Paul Rogers

I was going through the ‘unmarked’ VHS tapes in my big bin the other day when I came across this little gem: a homemade video filmed in 1988 at Grandpa Groovy’s Richmond Convention. I really have no information on it; my friend and mentor Jack Yount pops up several times during the tape so it’s possible it was one of his vacation videos; that or it was sent to him because he’s in it. I’m not sure. WIth no label it’s really hard to tell the story, but I’d rather the story be told, so here you are.

Since it wasn’t a commercially produced tape it suffers from loud background noise (which I tried to lessen; to mixed success) and shaky camera work- but it also features the legendary Paul Rogers tattooing, so I figured the compromise was worth it. Other familiar faces include Randy Adams, Gil Montie, Sailor Moses and Lyle Tuttle.

I probably could have tightened up the edit a little and removed some of the camera panning, but I thought it added a little bit of character to see the folks who came out for Grandpa Groovy’s show versus just focusing on the tattooers. I’ll be scanning through the rest of the tape soon to see what else is there to be had; until then- enjoy!

I just captured this footage from a 1987 Documentary called “Colored People Invade San Diego” and by sheer coincidence it features a Kaiju themed bodysuit from Mike Malone and two amazing Japanese Tattoo artists working in the traditional hand poke style. Synchronicity at it’s best given what’s been going on in the world over the last week. My thoughts go out to the citizens of Japan and their loved ones abroad who’ve been affected by the terrible Earthquakes/Tsunami. I’ve spoken to my friends in Japan and everyone is alright. Small blessings but so much devastation to work through.

The end of the excerpt features Paul Rogers talking about machine building. I could have listened to him talk for hours, regrettably the documentary only featured this short clip. Sometimes we have to take what we can get.