Upcoming Featured Artist for Premiere Issue

Joseph Deegan from Dublin is going to be our first Featured Artist for The Gentleman's Tattoo Journal. Keep tabs for the upcoming interview! 

Morgan Joyce: featured Model: July

Morgan Joyce: Moment to Answer Q & A

Jake: As a young model and stylist, how have you found it to make a niche for yourself in the tattoo, music and fashion scenes?

Morgan: I personally found the journey to be difficult, yet easy. It's hard to explain. It was difficult initially to make a name for myself, but once I did, it really sky-rocketed for me. I feel like there isn't anyone else out there who is very similar to me and that's what I love.

J: You've been featured in several publications and guest appeared as a model on a prime time Spike TV show "Ink Master;" how do you feel media has affected the tattooing world?

M: I am not sure how I feel about it. I love how media has made tattoos look less taboo. I really think it's great that it's becoming more appreciated as an actual artform. But at the same time, it's almost too mainstream now. There are SO many tattoo shows and a lot of them are scripted. With all the drama and egos, sometimes it makes the industry look bad.

J: As a public figure and alternative model, you represent several venues that reflect a "tattooing lifestyle;" where do you see yourself in this venue 5 and 10 years down the road?

M: I don't see my life to be much different in 5 - 10 years. Other than hopefully being even more successful and well known, I still hope to be doing what I'm doing. I hope I will have made a real name for myself.

J: How long have you been a free-lance stylist and how did you get into styling?

M: I have been doing hair for 7 years, but professionally for 5 years. I went to a vocational school so I was certified in hair styling & cosmetology at the age of 16. At age 17, I got licensed. After working in a salon for about a year, I realized that the environment really wasn't for me. It's filled with way too much drama. Also, I'm not good at answering to people or being told what to do in certain situations. So I decided to strictly freelance, and it's worked out wonderfully for me.

J: Getting to work with big names in music, art and fashion; how do you cope with constant day to day of keeping up with the high speed world going on around you?

M: I feed off of the energy, really. Although when I hit the pillow at night I am so grateful to be in bed. I have SO much fun with my jobs that the stress really just cancels itself out. I'm all about it.

J: What is your most significant tattoo and why?

Who was it done by?

M: Most significant in size, or meaning? Either way it's a tie between a few. I'm never able to answer these questions. I guess I'd have to say my most MEANINGFUL tattoo is the one on my thigh. It's done in my mom's handwriting, and is a cover-up of self harm scars. It represents my recovery.

J: What made you start thinking about getting into music, fashion and the tattoo world?

M: I took fashion classes for 3 years in high school. I've always been an artsy person but am not very good at drawing or creating. But once I realized I could express myself through body art- I knew that's how I wanted to decorate myself. As soon as I turned 18 I got a tattoo and started pursuing my dreams.

J: If you we're able to be tattooed by one artist for the rest of your life, who would it be?

M: This is such a difficult question. My two favorite artists are tied. Gianna Galli at 1228 Tattoo in Brooklyn, NY and Brian Monkeyboy Fusaro at Freehold Tattoo in Freehold, NJ are my two main artists. I love both of their styles. Can I pick both? 😊

J: What's the next step for you in your career?

M: I'm not quite sure. I hope to just keep growing and getting my name out there. I work really hard in all aspects of my career, so I'll see what comes my way next!

Up and coming...

Will be featuring interviews with Morgan Joyce and Katharina Barth.

Welcome to the Gentleman's Journal

Welcome to The Gentleman's Tattoo Journal. This is a new online publication specifying in all areas of the tattoo industry. The Gentleman's Tattoo Journal  means to be a mediation between Tattoo Artists and Tattoo Art Collectors. We will feature everyone from Celebrity Artists, to the Collectors who wear the artists' ink. Their stories are what bring us together.

As we all have gone to our local tattoo shops when we turned 18 (or sooner); getting our first tattoo was a mark of pride and our own "Right of Passage." Of course, our parents and possibly peers thought, "Oh shit. There they go, another person getting another crappy tattoo. Going down life's shitter and never amounting to anything.  Fuck!" We've all been there. The disowned, the religiously persecuted, the drunken tyrants, the

princesses, the proud and stupid scholars, the ink virgins, the old men and young boys, the faithful and the sadned weakened in memorium; we've all had our reasons to get our first tattoos. But, our world and views are not the same.

 As world thinkers in an ever growing mass population, we are becoming lost and less significant than people were 100 years ago.  We are losing touch with our individuality and therefore push harder to use our body art as a means of self expression.  The unfortunate realization, that if we are here breathing for just a short while, in the broad view of all humanity, we as people don't matter.  Unless our actions have significant consequence to affect others over the entire world, we don't matter. Our push to be someone and make something happen is an ever reoccurring ambition we all share from birth. However, we are not all allowed the opportunity to excel in the ways we hope. It is only the handful who we look up to, who we are jealous of that are "lucky enough" to be successful and not have to be ever clawing and fighting through life to gain a sort of stability and relief.  We as human beings can mark our lives with our significance and that is about all we can do for now until we are noticed.

Thus our tattoos....

We are able to bond and separate ourselves with our art. Our tattoos have become our self expression and our lost tribal right to humanity. Tattoos bring us together and literally define us to others. Those of us who get and give tattoos share in our experiences through our ink. The shitty thing is that my tattoos are the only thing I can take with me when I die. Ergo, tattoos are what we have to mark our lives. Give them or collect them, we all get to be a part. 

This is The Gentleman's Tattoo Journal

 -Jake Weaver