by J.J.2.NUTS!

Within the world of art there are many mediums and many forms of expression, yet all provoke us and are worthy of a response, as arts basic nature is that of stimulus born of thought, produced by a body, mind, and or soul, whatever the fuck gives you, your therefore I am. Whether the response be orgasmic self transcendence, oh isn’t that pretty, or nausea, cold sweats, and nightmares. Art remains a huge thread or lack there of in the fabric of the comforter blanketing our human condition. Amongst artists some dare to be the lack there of , and if not create a tear in the comforter, so as to be open and to see beyond the blanket that supposedly keeps our society safe. Some dare to take art beyond its basic nature, beyond that perfect place on the living room wall. These artists send out there creation to shock and awe the world, while personally gratifying an individual, in a way so primal and permanent it has remained a right of passage from the beginning and I believe till the end of time.

One of these artists was with us and allowed me to pick his brain for not nearly a long enough time. Ken Dean of Pino Bros. Ink in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Home to Harvard students and hoodlums alike. Business is booming as is there reputation as one of the best, and in my opinion the best tattoo shop around. Kens experience is untouchable as he has been tattooing intergalactic assholes since the year 666. Take it from me as Ken Dean is the only man, other than myself, that I will let stick there prick in my wife. I’m talking about the tattoo needle you sick perverted motherfuckers. I’m no cabrone! Now read what the man has to say!

J.J.2.- How and where did you get into the industry?

K.D.- That’s a fuckin hard question! Do you mean when tattooing started influencing me or when I actually started tattooing?

J.J.2- When you actually started tattooing.

K.D.- I started getting tattoos in 1987 and I went to school for something completely different and then I didn’t know what to do, I wasn’t happy, then my brother went out for my 27th birthday and bought me all my tattoo shit.

J.J.2.- Is your brother a tattoo artist?

K.D.- No he’s gay! HAHAHAHA!

J.J.2.- HAHAHAHA! What you can’t be a gay tattoo artist

K.D.- Where not sure about that now! No he’s not a tattoo artist.

J.J.2.- Any formal training with your art abilities or just a god given gift?

K.D.- No just been drawing since I was a kid, did art in school, I’m the only one who works here that doesn’t have a bachelor of art degree, and I'm the boss! HAHAHA!

J.J.2.- HAHAHA! Yeah I was just gonna say for the record folk’s he’s the BOSS!

K.D.- Which makes me feel good.

J.J.2.- Absolutely!  How long have you been tattooing at Pino Bros. here?

K.D.- I’ve been at Pino Bros 2 and a half years.

J.J.2.- Anybody famous or rather infamous that has been your canvas over the years?

K.D.- Um all kinds of people Dicky Barrett from the Bosstones, uh shit what’s his name Paul Bostaph of Slayer, Avril Lavigne, Kelly Osbourne, there’s a shit load of people

Joe and Dave from the Addicts, the guitarists Pete Yorn, Joe Morra, Jerry Montano from Danzig and Hell yeah, Just a shit load of people I know there’s just an enormous amount of people.

J.J.2.- Right on! What is it in this world or others that you draw most of your inspiration from?

K.D.- I don’t know if I wanna be truthful on that one!

J.J.2.- Oh ya gotta be truthful!

K.D.- American pop-culture Satanism or Satanism and American pop-culture that’s exactly what I fuckin drive from.

J.J.2.- Now when you say Satanism do you mean the darker side of the world or Satanism as an organized religion

K.D.- Satanism as far as imagination and creativity, anything that’s anti-organized religion.

J.J.2.- Dark imagery?

K.D.- Yeah, well taking dark imagery and using the dichotomy of light and cute, like if you look at any of my paintings or most of my art work they look all colorful and happy and shit but if you really just look at it for a few minutes there is a really deep dark side to it.

J.J.2.- That there is!

K.D.- Yeah it’s pretty happy, I love it, I think its great, the dichotomy has got to be in everything.

J.J.2.- Do you think that’s a reaction or release, for a negative view on the world by getting that out and displaying personal cause and effect?

K.D.- I don’t think of it as a negative thing, I think of it as a pro-thing, enjoying every second of your life. Indulging in what ever you want to indulge in, but being responsible about it, responsibility is in everything and I think people are more prone to be drawn to that then some lame ass shit that has no volume to it, You know what I’m sayin? Its like, I think it’s really great when someone looks at one of my paintings and actually gets it. There like whoa! that shit’s pretty heavy but its all cute light and happy, you could stick that shit on a little girls shirt or you could put it, in one of Paul Booths studios, so its cool and that is exactly where I get my inspiration from.

J.J.2.- Is tattooing your favorite medium or do you consider it a cruel mistress?

K.D.- It’s a cruel mistress, for the simple fact that I’m not always tattooing what I want.

You have all the fads and the trends of the kanji and the tribal and the shit you really just don’t want to do, but then every so often like a, well the more you tattoo the more you get to do what you want to do so that makes it more pleasing. There is people that I love to tattoo simply because they get the coolest shit ever, it makes me not even want to charge them money for it, and then you get the stuff that pays the bills all the crap. All the butterflies and fairies and shit I don’t even tattoo fairies anymore I just cant do it! HAHAHA! It’s a great medium and everything but painting is more meditative because your canvas isn’t squirming around and bitching half the time.

J.J.2.- What’s your preference or specialty as far as style and design is concerned in a tattoo

K.D.- Big color! I love big color anything big, huge sugar skulls and anything I can make big, pretty, colorful, and evil!

J.J.2.- Just like your paintings!

K.D.- Yeah exactly! There’s so many people out there like Paul Booth and Ever Lee and all those guys that corner the whole market you know the whole dark art. One of the guys who apprenticed me once told me “people that can’t draw things that are alive draw things that are dead” he said you can make your art evil and still make it alive and wonderful. Paul booth doesn’t do any color work at all and a lot of the people who are really into the evil stuff don’t and I think if you can pull that off that’s a mission in itself.

J.J.2.- Are there any tattoos people come in to get that you will down right refuse to do?

K.D.- Fairies! HAHAHA! No really the things that I refuse to do completely, are names on people that are not there kids or there parents you know like 18 19 yr old kids come in and oh were in love and I’m like ya know your gonna be in love six times this year, so I don’t recommend it and I don’t cover my own work so if there militant about it I’m like fine have a seat and they end up payin for it. It’s a business you either make money or be ethical about it, you really can’t tell people what they want. If you do a portrait of Malcolm-X would you do a portrait of Hitler? Where do you draw the line would you put a swastika on some ones face, forehead, or cheek? If a girl 20yrs old comes in, and I have seen this before, and she wants a spider web on her face, do you do it? Ya know! Is it a business? Do you have the right to be ethical about it? So its stuff like that you really have to weigh because if you don’t do it, somebody else will and by all means this is a business. But then again, you do want them to think on it and not make such a rash decision.

J.J.2.- what’s the best part of your job?

K.D.- There’s no responsibility of a work ethic. You love it so much that you bust your ass on everything that you have to do and want to do, its not like work its like arts and crafts class all day you hang out with your friends, if you don’t feel good you don’t have to come in, you can come and go as you please. The absolute most favorite part of my job is I can travel anywhere in the world and still tattoo. There is this thing called being a guest artist, were you work at a shop for two weeks, they give you room and board and the money you made in those two weeks, you use to go somewhere else. I have friends that do nothing but travel and I've gotten to travel the world ya know, because I tattoo which is pretty fuckin cool.

J.J.2.- What’s the worst?

K.D.- Dealing with blood and disease on a daily basis, and also dealing with people that want horrible tattoos, people that just want the most fucking horrible things you have ever seen in your life and they won’t listen to you, your opinion or anything else.

Like there was this guy who wanted this painting that his girlfriend did put on him of this fucking wolf with a rose in its mouth, it was one of the worst things I had ever seen in my life. He wanted it identical to the water color painting and I was like I can redraw this for you and make it look kinda cool and again he was like, no identical! so we sat down. Now he’s walkin around with something I did that he made me do that way, and that’s a fuckin problem!

J.J.2.- What days are you not here and what are you most likely doing when you’re are not?

K.D.- I’m not here on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and I’m either snowboarding, bowling, fishing, or shopping with the wife.

J.J.2.- If  you didn’t tattoo what would you do to make a buck?

K.D.- Most likely I would probably go to a culinary academy and be a chef, or I’d be a pimp and rob people and shit.

J.J.2.- Word!

K.D.- Fuckin sell drugs and shit.

J.J.2- Just like the rest of America right?

K.D.- Exactly!

J.J.2.- Since tattooing became legal in Mass. And shops started poppin up on every corner, what in your opinion is the state of the industry right now?

K.D.- In Massachusetts right now I would say it’s an elitist industry. You have so many shops and you only have like maybe five shops in the whole area that are really, really good and then you have all these shops that you know aren’t good HAHAHA! and a lot of them are closing because of it. Word gets around, but the guys at Good Faith are amazing, Monkey Wrench is amazing, Redemption is amazing, and a Fat Rams Pumpkin Tattoo is amazing, and Pino Bros. is FUCKING AMAZING!

J.J.2. Notice the fucking, end quote

J.J.2. What’s the most fucked part on the body that you have tattooed?

K.D. Cock! HAHAHA!

J.J.2. HAHAH! Cock yeah?

K.D. A doctor came in about six months ago and he wanted a little heart on his cock with a banner that would have his girlfriends name in it. I told him that it would cost him 700 dollars, and he said why? I said well how many places have you been that wouldn’t do it?

I’m telling you I’ll fuckin do it but its gonna cost you 700 bucks and that tattoo took seriously like eight minutes and he paid me, even tipped me like a couple hundred dollars so he couldn’t have been that upset about it. But yeah a lot of places won’t tattoo cock and I’m sayin I will!

J.J.2.- Yeah! HAHAHA!

K.D.HAHAHA! But its gonna cost ya

J.J.2- Oh man! That’s actually my next question. HAHAHA!

K.D.- Was it really?

J.J.2- Yeah it was, if you do how much do you charge to tattoo a cock? And then the punch line was gonna be and aint it a pain in the ass to pluck it! HAHAHA!

K.D.- Augh it makes me wanna vomit, you have to stretch it over your fingers and shit. It ruins your day. You have to take the rest of the day off when you tattoo a cock.

J.J.2.- You scarred!

K.D.- Its awkward dude somebody’s gonna whip his cock out and you just gotta grab a hold of it and tattoo it. Its just I’m gonna go have a fucking beer. It’s a stranger it’s not even a fucking friend not that, that would make it any better.

J.J.2.- Oh Man! Don’t answer this with the same answer as the last one. What are some of the fringe benefits of being a tattoo artist?

K.D.- Tattooing Cock! HAHAHA! Yeah I know right. Its kind a like being in the coolest and biggest rock band ever. Where ever you go you always know a lot of people and going into bars you get comped for a lot of stuff drinks and everything. There’s a down side to that to but like travel, meeting all kinds of cool people in the tattoo community. Because there’s lots of cool ass motherfuckers out there that tattoo, and just being out there chillin and doin art with your friends I would say is probably the best thing in the world.

J.J.2.- What’s the down side to that, comped on the beers?

K.D.- The down side is that when you go out to a party or you go out to a bar, all anyone wants to talk about. You can’t go out and have a fucking drink without twenty people coming up to you and goin, oh dude! I want like fuckin angels goin up this side and devils goin up this side, its like psychology 101, dichotomy on your fuckin arms. Its like I don’t wanna talk about this right now cuz its talking about work, so if you go to work all day and you’re a fuckin accountant and you go to hang out with your friends all night, you don’t want to talk about accounting all night. Ya know you just don’t! You wanna talk about other shit like………COCK! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

J.J.2.- So your telling people that Ken Dean wants to talk about the cock, if ya ever see him out at the bars. HAHAHA!

K.D. Yeah exactly! HAHAHA! Are you cut or hooded?

J.J.2.- I know you’re from Cali, what’s the most notable difference between the east coast and the west coast in the tattoo industry?

K.D. How can I answer this……………………..crystal meth hasn’t got here yet! There ya go I answered!

J.J.2.- That’s self explanatory.

K.D. No I would say everyone is pretty, pretty good people in the tattoo world on the east and west coast, otherwise the west are a bunch of back stabbing cunts, there a bunch of drug addict scumbags.

J.J.2. Were on tape ya know. HAHAHA!

K.D. Whatever dude I’m not ashamed of what I fuckin feel or believe ya know.

J.J.2. I hear ya. HAHAHA! How has Cambridge and the Boston area treated ya since you’ve been hear?

K.D.- Fuckin amazing! Probably happier hear than I’ve ever been. Seriously I love it the people I work with and work for are just fucking amazing, and the people in Cambridge, Boston, and really the whole New England area I've found are really a lot more down to earth and ah, a lot nicer believe it or not. It’s really strange, like I would rather have six people around me telling me the truth, then twenty people around me being really fuckin nice and lying, talking shit behind your back. Ya know? So over here if someone doesn’t like you, they’ll just be like hey I don’t like you. Big fuckin deal! I think that’s cool, I can handle that its better than someone giving me a hug and pattin me on the ass, then when you’re not around there like what a fuckin asshole. Ya know what I’m sayin?

J.J.2.- Any plans of leaving Beantown any time soon?

K.D. Not any time soon. The wife wants to move back to Japan but I wouldn’t say any time soon, maybe a year or two, and just maybe.

J.J.2.- Just maybe?

K.D.- Just maybe!

J.J.2.- Maybe a baby?

K.D.- Maybe! Oh wait no babies HAHAHA!

J.J.2.- If one of our readers wanted to get tattooed by ya, how would they get in contact with ya?

K.D. You can contact me through the Pino Bros website WWW.PINOBROSINK.COM

J.J.2. Anything you wanna go out with?

K.D. Nope!

J.J.2. Are you sure?

K.D. Yep!

J.J.2. COCK? HAHAHA!

K.D. HAHAHA!

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