“I go to Perth a lot,” he says in his velvety accent. “It’s just cool. There’s a shop over there I spend time at. I started some big pieces so any time I go out there I have people to continue with.” And people do wait for DeCola to come back, even if it’s going to be bloody ages. “If I start a piece and somebody else finishes it, that’s disrespectful,” he says. “An artist would never do that, well, they shouldn’t do that. The other thing is if you get a piece started, why would you want someone else to finish it? Unless you’re unhappy with it.”
The theme of respect is woven deeply through everything the tattooist has to say. When speaking about those young tattooists who shower DeCola with questions over social media, he tries to explain the difference between wanting to encourage and holding things guarded. “I try to draw a line – there’s a fine line between giving back to tattooing and just taking information that was given to me that’s kind of sacred, and passing it on to people,” he says, pausing to think. “You have to earn your apprenticeship,” he says firmly. “While I’ll give some a little bit of information, like what type of ink [I] use, I…never discuss technique.”
That stuff is reserved for your apprentice, and DeCola asserts he may never choose to take one on. “Maybe my daughter, I’ll let my daughter be my apprentice,” he says warmly. “So by the time she’s 20 I’ll be ready to take an apprentice.” His ideas on why and when an artist might endeavour to mentor someone else are solid. “I think it’s ridiculous when you see people that have been tattooing for five years and they have 12 apprentices. I want to do the opposite. I want to wait, and when I’m considered a master, then I’ll take an apprentice. If you look at Chris Carver, he is one of my idols; he’s been tattooing 20 years and he still hasn’t had an apprentice. I look at him and I say that’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s the way you’re supposed to respect the industry.”
DeCola has said in the past that although it was difficult going through his own apprenticeship in front of television cameras, he’s grateful that it gave him invaluable exposure early on in his career. The idea started for him when he was living in Japan, working in a totally unrelated industry. “I had no idea that I wanted to tattoo while I was living [there],” he laughs. “I lived there for about 10 years and started off teaching English, and then I had my own company importing/exporting professional video equipment. At that time I started getting tattooed…but I never thought to myself ‘I’m going to be a tattoo artist.’” Then the economy crashed and DeCola lost everything he had, which is when Ami James asked if he’d like a job at his tattoo shop. “I got a job just sweeping the floor, being the floor guy. From there, that’s when I realised that tattooing was something I might want to try.”
DeCola speaks passionately when we talk about the rapid rate at which some young enthusiasts want to be covered up, getting a sleeve in a day. “I think it waters it down a lot,”
DeCola offers. “Along with getting tattooed there’s a lot of responsibilities on both sides. And I think the responsibility of the person getting tattooed is to go out and seek an artist that’s going to give them the art they want.” The view that convoluted meaning has to be present in the art is something he shoots down, though: “It doesn’t always have to have meaning; a lot of my tattoos have no meaning whatsoever. I just thought it was a cool design, and got it done. But as far as choosing a quality artist, I think there’s no excuse…there’s a list of amazing artists in Australia, there’s talent all over the place.”
From the other side, DeCola recognises the responsibilities he himself has as the artist. “I was taught at least, you should never tattoo somebody [where] the tattoo’s going to have a negative effect on their life. You could be 18 years old, and yeah it’s legal to get tattooed, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to put a big job-stopper on your neck. Every artist is different, but I think it’s important for these young guys coming up, and even some of the older guys…to use their better judgement, and make sure you’re looking out for people.”
BY ZOË RADAS
