PAUL BOOTH The Dark Lord of Ink Talks Devil's Pact & Inkcarceration 2025

0:04 Hi, you have done to censure for Wow crazy you Wake up America. It's time for the Adventures of pipe Man on W four c Y com. Wes Pond Beach is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures of Pipe Man W four C Y Radio. And I'm here with our next guest, who I'm very excited about because he's going to be at one of my favorite festivals just because of a venue itself which kind of matches with him. So let's welcome to show. Paul Booth.

0:51 All right, how you doing man? Thanks for having me. Hey. As soon as I saw the press release, I was like, man, I definitely have to do that interview because I go. I cover all the Danny Wimmer festivals. Ink is my favorite because of where it's at, you know. And it's funny because my youngest SDAR show always ask me every week, like, ah, you're excited to go to this festival? Because I do, Like, you know, I go on tour and do all the festivals. I'm like, I don't know if excited is the work, because it's a lot of fun, but if you do it every week, it is excited or proper word. But first time I did ink man, I was standing on that prison yard gone, I called her up. I'm like, now I'm excited. I'm in the prison yard of shaw Shank.

1:38 That's cool. And so, you know, it's funny because I love how the press releases because you're the dark Lord and you're going to the dark Prison because it is really supposed to be haunted. Plus they have the haunted basement that they do with the blood. It's called Blood Prison, which is totally cool. But I wonder how many people that are scaring you when you're in the blood prison, you know, haunted house are really the ones haunting? Yeah? Right? Why I used to work in a haunted house for years and enjoyed scaring people thoroughly. I mean, that was my thing. I love scaring people.

2:29 Well, I'm with you. When I go through a haunted house attraction, people sometimes recognize me and it's more like high fives rather than booze, you know. Right and me. I don't know, maybe it's because I'm like similar to you where I you know, I like the scaring people part that I'm always aware, right, So whenever I go in a haunted house, like I laugh when they try to scare me. Usually I'll like hide because I'll see where they are, Like I'm aware, opposed to most people, and I'll hide and try to scare them for fun.

3:09 Oh no, it's the best. Yeah. So one year at INK, I had my helper. I'm like, here, we're going to film some tiktoks okay uh of the tour of the prison and there's like cool, you know, there's these cool places to kind of hide in there. Well, people are going through tour, So I would be hiding and have her filming and I would scare the shit out of people as they're going through the tour. Yeah. Yeah, that's the best. Right. So basically you're like, it's funny. It's like you're you're bigger than the music artist because you're like the headliner of Ink, but from the Ink part two parts. So most people probably know who you are, but a lot of people probably don't, so kind of give them your story of how you became like the dark lord of tattooing so to speak. And basically all my favorite bands have gotten tatted by you.

4:13 Right on. Well, I'm tattooing thirty six years now, based out of New York. I have been traveling the world for most of that and tattooing and tattooed many rock bands, metal bands in particular, over the years. I think the first tour I went on was nineteen ninety four with Pantera, Sebultura and Biohazard. Nice, and that was my early days. And then I toured with bands over the years, a lot of metal bands, from slip Not to Slayer, you know. And now I'm older, I can't really live on a bus anymore, you know, those days are over.

4:58 It's a lot, and especially doing as as well as you have, it's a grind. Yeah. I hate to say I'm too old for that shit, you know, but maybe I'm not. I don't know. I haven't lived on a bus in a while. So when it was oz Fest, it was cool because Ozzie would play every other day, so we. Got hotels all the time. Nice. But normally it's like you're living on the bus, you know, truck stop or shower kind of thing. It's a different type of life, right, yeah. Yeah, So what do you think in your opinion, cause all these artists like Slayer, like Slipnot and everybody to pick you to be their artist.

5:39 Well, my work is very it's like the visual version of metal. I suppose you know, it's creepy, aggressive, dark monsters, which is what comes across and much of the music we listen to. Yeah, so I've always. Been kind of that visual equivalent of metal. I'm not saying I'm the only equivalent, but I mean, like in my work is very metal conducive. I guess you could say. Yeah, that makes sense too. I saw on your website the tattoo art of the Dude that like basically all you did everything all the way down, and that said it all to me like that that was so metal, but it was like, see what I love about it too. Okay, so I kind of don't like when people, I might get some hate for this, but they just PLoP tattoos all over their body with no rhyme or reason.

6:45 Bold kitch is the term for it. And look at that kitch. It's it's exactly what it is. It's getting little pieces next to each other. You know, I have eighteen tattoos. You know. That kind of approach, And you know, Barnum said it, there's an ass for every seat. You know, I love it, and there's gonna be people that prefer one big tattoo. It really depends on the individual, you. Know, and I do think it's art, but I also think the way you do it like is art. That that one dude, man, that was just one big piece of art to me, and it and it can be separate things, but when you do it the right way and put it together the right way, to me, that's why it's art. If you have one thing sitting there and that is totally not even related to the thing right next to it, it's like what made them think to put those two next to each other?

7:44 Right? Yeah, It's a lot of times what it is is the client comes to the artist and says, I've got this space on my forearm, do your thing there, And like collectors nowadays give larger part to their body to different artists, but they give it to different artists as a collector like so and so did my forearms so and so did my biceps, so and so did my chest panel, so and so did this, did that, et cetera. That's common nowadays rather than the little. Ones, you know that makes sense to me form of kitch. I suppose. Collectors will do that. And then there's people that are dedicated to one artist that give you their entire body.

8:28 You know that guy on my website you're talking about, I did his first tattoo at age fifty nine. Wow, and then he ended up with a body suit nine years later. That's wild. You know, you know why it's really wild. I'm fifty eight. I have no tattoos. All my kids, all my kids are fully tatted, right right right, I'm the one that isn't, and I'm fifty eight. So I kind of laughed when he said he got his first one at fifty nine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he still got a year. I know, right, I've kind of thought about. Okay, so my younger days, it was kind of also about you know how it was way back in the day, you know, certain jobs you couldn't get blah blah blah. I'm also a Jew, and so I always brought up, you're not supposed to be tatted if you're a Jew. But then I found out now that that kind is like a fallacy, you know. And then it's like I've thought about at times, and I've like, what would I really want, because like the tattoos I thought of getting when I was a teenager, I'm so happy I never got.

9:35 Here's the thing though, man, The thing about tattoos is they become a part of you in the sense that it's one mark in your history. Yeah, this is what leads. To more tattoos, is that, like, you get a tattoo and at first, like you said, you know, I don't know what I could want to wear the rest of my life, any one thing. But here's the realities, it's not any one thing. It's like a journal to Yeah, your first tattoo represents some part of your life, and then your second tattoo covers something else that the first one didn't, you know, and then you end up telling the story on your skin and the illustrated man, you know, and and that's what ends up happening, and you end up loving all your tattoos because they represent different things.

10:19 In your life. So there really is it's a fallacy to think that one tattoo is going to encompass everything you have to say that's. About Yeah, especially somebody like me, because like I always joke on my radio show to have I'm schizophrenic, because I have multiple facets of my personality that come out, you know, and it is all me. But they're all different parts of me and then very well it was interesting too. Okay, So a couple of years ago, I was walking in Bali and I was there for a few months, and I did run into this woman who did the stick tattooing, like the ritual stick yeah, original, and that I almost considered doing. I was like, I was so close, and then I kind of chickened out.

11:09 What's your viewpoint on that compared to the type of tattooing that's done over here on in on the western side of the world. Well, I think it's really a matter of what suits you the individual. I mean, some people want the moment to be captured. Like stick tattooing is about the the moment and about the experience specific right, as opposed to just getting tattooed, you know. Uh so you know that's a situation where it's more about that history and and and that representation, you know, more so than the idea itself. Like when you go to a woman like that, you're getting whatever she really wants to do or how how she wants to do what you're looking for. It's not so much about the result, it's about the process.

11:59 Yeah, that makes sense. And then what's your viewpoints, and like, I'm one of those people I ask you the questions that I think the listeners are asking, especially if they're people like me, to kind of convert their way of thinking type of thing, because it is, I do have a different way of thinking now than I did thirty years ago about tattoos because we live in a different society now. And it's funny. I just had a discussion with my brother, and I don't know, he said something about somebody with a tattoo. I'm like, well, everybody's got tattoos nowadays. He's like, well, maybe who you hang out with, but I never see anybody with tattoos. I'm like, then you're fucking blind. Because it's like I was in high school.

12:43 The metal heads and the punks got tattooed. The jocks didn't get tattooed, the preppies didn't get tattooed, and all those other but they're all the ones getting tattooed, you know, because it is kind of mainstream and everybody's kind of doing it, you know. And then there's a type of ink. I'm very into natural health, and you know, of course, there's philosophies of thought that someone the inks can cause problems to some of your organs. And then there's like somebody near me here that uses U. I think it's like a food coloring or something. It's totally organic, he said. You know, he did one of my daughter's tattoos, a couple of my daughter's tattoos, and that's why I brought her there because he had this like organic like it's not bad for you type of ink or what have you.

13:29 So you've been doing this a long time. What's your philosophies on different types of inks and how you made different from other artists in that respect. Well, here's the thing about tattoo ink is for it to be permanent in your body, the body has to consider it a threat. If it's not a threat, if it's too homogeneous and too too healthy, your body won't consider it a threat and it'll disappear. Yeah, blend. And so you know, there's a fine line between a threat and dangerous. You know, like ink is not dangerous and there's no proven studies about tattoo ink being dangerous for your health. Uh, it's talked about because that fine line I talk about it being like, you know, it has to be threatening for your body to protect itself and trap it in your skin. Right, So it's a matter of like just what kind of threat it is.

14:33 I mean, it's a minimal threat, but it's not a threat, you know what I mean. I don't explain that, but that makes sense, you know. Now it's a matter or really you know, there's there's heavy metals in in ink, you know, like I can't I'm not an authority on what's in them. As far as red, sometimes is causes an allergic reaction for some people. It's rare, but certain colors can cause reactions. H if you tend to be allergic to things, you would do a test patch to make sure you're not allergic to it. That would be the power method. You know. Yeah, most people, like one in one hundred thousand people or whatever it may be, have an allergic reaction to certain inks. But generally it's not a problem. You know, your body's pretty good at being resilient things. It'll trap it in your skin and you'll be fine.

15:30 And what is your opinion of like colored ink opposed to just black and white? Because I think if i'd want a tattoo, i'd want it colored like I color my hair too, So I just that would be my personality. But what as a professional, what is your opinion of the difference. Huh, Well, color work I don't think lasts as long. It doesn't stay vibrant. Yeah, when it loses its vibrants, it's not as impactful. I don't get me wrong. There's some incredible color work out there, but rightly, a lot of the times it has to have contrast to stand the edge of the stand time. You know, to look good in ten years, there needs to be contrast in the image. It needs to be big enough to get old and look good.

16:23 Black work. I think has a better age process than color work does. Black work looks better for a longer period of time. It's one of the reasons I'm so intrigued by it, you know. And speaking of black work, what's your opinion on the new trend now of just blacking out all your tattoos. I think it was invented by people who don't know how to do cover ups. Ah, that makes sense. You know. We used to joke back in the day about blackouts. There wasn't blackout work back then. It was cool, like, hey, I'll tattoo a suitcase. Right now they're doing it as a trend, so I don't know what to say about it.

17:05 It can look cool if it's done right, like if the ends and edges of it have some art to them, But just blacking out your old work seems to me. Like kind of a cop out. It's because you've got all this work that you don't like that you can't do anything with the reason you can't do anything with it is because a lot of the kids don't know how to do cover ups and can't do it. So hence invented black Now. That makes a lot of sense. I like that answer. So how did it feel when you found out you would be headlining the Incarceration tattooing? Oh, I'm excited. I'm very excited.

17:46 I I feel like the tattoo equivalent of the bands, you know, which is nice because it's supposed to be that, right. Yeah, I mean in general, not just me, but I mean the tattooing should get the same kind of exposure as the band's. Uh So I'm happy to see that happening. You know, it's a lot of hard work, Like I think people don't realize a how much hard work it is for you to do tats, especially like you know, sleeves and a big one, but also the artistic ability. It's not I don't think just anybody can tattoo. It's just like anybody can't just make graphic art or a painting or what have you. So that says a lot too, right yeah, absolutely absolutely, And your specialty is kind of like the macabre and the dark and spiritual type of stuff, right, absolutely absolutely. What's the face? What's your favorite story of a tattoo that you did?

18:48 Oh boy, well there were these two girls, but that would be the one. Yeah, I don't I don't even need you to fill in those blanks. It was a long time ago. There you go. And so let's talk about your coffee too, like, thank god, because we need some good coffee at incarceration. I think Devil's packed. I'm very proud of it's awesome. I wouldn't put my name on it if it wasn't good. You know. That's how I am with my brand, my name. I don't like to attach my name to something that sucks. Really, I put a lot of heart and effort into what I do. I want what I attached my name to to be the same. And when Concept Cafes approached me to do a coffee. I said, sure, let's do it, but it's got to be something i'll drink, you know.

19:46 So we went back and forth with samples and tests and came up with a Sue Machrin blend that comes from this volcanic mountain where the area is plagued by natural disaster all the time. Wow. I thought, Wow, that's perfect. Let's call a devil's pact, you know. And then it came to life and it's a really good coffee on its own, whether my name's attached to it or not. So I'm happy to be a part of it. And how for coffee drinkers, how would you describe your coffee to entice them to know that, Yeah, that tastes good. I want to try that coffee, dark, rich, roast.

20:27 Nice, very rich, very very you know, I don't know the right terms. I love coffee, but I'm not in the terminology what you consider a connoisseur. I just know what I like, you know, And I think it's a great concept that it has to be something you like, Like I don't get that sometimes, you know, whatever you make, or even being a musician, like there's musicians playing music that they don't even like I know, and it's like, I don't get that at all. I don't get the press people. When I go to these festivals and there's press people at a festival that don't like metal, I'm like, why would you be here? I get requests for interviews from a lot of people outside of metal or punk or rock. I'm like, sorry, if I don't like the music, I can't do the interview.

21:12 My job is to promote it. And if I don't like it, how can I promote it? Yeah? Right right, listen, excuse me, but I'm supposed to have another interview. Oh sorry, Like, well, I don't know what I should do here? All right, then it's all good. While you tell all your contact information, how people can reach out to you, get your merch, check you out all that good stuff, and then we'll let you go to the other interview. All right, Okay, let's see. You can reach me. You can check out my art at pollbooth art dot com. You can check out my merch and my coffee and everything else at pullboothbrand dot com. Uh. If you want to get tattooed, you can email me at last, writes tattoo Ri tes tattoo at gmail dot com.

21:58 That's everything all right. Well, I look forward to seeing you at incarceration brother, and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Thank thanks for having me. You got it brother from here. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on w for CUI Radio.