"I enjoy the technical stuff, the ornamental and beautifully rendered lettering. The way that you write a word can affect the meaning when done right. But that being said, I have a special place in my heart for fucked-up, two-in-the-morning, drunken tattoos. I feel like a lot of people come to me for my technical ability, but I appreciate the emotion and passion that goes into spur-of-the-moment tattoos. Maybe it's trying to take the passion and the spontaneity of the drunken, enamored moment and render it in a way that you're not embarrassed to show your mother."
Q: What would you say is the main reason people want tattoos?
"I first started getting tattooed because I grew up in this really conservative, southern, suburban environment. It was a way of promising myself that I wouldn't grow up to be like my parents. I don't know if tattoos hold that much rebellion anymore. A lot of times people will get tattooed based on what's going on in their lives—someone close to them dies and they get a memorial tattoo, they fall in love or they have children and want to commemorate that. Anytime they're feeling things so strongly that a T-shirt or bumper sticker doesn't quite do it, or they want that idea or feeling to be physical and a part of them, that's when you get it tattooed. It can be really cathartic. Getting tattooed can be a way of taking control of things and affecting who you are in a symbolic way."
Details - "Ink Different: Master Artist Scott Campbell on Getting Your First Tattoo"
New York Times - "Drawn to a Larger Scale"
