Stories

Good Time Charlie remembers the tattoo scene at The Pike, Long Beach, CA. Through the late 50's to the 70's, The Pike housed the best tattooers in the world.

Ski Masks (from Tattoo Man), Good Time Charlie’s, East Los Angeles By Good Time Charlie   Tattooing one Friday or Saturday night, the shop was packed. Standing room only. All of the sudden, the door opens, a little guy immediately melts into the crowd, and shortly after follows a small group with ski masks, waiving pistols saying “Where’s the punk?” They flushed him out, snatched him up, jammed a piece in his ear and said, “you wanna die right here?”  I laid my machine down, threaded my way through the mob and said, “Hey Man, nobodies dying in here. First of...

Excerpt from "Tattoo Man, The Story of Good Time Charlie's" BUY HERE: https://www.goodtimecharlie.net/collections/books   During the winter of '83-84, I produced the largest commercial sheet of flash ever distributed, 40" x 60", a full sheet of illustration board, and have shipped them all over the world.      this is the only flash I have ever produced for sale. I remember thinking, "Who cares? everybody produces flash but thought, "I'm a real tattoo man, I guess I'm expected to make flash." So I made a one time contribution to the industry with the big sheet. There are 254 arm sized...

"My Tattoos" from the book Tattoo Man.

I remember getting off real late in the morning one time at the Pike. I drew a big cover up on my own left shoulder of my arm, with a ball point pen, went downtown LA. As soon as Tennessee Dave opened up, thinkin' he'd just whip it on there. He looked at my should and said, "I just don't scribble on people and start tattooing, I need a pattern."