Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Ryan: My philosophy on life is to treat every single person
the way that I like to be treated.
I just try to give all of my self to everyone
and just always make a great first impression
and just be a friend to my friends, be a brother to my brothers
and be a son to my parents and just be real.
What's up, I'm Ryan Sheckler.
I'm a professional skateboarder and this is My Ink.
It's hard to explain how skateboarding makes me feel.
It's the only thing I know.
It's a freedom.
Freedom of expression and I don't have to skate like anybody else,
I don't have to dress like anyone,
I get to do what I want to do on my skateboard and be my own individual
and that's the same way with tattooing and tattoo artists.
What's my favorite one?
I like 'em all, man.
(rock music)
Me and my dad always used to watch Gladiator when I was a kid
and they would always say strength and honor.
It became kind of a little thing that me and my dad
would say to each other before a skate contest.
I told him like dude, let's get the strength and honor tattoo,
like years later let's get a strength and honor
and he's like nah man, that's lame, that's lame.
Like two days later and he's got it just blasted on his forearms,
strength and honor, and I was like god man,
alright cool I gotta go do it now.
The naked girls which are a trip.
My mom freaked out on those ones.
FooCat, it's my warrior cat.
Basically it's just a guardian.
It's the S.S. (beep) it.
I'm very patriotic, I love America and I love eagles.
I have a couple tattoos that were actually board graphics.
I broke this elbow six times and forever I was like,
I'm going to put an eyeball on that.
It's the only thing that made sense right there.
And it turned out sick.
My most significant and important tattoo on my body is skate life.
It represents everything about me.
You know, I go out and every time I go skate hard
I know I'm going to be a little bit bruised or I'm coming home cut or bleeding
and I've accepted that and I enjoyed that fact of skateboarding
because it allows me to know I'm actually working hard and trying
and so when I get my head wrapped around a nice tattoo idea,
I get the same amount of adrenaline that I do when I'm on my skateboard.
It's like you really have to commit.
You have to commit to it and you can't just start a tattoo and then be like,
ah dude no, I'm done, I'm over it.
It doesn't work that way.
So we're going to head over to Vatican Studios.
Whenever my boys want to get tattooed I'm the first one there.
The tattoo shop environment is so fun and totally is a subculture.
Yeah we're going to go back in and work on this
and try to get the whole back of this.
You know, just keep moving.
Franco: What's up baby boy?
Ready for some action?
Ryan: I kind of just want to touch up a little bit, back here.
Franco: Get some finishing touches?
Franco: Let's start right there.
Ryan: No let's not do that.
Franco: Right there, right there is good enough. (laughs)
Ryan: Franco Vescovi man, one of the best tattoo artists in the world
and he's got kind of the same, I don't know, the same ideas I guess that I do,
for what I want my body to look like.
Franco: Tried to tattoo in high school.
Guy got kicked out of school for it too.
I just never stopped.
Ryan: This tattoo, basically, is a mixture between good and evil.
Franco: It's a woman figure, a woman face.
Ryan: Oh it'll be interesting to see what she looks like, afterward.
Franco: She's sort of like half skeleton
and half pretty woman with a third eye.
I don't think any of our pieces were planned.
Kind of just trusting that it's going to look good.
Ryan: It's a huge deal of trust that I put in Franco.
He's like hey, I think this will be amazing, let me show you.
And then every time he does that I look at it and I'm like, yeah.
That would have taken me forever to think about but now that you showed me,
absolutely I want that, let's go.
And you know this is my body, it's going to be on me for the rest of my life.
Franco: I'm just trying to tattoo like he skateboards.
Ryan: When I go to the skate park or I get on my board, that is my passion.
That's the same thing when you pick up the gun, it's game on.
Franco: And it's always scary at first.
You've got to have that sense of fear
and that's what really keeps you doing your best.
Oh, oops.
Just playing.
(Ryan laughs)
Ryan: I definitely look at the tattoos every day,
I look at my fear God everyday and it just reminds me how blessed I am
to be in the position that I am in.
Get to do what you want to do and tell your own story,
you're not telling someone else's story with your ink.
It's a very personal thing.