Yesterday I got a tattoo of myself as an ice cream cone tattooed to my leg but there’s kinda an interesting story about the freelance economy that goes with it so here it goes.
It started years ago when I bought a photo of Eazy E from photographer Ricky Powell. “The Rickster” is a real inspiring dude and I collect music photography and Eazy E is one of my favorite musicians of all time. I went up to his studio to pick up the print and the two of us walked south to wherever he was going next. He ended up taking a photo of me holding the print.
Just over a year ago my buddy Buff Monster asked me to take some press photos for him. Buff did a Garbage Pail Kids spoof of his own characters called “Melty Misfits” and I loved those things so I told him I would shoot his press photos if he drew me as a Melty Misfit.
He drew me based on a photo he found on my Facebook page that happened to be the Ricky Powell photo. When he was finished it I loved the thing and I decided I would get it as a tattoo. I asked Buff if there were any tattoo artists he thought would want to do it and he mentioned Matty No Times at Three Kings.
Weirdly enough I had just run into Matty and he said that if I ever wanted to do a trade tattoo he could find some photo work for me.
It took a while, but finally I got the tattoo and now I owe Three Kings some photos so the story isn’t quite over but it’s still really cool. It’s a bunch of artists working together to get me a fun tattoo that no one will ever see because I never wear shorts.
And all I had to do was buy and Eazy E photo and Ricky gave me a deal to begin with…