so my dad has been tattooing since 1982 but hes never worked at a convention before. for years ive tried to talk him into taking a trip with me whether it was to tattoo somewhere or not. i finally talked him into going to rochester new york with me to work the convention there. on the way we stopped in delaware ohio to visit woody bagwell, my dads good old friend and his first tattoo apprentice. woody opened his shop in ohio in 1991. it was such a rad experience for me. hangin with my pops and his old friends, talkin shit about the old days and all the trouble they used to get into. woodys shop was covered in awesome old biker flash alot of which he got from my dad after his apprenticeship. the story as i heard it was that woodys apprenticeship consisted of one over priced dragon tattoo and a couple beers ha ha..
so we left there and headed to rochester for the convention. we shared a double booth with my good bud doughboy from bowlin green kentucky and steve turner from wichita kansas. my dad, as he often does, gave them nicknames- "donut", and "big nut", ha. had to be there. the first day he tattooed more than i did. an old biker couple walked in and stepped right past booths full of younger amazing tattooers and walked straight to my pops. one unicorn and skull/scorpion later my dad was officially working his first convention ever.
as always it was good to see old friends. on the way home we stopped at niagara falls. "i do believe thas the most water i ever seen in one place before.." ha. stopped back at woodys for one more night. homemade pork chops and homemade corn liquor. oh and i got tattooed by woody. "born to raise hell..."
