Ep. 197 "Risk" (Diary Entry 1:2 with Jess & Kevin Farrand)

[00:00:00] Hello and Happy Tuesday diary listeners.

[00:00:04] I have a very cool podcast for you guys.

[00:00:08] It's something I tried to do earlier on in my career with actually my two friends, Bree

[00:00:14] and Jake Kirk, but I had such a deplorable knowledge of audio that I really just blasphemed

[00:00:24] the entire interview. of a alright. Hi diary listeners I'm here today with Kevin and Jess for Rand of Mesmer Tattoo correct? Yes correct and that's in Rochester New York right? Yes and you do you guys own it? Yes we're the owners yeah awesome. We opened it up a few

[00:01:40] years ago. Fantastic. We're gonna get into it I'm from Kevin. Yeah, that too. And how everybody said not to do it. Yes. That was like the general consensus from most professional tattooers was like, don't do it, you will regret it, you will fail.

[00:03:00] And we did it anyway.

[00:03:01] Yeah, we were like, you know what?

[00:03:02] We can make it happen.

[00:03:04] It took a while before that moment. person how to do what I'm doing yet. You know, and it took like a couple of years, but we went back and forth about it. And we even reached out to, yeah, Jake Meakes fireside his podcast live. Like he had Ulysses Blair and a couple other people on his show and we like tuned into

[00:04:21] his live questions and we're like, hey, like's not giving up, even though people are saying this is a bad idea and you have to have that. So. Well, there's a few things. I mean, what I was going to say is, is that, you know, uh, you were new relatively. I mean, five years in is about when you start feeling really solid as a tattoo artist,

[00:05:41] but you know, ready to take on that. Um,

[00:05:46] you know, so that was.

[00:06:46] of the talent, but the relationship definitely did come into play.

[00:06:53] But I, you know, for me, it's fascinating just because I love to,

[00:06:56] I'm with you guys. I like the more the success and the hope and the optimism and risking

[00:07:01] big and hard.

[00:07:03] And I think that's the kind of stuff you got to do.

[00:07:06] Yeah.

[00:07:07] And you want to pursue something like out, you know, this is a segue, but I just saw that you put out a really nice like reminder for, you know, winter tattoo acquisition that I thought was just such a great thing to do, you know, kind of remind people about, and you know, you can design it any way you'd like to, but it's just kind of telling people how to be like the right kind of client for you. I think that's a really good thing to put out.

[00:08:21] And you just gotta keep in mind too,

[00:08:23] that a lot of people just like don't know certain things.

[00:08:26] Like they would never think like,

[00:08:27] oh, I do have to And it's like, no, you're just cold. You need to drink.

[00:09:40] Yeah, that's right.

[00:09:41] I know.

[00:09:42] I just started up.

[00:09:43] Well, most people are chronically dehydrated too. plenty of like, you know, power couples in tattooing. People who either learned to tattoo on their own and then came together and as a couple opened their own studio or own their own private studio. Or there's, I know a lot of different artists who already kind of had been in that same realm and were successful at it. Like, you know, off the top of my head,

[00:11:01] I got the guy, H.S.N.

[00:11:03] and Michelle Wortman.

[00:11:04] And they're, you know, very successful.

[00:11:06] And like, I'm just like drawing and drawing and painting like all the time, like non-stop. Um, so yeah, I just never really stopped making art.

[00:12:21] And I was like, I saw what Kevin was doing.

[00:12:23] And I had people asking me to like draw design so I can go and get them tattooed.

[00:13:23] and love it and be trying to get better every day.

[00:13:26] That's like the biggest thing I feel like when I see a lot of apprentices asking for an apprenticeship,

[00:13:29] I don't see the work yet.

[00:13:31] Like the artistic ability.

[00:13:34] Well, and that's a mission to critique

[00:13:38] and really just trying to be the best they can be

[00:13:42] at that point.

[00:13:43] They just want to see if they jump a lot.

[00:13:45] Yeah.

[00:13:45] How did you guys meet?

[00:13:47] We didn't get to that part I want to be the kind of person that collects the tattoos he does, but I will say that like his Personality is amazing like it comes through and his tattoo so well and he does so good work He's a very good tattoo artist Yeah, he's loving here that I'm sure it'll mean a lot to him dude

[00:15:01] I mean I can tell I really tell and and just a romance to it. Yeah. You know, I'm kind of like, you know, I'm kind of like a sap that way.

[00:16:20] But I love camera and stuff. I really, really do. I'd love to get him the time you back. That's right. What's that? I'm curious. Like, probably moving back. Yeah, like why? Yeah. I don't know. I was young too. I was like 22. There's a mix of things. I can't do this forever. This is done.

[00:17:40] Yeah.

[00:17:41] This is too good.

[00:17:42] It would be like, why am I going to do this?

[00:17:44] I don't deserve to be this happy forever.

[00:17:46] If I'm going to do this and I was like doing a lot of just small work at the time which was probably good for me.

[00:19:00] But I was like, I have a better clientele for this large scale work on the mainland and

[00:19:07] people. tell. Everybody in my life is like, come on, dude, you're not a competitive horseback rider. Yeah, I love this. So I had to like choose, you know, you know, you got to focus and you know, be realistic and like, where does your heart really pull you and what can you cultivate the most at? And at the time it was just like, it was more practical

[00:20:20] that like, you know, really I have to go after this and through this I can pave away to get back here in the background. She's doing her little walkie sounds. No, actually Gabe and I just went over this zoom does a really good job of like muting background audio. So if it is, yeah, if it isn't in the forefront, it really doesn't capture it very well. Nice. That's awesome. I know. More is the pity. I mean, I'm sure your baby

[00:21:42] has a lot of beautiful things to say. Yeah, right. Yeah. Like I'm here too. Damn it.

[00:22:46] you it seems like you were like man I don't know if I want to be a vet tech anymore. Definitely yeah I definitely I never wanted to go back to the veterinary field like love

[00:22:52] everybody that works in it it is not an easy job but I just knew I didn't want to do that again

[00:22:57] and I think that like one of the biggest things was like experiencing and we both wanted to grow. And so I think that because of that, it just worked out really well. Yeah, for sure. Like we both had an idea that like, like we both want to grow together. We want each other to grow as people and as artists and like we're open to that too.

[00:24:21] And it's not like there was any gatekeeping in our dynamic. So I was like, I need to have you around other artists who are driven and really want to grow and learn as artists and are also putting out good work too. So we ended up working with my buddy Joe New at his shop here in Rochester for a handful

[00:25:45] of months.

[00:25:46] He came to paradise.

[00:25:47] Yeah, Joe came to paradise with us. first few years there. That was definitely like, because it wasn't intimidating at all. Like everybody was around the same age range. And everybody had a different style of chat to me and I could watch people tattoo and I could ask as many questions as I wanted to. And I never felt like so intimidated that I like couldn't observe

[00:27:02] or I couldn't ask questions or if I needed help with something like I wasn't somebody is not wanting to tell them what they should want to tattoo or kind of control their style. You can only give them what you have. Right. Right. That was the whole thing. It was like, luckily I had tattooed in every style leading up to that. Like in my first few years, I was doing realism and I was doing really new school type work.

[00:28:20] And I was doing some black and gray realism, color realism.

[00:28:23] I also have always loved Biomex.

[00:28:26] I was doing a lot of that stuff. very meditative and I do love the very precise technical aspect of it. And you know, you kind of get in this really awesome kind of like I said meditation headspace where it's a very different type of tattooing that I can appreciate once in it. The part that I hate about tattooing is

[00:29:40] putting on a stencil like hands down. Yeah, once you get past Going Instagram, subscribe to Oddball Rifle Club if you're interested in muzzle-loading rifles and black powder firearms.

[00:31:00] Yeah, it's tough sometimes. I feel like I've got it pretty down for the most part.

[00:31:04] It's funny about that.

[00:31:05] Just got to explain to people that no designs on the body just is really hard.

[00:32:24] True.

[00:33:23] other artist Lindsey and Justin I will look at it all look at each other's work and be like hey every is Bob's tattooing and they're like does this look right

[00:33:26] to you and we're all looking from across the room squinting her eyes and

[00:33:29] tilting her heads and looking like weird little fingers.

[00:33:32] What are they doing?

[00:33:36] I was staring at me and they look weird.

[00:33:38] What's going on?

[00:33:39] You should hand them this would be a fun I just popped in my head you should

[00:33:43] hand them a you know a shop you like dips like 10 points. I'm going to do a shut your mouth. Oh, wow. That makes a whole lot of sense.

[00:35:02] Oh my goodness.

[00:35:03] I was like, holy shit, I'm so glad I'm aware of this because I was seeing pictures of me.

[00:35:07] I was like, what is that face?

[00:36:02] You know, that's not important to this.

[00:36:09] It's kind of like that low key, you know, back guilt that I have. I'm like you didn't do a damn thing today.

[00:36:16] But I had on it was lazy. I'll just start out the whole session with being like, what's up? I decided not to work, you know, do my hair today, and they're like, oh, yeah, but it's cute.

[00:36:23] I'm like, you just had to get that out there.

[00:36:27] It's like a couple tattoos. Yeah, we started just on like fake skin and stuff. I had her drawing a lot and like looking at tattoo design work first. It was a lot of like looking at really like what I consider heavy

[00:37:40] hitters in the tattoo world looking at their work and exposing it to her

[00:37:44] exposing them to be honest.

[00:39:04] You took a leap in just wanting time I started out at was Extreme Graphics,

[00:40:22] which is a street shop, kind of high-paced.

[00:40:25] People get people and get them out.

[00:40:27] There was like 11 month or two ago and it was like wow, I can't believe that that is still there number one But it looks pretty decent and yeah, so that was my first one that I really remember They always take like a million years It probably was like it's smaller than my palm or like smaller than baseball

[00:41:40] Outline of a rose very simple rose. It turned out pretty good. Yeah, I've seen a lot worse. And I felt so good after it

[00:43:00] and she was so, so happy about it.

[00:43:02] And I tattooed her a few more times over the years too.

[00:43:04] But yeah, that was my first tattoo. So that was super easy for her. Wow. That's incredible. Yeah. Right. But then afterwards, I was like, okay, well, maybe like you just like maybe tattoo yourself. I tattooed myself. That blew her out of the water. Like she was like, Holy shit, this is so hard. I'm humbled.

[00:44:20] Like part of it was she couldn't really see because every time she put her head over her

[00:45:23] and we kind of had like a, you know, like a moment to shake it off and like... Nice, yeah. Great guys.

[00:45:25] ...and be like, I'm humbled.

[00:45:27] Yeah, it really is so humbling to tattoo yourself. I think Cameron tattooed himself before he

[00:45:33] tattooed anybody else. It was great that he did that. He was like, wow.

[00:45:38] Yeah. It's definitely a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, you know?

[00:45:42] Yeah, I had him kind of do like tattoo, our olfactory are so integral to our healing capabilities and fixing trauma and things like that. Yeah. The actress is actually a very, very like fond smell for people and it invigorates you,

[00:47:00] it excites you, it turns up a very nice smell for that. So if you ever just want like an extra perk for the day, put a little citrus on you. It's good. Nice. Definitely. I'm going to use that one. Yeah. That's so cool. I'm like, put the aroma out in the shop and be like, we're going to have citrus day. I actually have a little essential oil diffuser at my station and I have a little essential oil

[00:48:21] bottle that's energy and it has lemon and it's citrus. So I I started doing like fake skin. And then after the fake skin, SAG waited until like very tiny, simple tattoos for free on like friends and family. Like my grandma came and got tattooed by me. Yeah. But that time was pretty, like how many months did you remember? And that one, I think it was like about six months.

[00:49:41] Yeah.

[00:49:42] Definitely kind of streamlined,

[00:49:43] Jess's apprenticeship compared to mine.

[00:49:45] I wasn't tattooing that quickly, but.

[00:49:47] So to be clear, We ended a tattooing. We need, Jess is wanting to learn. We got to take this seriously. Like, we had better opportunity in New York, so we moved back and it was pretty short after that. Jess was tattooing, like six months or so. Being back, she was starting to do these very small tattoos on, you know, willing canvases, you know,

[00:51:00] amazing clients all over your head, so.

[00:51:02] That's awesome.

[00:51:03] I would imagine it would go pretty fast if, you know,

[00:51:06] you're constantly in it, me grow and learn as well. So yeah, there's a lot of that stuff on him. That's awesome. Now, apart from Cameron and Jess, who else have you apprenticed or are they here too? So it was Jess first and then my friend Cameron, it's really funny. I can't believe he

[00:52:22] didn't get into tattooing earlier, but he asked me to teach him how to tattoo it. Like, you know, album covers, graphic design. He had all these other great tools in his belt, and he was like, he didn't take it too, you know, like hardly. He was like, okay, like, whoa, and he'd find his side, he's like, okay, like, yeah, I'm ready to do it, dude, let's go. And so, I apprenticed him. No, he's been tattooing for over two years now. Over two years. And then you just took on-

[00:53:41] We just took on a new apprentice. We just good person and a people person like it was Christina. So like we should offer it to her and see like who knows, maybe it's not the right time for her. But we brought her into this shop. I was tattooing this beautiful, caracal cat tattoo on her arm.

[00:55:02] And she was funny along the way.

[00:55:05] I was asking her questions and she was asking me questions and, we would love to offer you an apprenticeship with us. Yeah. And she like started crying immediately. Like, didn't know if we were being serious or not. Yeah. And it was very meaningful to her and we're stoked to have her and, you know, now having so much experience even since I've printed a suggestion, Cam, like I've got a bit more

[00:56:21] knowledge and Jess as well to like she's going to be in good hands with the amount of, you know,

[00:57:24] you know, doing that and perpetuating it, teaching it. And it's really, I mean, it seems like it's going to be a great thing because once she understands tattooing on a higher level, she'll be able to

[00:57:30] even scale the education part of it. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Excited for her. Yeah.

[00:57:37] Well, I think this is awesome because not only did you guys take the risk of, you know, your

[00:57:41] relationship, but also, I mean, not not to downplay a romantic relationship, but I think that since this is a pretty awesome thing and I'm highlighting it, you might be able to guess it. But definitely come back, definitely be sure to follow both Jess and Kevin and a little extra because they're doing great things over at Mesmer in Rochester, New York. So go and follow Mesmer Tattoo as well. Thank you listeners, heavy bless week.