would words like chud and night hog be recognized in tattoo shops throughout the country?
Every shop has their own slang. A lot of the slang I mention in Tattoo Machine would be recognized by anybody that works in Portland, probably a lot of people in Seattle as well, and California. But a friend of mine was just out working on the East Coast and he called and told me about all the colorful slang that they had, and it was all really different some of it was really rude too. If I went to a shop in the Ozarks and it was really busy and everyone was working, there would probably be long stretches of time where I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Tell me about the tattoo parlor you work at, the Sea Tramp in Portland. It’s a fascinating place. It was started by a guy named Bert Grimm, who allegedly tattooed Bonnie and Clyde and Buffalo Bill when he lived in St. Louis. He moved to Portland and retired, but decided that he couldn’t stand to be retired so he opened up this shop that I currently own part of. There’s so much ancient stuff there. We have an incredib
