UNITE & WIN - EP.10 - DAN KUBIN

we had 24 hour coverage for my job. so whatever shift I work, I'll work another eight hours, so I work nine hours there and then eight hours, seven or eight hours at school it's flexible and you can do that, yeah, so I was tattooing full time and I was in the military. full time and somehow like somehow I the marriage still stayed together I was inspired by a thread she got over it not me like she she she was the one who didn't come who didn't give up and I was like I was stressed, you know, I'm like she thinks you're looking to do a hobby or she saw something, no, she saw that during the, she said, well, I mean, you can make a living, I can definitely make enough money to be worried about what I'm already doing.

I was winning in the army. I know I can make four thousand dollars a month, you know, doing tattoos, but, you know, I definitely just had to do this. I need about two years. I need to be good. in this because if I go out like I have a wife and two children to support like I can't start over I can't I can't kiss someone I've been asked for three years in the hope of getting an apprenticeship and then you I know I've already I've been somebody, I've already been humiliated through the military and boot camp and all that, but anyway I was working for this guy and what it mainly means is that I cleaned his tubes and then and stuff and I took and the one thing yeah it was like it was he's like you think you're good, you suck your lines, you suck your shadows, okay, your ideas are pretty good, my ideas are better, but you are, but that's good, yeah, I mean, it definitely was humbling because, You're acting like you're amazing and you know what you're doing.

You can still stink and your lines need work and it's like you really need to go buy some machines instead of using the ones you made and he told me two things. he's a little bit up and I'm still holding it over his head when he said you need to stop drawing your own tattoos and you need to stop using those machines and you just need to get some good machines. It's cost like $300 on some machines and get some good ones and start drawing things on the wall and if the thing is that the customers at that time, why I mean, because right outside I'm like nobody's covering up the walls, It's not cool anymore, so it's like people are waiting, so I wasn't going to be the guy that goes into the back room and tracks something down and then goes and says look at this that I just put together and you know, I was expected to draw things. and made them. and draw out of my head and draw without a reference and it's kind of like drawing this bird and just drawing it like it's from the dome.

The PC would say you don't like it, just do it and then I just had to get used to drawing like that and drawing on the spot with the client watching and I like doing that. I don't think that's part of it, yeah, I think it's when the client sees how hard you work or like it. how hard you worked, how skilled or how easy you did it, either way, it's really cool to see everything, yeah, and they understand why, like you know, if the email says they want this. on a banner they see you drawing and it doesn't really work and you make an alternative idea, they are with it, they saw in real time why their idea sucked and why this idea came true better, yes Owen, they saw it like when I put it on his arm, that's why I didn't do the tail that way because I'm trying to get in here and you have this weird curve in your delts and I'm just trying to embrace that. line I'm trying to make sense of your body because I mean it could look good on paper or it could look bad on paper but look good on skin or vice versa so yeah I was just drawing my own tattoos and he's just I.

In a way I followed his advice. I never stopped drawing my own things. I'm like I make art. The reason I started tattooing was because I thought I could do it once I started seeing collector tattoos. As if he really had something to contribute. table and I can draw original things and I wanted a way to make art that, um, I need people to commission me to make art, you know, draw things because I draw the same three things and I didn't. I've finished now. and I'm bored of drawing, you know, so I need something to get away from it a little bit and people's ideas forced me to draw and then I enjoy it, you know, so doing tattoos ensures that I will continue to grow. as an artist, otherwise they would just fall by the wayside, so by doing that, are you still doing that for two more years?

Korea and then they said you will also have to extend or re-enlist to go to Korea. I say I'm not actually going to extend the new enlistment. I'm leaving. I'm just going to finish my sentence right and them. Actually, you have ten days and they like to try to give me the news of how many years I had six months left on my enlistment, so I've been tattooing for a year and a half. He was already earning more as if he had his pockets full of money. I thought because I had two full-time jobs and I like it.

I paid. I bought a car and paid for the entire car, except with ins like six. months, you know, and yeah, I was making good money then, you know? and it's like I don't even need this anymore. I don't need it anymore. So, sounds cool, it wasn't too scary. You know, when they told me it's like. they'll break the news and tell them really yes, I'm ready, I'm ready to be done with this and start my new life, so I started my new life and it felt like me. -destroy on the way out oh I don't have to take drug tests anymore you know I used to like to smoke weed a lot and the thing is with me I could be with him because of the way my brain works it'll just put me into a psychosis.

You know, I just went crazy and I was going crazy and I wasted a lot of my money, but at the same time I was also having all kinds of crazy ideas and I think my original concept of Sidewinder was that I was in some kind of psychotic moment brought on by too much weed, wow yeah, it's like I haven't slept for seven days, like maybe a little more weed will make me sleep and they know it just kind of turns my brain on and I can't turn it off, so anyway um, so you were using it when you're tattooing like you do with your first two geographic machines, your coils, like when the transition from popular has a rotating start, like you're trying to mess with rotating sourcing, so here it is the other thing after I had done a couple of tattoos with my janky little coils, janky Geo's GG, yeah, after doing a couple of those, I went online, heard about rotaries and discovered on eBay neo tat, yeah, and I called him, I called him Ray Webb and at that time I was just a little thing and they didn't move much, but he was on eBay and he said the professionals are right, but I'm still out here. from my house and, but I knew he had been reading, he was chickening out on all the forums.

I even got a guy at Justin's reinventing the tattoo book. I read that he was on his forum, something else only for professionals, but I thought, "I think we." We're all scratched on it, you know, we're all trying to learn, but anyway, I wanted to try this rotary, so I got this neo tattoo and the guy was really super cool, he's so knowledgeable like he's learned a lot about how motors and certain materials and plastics and things like that from talking to him on the phone and he's super super nice, he's kept it, yeah, and he's not a tattoo artist, he's an engineer, you know, and it's pretty much like as far as I'm concerned that he was who started that whole slider concept, but I got it and the stroke was 1.8 millimeters or maybe 2 millimeters, so it was ridiculously short, so it would be, unless you were using a three line or something So. you'd get snagged on your skin and everything, but it was great, but I thought there's no giving in on this and the coils have given in and I've been on forums like the South rotary, there's no adjustable bump, you can't just a bump, just to give yourself no you can adjust anything, it just moves up and down and that's it, so I went and called Bray and said, "hey, I'm a machinist and I really want to do it." I want to make my own machine and can I just want a little different than yours, but can I buy a motor and cut it?

It can be like a motor in a camera and that's why he sent me this. He said that he sold me a wired motor that he couldn't solder on. The time he didn't know how to solder is stupid. I could weld, but I know how to weld. Did he just like plugging it in? I mean, he sent it with the Neo tat end cap, so I made this neo. That slider thing, but I did it to where the slide was, a spring just popped up. It had basically like a nipple on a flat spring and this slide would lift the raised thing up and then it would lower this slide and it was actually an amazing color Packer.

I said I'll show it to you in a moment, but I completely modeled it after a neo test, so it looks like a neo tattoo. I did it though, I did it manually and then I even had it so I drilled and tapped. the holes for its cover plate to go into it, but it had given way, it was a rotary that had given people something like oh, you can't make a rotary that has good knowledge and it worked pretty well, but then I didn't want to do it . People made fun of me, so I put it aside instead of working with that idea.

I just put it in a drawer and didn't even use it and went on with the bobbins and wasn't really getting anywhere and like making the bobbin go from left to right and like I couldn't do anything better than what was already there but even though I want to buy a coil I get it on the truss rod it would be hitting crooked and then the spring would be like get up and play yeah every time I spent money on a coil it would automatically reset it reset it file the front coil down, shoehorning things like I'm getting stuff, oh this guy's machine is amazing and I'm like no, it's like it's not amazing, oh my gosh, but I don't even know what I'm doing, I don't know what it was, it didn't make sense at the time, now I can make a pretty good coil, yeah, anyway, yeah, it was about four years of tattooing before I finally decided I was going to start building machines, so to back up what I did when I got out of the army I had my own store.

I started my own store it was like that. I don't want to work for anyone. I was already in the military for too long and I self-destructed and this store was a failure and I lost a lot of friends just because I was stressed and like you already know substance abuse even if you know people like to laugh like Marijuana is abuse of substances, but I mean, for me it just hits me too hard, so it was a total blur, like the whole day I was intoxicated, you know, like I was out of my head and that could be abuse, yeah and like.

Some of my best friends are alcoholics in the sense that they don't drink because they are alcoholics and they know that's the wrong thing to do, so I decided that I can't smoke because I start doing it all the time. I do it in the morning and in the afternoon and then a keg I always want it and you know, I had to get away from that and then I closed my shop, I fired my apprentice, who like we were best friends and then he just almost won't like it You have to go back to Idaho and he doesn't really talk to me anymore, none of the people who came in at that time talk to me anymore, so I started over with a friend at my store and I was there for about four years and I decided I was Okay, I'm ready to do something. tattooing wasn't enough for me.

I always have to do a couple of things and I couldn't just be a tattoo artist and I'm I got this book called the artist's way and I was trying to figure out where my artistic path was or wasn't. I thought I would read this book and discover my creative tattoo style. There's something I didn't know what to expect, but I thought about it. was going to help me with the tattoo in this book is this the spiritual path to creativity it is with a big book there is like the path of the artist and then below the spiritual path to creativity and it becomes clear this is not a church ebert a book of the church this Isn't this about Jesus or Allah or anything else?

It's about this cool thing, the benevolent energy in the universe that's like the creative force that drives everything you know, there's a positive creative force in the universe like the universe is very creative, right? Now, anyway, explain that we are all what makes us human is our creativity and that we are very creative things, like I don't know many other creatures, animals that are creative like us, you know, individually. beavers make dams, but all beavers make dams, it's not like they learned and then developed more dams and then got to outer space or something, you know, but um, but in that, as part of the book, you write these like four pages of handwritten notes you just wake up first thing in the morning you wake up and you write four pages in a journal and it's your morning pages and I did it because I really want to take this seriously I want to find out who I am artistic Who put you in this book?

Where did you find this? I was in the bookstore and I just saw I saw this book, the artist, one look, oh, that's great. I'm going to want to see it. It's okay, nowYou know, but I have it. and then religiously it was like waking up drawing or writing notes all over the diary about every stream of consciousness so that they would say don't think about it and if you get to the point where you don't know what to write, just write I don't know what to write over and over again. once and then by typing about five times you'll actually realize it.

Find something else to write because you can get tired of writing. I don't know what to write and I was doing this and they told me don't read your morning pages, just do them every morning and then two months after starting the book because like you. you only read one chapter a week and then for that entire week you only use the morning pages and they assign you something to meditate on during the week and a lot of the summer stuff was like what would you name another five? professions that you would like to do or things by writing down all these things, but I started to realize that what I started writing in my journal was tattoo machines and I didn't even know I liked it and I was just really not taking it. so seriously and I actually bought a little lathe and mill combo and I was kind of playing around but it's not the level I'm at now but I got it and finally in the book it said now go back and read your morning pages and address these things , your recurring things and you will like to find your direction now because for three months you have been writing down every morning your stream of consciousness, your freshest thoughts in your head that has not been influenced by the day or the stress of the day or anything and where consistent thoughts started becoming more and more consistent and then what I also started to do was realize that I would write about this person that she is.

Coming in, she wants to use butterflies as watercolor II and I complain about that and then I start thinking, but maybe I can do something more than the drawing she brought, you know, maybe how I would do this and I started to realize. that most of the time when I draw something people just get it like wow he really drew this and it's cool and it's original so I started pretending like I was going to draw it and like you already know the background. The line is that ninety percent of the time they're going to go with my drawing and if not, the odds are in my favor, I'm going to have to get a cool tattoo instead of something that's going to make me hate, make me hate tattoos, you know?

So I started taking ideas from people that were kind of dumb and really thinking about how can I take this thing that seems super boring and dumb and reinvent it and just take it in a way that totally erases my Pinterest idea or my idea. Like everyone else does this realistic black and gray scorpion in a certain way and I started approaching it like with scorpions, that was the flash, we only had scorpions that I had done before that were like the one you know, the one like the biker. style one with a drop shadow on three quarters of you and yeah, and I keep doing that over and over like that's the way we make a scorpion.

I started thinking about it like scorpions were cool, like they had a stinger and were like these twisted ones. You see legs and pincers and weird lines like on the body, like little spikes coming out of the claws, like looking at a real scorpion and feeling like there are some cool elements here, like super cool elements, and it doesn't have to be as silly as doing scorvian over and over again, so I kind of learned that I really like tattoo machines and I started my life wanting to be a machinist and now I knew how to tattoo, I knew when my machine was falling down or when it was a technical problem, you know, so I said, "Okay, I'm ready to start making machines" and I went back, I came back, but now I was competent at tattooing and I could draw.

I don't have to tattoo as much anymore to stay at it, but I think four years of muscle memory, I think you really need a good four or five years of doing tattoos all the time to really cement that muscle memory and you're also I said before something like knowing that people get stuck in their ways in the first two years if you learn most of what you do in tattooing in your first few years of tattooing, yeah, like I draw lines like this, no, that's it, Yes Yes. I know, but even then just habits in the way you stretch your skin, do you really like that?

They change over the years, like the way you slouch, unless someone tells you why you do it that way, you'll probably do it that way. I walk forever, yeah, and I think you always try to question what I'm doing and you try to address it and you know, the funny thing is once I started, once my machines started removing my tattoos, my tattoos got better because I'm a lot more in tune with the way I do it, I would tattoo with this new machine and I always think that I definitely don't have my ways every time I do a tattoo, I'm using a new prototype like I've never used, it's a machine more than five times before to move on to the next thing or go home and change a stroke or file this or do more spring tension and so all the time I'm trying to reinvent how I do a tattoo and then I started to get to where people were asking me for 14 lines, like if I wanted a machine that did 14 lines, so when I'm trying to achieve something like stippling or a single needle or 14 lines or 25 magazines total I suddenly have to go buy about 25 magazines and about 14 liners and some bug pins in three halves.

I have to start learning with these dot dots, you know, I have to do all these tasks and it becomes more fun, like how? I achieve it like I would do a tattoo and part of my style has been when I do this tattoo to test this machine. I need a I need eleven liner I need a seven mag I need a 15 mag I need a bug pin three you know like me I want a machine like my parameters I really want this machine to drive at least an 11 liner a bug pin 3 I want to stipple I want to do whip shading I want black and gray, no, I'm not too worried about that my customer base doesn't care much about that for the most part, but there are all these techniques that I'm trying to do and then I start having to incorporate them into my tattoo machine. and it's fun and I go through phases, but I think right now I'm getting back to where I just want to use like a liner in a shader.

There's something that's very liberating to use just like a seven or eight liner and this is like right in the middle or you. I can get a thick eyeliner then and yeah, I feel like it's like I'm doing something where I went through this phase a few years ago or I think a lot of people where I was was like I was in the race for the most daring tattoo. I know I mean, okay, what makes this great is bright and bold, well, don't be any brighter either. I'm wondering a lot bolder, yeah, and I was using like 18 rounds and setting them on fire and I was like a stupid, you didn't mean it look like. really cool that day, it was the old ass tattoo that day, but when it's an old ass tattoo you can't, so it's not possible and then I felt like I was using that, okay, I'll use these big needles for these.

The big tattoos and the smart thing are this size, but there's like I do a sleeve and like it's out of scale and I mean, like that whole thing was too bold because it was too thin, so I started going back to the 9 and then to my friend Christian. he was like there was something about eight it's like you don't have that extra like you don't need nine like yeah and I was like oh and it was like it just seemed like oh I can do a little tattoo. I can do a big test, yeah, and if it looks like it's incomplete, I'll do more to the big tattoo and that I think for me is like having, you know, these limitations, it kind of creates a style like this. it's all I have so this is like me telling my client or my guest that I'm right yes I guess I loved my guest of honor yes if I'm picky most of the time it's not because I've tattooed them a lot it's We just can't we don't even have to talk much about what we're getting tattooed I just yeah maybe look at it's a bird on my wrist like I have it you don't even have it to say like I know I know your tattoos better than you now I like it with respect I'm not like that but um but anyway yes there are sometimes like when they are newer and I don't like them I don't have enough tattoos that I can look at and start combining things.

I thought you can pick three colors right and like you know, pull out like scream blues and I kind of lay out a palette of these ink bottles and then you can pick like I like this one and I'll put those three colors together and you can see and that palette. looks good, you know, let's go with this palette and I learned it from Troy Troy Troy because he did that. out of the tattoo to me like he like how about this palette here and I was like I'm using that that's cool that's like the guy and they have more involvement in it yeah but like you're picking out a palette of colors instead of being like I want the green leaves I don't want this yellow flower and I want this thing like you can look at various colors and go into the tattoo and that's what I have to work with and I think it's I always try to do that, ya whether designing a machine or especially with machines, but with tattoos like I want, I want a limitation like if I use three needles, I could only use one color, you know, like I have these.

There are a lot of options here, like I wouldn't like to use a bug pin, a 3 and 11 liner and a big red blue charger on whatever you know. Brown, I wouldn't want to put three colors it's too much, but if it's colorful, I want a very simple line weight and if it's just monotone Monica, I want maybe more - yeah, I'm pretending you know black and gray - like I might like it, okay, I choose black. I have this whip. area and I could have this area like saturated like in this open area and Acme, yeah, this is a gray area, it's like, well, I did a lot with a little bit and I'm looking forward to achieving it, it's like, yeah, it's like, yeah , it's fun, it's a fun trick to put limitations on and then I feel like I get more creative and the tattoos come out better because I didn't have the world at my fingertips of all these colors and all these needles and like 25 different groupings with my self.

Think about if you do that you don't know when the tattoos were done because yeah, you're like oh I need to use this color purple because it's widespread, you know, and yeah, I think by setting those limitations like you have this elimination process. "It's like, well, it's done, there's nothing left to do and that feels good because I see a lot of tattoos that were done like 20 minutes ago, you know, I mean, it's like I just don't want to do that and I." I'm already an overthinker, so if I like to simplify my setup and I overthink it, at least I still have all this stuff you have to think about, yeah, exactly like with machines, it actually makes it harder for me, like I.

I set limitations like my machine can now be longer than 2.3 inches and not longer than 2 inches and it can't be like I want this this and this I want it to do I'll say it when I set out to design a machine I want an adjustable stroke or I want, I need some kind of and all I want, some kind of way that you can make the machine work for you and if you learn that there's one, you know, I want it where you can flip it cuts the cord one way in the act cycles. , yeah, that way you can figure it out, and sometimes people use my machine for 10 minutes, so yeah, it wasn't for me, it'll take you like a cut, like weeks, to figure it out. all of its magic like there's a lot of things like when you didn't like this way, you know you could have flipped the clip cord, yeah, I mean, you have so, so many variables in there and, yeah, I always like one element.

Some of you may do some different things and then in the size parameters, I feel like I keep wanting things to be smaller and smaller and smaller and more condensed and I think that's my artistic side, like when I do tattoos. In fact, I like to fill the space. They make the most effective use of space on someone's arm to like where they can't be seen. I don't want to be congested, but I want to be. It is very bright. I would put something together. I like to work with the other tattoos and have that tattoo play with the shapes and the execution of the others and how I can fit a fairly large tattoo into a tight spot and then I like that it doesn't even fit in there, I think.

I can have this like a hole like this, like get it right here and then no it doesn't fit right, yeah, but I think more, actually, I've been trying to make more breathing room in the middle, like I don't want to. I want to get a tattoo on my arm. I want to see everything from one angle how I want to be able to. I don't want it to be too clumsy anymore. You know, I realized that I feel like it has a different look. looking at an arm instead of looking at your own arm, but I feel like when you get tattooed like you know the bracelets stack up and you look like that, you never take a step back to look at it.

I know and I think you know that when you see a tattooed arm it's like, yeah, more must be better and then when you start exposing it it's like, yeah, yeah, but you look at it from a distance like you feel like they're actively kind of I lost yeah so I feel the same as always, when I give someone a tattoo I always like to enjoy it more than just sitting on that arm and when I start building the arm it's really cool but it's likeI don't know, I like it, less is more, yeah, on the skin, what I'm starting to do now is trace the point hmm and then I outline it and then I close everything on the other half that I made.

I outline it around that outline to make sure I'm safe, so you give yourself that test light and it's like before. I've always been like every square inch and most of my clients are the most people get technical now they want full saturation, they don't want any more skin to show and I've been making every spot filled so that when they say yes, I want, when we go to make the background, like, oh, we'll get to that, we'll just put everything else in there and then we'll go down to what I like, so I guess we're not making a background because there's no room, exactly, yeah, That's right, dig, it's like God, yeah. bragging, I'm throwing a cloud in there and now it's a solid oval, you know, I mean the next one, you know, like it all comes together, yeah, no, it's complicated for me, I feel like yeah, so let's get back to the machines like so so you go from the core and then you do like an adjustable rotary stroke and where does that go from there so the rotary thing just went out quickly and I was like because I didn't know where to start.

I didn't know where to get engines. I didn't know how bearings can't. Seeing eyes get so confused by all this that I didn't know what to look for in the voltages or how to look at the motors and see which motor would be correct, it was too much for me to digest, like where to find them. bearings where to find motors where did I get this how to make a cam you know and everything I have a little bit you know little mill in the back corner but you know how to do all these things I figured it all out you know how I did a lot of my stuff manually when I started, but anyway I was with the coils and then I got to the point where what happened was I was building, I was buying machines about once a month trying to find the unicorn and my wife at the time was tattooing, I was, you know, no she was still in school and working part time and then I was tattooing but they didn't have a full time place for me so we're like we were just living you know we weren't like we weren't we weren't We were making a living, but we were paying our bills and that was it, and I'm like I'm ready to get a machine.

I'm ready to spend five hundred now because everything I got for about 300 is like I saw with it and I'm still like back to square one, it's no better than the other machine I bought and I still had a mess with it at the time , it's like it's me, so I didn't get anything better than what I could already do and I thought I wanted to get this camera machine from Kim. I hear these like they're amazing and my wife says, well, how much is it? And I say it's 500. He says: I mean, she wasn't going to say no.

He says: I know this is for your work and he needs it, but you just bought a machine last month and you like it. month before that like it was 300 there are 350 so I'm buying like 400 and 450 measurements of oh yeah and she says we like it can you do with what you have? I have to have a good eyeliner. I have to be able to get it. Through my tattoo, my eyeliner is that thing like a coil, like it would just come out, like halfway through the tattoo it sucks now and like I can't go any faster, like I can't use it for three.

I could only use my coil lights. it was only good for a seven liner, it's like almost everything is just a needle, so anyway I could tell she wasn't going to say no, but at the same time I didn't want to stress her out and I knew I would. It was really starting to bother her that she had this machine addiction and I thought about it and I was on Craigslist and I saw that there is a blacksmith shop that is a combination lathe-mill machine, there's actually one in the background, you can see it back there. all the dust because I don't use it, but I'm like on Craigslist.

I found this thing for twelve hundred dollars or thirteen hundred, you know, I'm like I got this. I have my lathe. I have a mill. I already have a TIG welder because I bought it to make bikes and that would collect dust if I do it and then I get like four hundred dollars worth of tools so I just want to have a two thousand dollar investment in this stuff and I won't buy any more tattoo machines except like money I earned doing things with this team. This will be my hobby. I'll just start working with metals and this is before I discovered everything I really wanted to do in machine building.

I was like I'm like, I'm just going to tinker around, you know, I'm going to make old machines for myself and I just put myself out there and I was making these coils and they're actually pretty nice. I was making these. I wanted to make a configurable coil. You could bolt everything together and then change things out where you could put different coil cores on, like the spring rack with bolts so you could put a one inch coil on it or a quarter inch coil on it. You could do all these things, you could lean back through the upright, you know, do it, you know, anywhere and there's a cool little project, but still the coils weren't there, like I just didn't know enough about how to let go.

I lifted and got it to hit the way I wanted and I was just guessing and showing these guys that this is a store that really respected their work. They're like the premier private studio in Kansas City and I went in and showed them. He was doing me some tattoos himself and I showed him my coils like you know what man we're on with the rotaries now running the coils but yeah I know I'm not interested in your coils but if you want to make us some rotaries we'll buy them and really I mean, yeah, well, we're using these direct drives, these Mike Metaxa, and what we don't like is that they're screwed onto things and then when they come loose and I try to screw it back on, it's all crooked and I want something like something solid, like I want to put a motor in a tube and then have it come, you know, they just told me what. they wanted that I could give you some drugs, yeah, I'm like he's like, yeah, I can do some of that and how many, how much do you want because I'm like it's just a rotary, uh, 50 bucks and it's like I don't want to. we know where to get the motor, we get the motors, we know where to get the motors on the flywheels, so I have motors and flywheels that we have, so if you just do the frame, then we have the other things, it was like, I could I made a frame for 50 dollars and then I went to get the material and I realized that the material was too big for my lathe that I had like this tube, so I had to do all this as I passed it.

I spent three weeks trying to I make six a day for 50 bucks, I'll take three of them and guys like yeah, I'll take three, so I spent like three weeks with this stuff on this computer that I had that wasn't made to do this and it's really hard. . but I'm done, it's like they look cool, like this doesn't look like this, like I think the rotors are just stupid, like I don't like the way they look. I didn't like that they were quiet and I didn't know it. this is your consolation, but when I made these and I welded them and I burned the steel and everything is like I really really like this, you know, it looks cool and then when I ran them it was like holy, it works exactly and I make another one.

It also works exactly the same way and I started thinking, "My God, there's a whole world of rotaries that have straightened out like no one is doing anything with the spools." I felt like I was done and I can only make a coil as good as the next guy, if that's what it is, but what are rotary motors like, man, there's a whole untapped world and as I can, there's so many things I can do. , like I know the motors will spin this fast and I can change the volts and change the speed and then. I could start changing this stroke and I could do this and everything started clicking and then once I read that book it was like I really want to be a machine builder and I think I really need to take this seriously and pay I need to follow that inner voice that inner creative voice that is like once to do this because originally you would know, let's make the bikes that I was going to all these innovative bicycle parts until I couldn't write anymore and I lost my heart I wasn't in this if I can't do the hobby of the products I make so I'm online I'm offline at that point it's just another business I'm just doing something for someone and I don't care it's just money at that point and my tattoo machines are a lot more than money like what you're getting, You buy my machine, you're buying like a part of my soul, you know, it's me.

I support my machine habit, but I have to sell. I'll tell people, but I'm making machines for myself. I'm a little guy trying to figure out this little puzzle, you know, so yeah, I got into rotaries and I set my sights on that when I finally figured out that I really want to do rotaries. and this is really cool, my friend it's new year's, it's 2011, new year's and my friend that I worked with Raymond said this this year, my new year's resolution, I'm going to paint, put on makeup, paint once a month, Mike, that's great, I think.

I will do a machine once a month. I'm like a machine once a month, but Raymond is a little lazy and I'm like, you know what? Raymond. I'm going to do a machine once a week. Know? Be in this as if you were initially mediocre. I will do this all my days off. I'm going to go to my garage and be in my blacksmith shop and do something every week. I'll like to work those two days, that's my hobby, what I do for fun, its work in my machine shop and I went to town for that and I think in May I already had a nice one.

I had my first mini crank that I made. like, oh, I got this and I was doing the direct streams, but there's something boring, it's just a direct stream and all I was doing is you know it wasn't anything new, like the frame looked cool and that was new and different, but the people were not like that. interested in and at the time, but we're still hanging around like, there's nothing else, I wasn't, I felt like the look and the look and the aesthetics of the machine was definitely something that was worth it, hey, that's really cool and I don't like rotary ones, but that looks cool, but yeah, so I started thinking about the mini crank.

I wanted to do something with the crank and my friend Ugly Bill, special technique, had this thing backwards, the rotating rocker that he made it and I actually tried one, it's like, damn, this thing is really good for the moment. I thought I really like this and went to the workhorse irons website because they are sold through workhorse and I'm only going to buy one. I'm going to make one. I'll just buy one so I can have it and they were out of stock and Bill didn't have any parts. It's like you know what I'm going to do.

So I went and did this as a reverse rotary and posted that I was a bit of dust myself, so I posted it on Facebook. See, what I made for workhorse irons is out of stock, so I made my own and Bo went up there. I can't believe you do that like Beerus is freaking out and he's like, "Oh my God, you can't do this, you can't do this, I need this to be my thing, but you can't, I'm not saying never do it, but Just I need to have my parade right now, just don't make this machine please, and it's like I'm a little mad.

As a man, like you, you started out making a hand crank style rotary like based on the Swiss rotary and you know, so you can do this. like I was just trying to get started somewhere and like I just want to do it, I wouldn't like to produce them, but then he put it out there and was like please, as a friend, please don't do this, please take that one away. photo, don't do it, you felt that come back to you, yeah, and I was like you know what bummed me out I really thought this is really cool and I was really excited about it and I and I did it differently than him. , but the gist was there, I was, I was basically biting his dick and then I realized yeah, that's a little complicated.

I don't want to do that, but he was sitting there talking to my wife. about that and as you know, I want, I want that platform. I liked how I was able to get this, this give and the hit, the weight I had it and everything is, what can't you just do those opening words like and I start thinking like oh, me. Can I make a hollow truss rod on my mini crank and then I put a rod in there that was a nipple and so it was actually floating and it was cool because it didn't actually look weird like it didn't.

The rocker arm and the truss rod is longer, you know, and everything like this was actually, this is really cool and then people just latched onto it, they were like I liked it and I started making them and yeah, I went down to my garage and I just made a mini crank that day. I just had the idea and I did it and I did about 15 different bars trying to get the right depth, like where to do it and it actually hit pretty well. I mean, you could search for a while. my eyeliner I was telling you, but it wasn't a sidewinder, but I mean, I was putting 14 lines with it, so I started doing them and then they started this build.

I found this rotating forum like it wasn't social media, it was like it wasroad attitude forum and they started like I started getting more popular and then all of a sudden these people were hitting me like, hey I like that machine, they get one and they're like everyone, I'm like Sweden, like everyone in Europe . I'm still much more popular in Europe than in the United States. they just like that, do you think the reasoning is that there are so many rotaries out there that now I would like the oil builders or do I see that you are right, yes, when I go abroad I am using things from here, um, the most important thing is that I don't know why it's a US thing, but the most important thing is that for a long time rotaries were what was used in Europe.

I guess maybe it's an illegal cause like that in New York. They used rotaries because they are quiet and are in a room. I think there's a lot of that. They have a much longer history of rotary than coil. We're here, it's like Thomas Edison, you know the coil. I know all the things so I think it was bigger and there's definitely that and I think, um, I think it's a European thing, you know, I think Europeans appreciate that the mentality of a European car is more elegant than a like. . a Chevy, you know, they just do little things like for me.

I think my machines are there because they are innovative. I think a lot of Europeans really value innovation and they especially like functionality and I think they are more educated buyers as they would see themselves. on something that they don't do, I don't think they would look at a product and they wouldn't look at an advertisement, it was like flashy loud things and bright shiny things, I think it's more like they do the research and I think this is good and then that's beautiful , just like you look at a Volkswagen compared to a Chevy, it just has better lines, it's just more stylish, tools made in Europe usually don't have to be as stylish. curve in this little indentation, but they do it because it just looks cool, you know, why not?

Why not just make this look beautiful? You don't have to just cut a piece of steel and grind it like you can actually do it. look pretty and take a few more minutes on that part and make it elegant, and I think that by looking at things that are beautiful and elegant, you raise your own standard for things like you want more things to be elegant and you start to respect beauty. and things and things should flow like nature is beautiful like you, you know, it's like it flows and it looks good, you know, it's the same when we like old blocky things, I mean, I know it has a style and some people like it. that, but um, I think I'm just sticking to that more elegant artistic approach to engineering, right?

Why does the answer come from doing it? You know, I mean, like you want to be proud of it. They're rough and when they're perfected you want to show them off, yeah, yeah, and I think there's also beauty in roughness and there's something I love about rough cutting, but the better I get at it, it's like I just don't do it. I don't want to go back on things, absolutely yes, I think for all the little ones it's fun, like re-soldering a mini crank and doing some things, but I have fancy tricks, you know, I want to.

I was going to keep moving forward, you know? so I'm like a short window, like eight years, when things like that happen, they happen inside and inside the machines, like so many innovations happen in that short period of time, like you're like here's the machine. I do know you. that cabinet out there is crazy and they're all different and I buy one to thank someone for making it like this one isn't available and there's one in front like you know it doesn't stop so I guess so so? as? What was each machine we were manufacturing like?

It was always like this. The next one was something else. And I think it doesn't break all the time, but when I'm the only one doing repairs, you see if 1% of the machines break, that's a big problem, you know, it's a lot and like half. Overseas it's like you're spending $150 on shipping just to get it there and back, you know, and it's ridiculous, so I'm always on the hunt to make something that works and hopefully doesn't break. . and that's a very challenging thing, you can't drive a car for more than a year without having to service it, and these are cars that you know like they've been making cars for a long time, like I'm using a tattoo machine. that spins aggressively at about 6,000 cycles per second or 6,000 rpm or a hundred cycles per second, the shit will eventually break and especially when you mistreat it or run it too hard or throw corrosive sterilants all over it, um, but anyway I'm always in that.

Something like this broke, how do I fix it? or sometimes someone says, Hey, not this, this doesn't work for me, like it's not packaged the way I want it to and I start thinking, well, maybe, maybe this or maybe. I can do something for that person's hand, you know, there are enough people who would complain about this, but more than that, I think I get bored. I do something and it's amazing and I got over it like I just treat my tattoo machines like I couldn't possibly like them, I hope I'm a ladies' man for women, but instead it's like I'm a machine and I'm like, I use it like that, oh, You are amazing, I will do anything to be with you. you and then I got you, yeah, it's over, like I care, you already, ha, keep going like I'm sick of your ass, you know, but um, so yeah, my self, I think half of this is that I'm starting to see things break or I.

I start to find shortcomings like once the honeymoon is over I start to see that I don't like that and I don't like that and this could be better or this could go better and if I could just get it together. Better, eventually the idea is that I can make things that other people I can trust, that someone who is not mechanically inclined can fix their own machine, but right now it's a bit difficult, since I don't want to send all these pieces and people. They just make your machine worse, you know, so I don't know, I think I honestly just keep having ideas in my head and I can't let them go and it's just another idea and another idea and it's like I'm just I just follow what the voice in my head tells me. says to do, so the goals are to eventually have them a little more streamlined where people can serve them.

Yes, it will eventually get to where I am. I just want to do things and No, I don't want to have to fix everything forever, yes, but I also don't want to tell the client that no, this is disposable. You use this for two years and buy a new one. I don't. I don't believe in something disposable. You know, I'm in the business of making a product. I think the product should be repairable and you should be able to own something and have that machine for 10 years, I don't. I can't fix it for free indefinitely, but I mean you made a lot of money on it and if it moves, it wears out and if it wears out, it breaks, you know it's going to break, but I don't know, I still want it. a different hit I want something like every machine I make.

I'm actually trying to make a liner and I'm dying with them, it's actually a really good shader and I can't. I'm still trying to replace my Sidewinder and I can. It's not like if I'm going to make a better one, if I'm going to make something that replaces the Sidewinder, it's going to be sad or seven, but other times I just get tired of doing the same thing and I just want to move on and my way forward is um, instead From changing careers all the time, I just make a different type of machine, you know, and it keeps it fresh like in my family, like we always wanted something new and different, like my dad had. many different jobs growing up, he was a mechanic then a computer programmer, car salesman, inventory guy, bought houses, fixed them up and sold them as needed, was a custom harvest farmer and is a pilot and a marine and an infantryman Marine in Vietnam and like he's done so many things in his life and every time he gets to a point he's really smart and he gets the point like he's already done.

I have learned everything I have climbed. and I'm done and I move on to something else and I have to start again and for me I think I want more mastery, you know, I want, I've held on to this and I haven't mastered it like before. Think about how every time I think I got to the top of the mountain I realized there was only one cloud and I got to a plateau and then like, oh yeah, that one goes up and on and on, you know, like I don't know. where is the end, but it keeps eluding me and I keep wanting to keep wanting to see where I can go with these ideas that seem almost endless and go out with you this weekend and show me the secret sketchbook and all these things are so far ahead, like?

How do you crack down and take them one at a time? like I don't know I'm overwhelmed with everything I do and I like to go for a walk in the morning it's like my time is like my brain just goes on and I think and I just like whatever is the most realistic thing to try I start to think that I have like ten ideas, but one is so out there and others that derivative of something that I already did and that I already know that 3/4 of it is going to work, you know, I want to start there and then I will try something and, sometimes, I'll try something and that leads to this and like my original idea didn't work, it's a good platform to revisit, yeah, because, but I have these other things and sometimes what I do is I consider an idea that's really outlandish. .

I'll do it on my day off. I'll be here when I don't feel like working but I feel like playing, you know, and I like to try something, but it's definitely a challenge because right now I have this idea. like three ideas for different coil machines right now. I have an idea for another direct broadcast. I have ideas for this other type of truss rod. In any direction you want to point. I have another idea. I want to try it. I have another idea. my slider and I'm already thinking about my next slider, which will actually be a truss rod version of that slider.

I think some people are going to really like that slider, but I want to try the next thing and I'm kind of waiting, I want to be completely satisfied and feel like I've fully tapped into the current potential I can do with my slider before moving on to the next project. , but in between I also made this v3r like the Sidewinder Remastered, which I thought would take like a week. I was like, oh yeah, I'm going to get this real quick and then do it and I've been together for two months and I'm still trying.

What about this? What's up with that? How can I perfect that v3? I thought it would be easy because I had already done III the geometries there, but I put a lot of thought into how to put it together and not have a bunch of weird stuff again, so ideally, people. They will be able to repair that machine themselves quite easily. I want an adjustable stroke. You know I want you to like it. You can't go too far or too far back. You know you can turn it one direction and it will be the. the shortest stroke and it will be numbered and it will go to the longest stroke and when you get it, it will settle on the number five, you know, and like there's a good starting point, you might have a couple of digits, but you already know some variations, springs and stuff. maybe you like to run one on setting five and the other on setting three, but generally there's going to be a window where you can't go too long or too short, so it's been a fun branch because it was kind of a stuck point with my slider for a moment and then I really want to use this v3 again and that would seem to be like when I fix them those machines are from 2015 and those engines are from 2015 it's a cheaper engine but I almost never replace an engine I'm repeating The machines are four years old and I replace the bearings and everything and I don't replace the motor and all the things that I'm fixing I know what breaks and what doesn't break on that machine, so I solved it like I solved the problem with the gear knob. stroke that gets dented or people who make their stroke too long or people like not knowing how to adjust their impact screw and like everything These little things I'm incorporating into the remastered version.

I have a way that the motors will run quieter. I mean, it will still be a loud machine. I like things that boom, but their sound will be more precise. everything about this is the most remastered thing I can think of for I think one of the best Sidewinder rigs I've ever created with the caveat that I think for a lot of people with rotaries is that they usually don't make a lot of noise and make these machines was it ever like something that was like a resistance like Abba, they are too loud or because you are in your own field.

I know how to make them absolutely like, since it's been hard to like them. Have you ever wanted to tone down the sound? Do you want when I try it like oh? On my v6 I put the o-rings on the truss rod and I realized I don't like it, I don't like the way it hits, when you don't have that solid crush it, it loses the magic and I know you can still do it because at that point you're just using a normal rotary a little bit better for alignment and I think maybe for black and gray it would be good because yeah, I'm like I really like the Sidewinder tuned for black and gray.

I think it's a really good black and gray machine if you tune it right, but I really feel like a solid metallic impact gives it that sharpness that's easy for some people who want workI really want to slow down. I want it to be like Lego my gift is like yeah you can just put this together and I want to get better videos on my youtube so I really break it down and then I have subtitles and I wish you could see the subtitles in Korean or German or everything and everyone these different languages ​​and it almost comes full circle with the coil machine where you were trying to screw and unscrew things and now it's like back to that, this is how you go with these eventually I just want cool tools that you can use and you can service and you know that you can have this machine and you know every two years you need to spend like 50 bucks and some spare parts and it's done and it's simple and with my new slider I'm excited about it because I'm really starting to focus on that, like you can take out things and replace them very easily, it's not there yet and I'm pretty sure someone would like to prove me wrong about how easy it is, but it's probably the easiest thing so far is that it goes more like a firearm or something. or it just pops up and this whole thing is like click, click, click to the right and yeah, it's really cool to see how it ticks, how well these things fit together, like watching you put them together.

Well, there's a lot of value in good machining and that, yeah, magic, okay, that's why you're paying $700 for a machine and constant development with a slider, I just don't begin to show it, but It's been almost a year and I've been working on it and, yeah, these are all slides for that slider that I made for the slider, I was trying different things and all these different slides, one after the other, running it. on the machine, no, no, no, no, I don't like trying to achieve something with this slide, yeah, but there's a lot of time, that's that and with my DMC and my swing liner I have a whole tub this big of different cams I made like I was trying to make. camera a certain way with a certain shape just to get the effect I'm looking for and then I kept settling on something and then when I worked out the DMC it was like yeah, kind of like the swingline is better mmm I just like it because I don't like turning it up.

I just want to turn it up I want to run it at four and a half volts like turn it up at six like it's going to destroy someone like me you just say you tattoo faster no I'm going to break them, yeah it wants to run at six volts it just destroys my inbox, turn on the game, I have a new machine for a reason, because it could do something like something harder and faster, but now you're complaining because you want to run. It's slower and softer, but you want it harder and faster, but you don't want to change your hand speed and you don't want to do anything different, yeah, but man, that's awesome.

I didn't want the answer, yes, like the one I did. I spent months making different cans trying to find that Unicorn can, okay this one is the best one with this machine and then someone like yes comes on the forum, it's like a guy can have this huge voice like a beacon on a forum. I know like, sort of, swing lines are better. I like this other thing. I like v2 very late. Maybe you'll like it with a side, especially since I like the v4 better. Maybe he just adjusted differently and maybe he didn't. I don't understand the other thing is especially v4.

I was playing with different cams and I kind of got excited like a different cam and a different spring tension, so I lost what I really wanted that machine to be and now fast. go ahead now when I repair them I put them back in like I can make that machine as badass as the v3 when I get them back for repair I rebuild them new cams new springs new new spring tension all that and this is good It's not like it's any more polishing some shit they're getting so I'm better than that and it should last a hell of a lot longer next time than it did the first time, like the little things. as the Vice leaves as an enhancement device it leaves enhancements for you to like if you don't like something I'm doing just wait three months it will be different oh yeah you know I'll figure it out for sure yeah but in a way it takes doing a thousand of something before you realize I should have done that differently, okay, next time, next batch, next batch I'll do it, I'll do it differently, I'm not going to fix this problem, or you know, he said he actually It's not a problem, it just could be.

Better, yes, so have you ever had something that torments you? How many machines are coming out and how much innovation is happening in between and how many things do I need to go back to the mountain of repairs? How do you know which one is yours? plan, how are you going to do it, man, I don't know that well, you know, the thing is that I don't like it, is the fact that I have been making about 100 machines a week for the last few years and before that. Like a lot of crank mistakes, when it first started it was ten a week and then twenty a week and then 30 and 40 and 50 and 60 and I remember moving forward a year from the first time I made a mini crank and I sold one every two months. , the following May I sold 60 in one month and I was very busy and then the next year I made 80 a month and then 80 a week, you know, it's crazy and I'm figuring out better ways to streamline the process and I have an assistant and I outsource the machining and I have a place that does the electroplating and I just kept things simple, as you know I only post the machines once a week so they're not always on my website.

I'm not always entering things into a computer, you know, it definitely helps. It's not a great strategy, but it wasn't intentional. My intention was not to like doing it so that people would go into a frenzy. My intention was I don't want to. posting stuff on my website I hate computers I don't want to be on a computer all the time but yeah, it's definitely overwhelming to think that I'm the guy that has to fix all this stuff and I have people that don't I don't understand what would happen if every tattoo you got What if you did, what if you got a hundred tattoos a week and just one of those people each week and you've been doing this for five years, one a week demanded that you do a total repair of their tattoo after they fell skateboarding? and they want you to pay for their uber ride to get to your store and then everything and don't think you should do it for free like I was a model and I made my money from my tattoos and I made $100,000 this year modeling because of the cool tattoo you gave me and I was skating and I was out in the sun and I blistered it all it's just a hash permit.

I mean, seriously, dude, you can charge me $50, yeah. fix to fix my tattoo what I wouldn't do for a lifetime lifetime repairs yeah and I think you know the whole lifetime warranty thing on tattoo machines was like when it was a coil and most of the time like the guy sells 20 a year. I know 20 a year and then it's mostly how to turn a contact screw or put a new spring in it, but you're like me, when I'm repairing a machine I'm putting about $40 into bearings and maybe a motor. that maybe the engines like up to 80 bucks every once in a while, like all the hours of emails and shipping to and from them, you know, that adds up to where I'm not on one end, I made people angry with it. this guy, I spent all this money on this thing and now I have to fix it and now I have to ship it and you're charging me like eighty-five dollars for a mini crank or repair it like I'm mad out of that to waste money on my time, they give me my money back yeah I mean it broke like they broke you run hard and I like it and it does this like it's going to take care of you if it's like it's less than a year old but in the moment I say, a lot can happen to a complex mechanical device in a year and it's just going to break, something is going to go wrong eventually, ideally a machine should last like three or four years, like it's supposed to.

The people I know like, on average, that, I know it personally, and I don't know them because they are always breaking their machines. A lot of them will have a machine for three or four years before it needs a service sitter or something you know, ideally a lot of them are like I just bought a new one now and I'll give you a new model. I'm going to continue using this as my backup, but I'm going to get a better model. a better one mm-hm and then you have the other people who admire each other then buy a 2012 machine like the James Spooner guy you are talking about, you know him, yes, and he still has a lot of similar numbers, like the number 85, yes, it's a mini drinker. and he still runs and sends it and he's like, hey, do you mind, if I send my other ones then I say no, but just so you know, if everyone did that, I wouldn't have time to make machines because I just have to fix tattoo machines broken, yeah, I already spend one day a week just doing repairs, like half a day I'm doing repairs and I've tried to accept that because I like fixing things and playing with old things. gems like the ones I made, that's why if I just do repairs I couldn't remaster that machine.

I wouldn't know what was wrong, what was breaking, so every time it's like now I really try to have a positive attitude. The perspective of all the repairs that I do is that this is a time to look at it and also when I get an old machine back and it's beautiful and it's like I don't do too many finishes the same, like I've been doing it for a while. while I get bored and get an old machine back, I mean, I remember this, I remember that Spongebob machine I made for that guy and I remember that dealer when we did this and um, it's fun to see my old friends.

Come back, you know it and it's true, I love it, but it's also overwhelming to think that, what if someone is going to have to change? I already like this next year. I'm going to plan to cut my production in half because I'm not going to keep up with the times and I don't want to hate what I do, but I also can't fix broken tattoo machines and every morning I answer 30-45 minutes of emails, half of them. They are how I get a machine, hey brother. are they all out of stock as it is on the site it says on every page of the site when I post machines in the time zone it's on just just do that I'd like to I'm too busy I can't answer everyone's email individually, like it's just me, well, I'm a highly functional business and I'm still the guy who fixes every broken machine and answers every machine-related email.

Ford sent these things to my wife, but it seems difficult to achieve. sustainable with everyone being you it's crazy and I'm trying to do the best I can but I think I'll be able to say this by the time this video comes out but my plan with the v3r is that the workhorse irons I'm giving you license so they can do it and I also feel comfortable because I've already mastered it, it's very solid, it's a very solid machine and it's going to work well and all the instructions on how to tune it. everything is in line and you literally turn it to number five, you put the impact screw on the line that you know on the frame and it's good, it looks like the assembly is very smooth and everything is going to go well and So they're going to start to manufacture it and my machine shop is going to manufacture it.

He's still going to make it. I'm going to do all the quality control here so that all the parts continue to be made in Kansas City and then this will be up to them. and they will put them all together and sell them and distribute the emails they do the maintenance and then the emails themselves are life like they are killing my retirement days they are measured in emails because this is not work for me being here is like this It's what I live for. The right emails are the only part of my day's work. It's like they haven't spoken and I love it.

I like corresponding with people, but when you have to classify with 50 people every morning about the same thing. problem and every morning when you wake up, imagine every morning you wake up to 50 emails about a touch-up. I love the tattoo, it's cool, you didn't do anything wrong, but it's five years old, yeah, and yeah, it's five years old, five years old. Can you just fix it? Yes, how much is it going to cost? You know, it's like it takes me the same time to rebuild and fix a new machine as an old machine. Its XP probably takes me twice as long sometimes to fix an old one. machine than build a new one, but I admire those people that I don't want to be with - the throwaway society, so it's a vicious cycle on the one hand, it sucks, but that's my medicine, it's like what I want.

My belief is that you should be able to fix this and I can be a good company that does it. The problem is that when you're a good business, you can't stay a good small business for long because when you're a good small business, word gets around and then you're also busy and overwhelmed and you become where you are. Clients are the worst part of your deal, like the people you love and who pay your bills, you start to despise them because they just leave me alone, don't ask me for a private message, I know, I know we're friends, but unless you're here in person, please don't take my time and because I'm a good guy and I try to accommodate my friend alone upstairs, so I have to stop what I'm doing,Like I have a million, I don't have enough.

It's time in my day and I literally look at the clock not to see what time I'm going to finish, but to see how much more time I have in my day because I'm still trying to accomplish things and when I have to do them. stop and spend another hour of my time texting this guy back and forth, like this machine and this to find out, oh actually, I have to wait three more weeks, oh my god, okay, there It's been an hour of my life that I could have made that new slide because I was on that thing and I was trying to do it now.

It wasn't fresh in my head and I wasn't going to start over because I had to stop my day at our short because I was trying. to please an old friend if you're a friend of mine just respect my time yeah don't try to lie and get something for free oh I know Dalek it's just texting and Cuban yoga like another guy is cool nice . guy and stuff, but he seemed like you wanted to name me and like he was selling machines because he, for his whole store, you buy like five machines at a time or something and it's like you're going to buy five machines.

It's worth it since I can order usually they don't care, like five machines, this is nothing too flashy or you have something shiny or you know something, it's not like I want the black nickel with red hardware and I want it know. like a brilliant, but by the time we got on the phone and said yeah, I mean it was like a convention, people like how you get those like oh I just call them up and you're just like that's not like that anymore. existed and I hope you tell everyone that I don't sell them machines directly because everyone starts expecting them to say "hey man, this so-and-so said he got this from you and he could just call you and get something and tell everyone now" .

Everyone expects this from me and I can't. I can't run my business effectively now. It's like he doesn't want to hire more people. I just got rid of my employee because we want to deconsolidate. I want to make fewer products. but consolidate everything to be more involved in each step and be more intimate with what you say, you like things more in small batches, yes, that's the next one, the next effort, since I do things with workhorses, I just want focus on fun. small batches of stuff and I'm still doing due diligence like if you're going to buy a machine, it's not going to be like it can perform like I do.

I'm pretty sure I got you, you can be sure I probably got tattooed with her. for six months as variations. I've been working on something for about six months, but I only want to make like 200 250 of something, yeah, put them in there, so once I make this slider, I'm planning on making about a hundred of them. 150 of them, I'll just put them on my site, when it arrives, I'll put them there and what I thought about doing is actually have them where you can choose from five different finishes and a different pair. side plates and you can configure it and the price will be higher but you will get exactly what you wanted and hopefully with a higher price and the fact that you got exactly what you wanted you won't sell it won.

It won't be a frivolous purchase, since I'm actually paying. I commit to this. I'm going to pay some money and I'm going to get the exact finish I want and I'm not going to turn it around just to make a hundred bucks, yeah, is it hard for you to find the compliments on your machines, like being so valuable because you're so emotionally attached that you get hurt when someone that gets rid of it takes away everything that I do and I just try to accept it and it's like it's life and they don't see it, but I guess now, like I said, I have a price for my machine and I think that I still think there is more value, obviously it is more valuable than what I have.

I'm selling it because people can sell a used machine and not even lose any money, if anything, they sometimes make money on it if they auction it off on eBay. I try to put more value on it than what I'm selling it for, but when at the same time it's like I'm selling it out there, if you're going to sell it, I mean, I guess if you make a profit in a legitimate way, it's my product, it's actually better for business when people sell it and make it. high at the same time, the other half of me is the emotional side that's not just the money side of business and it's like but, I did it for you, well, you know, I, that's like I'm almost still, I feel like it's a gift for you. you know, enjoy this, it's like this is my son, like you're getting a piece of my heart, you know, a piece of my soul with that machine and then, like when I see it as a commodity, like bought, sold, exchanged and turned.

It hurts because what I'm doing I'm not doing for the money. I'm doing it for something deeper, deeper, like this, to fill a void in me, in me, in my soul, you know, and see it as just a commodity. it's kind of like it's like getting up your ass and not getting a scope or yourself, you know, damn, but I'm just trying to get that out, what really started to piss me off was when I hook someone up with something, I do it exactly like they wanted it and I try my best and then I connect them because they're local or friends and then I find out they auctioned it off on eBay and they made $200 connecting them because Hey, yeah, I think you're really going to like this and I think because you love machines , this will be really special.

I won't do a lot of them and since you're local I want to give you this price and then I found out you auctioned it um a week after you got it just because you knew it was in high demand and it's like man I know I don't care if anyone You just bought it on my site and then I flipped it, but when you wasted my time and made me do something for you, I'd stop doing what I'm doing and spend more time with just you instead of the entire tattoo community for sure. He'll kick me in the balls. and it's a huge insult so I don't even follow a tattoo for sale because it would only give me cotton the drama I don't want to see it because I would only watch it yeah I don't even watch it I want to see the tattoo machine forums I don't want to see people I don't want to that we're watching the news like your name I don't want to be like this this is more like that very similar around me and I do things and if I hear someone criticize something once, even though it's good, I can clarify it, not really, and if you just do this, it will be different, like with your coil and you say, oh you.

I made that adjustment, it's not like that, it just raises the volts just 0.3 volts, you know, but without understanding the full spectrum of what you have, yeah, yeah, yeah, with that, so I remember talking on the phone before, You know, and I know you're scared. or like ah, we talked on the phone for a few hours - yeah, it's like, oh man, it's like we're doing it all over again and now we're playing new things, but one thing I'd like to like is visiting Santa black. Knowing was the idea of ​​I think I don't know if we were talking about tattoo magic and trying to write what that is and I think I was trying to give you credit, maybe it is too.

Humble, but you will have an idea, because some will just work and then, I will explain, I will explain that with them, with the magic, with the idea coming and going and chasing it, and so, some of the times, the best ideas. It's like I realize and I get to the point where I feel like we're like a little receiver, like a satellite, sitting there, transmitting, and you feel like, in a way, there's a stream of consciousness like the Dow, you know, it's like a stream of consciousness and other people are connected to this like I feel like I'm another Josh Bauer builder.

I think these types of people are connected to the same stream of consciousness, the only thing is that Since I always knew I wanted to work with metal and stuff, I took the steps early on in life to learn about engineering and learn how to machine and really Be very proactive from the beginning to be able to do anything you can think of within reason. Especially with this mill I can do anything. Now I am unstoppable. I guess these ideas can come true, but yeah, you can go and have other people have those same ideas, but they don't have the machining experience and at this point it's like, man, it becomes a lot when you have to invest in a team of two hundred. a thousand dollars to do these things, but it was just for me, it's just small steps, but to get back into it there's definitely a lot. of us I think I am taken advantage of I feel that sometimes I can relax my brain enough and it will connect with a stream of consciousness and I feel that the wisdom of the world has already existed is already there everything already exists what will ever exist I think it is already there , it's already a possibility and it's just a matter of taking advantage of it and materializing it, whether it's in another dimension, like a fourth dimension or what, but I mean, they just want to think that there is more than now. fourth dimension and fifth dimension which is layer after layer after layer like yes, there has to be knowledge of the world like no the Universal world like everything has already been thought of it is already there for you you just have to find it you know it already exists and like I think I get this idea and I'll have an epiphany, it's like an instant download and I just press it like my Wi-Fi signal is on right now, I press a good Wi-Fi thing and everyone else turns theirs off and I'm like, oh Yeah.

You know, sometimes they get inundated with a bunch of stuff that comes out, but sometimes, like when I do something like, for example, the mini crank, I made a couple of bars, the idea just hit me and then I went down and just nailed it. . and it was a sidewinder I had the idea I had an idea originally and then I didn't have the equipment and then I fast forward and I had a milling machine and I had a lathe and I could do everything and then I was able to revise it and reconfigure it What my original sidewinder was like.

I made a sidewinder about 12 years ago and never showed it to anyone, but that wasn't the case either. The motors were on the side and I had the idea with the spring as it wasn't the same but No I got things where I just got it first and tried it and then got it and then like now I want to quantify it and when I'm going to quantify it, I lost something and I had it here. and it's gone and then it's there all the time and it's like it slips away again and it's so elusive that I write, I wrote a song about it, man, would you be willing to play?

Yeah, yeah, okay, let's do this and then finish that. Yeah, but uh, yeah, it's like sometimes I'm there and by the time I try to wrangle the unicorn like I'm the unicorn, I'll show my face. I will let you touch my name, you touched my hair and now you know that I exist and now I am going to let you and I feel that it is something very divine. What would I be doing? It's not a way, it's like doing the work of the Lord, if whatever the Lord is the step towards me, is the benevolent energy in the world and there is something that I feel that we are more than we are more than this as if our souls would live a thousand lives, our souls would have existed forever and there is something we can do to feed our soul and grow to grow on a higher level than the one I know is a physical or physical self and I can do that on tattoo machines and it sounds maybe it sounds stupid, especially to someone who just sees tattooing as a garbage industry or whatever, there's a lot of love and you know that and I can just take this and I can treat people right and I can do this and have an idea and materializing ideas into abstract thoughts and creating things and it's very satisfying and people say we want you to develop medical equipment like I'm not a doctor, I don't love you, you love me like I have the home medical heart transplant kit from Geo, finding better ways to make electric scalpels, yes, but no, I can make the same difference, just like at a higher echelon, like I think, in the grand scheme of the universe, it doesn't matter if you're a doctor or a tattoo artist, it's how you drive your life and how you actually accomplish your task, which allows you to grow. us at a higher level and you may like to reach and I think we are on a mission like we are to reach a higher level of consciousness with each life that you know with each existence and there are certain important stages in your life where this is a crossroads and I have the option to go this way or that way and those are key decisions like and you can choose to move in this direction or whatever, but I guess what I'm saying is that Unicorn will just show it to me like it's letting me know that, um, that. he's there like this is there and this is real and you can have it and then it's like how hard you want to work and sometimes a staff like with my slider for example and this happens with almost all machines already that I put restrictions as I want. to do it and I go in like okay, I want it to work with standard needles.

I want it to work with cartridges. I don't want a lot of adjustments. I don't want springs anymore. No, I don't want a car. I wanted to have two different strokes and I want all these things, so I got to where you can control this. Your rubber band can make it act like a spring and control the blow with a rubber band and yeah, and then you can do this. the slides are made in a way that they wear out, one way is a little more passive and the other way is a little sharper, so I can use standard cartridges around, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without having a spring and I didn't want to jump in there because if people repair their machine, you can just undo these rails and separate the whole mechanism and I didn't want thatThey would lose a spring and break when you jammed it.

I just wanted it to be as simple and easy to use and again as something that the customer can have and have some spare parts and fully service it, but it got to our point of giving up like I can't do it, I can't. I assume they will be standard needles. I can not do it. I can't do it for both of us and then as the good guys, the powers that be, we say, "Okay, we'll give you this, we'll give you this." whether it's a little bite, you know you can adjust the work just like it's going to hit me like I said, but usually it's when I decided I've given up and quit, I just won't be able to get it. like I thought I would and I just get discouraged and I sit there and I feel like this warm tingling, come there it's like you know mm-hmm well I let you work enough now I just wanted to see that you would work for this, you know, and everything that has been, I get from the beginning.

I usually nail it and then I'll feel it and work on it and I may even do a tattoo with our saint that I just created. thing and then the next day I walk in and think I'm not going to get any better. I'm going to change this and not change anything, like go and play, do it again, like this sucks and then I get that tattoo, the only reason I want to do it. That tattoo was meant to be worn, yeah, and I think this sucks, like I'm ruined, like my whole day is ruined, my whole week is ruined. drink no, but uh, but yeah, I definitely can make or break my experiences with tattoos and I can get really discouraged or most of the time I go to get a tattoo and I instantly walk into the shop and turn on my grinder, try something or I take out my sketchbook and I'm okay, this was like that and I think if it was a little bit different, if I get the stroke a little bit sharper or change this a little bit, I think I can get what I want and it's just as fun as tattooing is so fun because it's like it's a complete marriage of my development here and my development tattooing and then combining them all together like you do a tattoo like you do that machine to do that tattoo.

I feel amazing, yeah, hey, what's that? You know, the movie, just go with it. I remember the Sandler one and how the guy with him is like she's like the Devlin girl, oh, she's like her boyfriend is like, um, he says she made all his money. and invent the iPod, okay, and then he answers his phone, goes out to dinner and says, "Oh, I'm in or I'll do it," says something stupid and then Adam Sandler says it's like he can't believe it. It just happened, it's kind of like dr. Kevorkian committed suicide, you know, or something like he said he was wondering about getting a tattoo of a Sidewinder.

I start to think about that, that's like that guy, like the Sidewinder guy doing a Sidewinder, although if you really want that more than the totally sounds, I'll do a Sidewinder, but yeah, I fancy a little bit on a very small thing, like that I think in the back of my head I think of a Cuban doing a Cuban on a Cuban it's like Sounds like something like Dan Cuban using a wider Dan Cuban side making us wet it's like him right there yeah see the one he did Troy? I reposted it on my site where, like the guy that the guy who copied the guy, copied the guy. who copied and Cuban and hahaha he sits down and likes the little Asian girl when it's funky but and the music changes so you go on and on like anyway well I think I think we should I think we should end this there and I think I think that the song that she wrote, I think makes sense for this conversation, it's like a really good ending, yeah, you didn't mean, do it, it's like a yes, you.