My Dear Friends of Inked So uh do you even need the glasses anymore here we go yeah no yes i know yes because people expect to see the glasses and ask me to see them but no because i got lasik at the beginning of covey because my mask and glasses didn’t work well i.
Think what i’m gonna actually do is i think i’m gonna get a ton of flip shades like giveaway glasses made i have some and people love them like they love them so like i’m just gonna give them to my client and not wear them anymore you get tattooed by me next year you’re getting flip shades maybe.
hi my name is flip shades i uh i have glasses i do things that’s it that’s what i do um i also do tats i like them they’re fun i travel and do them i grew up in philly i don’t know i mean it was like i was trying to think of.
Something fun or a fun story but no i just grew up in philly i did some graffiti stuff that was probably bad that’s how i got into tattooing like so i was like just into making art i learned how to pierce first because that’s how you got your foot in the door in the 90s like the late 90s that was the move you know what i mean.
Like be a piercer in a biker shop so i pulled that game and then i was mostly self-taught how to actually tattoo there’s other people around they’re not somebody that you would ever want to learn from or shouldn’t have even maybe even been tattooing honestly so i was kind of self-taught do you remember the first time you saw.
Yes i absolutely 100 do um uh petunia from pete and pete that tv show from nickelodeon i fell in love with it this kid this like little 13 year old kid got um like a like a salsa dancing lady on his arm and he could flex it and it danced and i geeked out i was like that is the single coolest thing i’ve ever.
Seen in my life and i’ve been in love with tattoos literally since pete pete and i’m waiting so if somebody sees this and has that space open on their arm and loves pete and pete i’m doing that tattoo for you i’ve been dying to do it i’ve just been it’s like i might hang up my my tattoo machines after i do that one that’s like the holy grail to me.
Yeah for sure so when did that happen oh man it was grifty i got tattooed when i was young in new york here i came to new york and got tattooed with fake id it was tight i got a sick of it all dragon because i was like super into hardcore and like and it was new york i was like yeah i’m getting sick of it all dragon and i’m like oh got it right this is.
Gone now but i still see the dry i can still see the dragon there because it was like the first tattoo i ever had you know i mean it’s like right on my forearm so it’s blacked out now but i actually can still and can like draw exactly where the dragon is there i was doing a lot of wild that was like the least of the wild that i was up to i.
Think at that time period so i didn’t get in trouble at all i might have gotten in trouble for a million other things that day but not that most of my tattoo collection is from people that i really like their artwork and then people that like i vibed with like other tattooers that i vibed at them places you know what i mean like i.
Would be somewhere working or something and there’s somebody there that i like just really was like you’re awesome you’re my person you know and we just i would just be like dude i want to get tattooed by you before i leave or something and get like a random collection of things i have like a ton of little tattoos because of.
That like from all over the place do you remember one of the first times you noticed just people looking at your tattoos oh yeah strangers yeah so it was uh so i’m old and i’ve been getting tattooed for like a long time so like i started having a decent amount of tattoos like neck and stuff uh.
Creeping onto the face and people would not come up to me and it was kind of awesome like i would i would not have to deal with a lot of people i was like it was pretty awesome now people come up to me to just talk about them and i’m in my head and sometimes i even say it to them i’m like you know i got these face tattoos so people wouldn’t come talk to.
Me leave me alone but no i’m usually pretty nice so i’m not like i don’t know but in my head i’m thinking that i’m like damn what just happened why did it all slow when did it all switch how did i miss that you know 15 years ago it was the polar opposite they’re like oh you’re a biker and you’re gonna kill our grandma you know what i mean like though.
Like it’s it was insane that the change i’m sure i know it it was the internet that made that complete like 100 flip like completely it became more prominent people saw it more i guess i don’t know and then a bunch of kids seen rappers and then they got face tats now everybody got face tats people don’t do.
The nose yeah i forgot about the nose i have that i have another tattoo let’s see i took my glasses off that’s a rare this is rare this is a rare anybody that sees this you’re lucky right now to see flip shades face without glasses it was actually still kind of a big step for me to do it.
Because i was like man the nose is like serious but it was more so because of the pain i know for a fact that it’s probably the single worst spot on the body the nose is like not okay at all it was worthless i immediately started laughing maniacally like i was the joker he’s like started tattooing and i was just i.
Just cracked up laughing i was just i lost my mind for just a few seconds i was like he was like are you okay and i was like no not even a little bit he’s like you want me to stop i was like no you better keep going you better get it done fast if you take more than like four minutes i’m about to punch you in the nuts.
Because he was like right there yes i have a lot of tattoos i think it’s like in the 30s i used to be huge and i had surgery right and they did skin removal surgery like after i lost all the weight i had a xanthamum on my back so i don’t know exactly how many i have now if they cut some of them off because.
I cut through the anthem and then like sewed it back together but like a chunk of it’s gone so like that’s also my whole back piece is mad weird it’s like panels that don’t match up at all it’s crazy i kind of like that though it’s pretty cool i have one that’s right here that’s like right.
Where it would lay if it was a huge um and it’s hyper realistic it’s like black and gray realism so and it’s super soft so it looks like a real with a shadow on top of a yellow heart like there’s like a yellow heart tattoo that’s got like an outline like a traditional looking tattoo with this.
Realism but it sits like and i wear short shorts so i’ll be on like a train in in amsterdam or something going somewhere and i’ll just be sitting there and it’ll just be sticking out and i look over the person in the like little stall next to me is looking like.
Like tapping someone like pointing and i’m just like oh that one’s the best that’s my favorite one for sure because it like totally it fools people constantly so the weight loss how does that change a lot of your existing tattoos well so.
My stomach tattoo that josh pain crying tattoo that was like super famous or whatever i’ll show you guys too um it was um it was uh it was like perfect and stretched out it filled like my whole torso really nicely and then i lost a bunch of weight so then it was all like like crinkled up and weird with all this.
Extra skin but then it’s crang so it was like well okay it’s just like a lumpy cancery brain now it’s pretty cool actually you know what i mean like and then so i go to the surgeon the surgeon’s dope by the way and i was like man and like i showed him everything and he looked and he was.
Like i could fix that tattoo he’s like he’s like i might have to cut a little bit of it off but i can make it work can he cut the bottom of the tattoo off just a little bit and then uh like on the under skin and then pull the tattoo down it’s nice and tight and torque and centered and even like it.
Looks like it was initially tattooed it’s so dope it like makes me so happy like like especially now because i don’t hey i lost all the weight like my like myself i worked super hard for years to do it and then i had this skin that i hated and i like it caused body dysmorphia but now i like can see myself with a shirt off and like see that.
Tattoo and everything’s like where it’s supposed to be and it’s like so perfect now it’s like so much better everything like came around back around full circle it was like a whole journey for years and years it’s kind of crazy see your blackout it’s just your right arm yeah right yeah what were the reasons for dinner.
Um contrast i just wanted the contrast i like the contrast i had some cool tattoos there’s tattoos that i loved on this on but i just wanted the contrast and i’m lasering this whole arm off completely but only to the hand i’m keeping like my my watch tattoo down and i’m lasering.
The rest of it off completely so it’s just full tattoo no tattoo and then also i feel like every tattooer i know on earth is gonna be like let me get that arm though you know what i mean like let me get that left arm though you know like it’ll become prime real estate i could probably auction it off maybe.
Somebody will pay me to tattoo it you just you just you just [__] me up with that i i yeah i’d love to have the pete and pete tattoo damn that’s brilliant that’s probably what i’m going to do i’m going to laser it all off and then i’m going to let somebody tattoo the pete and pete.
Tattoo but it’s got to be the right person i’ve just i’ve just it’s got to be the person that loves it like i do so is there a point in your life where you think you went from being just dude with tattoos to being a tattooed person yeah i think once i got um like a decent amount of face tattoos.
It like it started changing that i got a face tattoo from uh this dude bong who um is like a legend in hawaii he’s like a like a grand master type legend he’s like like an elder tattooer um and uh he doesn’t usually tattoo anyone that’s not hawaiian above the neckline i guess like on the face they.
Don’t like really do that but like i went there and worked he was really cool and then gave me the tattoo that’s when i think it changed right there like that was like a big thing that tattoo is super respected and then later gave me boar tusks because i was like traveling all the time and he called me a warrior you know what i mean like so like those.
Those are really important tattoos in like tattooing in general that i’m honored to be able to have them on my body all of my face tattoos are really high-end too like everybody that’s done them is really like the best in the world it’s kind of crazy i’ve made a million mistakes i’ve gone on crazy parts of journeys and.
Done a bunch of really stupid things and then i try to learn from those things like it might have been a hard lesson i might have to make mistakes multiple times or whatever but no i don’t think i change it honestly i think i stay exactly the way it is because i’m happy with where i am in my life and what i’m doing you know and like the way.
That my life is working when i was 14 whatever i thought my life was supposed to be when i’m 40 which i am now is not what the same thing is but i think if i told myself at 14 what it could be i would have wanted this instead of whatever i thought my life should have been you know i feel like i was like.
Pre-determined or set at that time period to be like this is what you’re supposed to do in life and i did none of those things like i just did it completely wrong by that but i love where it’s at so you
You don’t see a lot of people with tattooed noses and there is a very good reason for it—the pain is astronomical. For the this episode of Heavily Inked we sat down with Flipshades, one of the most colorful characters in the entire tattooing industry. We discussed his tattoo journey, the reason he blacked out one sleeve while lasering the other, his many explicit tattoos and much more.
Welcome to Heavily Inked. In our newest series, we’re going to speak one-on-one with tattoo collectors and artists about what it means to be a heavily inked person. We’ll get deep as we go through the motivations behind their tattoo choices, the way they’ve been treated in society and much more.
Flipshades: https://www.instagram.com/flipshades/
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