10-10-10 New Interview with BOND!!!!

[BRANDON BOND]

THIS IS just a rough DRAFT! a s&!t stain on the internet of typing and interrogation... but a different type of one.

part 1 of a NEW interview, its source will be revealed and all that but for now, enjoy.

TM - Who is Brandon Bond?

BB - I am a compulsive workaholic, a dedicated family man, but my
family is not defined by blood. I am the leader of a rouge Army of
artists, ever changing, evolving, and innovating. We are consistently
pushing eachother to become more in art and in life. The real growth
has nothing to do with tattooing at all, but it is a vehicle to bring
us all together and to prosper.

TM - How did you get into tattooing?

BB - When I was 16 years old, I was getting tattooed, quite a bit. I
saw the life that my artist and later my mentor was living. I wanted
that. I wanted to be able to dress, act, react however I wanted to. I
wanted to travel and get lots of chicks. I wanted my own piece of the
American dream. It worked out great.

TM - But you originally wanted to be a musician right?

BB - The lifestyle I just described is that of a musician. I played in
bands from the age of 14-21. I gave up music entirely to tattoo,
because there is no half ass way to do this. I had to decide. In
tattooing you are not relying on 3-5 other wierdos for your success,
it is 100% completely internally driven, and that spoke volumes to me.
I miss it every single day however. When I finally do throw my
machines into a Volcano (which is coming), I plan to retire to New
Orleans LA, (the place I most feel like I'm home) and play guitar in
blues bands until I die for no money at all. I just had to do this
tattoo thing first. Like something that had to get out of me almost.
The more frustrated I got with the studios I worked in, the more
focused I became on "one day in MY studio it won't be like this sh*t".

I do not regret this decision (music vs. tattooing), but it is the
only one I have second guessed.

TM - But you've got a few tracks on the "VICKtory to the Underdog"
Official Motion Picture Soundtrack?

BB - Making the "Official Soundtrack" to the film brought me back to a
time in my life that was much simpler, and much more fun. All of the
bands on that collection are my favorite bands. Some I knew
personally, some I did not. All of the bands donated songs to the
movie and in many cases wrote new material just for this project. I
was involved in all of that yes, and it gave me a raging boner to play
again. It's coming... That soundtrack is blistering and amazing, I
still have it in my car to this day in my disc changer.

TM - Back to tattooing. Who were your mentors in the formative days of your
career?

BB - Everything was VERY different 20 years ago. We lived in a bubble.
No internet, no cell phones, hell that was even before beepers
existed. If I wanted to see an artists work, I had to actually
phisically drive, or fly, to where that artist lived and look at the
actual physical book. Influence did not come easy, and many artists
never left their bubble. I travelled as often as I could afford to. I
spent all my money going all over America, meeting artists, getting
tattooed, asking questions, and looking at portfolios, investing in my
future. Now these kids coming up have it EASY, the internet allows me
to see a tattoo done in Poland TODAY in real time for example. Artists
were extremely guarded about thier secrets. So "influence" was a
different term then.

When I was coming up, what few magazines we could get always had Paul
Booth, Joe Capobianco, Jack Rudy, and Aaron Bell in them. I was
initially attracted only to color, so I got tattooed by Joe a lot
(about 3/5s of my body!) and eventually went to Seattle to work for
Aaron.

My first influence was Jim Wolfe, Tattoo Zoo, Ft. Walton Beach, FL. My
teacher, mentor and later my friend. We still text eachother
techniques and tricks to this day. (Congrats on the Grandbaby bro!)
His shop was/is a street shop, because that was really the ONLY kind
of shop back then. I learned to work harder, longer, faster, and with
more efficiency than the others I was working with. I made a lot of
money for that guy for sure! (laughter). I learned how to be a
"tattooist" by definition, a workhorse. It was later that the term
"tattoo artist" began to mean something and shape what I was doing.

I moved to Austin, Texas in search of the great Chris Trevino, and I
got tattooed a lot by him. I worked at a shop up the street from him
(because I was not good enough to work with him) and then I would take
all the money I made over to him, next door, and learn. Learning by
watching him tattoo me. that was the only way in those days.

As I spread my wings and travelled more, I discovered shops like 222
Tattoo in San Fransisco, Primal Urge, Everlast, Darkside Tattoo, Last
Rites. These studios obviously had a HUGE influence in the studio I
would later create, but so would Tattoo Zoo. We still to this day have
someone avaialible for walk-ins every single day regardless of what's
going on with tours, guest artists and chaos. A combination of all
that I saw that was good in the tattoo universe, is what I built here
in Atlanta, GA. I learned a lot of what NOT to do, but I took what I
liked and made ALL OR NOTHING. It worked out pretty awesome.

TM - How did All or Nothing come about?

BB - Over the coarse of my carreer, I always knew I was working
towards a goal, a studio that would be something larger and more
fantastic than anything I had ever heard of. That was my focus the
whole time. I worked in over 50 tattoo studios in 20 cities, and any
cool studios where I did not work, I hung out and soaked it in. I was
a stalker. I got tattooed a LOT as well. I had a plan, I was waiting,
for the right timing, the right city, the right magic to align.

I got tired of people constantly saying "when are you going to open
your own shop", even my parents were hitting me with that at Christmas
a few years in a row, but the right things needed to be in place. And
my own tattooing was not what I wanted it to be. I knew that in order
to accomplish this almost unrealistic goal of creating a utopia, that
I would have to lead by EXAMPLE, that I had to tattoo in a way that
would attract young artists who wanted to grow, to learn from me, in
the way that I was attracted to studios with a badass artists/owners.
I had to become better, more versatile, able to tattoo any style, on
command. Once I felt I was there, I started doing articles in tattoo
magazines, talking about what was coming. These articles were smoke
signals to the other tattoo guys of the world, guiding them into the
light.

There was also an issue of money. I knew that I wanted to NOT have a
partner or an investor... ever. I had seen the devastation of having
multiple leaders. And don't even get me f*cking started about shop
owners who do NOT tattoo! They are a cancer! So I had to scrape and
work and save enough money to open the studio, 100% independantly,
with our first day open being 100% debt free. The time came, the stars
alligned and I found myself in the local liscencing office, sweaty and
nervous, about to get my first buisiness liscence after many months of
arguing and jumping through hoops. We were to be the first studio in
the history of the City of Smyrna, GA, so I was focusing on everything
I had to do to appease the city and convince them we weren't bikers
selling drugs or whatever.

The only thing I didn't have together was A NAME for this entity I was
creating. I knew that my whole carreer, life, future, reputation, and
financial situation rode on this, that it was everything I had worked
towards for so long. I remeber thinking to myself, "here we go, I
guess it's all or nothing now" and ALL OR NOTHING was born. I still
try and remeber to celebrate every single year, the anniversary of
that signature.

TM - How many staff you having working for you now?

BB - First of all, I work WITH our staff, they do NOT work FOR ME.
Technically yes, I sign their checks, and have to yell at them when
they act like children so I am the leader yes, but I lead by example.
My staff will tell you, whether they call me, 4 in the afternoon, or 4
in the morning, they will get me, and my undivided attention. I spend
more hours to this day, working on everything shop related than all of
them put together. This is key to what we are doing. We work TOGETHER.
We create together, we promote together, we drink together, we grow
together, and we live together. You can not kill us all.

When it is time for "good cop/bad cop" yeah I always end up being the
bad cop, which sucks by the way. But we live and die as a family. I
may be the Dad in the family, but we are all related nonetheless. I
hate when I hear a studio owner bragging about how many artists he has
working FOR HIM. I just wanna stab someone with a fork when I hear
that because I worked FOR so many people. All the way up to my very
last job, just before ALL OR NOTHING I was working FOR someone, who
did not appreciate me. I vowed to never be that type of shop owner.

So our artists work together not for eachother. Extraneous staff
includes graphics folks, my assistant, webguys,
sticker/print/tshirt/merch type folks, shipping people, video editors,
apprentices, accountants, attorneys, street teams, photographers,
bookeepers, etc. This is entirely different. I still struggle with the
proper management of these on a daily basis. The least favorite part
of my job. Always an issue somewhere that is no fun to even think
about for me or for them. It's hard to keep everyone moving foreward,
but that is my role, so that I what I do. Out of neccesity, not my own
personal motivations.

"Asses in the seats"! We have to feed the largest staff and family in
the world, with lots of amazing clients travelling in from all over
the world. That sh*t does NOT happen on its own. I wish it did!

To answer your question though, our family is 72 people strong as of
today. That number will change and grow and shrink as we have to go
through a pile of folks to find the diamonds. My current staff, is my
favorite of all time at ALL OR NOTHING. We are kicking ass.

TM - Are you the sole owner of All or Nothing?

BB - Yes, as I explained earlier, one leader travels in one direction.
I think of it like a pirate ship. One captain, one ship, one course,
one purpose. If you have two captains on your ship, then you have a
daily mutiny and no one gets the "booty".

Plus I have never been good at anyone telling me what to do. Those
fifty or so shops I worked FOR someone else, yeah, I got fired from
about 47 of them. (laughter) I would fire me!


TM - Do you have any other studios?

BB - This has been the next thing after I opened ALL OR NOTHING here
in Atlanta that people ask me constantly. It went from "When are you
going to open your OWN shop?" to "when are you going to open MORE
shops?" I assure you if we wanted to open a studio in every major city
worldwide we would have. We can afford to do just about anything we
want to because we have very little overhead and we have been at this
for a while now. We have the manpower, and the template to replicate
this everywhere, yes.

A lot of studios do this, the "spreading out" phenominon. When you
spread something you take away it's girth, and dillute where it came
from. I have never ruled it out entirely but have never had the urge
to do so. When we overflowed our first location (meaning we had more
artists that could support an appointment book than we had booths) I
considered another location at length, which would have obviously been
the best idea.

I already had a private studio (www.antiartelite.com and
www.antiartatlanta.com) and now we were considering a THIRD? I decided
to do the best thing for us, which made NO SINCE to my accountants, or
anyone really. I would expand the ONE location into all three
entities. I leviathon of a studio - all in one place. Consolidation
through expansion. It seemed rather innovative at the time. But
everyone questioned me.

Would we make more money with more locations? YES, definately, but it
might dillute the purity of what we were doing. And that is not worth
ANY amount of money. So we built another studio, right next door,
under the same roof, and we built a private studio INSIDE of ALL OR
NOTHING, for collaborations, celebrities, and so I could finally have
a real live "office", my first one ever.

It worked, and now we have booths, booths and more booths. We always
have extra booths for guest artists, and we have a LOT of them coming
through. Our studio is different than any other. Created BY ARTISTS
FOR ARTISTS. Artists come and go as they please, do conventions, guest
spots, travel, set their own schedules, etc. A utopia in tattooing
Vallhalla, and it is all centralized under one roof.

TM - Do you worry that you might be becoming better known as a 'character', than
as a tattooist? That your public persona might have long since over shadowed
your tattoo achievements?

BB - Only in Europe! (laughter) You mean like David Hasselhoff? (more
laughter).

No I do not worry about it, because everything I have done is based in
tattooing, it is the root of everything in my carreer, regardless of
the venue.

This was the main reason I refused to participate in having a TV show
filmed about our studio all these years, to avoid this exactly. many
TV artists are known because they were on TV. This is cheating. We are
well known because of our tattooing. This is legit. It's all about how
you arrive, the journey being as important as the destination.

TM - Do you think that being 'Brandon Bond' is an advantage or
disadvantage these
days?

BB - It is what it is. It is not who I am, it is how some percieve me
yes, but it is not based in truths.

I know what you are referring to. This strange morph of lunacy,
unpredictability, gun brandishing, profane, booze swilling guy who
does tattoos. This sells magazines, and makes people watch things on
TV. This attracts a certain demographic of client yes, and of fans.
But it has nothing to do with me.

Everything I do is thought out, over analyzed, specifically heading
towards a direct purpose or outcome. What people see is always 7 steps
behind what we are working on. By the time you are reading this we are
already past it. This is not reckless or unpredictable. In fact, it is
as predictable as the sunrise. It is calculated, methodical, driven
and intentional.

The way I have been portrayed on magazine covers, and on TV, has
always leaned towards this gay ass shock value attention grabbing
whore thing. Even throughout THIS process, with THIS magazine, we have
been through this. The cover image you selcted over the one we chose
speaks volumes in facial expression alone.

The worlds first view of this came with my first book "WHORE"
www.strangleholdmerch.com and was followed shortly thereafter by
"VICKtory to the Underdog" www.vickdogmovie.com.

I believe this is when all of that really began to change. It showed
more of who I am, and who we are, in real life. Im not a rockstar, I'm
just a street shop hustler who worked my ass off and loves those
around me... oh yeah, and dogs. Yeah, I love dogs. now stop talking to
me about them (laughter).

TM - You have built your own custom studio called 'A.N.T.I Art Elite',
what does the name mean?

BB - It was a statement against the elite, stuck up, rockstars of
tattooing. The unapproachable "my sh*t don't stink" type of artist
that was developing at the time. We were getting an onslaught of sh*t
from these types of artists. It has since stopped.

We are not elite. We are blue collar. We are our own labor union,
fighting the power. We work hard every day, we tattoo every day except
christmas (and a couple years we tattooed eachother on Christmas!) We
are A.N.T.I. ART ELITE. A very "us against them" kind of approach. the
irony being that it is a studio that no one is allowed to enter
without a formal invite. A play on words. defined by what we are not,
more so than what we are.

Also it loosely means "All or Nothing Tattoo INC." A.N.T.I. So it was
to cool of a name to pass up. I still call my private studio that.
Stuck up rockstar tattoo guys are not invited to this day.

TM - What did you hope to achieve by creating this studio?

BB - I wanted an enviornment that was free of distractions, a space
built for the comfort of the artist and client alike, with more focus
on the artist (laughter). Somewhere that we could create art without
all of the bullsh*t going on in a busy thriving studio. Phone calls
are not allowed, cell phones are turned off, and art war commences.
Collaborations require a lot of room, and a lot of privacy to succeed
I believe. To really thrive, the artists need to be able to
communicate with eachother, without distraction, and have a nice place
to do it in. It has been amazing.

TM - Has it worked?

BB - Hell yeah it worked! The best pieces I believe we have ever done
as a staff has happened there. So much so that when we built the new
A.N.T.I. Art Elite inside of All or Nothing, we based it 100% in
design on the existing space. It is amazing. It is where I get
tattooed as well.

TM - What is your waiting list like?

BB - Actually at this point there is NOT ONE! (laughter) I recently
broke the f*ck out of some bones in my arm and have not tattooed
excpet for 3 times (two for charity and once for a celebrity) all
summer! It hurt like HELL to tattoo! So if you want to get tattooed
NOW is the best time to book it!

We do have a waiting list and I was waiting to regain the full use of
my arm. We actually are about to start booking the rest of 2010 and
all of 2011 now. Basically if you send a deposit now, you will get
tattooed now. It hasn't been this way for me for many years, it is
actually very exciting. I cannot WAIT to tattoo my brains out! I have
some special tricks up my sleeve for 2011!!!!

TM - How would someone go about contacting you to get tattooed?

BB - Easy! Nicole@allornothingtattoo.com - email her... it's that easy.

TM - How many awards have you won now?

BB - I have no idea? Clients mail them to us from all over the world.
Some keep them, some send them, some never even mention it. We have so
many that my garage is full of them, so we take all the 2nd, and 3rd
place trophies and use them for target practise at my ranch. But It is
definately more than 500, and when you count all my guys and all the
guys who have ever worked here and all the awards the won under our
banners, it's astounding really.

Dave Tedder, Sean Herman, Chris Vennekamp, Nate Beavers, Joshua
Carlton, Jeff Paetzold, Tim Victim, Tim Orth, Justin Weatherholtz,
Albie Rock, Bryan Reynolds, Jason Ackerman, Anthony Orsatti, Ted
Wallen, Lenny Renken, Pierre Monteleone, Bob Tyrrell, Zeke Owen, Vince
Villavalzo, Short Parker, Jarvis, Mike Devries, Josh Woods, Mike
Demasi, Jace Masula, John Lloyd, Matt Dunlap, Chris Nelson, Jason
Adkins, Birdsong, Shauncey Fury, Eric Merrill, Queke Fury, Tony
Mancia, Nathan Kostechko, and slews of others have either worked here
as a guest or resident artist. I know I'm forgetting a lot here too,
sorry! It's too many to count! But with all that going on, good
tattoos are bound to happen every single day.

more coming.....