS = No, I was too busy trying to pick pockets. If I didn?t steal enough, my mother?s boyfriend would lock me in the trunk of his Cadillac for days at a time. My father?s family set aside money for me to go to Hebrew school but my parents secretly spent it on livestock for our circus shows.

JM: Did you celebrate anything Jewish growing up?
AS = I was forced to join the circus at one point. My mother?s boyfriend was in serious gambling debt so he sold me and my sisters to the circus. True story! I was forced to perform with Scamp the Wonder Pig. No shit you should have seen the tricks that Scamp did! Her trainer was this Carney freak named Harold. He was this old dude, but he had that pig dialed in. I tried my hand at working with the pigs, but it didn?t work out. I got fired for hitting on the boss? girlfriend. Hey, you know? Oh, so no I didn?t really celebrate many holidays, although I used them as an excuse to get out of doing work at the circus. No pig feedings on the high holidays and Saturdays, you know? You ever seen a pig in a tu-tu? That shit is funny! Although I always appreciated the irony of a Jew working with a pig, even at that young age.

JM: Have you traveled much?
AS = With tattooing, I have been around the States, Canada, and parts of Europe….hey; did you know that European women don?t shave their bits? Nasty! But you can phone up a hooker in Amsterdam and she will even bring you pizza and a bag of pot and even groceries!

JM: What were your artistic influences and what is your art background?
AS = My parents encouraged me to go to art school as early as 10 years old. I would reproduce my favorite comic book heroes all the time and I think they saw a future in art forgery that they could capitalize on. They had me forging cheques pretty early on. I liked art school because I could draw nude models and some of them were even pretty. I got thrown out of art school for pleasuring myself in the supply closet between classes. The models thought it was cute but the school director didn?t appreciate it. I got thrown out of 3 art schools in Toronto by the time I was 15. By the time I was in high school I was regularly failing my art classes as I found them not so challenging. Picking pockets was more challenging, as was stealing cars from the faculty parking lot. I once stole a vice-principal?s car and drove it as far as Halifax before being caught. I always appreciated Jackson Pollack. Early impressionism is my biggest motivator to produce tattoos.

JM: How did you come to learn how to tattoo?
AS = I was put in youth detention camp for stealing a car and driving it to Halifax when I was 15. My bunk mate encouraged me to learn how to tattoo as I was a very scrawny kid and an easy mark. I quickly applied my art background to makeshift tattooing. I love telling people I learned to tattoo in jail when they ask this question because it?s true! I only knew how to tattoo with soot scrapings from the cieling and a sharpened toothbrush for the first few years of my career. I eventually moved up to guns scavenged from Sony Walkman motors. Now I only use exclusive Buck Turgenson Irons. I?m one of the only tattooers in Canada to use these hard to find machines and my clients seek me out from all over because of this.

JM: Who were your teachers for tattooing?
AS = I got my first job at my first tattoo shop at Biff Cooper?s Tat Shack, Guns, Gold and Tackle shop on the Danforth in Toronto. I worked there until I was in my twenties after Biff turned the shop into a marijuana paraphernalia store. There was always an amazing assortment of characters in that shop and it was a primo learning experience all around. Plus you get a lot of cool shit that people pawn and never pick up. There was this old timer, famous Canadian tattooer who worked there named Chat Wooley. He was this half Japanese gentleman and although he spoke really bad English, he taught me how to fish, paint ?Precious Moments? figurines and be a better lover. Chat and I were an item for a long time. We?d go for long fishing trips on hot summer Ontario days. Those were probably the most joyous moments of my life. Chat had one eye, Biff had a peg leg and there was a girl who worked there named Cecelia who had one boob (the other was fake). I was the only person there with all of his body parts (knock wood).

JM: Where did you tattoo?
AS = Mainly in Vancouver at Sacred Heart and at New Tribe in Toronto. I worked for Crazy Ace at Way Cool a bit too. Now he has stories. I traveled through the U.S. and Europe as well under Crazy Ace?s wing. Ace once had sex on the hood of a rental car so hard that he broke the car. True story! When the car wouldn?t start, I though it was a biker plot to blow us up. I checked the car for IED?s (Improvised Explosive Devices). I?ve worked with a lot of great people.

JM: What was it like owning a tattoo studio?
AS = Fun and hell, all rolled into one. Its like being in an abusive relationship. That or getting a blowjob and a hug from your mom, all at the same time. It just feels wrong.

JM: Why did you sell it?
AS = After a few years of running my own shop, I got very disillusioned with tattooing. I left the tattoo shop to pursue a career in television. I was Johnny Depp?s stand in for two seasons of 21 Jump Street. The hours in working in television are killer and I eventually got fired for getting in a fist fight with Richard Dean Anderson (McGyver) about a video tape I had of him hitting on Catholic school girls. In the video, he?s so drunk, he falls into a snow bank and passes out. Richard Dean Anderson was such a hard core alcoholic that he?d sometimes film his scenes laying down because he was so loaded, he couldn?t stand. I gave up my TV career after getting offered to come back to Sacred Heart as an employee.

JM: Has your perception of being Jewish, the Jewish nation and of Judaism changed much since when you were younger?
AS = No. Judaism plays little to no role in my life or my identity. I strongly feel that organized religion is the most terrible invention ever devised by mankind and I encourage everyone to denounce it and live their lives in pursuit of their dreams with love for all human beings. The closest I come to agreeing with an organized ideology is Buddhism.

JM: Are you married, single, divorced? Any children? Is your wife/partner Jewish?
AS = Married and she is not Jewish. No children.

JM: Have you ever visited Israel?
AS = No.

JM: Would you ever consider visiting (again)?
AS = No. I try to steer clear of areas over run by religious fundamentalists.

20. Have you ever gone to a synagogue or celebrated a Jewish holiday?
AS = No.

JM: How do feel about anti semitism?
AS = I think they need a hug.

JM: Have you experienced much of it?
AS = Recently, everyone?s been calling me the Radical Jew at the tattoo shop – ever since someone from your office called me for the interview.

JM: What is your perception of anti semitism within the tattooing industry?
AS= It?s not really an issue.

JM: Have you had Jewish partners/ G.F.’s?
AS = Living in Vancouver, there are not many Jews to choose from and what Jews there are here, they really keep to themselves. I?m never invited to their parties. I had many Jewess girlfriends in Toronto growing up as I?d play the Reichmann card constantly. The parking lot of the Rabbinical Sisterhood Private School was a regular parking spot for my I-ROC as a teen. I think in the States, I-ROC?s were called Z28?s.

JM: How did you come to set up tattoodles?
A = I realized a consumer need. People kept asking where they could find tattoo designs online….well…..

JM: Did you have financing?
AS = Hell no. 100% me. Tattoodles was launched on $11,000 in 2001. We?re now the Web?s largest and most comprehensive tattoo site, selling over a half a million dollars in subscription sales every year. We have two employees and two computers. We?re keeping it real.

JM: How have you been able to make tattoodles a success?
AS = Being a reputable tattoo artist was a big part of it. Tattoo oriented businesses started by people who are not actually tattooers tend to crash and burn as they aren?t on the front lines with the tattoo artists and clients every day.

JM: What do you do for a living?
AS = I tattoo and run Tattoodles, and on the side I play harmonica in a jazz fusion band. I like to ride my motorbike up in the hills and play harmonica to relax. Stay with me people……

JM: What do you know of the Jewish conspiracy?
AS = I pay my Army of ZOG dues every month.

JM: How do you feel about the notion that Jews comprise less than 1% of the worlds population, and Israel is one of the smallest nations on Earth demographically, yet Jews and Israel are in the news disproportionately than their numbers suggest that they should be?
AS = The same way I feel about battered children that grow up to batter their own children.

JM: Do you like Gefilte fish?
AS = White fish am the debil.

JM: Have youever eaten cous cous or smoked a nargila?
AS = Lamest question ever.

JM: : |
AS = )

JM: What Hebrew or Yiddish words do you know?
AS = Only the bad things that fathers have yelled at me as I was running down the street holding my pants up……..its all a blur.

JM: Thank you Adam Sky
AS = Truly, Adam Sky

www.tattoodles.com

adam@tattoodles.com

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