SouthBay Mike has brought his artistry from Chula Vista to Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach.
\nHis was the first tattoo parlor in Chula Vista when he opened in 1996.
\nHaving finally decided to move, it only took him a single day to find a new home for Southbay Mike\u2019s Blackwater Tattoo Parlor in the beach area.
\n“I wasn\u2019t ever going to come to the beach, I had a neighborhood shop,” Mike said. But when he finally decided to leave he told his wife, “If I have to move one more time \u2014 I\u2019m going to the beach. I\u2019m just going to go big because my work is good enough. I\u2019ve got enough clients.”
\nMike just happened to be driving through OB when he saw a for lease\/going out of business sign at 5003 Newport Ave. where The Black Bead had been. He got an interview with the landlord that very day.
\n“He liked me and said, \u2018I just want to let you know, I was praying for tattoo,\u2019” Mike said. “And here I am.”
\nHaving started tattooing at age 14, Mike toured the world with San Diego-based P.O.D. punk band, tattooing and picking up tips from craft masters along the way.”
\nTattoos date back many thousands of years with them having been found on mummified skin. The oldest evidence of human tattoos is believed to be from between 3370 BC and 3100 BC, with Otzi the Iceman, discovered in September 1991, who had tattoos.
\nEgypt\u2019s international trade spread tattooing to Crete, Greece, and Arabia. There is a history of tattooing in ancient China, as well as among Celtic and northern European tribes, such as the Picts \u2014 literally “painted people” \u2014 and in Samoa and the Polynesian islands, where the word “tatou” originated.
\nWhy tattoo?
\n“I just like it,” said Mike, who is heavily tattoed. “It\u2019s like wearing your favorite shirt all the time.”
\nOf his work, Mike said: “I want it to look good. It\u2019s your responsibility as a tattoo artist to make sure this lasts for life. With me, you\u2019re getting a high-quality tattoo. All my ratings are five stars.
\n“It just really intrigued me and appealed to my rebel side,” said Mike of his love affair with tattooing, noting, “I\u2019m from the old school. My teacher started in 1938. I\u2019ve been doing it for 30 years.”
\nWhy does he do it?
\n“The main part of it is passion,” Mike answered.\u00a0
\nUnlike many tattoo artists, Mike charges by the work to be done, not by the hour. Skin is his canvas, and he takes his “penmanship” seriously. He\u2019s trained himself to be fast and his long experience has helped. “I\u2019m light-handed,” he said, adding, “I had 20 people a day in my first shop in the South Bay.”\u00a0
\nSouthbay Mike noted there are now about 600 tattoo parlors countywide, 30 in PB and nine in OB.
\nRecently, Mike had a person scheduled to work on coming in from Florida to do a full-arm sleeve. “We are doing it in one day,” he said. “We will start about 7 a.m., and we will get done about 8 p.m. Normally, it\u2019s about a 60-hour job.”
\nMike collaborates with his clients on their tattoo designs. But the end result is his interpretation of their basic ideas.
\n“I tattoo in all styles whether it\u2019s portrait, black and gray, Japanese, American traditional, biomechanics, tribal: You name it,” said Mike. “I am a tattooer through and through.”
\nMike consults with clients and takes a 20% deposit from them before he starts.
\nIn the end, and most importantly, Mike said of his tattoo clients, “You want their experience to be fun.” Southbay Mike\u2019s Blackwater Tattoo Parlor
\nWhere: 5003 Newport Ave.
\nHours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 8 p.m. Sundays. Info: 619-222-2115.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SouthBay Mike has brought his artistry from Chula Vista to Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach. His was the first tattoo parlor in Chula Vista when he opened in 1996. Having finally decided to move, it only took him a single day to find a new home for Southbay Mike\u2019s Blackwater Tattoo Parlor in the beach […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":271153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"SouthBay Mike's Blackwater Tattoo Parlor opens in Ocean Beach","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}