April 12-17 2009 Paradise Tattoo Gathering is sponsoring Seminar week at

Tattoo Artists - Cecil Porter

Email Cecil Porter
MD Tattoo Studio
Northridge, CA

I started in art around the age of 13, my dad had passed away and my mother had moved us up to where her family was. At the school I was attending I knew no one and the only people who would talk to me where these group of people who liked to draw comic characters. So in an effort to make friends I started to draw when ever I could I found out I liked it, alot. I graduated at age 16 and started working for a small independent comic book company out of Cincinnati but I was not making much money so I got a part time job where I worked one of the guys would come up to me all the time and tell me that my art was good and I should go talk to his brother who was a tattooist. I blew it off thinking that tattoos where for bikers. Keep in mind this was 10 almost 11 years ago and tattoos where not as out in the public as they are today. Well bills kept coming but money wasn't so I decided I would go talk to him and see what he had to say Instantly I knew what I thought about tattooing was wrong and that this was something I would be interested in so I asked him if he would teach me he said no. What he did do for me was tattoo me for free and give me an autoclave and said if I had any questions to call. Well I took a loan out of the bank got a couple machines and started looking for an apprenticeship. I could not find one, no one would even consider it no matter how much I bothered them. Where I am from in Ohio tattooing out of your house is no joke. They would arrest you, take your equipment and never let you tattoo in the county you were found in again so I didn't want to take that route but it seemed I didn't have a choice. I started tattooing myself and friends keeping a low profile if I knew someone who would get a tattoo, I would attempt to do it. I sucked and I knew it, so after trying to do this part time for 6 years I basically quit. For 3 years I paid tattooing almost no attention. Hating life, my job, everything. I started thinking to the last time I was happy and every time it brought me back to when I was tattooing so I started again. I started tattooing like crazy looking at everyones art and how it had changed since I was first trying to do this. I loved it! It had come so far in such a short time and I wanted to be a part of it more than ever. So I started to put the word out that I was tattooing out of my house and people just started to show up. I tattooed everything just to do it except gang related sacrilegious or raciest stuff. I didn't want to be attached to that you know. I contacted a ton of shops and the only one that didn't flat out say no was a shop an hour and a half away in Cleveland called 252tattoo so I started calling 3 times a week. After a couple weeks they let me come in and tattoo a friend in front of them. I did the tattoo and they said to leave and call back in a couple days. I didn't know what was up I didn't get a good job or its ok nothing just call in a couple days. I called 2 days later and they told me to come in and tattoo another friend. So I did and again I got the call back in a couple days so I did. This time they told me to come in alone and be there at 2 o'clock. I showed up and they had a station set up told me to tattoo till close. I had made enough money to pay my rent , in one day, I was elated. Then they came in and told me to call back in a couple days ,what the hell was going on? Well this game went on for about a month then they offered me a job and I was in a great shop for the first time since I had started tattooing. Around 4 months later I was talking to my boss and he was complaining that no one there really did any realism. I told him I would try and learn it. He told me that you either could do portraits or you couldn't and he was doubtful that I could. Well it drove me crazy to be told I couldn't do something so I bought the Josh Carlton video, watched it, lined up a free tattoo on a friend busted out a 15 mag for the first time and did my first portrait. I was hooked. I loved it. It was the most fun I ever had tattooing and I started devoting all my time to getting better at realism. A few months later Hellcity was rollin through Columbus and I knew the three guys I looked up to the most in color portraits where going to be there Nikko, Mike Devires and Roman so I took my portfolio drove three hrs and hoped to get critiqued by all three. I met all three there got critiqued by mike and roman and watched nikko work on a piece for a bit. I then took mikes seminar and after waited for him and when the crowd dispersed, I went up to him again to thank him for being so cool throughout the day. After talking to him for a minute, I asked him how do you go about getting your name out there and getting into a high profile shop. He asked to see my portfolio again and said I shouldn't have a hard time at all and didn't understand why I was having such a hard time. I told him no one wanted to hire me until 252 and he replied, "Well I would hire you." I said, "Well I wish everyone had that point of view." "No, I'll hire you.", he said, "I am opening a shop in a couple months and I have a spot open." "Hell Yeah!", I said, "If you want me to fly back with you Sunday I will." I was ready to go. He told me to e-mail him and he would get back to me. So a couple of days later I e-mailed and told him I had thought it over and wanted to move out there and work for him, his response, nothing. A couple of days later I e-mailed again and told him I wanted the job and again... nothing. So it began like clockwork; I would e-mail him every other day with all my information. About a month later he sent me an e-mail that had his phone number and said to call. Which I did as soon as I read it. I drove out 9 days later and now work for him. Realism is definitely what I enjoy to tattoo the most and would like to thank Rodney Rose. If he wouldn't have given me a shot at 252 I'd still be working out of my house ,Roman just for being so cool with me, and Mike for giving me my dream job.