GRIME: Quality.
Put it on large.
-What was it on before?
GRIME: I put it on small, man.
Because I was taking photos of shit that didn't matter.
You got to pay attention to that stuff.
All right, [INAUDIBLE].
-Ready?
GRIME: Yeah, man.
Let's put some stencil on you.
God, I really tweaked out on that little city.
Fuck, it's like way nicer than I thought.
I can't believe I have to fucking match that.
Fuck, why did I do that?
It's way too much work.
Shit, shit, shit, shit.
Did I really do it that it looks that good somehow?
It looks that good?
And why did I put that much work into it?
Now I have to do it again.
I can do it again though.
I can do it again.
I can manage it.
CIV: When you're dealing with people who are their harshest
critics, the work's going to be amazing.
And I think Grime's been pushing himself
so hard for so long.
We spoke about it a long time ago.
And I said to him, do you think if you didn't have the
accident when you were a kid that you would push yourself
as hard as you do?
Are you trying to prove something because of the burns
and because of the accident?
And he's like, of course I am.
I make myself push myself more because of what happened.
And he's super honest about it and that made sense to me.
No one is going to be able to work as hard as him unless
they're him.
And I'm not speaking for him, this is my own
perception of it.
You don't have this insane hurdle that he
deals with every day.
So the way he gets over that hurdle is by crushing
everybody in tattooing.
GRIME: I don't think there's a lot of difference between my
work and a lot of people's work besides I think I'm able
to get my personality through in a lot of my work.
They probably think I'm kind of crazy.
That's probably what I think.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: Everybody across the board has complete
respect for Grime.
Whether you love his style, or just kind of like it, or don't
like it all, you can appreciate the work
that went into it.
GRIME: There's only so much that I could seek for outside
[INAUDIBLE].
I'm not so insecure that I'm going to get rattled by some
people going I don't know.
I don't know if he's that good, or I
don't like his tattoos.
Not to say if everybody in the world thinks my tattoos suck
and I think they're great, I'm going to be walking around
thinking I'm king shit of turd island.
But if I can get reward out of it, then for me then it's
nice, you know?
HENRY LEWIS: We have people coming from all over the world
mainly to see Grime, because that's his spot.
And the guy's been consistent ever since I've met him.
He's always been a cool cat and he's
always spoke his mind.
But he hasn't been Mr. Tattoo Ego Tattatude guy, so I
appreciate that.
-What is the name of your shop?
GRIME: Skull and Sword.
-Who works there?
GRIME: Me, Yutaro Sakai, Henry Lewis, and Lango.
They seek, I think, along the same lines as I do.
They're not trying to be on a TV show,
or be fucking whatever.
They're trying to do work.
They want to improve their work-- that's
important to them.
They're not interested in being a famous tattoo person.
They seek satisfaction from the work itself.
HENRY LEWIS: Every day is like there's something new to be
learned from anyone.
It's funny, we have this dynamic in the shop where
Grime and Yutaro are the older cats and on the
more technical side.
And they're a little quieter than we are.
And then Lango and I, we control the back room.
We're a little loud and mad--
personally expressive.
But that dynamic in the shop just works really well with
each other.
Because everyone has something to bring to the table, no
matter what.
He's a little quieter until you rouse him a little, he's
like right with all the boys.
GRIME: What happened?
What happened to the girl that you were thinking was probably
really good marrying material because she doesn't do coke?
Remember her?
That was amazing.
CIV: I think when Grime and I first met we connected on a
wise ass level, because we didn't know each other at all.
I had these sunglasses on that I thought were super cool and
I thought, break the ice.
And I just like, dude, stop sweating my sunglasses.
I was like, do you want to try them on?
And without missing a beat he goes no, thanks, I don't have
any fucking ears, so how would I try them on?
So I was like aw, man.
And he just started cracking up and the other
dudes started laughing.
He's like you see his face?
See his face?
I fucking got him.
And I was like, oh my God, this guy's a
complete dick, got it.
All right, cool.
So then that was kind of how it was, which was back and
forth breaking each other's balls kind of a thing.
You guys have a wide angle lens
enough for Grime's hairdo?
HENRY LEWIS: I think people are in love with his
personality more than anything and then the work is like an
extra bonus.
No two pieces are the exact same, ever--
that's ill.
Like every day is something new.
YUTARO SAKAI: His technique is amazing.
And also, after he's been tattooing for 17-18 years and
he's still managed to progress every time.
That's incredible, I think.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: A lot of the guys that work with him can't
help but be influenced by his work, working with him on a
daily basis.
He has his own look.
So the shop has got a certain look that's unique to itself.
I think a big part of what makes up their look is detail
and effects and then drawing skill.
And the ability to do something unique.
And the desire to create something unique and not just
adapt to what's come before them.
LANGO OLIVEIRA: There's a lot of good tattooers out there.
But not a lot of people push stuff to the limit and he's
been doing that for a long time.
GRIME: I definitely could express myself in certain ways
because I have a lot of freedom with my clients.
And I'm really fortunate they let me just
push some of the stuff.
Like, they say I want a skull on my back.
Then I get to go, OK, well, what do I want that
thing to look like?
Or what are we going to do with it?
You can try to create expression or something,
whatever it is--
an idea or a look.
And to me that's very satisfying to be able to do
that and to see it.
Even though most of the time I don't really like looking at
my tattoos afterwards.
It's like a hypercritical eye or something.
Sometimes it's just having expectation of seeing
something that's not fully finished yet, and wanting it
to look better.
CIV: When Grime's tattooing you, if he starts with single
needle stuff it's the most evil, brutal shit and he's
kind of like laughing about it.
So it's like you're kind of thinking
what's wrong with him?
He works feverishly to a point where you think there's a gun
to his head for some reason.
You don't know why he's trying to work so fast and so crazy
and kind of talking to himself.
Because if you know him, it's just 10,000 things are going
around in his head.
It's like a hornet's nest in there, so his hands are just
keeping up.
I was actually talking to my girlfriend on the way here.
She said something like Grime's style is really weird.
And I said, it is?
She's like, it's beautiful, but it's weird.
It's his thing.
I'd say Grime's stuff is tweaky.
Everything is so tweaked out and so overdone, but with
enough restraint where it doesn't fuck it up.
HENRY LEWIS: He had this piece in the "Iron Will" book, and
it was like a vampire woman.
There was no line work in her bottom jaw.
And her bottom jaw was like this big black gaspy mouth.
And for some reason-- like, it's something new, but you
could tell it was based off a traditional.
Or he did like a snake and a bell, and then the snake's
made out of this really weird smoke and dots--
that type of stuff.
That's coming from his head, that's his style.
And that's the type of stuff I like that pushes me.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: To me he seemed very almost angry at
the idea of the status quo.
Like conforming to a style or not putting
your mark on something.
Like it had to be unique or it wasn't worth doing at all.
He's very almost obsessive about getting away from any
kind of mediocre quality.
GRIME: I think about art a lot.
I think about what I want tattoos to look like.
I think about the things I like and don't in tattooing,
in my own work or other people's
work, and I apply those.
I think about that stuff a lot.
I try to execute in a way so that I can get the most amount
of visual pleasure from my work, both in impact and the
dynamic aspect--
those are really important to me.
I have pieces that I actually like.
Tomorrow, the guy I'm tattooing, he's got a sleeve I
really like.
It's kind of older now, but I still really like it.
I wouldn't do the same one again, but overall I really
like the tattoo.
It moves really well on his arm.
I like the way it looks.
I like the colors.
I mean, not to sound too full of myself, I don't think it
looks like anyone else's work.
To me that's very important--
I don't want my work to look like other people's work.
I want it to look like what I did.
If I can't distinguish my work from two other guys, well
maybe they should just do the tattoos.
What am I here for?
To me there's some of that involved in tattooing.
I want to look at work that I've done and go oh, wow,
that's cool.
I created that.
I put a lot of energy into that.
I put a lot of conception into that.
And wow, look, it kind of came together.
It kind of gelled together after all that work and all
that thought and everything else.
Because we don't have a lot.
The tattoos go away.
It's nice to see them sometimes and then to have a
good photo is sometimes nice.
We'll have tracings that you think I should throw way.
Besides that, I don't have much of tattooing.