Artist in view: Jay Freestyle
How did you get involved with tattooing and how did you find your personal style of tattooing?
I began tattooing in 2009.I started off as a piercer and my mentor was the one to actually push me to learn tattooing. I started practicing on pig skin for couple of months and once I felt confident moved onto friends and co workers. I had a lot of work done on myself by professionals and that was one of the main ways I learnt and got into the trade.
In the beginning I tattooed every style in order to get a broad range of techniques and a general understanding of all styles. Later I wanted to focus on developing something that was my own and would be recognisable as mine but at the same time a style that I would not grow bored of doing. So I basically took all the elements of different styles that I like doing and combined them into one and because my style is so loose, I always have the option to change it up if I start getting bored and it will still be recognisable as mine.
What is the thing you enjoy most in the tattoo industry?
Probably the traveling. I love visiting new countries and exploring different cultures. The ability to work almost anywhere is really appealing.
What’s something you haven’t done yet but wouldlove to tackle?(tattoo related)
I haven’t done a full body suit yet, that’s definitely something I would love to do, but it’s so hard to find someone with clean skin and is willing to commit to a full body suit.
What’s missing in the tattoo industry, what would you like to see changed?
Respect.
It would be awesome to finally be recognised as a real profession or at least not be looked down upon by society. There still isn’t a single country in the world that recognises tattooing as a real profession, it unfortunately still has that taboo connection to it. Things have changed in the last few years but you can definitely still see that many people still look down upon tattooed people and the profession in general. Governments want to tax us and create all sorts of laws to make our lives difficult but don’t want to recognise us.
Who are your biggest inspirations, or artists you admire and why?
One of my biggest inspirations is Casey Baugh, the amount of talent and charisma he has is just something I wish to achieve. All of his works are just mind blowingly amazing.
Some other artists that I admire are: Dimitri Samohin, Thomas Jarlier, Alex Pancho, Tofi, Brandon Bond, to name a few. There are many more but that list would be too long. These top few that I mentioned inspire me either because of their creativity, technical ability or work ethic.
If you could be any tattoo artist in the world for a day, who would you be and why? What would you do?
If I got to retain their knowledge or technique, I would definitely go with Dimitri Samohin, I think he is one of the best technical tattooers in the world. I would just tattoo someone, so I can feel and learn how he does it.
What’s the funniest tattoo related experience you have witnessed or heard of?
One day my wife Jenna Coffin had a client come in to book an appointment with her. He had a weird accent and asked for a tattoo on his calf, but there where some things that needed to be covered. So she thought nothing of it and proceeded to discuss design etc and asked to take a picture of the area, so she can see what needed to be covered. The guy was hesitant so they went into the back private room where she was already in the middle of tattooing someone else on their leg. So she proceeded to ask him to remove his pants so she could take a picture of his calf, he was like I’m not too comfortable taking off my pants in front of another person, she said this guy also has no pants on right now it’s ok but whatever if you want you can step further into the kitchen so there’s no one.
He proceeded to take off his pants, she picked up her iPad to take a reference photo and was like “Ok show it to me” when he turned around and whipped out his cock. With his weird accent he was talking about a cock tattoo, not a calf tattoo. She had to try act normal but in her mind she obviously was trying to not laugh at the misunderstanding. The idea was also hilarious, he wanted to make his entire cock and balls look like a dragon, there’s a famous one on internet you can google it, he wanted the same concept. In the end, I ended up doing the tattoo, it was too funny an opportunity to turn someone’s dick into a dragon.
What is the most important for avoiding bad tattoo healing?
Keep the tattoo clean, it’s the most important thing. Everything else kind of helps aid with healing but if you don’t keep it clean, the worst thing is getting an infection.
What’s your favourite tattoo convention(s) and why?
In terms of high artist level my favourite would be Milan, Paris and London, I think they’re the top conventions in the world regarding size and having the highest level of artists being an invite only show. In terms of just overall liking, Brussels and Hawaii. I’ve always liked Brussels because they put on a really good show with lot’s of entertainment and stuff to do. Hawaii is just because it’s in Hawaii, you don’t need much of a reason to want to go there, it’s so beautiful.
What’s the one topic or theme of tattoo you get asked the most?
I get the same generic crap everyone else also gets asked. Like the wolf, lion, phoenix, tree, space.
Is there a specific body part you enjoy tattooing and one you really don’t enjoy tattooing and why?
My favourite body part to tattoo is the leg, it’s a nice smooth surface to work on, it doesn’t differ too much person to person. Certain body parts can really differ like the back, many people have a deep groove in the spine.
The leg also offers many possibilities to create movement and it’s not too painful, so people can often handle much longer sessions.
My least favourite part to tattoo, is the ribs. It’s a very difficult area because it varies a lot in shape and size. It’s hard to stretch and very painful, so normally clients can’t handle long sessions on the ribs.