"Gabe Ripley is an avid tattoo collector, studio owner, convention producer as well as a key figure in hosting professional artists and studios online, just like we are, LOL.  His site Tattoonow.com hosts hundreds of great artists and studios. He developed the Paradise Tattoo Gathering as a forum for artists to gather and exchange ideas and techniques as well he founded Off the Map Tattoo, a well respected tattoo studio in it’s own right. Many would ask, “aren’t you doing a feature on your competition”?  Well, yes we are. But it is the professional respect and admiration we have for each others sites and our parallel views on how tattooing should be treated as an art form that make us more brethren than competitors which only solidifies our need to support and promote each others work in the industry. So, to promote someone that has the same respect for tattooing that we do is a no brainer.

TDC:  Let’s start from the beginning when did you start getting into tattooing, where and what was the experience?
Gabe Ripley: When I was 17 a few friends and I went into downtown New Haven to a biker shop to get some tattoos. A dingy biker shop. The tattooer didn’t care I was underage. The experience was practically out of an after school special tv show, skinny gawky underage kid in the big city at the tough tattoo spot. “ID?” “Nope” “Would yer mom care?” “Nope”. “Ok, sit down”. The parrot was too expensive, I didn’t have the dough, so I got the dove. Not the toughest first tattoo.

Check out the full interview here.