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DAVE MARTINEZ
Strives for excellence
by John Dekkers
Photos courtesy of Dave Martinez
From the February 2004 issue of Prick Magazine.
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 Dave Martinez. |
 Painting by Dave Martinez. |
 Tattoo by Dave Martinez. |
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I met David Martinez at the First Annual Charlotte Expo last Spring where he received the
award for Artist of the Year. When I checked out his work, I knew then that I wanted to do a story
on him. The first thing you notice about David when you meet him is his genuine gratitude and sincere
respect for all the people who have done so much to bring tattooing to where it is today.
David's story starts in New Mexico
where he was born in Santa Fe. He
moved to California briefly and then
back to the town of Belen in New
Mexico, about 30 miles south of
Albuquerque, before he was five years
old. A creative child, David's mother
encouraged him to draw instead of sitting
him in front of a TV, but he spent
most of his youth splitting time between
skateboarding and playing music.
While music is his first love, David
has always been interested in learning to
tattoo. It was when his daughter Delayne
was born, though, that he finally devoted
the time to learn to tattoo professionally.
"I started just like a lot of people, I
ordered a kit. I was determined, though,
and one thing about me is everything I
ever do I want to know exactly why and
how it works," says David. And so he
began disassembling the tattoo machines,
unwrapping the coils, trying different
springs, "different everything. I was never
one of those guys that just counted on
my machines working. I also kept a notebook
of when I set my machines a certain
way and did a tattoo. I would record
the results."
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 Tattoos by Dave Martinez. |
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His only guideline of what a good
and bad tattoo was at the time was
looking at magazines. Back in the early
'90s, it was "stuff by Marcus Pacheco and
Guy, Paul Booth, Cap Szumski, Brian
Everett, Timothy Hoyer and Jack Rudy.
And it's not only that those were the
guys that were in the magazines, but you
could just tell their stuff was a higher
quality than other stuff that was in there.
I would cut out pictures of their work
and put it by my station. Not that I wanted
to do replicas of those pieces, but
when you looked at them close, I could
see how the skin looked. It just had a different
look all together. You could tell
that the skin wasn't damaged. I looked
that close at pictures, I looked at how
clean the lines were and tried everything
I could to get my lines that clean," he
continues. "I would study another piece
where the color looked like it was painted
on the skin, solid and thick, airbrushed
almost, so I would try to tattoo
like that. Cap, Brian, Jack, and Paul's black
and gray - I would just look at their
work for hours. Every time I tattoo
that's what I try to mimic is that 'look,'
how the skin looked. I always kept that stuff in mind. I always tried to pay attention to how hard I was
hitting the skin, always watching the technical end of it, not just the art piece itself. All those guys from
San Francisco were big influences; Mike Davis, I really enjoy Tony Olivas work, Aaron Cain, all of those
guys are major influences."
In 1994, David met Lyle Tuttle. He took one of his seminars. What started out to be a four-hour
session, turned into a day-long conversation with one of the legends of the industry. The most impressionable
moment came, as David recalls, is when Lyle told him that "90 percent of this industry is common
sense. That just sunk in," he says. "After that it was no holds bar. I wasn't taught by anybody, so I
didn't have any limits, no one to tell me that 'that's the wrong way' or 'that's the right way,' so I just figured
it out as I went along."
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 Tattoos by Dave Martinez. |
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After two years of tattooing out of his house, he worked at a shop for part of a year then got
together with a piercer he knew and opened up a shop for awhile. "That didn't work out either," says
David. "Finally, I decided that having a partner wasn't for me. I've been on my own as Addictive Ink ever
since."
For the last five years, he has been working on developing his own style. Ironically, he doesn't look
at magazines anymore, or at other artists' work on a regular basis. Although it was a launching point for
him, he wanted to see what he could come up with "out of my own head," says David. "I like to take
the hard way instead of looking at other peoples stuff and maybe expanding on that. I would be lying if
I said that some stuff didn't influence me, but I don't do it on a regular basis. When I look for references
for stuff (because I don't use a lot of references) I'll use myself. I just take pictures of myself in a mirror,
or if I want to get a certain pose, I'll ask my wife to pose. There is even stuff that I'll dream and wake
up and sketch it down real quick. That way I'll burn that image or the angle of something while it's fresh
in my mind."
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 Tattoos by Dave Martinez. |
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The ties between music and tattoos for David continue today. He has done tattoos on rock and
rollers Randy Castillo, the former drummer for Ozzy Osborne, Motley Crue, as well as Mikey Doling,
the lead guitarist in Soulfly. Even with rock
stars wearing his work, David still keeps his
head out of the clouds and his mind focused
on the job at hand. "My wife Andrea and I
have a strong faith in God and I believe the
talent I have been blessed with and everything
else is because of Him," says David.
"I'm not preaching to anyone or throwing it
in their face because I have friends on the
other end of the spectrum, but I hope that
they have the same respect for me as I have
for them."
You can meet David at these upcoming
conventions: Detroit, Austin, Dallas,
Mario Barth, Little John's, National, Canada
and most of the B.I.R.D. Productions. You
can also talk to him in person aboard the
next tattoo cruise in February 2004, where
he will be presenting his first color seminar.
When David is not out traveling the convention
circuit, he is at home in
Albuquerque with his wife Andrea and their
two daughters, Gabby and Delayne.
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Addictive Ink is located at:
6904 Central Avenur SE
Albuquerque, New Mexico
505.268.5006
Check out:
www.addictiveink.com
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