I really liked the café racer sort of bikes, so I started building Japanese bikes and British bikes. I didn't have a garage, so I started building bikes in my basement. My dad was a car guy and he built hot rods, and when I was a kid there were always cars, from ‘32 Fords up to ‘57 Chevys, you know? I didn't have that kind of money. To me, it was very cool, you know? Like, everybody had the choppers and motorcycles and my generation was the first one that was artists, and not just bikers or sailors. Some vintage Tattoo shop business cards from Bob Paulin’s collection - Photos © Bob Paulin You know me, I really liked the 90s because that was my history and I really liked that era from 89 to 99. He had shrunken heads, he had a museum, he collected very old stuff. He had a massive collection of all sorts. He would take twenty people up and make gatherings and all. So Dave, that wild character, he knew everyone, he went everywhere. I think there were five Way Cool Tattoos in the early 90s, from Niagara Falls to Toronto. Then a WAY COOL Tattoo shop opened and at that time the whole industry changed. There was a Big Dave, a Little Dave, there was Dave “Ace” Daniels. In the late 80s, early 90s, there were so many Daves around here. Why aren't you doing this?” He actually sort of talked me into it, you know? That's when I met Dave Price and he said, “I'm tattooing all your drawings of your work, you should be tattooing. New wood carving art from Bob Paulin - Photo ©Bob Paulin My customers kept seeing my art because I've always been an artist, and they kept asking me to draw tattoos designed for them. I actually was a cabinet maker and I was building café racer motorcycles, you know, the two-stroke motorcycles. PC: What was young Bob like? When you started in ‘92, were you an early bloomer in tattooing?īP: No, I wasn't. It was easier to approach these guys at the convention and talk to them.Ī circa 1986 Tattoo Magazine - The “Pre-Internet” way for artists to become known. I started getting my work in the magazines for them. That was the medium before the internet, you know? If you wanted to be known, you had to be in the magazine, so I tried to get into as many magazines as possible and in the process started getting my stuff, my work, right next to some other famous tattoo artists like Marshall Bennett, and a lot of black and grey artists that I really enjoyed. So in order to get magazine coverage, you had to be at the convention so that photographers could see you and see your clients, right? So that worked pretty well. Poster from the 1993 Montreal International Tattoo ExpoĪt that time, the magazines were the thing, no internet back then. Back then you guys tried to make your presence known. I even started popping up at the conventions and always went to the Eikon booth to buy stuff. Then the Canadian ones the first Toronto Tattoo Convention, Montreal. I got to meet a lot of great tattoo artists like Big Joe Kaplan, Spider Webb, Jack Rudy, working around with these guys and watching them work. I did the first organized tattoo conventions like the ‘’MJM’’, the American Jamboree Tattoo Convention in Schenectady, New York, in the early 90s, like 92. I used to do the conventions, like a lot, almost everything. You've been on my social feed for so long, but we’ve never really met right? It feels like I know you I saw you at a few conventions for sure, but we’ve never really officially met, no. Although you’ve been tattooing for 30 years, you’re not the most known tattoo artist. Like many, you had to stop tattooing for a few months but now you’re back at it. I have to admit, I need to find a way to get people more interested in the old stories! This is our last interview of the season and I wanted to finish with something special, you know, you may perhaps be less glamorous than others, but you’ve lived quite a life of tattooing! I know you're an avid collector and I read EVERYTHING you post on so I’ve had you in mind for P2P for a long time. Photo © Stacy Fox Thanks very much for taking the time to chat with me Bob.
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