LAL HARDY: Ay, he's a mad boy.
Come in here, you!
What you doing here?
SPEAKER 1: I've come to show you something.
That's what I wanted to show you.
[LAUGHTER]
LAL HARDY: Look at that!
He's got a picture of me tattooed, the idiot.
[LAUGHTER]
LAL HARDY: Fucking hell, man.
Go and get it and bring it out here.
SPEAKER 2: That's the only reason he got it done.
LAL HARDY: I didn't even know he'd had that done.
That's pretty freaky, you know?
VALERIE VARGAS: I think when we first started, Dad
introduced us to him because Lal's a pretty really level
headed kind of guy.
He's own a shop for a long time.
He's been in the business for a long time.
He's pretty much the perfect guy to ask anything to.
It's something really strange that kind of happens with Lal
and people like even [INAUDIBLE]
and they've been in this game for so long.
And they're still so stoked on tattooing.
They're not burnt out at all.
They don't hate people.
They don't hate customers.
They don't hate tattooing.
He's super open, super nice and I really like
his sense of humor.
He's got a really cheeky sense of humor which I like.
LAL HARDY: This flipper belonged to a tattooist who
was killed by a shark.
And then we had another one which was a customer that
didn't pay so we cut their nipple off as a punishment.
Somebody asks me-- they didn't have enough money for a
tattoo-- so they said, could they pay with this.
That's what we want.
Every shop needs a musket.
There's another one.
My name's Lal Hardy.
I'm a tattoo artist in Muzzle Hill, which is a suburb of
North London.
And I've been tattooing now--
well I probably got involved in the industry around 1975.
And the rest is history, really.
Been in this shop ever since.
Tattooing in the 1980s in London was quite an
interesting time.
A few things happened in this country.
Punk rock came along.
And I started to tattoo a lot of the punk rockers.
And they'd bring in record sleeves.
And I was doing that and got a bit of publicity for it.
And I'd written a thing for Ed Hardy's tattoo in Time
Magazine and I was getting some recognition.
I used to have my hair all different colors and I just
used to love punk rock girls and skinhead girls.
You know?
That was just--
I loved it.
I like the kind of nonconformist way that they
used to look.
And that was kind of an interesting time to grow up to
in the punk rock era.
There was a whole movement, wasn't it?
And now it's just rubbish, really, when
you think about it.
It's like everything.
You know?
You think you're going to change the world but
ultimately you don't.
SPEAKER 3: When I went to Good Time Charlie's, one of the
biggest kicks I got was seeing Jeff
Harp's Sid Vicious tattoo.
LAL HARDY: I've got a Sid Vicious done on me as well.
But really--
SPEAKER 3: Where's your Sidney?
LAL HARDY: Sid's under there.
I mean, when I think back to people still coming in and
just saying, mate, you were so crazy when you were younger.
In a way, the old time tattooist had to
be a bit of a showman.
Like just get on the counter and do a dance or something
ridiculous.
Come downstairs dressed in a pantomime outfit.
Just crazy silly things.
But that's because back then, you had to
fight for your work.
You had to A, be doing stuff that was a bit different, but
you wanted people to come for the experience as well.
I've got to say, I've got a million and one
stories and lived it.
I feel that for some of the young people, they've got
their own way of entertainment now, but they ain't had a guy
turn up in an army tank stark naked, fire a distress flare
up the street.
We had a big tree up here.
Another guy'd take all his clothes off, climb up the
tree, sitting up there just because he
thought he was funny.
Even in my shop, here, I was mad on greyhounds.
SPEAKER 4: Yeah.
LAL HARDY: I had a running machine, electric roadway,
that I used to stand a dog on so that the dog could get fit
when I was tattooing.
There used to be a massive psychiatric hospital across
the road as well.
So sometimes, you'd get people coming in that you had to sort
of direct out the shop.
It keeps you young at heart if you let it, this business.
That's one of the funny things about tattooing.
You can either become a crotchety grumpy old tattooist
or you can sort of go with the flow a bit, and pick up on
some of these things and draw from what's being offered from
talented young people coming in there.
When you get to a certain age in tattooing, you've had a
good run at it.
You've had a good time.
I think that you should promote other people, people
that are deserving of that.
People that actually inspire you.
It doesn't have to be someone who's been tattooing 50 years.
They could tattooing 50 days.
If they know what they're doing and she's one of those
people, you know, and Stewart as well.
So I just--
I don't know.
It's kind of like they're your little adopted tattoo children
that you want to see out there doing it and you want them to
succeed and do well.
VALERIE VARGAS: Oh, they're coming in.
STEWART ROBSON: You done?
LAL HARDY: Nope.
We're talking about you.
Do you mind if we come in?
STEWART ROBSON: No.
Wielding your sword.
VALERIE VARGAS: Get your sword out.
LAL HARDY: I don't very much like her work.
Rubbish.
SPEAKER 4: He said you guys were his tattoo children.
VALERIE VARGAS: Aw.
STEWART ROBSON: Sweet.