The dude looked like Lemmy, the badass frontman of the heavy-metal band Motörhead, and he was flaunting a cobra tattoo on his bare chest, its scaly tail disappearing under his belt.Adam Sky, maybe six at the time, stood mesmerized as the swashbuckling outlaw ambled past him on a city sidewalk. It was an indelible encounter.
I always knew I wanted to [be a tattooist], says Sky, now 41.
Today, if you want to get inked by Sky, theres a wait-list of up to eight months that is, if he decides to tattoo you. To get an appointment with the acclaimed Vancouver tattooist you must first submit your concept through his website, AdamSky.com.
Skys not trying to be a prick hes flattered by the interest in his needlework but, as he explains on his site, It is impossible to accommodate all of the tattoo requests I receive, so instead I choose to only accept pieces that I feel best suited for and that inspire me. I am only one person and quality is my main concern not quantity.
On this day, Sky is finishing a detailed, vibrantly coloured shoulder-to-elbow phoenix that is 20-plus hours in-the-making. I think well do one last session to tighten it up, he tells his customer as he bandages up the fresh ink.
Sky works out of a private studio at an undisclosed location. The modern space, which has a Zen-like vibe (Buddha figures and bonsai plants) that also pays homage to the more traditional tattoo parlor esthetic with plenty of skulls and framed flash art, allows Sky to focus on his craft. A tattooist for more than two decades, hes paid his dues in busy street shops from Miami Beach to New Orleans to LA, where he did his share of pork chops little tatties that take 15 minutes and mean you get to eat pork chops that night, he grins while honing his skills.
Its all been part of his tattoo apprenticeship, which began at a young age. Skys parents his mother is a documentary maker and his father a landscape photographer recognized their son had artistic ability early on and enrolled him in a prestigious art school when he was nine. Soon, he was drawing nude figure models but his real fixation was always tattoos which kept him up late under the covers with a flashlight doodling skulls and daggers.
Sky dropped out of school at 17 and got his first tattoo in the 1980s (a punk rock skull) in the back of a head shop. He remembers the tattooist, a guy named Patty, had a hand-poked bluish prison-style tatty on his arm that read Fuck the Warden.
Sky later moved to Vancouver where he would play an instrumental part in the tattoo renaissance that took place in the city in the early 1990s. At 23, he opened up Sacred Heart on W. 10th which was the first time a new tattoo shop had opened up in the city in 15 years, he figures. He started his business with $5,000 and bartered tattoos for the rest. The new shop focused on custom tattooing and regularly displayed paintings by local artists. It was a rogues gallery of young tattooists, many of whom had fine arts backgrounds and also brought with them a punk rock ethos that helped redefine tattoo culture which had, in the 1970s and 80s, been heavily influenced by the biker scene.
Sky is quick to pay respect to Vancouvers rich tattoo history, which began in the early 1930s with Doc Foster and even included a stint by the legendary Ed Hardy in Gastown in the late 1960s. As a port city, Vancouver, like LA and San Fran, was a hub for ink-collecting sailors back in the day, he says. And that tradition has continued. Sky rattles off the names of contemporary tattoo luminaries working here: John The Dutchman, Dave Shore and Steve Moore, who has done most of the big work on Skys heavily tattooed body to name a few.
A lot of the original guys are still with us. That makes the city full of high-quality tattoos and customers get turned on, which perpetuates the art.
When Sky opened his first shop he never imagined tattoos becoming part of pop culture something he traces back to the birth of grunge music and its tribe of heavily tattooed musicians who showed off their inked skin in music videos. The next seminal moment: the launch of taboo-busting reality TV shows like Miami Ink and LA Ink that brought tattoo culture into North American living rooms.
All along, the artistry has been evolving. These days artists are pushing the boundaries artistically, he says.Tattooing is extremely technical. Its as much a technical craft as art. [There are] limiting boundaries [of] what you can do successfully. It takes years of experience.
Sky isnt satisfied to flip through the pages of his book and admire his work, though.You have to push yourself to get better or you just languish and you should not be tattooing.
To stay sharp, Sky regularly participates in an online tattoo discussion forum on Tattoodles.com (a site he started) that allows artists to post work and have it deconstructed by their peers. It removes ego from your work. The tattooists tell each other what they could have done better. I never pay attention [to compliments]. My drive [is to] get better.
And that explains why Skys work is so coveted.
There are great collectors in the city who appreciate the art [of tattooing], he says.
And for now, they will need to be patient.
Sky will be tattooing at the West Coast Tattoo Culture Show, Apr. 15-17 at the PNE Forum. For info, visit WestCoastTattooShow.com
editor@westender.com
