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[MUSIC PLAYING]
TROY DENNING: I've always just liked warrior type of ***.
Maybe it goes back to being like a fantasy nerd, or
something like that.
I've just always loved swords, knives, guns.
And just how the sword is like the universal symbol for man.
And that's always what I thought was so fascinating
about tattooing, is that you're connecting to this
universal timeline, as being a savage, and just living for
yourself, and saying, *** the world.
That's always been part of the way I felt, as well.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I live my life by the Highlander code.
Yeah, there can be only one.
Whoa.
Keeping it brutal.
Ya ta tyeh ta ta tyeh.
Yah ba ba ba byuh.
Where's my ***' [INAUDIBLE]
CHRIS O'DONNELL: Troy's personality can kind of
overwhelm people.
He just looks like this super tough crazy guy.
Just an intense person like that.
I think people are surprised to see that he's actually
really good at tattooing, too.
How can you be this character and be a
really talented artist?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
KIKU: Troy's tattoo style show his personality, though.
Super wild.
Super powerful and strong.
That's the way tattoo should look.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: Troy is known for a style that's refined,
Japanese style.
And everything's oversized.
Everything is bigger than normal, which is really, to
me, more powerful.
I'm trying to do that myself.
Everything just has a thickness to it.
A toughness to it.
TROY DENNING: I've always just been so in
love with that style.
It's so simple, and yet really elegant.
American Japanese is its own style as well.
Like our American interpretations of that style
is its own animal.
The subject matter may be the same to an outsider, but the
application and everything is definitely, I think, what
makes it American style.
Hard outline, hard black, color.
And I definitely am not one of these American guys that gets
out there wearing a kimono, and *** being ridiculous
and trying to be Japanese.
I think the tattoos look really cool, and I like a lot
of elements of that culture.
But I'm pretty solid with my own identity.
JEB MAYKUT: I first met Troy in--
I think it was 2002 or 2003, at New York Adorned when I was
assisting there.
When you first meet him, Troy isn't this boisterous kind.
He's kind of quiet until he kind of warms up, and then
he's just in his own world.
TROY DENNING: The foo dog on the ribs is awesome.
Can you cover up the package?
Can you cover up your *** in the neck so
we can get the full--
you know what I'm saying?
-How do you want me to pull--
TROY DENNING: Pull your pants down.
-You can do that.
-Hold on.
What do you want me to do?
TROY DENNING: I'll hold it, dude.
I'll cover it with my head.
I'm talking dude, come on.
-Like that?
TROY DENNING: Yeah, but pull it down further.
Yes.
Now, a little bit further.
I love that tattoo.
Can I get a photo?
-Yeah.
It's a good tattoo.
TROY DENNING: Take 'em off.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: Troy is brilliant, really.
I mean he is one of the funniest people I know.
I say this sincerely.
He's just a brilliant guy.
TROY DENNING: Ben.
One of a ***.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: Troy had arrived in New York City to
start working at Adorned.
We worked together.
We sort of shared the we're new to New York City
excitement.
Troy is just an animated guy.
Yeah.
He doesn't punch the air ever.
Not that I can ever--
Well, yeah, he does actually do that.
He really does.
We worked together at Adorned, and he just decided he wanted
to work for himself.
And he needs a man--
He really wanted to have his own legacy.
He can't really sit still for too long.
And working at the same shop for years doesn't really suit
his personality.
I think he really needed to go out and figure out
what he could do.
TROY DENNING: Oh, it looks so good.
It's exciting.
This one's got to be here.
I never really wanted to own a tattoo shop.
My friends at the time that had previously owned shops and
then had just given them up, they seemed to reflect on it
kind of negatively.
And they're like, it's better to just be free and just do
your thing.
But somebody else's experience doesn't have to be yours.
Like you always have the opportunity to change things
and make them differently.
So I initially anticipated just being a one person show.
Within a week, there was already people
beating down the door.
Like these hungry kids that really wanted to up their game
and move on to somewhere new.
And so now in hindsight, it's the best thing I've ever done.
-How long have you been in this location?
TROY DENNING: Six years.
JEB MAYKUT: When the shop opened, I initially was just
the assistant.
I was floor ***.
I was getting their coffees.
Trying to clean up after these guys, which is a
27 hour a day job.
Each person had their very own identity.
-Ta da!
JEB MAYKUT: I was kind of like wrestling them all into their
job all the time.
-A lot of man heat back here.
-Man heat?
-Man heat.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: When you go in to visit Troy, he
definitely has an entourage.
People get tattooed by him, and they end up just hanging
out with him a lot because he's fun.
He's definitely got an ongoing sort of party.
JEB MAYKUT: Invisible, I would say, is like no
other shop in the world.
Troy, I think his personality is absolutely
reflected in that shop.
There's no rules.
I could see people getting really offended sometimes,
when they're in there, just because you can say whatever
you want to say at any time.
TROY DENNING: For some reason, gay men always think it's a
really cool way to show me tattoos is to bring me ***.
It's got after scene with a dude tattoo that
they want in it.
And they somehow think that you are going to watch that
video to see that tattoo somehow.
Yeah.
It's pretty awesome.
KIKU: This shop is always fun, even during the day.
There is always something going on.
Yeah, because of Troy's personality, though.
He's a wild man.
Super wild man.
TROY DENNING: Who was that dude from Philly?
He had a bunch of bullet holes in him.
And his whole body was girls sucking ***,
and *** like that.
Did you ever see that guy?
And then it was like his belly button was a chick bending
over, like where you could stick your finger in the butt.
And all this kind of stuff.
But I was always amazed.
Just the balls.
So it would be like, no man.
Dude.
No, dude, totally, I want you to be able to stick your thumb
in her butt.
Little break?
Ah.
We're almost done for today.
You like?
Damn right, we are, samurai mama.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: Troy is very ADD in a lot of ways.
I used to always, oh, look at Troy.
It's a magazine break.
Time for a magazine break.
Because he would just take a break.
He'd get up and he'd just walk around for a second, sit down
and start reading magazines right on the couch next to me.
What are you doing?
Get back to work.
JEB MAYKUT: Oh, Troy, while he's tattooing someone, you're
in for the long haul because you'll start getting tattooed.
In the middle of the line, he'll just get up and make you
watch a YouTube video.
He'll get up and he'll put a Joe Frank hour long rant that
no one else can listen to but Troy.
-He threw wild parties that sometimes
lasted entire weekends.
People smoked pot, downed various psychedelic drugs, did
lines of coke, and drank until they passed out.
JEB MAYKUT: He's crazy.
But the thing is, the end result is amazing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JEB MAYKUT: I've always said, he's a real true artist in the
sense of, he's just crazy as hell.
He's a free bird, man.
You can't cage him.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: He's just hyperactive in his mind.
He'll work really, really hard, and then he'll want to
go out and celebrate.
TROY DENNING: We almost ready?
Let's go.
Ikmashou.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: He's just full on in every direction.
And it's great.
It's really actually really fun to be around.
TROY DENNING: Thank you.
Do you want to get in front, Kiku?
How you doing?
We're going at 9th Street and 3rd Avenue.
I moved to New York with these ambitions of
taking over the city.
Of being like, I'm just going to work.
Put my nose to the grindstone.
I'm going to do the best work of my career.
I barely drank.
I didn't go out.
I definitely didn't go to bars at all.
After one night being in the hot ***, ***, sweat box
apartment with my dog, Garber calls me up.
He's like, hey, homes.
We're at a bar right down the street.
I was like, dude, I'm there.
I got to get the *** out of here.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
KIKU: I think we eat the most Japanese food
in any type of shop.
Don't you think?
DAMIAN RODRIGUEZ: How can you describe Troy as a person?
He loves living.
He loves living every minute to the fullest.
And it's hard to keep up with, and sometimes, I will admit.
I've tried.
Usually I tap out.
JEB MAYKUT: When we started the apprenticeship, it was the
same exact week that he was getting divorced.
That's the week that everything changed.
We always joked at Invisible.
We called it the dark period.
He would just disappear for days on end.
I'd be calling frantically.
I'd have his appointment sitting there staring at me.
And I'd be like, Troy, where are you?
Him being hung over in a lot of cases just loosened him up,
and made him take way more chances.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
TROY DENNING: I forced myself to have to perform over this
course of time, when my lifestyle was
kind of out of control.
So I was really backed up on drawings.
I had a lot of clients coming in from out of town and stuff,
and I was unprepared.
But even though my personal life was crazy at the time, I
still had an obligation to them to make
their tattoos nice.
So I just sat down and said, I got to figure out how to do
this quick.
So I figured out a system to actually draw stuff up fairly
quickly without a lot of preliminary preparation.
And do it in a way that I would be happy with it when
they had their return visits to finish.
Cool.
Cool.
Cool.
All right.
Are you ready?
-Um-hmm.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DAMIAN RODRIGUEZ: He comes in and just draws right on the
guy, and has a conversation with someone
while he's doing it.
It's just who he is.
He's been doing it for so long.
He's just a master of it.
Yeah, he's a party animal, but he's
also equally all business.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
TROY DENNING: I've learned a lot of lessons about myself,
being a kind of mentor and a business owner.
To me, at Invisible NYC, the relationship I have with these
other artists, that itself is going to be my life's work.
CHRIS O'DONNELL: I definitely think Troy sees his guys as
his family.
I've never seen him get jealous of anybody doing well.
So I assume that it's just kind of a
fatherly kind of thing.
He just wants them to do well, and he gets really excited
when they do.
TROY DENNING: That looks cool.
That looks cool, dude.
Oh my God.
Jeb's totally tattooing me right now.
[TATTOO MACHINE BUZZING]
TROY DENNING: Oh, you're using my method.
[TATTOO MACHINE BUZZING]
TROY DENNING: Doing lines where there isn't one.
JEB MAYKUT: Yeah.
I learned from the best.
[TATTOO MACHINE BUZZING]
TROY DENNING: Oh, you *** up.
I'm just kidding.
Look at how good that is!
That looks great.
JEB MAYKUT: Thanks, man.
TROY DENNING: I love it.
Jeb, I love it.
Thank you so much.
JEB MAYKUT: Thank you for letting me do that.
TROY DENNING: That's so cool.
So happy I have that.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
TROY DENNING: You know, this image has really met a lot to
me because Jeb is my student.
And the student is kind of a turtle in a sense that he's
kind of like a turtle head poking out.
Kind of like a ***.
Due to my tutelage, I wanted him to become a tortoise.
And just really stick his neck all out there, and not get
flipped over I hope.
[MUSIC PLAYING]