Josh Lindley

Josh began tattooing in May of 2004. He turned 18 and wanted to get his first tattoo. He was really into cars and skateboards and thought tattoos and tattooing were the coolest thing in the world. He liked to think “wrong people, right time”. The tattoo scene was more biker friendly.

Josh kind of fell into tattooing. He began learning new school, slight traditional because of the access to flash coming out of the late 90s. It was all bright colors and kooky drawings. For the first few years, he tattooed with more of a cartoon style. Josh began tattooing in the pre-internet days where finding books and reference drawings were the only way to learn other styles of tattooing. He started meeting more and better tattoo artists learning from them. He would even visit local libraries for reference images.

As Josh progressed, his tattoos featured thick bold outlines. He watched his tattoos age after seeing how they would look ten years later and pulled back from the bold and thick style he had. He said we can’t outrun the clock and learned to set up his tattoos now so when the client carries it for twenty years, it will still be a little more legible later on in life. He still loves tattooing, but says it still has it’s headaches like everything else.

Josh still learns something new every day. He works with a great group of guys. They push each other and bounce ideas off each other. He gets to hang out with his friends every day and has no complaints. The hardest part of Josh’s day is figuring out what he’s gonna have for lunch. He says its rad and that tattooing has been good to him, but still treats it like a job.

“It’s just like everything else, there’s no retirement in this game, so you have to work hard and be smart with your money, make the right investments”

Have you ever been called a bad influence during your career as a tattoo artist?

Um no, not that i can ever recall, we’ve definitely had wild days, when I was a younger fella, but no, as far as being a tattooer, no, I’d like to think I’ve always lead people in the right direction, even if its just listening to someone, I’d like to think I’ve never lead anyone down the wrong path on purpose, helping someone make a decision about themselves or whatever, part of this too is with clients, its kind of like a little bit of therapy for some people, we have to listen to everyone’s problems whether we want to or not, it’s almost a very intimate process spending that much time with someone, you’re gonna get to know them, what they do for a living, if they’re married, if they’re single, do they have children, grandchildren or whatever, you’re hearing their stories, its a whole lot easier to tell your problems to a complete stranger and have no biased opinion back, I would like to think no, but who knows, you know

Have you ever had a young child think your career was so cool and incredible and want to do what you do?

Oh a hundred percent! I’m sure everybody, I can’t speak for everybody, but I’m sure everybody has a young kid they are tattooing be like “aw this is badass and I wanna do this” whether they do anything with it or not, we can give the advice of how to do it the right way, you know, but tattooing’s not for everybody, I don’t think that everybody that thinks its cool or everybody that thinks its easy should just do it, now its a lot easier to get into this trade than it used to be, I’ve only personally taught Ryan as of how to tattoo start to finish, I made him paint for a year before ever talking about teaching him how to tattoo, like that was just part of the rule, when he started appriencing to tattoo, I made him work a full time job and basically my full schedule at the shop and like learn, he apprenticed for three solid years and didn’t take a break, a lot of people aren’t meant for that, and that’s just so he could understand the full workload even when you have days off you still have to prepare for bigger projects or whatever, handle scheduling, keep up with your own finances, and your stuff and your supplies, and the shop stuff, business in general because we are our own businesses, that’s a huge part of it too, just because I’m off monday, tuesday, wednesday doesn’t mean im playing a fucking video game or something, I’m at home preparing for other stuff i have to do, this week or next week, or next month or whatever, whenever you can find the time, then you have to balance like a home life into that, that’s a huge downfall too, it’s as if you’re never off, you’re your own boss in a way, so yes, while that sounds cool, its a huge stress on people, so I don’t know, I mean, it’s cool to think people want to do it in theory, but like the real ones understand, the ones that think they can just do it or like do it at home, usually they wash right the fuck out, there’s usually a reason why somebody tattooing out of their house or whatever, its cause they couldn’t cut it in a shop or doing it the right way, and I mean it’s too easy, you can fucking get on amazon and order all your shit you want, you know, there’s no real regulation anymore, it used to be kind of hard to get stuff, you used to have to like–you got checked on stuff, you know what I mean? People used to check when you order stuff, they’d pull your card and make sure you were legit, I mean now, anybody can just punch in a few buttons and get it primed for the next day, that’s a bummer, but what are you gonna do?

What is the earliest memory you have of interacting with me?

God, when I was tattooing your dad back in the day, he was still the beer man, I think after a couple of times of tattooing him, he’d bring you, your brother, and your mom in, you guys were sweet kids, you would just run around the shop and play, you were pretty behaved, your brother would run around, then your dad wanted to tattoo, then he got into it, then you guys were in the shop all the time, i guess you guys were–this was mid-2000s, you can punch in the dates on that, but yeah, you guys used to come up and bring food, hang out, then your dad would go “hey man, Syd wants some sneakers, will you paint her some sneakers?” “hey man, Sydney wants these drawings, can you give her these drawings?” absolutely – “i think i still have all of the shoes” – oh my god, yeah, he used to bring me and Mac [Tyre] shoes to paint you guys all the time, i feel like you came around more than your brother did – “I can’t remember if there was a pair before these, but i clearly remember the ones with the waves and the flowers, i can’t remember if there were any before that, but those are the earliest i remember” – i think i did a pair or two for you – “i know you did those and there was a pair after that too, but my feet got bigger, so i can’t wear them anymore, but im pretty sure they are still in my closet” – that’s hilarious, that’s right, can’t wear em now, that’s tight.

Do you have any specific moments you remember that you knew a bigger influence on someone?

Oh, no, i don’t like to think so, i don’t know, i don’t know about a bigger one, maybe it’s bigger than what i would know about, i do like to think that i’ve helped people get places they want to be whether i influenced them with me as a tattooer or me as a person, as far as that kind of shit goes, maybe like a “hey don’t do that kind of thing” not necessarily tattooing, but more of a life situation, or like maybe i’ve helped somebody not do something, i don’t know, i don’t like to think about stuff like that, being influential on someone, i don’t like to think about myself like that, but i’d like to think that someone picked up a “oh i need to do that” or “i don’t need to do that” from me, that would be cool, but yeah i don’t know, that’s kind of a question that makes me feel some type of way

I’ve always dodged interview stuff, I’ve actually made other people do it for me so it’d be like a third person because i hate talking about myself, so i’d just let other people do it for me, talk about me in the third person – “see you had to do it for me” – yeah, i had to do it for you, you asked so i did it – “you’re my uncle josh, it’s like you have to” – that’s right

“Yeah, if you’re thinking about getting into tattooing, don’t, don’t do it, go to college, sell real estate, do something else, I’m just kidding, you can edit that out.”