As a new school specialist, Jesse Smith feeds his overflowing imagination with mischievous creatures with bulging eyes or animals straight out of a cartoon. He could have had a brilliant career in the army but his passion for drawing has taken over, so why not give it a try? Wise decision! In 2011, he creates his shop Loose Screw Tattoo in Richmond, the city where he organizes the famous convention. Prolific and committed artist, Jesse Smith also participated in the Ink Master show, American compe-tition for the best tattoo artist.
Can you introduce yourself? Where are you from?
My name is Jesse Smith and I tattoo in Richmond, Virginia in the US. I grew up over the world cause my father was in the military. I have lived in Germany for 3 years, Italy for 3 years and England for a year. I went to college in Richmond studying art and I also studied in London. I’ve been tattooing for 23 years and I was on Ink Master TV show for a couple of seasons.
Ok so you know Europe very well.
My dad lived there for 23 years so I go back and visit almost every year for a little while. I've been in most European countries. I tattooed with Electrik Pick in Berlin, for Conspiracy in Denmark, with Bugs in London and in Spain.
How did you become a tattoo artist?
I was in the US army and I was doing art. I met a guy named Carlos who had just gotten out of prison and was tattooing at home. He was using a toothbrush and a sewing needle. I draw with him and hang out at his house. One day he said « hey you want to do a tattoo? » and I said « sure ». And I did my first tattoo.
What an amazing start! How long ago was it? How long have you been tattooing?
It was in 1998 when I started. It was pretty crazy, I never really thought I would be a tattoo artist. I used to draw caricatures and airbrushing. I started doing graffiti in Germany in 1993. I just loved graffiti scene and I brought it in tattooing.
This job wasn't planned, it was not you life goal. Can you tell me about your tattoo carreer?
I started in 1998, and probably until 2005, I was doing all tattoos. I was doing my style but also portraits, realism and stuff like that. And I met Electric Pick in the first Chinese tattoo convention in Beijing. I saw him, I didn't even know his work and I was like « hey what's up man » and I showed my portfolio. He asked « why do you have this realism in your portfolio? ». I never thought about it. And he said « you have a style, you should stick to your style. » What he said made a lot of sense to me. When I came back to the US I had 2 portfolios, one for realism and one for my custom. It was a very hard thing for me to do cause I had a lot of attention for my realism. But I did agree with him. One was copying and the other one was creating. And people started to say « oh this is a Jesse Smith tattoo. » My tattoos reflect my personnality.
How did you developp your style? How can you describe it?
I grew up 44 years old ago. In US there was saturday cartoons from 5 in the morning until noon. We watched all these cartoons and video games, skateboarding, and skateboard magazines. When I got older I went into graffiti. And I just put all that stuff in my tattoos. I also have been influenced by tattoo artists like Tim Biedron, Jime Litwalk and many new school artists before. And I started to be inspired by the lowbrow art movement. I was really influenced by graffiti artist Toast, his real name is Ata Bozaci. He is a European graffiti artist who do a lot of characters. I was a big fan. The German graffiti scene was awesome.
Do you think you have created your own style?
I never really thouht I have my own style. People start to say « oh i love your style » so I think I have a style but it's hard for me to see it. When you look in the mirror, you see yourself but you don't really know what you look like. I see my stuff all the time so it looks normal to me but reactions I get from everyone around is « oh man it's so different from anyone else ».
What are you main inspirations?
I'm really interested in the way people think, in social dynamics. All my characters are, if they're really evil, there's always kindness in them. Have you ever watched Grey's Anatomy? Shonda Rhimes, the one who wrote it, she's very good at making you see a full spectrum of human. You know Bailey, she's always mean but she's human and everyone can see her sad. So when I create my characters I want them to have that spectrum. I don't want them to be purely evil or purely happy or nice.
How did you learn how to draw?
I draw all the time. When I was younger, my father asked « what do you wanna do when you grow up? » and I said « I wanna be an artist ». My father was always supportive with all I wanna do but he told me that « it’s cool to be an artist but you should have a back up plan because art is very difficult to make money ». So I wanted to be a marine biologist cause I love the ocean. I went to the army to get the college money. And when I was at the army, I was always drawing so I get some recognition. When my 3 years were done, they asked me « hey do you want to re enlist ? » I remember I was « ok if I stay in the army, I guarantee stability and at the age of 38 I can retire and relax ». And the other option was to go to art school and see if I can make it as an artist. I remember thinking if I don’t go to college and try to be an artist I will always wonder if I could have made it. And if it doesn’t work, at least I tried. At the end, I’m not rich, it’s definitely a lot of work but it’s very fruitful and very satisfying. I’m definitly glad I had the decision.
You draw on skin, paper, walls and clothes. What do you prefer?
I like creating in general. When we do April Fools jokes, we make 15 000 parking tickets and put it on cars. When people see and open it, it’s April fools! And it’s $15 off for your next tattoo at Loose Screw Tattoo. It is fun and maintains my creative brain.
When and why did you open your shop Loose Screw Tattoo?
When I opened my shop I was tattooing for 14 years, in 2011. I worked in a lot of tattoo shops because I moved a lot. I went from Richmond to London and then to Florida and Norfolk. I decided that I wanted to create my own place. I also wanted to create an better environnement for custom tattooing. At that time I had like 300 people on my waiting list. With coronavirus, it’s good to have a shop which is always busy, a mix between a production shop and a custom shop. In may 2021 the shop will be 10 years. It’s been a roller coaster. Great things happened in the shop but also traumatic things like people from my shop opening a tattoo shop accross the street, it’s very hurtful. But it’s great when your shop is successful and a lot of people want to get a tattoo there and you have good reviews.
Now that you’re world re-knowed, do you have more foreign or local clients?
I would say most of people are coming from out of town, like 80 %. I have people coming from Australia, Europe and Canada. Not so much from South America where I have a big fan basis but they don’t have so much money to fly for a tattoo. And not so much from Asia. I do a lot of traveling in South America, my girlfriend is Peruvian, so I’ve done almost every country in South America. They really love tattoo culture and new school style so I get a lot of recognition down there so I charge less cause they can’t afford.
You will be judge for Tattoo Award, can you tell me more about this?
Tattoo Award approached me a while ago. They wanted me to be involved. It’s an online tattoo competition. Now I’m judging the new school competition. Every month there is a best new school. People win points and they can win the one year competition. It’s only online. There’s no show.
You’re also involved in fashion creation with your own clothing brand « One Trick Pony Apparel ». Why do you want to change your support and create on clothes?
« One Trick Pony » comes from Ink Master TV show. When I was on season 2, they called me One Trick Pony cause I only do one style. Even before tattooing I was making t-shirts. I don’t make a lot of money from it, I just like doing it. There is a lot of people who really like my art but they don’t want to get my tattoos. My goal has always been to give my artwork to as many people as I can. I want to see people with my artwork.
I discovered you years ago in Ink Master TV show. Did this show change something to your carreer?
Yes, definitely. In a lot of levels. First, more people knew about me because of the TV show. I also learned about myself, my strengths and my weaknesses. I learned a lot about marketing and the way people percieve you. After the show I focused on my style and being a better artist. I bring some japanese, traditional and black and grey in my style. Artistically it really helped out a lot. But you realize people don’t think like you. No matter who you are, if you’re are on TV, you have negative comments.
As Richmond Convention organizer, what is your best memory?
The Richmond Convention is about 28 years. Before, it was a tattoo club. All the very big tattoo artists were coming like Lyle Tuttle and Paul Rogers and just hang out and tattoo. And in 1993, they started the real convention in the same hotel. Every good artist in the world was coming to Richmond Convention. Good tattoos bring good tattoo artists bring good clients. In 2010, Billy Eason passed away and gave the convention to his daughter. They ended up giving the convention to me.
How would you like this convention to evolve?
I think my goal is to help build a bridge between tattoo community and art community. When I started tattooing, most of tattoo artists weren’t artists, they just enjoyed doing tattoos. And most artists didn’t know that tattoo is art. My goal with this convention is to merge. I really would like to see an art convention with many tattoos in it. Last year we had amazing painters. And they paint for charities 4 foot by 4 foot and we made an auction.
I have read about George Floyd wall you made for an auction. Can you tell more about this experi-ence?
It was pretty crazy. I’m sure you’re familiar with the George Floyd situation when the cops were on his neck and let him die. When you see that video, you can’t help but feel sad. And black people in the US were feeling sad ans start telling their stories about how they’ve been treated through their life. I wanted to do something so I did a mural of George Floyd as a memorial for him. But a lot of people in the US do not agree with the Black Lives Matter movement saying he was a criminal. So i ended up losing a lot of fans. I don’t mind loosing fans when I believe in something.
Is it linked to Giving Arts Foundation? What is the goal?
It’s a non-profit organization I started because I was doing a lot of charity since I opened my tattoo shop. Usually 3 or 4 events a year when we create art and all the money we get from this art we give it to charity. So I wanted to have a charity to give and know where money is going to. And also because I love the ocean. A lot of work we’re trying to do with this charity is to donate to ocean and environment awareness. I got all the things I love in one place.
Do you want to tell me something more about you?
I don’t know how many people know this but I created Carkayous, a fake cartoon net and all my creatures and characters live there. If I make a tattoo on you, it can be connected to someone else tattoo. Everything lives in this world. I’m still working on it, it’s like a little project in the background and gather all the things together. The story of Carkayous is that it’s always been there but the government and pharmaceutical companies are hiding from us because they do a lot of animal testing and bad things there. I juste discovered this ten years ago and trying to raise awareness and the foundation is to try to save the animals and clean up the environement and stuff like that. If you follow my characters online you can see they have a story, some of them are really evil, others are friendly. @jessesmithtattoos @loosescrewtattoo @onetrickponybrand @richmondtattooconvention @givingartsfoundation https://carkayous.com/
