Joseph Ortega

Tattoo artist

- Dan Henk

Dan Henk: First off, thanks for doing this. I know you had a busy day!

Joseph Ortega: Thank you for asking me to do so, I appreciate it.

DH: Let’s begin where everyone starts. How did you get into tattooing?

JO: In 2002 When I was 18, I was asked to paint a mural for the piercing room of a local tattoo shop in Copperas Cove, Texas. After some time getting to know the piercer, I landed a proper apprenticeship with her. Fast forward to having to move through a couple of shops (due to internal shop drama), in 2003 I jumped ship from my second place of employment and got a job at a shop in Killeen, Texas by the name of VooDoo Tattoo. Two guys by the names of Chris Arredondo and Ian Jones worked there. They took notice of my drawing ability almost immediately and told me that I needed to start tattooing! Chris was still a young tattooer at the time, having only worked a couple years, but he started to teach me what he knew and he let me observe him working (when I wasn't dealing with all the piercings). After a few months of observation, building machines, making needles and stencils, etcetera, I did my first palm sized tattoo on my friend Dick’s back. It was a kind of new school Chaos symbol and mannnnn did I dig a hole in him!

DH: (Laughs) How long were you there?

JO: Not even a year! A friend of ours was opening a new shop and wanted our crew to work there. Later that summer we left that place and opened Kingpin Tattoos. That's really where I started to cut my teeth and tried to figure out how to tattoo.

DH: Where was that? And how long did it last?