Interview by Dusica Sue Malesevic | Emma Griffiths was a part of New York’s Downtown tattoo scene when the art form was illegal. Now based in Brooklyn, she spoke to The Villager via e-mail about what spurred her to become a tattooer, what the scene was like when it was underground and what legalization has wrought.
The Villager: Tell me a bit about your background. Where did you grow up in the United Kingdom? Why did you decide to move to New York?
Emma Griffiths: I grew up in South Wales and south England, and attended Maidstone College of Art and Liverpool College of Art. I came to New York City on a whim in 1990 and have stayed pretty much since then. I lived in Fort Greene initially and then moved to the East Village in 1991.
V: Why did you start tattooing? Were you always interested in it?
My grandfather and his twin brother, who died in World War II, both had a lot of tattoos that they had done in Burma. My grandfather said the “Tatti Wallah” would come to the camp and set up and tattoo the soldiers. My father was also military, he was in the Royal Navy and he had [tattoos of] two pinups by Pinky Yun done in Hong Kong. So I was always around tattoos and didn’t really think anything of them; they were just part of my granchi [her grandfather] and my dad.
I first started registering tattoos when I moved to Maidstone and my boyfriend at the time was getting these super-old-school tattoos done in the Rochester/Chatham area that got giant cookie scabs on them as they healed. Never forgot it.
Also, there was one guy in my town who was a skinhead pikey with swallows on his hands, spider webs up his neck and a dotted line with “cut here” on his throat. So all of this spurred my interest.
V: What was the East Village underground tattooing scene like?
Tattooing in the East Village in the early ’90s was amazing and something I will honestly cherish till the day I die. Back then it was illegal, it was hidden. Tattooers to me were mythical, magical, scary people who you had to search out and get the bottle up to go into their shop.
I remember one time seeing Filip and Titine Leu [famous tattoo artists] walking up Second St. between A and First Avenues sometime in the early ’90s, probably on their way to Jonathan Shaw’s shop. And I remember standing dumbstruck/starstruck and watching them walk to the corner and go out of view. I always say, if they had walked up into the clouds I would not have been surprised. I just felt so in awe.
Tattoo-wise, it was all word of mouth pretty much and you knew of every tattooer in New York. Clayton Patterson had started the Tattoo Society, which met approximately once a month — that was incredible. Many of the local tattooers came to that and we all showed our work and hung out. The established tattooers would come, and my friends and I just starting out would be too scared to look at them let alone talk to them — just a good dose of fear and respect.
V: What did you feel when tattooing was legalized in 1997?
As for the legalization of tattooing in New York, it was inevitable I guess. It has its good and bad. I’d say mostly bad. It’s complicated and the changes in tattooing tie into the changes in N.Y.C. Both have gentrified and been usurped by the middle classes.
When it did legalize, the big change was that everybody opened street shops, including me. And tattooing started to become a more visible business. It has slowly become less of a secret, revered craft to a showy, promoted business venture for people to make money.
V: What were the challenges and pleasures of owning your own shop? Why did you close in 2008? Why did you move to Brooklyn?
I opened my shop in 1998 on Rivington St. between Clinton and Suffolk. I had it 10 years and initially ran it as a private studio.
It had the old bodega (drug front and number-running) awning with the Rivington Mini Market sign for a good few years. I liked that whole hidden secret thing. Then I put signs up and started running it as a street shop. It was all pretty much custom, but we were open to the public.
Between 1998 and 2008, the whole neighborhood gentrified so badly. And I just didn’t want to live and work with that kind of thinking around me. So I moved the shop to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, six years ago. I am in a beautiful commercial building, no signs in the windows again, although that may change. By appointment and it’s just nice and chill and I have great clients.
V: How would you describe your style?
How I would describe my style is a hard one because I learned to tattoo in the ’90s and the prevailing attitude then was that you should be able to do any tattoo that walks in the door, so versatility was premium. Because of that, I actually learned to do and love to do many styles/types of tattooing from color to black and gray, super-traditional, realistic, bold, floral, animals, portraits, etc. Sometimes I think it’s a problem and I think, “Oh, I should specialize” as that is the prevailing attitude now. But I know I would get bored and I actually love the variety of styles of imagery that gets brought to me.
It can be daunting, because you can have a customer wanting a rose and you have so many choices of how to do it, starting simply with color or black and gray, bold or fine line, realistic or stylized. And I do like to do it all really; there is so much to learn.
I will say, though, that it is very important for me that the tattoo is well executed technically and that it is respecting the parameters of the craft and the aging process. I want my tattoos to age nicely and that also dictates my style with tattooing to a large degree. So saying all of that, I like very clear, linear, often highly rendered imagery, with lots of contrasts and with tones, color and texture. And bold, I like bold.
Visit Emmagriffithstattoo.com for more information
