- Yo, what up? - (Car honks)
Pull it over! (Laughs)
Here's another goombah.
I tattooed his father actually, and then him.
It's a generational thing.
- What up? - Yo, buddy.
- How are ya? - What are you doing?
What did I tattoo on you?
Oh, wow. You did my whole body.
- You did the rose-- - No, I didn't.
- I didn't do that. - You did that.
- I didn't do that. - Mike, you did that.
He did my whole back, look.
Oh, really?
No, somebody did that. I did-- I didn't do that.
You did my whole back, Mike. I swear.
- I did? - You did.
- You did my whole back. - Really?
- Yeah. - Was I as high as you then?
(Laughs) I don't remember.
I didn't like getting high when I tattooed.
No, because it just threw me off.
Oh, very high. (Laughs)
Yeah.
This is L'Amour's, the rock club.
All of the people from this club were like,
"Oh, man, there's a tattoo shop right over there."
So once you got primed up here,
then you went right to me.
Mikey was the go-to tattooer in New York
hardcore scene at the time.
It was like during the glamor rock year where
it had every sub species of different groups.
There was the skinheads, there were rockers,
there was a couple of guidos in there.
A lot of those hardcore kids had like a lot of like
demon-y looking things on them,
you know, a lot of gray smoke around it.
Everybody called him Mikey in Brooklyn.
Yeah, he tattooed me.
You scraped up $30.
You went to Mikey, you got tattooed.
You know, you walked around, hard as nails,
showing it off.
Their priority was getting high, getting drunk,
and then whatever I have left over,
I'll spend for a tattoo.
Mikey changed up a lot of his stuff and he had
a lot of the demons, ripped out skin, and...
you know, all that evil kind of stuff.
The opportunity was there, so he adapted.
No, actually I kind of cleaned a couple of people out.
Well, because I felt that there was no reason for them
to open up down the block from me.
I spoke softly and carried a big stick.
(Laughs)
Yeah, really. (Laughs)
I mean, I may be a clown,
but the fact of the matter is if you mess with
my business then there's a problem.
No, so I told 'em, you know, you can't, you know...
why would you pick here?
You should go somewhere else because
this is my area and...
First of all, it wasn't even legal.
So, if it wasn't legal, it was...
you know, it was right by might.
♪
He doesn't have the type of personality that
you think like this hard Brooklyn tattoo,
like he doesn't come off like that at all.
He's just mad fun to be around, you know.
But Mike could kick your ass.
The dude's a bad ass.
(Clanging)
Oh yeah, a few times.
One guy came in and he took me away from my work station,
figuring if I had any weapons they would be over there.
And he was like, he pulls out a gun,
he's like, "Give me your money."
So I looked around, like, people are panicking.
All of a sudden, I see his hand cock back,
and I grab him by his throat and
I smacked him against the wall.
His friend comes running over and he comes and
he sticks a gun to my head.
And I just blocked it with my arm and I grab him by
his peck muscle and I just twisted it upside down.
And then his friend came running in and he put a gun
right in that hollow part of my throat and I was like,
well, I'm fresh out of hands, and...
Yeah, I guess it's time to give it up.
(Laughs)
That's what happens sometimes.
Yeah, see, I'm not a trouble maker.
I'm just a clown.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
In fact, it happened on the 4th of July in 1986.
I was smoking weed. I was snorting cocaine.
I was eating mescaline like three times a week.
And every once in a while, I would smoke opium and hash.
I was getting very dangerous,
and all I know is that on the 4th of July
I almost killed somebody in cold blood for
blowing off a firecracker.
And then I realized that I am really the
black sheep of my family.
I just almost killed a fellow human being for
something that frivolous.
And I said, there's something seriously wrong with me.
♪
So, right then and there, God just smacked me
upside the head and gave me an epiphany.
When I got home, I fell on my knees
and I started to pray.
And you know, the God's honest truth,
is I went to sleep at one in the afternoon.
I got up at five in the afternoon,
and I never got high again.
♪
All things considered, wow, I wish I had time
to really do a nice one for ya.
Maybe next time, right?
Yeah.