You are covered in tattoos. Which is your favorite?
There is still more blank canvas than you realize. I can look at
them and know just where I was when I got them. They are all
my favorites.
Do you have an all-time favorite work?
I feel emotion about all of the tattoos I've done. But, hey, they
are alive. They get up and walk away. I've learned so much
doing tattoos. The history, the subject matter, the research. I've
learned more through tattooing than I could have ever learned
through school.
How many pterodactyls have you tattooed?
Two.
Oh good, I feel special then. If you could transform yourself
into any animal, which one would you choose?
I would be a giant tortoise that would live to be 177 years old.
That's a full life, better than this too-short rat race we call a life.
Excellent choice. Here is my final question. Have you ever
screwed up?
People call me up saying they are having a major issue and you
get all worried in your imagination. Then it turns out to be some
tiny thing where the ink didn't take, or that just needs a little
touch-up. Once I spelled someone's name wrong but they gave it
to me spelled wrong. It wasn't my fault.
I sweat when I do a portrait. Are they going to have the right
expression? Is my mood going to come through on the face? My
attitude always comes through into the piece I'm working on.
It's an art thing you know. You have good and bad days. It
could come out better than what you thought, and often it does.
It is the primordial ooze. The craziness that drives you.
Thanks so much for playing pterodactyl, Steve'O.
There is still more blank canvas than you realize. I can look at
them and know just where I was when I got them. They are all
my favorites.
Do you have an all-time favorite work?
I feel emotion about all of the tattoos I've done. But, hey, they
are alive. They get up and walk away. I've learned so much
doing tattoos. The history, the subject matter, the research. I've
learned more through tattooing than I could have ever learned
through school.
How many pterodactyls have you tattooed?
Two.
Oh good, I feel special then. If you could transform yourself
into any animal, which one would you choose?
I would be a giant tortoise that would live to be 177 years old.
That's a full life, better than this too-short rat race we call a life.
Excellent choice. Here is my final question. Have you ever
screwed up?
People call me up saying they are having a major issue and you
get all worried in your imagination. Then it turns out to be some
tiny thing where the ink didn't take, or that just needs a little
touch-up. Once I spelled someone's name wrong but they gave it
to me spelled wrong. It wasn't my fault.
I sweat when I do a portrait. Are they going to have the right
expression? Is my mood going to come through on the face? My
attitude always comes through into the piece I'm working on.
It's an art thing you know. You have good and bad days. It
could come out better than what you thought, and often it does.
It is the primordial ooze. The craziness that drives you.
Thanks so much for playing pterodactyl, Steve'O.
| Featured Artist: Tattooist Steve'O Hennagir |
| Welcome to the Ptero Heart of Luna Taylor |
| ________________ |
| ________________ |
| ________________ |
The ptotem for April is the seahorse.
Submissions of original seahorse images
should be sent to pterobones@gmail.com
no later than March 20th. All submissions
will be included in April's Ptero Heart.
Submissions of original seahorse images
should be sent to pterobones@gmail.com
no later than March 20th. All submissions
will be included in April's Ptero Heart.
March 2010
1. Snake
2. Coyote
3. Cow
4. Deer
5. Llama
6. Bat
7. Crab
8. Owl
9. Seahorse
10. Shark
11. Raccoon
12. Pterosaur
2. Coyote
3. Cow
4. Deer
5. Llama
6. Bat
7. Crab
8. Owl
9. Seahorse
10. Shark
11. Raccoon
12. Pterosaur
Steve'O Hennagir and his wife Rebecca own Something Wicked
Tattoo located near the intersection of Riverside and 2nd Street
in Roseville, California. He is an award-winning custom tattooist
and painter. Call the shop to set up a consultation. 916.781.7827
--------------------------
Steve'O! Welcome to Ptero Heart. So what is it like to
permanently modify human skin for a living?
Well I feel very fortunate. Grandma painted her whole life
without selling a painting. It's about the art. Not the money. It's
skin painting. Every kid does it. How cool when I realized I
could make a living off my art.
So you were an arty kid?
I was a little ADD kid. I had lots and lots of exposure to art.
One of my teachers, Mrs. Yee, hated me. She had high
expectations. But she got me into a Centennial Hall art show for
drawing a picture of the big bad wolf.
Japanese art fascinated me and I liked to draw the Buddhas. I
just had lots of cultural exposure to many different styles. I drew
in pencil whatever I was into. Like break-dancing. I tried
airbrushing when I was younger, too, but I didn't have the
mental readiness yet.
Where did you grow up and what were your parents up to?
I was born in Oakland, California. My dad's an old biker.
Daddy'O is covered in tattoos, so of course that was my
introduction to this art. Mom's a hard working lady. Both sides
of my family were full of all sorts of art. My stepfather too, into
vato art. Just surrounded.
When did you decide to take the tattooing path?
I had a homemade machine— a gun, homemade equals gun—that
I made when I was about 17. I made it all wrong. You know
guitar string tattoos. I started tattooing myself. Roses on my
left forearm. Smile-now-cry-later, you know the comedy and
tragedy drama masks. One here on my leg, a dragon. And a
skull. And a biomechanical eyeball. When I got a real machine I
cleaned them all up.
I went to Conyers, Georgia to help out family at age 19 for a
couple years. Different world. Didn't get to see a real machine
until I was out there. I hung around getting pointers from
Johnny Rockskin. He showed me once he saw I had some
talent. I won my second machine in a contest, out of a magazine
or something, which was barely one step up from my homemade
one. Then Mom and Daddy'O bought me a cheap tattoo kit. A
few needles. Tubes. It was a Pinto compared to a Cadillac.
And eventually you turned professional?
I came back to pursue my career as a tattoo artist. I got an
apprenticeship from my old boss Ken Larsen at Studio M. Ken
was the first to say "I don't want to babysit you. You are gonna
make me money, or someone else."
He taught me the old style business. How to make needles.
Laying all those basics. The tattoo community was better back
then, then it got cliquey and over-saturated. These kids today
have it all handed to them. Everything is pre-fab. Ordered from
overseas, and it all works great.
But now you have to be good to succeed. I've got 15 years in the
shop, and those few years out of my house trying to get my butt
in the door. You must be confident and only go forward. But at
first you are just fighting to find where you are.
Ken just retired, so I'm an old timer now. Here comes Steve'O!
Tell us the story of Something Wicked Tattoo, your shop in
Roseville.
My success was driving the shop where I was working, and so I
waited for an opportunity to open my own with my wife
Rebecca, and another partner. We named it Something Wicked
after the Ray Bradbury story. Remember the movie? The
carnival leader had that creepy tattoo on his arm that I thought
was so cool.
And Bradbury took the name of his book from Shakespeare,
from Macbeth. The second witch says, "By the pricking of my
thumbs, something wicked this way comes." What does
"wicked" mean to you?
That word wicked. Wicked good? Wicked bad? It's a bit of a Yin
Yang , it's a little of everything to me.
Someone told me when I was a kid that tattoos were just for
whores and sailors. Those taboos are changing now. Tattoos
are getting lots of mainstream exposure. What do you think
about the taboos?
Sailors were traveling and coming back from foreign lands with
art that was exciting and exotic. Anything exotic can end up
taboo. Taboos can be false. They often express the wrong
prejudice.
I learned that early from my 6th or 7th grade teacher, Mr.
Freeman. He was the first black man teacher at my school. He
taught me my rights. He taught me black history. I learned how
sometimes what you are taught to believe can turn out to be
wrong. Like slavery. Back then they were taught it just was.
Like all the wicked imagery in my tattoo shop. Doesn't make me
evil. My masks and demon stuff. I grew up across the street
from a Catholic school, macabre this and that. It is art for what
we sometimes have to deal with inside. Looking at it helps you
deal with it better. A little old lady came into my shop thinking
it was the Halloween store. She ran out of here quickly saying
"Ohhhhh!" It was so funny.
Reminds me of when I was a manager at Winn-Dixic. I wore
long-sleeved button-down white shirts to look the part. One
day I ended up getting wet in the back, and all my tattoos
started coming through the shirt. Everyone was surprised that
someone as responsible as me could have tattoos.
I came back to pursue my career as a tattoo artist. I got an
apprenticeship from my old boss Ken Larsen at Studio M. Ken
was the first to say "I don't want to babysit you. You are gonna
make me money, or someone else."
He taught me the old style business. How to make needles.
Laying all those basics. The tattoo community was better back
then, then it got cliquey and over-saturated. These kids today
have it all handed to them. Everything is pre-fab. Ordered from
overseas, and it all works great.
But now you have to be good to succeed. I've got 15 years in the
shop, and those few years out of my house trying to get my butt
in the door. You must be confident and only go forward. But at
first you are just fighting to find where you are.
Ken just retired, so I'm an old timer now. Here comes Steve'O!
Tell us the story of Something Wicked Tattoo, your shop in
Roseville.
My success was driving the shop where I was working, and so I
waited for an opportunity to open my own with my wife
Rebecca, and another partner. We named it Something Wicked
after the Ray Bradbury story. Remember the movie? The
carnival leader had that creepy tattoo on his arm that I thought
was so cool.
And Bradbury took the name of his book from Shakespeare,
from Macbeth. The second witch says, "By the pricking of my
thumbs, something wicked this way comes." What does
"wicked" mean to you?
That word wicked. Wicked good? Wicked bad? It's a bit of a Yin
Yang , it's a little of everything to me.
Someone told me when I was a kid that tattoos were just for
whores and sailors. Those taboos are changing now. Tattoos
are getting lots of mainstream exposure. What do you think
about the taboos?
Sailors were traveling and coming back from foreign lands with
art that was exciting and exotic. Anything exotic can end up
taboo. Taboos can be false. They often express the wrong
prejudice.
I learned that early from my 6th or 7th grade teacher, Mr.
Freeman. He was the first black man teacher at my school. He
taught me my rights. He taught me black history. I learned how
sometimes what you are taught to believe can turn out to be
wrong. Like slavery. Back then they were taught it just was.
Like all the wicked imagery in my tattoo shop. Doesn't make me
evil. My masks and demon stuff. I grew up across the street
from a Catholic school, macabre this and that. It is art for what
we sometimes have to deal with inside. Looking at it helps you
deal with it better. A little old lady came into my shop thinking
it was the Halloween store. She ran out of here quickly saying
"Ohhhhh!" It was so funny.
Reminds me of when I was a manager at Winn-Dixic. I wore
long-sleeved button-down white shirts to look the part. One
day I ended up getting wet in the back, and all my tattoos
started coming through the shirt. Everyone was surprised that
someone as responsible as me could have tattoos.
What about your airbrushed paintings. What does that satisfy
in you?
A tattoo has to be exact. I love the blending of airbrushing, and
I can explore my biomechanical fascination . I feel like I'm
hallucinating when I am airbrushing. I thought it was the paint
making me lightheaded so I got a mask, but then I realized it
was just the art. The effect of the art. It was still happening
because of the art. There's something about the blending right in
front of me.
Which masters do you credit for inspiration?
H.R. Giger, you know the Dune and Alien guy. His
biomechanical stuff is amazing. As far as tattoo artists, I'd say
Jack Rudy and Paul Booth.
in you?
A tattoo has to be exact. I love the blending of airbrushing, and
I can explore my biomechanical fascination . I feel like I'm
hallucinating when I am airbrushing. I thought it was the paint
making me lightheaded so I got a mask, but then I realized it
was just the art. The effect of the art. It was still happening
because of the art. There's something about the blending right in
front of me.
Which masters do you credit for inspiration?
H.R. Giger, you know the Dune and Alien guy. His
biomechanical stuff is amazing. As far as tattoo artists, I'd say
Jack Rudy and Paul Booth.
| Letter from the Editor: Indelible |
| Ptotem: Sharkheart |
| Recipe: Avocado Perfecto |
| Ptero Shoot with the Volcano |
| Featured: Ink & Airbrush |