Long after the price is forgotten… you still have your tattoo. -Doc Webb, San Diego.
It’s easy to romanticize the ‘old days’ of American tattoo shop culture when you hear guys like Doc Webb talking about it. Before it was a ‘gallery’ it was a parlor and if your tattooer had an artschool background he kept it to himself. Even when he’s talking about the Sailors being drunks and raisin’ hell he’s got a smile on his face.
This is from a 1984 documentary called ‘Signatures of the Soul’ hosted by Peter Fonda. It featured a good cross section of tattoo culture, despite being hosted by “the bad guy from the Nicholas Cage Ghost Rider movie”.
Occult Vibrations 
I need to get my buddy to rip me a copy of this documentary. So many awesome soudn bites and so much rich history in it.
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No need for ripping – we’ve just added the doco to our website. It’s free and you can embed it! http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/signatures-of-the-soul-tattooing-today-1984
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1969 i was in the navy stationed at nas miramar 3 of us went to dego one night all agread to get tatoos after walking and watching other tatoo shops we found doc webb the best artist so we went there to get tatoos i was the only one to get my snake with dagger through the head reds are gone but tatoo is still in tact great job doc
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Paul! I’d love to see a picture of that Old Doc Webb piece!
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Loved the clip, thanks for posting it. I was in TM “A” school in ’66 and got my first tattoo from Iwo Jima Eddie in Doc’s shop. Came back a couple weeks later and got another from Doc himself. He put the flash on, didn’t like it and asked if he could make some changes. I basically told him to do whatever he wanted, so I’ve got a Doc Webb original on my arm.
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