Art and Style; Tattoos the Turning Point way
I have always had a strong like of
tribal tattoos and I have been sitting on the idea of a ¾ sleeve that goes from
my wrist up for quite a few years, so when the opportunity arose for my 10th
tattoo I knew exactly the route I wanted to go. The opportunity came about
through an up and coming artist named Jordan Madere who is slinging his ink at
a local shop in Mandeville called Turning Point Tattoos. Jordan had spent a
couple of years apprenticing at different shops and was mid-transition with his
life as an artist when he got the call from Turning Point shop owner Eric Fox
to come and start working for him. Jordan immediately knew that this
was the right place for him.
I hooked up with Jordan and set
up a time to get together and discuss my artwork. The particular tribal I
wanted was a pseudo Maori design and I was very excited to see what he had to
say. Jordan
was pleased to be doing a large piece to add to his portfolio and we laid out
the parameters of what I wanted. For those who don’t know much about tattoo
shops and tattooing in general, here is a little tattoo 101. If you walk into a
shop and they have a ton of picture boards along the walls and albums that you
“pick” your design from, that is flash tattoos. The shop buys stencils of these
tattoos and they go to a file and pick out the one you chose and apply it and
get to work. This is the same tattoo that ANYONE can, and probably has, chosen.
Avoid this route, please. Instead check out custom tattoo shops like Turning
Point, no flash on the walls, only CUSTOM, one of a kind tattoos, that are
drawn up by actual artists specific to each clients desires.
After Jordan and I met he said he
was going to shoot me an email with some designs. I anxiously waited for the
first draft and after day 2 it showed up in my inbox. I was happy with the way
it was heading and Jordan
was very insistent that I critiqued his design thoroughly so he could make the
changes so it could be exactly how I envisioned it. So I did and a few days
later draft 2 showed up and I was even more pleased, it was getting closer and
closer to my vision. I had seen other things Jordan had created in other
mediums and I was confident in his ability as an artist so one day when we were
shooting texts back and forth I made the suggestion that he freehand the design
as I sat in the chair and just let it flow out and see where it takes us. He
was very much on board for that and we decided that we would keep the designs
he had already worked on as back ups in case the freestyle experiment didn’t
work out.
Tattoo day had arrived and I was
excited because I love the whole tattoo experience from beginning to end. My
appointment was for 4 pm
and as the day progressed I was getting more and more stoked about getting in
the chair again for a big piece. I hadn’t gotten anything large since the half
sleeve on my left arm in 1997 and I had only gotten a few small pieces in the
time since. I said my goodbyes to my family and the kids all looked at my bare
right arm one last time and wished me luck as I fired up my bike to head to the
shop. Turning Point sits on Monroe
St just a few yards east of Lafitte St. in Old Mandeville and is very
easy to get to. As you pull up to Turning Point they have a nice large sign in
the front yard that has always reminded me of urban graffiti. The shop itself
is in a classic old Mandeville house turned business. It’s a one story raised
house with a covered front porch. the
right of the house is a gravel driveway that leads to ample parking in the
back. I pulled in and rode to the back to park my chop. The back of the shop is
where the handicap ramp and employee entrance is and there is a sign that says
to use the front door. I made my way up front and Jordan was sitting outside on the
porch enjoy the weather. We said our greetings and headed inside. When you walk
in the front door you enter into a large long hallway with several doors on
each side. The walls are decorated with lots of great artwork ranging from Gwar
band posters to Texas Chainsaw Massacre Movie posters. The inside of the house
has the classic high ceilings and the floor is covered in the original hardwood
floors. The mood is muted but paradoxically riddled with an energy that
accompanies an atmosphere of creativity. You don’t walk into every tattoo shop
and get a feeling of such crisp and solid décor that invokes the individuality
that exists with the artist. And make no mistake this shop is just as much an
art studio than it is anything else. The craft of tattooing just happens to be
the medium of choice. Throughout the shop you also see examples of art in
several different mediums created by the artists who work there.
Jordan led me to a room in the left
back which housed his work station. I have several tattoos so the experience
was not alien to me as he began to set up his supplies. Like I said earlier I
had been sitting on this design for awhile and Jordan and I had communicated
lots of ideas to each other. So after a quick shave of the canvas Jordan got to
work free handing design in marker, occasionally stopping to ask me what I
thought about the design, making sure it was exactly what I wanted. Going into
this first session we didn’t really know what to expect as far as design time
but Jordan
slammed it out with a few tweaks and redos in just over an hour and a half.
It’s cool to see an artist work, watching the creativity flow especially when
the canvas is your skin, but that’s just the Turning Point way, custom tattoos.
This first session was going to be
just the design and outline, which for a ¾ sleeve was a large task, a total of
almost 8 hours large. We finished just after midnight and I was extremely happy with the results. It
had been a long time since I sat under the needle that long and the 6 hours was
a challenge for me. During the session lots of people came in to the shop to
check it out and several customers came through to get smaller tattoos. The mood
is always good and the conversation is as diverse as the clientele. Jordan and
I were both excited and pleased with the results. The next day I picked up a
day gig which had me all over both sides of the lake and I got quite a few
compliments on just the outline.
The second
session came two weeks later after the outline had healed up. The approach to
the fill was the same as the outline, we had a few guidelines to go by but it
was really up to what Jordan
created as an artist. Once again this as going to be an epic session as our
goal was to finish it that day. And once again the tattoo gods delivered with a
beefy 8 hour session. Lets just say that I have my tattoo fix for awhile. After
about hour 5 of needle time I was spent but it was really important to me that
I finished it regardless. For me tattoos represent a right of passage and they
are supposed to hurt. Perhaps it’s a little macho bravado from my youthful view
of tattoos but I like it and I’m not going to let it go. Through suffering we
become stronger. The pain helps us forge our spirits in the fires of the suffering
that is our material form. (ok no more metaphysical mumbo jumbo, I promise)
The tattoo
turned out amazing and I am extremely happy that I got hooked up with Jordan
and Turning Point Tattoos. I get tons of compliments on it and I can mark one
more thing off my list of things to do in life (this one fulfills get a
sleeve). Now that my tattoo is done and I have experienced the Turning Point
way, I thought I would sit down with both Jordan and shop owner, Eric Fox, for
a quick little interview, here’s what they have to say
The Interviews
Interview #1 - Jordan Madere
GGS&T - How long have you been into art?
Jordan - Art is something I have always
been doing since I was a small child. My mom really took the time to make sure
I had the opportunity to sit down and practice. At an early age I was into
painting and make my own little comics. Since then it’s evolved into the only
way I know how to express myself
GGS&T - How Long Have you been into tattooing
Jordan - Tattooing was something I always
enjoyed looking at since I was a teenager and the idea appealed to me that I am
changing people’s lives by tattooing them. I would spend hours practicing
lettering and different art styles but it wasn’t until recently that I actually
wound up falling into tattooing. It was something that I had been thinking
about and ultimately preparing myself for for the last 15 years.
GGS&T - If someone came in and gave you
free reign to design whatever you wanted, what would be the subject matter?
Jordan - I always lean towards the sci-fi
whether its art or movies or even music. There are bands that use that as a
subject matter. So space scenes, creatures, that’s always been what I oriented
towards, in pencil art or paint and now tattooing. That’s what I’m gonna bring
to the table.
GGS&T - What are your goals as a tattoo
artist, where do you see yourself going in let’s say the next 5 years.
Jordan - Early on it’s all about
strengthening my techniques, making sure I’m holding to traditions but also
what I know I can do on paper and what I can do with paint. Once I have those
down I have several travel plans I want to pursue. But right now it’s all about
Turning Point and its all about what I can do here.
GGS&T Whats your favorite food.
Jordan - My favorite food? (laughing). History would say Ramen.
(everyone laughing) It would probably be Mexican Food, I love Mexican food.
Interview #2 - Eric Fox
GGS&T - How long have you been tattooing?
Eric - 14 years
GGS&T - What made you want to get into tattooing?
Eric - Oh man, I don’t
know. I remember always having an infatuation with it when I was little,
sticking fake tattoos on myself and then drawing on myself with a sharpie in
high school and making shirts and such. I just always had an interest in it.
And then I ended up hooking up with some people that actually gave me the time
of day to actually teach me how to do it.
GGS&T - Do you have other mediums you like to work in other than
skin and ink?
Eric - Yeah, mainly a lot
of pen and ink and I also like working with clay.
GGS&T - growing up what were your artistic influences?
Eric - I
think it’s a combination. I have always been into metal so the death metal
album covers of the 80’s by artist like Dan Seagrave. Guys like that. So a
mixture of that and cartoons like Ren and Stimpy, a bizarre mixture of
morbid and hilarious.
GGS&T - What made you want to open up a tattoo shop
Eric - I
guess one day I decided tattooing was gonna be it for me. It just all I
wanted to do. I wanted a place where I could let artist just do what they
wanted to do and express themselves man. It had to be done. It was hell
trying to get open in Mandeville but we got it done anyway.
GGS&T - . It’s a great shop. Did you put a lot of thought into the
décor or did it just come out natural?
Eric - I
started out thinking about it a lot. Trying to color coordinate, or not
color coordinate for that matter. And then it just became a museum of stuff
people gave us or I've collected over the years.
GGS&T - As far as where the industry is at, as a shop owner,
where do you see the industry at and where would you like to see it go.
Eric - Right
now it’s the biggest I’ve ever seen it in my 14 years, which is great, but
at the same time I do worry about the mainstream culture turning it into
such a fad. But in the end all the real people are gonna still be getting
tattooed. Either way we'll be here whether it’s busy or not.
GGS&T - If you could be any kind of animal what would it be?
Eric - Oh man, an animal. I guess it would have to be a wolf. I
have always liked wolves. I don’t know, it’s just something about those guys,
they seem like they have it going on. Hunting with the pack and everything,
definitely a wolf.
