MEMOIRS OF AN AIRDRIEONION IDIOT

GOOD DAY.
  Hello there, Been a funny week juggling with Sculpture, kids, bored with no pals around to play with, figuring how to juggle myspace and facebook! I sold a sculpture within two hours of the Blond Bombsite posting a photo of an Albannach skull, And the prospect of a six week or so tour getting closer!
    I keep in touch with a lot of friends through myspace and now facebook, I genuinely enjoy the banter and I,m starting to make cyber friends in places like Germany Italy Norway and Ireland who I,ve befriended as ways of getting my work out there! A German guy has commisioned a piece for after the tour and has emailed a few times just to shoot the breeze! A cool guy, what I,m doing isnt cynical on here! I genuinely like people as they are great sources of inspiration.
    Received an email from a good mate this morning and we gabbed about tattoo,s! He wants one, And this brought to mind a guy I met at a Kentucky Ren Faire on the summer tour, Troy! who asked me about commisioning a piece and then later asked if I might blog about tattoo,s. No problem tattoo,s are dear to me.
    I first got hooked on Tattoo,s probably 1979 / 80 when I was sixteen! A good few years before I got my first tattoo. Unemployed I was travelling to work with my brother in law landscape gardening as well as on the golf course he managed! Hell Ian is my brother! I,ve known him since I was 12. At age 16 I was really just a harmless Walter Mitty who had left high school Caldervale secondary with no qualifications whatsoever, The only advice I got from my careers officer was to have my father try to get me a job in the coalmines! I was a loser,I was working on the side for 20 pounds a week, This was risky as the Tory government actively promoted a Grassing = snitching  culture! sadly many people took a perverse pleasure in reporting people anonymously to the bureau of unemployment, I had left home to travel to Kirkintilloch from Airdrie wearing a shirt tie and scratchy wool interview jacket, a pair of black school trousers and polished shoes! My father as an old soldier was fanatical about shoe,s being polished! " my working clothes were left at my big sister Nans house! With my shapeless 70,s wavy hair I must have looked a real sight ! If you want a real visual of me at age 16 my brother in law swore I could be " Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats and later Live aids, young brother! There was a passing resemblance I confess now.
     SOOOOO I,m on the bus! Soon as we leave Airdrie the tie comes off and I fall to day dreaming of how one day I would be a professional muscician and tour America Were nearly at Kirkintilloch when a gruff male voice startles me from my reverie! " Move over big yin and let me sit down! I comply, but before going back to my daydream my attention is arrested by the still bloody fresh tattoo he has on his left arm closest to mine that is gripping the back of the chair in front of us, a sailing ship I can see it now! I clear my throat and ask politely " I like your tattoo big man! Where did you get it from? Equally politely he ryhmes a name off ,I,ve long forgotten. We dont talk anymore, But I was hooked from that moment. Later that night over a few underage beers, I was 16 and the legal age in Scotland to drink is 18, I say to Ian about the tattoo and the fact I liked it! He is scathing , He hates tattoo,s! I say " No I would like to learn to tattoo! This is what I love about my big brother, Nothing is impossible and dont dare use the word CANT in front of him! He regards me steadily and a little bit drunkenly and says " Well play your cards right and I,ll get you the equipment! I was such a negative arsehole at that point in my life I talked him out of it " Dont ask me why" he looked at me slightly contemptuously and muttered " fine have it your way boy ! But I,ll tell you this ! The way your going Sunshine you,ll finish up in a dead end factory job! Wasting your youth and a God given gift! Two years later I started a 20 year sentence in a Steel factory!
     But time moved on until 1984 or thereabouts and I bought a book called The Rock stars tattoo encyclopedia and saw the tattoo that I had to have! It was a shark tattooed on Slim Jim Phantom from the Stray Cats, this tattoo was executed I believe by London legend tattooist Dennis Cockell! I have to say at this point that I had visited Terry Wrigleys old shop on the London road Glasgow shortly after seeing the guy on the bus and Terry gently but firmly told me to " FUCK OFF Lol " as I was too young! But five years later I was back! Terry was a brilliant character! Loved by many, Disliked probably by just as many! He just didnt take any shite from anyone! A bluff Englishman wearing a white Doctor style white coat, he had a shock of white hair and dark penetrating eyes! A real old school tattooist who rightly earned the title Tattoo Legend! I,ll tell you, hand on heart I was about to get my first tattoo but I knew I was getting it from someone special who had more than paid his dues! If I remember correctly the doors from Terrys London road shop now rest in the San Francisco tattoo museum, Owned no less by Lyle Tuttle! The man who tattooed Janis Joplin! among many other.
   Terry looked at the book and said " fine son, that,s going to cost 20 pounds! I was shiting myself but I was in heaven to! Sensing my nervousness the tattooist laughed and said " where your getting this son , top of your right arm! you wont feel it too badly! He drew it on freehand with a biro pen and started the machine! Not a problem! of course I felt it, But Terry had said before starting " give yourself a decent nip on your arm big fella and that,ll give you an idea of what to expect. Only once did he look at me sharply, and that was when I asked a bit nervously " How can I learn to tattoo ? He stared a few seconds at me and said! " Get some COUNTRY BOY = ryhming slang for a 4 letter word that starts with C and ends with T " to teach you! " And before you ask me " he continued " I,ve got two lads of my own that I,m teaching! That was the end of that subject!
   Terrys dead now, I was privileged in later years to read his monthly column in a tattoo trade magazine for tattooists only ! I got a brilliant tattoo from a real legend in the craft, Terry was tough and operated a studio in the hard East end of Glasgow! East ends always seem to be rough areas? He could have bawled me out, finished my tattoo and told me in his legendary style to " FK OFF ! But he didnt ! Instead he offered me advice, that I acted on in 1988! The start of another chapter in my life!

Terry,s son Stuart Wrigley now runs a succesful studio in Glasgow city Centre, while his brother Stephen runs a studio in Glasgows west end. Great artists both! But then they were trained by their Father Terry! Give me a Terry wrigley, Cash Cooper, Dennis Cockle, Ed Hardy, Stony St Clair or Sailor Jerry any day of the week! The ones I see the odd time on television leave me completely cold! I am however very lucky to have a great tattooist Jamie of Thinkin Ink working just over the hill from where I,m bloggin now.

TO BE CONTINUED.            RIP Terry Wrigley.

HAVE A GREAT DAY WHEREVER YOU ARE IN THE WORLD..... DAVYTHESCULPTOR.


OH YEAH! I,ll finish here yet! As a lovely coda to this blog! Years later 2003 Ian and I found ourselves in different lines at Glasgow Airport ! I was about to start a mammoth  two month tour of the states with Clannandrumma! Ian was headed for Iceland to lecture on Golf courses! I,m proud to say that Ian is Scotlands 1st Master Green keeper! We caught sight of each other, and as brothers who love each the world over will , started bantering and teasing each other! Anyway eyes twinkling with mischief Ian stuck his hand across the queue to me ,smiled and said " By Christ David we,re both a long way from Kirkintilloch now! Ian in his middle forties and I in my late thirties we had drank an ocean of drink together! Fought, fallen out and battled our respective demons to a standstill! But there we were battered bruised and heavily tattooed in my case anyway!.
   There is no such word as cant! In the words of a South Afrikaan mercenary I once met in a London boozer who overheard me use that dreaded  4 letter word! A huge scarred man he poked me in the chest and said! " There is no such word as Cant! If you really wanted to. You could break your finger in your own arsehole LOL! I,m going now!