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>>Erik: What inspired the sleeve tattoos and how do they reflect on who you are as a person?
>>Joe: I`ve always appreciated the art and have considered the tattoo an art form. It
is an interesting art form in that it takes traditional artistry on a very difficult canvas
and intertwines a human with a piece of art. They are inextricably tied at that point.
It is very intimidating to walk into a tattoo parlor with all these rough and tumble guys
and what not and I never felt comfortable doing it. I had always wanted a half sleeve.
That was something I always wanted. Then I went to Thailand for the first time and I
saw them doing bamboo tattoos which is a traditional hand pump, prick, prick, prick, and they do
it out in the open out on the beach kind of thing. I saw it and I was like ``I gotta to
do this. I gotta get this done.`` That`s when I got this first half sleeve, which is a large
lotus and a dragon. And I had this idea formulating once I got this one done that I wanted a north
pacific giant octopus wrapping down my whole arm. I found a guy in San Francisco who is
a six foot three total white bread dude who was born and raised in Japan. His native tongue
is Japanese. The thing with traditional Japanese style tattoos is that they normally tell a
story, there is a lot of folklore involved and there are very strict rules. So I had
him do the North Pacific Giant octopus. And I got that because the octopus by nature are
mischievous creatures, they are solitary creatures, and the North Pacific giant octopus is enormous
and prefers the Pacific northwest and I felt there were a lot of analogies to my own personality.